Dr. Amy (0:00)

Welcome to the Thyroid Fixer podcast where we dive deep into the world of thyroid and hormones. Especially for you ladies navigating perimenopause and menopause. And really for anyone struggling with hypothyroidism. I'm your host, Dr. Amy, thyroid and hormone specialist and CEO of a global telemedicine practice where we prescribe the right thyroid treatment and bioidentical hormones to all 50 states and most of Canada, helping you become that badass human that you're meant to be. So if you're battling weight gain and hair loss, you can't lose weight. No matter what you do, your energy levels are plummeting and your libido left town. Then you're in the right place and you have found your tribe. Remember, I want you to embrace every inch of that badass woman that you truly are. So if you're ready to dive in and fix things, let's get started. Did you know there's a reason why boosting NAD can actually make us feel years younger? 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So Dr. Amy D R A M I E Use that code and get 15 off your first order. At Fusionary Formulas, we're going to do an iodine series and I'm going to break down all the benefits of iodine, why we test or don't test iodine in the proper way and the proper type of iodine that you need. Especially when it comes to tying back to all the benefits from your thyroid to preventing cancer, growing your hair, helping with fibrocystic breasts and fibroids, all the things that we're going to talk about today with this episode. I want to break down what is iodine and what are the benefits of iodine. I honestly do not even understand why there are practitioners out there that discourage or flat out ridicule the taking of iodine as if it's bad or harmful. Now iodine can be harmful if taken in large Amounts right off the bat. No prep by your body whatsoever. And let's say that you do have a thyroid problem and you dose yourself starting out with 50 milligrams of iodine daily. Yeah, you might have a little bit of a thyroid storm, you might have some hyperthyroid issues, but all you have to do is back off. You add salt, you add vitamin C and all as well. But you certainly don't have to avoid iodine containing foods or avoid supplementing with iodine altogether because the benefits are tremendous. And I'm going to break down why you actually don't want to avoid this very important molecule. Okay, Iodine. When we look at the periodic table. Let's go back to science class, break out that periodic table and let's start right there. Iodine is a halide. So it is right next to fluorine, bromine and chlorine. Also their ides are fluoride, as in toothpaste, bromide, as in everything that is in processed foods and baked goods, your carpeting, your clothing, golf courses, lawns. We're exposed to bromide each and every single day. And then chloride or chlorine that is also in your water along with fluoride. Now, these toxic halogens or halides will attach to the receptor site on your cell and compete with iodine. So let's actually go back one step. Every single cell in your body has a receptor site on it for iodine. Iodine is vital for your thyroid to produce T4 and T3. So if you still have a thyroid gland, you need iodine all up in there, helping you to produce more T4 and T3. And then it even helps convert the inactive form of T4 into the active form of T3. Iodine is so crucial for the thyroid that oftentimes we will see an elevated reverse T3 when iodine supplies are low, when you're simply, you're not taking it. We'll also see an increased risk of nodule or goiter on the thyroid if iodine is low and then just overall hypothyroid symptoms increasing. If iodine is low, because now we're going back to the, to the halides because it competes at that cell receptor site. If we are not taking iodine and we are exposed to the toxic halides, which we all are, every single day, then there's going to be a war at the cell receptor site. Actually, there'll be no war because you're not even taking iodine to compete with the halides. The halides will just come in and attach to that receptor site and wreak havoc in your body. Now, of these toxic halides, we know that many of them are very, very toxic to your thyroid. But it goes so much deeper than that. These are toxins. We don't want chlorine going through our body. Bromide is attached to an increased risk of cancer. Fluoride completely destroys our thyroid and we don't need it anyways. It does nothing for our teeth. If you want to learn more about that, you can go back and listen to the episode I did with Dr. Michelle Jorgensen. She is a holistic dentist and she breaks it all down for you. It's pretty eye openening, but if we're not taking in enough iodine, then we are going to simply bind up and allow all of those toxins to attach to the receptor cell. The only way you can detox from these hallogens. No, it's not a heavy metal detox. It's not a parasite protocol. It's not a supplement that binds to XYZ like activated charcoal. It is iodine. Iodine is also the master detoxifier. Yes, it's going to help support your body's detoxification processes, but it's really helping to detox those toxic halides. Now, the other really fascinating thing about iodine is that if you have a deficiency, you can absolutely end up with hypothyroidism. Not making enough thyroid hormone, because the thyroid gland actually contains the highest concentration of iodine in the body. And then it gets dispersed out to our other glands. Like, we actually have some. We have iodine in our ovaries. We'll get to more of that in a moment. We have iodine concentrating in our glands, but especially the thyroid gland. But we don't just use it for thyroid hormone. We use it for so much more. And we'll get into that as well. So it's important for all of our hormone receptors, and many of them are dependent on iodine because it increases the sensitivity of the receptor and then whatever hormone it was designed to help. So, for example, iodine can act on the insulin receptors in the body and improve glucose metabolism. And then we need iodine to actually make progesterone to metabolize estrogen. And so, and so on it goes. So it is incredibly important for the entire body. The really interesting thing, and, and this is what I like to tell people when they start iodine is that it can actually increase your tsh. And a lot of people freak out about that because in functional medicine, we always say we want TSH below A2. Yes, we do. But if you do start taking iodine, there is a possibility that, that TSH will climb. And we'll explain why TSH will go up with iodine supplementation. Because iodine essentially helps us make more of these transport molecules. So increasing TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone allows iodine to do its job temporarily. Now it will come back down. And here's the important takeaway is when TSH increases with iodine intake, it is no reason to panic. We actually want that little bit of a bump because that's going to help transport the iodine to all the various cells in your body. So if you do get that little bit of a bump in TSH when you start taking iodine, not to worry whatsoever. That is totally normal to have happen. The other thing to keep in mind with iodine is that it is antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial. It helps with viruses, therefore it helps the immune. Now we know that Epstein Barr virus is a, is a very common virus that stays in the body. It's, it's kind of like a stamp that having mononucleosis gives you. You know, chickenpox leaves a stamp and then down the road you can get shingles, same thing. Mono leaves a stamp. And then you have ebv. And EBV can be activated. EBV is a huge precursor to Hashimoto's. So for people to say, or practitioners to say, to avoid iodine if you have Hashimoto's is absolutely ludicrous. Because we want to support the immune system. So our immune system does what it's supposed to do and not attack our thyroid. If we have a poor immune system response, then we're going to have a sluggish thyroid, we're going to be hypothyroid, and we're going to have increased antibodies. Now, some people will say that their antibodies increase when they take iodine. I've never seen this. The things that increase antibodies are being gluten, eating, gluten, stress, a viral infection. So if we're taking something that actually helps improve our immune system, how is it going to exacerbate an autoimmune condition? I promise to tell you more about the hormone fixer. So here it is. This is a supplement to raise your GSD hormone. So those of you who have a total Testosterone less than 50, this is for you if you're struggling with weight, if you're aging, because if you're aging, your growth hormone is declining. If you need more growth hormone, if you want to Just feel better. And anti age, we all need testosterone, we need growth hormone. As we age, both of those decline. And in order to have motivation, in order to build sexy, lean muscle, in order to have a libido, a focus, a concentration, energy to get through your day, the desire to even want to go and work out, you need testosterone. To anti age, you need growth hormone. I address both of those in my hormone fixer. So I'm going to invite you to try this out. You could notice we have had reports of women noticing a difference within the first two weeks of use. More energy, better stamina, a little bit of weight loss, better strength at the gym, soreness from those hard workouts gone. So we've had great, great reviews, great reports. I invite you to try it out. Go to my store@drammyhorneman.com click on shop and you will see it right there. And we will put the link in the show notes as well. Now, I will mention this since I am kind of talking about the controversy surrounding iodine and how some practitioners totally avo it. I truly believe that it got a very bad reputation back in the day when practitioners were starting a little bit too high or people themselves can start on iodine and feel amazing. And I've heard this from our patients before. They start on, they're like, okay, right off the bat, I know I just started my thyroid hormone treatment and improving that. But just even since starting iodine, I have more energy, less brain fog. So it already started working in their system even well before the thyroid hormone replacement given in the correct dose and the right combination and the right delivery method. All of that that it needs to be to optimize your thyroid, even without getting to those peak levels yet. Just kind of starting out of the starting gate, we're seeing an improvement in symptoms. Some of the biggest symptoms that we see improvement in are all the hypothyroid symptoms. The fatigue, the brain fog, the weight, the hair loss, the constipation, the cold intolerance, the dry skin, the brittle nails. Iodine helps with all of those as well. Now iodine goes a step further and ends up helping with fibrocystic breasts and fibroids in your uterus. So any type of growth, any type of fibroid growth or endometriosis, it's going to help with that. Iodine is going to help with that. Another very interesting benefit of iodine is that it helps us process, metabolize, detoxify excess estrogen in our body. Now, if you're perimenopausal menopausal. Well, if you're perimenopausal, you still could be estrogen dominant. Now anyone can be estrogen dominant at any point in time due to low progesterone. So we don't necessarily have to have our estrogen flagged high to be estrogen dominant. We could be in an estrogen dominant state due to low progesterone. Now also, as I kind of move through my, my own personal cancer journey and how hormones play a role, I also know from my Dutch test that I tend to process estrogen down the 16OH pathway. And this is essentially the bad estrogen that significantly increases my risk of cancer, specifically breast cancer. So with iodine, it's actually helping us to metabolize estrogen down favorable pathways, the 4o h and the 2o h. Now if we don't have enough iodine, then our estrogen receptors can actually start to produce more estrogen. And then for women that have that history of breast cancer, whether it's in themselves or their family, you know, it's just important that you add in iodine if you have that deficiency. It is more likely to have things like cysts or fluid filled sacs that get created. Fibroids in your breasts, lumps in your breasts. And they might be totally benign, but they also could be cancerous. So it's an important one. We need it iodine for optimal function of our reproductive organs and tissues. And the biggest thing and, and now we know that our uterus as well takes up iodine and we have transporters in the endometrium. So that's huge. So I've been taking iodine ongoing for oh goodness years now because I know the importance of it now. Did iodine alone protect me from uterine cancer? No, it didn't. Because cancers are so multifaceted as to what drives them. And I'm still going down that research path to see was it a high estrogen, estrogen dominant state that fueled the, the cells going bad in my uterus or is it a genetic thing? Because when I look at my family history, there's all kinds of. My grandmother had uterine cancer. My grandmother had colon cancer. My mother had colon cancer at the end of her Alzheimer's life, which of course we didn't even address or treat because she was end stage anyways. So I have that history of cancer. My dad had lymphoma. It's rampant, rampant in my family. You bet your butt that I am taking iodine every single day. Because even though my cell still turned in My uterus, it wasn't due to lack of iodine, but I could be doing things in addition to iodine to help methylate and metabolize my estrogen. But very, very interesting with iodine and estrogen. So when estrogen comes into play, if we, if we have excess, here's the other thing, if we have excess estrogen and we're not properly metabolizing our estrogen, what ends up happening is that the transport of iodine, the sodium iodide transport, kind of little train down regulates and now we're not even getting our iodine to the cells, to the reproductive tissues. Less iodine available for use in the body in general, starts affecting our thyroid and our reproductive organs. So this excess estrogen situation, just what it ends up doing is leading to a higher level of thyroid binding globulin. Now we see this a lot with the use of birth control where birth control, specifically synthetic birth control, will increase TBG or thyroid binding globulin. And it's very, very similar to shbg. It's a little sticky train that your thyroid hormone jumps on to be delivered to the cells. If that thyroid binding globulin goes up, it's going to bind your free T3 to it. So even on labs you could have, you could be testing your total T4, your total T3. Those could actually be in a really nice optimal range. And then we move over here to the free T3 and we see, wow, that's really low. Now what we do with that is I start everyone on iodine and then we actually start building up your T3 stores, improving your conversion. But the bottom line is we want enough iodine in your system and preferably no birth control as well, to lower that thyroid binding globulin so that, that free T3 can actually get to the cell to do its job. To do its job. Now, sticking with the fertility reproductive organ piece, iodine is also vital for conception. It is vital for the baby's brain development to occur. If you look at a really high quality prenatal vitamin, you will see iodine in there because it is that vital to, number one, conceive, number two, hold on to the pregnancy, number three, produce a healthy baby with a high functioning brain. One of the biggest causes of miscarriage and infertility is low thyroid function. Did you know that iodine used to be the number one treatment of goiter and hypothyroid disease? And then of course the, the medications came out, which I don't have a problem with. But when we Again, just using common sense. Is iodine safe? Should I be taking iodine? That's what we used. That's what we used before. Not in high quantities, not in super high doses, unless you're working with a practitioner to target something specific. But we still use iodine. So why would we use iodine at one point in time to improve our thyroid function and then all of a sudden vilify it as if we're not supposed to touch it anymore and even avoid foods with it? It doesn't even make any sense. Restore iodine in all the tissues, all the tissues of the body, but mostly in the thyroid gland. It wouldn't be stored there if the thyroid didn't need it. So we talked about our ovaries, we talked about the baby's brain development, conception, ovulation, conception, baby's brain development. I'm going to pause on that because I'm very, very open about my stepson being non verbal autistic. And I just wonder when I, when I, when I look at mom, I do see hypothyroidism. I don't know what they all tested when, when she was going through her fertility journey. But you know the problem with those prenatal vitamins? Yes. They have a touch of iodine. I just, I like it in the liquid form and I like nascent iodine. And if you're using a crappy prenatal vitamin, like a 1 a day or something like that, then it's not even the right kind of iodine that you need. And some women are just going to need a little tiny bit more iodine to be able to hold on to their pregnancy and properly develop a baby, a baby's brain. So we want to make sure that that is part of our preconception, conception and pregnancy journey. There was actually an observational study that was done between 2005 and 2009 by the National Institute of Children Human development. They took 467 women that were trying to conceive and they looked at their iodine status and what they found was that 43.3% of them were discovered to be iodine deficient. And they determined that, that they did this with a urinary iodine concentration. And then they compared it to women with normal urinary iodine concentration and those with low urinary iodine concentration. Those with low iodine were 46% less likely to achieve pregnancy during each menstrual cycle. I mean, that, that's huge. Adding in iodine can increase your chance of pregnancy by what would that be 54%. That's crazy. So I think that speaks to how important iodine is to the entire body. The entire body again, going back to our breast tissue. And Lynn Farrow writes a lot about this in the Iodine Crisis with contributions from Dr. David Brownstein. Dr. David Brownstein talks about this quite often because he's had many, many patients that have had full on breast cancer that he has utilized iodine to detoxify them from bromide. He even tells the story of how a woman's breasts were essentially leaking this yellow fluid that when tested he found that it was bromide because she was detoxifying from putting the iodine on her breast. She did have breast cancer. And his one regret when he tells this story, he did extend her life significantly. His one regret is that he didn't go higher in the dose because he believes that that could have potentially eradicated it. Now when we're talking again fibrocystic breasts, that that affects up to 50% of women with at reproductive age. And iodine supplementation can be beneficial with treating it. So it's important for our breast health. It has strong antioxidant properties, it decreases inflammation, it protects the damage inside the breast tissue, it lowers inflammation across the body and it is a very strong antioxidant. I just don't know why everyone isn't taking this simple, powerful detoxifying nutrient. I don't care whether you call it a molecule, a halide, a nutrient, a supplement. We should be taking iodine on a regular basis. I know I do. And in the next parts of the series, I'm going to go into testing, I'm going to go into how you take it, how many milligrams you should be taking, how you titrate up and the signs to look for in your body if maybe you're taking too much or even too little. So stay tuned for that and in the meantime, check out betterlifedoctor.com we just released Iodine Fixer simply because it is vital for every single person to take and it certainly doesn't matter if you have a thyroid problem or not. You don't have to have a thyroid problem and take iodine. In fact, taking iodine might protect you from a thyroid problem. My belief is, is that every single person walking this planet should be taking iodine. The information shared on the Thyroid Fixer podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition treatment or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussing or promoting certain products or services. 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