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And it sends a danger signal to the pituitary. And the pituitary lowers or dysregulates tsh, that's thyroid stimulating hormone. And then the thyroid produces less T4, okay? And then the liver and the gut struggle to convert T4 to T3. And so your cells slow their metabolic activity to conserve energy. This is what hypothyroidism is. And by the time symptoms show up, the thyroid is just the messenger to not the original problem. And medications fall short again because of this. Thyroid meds can replace hormones, but they don't automatically restore proper brain to thyroid signaling, which is converting T4 to T3. Again, that conversion happens in the liver and in the gut. So here's the solution. We wanna reduce chronic stress and cortisol overload. I really believe that's the number one thing. If you wanna know what is the main upstream problem causing hypothyroidism today, it's not TSH, it's not T4, it's cortisol, and it's really your brain. It's chronic stress causing cortisol overload. And studies show stress and inflammation reduce that T4 to T3 conversion by up to 50% even when TSH is normal. And I've done episodes on how to reduce stress in the past. We'll link them in the show notes. And here's some things you need to do to stop the stress on the thyroid. Now, let me say this. The thyroid is of course involved and you do wanna support thyroid health and you do wanna support the body in some very specific ways that then impact the thyroid. And let me walk you through how this works. So one of the first things you want to do to kind of lower cortisol, but also balance out insulin and support liver and gut health is you want to consume a diet that's higher in protein and fiber and healthy fats. But you do want to get some carbs. The carbs that tend to be the best for the thyroid, according to Chinese medicine specifically, are berries and pomegranate. So really dark fruit, black whole grain rice is good. And sweet potato, those carbohydrates. Carbohydrates tend to be the best for keeping stabilized blood sugar, but still having some carbohydrates in your diet, because you do want some when you have hypothyroidism. There are also some really key nutrients both the thyroid needs and the adrenals need. Iodine being one. Now, if you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, you need to be careful of or autoimmune disease, you need to be careful of how much iodine you take. You typically want to start with a lower dose and start taking some other things to lower the autoimmune reaction first, like selenium. Selenium is one of the most critical nutrients for thyroid function. And overall organ function. When it comes to stabilizing and supporting thyroid hormones, typically around 200 micrograms a day is the ideal dosage. And you also need to make sure you have proper levels of zinc and iron and B vitamins. You want to be methylating properly as well. So iodine, selenium, zinc and iron are key nutrients. If you have hypothyroidism and you do want to make sure you're eating enough calories, you also want to warm your body up. This really helps. It helps with relaxation, it helps with mitochondrial health, which is also deeply connected to hypothyroidism. And I would say getting in an infrared sauna, getting red light therapy, doing an infrared heating pad, warming up your feet and your midsection, and even doing some of that light right on your thyroid is good as well. But again, when we're looking at these hormone cascades, the single biggest hormone that is negatively impacting hypothyroidism or thyroid issues today is when cortisol gets too high. And when cortisol gets too high, insulin gets high, estrogen can get too high, and then what happens is that down regulates the thyroid hormones. So listen, if you have a hypothyroidism issue and you're just trying to treat it with a medication or even outside thyroid supplements, it typically is not a total fix because we really need to impact cortisol in a positive manner. Now let me say this, the number one herbal prescribed today by functional medicine practitioners for hypothyroidism is ashwagandha. Now, Ashwagandha doesn't magically impact thyroid hormone. You know, what it does impact though, is stress and cortisol. So ashwagandha is known as an adaptogenic herb and it helps your body better adapt and deal with stressors. So what it does is it lowers cortisol and then it improves thyroid hormone because of how it's impacting cortisol. So that's why ashwagandha is such a well known herb for hypothyroidism and typically the number one herb I recommend for hypothyroidism. But again, if you want to cure and fix the thyroid cascade, you first and foremost need to fix cortisol and typically to fix these issues. Again, it's not one medication or one supplement. And that's what's happening so often today. It's no, we need a protocol, we need a lifestyle change, we need to say no more often, right? We need to get better sleep, we need to take a few supplements, but we need to change and improve our diet and eat the foods that are exactly right for you. Listen, the diet doesn't taste better or worse. One, it's what your body is craving and needs. But I'll give you an example. I've had so many women come in with hypothyroidism and they've said, well, I'm eating really healthy. I'm eating a lot of salads and smoothies. That's not healthy in most cases. For hypothyroidism, your body's cold. So you're eating, drinking cold ice water and you're doing cold salads and you're doing raw foods. And that's terrible. But we got to warm the body up. We need to also lower cortisol, so we need to lower insulin. What do we do? It's a lot of soups, it's a lot of herbal teas, It's a lot of warm home cooked meals. It's a lot of things like sweet potato and grass fed beef and wild caught salmon. That fixes it. That'll fix it. Okay? So there's different types of eating healthy. You need to eat the type of healthy that's right for you and your body and your hormones. Okay? And here's my challenge. Instead of asking which hormone is low, ask which signal is broke first. Okay. And what is the most likely reason that it broke? Okay? So if cortisol's high, ask what's causing me to live in a fight or flight state. Okay. Is it stress at work? Is it, I've said yes to everything, Is it, I have no free time in my day? And then figure out how to solve that problem. That's how you'll start to see real results. Okay? In that way. And listen, sometimes it's coming from multiple angles. Sometimes if your diet's poor, that's an insulin issue. And then you have high cortisol, that's another issue. So you have both those issues. So sometimes there's a couple pathways that are impacting. You need to say, well, I need to fix this issue and this one. And then your hormones will come back into balance. But if you want to heal your hormones, you have to start with that first domino. Okay? So it's lowering cortisol, it's improving insulin, and it's getting to bed earlier. It's having some more time to yourself. It's more protein and fiber at every meal. It's taking one or two supplements that are the ones that are the needle movers for, for you walking in nature, spending more time you know reading and personal growth and spiritual growth, prayer. Those things will start to get to the root of your hormonal issues and you can finally address your hormones at the root cause. By the way, I want to mention I'm offering a simple at home blood test that actually tests for the right things. Targeted biomarkers including hormones, thyroid and metabolism. Plus a full hour with one of my senior health advisors to help you understand your results. So if you are interested in learning more about the blood work and getting testing done, that's very cost effective to understand the root of your issues, you can go to mybloodwork.com that's mybloodwork.com and get testing I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. Hey, I've done a lot of podcasts on a lot of these topics as well. So if you want to continue to learn more about a certain element, maybe it's getting better sleep, maybe it's about hypothyroidism or low testosterone. Just search on YouTube Dr. Josh Axe testosterone or hypothyroidism or look in the show notes and I'm going to have more of those episodes in there that you can look back at and listen to to further your wisdom and knowledge on these areas to help you take your health to the next level. Also, remember the number one thing you can do to support the show. Subscribe sometimes, because we talk about controversial topics on the show such as cancer and certain natural remedies like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. And I have some controversial experts on the show. It gets shadow banned and so if you're not subscribed, you may not see it. So thanks so much for your support on that. Thank you for sharing and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.

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