← The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
546. Mold, Lyme and EMF's Destroying Your Thyroid and What To Do About It with Dr. Jessica Peatross
00:46:16
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- [00:00]
Dr. Amy
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 heroin 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. We're all looking to support our thyroid naturally, boost our immune system, and just really have more energy. I have found Purality Health. Now, the only problem with Purality Health is that it tastes so good. All of their supplements, from the Mind Boost that I'm going to tell you about to the vitamin C, tastes so good, you want to eat it every day. You want to take it every day. It's crazy. I'm addicted to it. I'll tell you more about that. But let's start with the thyroid, something I talk about all the time. As you know, Purality offers a wide range of products that can assist you with thyroid health. But specifically, my favorite is the adaptogenic mushrooms in Mushroom Mind Boost. It tastes like chocolate. I will put Mushroom Mind Boost on a spoon with a little bit of peanut butter, and it's literally a treat. But not only that, it's a liposomal blend of functional mushrooms like Reishi and Cordyceps. Now, Reishi and Cordyceps, they help regulate your body's stress response. We know we need to balance our stress, balance our cortisol so T3 and T4 can work, and so T4 can be converted over to T3. Then another amazing product to support the thyroid is the liposomal lion's Mane. That gives us focus, clarity, cognitive support. Again, bringing down stress. Lion's Mane can help boost nerve function, support your mood, both of which is significantly affected when thyroid levels are imbalanced. Now, there's the vitamin C. Ooh, vitamin C for our skin, for our immune system, for our adrenal support, oxidative stress reduction, and it tastes like you're eating a starburst. It's incredible. I put in my water and it flavors my water. It's amazing. Since the thyroid is incredibly sensitive to inflammation and cellular damage, vitamin C protection is crucial. And here's the best part. Their patented liposomal delivery system makes all of these ingredients highly absorbable to your body. Is actually using what you're taking. Bonus, right? So if you're ready to finally feel like yourself again, you want to head to purality health.com Dr. Amy and enter the coupon code Dr. Amy to save up to 45% off. So you're going to go to P U R A L I T Y H E a l t h.com forward/d r a M I E and use that same code, D R A M I e. Get your 45 off because your body deserves more than you know. Just okay.
- [03:26]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Health.
- [03:27]
Dr. Amy
Are you absolutely frustrated with working with doctors that keep telling you that you're normal and everything is fine, or are you frustrated with going the functional medicine or integrative medicine route and you're still not getting optimized? Maybe because they're focusing on other things other than the thyroid and hormone hormones or they're not a thyroid and hormone expert. Listen, just because you go to a functional medicine practitioner, it does not mean they know what they're doing with your thyroid and with your hormones. They might tell you they do, but the reality is, if you claim to be good at everything, you're really good at nothing. That is why we focus on thyroid and hormones now.
- [04:11]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes.
- [04:11]
Dr. Amy
What else is involved in thyroid and hormones? You got insulin, you got your adrenals, you got cortisol. Of course the gut is important. Of course it is. Nutrient deficiencies, all the things. But we look at all of that and the bottom line is you could do all the gut healing protocols, detoxes, adrenal fairy dust sprinkling that you want to do. And if your thyroid is in the toilet, if you're not being treated properly, if your free T3 is low, if your reverse T3 is high, if your hormones are in the tank, then it doesn't matter. You're going to be wasting your time, you're going to be wasting money, you're going to be throwing a bunch of supplements at it, just getting more and more frustrated and getting supplement fatig week. You need to work with people that will hold your hand, actually care about you, ask you how you're feeling, not have a cap on any kind of dosing. Oh, that drives me Crazy too. All those docs out there that say, well, you can't go above XYZ dose of T3. That is complete BS. Do not listen to them. Or doctors that tell you that hormones cause cancer. No, no, do not listen. We can get you to optimization land where you feel amazing, where you're not gaining weight, looking sideways at a brownie, where you have consistent energy through the day, your hair is not falling out, and yes, you actually poop and detox every single day. That is a win. So you're going to want to book a call with my team. And this is totally free. And this is where we go over, hey, what have you tried? What has worked, what hasn't worked, where are you at on the frustration spectrum? And. And here's how we can help. And we are going to tailor a program for you and your needs to get you to optimization land because I always talk about it. It's a beautiful place to live, and I invite you all to join me there. Because in optimization land, you are confident and strong. You want to go out, your brain works, you have energy, you have motivation, and you feel so good every time you get dressed. Oh, and you have a libido. It's a beautiful place to live. So I'm going to invite you to click the link below. We always put it in the show notes how to work with us. So you're going to book a free call, no obligation. We're just going to go over everything with you and at least you'll have some guidelines and know what your next steps should be if you really want to get optimized. We got you. We've been doing this long enough. You're not a tough case. I always say that. But it is time to put you first. Because like I say, we only have so much time on this planet. Let's live it in optimization land because you deserve to be the badass human that you're meant to be. So I look forward to seeing you in one of our programs so we can help you level up and bring you into optimization land. My guest today is such an amazing woman, Dr. Jessica Pichas. She's a functional medicine expert, which we love. Functional medicine, right? Specializing in chronic illness and root cause medicine. This woman knows Lyme disease, mold, how that affects your hormones and creates hormone imbalances across the board. So I wanted to bring on Dr. Jess as an expert to really go a lot deeper because I, I hear you with all of your questions on mold and lyme disease and EMFs and vaccines and how this Totally dysregulates our nervous system, increases our stress, kicks up autoimmunity, makes your thyroid shit the bed, basically. So please enjoy this episode with Dr. Jessica Petros. Okay, well, today we are going into a little bit of a different area here on the podcast. So I know we've already talked about mole, we've talked about heavy metals, we talked about ems, we talked about them in their own buckets and how they affect our body. So all y' all listening. I know that you have that general idea of how mold, mycotoxins, EMFs, all of those things are not good for you by any way, shape or form. But we haven't really unpacked how each of those things affects the thyroid directly and then what you can do about it. So my guest today, if you already heard her intro, Dr. Jessica Petros. And she knows this stuff, that's why I brought her on for y'. All. She can unpack it. And we are really gonna go deep into how these things affect the thyroid. I wanna start with mold. Cause that's a huge, huge topic. I wanna get into Lyme disease because so many people, including myself, have Lyme and I am not affected. So I wanna find out, wait, why are some people really, really affected by Lyme? And some people, they look at a lab like I do and I go, yeah, I have that and I have Babesia and I have all these other tick borne illnesses and I'm totally fine. And, and if we have time, we'll get to EMFs, but I want to go in that order and really get deep with this. So, Dr. Jessica, thank you so much for jumping on the show.
- [09:10]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Thanks so much for having me. Dr. Amy, it's lovely to see you again and I'm excited to talk to everybody out there.
- [09:15]
Dr. Amy
Yeah, well, I mean, you have to talk to everybody out there because your knowledge on these, on these topics is literally the best in the country. So we're super excited to have this conversation with you. Now, you know, you obviously moved from being a, we'll call it a conventional, just, you know, conventional practitioner into this world of functional medicine. And then you kind of went down these rabbit holes of all these different, I'll just say, things in the environment, toxins in the environment. We can even load EMFs into that toxin bucket stressors that we're being exposed to left and right, and how it really affects each person's body at a very deep level.
- [09:54]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Absolutely, absolutely. I left the system because I didn't get answers for not only my patients, but myself. And so Now I pride myself on asking why until I can't ask why anymore. And, you know, why do you have high blood pressure? Why do you have insulin resistance? You know, all those things are really important. And so a lot of the labels and ICD10 codes that people garnish today aren't root cause. And so the thyroid is really lumped into that a lot. No, it's a very sensitive gland, as you know.
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Dr. Amy
Yeah, it very much is. And I've heard you even say, oh, well, canary in the coal mine. And we've heard that expression over and over again just in this functional medicine world. But when you're talking about a thyroid patient, what do you see as their canary in the coal mine? Is it that they're sensitive to everything? They walk in a room and somebody has perfume on and they're reacting? Or what do you actually see in your thyroid patients when it comes to these other exposures that might be a root cause of some of their symptoms?
- [10:52]
Dr. Jessica Petros
For sure, absolutely. There's a number of things. Usually I'll see some environmental toxicities, which obviously are ubiquitous. We can't avoid everything out in the environment. I see some number of pathogens and also some heavy metals. And so a mix of those can really trigger certain people's genetic expression to change. Right. Their toxin bucket equals a label sometimes whatever's in the toxin bucket. And honestly, I see mold do it a lot. Water damaged homes do it a lot. Heavy metals, I see endotoxic bacteria do it a lot. I see Lyme disease do it a lot. Breast implant illness, root canals. There's a lot of things, and not every. Everything is a blanket wrong for everyone. People have genetic variations of predispositions that really might lay the groundwork. So once their toxin bucket is full or they have a certain exposure that it triggers that label of thyroid disease. And they'll say things to me like, well, my mother or father, my grandmother all had thyroid disease. But, you know, it's. What did you guys eat? What were you exposed to? Did you have similar traumas? A lot of times family units have the same exposures like that. So you may have the same genetic predispositions that are triggered under a similar exposure. Right.
- [12:08]
Dr. Amy
Okay. So, gosh. And this is where that overwhelm comes in. Right? I mean, these. These poor patients, these poor listeners. Right now, like, I gotta worry about so much, so I gotta worry about what my mom and grandma was exposed to, and now I gotta worry about what's in my home, and I gotta worry about the lotion I put on. And when I walk outside getting a tick, I mean, all. All these different things. How do you detangle it for your patient? And, and just kind of put their mind at ease that it's like, I know it's overwhelming, but here's what we're gonna do. Just one step at a time.
- [12:43]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Such a good question. Such a good question. So I will give you the one bucket or catch all that I see in all of these patients and clients. And it's that most. Well, I'll say all of them, actually, their nervous system is somewhat dysregulated in all autoimmune conditions. It's a blanket statement I can make for everyone with autoimmunity. There's somewhere was a trauma that triggered your body or your mind to feel unsafe in itself or in its environment. And oftentimes that suppresses you speaking your truth or your true voice, which is right where the thyroid gland sits at our throat as well. And so, you know, we have to look at all of this. If you have had some sort of emotional trauma, physical trauma happen to you, and then, you know, that can store in the body, the body keeps the score. So we have to go back and look and see how well your nervous system is doing, because there's not a pillow to fix everything. The nervous system controls, unfortunately.
- [13:38]
Dr. Amy
Right. That's very true. So really? Yeah, stress trauma, that's a, that's at the core. And then once you have that, you're just more sensitive to the other exposures. Just like how I said, okay, wait, I do have Hashimoto's, so that could have been a stressor. Now, I attribute my Hashimoto's to the stressor of yo yo dieting, because it appeared. And I was diagnosed when I was crazy up and down dieting for competitions when I was competing. So that was kind of my trauma stressor. But then again, like I said, I have Lyme, I have Babesia, and I don't react to it.
- [14:17]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Well, you know, I will say, I'll take it a step further. You're such a good interviewer because I was going to say that's the exact next step that people are going to wonder. So when you're in nervous system dysregulation or sympathetic overdrive, flight or fight or freeze, you start to dump minerals out your urine out of your kidneys. At first, you might have high blood pressure and high heart rate, but as time continues, your cortisol gets lower, gets chewed up quicker. The production of it is different. The communication from the Brain. When that happens, your blood pressure drops, you start to urinate, electrolytes out and minerals out in your urine. And the thyroid is so mineral heavy on its production of thyroid hormones. You need selenium, iodine, magnesium, F protein. You need all these different types of minerals to actually make adequate thyroid hormones. It's a very labor intensive process for the body. So that can happen to people too, just from nervous system dysregulation. The other thing it does is it makes people a little more sensitive to opportunistic pathogens.
- [15:15]
Dr. Amy
Okay.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
So the difference I see in someone who has Babesia or Lyme, because I truly believe most of us have been exposed if we're to believe that Lyme is a spherochea, a corkscrew shaped bacteria just like syphilis was. Right. That can get reburied to brain tissue as a sexually transmitted disease. We've questioned this about Lyme. We think it's passed on in childbirth. We think now no mosquitoes can pass along. I'm not trying to be doomsday or scare everyone here because what's the difference between someone like me who has spirochetes in my body and Dr. Amy who's been diagnosed with Lyme and BC, but we're both like, we don't feel it is a regulated nervous system.
- [15:52]
Dr. Amy
Okay. That's what it comes down to. Wow.
- [15:55]
Dr. Jessica Petros
It does. Because, you know, there's this graph I show all my patients. I wish I could, I could let everyone just transfer to everyone's mind right now so they could see what I'm talking about. But it's just like a bell shaped curve that shows when you're regulated, you feel like you belong. You can make decisions and as you go along, flight or fight and into functional freeze. You feel dissociated, numb. This is when you scroll on their phone. You don't want to leave your house. And you really aren't breaking down and absorbing proteins and minerals and nutrients from your food and assimilating them in the body properly because of that.
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Dr. Amy
Okay, so this might be something that we'll circle back to when we're giving people things that they can actually do. But how would you test someone's nervous system? Would you use like a four point saliva cortisol test to see if they're dysregulated?
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Dr. Jessica Petros
I love that. Absolutely. That's usually one of my very first steps with people. And sometimes my. I can kind of give leading questions to people that show me and if I'm really observant, I can see it sometimes. They talk really fast and they don't breathe properly, and sometimes they're really scared and they tell you how scared they are. And you could see how distrusting they might be because they have a good reason for being scared and distrusting of someone like me who's a doctor. So, you know, sometimes I can observe that. But I love the four point cortisol SP spit test, and I can often see it sometimes in their hormones and their histamine levels, too.
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Dr. Amy
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're. When you're looking at the classic, like, progesterone is in the tank. Pregnenolone's in the tank. Yeah, yeah, we can see it in the hormones as well.
- [17:28]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, absolutely. And so we kind of look for this certain pattern as docs, if people out there have this. You know, I often do it in some inflammation panels just in the blood work, too. Things like CRP. It's supposed to be less than 8. This is a non specific inflammatory blood marker that you guys can get. Things, things like ferritin, things like esr, things like homocysteine. And, you know, something like CRP or C reactive protein is supposed to be less than three. Mine was eight. And I had, for the first time in my life, thyroid antibodies.
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Dr. Amy
And what was your ferritin? Just. I just have to know.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
My iron was low and my ferritin was low. It was. Well, I think it was below 50. It was below 50. My ferritin, which is the storage of iron. Right, guys? So.
- [18:10]
Dr. Amy
Right.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
It's like my body. My MCV was 106. I didn't have any B vitamins. And then I wondered why I was so depressed and anxious and my thyroid wasn't working properly, and I was developing an autoimmune condition in my thyroid for the first time in my life.
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Dr. Amy
Okay, all right, then we're gonna leave that carrot dangling and come back to the.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, Sorry.
- [18:32]
Dr. Amy
No, no, no, this is great, because now we just wet their whistle and now they're going, well, then what do I do? What do I do? So, okay, pause that. Put that on the. On the shelf. I want to talk mold. Let's talk mold. And the thyroid. Now, again, this is another something, something that we could say. I know I've been exposed to mold. You know, I know I have. I mean, I've been in a hotel in Tampa that I could literally smell the mold and the mildew, you know, because it's right by the ocean. I think they still had the carpeting from 1985. Definite mold in there. And, and I've walked into homes where I can detect it, but then I leave and maybe I'm affected for like half of a day. But again, we see patients that they have one mold exposure, they are affected for months.
- [19:18]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah.
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Dr. Amy
So why break this down for me of how mold affects the thyroid?
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Dr. Jessica Petros
For sure. So first and foremost, if, if someone like you, Dr. Amy, or all the listeners out there, if you're someone that's like a hound dog with mold or a water damaged building, you walk in and go, nope. And walk back out if you can. It's because your body, you're smart and your body's warning you if you smell something really pungent that makes you lightheaded or dizzy or you know, feel like you have a headache, your body is saying, we can't recognize this protein pathogen or this mycotoxin mold spore very well. So we're warning you to get the heck out of dodge by making it miserable for you immediately when you smell. Okay. And that's people with sensitive genotypes. So there are certain genotypes like hladr, we estimate it's about a quarter of the population. And these people really can't recognize pathogen proteins like Lyme disease or mold spores very well. And those are the people that we call the canaries in the coal mine that their toxin bucket gets full. They really feel it. They're kind of warning the rest of the population, this isn't good for anybody's body, guys. Right. And so what we see with thyroid disease, you know, most people who are graves hyperthyroidism, they have the same genotype, hladr, the same haplotype, I should say, as those who are sensitive to mold. So therefore, it makes me wonder, people who go into a thyroid storm and they have the same genotype and are affected by mold, are they actually in a mold exposure which triggers that thyroid storm because they have a genetic predisposition or haplotype. Right. There's also a study that was published in 2017, I believe it was in Frontiers, I think was the name of the actual frontiers in immunology. And it showed that there's. They call. When you have a mold exposure that triggers a thyroid disease, they call it non thyroidal illness syndrome because it's not actual. The thyroid that's wrong. Your actual gland is reacting to the environmental exposure. Right. And the name of this study was non thyroidal illness syndrome. In patients experience exposed to indoor air dampness microbiota treated successfully with T3. And so what they show here is that people who were in a water damaged building, had fungal exposure, actually did look like they had a thyroid condition. And they successfully treated patients with hypothyroidism from this mold exposure. So we know this happens because mold is. Mold really lowers immune systems. It causes cytokine storm in the brain. You guys think of fat, you think of COVID Mold was the OG was the original one to cause a cytokine storm in the brain. So from the brain, which is air traffic control, it talks to all your other hormones in the body. There's something wrong with air traffic control talking to all the other organs to make hormones and endorphins and neuropeptides. And there's so much inflammation, it's like a brain on fire. So why people talk about. They feel like they have Alzheimer's when they're in a moldy building. And this inflammation, this lowered suppressed immune system. The thyroid is a sensitive gland and is affected.
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Dr. Amy
Yep. No doubt.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, yeah.
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Dr. Amy
No, that's a great explanation for it because, you know, I always think of. And kind of going back to what you were saying about that canary in the coal mine person, when they are saying, hey, things aren't right around me. It's funny because everybody else would be like, what are you talking about? Oh, you're just sensitive. Go over there and take care of yourself. You're a hypochondriac. Whereas all those people telling that canary that they're too sensitive are almost. They're like slowly degrading. They're being hit by the same environment that the canary is getting hit by. They don't notice it. So they go about their life and it might be a year or two later that they're like, wow, I really feel like ass right now. What's happening? And it was just, it was a slower process. So that exposure is going to affect everyone just at different rates. Do I have that right?
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Dr. Jessica Petros
1,000%. Yes.
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Dr. Amy
Okay.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
Yep. And sometimes, you know, I've definitely the. The most challenging cases are when, you know, a husband doesn't react at all and the wife is like the canary. And then they don't want to remediate the house because it's an expensive project. I see this a lot. Sometimes they'll be the only person reacting in the house. Sometimes there'll be maybe one other person, which is kind of a lifesaver for them if the husband doesn't believe. So this happens a lot, guys. People react very differently. Some people have very mild to medium allergies and some people are bed bound.
- [23:54]
Dr. Amy
Yeah, no, I Mean, we've seen, we've both seen it in practice that people just respond different ways. Okay, so then if we're looking at the what people can do for the mold topic, you already mentioned remediation, and that is tough. I mean, when one person is reacting and the other person isn't, good luck getting your, let's say your husband to agree to thousands of dollars worth of mold testing and remediation. But even just on the testing. Dr. Jess, what do you like to do to test? Are you testing the home? Are you testing the individual person? Are you doing both? Because we need to find what they're sources. How do we figure this out?
- [24:33]
Dr. Jessica Petros
You know, everyone that comes and sees me in my virtual clinic actually gets a total tox test by vibrant. And I love that test. It's built into the price because it gives me mycotoxins, heavy metals and environmental toxicities and pesticides and things. So I appreciate that test a lot. So I just kind of run everyone who comes to me through mold just to see if their. Their symptoms and their symptomatology doesn't match up to like, levels that are off the charts or anything. And then if they have the means, I will often ask them, hey, do you want to get an ermi test to test your home to match up what you have in the home with what's in your body? Yeah.
- [25:08]
Dr. Amy
Okay. And then from there, they can decide what they have to do with their home. Like, do they have to bring in a company or do they have to move or what the situation is.
- [25:19]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah. And oftentimes, well, every time I tell them if they're renting, they should just leave yet. Don't even fight it. Just leave. Even though it's a really big pain for people. I'm really sorry. It's the worst part of my job. But you. They own. It can be tricky because the price is, I would say there's no objectivity. It's very subjective. Not all mold companies are created the same. All remediation companies are created the same. Not all the knowledge is the same. And so it's a very tricky thing because of all those factors to get the remediation you hope to get.
- [25:50]
Dr. Amy
And it's really tough when it's at your place of work because it's like, what do I do? I mean, do I quit? Do I find another job? Do I ask to work from home? Home. I mean, that it. Mold is. Yeah, mold can get pricey for a person, basically.
- [26:04]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Very pricey. And it really does control kind of, you know, your brain a little bit and your decision making capabilities, which makes it so much worse for people.
- [26:14]
Dr. Amy
Yeah, yeah. Now, are there any easy, breezy supplements or any kind of support that a person could, could take so that they are a little bit more shored up when they're exposed to mold?
- [26:27]
Dr. Jessica Petros
For sure. So, you know, there's a couple things people can do. First of all, you know, you really want to make sure you're getting enough minerals because mold causes such inflammation that sometimes your body really lacks the minerals it needs to fight properly. So high dose minerals, micro macro minerals are really important. I would say antioxidants are really important too for people, bioflavonoids, things like that. And then honestly, if the minerals are being taken care of, sometimes I'll put people on a binder here and there if they're not too constipated to see if can pull things from the tissue, if they can sweat or, you know, all that good stuff. That's really important too. You know, you can sweat out mold spores and it does turn on mitochondria and helps the lymph move as well. So this is a great way if you help the body release. Because if you can't get out of the exposure right away, which so many people are stuck there, like, I get it, it's hard. You know, I can't really guarantee whether I can get you better in the exposure. It's really dependent on your genetic predisposition. And so really it's helpful to make sure all your drainage is open, that you can sweat, that you're not too constipated every day. Right. That you know you can digest food properly. You're not seeing like undigested food in your stool. That means, you know, the mold starting to stop up some your drainage pathways, like the bile which scrubs your food. So you don't use no undigested food in your stool. Your sweat pathway that can get congested. And people tell me they don't sweat and that's not normal. Right. If you guys are not pooping, you're not releasing toxins. That's the whole reason we poop. So, you know, we got to have these things working properly or how are the mold spores going to leave your body when you're breathing them in every day?
- [28:03]
Dr. Amy
Yeah.
- [28:04]
Dr. Jessica Petros
So that's, that's really, that's really. And honestly the best policy against mold exposure, in my opinion.
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Dr. Amy
You know, I love that it's doable.
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Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, it's doable. It's doable. So if you guys aren't Pooping. You know, look into castor oil packs, look in the magnesium. Right. It's important.
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Dr. Amy
And kind of going back to. I'm so happy that study actually gave props to some T3. You do need a little bit of thyroid support because the thyroid is so. It's kind of like that back and forth. If you're exposed to mold, the mold is slowing down your thyroid. You know, you have this back, back and forth dance going on. It's not a great dance. Then if your thyroid is slow, if you're not converting properly, if the mold is pushing up your reverse T3, then even just that low T3 might be stopping you from pooping. And that can make all the difference.
- [28:53]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes. And mold really goes after the mitochondria and the liver. And, you know, T4. Free T4 converts over to free T3 in the liver. And so I see so many liver functions start to become stagnant when people are in mold. Like, say, people's cholesterol panel. It looks just a little askewed or messed up backwards. Right. And that lets me know, you know, the liver makes the cholesterol, and it's just a matter of time before estrogen and progesterone are messed up up because they come from cholesterol and that whole cascade from the liver's dysfunction. Right. And then you can see it in things that you were just talking about, right? Like the free T3 and the conversion.
- [29:28]
Dr. Amy
Yep, yep. Exactly. Exactly. Are you sick of hearing me talk about Young Goose yet? Well, that's too bad, because I love them, and I have been using them now for years, probably about two or three years. And I can honestly say that my skin looks great. So I go to my plastic surgeon's office to get a little bit of Botox, right? And he says, what are you doing for your skin? Because your skin looks great. And I'm 50. It's going to be Young Goose. You know, I've never had the ability to do those ablative lasers that are supposed to refresh and renew your skin. I just can't do it. I break out. So I love a good product line that is actually going to do something with my skin and help me not age. So whether we're talking about eye cream, finding that perfect eye cream, whether you're finding that perfect collagen boosting cream that smooths out wrinkles, Young Goose has it all. I use pretty much everything in their line, but my favorites are going to be the care moisturizer. This has NAD and NAD boosting powers to it which obviously helps your skin. We love NAD for anti aging. I use the hyperbaric mask. At night. I put that on. Oh my gosh. It just renews and replenishes and hydrates my skin. I use the pro care serum. This is an anti aging serum. It's senolytic, meaning it's going to seek out and destroy the bad cells and promote new cell growth. I use the adaptogenic cleanser. I use the amplifying essence which really kind of boosts up your skin care overall. Bio C peptide spray as a toner. Their entire line is fantastic. If you even start with two to three products, you will notice a difference in your skin. So you're going to go to young goose.com and you're going to use the code Dr. Amy. This is going to save you 5% off. Now is it a ginormous savings? No, but their line is so precise and so grounded in science. This is what they can offer. And you know, I love the owners too. I think buying from, from a family owned company is so important and if you met the owners, you would fall in love and want to use their products every single day because you know that their heart and soul is literally behind this line. So young goose.com use the code Dr. Amy. You will notice a difference in your skin. Okay. Lyme disease. This is another biggie. Oh my goodness. My assistant, well, actually she believes she has Lyme. Her husband has it really bad and it has all of these, the symptoms and everything. So. And again, back to me. I got nothing. Wouldn't even know I had it unless I tested.
- [32:25]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Wow, that's crazy. See how different we are? We have the same organs and systems, but we're very different in our presentation about how certain things can cause a different disease in different people. So, right, so with Lyme disease, right, it's a, it's a bacteria, you guys. I mentioned a corkscrew shaped bacteria and it really can burrow into different tissue and form follows function. And this one's really good at disguising itself. It's known as the great mimicker medical circles. And so really what we think that it's doing is that it has some. The Borrelia bacteria has some proteins that may be capable of triggering autoimmunity. And the proteins look like maybe some certain proteins in our body. It's called molecular mimicry. And so the body kind of gets confused and it's trying to fight the pathogen, but it actually starts to turn on the glands because the proteins are similar. There's some mimicry going on. And there's other things too. You know, inflammation again, just like mold can do that as well. And so you'll see the immune system just kind of get confused a little bit. And so we've seen it in some studies with Lyme disease, too. We've definitely seen Lyme disease cause some thyroid illness, thyroiditis, and otherwise healthy people. Actually, hypothyroidism with concurrent Lyme disease is quite common. Many of you guys probably know that out there listening. And it's really by a number of different ways that I'm mentioning. So really, it's important to get the right test for Lyme disease, too. I just want to say that as well, a lot of conventional tests are really inaccurate, unfortunately. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but especially the elisa, which is the first screening test they do. It's like 60 to 80% inaccurate. And then the Western blot is the confirmatory test in conventional medicine. And it misses cases a lot, too. Anywhere from 40 to 60%, depending on where you are in your Lyme journey. Wow.
- [34:20]
Dr. Amy
All right, wait, wait, wait. Pause there. So if someone has been tested positive with Eliza or Western blot, then they're definitely positive, right?
- [34:31]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes. Especially if you've had one or two bands, because they're really testing your immune system, not the actual. They're testing your response to the bacteria. Right. And so if your immune system's really suppressed and or, you know, we know the test is that inaccurate and you have one or two bands positive, it's really important to maybe follow up with a functional medicine test which tests more bands and has not as strict a criteria as the cdc. It has an alternate criteria that is positive or negative. And so that might be helpful for some of you guys if you have these symptoms like migrating joint pains and brain fog and hypothyroidism, to really look into some functional medicine testing for that.
- [35:09]
Dr. Amy
The Western blot, Eliza, if you've tested positive, you're for sure positive. But if you tested negative, you don't actually know if you're negative with a 40 to 80% or 40 to 60%, basically mistake rate. So what should you do? What. What functional tests do you like for Lyme?
- [35:26]
Dr. Jessica Petros
I love vibrance, tick port 1.0 and tick born 2.0, which, you know, they also test a lot more co infections and viruses on 2.0. Still, it's expensive, but it's not as expensive as some of the other testing and functional medicine, which can run you guys seriously, sometimes $1,500 or more for some people, like, the gold standard is Igenics, and they don't take insurance, and it's very expensive for people. So, you know, if I can get it for, like, 650 or so, that's a much better price that I can offer people to. There's also a company called DNA Connections, and they're fairly affordable, too. And they take their urine test. Now, before you jump to conclusions about that, they do tell you to go to a sauna or go to lymphatic massage before you test. And then they test the spirochetal parts in the urine. So it's kind of interesting. So there's a number of different ways that you guys can, like, look into this and see a different test and perspective than maybe what you've been given in mainstream medicine.
- [36:25]
Dr. Amy
Right. Okay, I like this. All right, so now the what to do.
- [36:31]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah.
- [36:32]
Dr. Amy
Someone gets the positive Lyme, which I honestly believe. And before you answer the what to do, I want to get your take on this. Just like Epstein Barr virus. I have not found a person yet who doesn't have ebv. Like, I'm waiting to, like, shave their face and put it on my wall. Like, this is, like, the patient of the year. Is that the same with Lyme? Do we pretty much all have Lyme?
- [36:54]
Dr. Jessica Petros
You know, I think so, because I think that we've definitely all been exposed, especially if it's true that mosquito. Mosquitoes can carry it from larvae to full adult in some of the German studies. So I do think that, you know, who remembers a mosquito bite all the time? You know, like, no one.
- [37:11]
Dr. Amy
I have five of them right now, so.
- [37:13]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah. Yeah. What is the difference between some of those people who've been exposed to compared to other people? I really think it's the toxins and trauma in your toxin bucket and how well you're regulated. Your nervous system is based on. Based on the previous toxins and trauma.
- [37:27]
Dr. Amy
Yeah. So it's all coming back to that.
- [37:30]
Dr. Jessica Petros
It is. I mean, after years of just watching and being objective with people, that's. That's my own personal conclusion. Really? Yeah. Lyme is a difficult one because you really have to. It's often tied into a lot of inflammation, a genetic predisposition, a lot of toxins and trauma in the toxin bucket, and a lot of emotional abandonment and things that, too.
- [37:51]
Dr. Amy
Interesting. Gosh, there's. Yeah. I guess you could. You could really pick one topic and unpack it for hours. You could if you wanted to. Yeah.
- [37:58]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes.
- [37:59]
Dr. Amy
Wow. Okay. All right. So moving from Lyme to Ems and I know that's a huge jump. The reason why I wanted to pull in EMFs today. And yes, we could have moved from lime to heavy metals or gone any down any different toxin, pathogen, road that we wanted to go down. But EMFs are just, I think we're still trying to understand them. You know, like I said to my husband the other day, we had a security system being put in. It's all WI fi now. I'm like, I don't want the WI fi extenders. I want a hardware in my computer to reduce my WI FI exposure. And he looks at me like as he's been with me for 10 years, he's heard me talk about everything biohacking and he still looks at me with like, what, what are you talking about? WI fi impairing our bodies. What? And I think that this is a topic that not many people, people know about.
- [38:47]
Dr. Jessica Petros
The studies are fairly new. And you know, science is slow, logic is fast and it's, it's, it's very true. You know, a lot of the science doesn't start to seep out into public knowledge until about 15 years after it's been published. And so it's really slow for the public to hear and understand what's going on with science. Truly. There's a lot of published studies. If you guys want to go type in EMFs and whatever health issue and then the letters N C B I that will bring up published studies. And there are some studies about how it affects different microbiota. For example, E. Coli and listeria can grow out of the boundaries of a petri dish if exposed to a wi fi router. Dr. Klinghardt has had some pretty famous claim published studies that mold really explodes 600 times around a WI FI router and it's certain frequency. You know, we are energetic beings. I always say, you know, is the EKG in an EEG measure energy? And so we don't really think about how these invisible frequencies affect us because we don't feel it in our physical bodies all the time. But I assure you guys, there are some canaries in the coal mine who do feel EMF hypersensitivity. And they are EMF hypersensitive. And they have. About 40 to 50 of them have moved to a place called Greenbake, West Virginia, because there's a giant satellite there about the size of two football fields. And it is a no, it's a no radio zone, like Radio Free Zone. So there are cops that patrol the like 5 mile area or so. I don't know exactly how large it is, and they will pull you over. If you have your phone on or anything else, they warn you before you get there. And so there are EMF hypersensitive patients that have moved there and healed.
- [40:29]
Dr. Amy
Heard of this. That's crazy.
- [40:31]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Green Bay question. Yeah.
- [40:33]
Dr. Amy
Oh, okay, wait, I'm just. I'm still absorbing that. I'm being blown away by. Okay, that's. That's insane. That's crazy. But I do know of people that they are that sensitive. When they walk into a hotel, they're unplugging everything. They're putting up whatever EMF protection they have because they can feel it immediately.
- [40:51]
Dr. Jessica Petros
It's so true. I see them too. They're, like, chemical sensitive. They're histamine over, like, overproducing, and they know every smell. And it's wild to me because I'm the exact opposite. So I rely on those people because I don't feel things. I rely on those people to tell me what's not good for me. Because if they're reacting to EMF like that, our bodies are also. It's not good for us either. That's. They're teaching us.
- [41:16]
Dr. Amy
Yeah, exactly. And. And then there's the world of EMF blockers, EMF protection, emf, everything out there. I'm confused. I'm overwhelmed. I don't even know what to do. I got little stickers everywhere on every. On every. Every device I have, just crossing my fingers and wishing on a rainbow that it's protecting me. But what is the truth about what we can actually do?
- [41:42]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, right. It's hard to know because there, for a while, everyone talked about EMF blockers. And now you'll hear people say, it's not good to block any harmonies. You should be harmonizing them. So there's these two schools of thought, right? It's very difficult, right? So, you know, silver blocks it, lead blocks it. Certain heavy metals will block it. Certain crystals are said to block it as well, too, like tourmaline and things like that. But, you know, really. And ultimately, guys, it's learning how to be resilient in your body and to also just be aware. Turn your phone off at night, turn your WI FI router off at night. If you can hardwire things, go for it. You know, don't get on a laptop and just put it on your lap, you know, I mean, we're all guilty when we are in a hurry, you know? But, like, I mean, I'm not getting on to anyone, but just be more aware of these things. And if it really, really bothers you, we have to find a way to kind of empty your toxin bucket so your body isn't seeing everything as a foreign intruder and threat. And you could be a little bit more resilient because resiliency is health really. And I know, I just wanted to say really quick to everyone, there was a, there was a study published last year. It's in the internal Journal of Molecular Science and it's labeled the effects of 4G, not 5G, 4G long term evolution, electromagnetic fields on thyroid hormone dysfunction and the behavioral changes in adult male mice. And they say further research is needed. Really? But it did show that some of these genes and things and the different releasing of different hormones in the thyroid gland was affected. It altered the hypothalamic expression of these genes. So the brain talking to the thyroid or the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid axis. So, you know, we've long suspected these things and just now studies are just now catching up. This was just last year and that's.
- [43:29]
Dr. Amy
Exactly what we're going to see now. We're going to see 5G in five years from now. Them going, oh yeah, it turns out that 5G wasn't so good for us. Meanwhile, we've already been exposed for eight years and we're, we're already having the health consequences of that exposure. But thanks guys for letting us know that long after, and I agree with you, it's going to be. The science is going to be slow. Logic is fast. I really like that thing. Because we know, we know that's all you need is a few of us chirping about EMFs. And those studies that aren't widely, I mean, your average person walking through the mall, you're not going to stop them, be like, do you know what EMFs are doing to your health? They're gonna be, what are you talking about? So these studies aren't out there and widely known yet at all.
- [44:14]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Right, Exactly. And you're right. And it's gonna continue to trickle in, guys. So we already know that 5G is a shorter frequency. That's why they got more towers at shorter distances and up everywhere. And it's not good for us. So really just be aware of these things. Just learn how to have EMF and sleep hygiene. Keep these things away from you. And if you can move out in the country and you want to, then do it. That's a great way as well.
- [44:40]
Dr. Amy
Yeah, but, well, we're in the country too and my house is still surrounded with EMS because I have to work.
- [44:46]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah.
- [44:46]
Dr. Amy
Because I got to work and I got to do this.
- [44:48]
Dr. Jessica Petros
I know.
- [44:49]
Dr. Amy
Hardwired, at least on my computer.
- [44:51]
Dr. Jessica Petros
See, there you go. You're the example of that. That's great. Not everyone does that anymore. It's really important.
- [44:57]
Dr. Amy
Yeah. Baby steps. Baby step. But then, you know, we're going on a trip. I'll be in the car, my husband will be driving. My laptop will be on my lap. So I need to find these different little, just little tools that hopefully they work maybe if they give 50% protection.
- [45:14]
Dr. Jessica Petros
I like to, I like defender shield a lot. I have one of these. I have a big flat mat that I lay my computer on if I have to have it on my lap. Right. And so things like that. There are like Faraday cages that you can put on your smart meters on your house. You can ask, opt out. In most states of smart meters, which is probably the highest EMF that you have in, in your home is a smart meter. So there, there are certain things like that that, that everyone can look into too. It's just really, it's being curious. It's not accepting just what you hear online or on the news. And it's looking into it yourself and being curious and asking questions and caring. You have to care about these things and care about your health and have some self love to really dig into what, into these answers and research yourself too.
- [45:59]
Dr. Amy
You do?
- [45:59]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yeah, you do.
- [46:00]
Dr. Amy
And I love that too. That's a great. Yeah, that's a great point. You have to do some, some research yourself. We can, we can bring all the guests on that we want to talk to you about this. But then at the end of the day, you need to do a little bit of research and then get the things that provide some level of protection, even if it's not 100%. You're at least taking those steps just like I am by hardwiring my computer one step.
- [46:22]
Dr. Jessica Petros
And don't wear AirPods, you guys. That way the frequency is bouncing back and forth between the brain, your hemisphere of your brain. And it's not okay if you must wear them to wear just one. But you will always see me with wired headphones at the gym. I'm going to be that old lady. I'm sorry.
- [46:39]
Dr. Amy
That's all right. We got to bring back those, those wraps that go around our arm. We gotta bring back the ipod, so I don't check my messages and emails. I just listen to music. And let's just hardwire in with those wired earbuds. Let's bring back the Walkman. That's what we really need.
- [46:59]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Everyone was happier then. I'm telling you, before all the social media stuff.
- [47:03]
Dr. Amy
Everybody. Everybody. Okay, so that's the perfect tie in to our ending of. Circling back to what you said earlier about the nervous system. Social media. Ems wired everything. Your phone, your email, your computer, your tv. You're being bombarded. Our nervous systems are being bombarded where we are basically in that sympathetic fight or flight all the time, whether you know it or not. And you're sitting there going, well, I don't. I don't feel like I'm in fight or flight now. You're in fight or flight because you're already thinking about when you can check your Facebook and your Instagram. Instagram, what you have to do next, what you have to make for dinner, when you have to go pick up Johnny, what your next project is, all the emails that are waiting for you. You're already thinking, we are in fight or flight all the time.
- [47:45]
Dr. Jessica Petros
All the time. And I think a lot of people don't realize, like, what that feels like sometimes, because if you've been, you know, running around and had a chaotic childhood your whole life, you might have been in fly or fight. You may have never felt, like, how it's supposed to feel and rest and digest. And when you do anything foreign, sometimes feel un. So sometimes we seek out that chaos. You know, guys, it's really important to just really be able to breathe and sit still with your thoughts and your emotions and not have to have technology or scroll and dissociate that way. I've been there. We all dissociated into our phone. Every last one of us knows what that means. So, you know, can you sit still with your thoughts and process your emotions and let them flow through you so they don't get stuck in your body? Can you learn how to regulate your breathing? Anyone who has anxiety, they're not breathing properly. You're not breathing properly, I can promise you. And a lot of this affects your sleep. It affects your cortisol, it affects so many other hormones in your body. So it's really important to kind of learn. I also really like gentle vagal nerve stimulators. My favorite one is the Pulsetto. It's about $200. It just wraps like a little necklace around the back of your neck, and the bulbs sit right on your carotid sheath right there on your neck where the vagus nerve runs. And there's different levels of vibration. It puts me right to sleep. Sleep. Right to sleep.
- [49:01]
Dr. Amy
Oh, very nice. Okay. What is that again? Say that again.
- [49:04]
Dr. Jessica Petros
It's called the Pulsetto. P U L S E T T O.
- [49:08]
Dr. Amy
Okay, I have seen that. Yeah, I have seen that advertised before. So yeah, that's great. That's a great tool.
- [49:14]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Beautiful. Amazing. Yeah. So things like that. I really love Gaba for certain people. Liposomal Gaba and L Theanine. I really love Sammy. I live at different B vitamins for people. I love high dose minerals for people to ground their nervous system. A lot of people, you know, you need charges for your nerves to fire properly. And what has charges are minerals. And so it really helps to replace those minerals. You might have peed out in your, in your urine when you were really stressed out or when you're sweating too much or when you were binding too much. Right. It's important, right? So this kind of, this kind of stuff helps you feel safe. And then really, guys, getting into your body, getting out of your mind, learning an exercise, a dance, learning how to feel like a child again. This is the way to regain your sovereignty of your body and your mind.
- [50:03]
Dr. Amy
That's so beautiful. And it's so easy. Oh, and it's free. Well, the little posetto isn't free, but the dancing and the getting back to your childhood and just nature, all those cliche things that everyone's talking about like walking in nature and grounding yourself in sunshine. It actually works, guys. It actually works.
- [50:23]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes. Yeah, it does. I love it so much. And it's free for everyone. And so sometimes the rat race, the lifestyle we're taught in society, man, it makes us really successful. What if there's so much more? And what if you're. When you have, you don't have your health, nothing else matters. So it's really important to leave that lifestyle and get back out in what nature source God created for us, whatever your belief system is. Because everything else is man made fake nonsense and it does not go with human biology.
- [50:53]
Dr. Amy
And that is the mic drop moment that we can overlay over mold and Lyme and Ems, because it really starts there. You could buy all the supplements and devices and do all the tests in the world, but if you're not doing the basics, it's not gonna work.
- [51:08]
Dr. Jessica Petros
That's right, guys. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. And you know, really regulating your nervous system, living as nature would intend. You know, even mold is supposed to be here in the environment. It's the way we're building houses that causes it.
- [51:20]
Dr. Amy
Yep. Yeah, exactly. Ah, Dr. Jess, you've been amazing. This has been incredible. And exactly what I wanted to give to my audience. So thank you so much for today's discussion and all of your knowledge. Tell people where they can find you if they're interested in following you, working with you. All the good things.
- [51:39]
Dr. Jessica Petros
Yes. Thank you so much for having me. It was. You're a wonderful interviewer. So I always say there are levels to this of how you guys can work with me or get take my in my information, whatever you like. So I put a lot of stuff on social media. I know I have a whole team so I can't do it myself. I would be completely dysregulating you guys. So Instagram is Dr. Period Jess, period MD. There's a lot of free information if you guys like to learn that way. I also have a website, drjustmd.com I also have a platform where you can do it yourself and learn how to be your own best doctor, where I have a lot of different protocols and that's wellnessplus.com and then finally, if you guys would like to work with me one on one, that's the highest peak level and that is DrJast Health. And you guys would talk to one of my experts on my team to make sure we're a good fit and then you would book a package with me. So yeah, many different ways. Thank you Dr. Amy, so much.
- [52:31]
Dr. Amy
You're welcome. We'll put all of those links in the show notes so you guys don't have to remember it. And no, just thank you so much for your time today. This has been fantastic. You hit on every point that I wanted to, so I appreciate you. 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. Statement 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 any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the hosts or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.