196-SYNCPodcast_Thyroid

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher:

[00:00:58] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today, we’re diving into the topic of proper thyroid testing. This particular topic hits a pain point of mine, which is the fact that most doctors are not ordering the right tests as it pertains to thyroid function. Well, really they’re not even ordering the right tests when it comes to hormones in general, to be honest.

[00:01:18] Jenny Swisher: And oftentimes red flags can exist that are overlooked by the modern medical system. Today, we will talk about how this applies to the thyroid, which is our thermostat of the body. Your thyroid gland is in charge of your metabolism and how your body uses energy. Oftentimes, when women are feeling low energy or they just feel off, the thyroid can be playing a large role.

[00:01:40] Jenny Swisher: If you’ve listened to me for any amount of time, you’ve likely heard me reference the four legged hormone chair. If you picture a sturdy kitchen chair, the four legs of which are like your endocrine system. Your sex hormones, your thyroid, your blood sugar, and your cortisol make up the four legs of the chair.

[00:01:57] Jenny Swisher: If one leg of the chair becomes affected, the entire chair becomes wobbly. This is how our endocrine system works. It all works together, and the thyroid plays a huge role in this overall balance.

[00:02:10] Jenny Swisher: Unfortunately, modern medicine typically only looks at one particular test when it comes to thyroid, which is the TSH, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Test. Most doctors will say that as long as the TSH lies within normal range, You’re good to go, and I put normal in air quotes. As a reminder, normal can be determined by the total pool of people who have had the test done.

[00:02:31] Jenny Swisher: That includes healthy people and unhealthy people. It is not determined by optimal ranges. Normal is not optimal. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just be normal. I want my health to be optimal. So while your PCP may say that your 3. 5 TSH is considered quote unquote normal, a functional medicine doctor, which is a root cause approach, is going to have a different opinion.

[00:02:56] Jenny Swisher: A friend of mine who is a doctor says that paying attention to both numbers and trends and identifying optimal for a patient is key. And I could not agree more. So what does the thyroid produce? Like, what hormones does the thyroid produce? So let’s touch on that. , it produces T four.

[00:03:13] Jenny Swisher: Even though your thyroid makes the most of this hormone, it doesn’t have much of an effect on your metabolism. Once your thyroid releases T four into your bloodstream, it can convert to T three through a process called DIO donation. Now, next we have T three. Your thyroid produces lesser amounts of T three than T four, but it has a much greater effect on your metabolism than T four.

[00:03:34] Jenny Swisher: And then finally, your reverse T three. Your thyroid makes very small amounts of reverse T3, which reverses the effects of T3. Are you confused yet? The thyroid plays a vital role in a variety of body systems. This is what I don’t think people quite understand. It plays a role in your cardiovascular system, your nervous system, your digestive system, and even your reproductive system.

[00:03:57] Jenny Swisher: When it comes to your cardiovascular system, it helps regulate the amount of blood that your heart pumps through your circulatory system. This is known as cardiac output. It also regulates heart rate and strength and vigor of your heart’s contraction. It also plays a role in your nervous system.

[00:04:13] Jenny Swisher: When your thyroid isn’t working properly, it can cause symptoms that affect your nervous system, including numbness, tingling, pain, or even a sense of burning in the affected parts of your body. In addition, hypothyroidism can cause depression, and hyperthyroidism can cause anxiety. It also plays a vital role in your digestive system.

[00:04:32] Jenny Swisher: Your thyroid is involved with how food moves through your digestive tract. And then finally, it plays a role in, obviously, your reproductive system. Go back to that four legged chair analogy. If your thyroid isn’t working properly, periods and issues with fertility. So there are a lot of things that can go awry with the thyroid.

[00:04:51] Jenny Swisher: It can become overactive, underactive. It can establish autoimmune issues. But essentially most doctors won’t test beyond the TSH. Just recently I had two of my course takers have this exact same issue. One had a family history of thyroid issues. The other had all the symptoms of thyroid issues.

[00:05:10] Jenny Swisher: They both went to their primary care doctors asking for further testing on their thyroid and they were told there was no reason to test further with a thyroid because their TSH was quote unquote normal. I’m afraid this is the story for a lot of women. It was because they took my Sync Digital course that each of these women went back to their doctors to really stand up and be their own best advocate and to push for that testing to be done.

[00:05:31] Jenny Swisher: In one case, the doctor was willing to order the testing after some pushing. In the other case, the woman ended up coming to me to meet with me and Dr. Paige Gutile for a virtual consult, upon which we did find further issues with the thyroid when we did that testing. Okay, so this is why we self-advocate in both of these women’s situations, they, they stepped up to the plate, they started pushing back.

[00:05:52] Jenny Swisher: They started asking for these deeper dives into their thyroid, and sure enough, both ended up finding issues, one with autoimmune and one with a hyperactive thyroid. This is why we self-advocate. This is why we ask questions, and this is why we stand up for ourselves. Unfortunately, the modern medical system is a little flawed.

[00:06:09] Jenny Swisher: Not everyone may need deeper thyroid testing. So let me start with that. If your TSH is in the optimal range, which is considered 1 to 2. 5 by most functional doctors, it doesn’t probably warrant a deeper dive. But anything outside of that needs checking, or if you have symptoms of thyroid conditions, you may also want to dive deeper in your testing.

[00:06:30] Jenny Swisher: Symptoms of thyroid conditions can be oftentimes things like slow or rapid heart rate. unexplained weight loss or weight gain, difficulty tolerating cold or heat, depression, anxiety, and like we said, irregular menstrual periods. It’s kind of crazy to think, right, that your thyroid can actually impact your cycle.

[00:06:49] Jenny Swisher: So what should be checked? That is, in fact, the name of the podcast, you know, proper testing for your thyroid. Well, we start with the TSH, and again, just to reiterate, the optimal range for TSH is between 1 and 2. 5. Modern medicine would look at your test and say, well, if you fall between one and five, we’re going to consider that normal.

[00:07:06] Jenny Swisher: But again, a functional approach is a more root cause approach to your health. And it’s going to be looking for problems or trends with those numbers. So anything outside of the one to 2. 5 range is considered not optimal by most functional medicine doctors. sO what are the things that we do want to test for beyond TSH?

[00:07:24] Jenny Swisher: If you’re having symptoms of thyroid issues, family history of thyroid issues. or if you would just feel like you want to go deeper on the testing. Well, we want to look at your total and free T4. We also want to look at your total and free T3. We want to look at that reverse T3. And we also want to look at your anti TPO, which is your antibodies, and your anti thyroglobulin.

[00:07:45] Jenny Swisher: This is a full picture way of looking at what the thyroid is really doing, beyond the TSH. While TSH is the driver, there are other factors that play a role in, as we said, autoimmune conditions and other issues. I will link up two articles for you that I think are fantastic on this topic. One is by Dr.

[00:08:01] Jenny Swisher: Jolene Brighton. One is by Dr. Laura Bryden, and they both go very in depth on why TSH. According to Dr. Laura Bryden, she says testing antibodies is the best deeper dive test for thyroid that everyone should have done. She says, and I quote, most thyroid disease is caused by an underlying autoimmune problem.

[00:08:21] Jenny Swisher: The best test for thyroid disease, therefore, is a test for thyroid autoimmunity called thyroid antibodies. That’s the TPO antibodies that I mentioned in the testing. Thyroid antibodies correlate with symptoms, regardless of TSH. So the bottom line is this. We must test and not guess. Always. But also, we must test the right things.

[00:08:43] Jenny Swisher: If you’re relying on your doctor to tell you, well everything’s normal, whether it’s thyroid or otherwise, just know that 9 times out of 10, your levels are probably going to fall in that normal category range because it’s identified by the total pool of people that are having the test done. Basically, if you have a heartbeat, you may wind up in the normal range.

[00:09:01] Jenny Swisher: It will not be an identifier of optimal. That’s what we want. Normal is not optimal. If your energy is off, listen to that. You know your body best. So let’s talk about how thyroid conditions are treated. Well, according to Bryden, the best way to treat thyroid disease is to treat the autoimmunity that underlies most cases of thyroid disease.

[00:09:22] Jenny Swisher: Huh, what a concept. Most of the time, this means removing gluten from the diet and correcting the gut microbiome. Beyond that, the best way to enhance T3 in the cell is to address the inflammation that suppresses our cellular D1. For those who do need thyroid hormone supplementation, slow release T3 or T4 T3 combination is preferable to T4 alone.

[00:09:44] Jenny Swisher: Making nutritional changes, using trace minerals that may be missing from your diet, and practicing lifestyle changes to help the thyroid function better. Things like eliminating overtraining exercise, improving sleep, those types of things. These are all ways that we can find our way to optimal again. I hope this is helpful for you, my friends.

[00:10:02] Jenny Swisher: The thyroid plays a critical role. It is very, very intertwined with our sex hormones. It’s very intertwined with our adrenal gland. And a lot of times it goes overlooked because that TSH number comes back in the normal range. And again, I’m putting normal in quotations. So if this is you go back, look at your lab work, see if you need to ask further questions, advocate for yourself and do a deeper dive with your thyroid, especially like I said, if you have the symptoms and signs of a thyroid issue, or if you’re still just feeling off.

[00:10:30] Jenny Swisher: The thyroid plays a critical role in the body in so many different ways, so it could be a play for you. Okay, my friends, as always, thank you so much for listening. I hope this is valuable. Go back, take some notes. I will link up the articles in the show notes for you as well. Take them with you to your doctor so that you can really step into that confidence of knowing your body best.

[00:10:48] Jenny Swisher: And that’s what it’s all about, my friends. It’s all about stepping into your maximum energy. I’m here for you along the way. Let me know how I can help you and support you. But best wishes, and thank you so much for tuning in. We’ll talk soon. Bye bye