You're Not Broken, You're Just Healing Wrong

they are afraid to deal with the fact that they hate their job or their marriage is toxic or that they haven't spoken to their child in 2 years or they just are not living as God designed them to live. They're not doing what they're called to do.

Well, they're literally living in fear and worrying about tomorrow so much instead of relishing in the fact that we have today.

If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabatha Barber, a triple board-certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. Let's get into it. Exhausted, dismissed, told your labs are fine while your body is screaming something's wrong. I have Hashimoto's, and maybe you do or suspect that you do, and you're still searching for real answers. Well, I need you to hear today's episode because my guest is a registered nurse who spent 17 years in the ER before she walked away from it all to help women with Hashimoto's to actually heal, not manage, heal. She is here today to tell you exactly what questions to ask, what your doctor might be missing, and why you are the CEO of your own health. So stay with us.

Oh, we are on a roll with advocating for yourself lately. I love it.

I know.

I hope that the women in our community, the women watching, listening to this, are like feeling it, and they are empowering themselves.

Yes, exactly. So welcome to Fast to Faith, ladies. I'm Dr. Tabatha Barber. Joining me as always is my beautiful co-host Ashley. It's going to be a good episode.

It is going to be a good episode, and it's continuing the theme of someone who left conventional medicine and flipped over to the dark side.

Yeah, it's amazing how like attracts like. Yeah, no.

Yep.

Oh my gosh.

Well, and I just think it goes back to— and I keep saying this every episode— just like the mission. Like, God really has this huge mission, and it's exciting to see everyone team up.

He does. And the truth is, conventional medicine is going to implode itself. You know, I worked for years to try and change the system from inside, and it's just not— it is so broken. And so there's countless other providers realizing that, and they're jumping ship, and they are on the mission to actually heal and reverse disease. And so if you're listening, I want you to have hope because Hashimoto's is not a death sentence. It's not something that you have to suffer with. I was diagnosed at 17 and I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my whole life at 51. And my antibody numbers are like almost nonexistent. So we're going to dive into all of that today. And if you don't even have a diagnosis of Hashimoto's, you still need this episode because it is one of the most undiagnosed conditions that there are. And I promise you, somebody is, that you know is affected because it's estimated that 10 to 14 million Americans actually have Hashimoto's. It's 7 to 10 times more in women than in men. It's very dismissed, undertested, undertreated. So, We gotta dive into all of this.

Yay.

Okay, I'm gonna sing my guest's praises. She's so awesome. I was actually recorded on her podcast last week, so we're gonna dive in. Her name is Esther Yunkin. She is a registered nurse. She has spent 25 years in the healthcare system, 17 in the ER. Uh, her podcast is called Health with Hashimoto's. So that tells you right there that we're not just living and managing disease, we're actually trying to get healthy. So she helps exhausted women regain their energy, feel like themselves again without getting overwhelmed, because that's a big deal. And I love this part— she lives in rural Minnesota, y'all, so she is just as cold as we are today on this May morning, um, with her husband and her 4 boys. She homeschools, gardens, and raises chickens. So welcome, Esther.

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I've listened to your podcast for a couple years and you do such a good job of educating people and helping them advocate for themselves. So thank you for what you do.

Oh, it is my greatest pleasure, actually. It's like one of the things that God has called me to do. And I love connecting with providers like yourself because the truth is you can Google a lot of stuff. And you can get a lot of information, but until someone helps you connect the dots and they share their story of how they made it through the fire and came out on the other side refined and doing amazing, like you can just lose hope in all that information, right? It can be overwhelming and very depressing, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, for sure. Like people ask about, you know, barriers to joining something, you know. And commonly people talk about like money or time, and I say one of the biggest barriers for women is they— it's not time or money, it's hope. They've lost hope. They've tried so many things, or they've gotten too overwhelmed, and they just don't have a hope that things could be better.

Yeah, exactly. So ER medicine, emergency medicine, is designed to keep you alive, but it's not designed to make you Well, so how the heck did you go from an ER doc to helping women heal their Hashimoto's?

Well, I'm not doctor, but I was in the ER as an RN. Um, and yeah, on those days when you're saving lives, you know, picking somebody up off, you know, the ambulance brought them in from the side of the road and you're like patching them back together. That's awesome. Standing next to somebody's bed and pushing meds to keep them alive for literally the next 30 seconds. Um, that's awesome. That's why we're there in the ER. But so many like individual people kept coming back over and over and over for the same things, much less, you know, the same common complaints. And I just got burnt out with that. I'm like, I'm just putting short-term band-aids on chronic things. I'm not actually making a difference. I'm keeping them alive for the next day, but really we're just symptom managing until the next crisis comes. Instead, I could help them prevent these crises. So I went back to school for holistic health and education. And at that time I was naively thinking, well, the ERs are overloaded, Western medicine is broken. So everybody obviously is going to come seek out preventative help. Everybody obviously needs this. And then I found out, oh yeah, a lot of people are stuck in crisis mode. They don't want the prevention. And so that was another learning curve of me. But yeah, it was just— I got, I got sick and tired of just putting Band-Aids on what I knew was a fixable problem.

So you said that there were several people that you kept seeing come back over and over again. Was there something specific that you saw that kind of was that like, I need to make a change?

Not really. It was It was just the overall. There was one father specifically who I was like, oh, I did make a difference. And he would come in with his kids. I was often out in triage, which for anybody who doesn't know, you come into the ER and you talk to the nurse, uh, the triage nurse, and she figures out like how sick you are, how fast you need to go back. Um, in a busy ER, the, the triage nurse is also like ordering labs and tests and everything that she thinks the doctor is going to want. Um, and there was this one dad who kept coming in with his kids for ear infections. And every time, as part of my assessment, I'd to ask. I can smell it clearly. Like, do you smoke? Like, obviously it was a yes. And so I would just give one sentence of, did you know that smoking increases your kids' risks of ear infections? And he came in so frequently with his multiple different kids. And so, I mean, he got my little spiel a couple times, and then one time he came in by himself and he's like, you're that nurse. I was like, what are you talking about? He said, I just want to let you know I quit smoking. And it was— I think that moment sticks in my head because I wasn't lecturing him. I wasn't getting down on him. I was just saying, do you know about this that could help your kids? And he made that lifestyle change. And as a result, you know, his kids probably had less ear infections, which means they were on antibiotics less, which means their gut health was better, which means their immune system was better. So many things changed because I educated him on one thing. And I think that was the moment where I was like, hmm, I think I want to help more people make changes.

Oh my gosh, I'm so grateful that you did that. I myself suffered with chronic ear infections all through my childhood because everyone around me smoked. It was the '70s and '80s, and like, that's just what everyone did. And I was on antibiotics all the time, and I had gut issues always. So Bravo to you for, for doing that and just planting those seeds. That's so important. Okay, let's dive in. We just had an episode a few weeks ago with Dr. Amy Horniman. She was talking a lot about the thyroid and T3 and T4 thyroid hormone and lab values and all of that stuff, but we really didn't dive into Hashimoto's. So I would love for you to just explain to the listeners What is Hashimoto's and how is it different from hypothyroidism? How does it cause hypothyroidism? All the things that women need to know.

Yeah. So Hashimoto's is two things. It's one, it's an autoimmune condition, and that's the primary thing it is. And then every autoimmune condition is named after what it attacks in the body. And so Hashimoto's, your body is attacking your thyroid. So it usually causes hypothyroid, which means your thyroid is not doing enough. Sometimes it can also cause hyperthyroid symptoms because as your body attacks the thyroid, then your thyroid, like, as it's, as it's dying, it's releasing a whole bunch of thyroid hormones. So it can be very confusing as you can have hypo symptoms and hyper symptoms. But because of that autoimmune condition part, like, we have to address what it is that causes the autoimmune problem. And that is where Western medicine has failed people with any thyroid problems. Dr. Horniman probably already talked about the fact that, you know, when you have thyroid symptoms, you need to be checking your antibody levels because it is estimated that 90% of people with hypothyroidism have Hashimoto's as a cause of the hypothyroid. But the doctors don't check. They just say, here's your medicine, you're going to be a lifelong pharmaceutical patient, and we're going to have to adjust your medication as your thyroid dies. Then we're going to have to go up instead of saying, let's address your immune system so that we can prevent some problems and your body can heal.

Yeah, absolutely. So what is a typical patient present as when she has Hashimoto's? Because I know somebody listening right now has never been tested and she is struggling with what you're about to explain.

Yes. Think of your thyroid hormone as the ignition key for every cell. So if your cells don't have the ignition key, they can't turn on. Which means your body is running slowly. And so what does slow mean for different body systems or organs? You know, slow in the brain means depression or brain fog. Um, slow in the gut means constipation or problems digesting. Slow hair, skin, and nails means that your hair is falling out and it's not growing as much as it used to. And your nails, they may be— they're brittle. Um, just think of Every single hypothyroid symptom is the slowing down of something. And so it affects everything, but because every single person is individual, how one person experiences that slowing down, it might look completely different from somebody else because it's what your body is, you know, devoting the keys to. It only has a set number of ignition keys. So where is that going to go and what's going to suffer? In your body, it might look different than your friend's body.

Yeah, I love that you mentioned depression because absolutely, when your thyroid is not functioning well, you're not making your neurotransmitters as well. Your brain is not firing on all cylinders, and that brain fog can actually feel like low mood and depression. And as you're explaining all of this, I'm just thinking about how it takes women not months, but often years to get diagnosed. So this slow gut motility, this constipation and improper digestion continues on, which leads to bacterial overgrowth and yeast overgrowth and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. And like, by the time you get diagnosed, you have all of these other sequelae, all of these other medical problems that have sued because the thyroid never got managed and addressed. And so the picture can get really complicated. I just wanted to point that out because I, I think that sometimes we see patients, they have dealt with that, those feelings of depression and sluggishness and constipation so long, they have told themselves it's normal and that is just how life is. And it's not until they get like a SIBO exposed. You know, they have like such bad bacterial overgrowth that they're just constantly burping and gassing and all of these things, and that is what actually gets them to the doctor and gets the diagnosis. What do you say? That's the kind of stuff that we see it. Yeah, with a lot of women.

Yeah, that's exactly what we see. And they're just— they think they just keep kind of raising the bar of like what feels normal. Yeah, but really it's really the opposite. They're lowering the bar, but they just are like, oh, that feels fine, that feels fine. Like, oh, I haven't gone in the bathroom in 4 days. Like, Oh, that's just normal. And more and more people are doing it. So you tell your friends and they're like, oh, I haven't went to the bathroom in 3 days either.

Right, exactly. So we're all tired together. We're all exhausted together.

Exactly.

And so I am here to say, like, don't give in. Don't put up with that anymore.

Yeah.

And like, there is hope and there is healing. So I want to dive in, Esther, and talk about the fact that when a conventional provider says, oh, you have Hashimoto's, you know, your, your antibodies are elevated, here's your thyroid medication, good luck. What do you say to them?

I say there's so much more you can do. I mean, your doctor just handed you essentially a life sentence without any hope. Yeah, but there is so much you can do as an individual. And the first thing to understand is that there is more to learn. As somebody with Hashimoto's, you just got a gift and a job, and that is to become the CEO of your own health. You might not have wanted that job, but it's yours. And so as the CEO of your own health, you get to now look and see, what do I know about my thyroid? What's going on? What do I know about my root causes? Do I know anything? About what's causing this Hashimoto's and what can I do and who do I want on my team? Your doctor is on your team. You can fire your doctor, you can hire another doctor, but your doctor is part of your healthcare team. But they don't call the shots. They don't make that ultimate decision. They make recommendations. Like even a prescription, they say, here's the prescription and you have to choose to fill that and take it, which I highly recommend doing. Uh, your thyroid, your body needs those little ignition keys. Accepting that prescription is not accepting failure, it's accepting help. So take the medication. Don't ever think that I'm saying don't take medication, but you have to dig down and figure out, okay, what are my root causes and what can I do? So perhaps like I have a Root Causes Revealed, like mini course that somebody can go through in an hour. So maybe they go through that and they fail. Okay, I have these 5 root causes. So then your next job or your next privilege is to say, okay, this is what's going on in my life. This is how much bandwidth I have. So this is what I'm choosing to focus on because you're probably not going to address all 5 root causes at the same time.

You will—

only you know what you have bandwidth for. So that's your, your privilege and your job is to figure out what you're going to implement.

Oh, I love how she framed that. Isn't that so good?

That is good.

Oh my gosh. Okay. So what do you see most commonly with your clients as being the root cause?

Out of all of the root causes, I think we all deal with stress. That is, that is number one. And, you know, I've done a podcast episode on the 5 different areas of stress. You know, you have physical stress, emotional stress, you have dietary stressors, you have environmental stressors, you have spiritual stressors. And so just in that one little, one little bubble of stress, you go in so many different directions. Um, and so that is something that I work with every single client to calm down what's causing the stress, but also give somebody resources to respond to stress. And the easiest one that I teach is diaphragmatic breathing, which I know you have talked about, you know, breathing with your belly, slowing down, being intentional with your breath. And just helping your body switch from that fight and flight mode to the rest and digest mode. Um, even in the midst of stress, when I had 4 kids, you know, 4 kids under 6, whatever they were, getting out of the house and getting into the car was always stressful. Figuring out shoes for everybody, making sure everybody was dressed appropriately, getting them buckled into their car seats. And I realized for myself that every single time I sat in that driver's seat, I was already like stress, sky high. And so for myself, I figured, okay, this is a stressful moment. I need to build in a trigger so that when I plug in my seatbelt, that is my trigger to take a deep breath, relax my shoulders, relax my jaw, relax my tongue, relax my neck, take another deep breath, and then we can go. You know, it was just a small moment where I know that's a stressful situation. I can't not get my kids in the car and buckled up. Like that's going to happen. I can obviously try to lower the stressors by making sure everybody has shoes at the door, but things happen. And so it's my responsibility to respond in that stressful situation and lower my body's response to that stress.

I love that so much. It is really important to pull yourself out of that fight or flight as often as possible. And I love how you connected it with a habit that you always do, like you buckle your seatbelt. And so that is when do it. Because when you habit stack, that is how you can create new habits. I love that. We talk about that a lot.

Me too. It kind of reminds me of like when you brush your teeth, like, you know, when you have to do it every morning, every night, sometimes in the middle of the day. And so you just, you got to add those, those little things in. And I think it's okay too. Like, I know personally on my desktop computer at home, I have little sticky notes of things to remind myself to do. And I think it's okay to put those sticky notes places and remind yourself to literally Breathe. Like, it is okay to breathe and to sit down and eat and, like, allow yourself to relax.

Yeah, I would say put it on your fridge because you do need to shift into parasympathetic before you eat, or you're not going to digest your food properly.

You really do. And we don't give ourselves the time and space to do that.

Yeah. Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast2Face supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season. We really need to uplevel how we're taking care of our temple. I used to treat mine like a garbage can. I will just be honest. And I'm not okay with that anymore. So this is one of the most important things to me, is that I'm taking high-quality supplements that are actually doing what they say they're doing, and I'm getting my money's worth, and I'm not making my body worse by putting the wrong stuff in it. So let's talk about Hormone Tame Essential Multivitamin, because even though it gives you all the vitamins and minerals you need, There's extra goodness in there, isn't there? I think you have a bottle sitting next to you. I do. Tell us about Hormone Tame.

Hormone Tame is 5 products in one. If you listen to the other episode, one of the things that we talked about is oftentimes, you know, women are— people were taking a lot of supplements. And the nice thing about a lot of the supplements that we have here at Fast to Faith is that they're just so consolidated where you could take this and you are basically taking 5 products. So yes, this is going to be a multivitamin, but there is so much more. We actually kind of refer to it as a multivitamin on steroids. One of the key things that this is going to be helping is your mitochondria. All you need to know is that they are responsible for so many systems and processes in your body. The reason that we need supplements is because we're just supplementing areas that we just can't really kind of get with our food, so we're filling in those gaps. And so Hormone Tame is inviting the body to just fill in all of those gaps. So you gotta fill those gaps and Hormone Tame, it will help to do that.

Esther, you said spiritual stress. I wanna talk about this because that you can't Google. You can Google gut infections and all the other stuff, and we talk about all these things all the time on the podcast, but what the heck is spiritual stress and How does that affect our immune system and our— and how our body's functioning?

Yeah, at the basic level, I believe spiritual stress is when you are not living as you are designed to live. Um, and so whatever somebody's beliefs are, I mean, you and I believe in Jesus and that there is one way, uh, to heaven. There's one way to eternal life, and that is confess your sins and put your faith in Jesus. But every single person, regardless if they believe that or not, has a set of beliefs that they feel like they should be doing, like they should be living this way. And, and if you're not living in alignment with what you believe is true, then that is spiritual stress. And another aspect of spiritual stress is it's not love versus hate, but love versus fear. You're designed to live in peace and in love. And so anytime that you are living in fear, that is also a spiritual stressor. People think of that as like an emotional thing. And while it is, it is also a spiritual stressor. So there's a couple different things that we can talk about in spiritual stress, and people tend to like put it in different categories. But if you're not living with as you believe that you should be living, that's a spiritual stressor. And if, and if you're afraid, like deep anxiety or surface level fear, it's all a spiritual stressor.

Ooh, I am thinking of so many patients and clients right now. That is their number one issue. That is what's keeping them sick. That's what's keeping them stuck is they are afraid to deal with the fact that they hate their job or their marriage is toxic, or that they haven't spoken to their child in 2 years, um, or they just are not living as God designed them to live. They're not doing what they're called to do.

Well, they're literally living in fear and worrying about tomorrow so much instead of relishing in the fact that we have today.

Yeah, and let's just call out the fact that that's really easy to do. You and I do it all the time, and we have to check each other and check ourselves, like, hey, I think you're spiraling again. I think you're like freaking out and stressed about stuff you don't need to be stressed out. We need to hand that over, put it at the foot of Jesus, you know. And that's normal as human beings, right? So don't even feel bad about that. That's just our normal daily struggle. But I promise you, it's making you sick, right, Esther?

Yeah.

Yep. I mean, it's one of the root causes of any illness, not just autoimmune problems, but you are designed to function a certain way. And if you're not living that way, you're not functioning optimally.

So how do you even coach women through that? How do they even begin to tackle that?

Sometimes they don't, quite honestly. They want to focus on other things, things that they feel like they have more control over. Like their diet. Um, you know, facing our fears and facing living in alignment with what we believe, it, it feels out there. It feels a little scarier, a little harder. And so some people just don't. They're like, I— nope, I don't want to go there. You said, you said there's 8 root causes, and you said there's body, mind, spirit, diet, environment. Let's do all of the other things, not spirit.

Yes.

And, and at Fast to Faith, we just encourage women just have a conversation with Jesus. Even if you don't know that, "Hmm, I don't know if Jesus is my Savior. I don't know if I believe that he's God." I would still recommend you have a conversation with him, 'cause you would be shocked, like, what comes out of that. And tell him you're angry. Tell him you're disappointed. Tell him you're confused or frustrated, whatever it is. Like, get real about how you're feeling and what you don't understand and what your struggle is. And we see women do this while journaling, and they have so much revelation, and God starts to talk to them. And they're like, "Why hasn't God ever talked to me before?" Because you never got still and asked. Like, I've just had this vision all week of God being like an excited little puppy. He is just wanting your attention. He's waiting for you to like pet him and talk to him and run around with him.

And slow down. And acknowledge him.

Yeah, just acknowledge him. And he wants to love you and guide you and direct you on a better path. Like, he doesn't want you to be in the pit. A lot of that is self-induced, unfortunately. And we don't recognize that because we're all doing it together. Right?

Well, and you get stuck in that negative headspace, too. I think we really have to focus on gratitude and what is going right in your life and focusing on that as well as the negative. And so if you're constantly surrounding yourself by people who are focusing on the negative and never the positive, you just get stuck in that rabbit hole with them. And so you gotta sometimes be the one that is crazy and is like, listen guys, I know we all got a lot going on, but let's— what do we have going on that's good? And eventually you're gonna just be around other people who are positive because those negative people will just fall away or they'll change, and you'll be the game changer in your little sisterhood group. But it's not easy to be the first one to step out and be like, we're gonna change the mindset here.

Because you do, you—

people look at you like you're crazy.

Well, yeah, and Esther led with this. It starts with your language, like, I get to do this. This is actually a gift that I now have a diagnosis and I, I get to take care of myself. So if you can reframe it with an attitude of gratitude, you're already conquering it, right?

Yeah, yeah, yep. And like Ashley said, learn to look for the gratitude. Gratitude journaling is huge. And if you need help, you can Google it or you can read— I think, is it A Million Miracles? There's a really short book and it teaches you to look all around you and see the— just like the miracle of taking a breath, like what's happening on a level to make that breath happen. Or you go outside, what, what miracle is happening to make that grass grow? Like, you can, you can get small and you can look. Oh my goodness, there's so many blessings, so many miracles all around us. We just have to take time to look.

Yeah, and the time again, it's that we just, we literally are just like poof, we just let everything blow by. Have you ever driven somewhere and you got there and you're like, how did I get here?

Like, yeah, I know, you know, that action of like paying attention to the present moment is actually how you get yourself or someone out of a panic attack. So if you have anxiety to the level that you are hyperventilating, your heart is racing, you're physically feeling that anxiety of a panic attack, it is because you are worrying about something in the future that hasn't happened. And the solution is to pay attention to the present. What do I see? What do I smell? What can I feel? What can I hear? And you get oriented back to the present moment and get into that attitude of gratitude. Your body will shift out of that panic attack. And so it's like we need to do this on a micro level. As soon as the anxiety starts, don't wait until you've reached that breaking point. And so if you do it every day, you won't go into crazy anxiety and panic, hopefully, unless there's a medical issue going on, obviously. But so much of this is controllable. And I want you to be encouraged that we have way more control over our body than our doctors make us think that we do, right? So let's talk about some physical things that we can do because there's some basic misinformation going on out there, like the sun is bad and you should lather up with sunscreen and avoid it at all costs. Because it's going to give you cancer and kill you. Like, please share with my listeners why that's a lie and why we need the sun.

Oh man, we could do like 10 episodes on the benefits of sun and of light and of the different spectrums of light or the different, you know, colors of light. And I'm sure everybody who's listening to a podcast has probably listened to other episodes about, you know, red light therapy or blocking the blue rays at night. You know, we've heard little bits and pieces of different colors. Um, but what about the sun in general? Like, just getting outside in the sun as soon as you can in the morning, it changes your hormones, it changes your health. There are so many benefits. And, you know, getting outside in the middle of the day, that's been vilified, I feel like, the most. But that's when your body does the most vitamin D production from the sun exposure. And vitamin D— low vitamin D levels are a root cause of autoimmune disease, all autoimmune diseases. Back when I was in, I think I was in nursing school, so this was in like the early 2000s, even at that time we knew that, um, the majority of people with MS grew up in an area where there was not vitamin D. Like there was like lines, you know, on the equator. Like if you grew up north or south of this line, you had more of a chance of MS, and they're like, that was vitamin D. That was the sun. There are so many things that the sun does for us. And then, you know, you take little bits. Okay. One thing that the sun does is help us produce vitamin D. There are so many things that vitamin D does for us. Like God has just given us so many gifts and the sun, sunlight exposure to the sun. It's just one of those many, many gifts. And it impacts your health every single day and your mindset.

Oh, and your mind.

I feel like when the sun is out, I have so much life and energy and things that I want to do.

Yeah, and it's great. You're depressed, but literally I didn't see the sun for like 4 years during residency. I lived in that hospital, and if I wasn't there, I was in my bed sleeping at home. I never saw the sun. I never took vacations. That was when my Hashimoto's was the worst. It was so out of control. My antibodies were over 1,000, like just didn't register.

And I'm guessing you weren't taking a vitamin D supplement.

No, my vitamin D was like, I don't know, 11 or 15. It was something ridiculous in the teens. And like, under 30, you are so susceptible to disease and getting sick and not being able to fight that off. So share with everybody why vitamin D is important for your thyroid health?

It's— vitamin D is responsible for like 300 at least different things in your immune system, which is so many. So just overall, I think, you know, if somebody's listening, they're like, I don't want to learn 300 things. Just know that vitamin D helps your body do what your body is supposed to do. It helps it function correctly. And vitamin D is a hormone So, you know, let's talk about all of the hormones. We want everything to be in balance. We want everything to work as God intended. And vitamin D, whether sun exposure or supplementation, if you're not getting out in the sun, it just helps your body do what your body is supposed to do, including your immune system. We'll just keep it simple.

Yeah, exactly. So you need to have a vitamin D level up above 60. 60 to 80 is where I find women function best. Um, there's, you know, different camps on that, but once you start getting down below 50 or 40, you're gonna struggle. Your disease is not going to go into remission. You're not going to feel well mentally. You're going to struggle with recurrent infections. So that is why we made our vitamin D supplement, because we're going out covered in sunscreen, not getting enough of it if we are going out, and we're afraid of the sun. And even our makeup products now, yeah, cover that up. And so you can't make vitamin D if you have sunscreen on. So I just want to encourage you, check, get your levels checked. Your doctor hopefully will order that for you. But, um, by and large, if you are not out in the sun on a regular basis without sunscreen, you probably have vitamin D deficiency., and you probably need at least 1,000 to 5,000 IUs every single day. If you're really depleted, you're down in the 20s, 30s or so, you probably need 5,000 to 10,000 IUs a day, right? So I just want to quickly share that we do have D3 K2 Lift, um, at shop.fasttofaith.com, and this product is so awesome because it's an MCT oil. It's a fat-soluble vitamin, and therefore it needs to be in fat to be absorbed into our body. And I love the liquid version because you can just absorb it right into the bloodstream inside your mouth. You don't have to rely on your digestive tract, on your stomach. So it's a high-potency D3 with K2 as MK-7 because that helps your body deliver your calcium to your bones and to the hard areas that you want it, not to your soft tissue areas like cardiovascular system. And it's essential for thyroid health, for bone health, for immune health, for your cardiovascular system, all the things. So, um, I would love to just extend a 20% off offer. If you have never tried that, go to shop.fast thefastfaith.com. Use the code PODCAST. It will be your favorite vitamin D supplement. It's so easy to take. It has no flavor. Like, it's, it's so easy. So thank you for letting me share that, Esther, because people don't need to suffer, right?

No, they don't need to suffer. And, and it's one of the easiest things to fix too, once you know your vitamin D number. And if your doctor hasn't ordered it, that's one that you can get online. You can— I think I had ordered the first time through the mail. I got a little kit in the mail, poked my finger, drops of blood on a little card, mailed it back in. And then, you know, a couple of days later, there was my number in my email. And then all you have to do is dose your supplement accordingly. It's so simple to fix that root cause. If you're going to look at, you know, a dietary root cause, that's going to take, you know, some overhaul and some work and some investment of your time and your energy and your money. Vitamin D is like a simple lab test, and then you take a supplement every day and you get out in the sun when you can. It's so simple and so easy to correct. Yeah, exactly.

Oh my gosh. Well, Esther, this conversation was exactly what our community needed, so thank you. Um, where can our listeners find you, connect with you, and grab your free thyroid question guide? Tell us about that too.

Yeah, that question guide was something I think we all create from what we needed, and it was definitely something that I needed. It is 10 Questions to Ask Your Doctor, and at the end of that PDF, there's a one-page printable that has all 10 questions on it with space to write your notes. You just take that to your next doctor visit and you can get some real answers if your doctor knows. Like, some of the questions your doctor might not have an answer to, um, and that's fine. That just tells you it's time to dig deeper and get some other people on your team. But the best place to find me is— somebody's already listening to this podcast, so, um, you know, after this episode is done, search for the Health with Hashimoto's podcast and listen to one of those episodes next. And then healthwithhashimoto's.com is where you can find everything, including that freebie, that 10 questions for your doctor.

Okay ladies, I want to leave you with Isaiah 40:31 today. I think this goes along great with the conversation we've had with Esther because The Lord wants you to have hope, and he is going to renew your strength if you, if you search him out. So go and meditate on Isaiah 40:31. If you've never opened a Bible, just Google it, um, or just, you know, write down what I'm going to read and just meditate on it, meaning think about the words and ask God, what are you trying to say to me in this verse today? And you would be surprised. I think you're going to get a Revelation. So let me just read this really quick. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. That hope is for you, ladies. They is you. That is us. God is speaking to us. The Bible is living and active. It is the nourishing word of God. I would invite you to invite him into your journey because he is the true healer. He is the true physician, and he wants you to overcome this and live an amazing life. John 10:10 says that Jesus came to give you life, life abundantly here now on this earth, not in the afterlife. Yes, that's going to happen, but right now. So there's no reason to struggle anymore. Thank you, Esther, for giving us hope and for this awesome conversation.

Oh, thank you. It's been an honor to be here.

Thanks, Ashley.

Thank you. Have a good week, ladies.

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