← 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
561. My Honest Opinion About...Everything I Can Fit into this Episode Part 1
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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. Let's talk about something that's been part of my daily health routine for a while now and honestly, I'm not letting it go anytime soon. Kion Aminos as someone who's consistent with training, I eat clean. I'm always looking for ways to optimize my energy, my recovery, definitely my performance. This is one of the few things that I always keep in my stack. I've been using essential amino acids for a long time now and they're a complete non negotiable in my routine. It's one of the easiest things I do every day to support my muscle, my energy, my long term health. So here's exactly what I do every morning before I hit the gym. Mix a scoop of Kion Aminos into a water bottle, shake it up, drink it down. That's it. No weird fillers, no sugar, no heavy bloated protein shakes before and then I drink it throughout the entire day because I love how it tastes and how it flavors. My water Kean aminos are actually six times more effective than whey protein which is wild and they're so much easier on your body. I feel more fueled, I recover faster, I can push harder without feeling worn out later. And yes, I still eat plenty of protein and I still do protein shakes but this is different. It feeds your body with amino acids all day long. On top of that, Kion just does it right. Their products are third party tested non GMO vegan. Did I mention the taste? So my obsession, my go to flavor right now is mixed berry. But if you're on the flavored drinks they also offer it in capsule form. But what I love is that it's just not about a quick fix. It's about giving your body what it needs. Those beautiful amino acids for your muscles, for your hair to just keep going. So if you're already putting in the work, you want to keep showing up at your best, you want to keep working out, you want gorgeous hair, you want beautiful skin. Kean Aminos are 100% worth adding to your routine. You can save 20% with my link. No code needed, just go to getkeon.com forward slash thyroid. That's G-E-T K I O N.com forward slash T-H Y R O I D and you'll get your discount. They have a 60 day money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by trying it. Healthy hormones begin with healthy cells. So when we talk about thyroid or hormone health, we usually focus on lab supplements or symptoms. But there's a deeper story happening in your body and that's one that begins in your cells. Every hormone your body produces relies on healthy, energized cells to do its job. And at the heart of each cell are the mitochondria, your energy centers. As we age, or when the body is under stress, mitochondrial function naturally declines. That can show up in so many ways. Fatigue, slower recovery, or just simply that feeling off. This is where Timeline Nutrition's breakthrough Mito Pure comes in. Mito Pure is a highly pure form of a nutrient called Urolithin A, if you've ever heard of that. It's backed by over 15 years of research, multiple human studies, and has been shown to support mitochondrial health, muscle function and overall cellular performance. By helping your mitochondria work more efficiently, you're supporting the foundation of your energy and your long term wellness. I personally found that this deeper cellular approach to health is a powerful complement to everything we do for thyroid and hormone balance. It's not about quick fixes, it's about building resilience from the inside out. If you're ready to support your body at the cellular level, Mitopure offers a clean, clinically backed way to start. So you are going to go to timeline.com/forward/doctor Amy so that's T-I M E L I N E.com forward/D R A M I E and you're going to see the code on there. Dr. Amy 10 D R A M I E 10. But if you want to try the gummies, the Mito pure, it's actually going to give you 20% off your order. So just go ahead and click that code D R a m I e 10. You'll see it on the page or you can add it at checkout. You're going to save some money while giving new life to yourselves. In this episode of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast, we are talking about my honest opinion about. So why I decided to do an episode like this is because oftentimes I find myself giving my honest opinion about a variety of different things. Sometimes controversial, sometimes not. And sometimes I am calling people to the carpet. Yes, influencers and functional medicine practitioners and anyone that you see on Instagram over just silly things that they say. So today it's going to be a hodgepodge of topics, but I think you're going to be fascinated by them because it's going to be my honest opinion that, by the way, is always based in science. I don't just pull opinions out of my bum. They're always based on years of experience, years of research, or just common sense. Science, common biology. Right? It's how the body works. All right, so first step on the chopping block. My honest opinion about GLPs. Oh, my gosh, this is such a hot topic out there and you have influencers. I just saw one the other day talking about how horrible GLPs are and then they proceeded to sell their weight loss program. Here's the thing. Now we prescribe GLPs and glucagon light peptides. Unless you're living under a rock. You know what GLPs are? Manjaro, Ozempic. Trulicity. The peptide name. Semaglutide? Tirzepatide. You've heard of these? My goodness. Kim Kardashian's been open about taking them. Venus Williams has in or Serena. Serena Williams has invested in a company and now is pimping them out on social. So you know what GLPs are? My honest opinion is that they are amazing when used appropriately in the proper doses for the property reason for the right reason for that individual. So when I see influencers on Instagram, poo, pooing, bashing GLPs, I really want to scream because, yes, this is a polarizing topic. Very, very much so polarizing. We recently had Cali and Casey Means coming out completely destroying GLPs as part of the MAHA movement. And again, it's like we have to step back and instead of completely bashing something, let's really unbox it and explore the science behind it. So to totally bash GLPs and say they are all bad, it's like putting that label on something. This Is all bad or all good? No, we can't do that. Should we be prescribing weight loss medication that a person will have to be on for the rest of their life to kids in their teens? No. No. To adolescents? Absolutely not. However, if we happen to have an obese adolescent who is diabetic, now we know that the incidence of diabetes and insulin resistance has risen over the years because of our processed foods, because of the food supply, the chemicals, the toxins that can literally cause insulin resistance and really just the chemicals that they're putting in the food to make them more appealing. So if you can make a food more desirable, more palatable, so they call it hyper palatable foods, it's sending a signal to the brain to eat more of this food. So these hyper palatable foods in our kids is making them snack more, eat more, consume more of these highly processed, high carbohydrate, high sugar foods and that is driving obesity. So when we have a situation where we have a child that is obese and is already looking at being on type 2 diabetic medications for the rest of their life, can we use a glp? Because the detriment of being obese at that age and the health consequences that absolutely will, hands down, follow, then yes. I believe in those cases, with proper guidance and nutritional support and with the whole family being on board to change the diet, to change the nutritional intake, to change the lifestyle of that child while using a glp, totally fine. So it has to be a case by case basis that we look at the use of GLPs rather than a broad stroke. All that. All good. Now, in the adult population, should we be using GLPs like I used to call them, the Beverly Hills soccer mom drug of choice for weight loss, should we be using them for vanity metrics just to lose those last ten pounds? Maybe you thought I was going to say no, didn't you? Maybe. Because if you are at that place where that's all you have to lose, you have those 10 pounds left to lose and you've optimized your thyroid and you've optimized your hormones. Now that's the caveat. Please do not think that you are going to throw on a GLP and lose those last 10 pounds, even if it is just 10, that you are going to successfully lose those last 10 pounds while your thyroid and your hormones are in the toilet. It's not going to happen. I see this time and time again having low thyroid function, being misdiagnosed or being mistreated, not on the Proper treatment for your thyroid, not on the. Proper treatment for your low hormones, not addressing low hormones, that's going to keep you stuck, that's going to keep your metabolism literally in the toilet. And a GLP cannot overcome that. But if you've done all the things, if you check those boxes and you want to add on a GLP for those last ten pounds, yes, we can do that and we can do that in a variety of different ways. Now, microdosing GLP is not for weight loss. Can you get more metabolic control? Can you lose a couple of pounds if you're using GLPs in a microdose format, but you are already metabolically healthy, you are metabolically efficient, you are not walking around with low thyroid, low hormones, high insulin, high leptin, elevated a 1C. You, you've got your nutrition under control, you're doing all the things, you're working out, you're training, you're resistance training, you're not just going for walks. If you're doing all of that, then yes, you can experience a metabolic improvement, a metabolism improvement, you can experience a little bit of weight loss while using the lowest possible dose for you or micro dosing GLPs. What's not going to happen is if you are metabolically inefficient, you have not optimize your thyroid and your hormones, your insulin is still above a 6, your A1C is still above a 5.2, then you might need a little bit of a higher dose than a micro dose of a GLP in order to induce weight loss and become metabolically efficient, at which time then you can move to the microdose. Now, if you are truly obese, that carries with it so many more harmful consequences. Just carrying around excess fat on your body has a boatload of disease states tied to it. So if we're looking at, let's take a GLP for a few months and a little bit of a higher dose or the standard dose in order to lose the extra 50 pounds that you're carrying on your frame? That is setting you up for cardiovascular disease, that is increasing your risk of cancer, because we know that about excess fat, that is increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes. If you don't have it already, yes, let's use that GLP to drop that excess body fat. Then we readjust. We work on your diet, your lifestyle, your thyroid, your hormones. While you're on it, while your body is changing, we're improving body composition, we're working on your lifestyle, your sleep, you're working out everything. Then Once you lose that weight, then we can look at. Okay, how can we use this GLP to our advantage to keep inflammation low and to keep you metabolically efficient as we move along. I've also. And you can go back and listen to these podcasts. I don't want to make this entire show here about GLPs, but again, you can also use it like we did with my best friend, where we used it to change her eating habits. She really struggled being a very busy entrepreneur. She struggled with choosing the right fits. And as she was traveling, sometimes driving four hours a day from one location to the next, she would stop at a convenience store. She would stop at sheets for those in the northeast of the world of the United States. You've heard of sheets, MTO baby. And she would grab whatever. Not the best choices of food at a convenience store at a gas station. Right. By implementing a glp. And we used a, a moderate. We use somewhere between a micro dose and a standard dose. We actually used a standard dose for a while and then just kind of pulled it back. As her body became more metabolically efficient, as she gained control of her appetite and her cravings, as she changed her eating style, eating habits with the help of the glp, now we can back off on the dose and it's still keeping her in a very healthy weight range, obviously making her feel better. Confidence is a body composition is better, risk of disease is down. And she's been able to use that as a tool to actually change how she eats. So it, it ended up changing her palate as well, where she no longer has the cravings for the hyper palatable foods because the GLP helped control her appetite and her cravings. And now she's actually shifted what she reaches for because when you pull sugar out of your diet, I mean, this is even long before glps came into use. Remember we actually used to eliminate things. Remember the days where we would eliminate sugar and then literally within 30 days you no longer craved sugar. The things that you used to eat. The biggest thing that comes to my mind, I'll use this as an example, is a Reese peanut butter cup. My God, who doesn't love them? I mean, come on. Remember when we went trick or treating and that was the first thing that you took out, like you had your pile of Reese's peanut butter cups and it's like you would go to all like the wealthy people homes to get their Reese's peanut butter cups or the big snicker bars. So you keep those aside, right? Have you ever tried A Reese's Peanut Butter cup or a snickers. After going 30 days with no sugar, it tastes horrible. It's like, what is this awful sweet, waxy taste in my mouth when 30 days ago I could have consumed 10 of these in acidic? So it literally changes your taste buds. So, yes, I do believe that GLPs can be very, very, very helpful in a variety of different cases if used appropriately and guided by someone who knows what the hell they're doing. I mean, the same with iodine hormones. You have to be working with someone that knows what they're doing. If you're getting your GLPs from a like row or hymns or hers and nobody's helping you with it, then you're going to mess yourself up. You might have the side effects that go along with it. All the scary things that Cali means is talking about or that influencers on IG are talking about, let's not make those guys right, okay? Let's actually show them that there's a happy medium where they don't have to use their platform to bash GLPs, that we can use it and have no side effects. If you're being guided properly, we can use these weight loss medications and have zero side effects. We really can. But work with someone that knows what they're doing. Don't get it from like a cheapy, cheapy mail place, mail order place. It's just like the online telehealth clinics. Like you are just a number. Please understand that you're being put into an algorithm and nothing is personalized or customized. So you're going to mess yourself up. Okay, next up, my honest opinion, My honest opinion about testing T3 levels. Free T3 levels. Now, on the one hand, you'll have conventional medicine doctors saying that you don't need to test T3. Then on the other hand, you'll have functional practitioners talking about the optimal T3 range and when you should test it. It's all over the place. All over the place. My honest opinion about testing free T3 is number one. It's one of the two most important tests that you can get for your thyroid and it better be done every single time that you run your thyroid labs, every single time. And that free T3 should be in the upper quadrant of the range. So no matter what country you live in, you can take that range, you can cut it into four, and you want to be in the upper quadrant or over. Now, there's a caveat with that. It has to be tested 18 to 24 hours after you take your thyroid medication containing T3. I'll say that again. Free T3. Optimal is the upper quadrant of the range with the caveat that you are testing 18 to 24 hours after taking your thyroid medication containing T3.3. What is that? That's going to be your natural desiccated thyroid medication armor or np. That's also going to include thyroid glandulars like thyroid glandular by the fixer because it contains T4 and T3. That's also going to include lyothyonine or cytomel. Now if you are just taking Levo or Synthroid or Tyent and that is it, and you're on T4 only. First of all, I'm sorry, that sucks. You're probably not feeling good at all because nobody gets optimized on T4 only. Second, you don't have to worry about skipping your medication if you take it in the morning by accident. I mean, it's always best to go for your labs in a fasted state. But if you accidentally take your thyroid medication and it's only T4, you can still go for your labs. You're good. You can still go. But if it contains T3, 18 to 24. Oh, well, I went 27 hours. Is that okay? No, you're. Now you're going to get a false low. Now your free T3 is going to be way lower. And yes, the difference of a half an hour makes a difference, let alone the difference of three hours past the time I gave you. Now you're going to get a false look. Oh, what if I went like at 16 hours? No, go back and do it again. Now you're going to get a false high. Now your free T3 is going to be higher than what it would be if you tested in the proper time frame of 18 to 24 hours. What about people that are saying to test at the peak? What does that mean? That means you take something containing T3 armor, Thyroid Anti, thyroid, thyroid glandular, or L, thyronine and cytomel and then you test four hours after you take it again. I'm going to say this over and over and over again until I embed it deep down in your head. There is no functional optimal range for the peak level of T3. It will vary with every single person depending on the dose of T3 that you're on. I have never heard it. I've never seen it. I've never read it. I've never been taught it. There is no optimal functional range for free T3 at the peak. None, zero, zip. Zilch. If someone's doing that, they're making their shit up. Okay? Did you ever come home from a really long day, your energy is drained and you just want to sit down and watch Netflix and eat a good dinner. But you got to still squeeze in your workout. So how about if you actually got home at 7 and your workout was done by 7:05, does that blow your mind? You're already done. You're unwinding. That's the reality with Carol Bike. In just five minutes, you experience a workout that is scientifically proven to be as effective as a 45 minute run. Carol isn't just a time saver. It's your literal shortcut to health, happiness, better muscles, lower body fat, leaving you more time for what actually matters in life, like watching Netflix and eating a great dinner. So if you want to check out Carol Bike, they give you a warranty, a trial period that is unmatched. They'll even come get it if you don't like it. 30 days. I mean, who can even beat that? So check it out. Go to carolbike.com c a r o l b I k e dot com. You're going to use the code Dr. Amy. If you grab one of these bad boys, which I highly recommend doing, you're going to use the code Dr. Amy. That is going to save you a hundred dollars off. And again, there's no risk. There's no risk. Try it for 30 days. If you don't like it, they will come pick it up. But I guarantee you the time saving aspect, the muscle building aspect, the fat burning aspect, you're just going to love it. There is no functional optimal range for testing your T3. At the peak, I take 75 micrograms of T3 twice a day. If I take my 75 micrograms in the morning, which I have done, and I tested the peak just for shits and giggles, my free T3 comes back at a 16. That's on a scale of 2.2 to 4.4. A 16. 1 6. You bet your assets flagged high. Yep, it's red. And if any doctor would actually see that, they would pretty much lose their mind. Like, I think if I brought that number to a conventional medicine doctor, I could actually see their head explode in front of me. Now, if we have another patient, another person that is taking 10 micrograms twice a day or 25 micrograms twice a day of T3, and we test them at the peak, it's going to come back at an eight. So who's right. Who's wrong? Who's over medicated, who's not. Are we both okay? Don't know. There's no functional optimal range for testing T3 at the peak, and it's going to change every single time based on the amount of T3 that you're taking. Now, that should biologically make sense to you. It should, right? So now, when I say to you, all right, if we test you at the peak, where should you be? You're gonna go, I don't know. I don't know. Why? Because there's no functional optimal range anywhere for testing T3 at the peak. But there is a functional optimal range for testing 18 to 24 hours after you take your teeth through medication. Or you just go. If you're on T4 only, you just go. There is no testing at the peak. You don't have to worry about it, but you're not gonna be optimized anyways. Okay, next up, my honest opinion about iodine. I've done a couple podcasts. I'm going to be really brief on this topic because you probably already know. If you've been listening to me for a while and you heard part one and part two of my iodine series, you know where I stand. But I'm going to break it down really simply in this episode based on science. Yes, I do believe that everyone should be on iodine. Well, I read somewhere that Hashimoto patients should avoid iodine, and I see doctors everywhere talking about avoiding iodine. Well, not everywhere. Like, one or two. I love Dr. Alan Christensen. I really do. He's an amazing man. But I disagree with him on the topic of avoiding iodine and iodine containing foods. Number one, not only is it. Okay, go. Yeah, go ahead and have the sushi. My goodness, there's not enough iodine in our foods anyways. We have to supplement on top of that. But iodine is antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial. It's needed by your thyroid gland to produce T4 and T3. It's needed by your thyroid gland to convert the inactive form, thyroid hormone T4 to the active form, thyroid hormone T3. Your breasts need iodine. Iodine is absolutely fantastic for fibrocystic breast disease. For fibroids and uterine fibroids, it helps protect against cancer. Dr. David Brownstein has been on my show as well, talking about the benefits of iodine and how wonderful they are and what they do to the body. He's talked about using iodine in his patients with breast cancer nebulizing iodine during COVID antiviral. Why are we not taking iodine? Why? I mean, improves our immune system. It helps with everything, just everything. It helps the thyroid function better, convert better, protects our breast, protects against cancer. Blows me away that we're not using iodine, like all the time, every single day. Well, I do. And here's where it got a bad reputation. Because there were practitioners out there that were using higher doses with their patients. And some patients went into an iodine storm. They went into hyperthyroidism. Now, here's the thing. If you are doing iodine correctly. So shameless, plug for my iodine fixer. My iodine fixer is nascent iodine. It's the most biologically active form of iodine. It's in a liquid form. So how do we start? One drop in a shot glass of water, slam it down. Day two. Two drops in a shot glass of water, slam it down. Day three, three drops in a shot glass of water, slam it down. Now, you can add apple cider vinegar to it to change the taste. You can add salt because salt and iodine go very well together. Salt helps the body utilize iodine better. You continuously go up by one drop per day. Now, you will know if you have any kind of intuition or paying attention to your body, like whatsoever, you will know when you go into that hyper state, because you're going to get anxious, you're going to get a little bit jittery, you're going to feel amped up and you go, oh, did I, did I do five Red Bulls today? Maybe two Red Bulls. All right, so the next day, so what you're going to do when you feel that little bit of amped up, okay, so say you went from drop number 15, drop number 16, and drop number 16 set you over the edge. You take extra salt, you take the vitamin C, and guess what? The next day, don't go that high. Can we use our intuition and our brains? You're going to know if you go a little bit too high with your iodine. Now, if you start right out of the gate at 10 drops and you go hyperthyroid, I don't feel bad for you. You started too high. And that is exactly what gave iodine a bad reputation. But here's the other reason why we use iodine. Basic science going science class, like seventh grade, seventh grade chemistry. The periodic table of elements. If you look at the periodic table of elements, iodine is next to the halides. Now, the halides have different names. There's a bromine and A bromine, there's a chlorine and a chloride, there's a fluoride and a fluorine. So there's an ion and an ide, and it just differs based on how that particular halide is used. So like we use fluoride treatments and put fluoride in our toothpaste and in our water system. By the way, we're not using fluorine. That's a toxic gas. Bromide is used in baked goods, it's on your clothes, it's on your carpets, it's on your furniture, it's sprayed on golf courses. And chlorine in is what we use in swimming pools and hot tubs and in our water system as well. So when we look at the periodic table, we see iodine next to it. In our body, our cells have a receptor site on it. On each and every cell, it has a little receptor site and one of four things can attach to that receptor site. It's a halide receptor. So when you're exposed to fluoride in your water system, bromide that you cannot escape whatsoever, it's everywhere. And chlorine, also in our water system, those toxic halides. Toxic halides are going to attach to that receptor site. The only thing that's going to knock them off of that site is iodine. And if you do not have enough iodine, those toxic halides will bind to your cell receptor sites and will down regulate your thyroid. Will put your thyroid in the toilet will cause cancer. So do you want to take a little bit of iodine maybe, or do you want to continue believing influencers that tell you to avoid it because it's bad for you? Well, I just laid out the science so you actually get to decide. My honest opinion. The last thing I'll leave you with, my honest opinion about HRT and cancer. I'm kind of coming from a place that, you know, I can actually speak on this because of my recent cancer journey with uterine cancer estrogen positive. Now, again, I did a deep dive episode on this. If you want to hear the full report, you can listen to. I don't even know what episodes it was. We can put them in the show notes. I'll find them for you. Where I really went into my cancer journey and actually recently did a podcast on why I chose to stay on high dose of estrogen despite my cancer diagnosis. So that's episode 554 and I titled that what happens to your body when estrogen drops and why I chose to go high estrogen despite my cancer because how I felt was so horrific when my estrogen dropped that I, I knew at that point of time that I need hormones. And even if you tell me, even if there happens to exist out there and all of the experts I've ever spoken to are wrong, that estrogen will trigger a cancer and there's a 10% chance I'm going to roll that dice and take the hormones and do everything I can for prevention. But the reality is after talking to experts like Julie Taguchi, who is a functional oncologist. Dr. Lindsay Berksen, amazing mind, brilliant woman, had breast cancer herself at the age of 30, has been on hormones ever since. And Dr. Jen Simmons, who is a breast cancer expert. I have made that decision and I have educated myself enough to feel very, very comfortable that hormones do not cause cancer. Now, I do believe that people can have genetic SNPs and then we can also see on the Dutch test, which I've also talked about before on the Dutch test how you methylate or process your hormones. Are you actually detoxing your hormones? Now, we don't want to take hormones in and have them build up in the body. We want to make sure that we are pushing them through, eliminating the excess and not staying in an estrogen dominant state. We do that through proper testing. And then we will add on some supplements like I'm adding on. So I take my estrogen fixer, that's a dim and broccoli seed extract that clears, that helps my body clear the excess estrogen, calcium, D glucarate and acetylcysteine. I make sure that I poop every day. I do my sunlight and sauna, so I'm doing all of these. And yes, progesterone comes in imbalances as well. So I'm doing all of these things to add a layer of protection on. And then I also do things outside of the hormone realm as an extra layer of protection against cancer. Things like ivermectin and fenbendazole, adding in black cumin seed oil. So my Hashimoto support by the Fixer, I do that every day. It has anti cancer properties to it. I keep my vitamin D levels up. Iodine. I also do iodine every day, so supports my entire immune system. I am choosing to continue the use of BHRT despite my cancer diagnosis. Now, I do believe that this is a personal choice. My dear friend Natalie Jill just posted a podcast recently where she kind of broke down both sides from a consumer point of view. And I love how she just beautifully says like Listen, guys, I'm not a doctor. I'm just exploring and putting out both sides of the equation. Do we need to start looking at VHRT shaming? Like, is that a thing? Do you feel pressured to do hormone replacement? Because we're all out there talking about the benefits? I do believe it is a personal choice, but when you make that choice, you have to be armed with both sides of the equation in a factual manner. You can't just look over here and say, well, I read the Women's Health Initiative study, and it said to avoid hormones because hormones cause cancer. That's been debunked. Well, over here, I'm seeing all of the. The benefits of hormones. So does that mean I should go really, really high? Maybe not for you. So we have to look at both sides of the equation and say, yes, we know that hormones protect your brain, protect your bones, protect your heart, help your skin, help your mood, help your body composition, help your strength, libido, quality of life, but also internally protection against diseases. I have a gene that puts me at a higher risk of Alzheimer's. I know that replacing my estrogen reduces my risk of Alzheimer's by 67%. That's huge. So, yes, I'm going to choose hormones because right now I don't have enough evidence anywhere that that says that hormones should be avoided after cancer. I just don't. I know oncologists are saying that left and right to women. Maybe if you are in a very unique category of women, such as triple quadruple negative. I mean, there's some rare cancers out there that maybe like, yeah, okay, because I had that type of cancer. I'm just not even going to roll the dice. Maybe we don't have enough evidence, testing those rare cancers like a triple negative to be able to say with full confidence that, okay, you can do HRT and you're going to be okay. But there's enough. There's enough evidence for me to feel very, very comfortable in my decision to use hrt. But my honest opinion about people, again, who polarize this topic is that they need to stop and they need to shut up. There should be no polarization of hormones. I don't want to see a camp that scares women from taking hormones, and I don't want to see a camp that pressures women into taking hormones. This is a very personal decision that should be made with a proper amount of information and education, and it can literally only be made by that individual while working with someone who knows what the hell they are doing with hormones. Now Let me put that in as the last piece. Caveat. If you think that you are going to half ass your own hormones and pay $129 a month for hormones that are cookie cutter, that you're an algorithm, you're not a unique individual, you're working with a computer and not a person, then you are at a very high risk and you are taking your life and your risk of cancer into a computer's hands. That's what you're doing. You're putting it into a computer's hands and you are nothing but an algorithm. So shame on you. Don't do that. But if you choose to do VHRT and you're working with someone who knows what they're doing and they can guide you and listen to you and adjust your dose according to you and look at your Dutch test, possibly look at your genetics, then by all means make that informed choice. There you go. My honest opinion about a multitude of different topics that often pop up that we really needed to unpack. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thoughts. Jump over to the Just Fixture Thyroid Facebook group. Post them in there. Tag me, I'll jump in. Let's start a discussion. What are your thoughts on everything that we just went over today? I'll see you over there. 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 health care regimen, including medications, supplements, or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client, provide a 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. 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