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There's no blueprint on what to do when your body starts freaking out. But when you fix the hormonal environment, your metabolism follows, and then the body that you thought that you lost actually starts coming back. Welcome to the new and completely reimagined Thyroid Fixer podcast, a podcast that refuses to sound like every other health show out there. We're here to disrupt this entire space, and now you are part of that disruption. If you're listening right now, it's because you've hit your breaking point. And I'm here to tell you. Good. Because this is where everything changes. This is where you finally say, no more. No more being dismissed by your doctor. No more being told your labs are normal. No more recycled medical advice. No more recycled biohacking advice. No. No more being told to accept what you know isn't right. Here, we do things differently. This podcast gives you information you can actually use. Real tools, real direction, real answers, so you can take back your energy, your metabolism, your hormones, and your life. Every episode will leave you with something actionable, something that moves you forward, something that reminds you that you're not crazy, you're fine. Finally being hurt. This is Thyroid Fixer Podcast, and this. This is where you rise. I need to talk to every woman who's been told your labs are normal while your body is screaming at you and rebelling against you. Fatigue, brain fog, the weight that will not come off, mood swings, hair loss, feeling dismissed, frustrated and confused. I get it. And that is exactly why I wrote my new book, the Thyroid Fix. The no nonsense Guide to Fix fatigue, Fogginess, and Fat that won't budge. That just says it all. And it is now available for pre sale. So I need your help to spread the message. I am giving you an ask as my listener and a promise at the same time. If you pre order the Thyroid fix, my promise to you is to continue delivering all kinds of free advice, information, content, education, empowerment. Because that's what I love to do. Whether it's here in the Just fix your thyroid Facebook group or I'm on live. I will give you everything I possibly can if you do me one favorite, which will be a favor for yourself as well. And pre order the Thyroid fix. Now. This book is not another list of supplements, vague advice. It's not a diet plan. It's not filled with recipes. It is a clear, honest guide. It is the thyroid Bible. It is the last thyroid book that you will ever need because it teaches you how to read your own labs. No other book has done that. It teaches you what medication and dose you need. No other book has ever done that. It will help you to understand why you are being misdiagnosed, why you're being under treated and why you can't talk about hormones, weight loss or menopause without talking about the thyroid. I called it Thyroid Bible because like I said, this is going to be the thyroid book of the next few decades. When you pre order, you're not just supporting me, you're telling the publisher. This message matters and it needs to get out to the world and it needs to get into the hands of women who have been ignored for far too long. So will you go to thyroid fixbook.com and pre order a copy of yours today? It'll be shipped to you on May 12th and you will get free entry to our all day live event where I will be there answering your questions live, teaching live and bringing in amazing guests for you to also connect with and ask your questions too. So thyroid fixbook.com pre order yours today. Okay ladies. You know, as we get older, our bodies just change sometimes in ways that leave us feeling less in control. And as women, we're all navigating the ups and downs that come with aging, especially when it comes to hormones. So that's why I am super excited to share something with you that's been a game changer for me. I have been using the bioidentical hormone creams from Hormone Solutions by Karen Martel. Dear friend, dear colleague, someone I trust tremendously. And let me tell you, I'm a little bit obsessed. So these creams are unlike anything I've tried before and I am a an anti aging junkie. So. Skincare junkie. They're clean over the counter. They contain USP grade hormones which means they're high quality and effective without any harmful ingredients. And the best part is you don't need a prescription to get them. Karen's creams are designed to help with the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause and I have noticed a real difference in how I feel and how my skin looks. So the Estro 2 rejuvenation cream, my favorite in particular, has been a little miracle for my skin. Not only does it help to balance hormones, bonus. But I've been using it as a face cream and research shows that estrogen on the skin can actually reduce fine lines, shrink pores, even help build collagen. So it's like a mini facelift in a bottle. And it's totally affordable too. So what I love about Karen's products is they are all about helping women reclaim control over their bodies because, let's face it, we deserve to feel good as we age. So these hormone creams are just like hitting the reset button, going back in time, giving you that sense of balance we all crave. So if you're ready to take back control, feel your best, I highly recommend trying Karen's creams. She has progesterone estradiol, the E2, my fave. They come with a 30 day money back guarantee, so there's nothing to lose. And you can even get 10% off your first purchase with my code Dr. Amy. D R A M I E. So check the link in the show notes. We are going to give you a personalized link, but you got to use the code Dr. Amy for 10% off and I hope you get them all and tell me what you think. You're over 40, you're eating less, working out more, trying all the things that used to work, and the scale will not budge. Or worse, it's actually going up. So what do you do? You blame yourself. You think you've lost discipline. You think you're doing something wrong. But here's the truth. No one is telling you. Your metabolism didn't suddenly become lazy. Your willpower didn't suddenly disappear. Your body isn't broken into two pieces. Three major hormones shifted when you hit your 40s. And those shifts completely change how your body burns fat, builds muscle, stores calories and responds to food. And if you don't address these hormones, you can diet harder and exercise more and still gain weight. Today, I'm going to show you exactly what's happening inside your body and what actually fixes it. So why did everything change at the age of 40? Why? Why did we fall off a hormonal clift? This is the part nobody prepares women for. We talk about puberty, we talk about pregnancy. But perimenopause, the metabolic storm of your 40s, total silence. What's actually happening biologically? Okay, so let's break it down. Ovarian hormone production becomes erratic first, then declines. Estradiol fluctuates wildly before dropping off a cliff. Progesterone actually drops early. That's the first one to go. Testosterone slowly declines. Thyroid function worsen simultaneously, I. E. Thyropause. Stress hormones like cortisol tend to increase. It's not one hormone. It's a network collapse going on. So why your old diet suddenly stopped working? Well, in our 20s and 30s, that higher level of estradiol actually supported insulin sensitivity helped us to be less Insulin resistant, like we'll talk about today, when estradiol drops, we become more insulin resistant, and we actually become more insulin resistant at night before bed, ladies. More muscle Mass in our 20s and 30s supported our increased metabolic rate. You start to lose muscle mass actually after the age of 30, definitely after the age of 40. And that loss of muscle mass is detrimental to our metabolic rate. Thyroid conversion of T4 to T3 was much stronger in our 20s and 30s. Recovery from stress was faster. Now we jump to our 40s. In our 40s, you burn fewer calories at rest. You store more fat easily. You lose muscle faster, you become less metabolically flexible. So the exact same diet and workout that worked 5, 10, 15 years ago now leads to basically no weight loss at all or weight gain. Just remember, your body isn't broken. It's adapting to a new hormonal environment. The real problem is that most doctors are still treating you like you're 25, and they're not listening. So let's break this down as to what exactly is going on. Let's talk about those three very powerful hormones that come into play when we're talking about losing fat after 40. Number one, of course, I'm going to talk about the thyroid. That's the master gland. This is your silent metabolism killer, though. So if there's one hormone system that I see sabotage weight loss more than anything else, it is the thyroid. Now, a lot of people will say, I have subclinical hypothyroidism. I really don't like that term, but we can use it in this case. It basically just means that your thyroid labs aren't bad enough. They're not screaming off the page to your conventional medicine doctor, but they are a little bit low. So you'll be told that you're. You have subclinical hypothyroidism. Well, most of the time you're told that your labs are normal, quote, unquote. Normal just means you're not sick enough for treatment. Meanwhile, your symptoms are all there. So you have the weight gain, but you also have the fatigue, the hair thinning, possibly the brain fog, cold intolerance, constipation, depression, and the whole issue, whether you're subclinical, whether you're told you're normal, or whether you actually know that you have a thyroid problem but you're still gaining weight, which means that you are not optimized in your medication, in your thyroid hormone replacement. We have to look at Free T3 and Reverse T3. These are the two most important tests that you could possibly have. And if you don't have them, we technically know nothing about your thyroid, nothing about your metabolism. So free T3 drives metabolic rate. It's regulating your body temperature, which is tied to thermogenesis or the burning of stored body fat. It controls fat burning and it supports energy production in the cells. So if you do not have adequate amounts of this active, beautiful thyroid hormone, T3, and this could be because your thyroid just isn't producing enough on its own, you've had Hashimoto's for years, if not decades, and your thyroid gland is so small and so beaten up that it literally can't even produce enough T3 to give you a metabolism. It could be that you are on T4 only for your hypothyroidism or your Hashimoto, and it's not being converted properly most of the time. It doesn't. Only 2% of the population do well on T4 only. So if you are on T4 only and you think that you're going to fall in that 2% that do great on T4 monotherapy, you're probably mistaken. And that's why you're gaining weight, because your doctor has you on T4 only. And they won't change and they won't listen to you unless you have enough T3, whether your body is making it on its own properly, or whether you are converting your own T4 into T3 or the T4 that you're taking, converting that to T3, you will not have a metabolism. You will not burn fat. Please hear me on this, because there is so much information out there about weight loss, fat loss, metabolism, and they're talking GLPs and they're talking various supplements and diets and fasting and supplements that mimic GLPs and all the things. But if your thyroid is not working properly, if you do not have enough T3 thyroid hormone, you will not have a metabolism. You will waste thousands of dollars on a glp. That won't work because your thyroid is in the toilet. You don't have enough of this beautiful active thyroid hormone. Now think about this. If we only test tsh, which is what most doctors do, we're only looking at tsh. How are we going to know how much of the active thyroid hormone you're actually making? We don't. Okay, let's go one step further. Let's say we only look at TSH and T4 free T4 total T4, that's the inactive thyroid hormone that has to convert and become T3. Does looking at TSH and free T4 tell us anything? No, no, it doesn't. Unless we see the free T3, we do not know how much is being converted. Now I'm going to throw one more number out at you. Still in the thyroid realm. We're still under thyroid hormones reverse T3. So the two most important tests you can get for your thyroid free T3 and reverse T3. Reverse T3 tells us, are you even converting that T4 over to T3? Now you might be on T4 only boo bad. And we look at reverse T3 and we see that you are. It's reverse T3 is less than 12. So we see that conversion is happening, but then we jump over to your free T3 and it's low. Let's do something about it. Let's change you over to natural desiccated thyroid medication or let's add in some T3 in the form of lyothyrene to your T4 therapy. Now, let's say we check reverse T3 and we see that it's above a 12. Well, in that case, we don't want to add on more natural desiccated thyroid medication because NDT is 80% T4. This is why reverse T3 is so key to look at. Because so many practitioners out there, especially functional and integrative, will do nothing but throw on natural desiccated thyroid medication because it has the word natural in the title. And they think that they're doing a great job, but they're not paying attention to the fact that your reverse T3 is elevated. And giving you NDT, which is 80% T4, is only going to make the situation worse. It's only going to make you worse. You have to know your reverse T3 to know exactly what thyroid hormone replacement that you should be doing without reverse T3, without free T3, you know nothing. Nothing. Next up is estradiol. This is your metabolic protector. The hormone estradiol does not just control your cycle, it literally protects your metabolism. What estradiol actually does, it supports insulin sensitivity, healthy fat distribution, brain function, bone density, mood, anti inflammatory pathways. It does so much. So when it declines, your body actually becomes more insulin resistant. This is where your cells are resistant to the insulin, the hormone insulin. And the way I like to describe it is insulin is like a Jekyll and Hyde hormone. So on the one hand, we need insulin, we need our pancreas to put out insulin, because that insulin is going to take the glucose or the blood sugar in your body that was produced from the food that you Eat, and it's going to shuttle it into your cells, into your muscles. It's going to divvy up the nutrients. So what insulin is doing is pushing that glucose into the cell and it's essentially lowering your body's blood glucose level. We don't want you walking around with a glucose level of a 200 that's very inflammatory. So insulin comes out to lower your glucose level. But if there's too much insulin being pumped out, or if the cells are basically deaf, they're like covering their ears to the signal of insulin. Then insulin becomes the fat storage hormone. This is the Jekyl and Hyde version needed for life. Like, you literally cannot even survive without insulin. But in excess, it is the Jal and Hyde hormone. So it will. It will create a fat storage situation where it's literally just grabbing your food and storing it on your body as fat. Not fun. So you're going to store fat more easily. With low estradiol, your blood sugar is going to swing rapidly because we just said you're going to become less insulin sensitive, which means that glucose in your system is going to be high and low and high and low. Do you ever notice that you're a little bit more hypoglycemic, I. E. Hangry? I eat cranky. If you go too long without food, those are blood sugar swings. And these all increase after the age of 40. Now, why does fat shift in the abdomen? Because belly fat starts to appear in the abdomen abdomen. As estrad declines after the age of 40, belly fat starts to. To increase. Even if nothing else has changed, even if you're not gaining weight anywhere else. If you are exhausted gaining weight, you have brain fog. You just feel off and you're tired of doctor hopping and wasting money. Listen closely. So many women bounce from provider to provider trying supplements, protocols, and then functional approaches that never truly address the thyroid. Months turn into years and you're still stuck feeling like garbage, wasting your precious life. So this is why we offer a thyroid and hormone solution call. It's not a lab review. It's not treatment. It's clarity and strategy to determine whether you're a good fit for working with our clinic. We specialize in thyroid optimization and hormone optimization together. Because they go hand in hand. You can't do one without the other. You have to do them both. We prescribe in all 50 states, and if you become a patient, we take care of you from start to finish. Testing, treatment, optimization, and ongoing support. You don't have months or years to waste feeling this way and you shouldn't have to keep throwing money at people who don't truly understand the thyroid and hormones. So if you're ready for real help, go to Dr. Amy.com that's D R A M I E dot com and click book a call in the top right corner to schedule your thyroid and hormone solution. Call and just let us help you get your life back and be that badass human that you are meant to be, that you deserve to be. So this actually isn't a cosmetic thing and it's not a cortisol thing. It's biological. Lower estrogen signals the body to store visceral fat. That is the fat around your organs. That's why you're seeing it in your midsection. That fat is metabolically active and inflammatory. Visceral fat is horrible. It increases our all cause, all cause mortality, basically all the different things that could cause you to die. Visceral fat increases that. So low estrogen equals fat gain, which equals inflammation. We which equals worsening of insulin resistance, which equals more fat gain. It's a vicious, vicious cycle. And this is why bioidentical hormone replacement can be transformative. I say this all the time. Hormones give us life. Because if we can get your levels up to above a55.0 or above, I would say most women do their best, feel their best, and actually are able to lose weight when their estrad is between 80 and 120 in menopause, in perimenopause and menopause, that's where we want to keep your estrad levels. Now also in addition to fat, I mean, HRT is going to improve energy and sleep support muscle preservation, lower inflammation. So it's not just about vanity. This is about your overall metabolic health. But since we're talking weight loss, we have to mention the fact that estradiol is key. It's one of the key hormones after the age of 40 that you have to look at, you have to address, you have to replace if you don't want to be overweight and, and have your midsection look like a big square. You're going to get apple shaped, right? You're just going to start widening in the midsection where nothing else is going to change. It's like those two little popsicle sticks on a round apple. Like what is that? Like a caramel apple at a fair. That's what you're going to look like if you leave your estradiol in the toilet. We all see these women. My grandma was one of them, man, she had two little stick legs and little stick arms. But her. Her body and her belly were just all round. It was like a big apple. That's because she was part of the Women's Health Initiative study where she had her hormones, along with my mom, ripped out of their hands due to false information. Hormones give us life. They do not cause cancer. But if you're carrying around excess body fat, that'll cause cancer as well. Okay, next up, testosterone. You know, I call T2 the forgotten thyroid hormone. Testosterone is the forgotten female hormone. Women need testosterone too. And when it drops, your metabolism is what pays the price. So what does testosterone do in women? Builds and maintains muscle mass, supports strength and performance. It helps with our motivation, our drive, libido, mood. It helps to regulate our body composition. The bottom line is, muscle loss accelerates after the age of 40. You may or may not see it. It might be a little bit every single year, but without enough testosterone, you don't have a chance. You actually lose muscle when you exercise because you're breaking down that muscle tissue and, and you're not building it up. You don't have the testosterone there to build it back up. Your recovery is way slower. If you are over 40 and you're not taking testosterone, answer this question for me. After a workout, do you feel like your ass has been totally kicked for days? Like you literally have to take 2, 3, 4, 5 days before your next workout because you cannot recover from hard workouts. Oh, and also your strength isn't what it used to be. So not only can you not recover as quickly, but you're also not even lifting as heavy or as much because everything just feels harder. Your strength is going down as you lose testosterone. Strength goes down, fat is going up. Body composition is changing all over the place. Less muscle as you lose muscle, you equals fewer calories burned at rest. Remember, that muscle is metabolically active. Now we have to kind of get out of that mindset of, well, the scale went up five pounds, but muscle weighs more than fat, so I must have put on five pounds of muscle. You're not going to put on five pounds of muscle over the age of 40 that quickly. In order to put on five pounds of muscle, you're going to have to be taking testosterone in the form of bhrt. You're going to have to be eating enough protein. You're going to thyroid better be optimized, and you better be lifting heavy, and then maybe you'll put on five pounds of muscle over a year. But if the scale goes up that quickly, guess what? It's not Muscle, you just put on fat. So pay attention, don't make excuses, but definitely get the testosterone in the system in order to start changing that body composition so you can protect your lean, sexy muscle. And that lean, sexy muscle will make you more metabolically active. Now of course, quality sleep, stress management, all very important. Zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, very, very important to maintain adequate testosterone levels. That's the foundation piece. But most likely you will have to add on some hormone replacement therapy in the form of testosterone along with your estradiol and your thyroid replacement. And finally, in the thyroid realm, we have to mention the forgotten thyroid hormone T2. Now this is not something that you can even test for. You just take it because it's working beneath the surface to increase your basal metabolic rate. So T2. I have quite a few podcasts on this, diving deep into the science. The brief overview here is that our thyroid does produce it. It is a thyroid hormone. It is actually in tiny amounts in natural desiccated thyroid medication, but in larger amounts. This is where the studies show averages of a 9 pound weight loss in 28 days. A reduction of 4% body fat in humans in a month when taking 150 to 300 micrograms of T2. Now, like I said, there's no test for it, you can't check your levels, but it doesn't matter because T2 won't affect anything else. It's not affecting your thyroid, it's not affecting your thyroid labs, it's not affecting your cardiovascular system, it's not a stimulant, it is anti inflammatory, it will reduce oxidative stress, it helps with fatty liver, it helps improve the mitochondria, it helps increase ATP production at the mitochondria level. It browns white adipose tissue, so it browns your white fat, the visceral fat that we just talked about that surrounds your organs and increases inflammation and it increases the amount of calories and body fat that you are burning just sitting there. So that is why I put T2 into thyroid fixer and metabolism fixer. Because it is the bomb when it comes to weight loss. It is the next line of defense in the battle of obesity, right under glps. Because with glps, this will be another show, another episode, another show. Glps are going to start showing issues as we are already seeing the muscle loss. You think loss of testosterone is bad after the age of 40? Add in a GLP. Have you seen Demi Moore lately? She looks like a freaking skeleton. People are losing facial fat, they're losing their muscle. Now the loss of facial fat. They just look 20 years older. But people are losing muscle and I'm going to dive into the science as to why this is happening. GLP is man, it's like a Jekyll and Hyde medication on the one hand and used in tiny, tiny, tiny doses. Micro, micro doses, it helps with inflammation. But the micro doses don't help with weight loss. Once you start increasing the dose to get into the weight loss realm, you're looking at losing muscle as well. GLPs are great, but I don't believe they are going to be the be all end all of our answer to the obesity epidemic. In the end, I really think they're going to come back and bite us in the ass. I really do. So what are we going to do now? We need the plan number one, comprehensive labs. We're going to test for what we can test for. Thyroid panel, TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3 and the antibodies make sure free T3 and reverse T3 are on there. I don't care if those are the only two thyroid labs you get, we need those two every single time to check the health of your thyroid hormone panel. Estradiol, progesterone free and total testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin. Key, key, key to get that full picture of what your hormones are doing. So we're going to optimize your thyroid because thyroid function affects everything else. Metabolic rate, energy levels, insulin sensitivity, response to diet, your ability to exercise. All of that relies on the thyroid. So optimization might include medication, nutrient support, obviously addressing inflammation or autoimmunity, putting things in like black cumin seed oil that's in my Hashimoto fixer, putting in thyroid fixer or T2 putting in T3 conversion fixture to help with the T4 to T3 conversion. All of those nutrients, vital, iodine, vital. All of these things we can do in addition to or in place of medication or thyroid hormone replacement like I like to call it, I don't like calling thyroid hormone replacement medication. We gotta call it thyroid hormone replacement because medication freaks you all out and then you don't want to go on it. But it's key and it's going to change your life. Okay, next up we're going to address your estradiol and your testosterone and of course your progesterone. Progesterone plays a role too in insulin sensitivity and in water retention. We didn't mention it because estradiol and testosterone are more on top when we're talking about weight. They directly, directly affect your weight. Progesterone is more indirect in its effect on our insulin sensitivity and T4 to T3 conversion. So bioidentical hormone therapy, lifestyle interventions. Again, nutritional strategies like your zinc, your mag, your vitamin D, all key targeted supplementation. Absolutely. Having enough protein, lifting, heavy sleep, all of those things are vital. But oftentimes you're going to have to add in the bhrt. Just going to have to. So if you are over 40 and you're frustrated, I want you to hear this. You're going to be okay. It's not your fault. This is just what happens to us. This is when thyrop comes on. Remember the definition of thyropause? When your thyroid gland shits the bed after the age of 40 due to fluctuating hormones, the estradiol, the testosterone, the progesterone. You can see how they're all working together. Sometimes they don't play well in the sandbox. We got to help them out. We gotta separate the kids, put them in the corner, put them in time out, bring them back in. Whatever we got to do, we have to replace those beautiful hormones. Your hormones changed. No one taught you how to adapt to it. Our moms didn't teach us. There's no blueprint on what to do when your body starts freaking out. But when you fix the hormonal environment, your metabolism follows and then the body that you thought that you lost actually starts coming back. So if you need to test, we now have an atome easy Breezy, done in 10 minutes at home thyroid and hormone panel. So you can go to Fixer Power Lab F I, X E R P L A b fixer power lab.com and you can buy your own at home test. This comes complete with a consultation with my team where we're going to break down and actually show you. Hey, what is going on inside your body? Oh, look, here's the reason why you're gaining weight and you can't lose weight. Boom, there it is, right on paper. So if you need to get your labs tested, go to fixerpowerlab.com and we will hook you up and get you some answers so you can get your body back. 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 healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient, or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These 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 host 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.