Complete Thyroid Health

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin and welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world and and give you tips that you can put into fast action to uplevel your health so you can go out there and live the big life you're meant to live. Now in today's show, we're going to be deep diving into a topic I get asked about all of the time, thyroid health. But we're going to look at it a bit differently because we're going to also address how critical dealing with your adrenal health is here. Now I'm on thyroid hormone supplementation. My thyroid function actually dropped three years ago and I still remember when it happened because I got cold, tired and constipated. I mean, practically overnight. Now, thankfully, one of my close friends is one of the top thyroid experts in the country. So the minute this happened, I literally texted him and I was able to turn around quickly. And I'm bringing him on the show today because I want everyone to have access to his brilliance. Dr. Alan Christiansen is an Arizona based naturopathic physician who helps people overcome adrenal and thyroid disorders and achieve lasting fat loss. He authored the New York Times best selling Adrenal Reset Diet and the Complete Idiot's Guide to thyroid disease. Dr. Christensen is the founding physician behind Integrative Health and you can reach him at www.doctorchristianson.com. he's also a unicyclist and he actually.

Even brought his unicycle to some of.

Our get togethers where he was trying to teach other people to do this, which that didn't really work out so well anyway. But he's awesome at it. Be sure to listen in during the show for the important info, carbs and what you might be doing wrong that could actually be making your adrenal glands worse. All righty. Let's do it. Dr. Alan Christensen, welcome To the show. I am so glad you're here with me today. So let's start with the basics. What exactly does thyroid disease do?

It does a lot. The top three would be hair thinning and easy weight gain and unexplained fatigue.

Yikes. Those are three things that I'd say.

Are the top of people's list of.

Things they do not want.

They're huge. They're attention getters. And it's tough because they're also things that people are resigned to think that they're just stuck with and that are happening for some random reason they can't control.

Now, besides those three big ones, what are some of the other things that people may not be clued into that can be warning signs that they should.

Go get their thyroid checked?

Yeah. Some other big ones can include really rough symptoms of perimenopause or menopause. We'll see worse hot flashes, worse menstrual bleeding, worse pms. We can also see dry skin, constipation, IBS symptoms, chronic muscle pain, fibromyalgia type pain, anxiety, palpitations, headaches, sleep disturbances. So that's the top of the list.

So really runs the gamut. And unfortunately, as you said, a lot of these things are things people have heard are just normal. They're getting older. So sounds like that's not the case at all. Any other? Just ones that you should be on the lookout for. Besides those that people would never connect the dots with.

Those are big ones. Waking up randomly at night, unexplained tremors, also nerve pains. But really a distinguishing factor is that there was often a time in which, you know that it shifted and maybe a couple of those shifted at the same time. So like six months ago, I started having my weight was going up for no reason. I got this random muscle ache. Yeah. There's often a timeframe in which when it got worse or more pronounced.

Okay, now let's talk about who is.

At risk for this.

Well, everyone with a pulse.

Everyone with a thyroid.

Yeah, some others. So thyroid disease is autoimmune disease, and this is not a fair thing. But women get eight times the rate of autoimmune disease that men do. And for thyroid disease, it's no different. So women are especially susceptible. Your thyroid is part of the whole endocrine hormone system. So whenever your hormones make a big change, that's often when it gets thrown off. So pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause, those are really key times for it to start to show up.

It does feel like everyone I know, myself included. Full disclosure, you are. My doc, of course, seems to be struggling with this. I mean, it seems so common. Why is that?

Yeah, the data is strong that autoimmune disease of all types is on the rise and there have been debates about whether we're just detecting it better. No, it's not just that. There's more of it and it's especially been this last 20, 30 years. It's on the uptick. We think it's a matter of more environmental wastes that we've been exposed to for just longer periods of time. You know, a lot of us have been around now since 60s and 70s and we've just had more years to percolate on that 3 million odd new chemicals that didn't exist before the last century.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

As does all the dietary issues.

And then some of this, you know, you don't treat yourself so well, then you have kids and then your kids are at keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Now what about, I mean, is there any specific reason that women are at a higher risk for autoimmune disease?

Well, there's a couple theories. One of them is that women have a unique immune system in that they can have somebody else live inside of them. You know, the capacity to be pregnant means there's different immune parameters. The other one is that having someone else live inside of you hosting a baby, there are these wayward cells that can circulate and maybe autoimmune triggers. The last theory is that the genes that trigger thyroid disease seem to be X linked genes. And women have two sets of X linked chromosomes, whereas men have one set. So some combination of those three factors make women get more autoimmunity.

So I know it's getting more common. Do you have some stats on just how common it is at this point?

You know, it's tough. There's very conservative guidelines for diagnosing it that have the most thorough data. If we talk about measurable autoimmune response against the thyroid, that's probably a quarter of adults. Most Data says roughly 25% of adults have a measurable autoimmune response against your thyroid. Now the tough part about that stat is about 40% of people who do have Hashimoto's never have a measurable autoimmune response. So it's probably roughly half the population has some susceptibility to it.

Wow, that is amazing. Now I know one of the big challenges we have is there's a little bit of a dispute about numbers. On lab tests. So what should someone do? When do you feel that someone should go get tested? How do you really have, you know, know that the person who's looking at your test is looking at the right numbers? Because, you know, I've sent people to you who have been clearly had issues with their thyroids, who'd been misdiagnosed. So where does one. What does one do about this if they suspect it? Or maybe at this point it's something you should monitor no matter what with the level of incidence, especially if you're a woman.

Yeah, good thing to track. So two scenarios, one of which is that you think something's wrong and your doctor says, yeah, this is a problem. Well, in that case, you know, there is and you may not have to dig more deeply. The other scenari is you think something's wrong and your doctor says, no, it's fine. Well, the tough thing is that we base fine on pretty bad guidelines. You know, we average the scores of those who get tested and say what an average score should be. It's just like, you know, we've got a basketball team here in Phoenix, where I live, called the Phoenix Suns, and if you went to their locker room and you measured the average height of men in the Phoenix Suns locker room, you could make an average. But that average height wouldn't apply to the rest of us very well. And that's the same problem with thyroid disease. We've averaged those who get the most tests done, which are people that have the most problems. That's what we base normal ranges off of.

So which types of tests should someone be asking their doctor for and what should they like? Can you give us some of the test names and the ranges that you would be looking at?

For sure. The most common test that's always done is the tsh, which is thyroid stimulating hormone. It's a good test, but the range sucks. Normal range is considered 0.4 to 4.5. Some say higher international units per mil. The status have shown that when you look at people that don't have thyroid disease, you never see the scores get that high. We never See scores above 1.9 in healthy people. And this test is exactly backwards. So the more underactive your thyroid is, the higher the number goes. So whenever that number is above 1.9, that's something suspicious. The other tests that are really underutilized are the thyroid antibody profiles, because you can have autoimmune disease for a decade or more before there's ever a measurable change in your thyroid function. So if someone gets a TSH done and knows about flagging it when it's above 1.9. And they get thyroid antibody profiles and the antibodies, you know, they shouldn't be there. So when they're there a little bit, that's still a problem.

But it sounds like. Because what I've been told before is if your TSH is fine, you don't need to run your antibodies. And it sounds like it's just the opposite.

Yeah, there's so much data showing the opposite that oftentimes we will only see the early signs of disease by measuring the antibodies. And that goes on for quite some time before the TSH ever changes.

And what about free T3?

Yeah. So free T3, free T4, reverse T3, they're all helpful. They're not as apt to draw new data when someone's first getting diagnosed. They're useful things to help fine tune and manage someone who's on treatment. But, yeah, they're part of a good workup as well.

Okay, so you've suspected it. You go to your doctor and it gets confirmed. Then what should you do? I mean, what about medications? What can you do for food or lifestyle? What things can you do to support a healthy thyroid?

Yeah, if it's bad enough, people do require medications. There's often a big gap, though, before that is necessary. Diet makes a big difference. So your body has a lot of ways that it can juggle and make use of your thyroid hormones, even if they're not the best amounts. And the biggest thing that predicts that is how healthy your adrenal glands are. So when you've got a good rhythm of adrenal hormones, when you make them to wake up and turn them off to go to sleep, your body can play nicer with your thyroid. And the easiest way to help with that is to have some healthy carbs, but have them more so in the evening and less so early in the day.

Talk a little bit about that, because.

For adrenal issues, and I know a lot of people, that's just not something that's commonly checked. Talk about how one would check to find out if they have any kind of an adrenal issue. Step one. And I'm going to ask you that second question because it's such an important one to hit about the carbs.

Yeah. You know, there's simple quizzes one can take that can give a clue about adrenal symptoms. As far as medical testing, there's salivary studies that are nice. There's two big sets of adrenal problems. There's diseases and there's just dysregulation. The adrenal diseases are severe, they're rare, they affect maybe a person per million. Any kind of a routine blood test for adrenal hormones will show adrenal diseases. The adrenal dysregulation is much more common. And because it's a problem of how hormones are made, when you rarely see it show up well on a chest, that shows your scores at one fixed point in time. So the better tests are done in which they collect salivary samples at the many times over the course of a day. And that way you can really see how the day's rhythm plays out. And that can show the dysregulation if it's present.

So someone's got dysregulation of adrenal hormones. Is this one of the things that could lead them down the road to be at higher risk for thyroid issues?

It can. And it can also make the body less responsive to thyroid hormones. That's part of it too, is that even if your thyroid gland is working well, there's a delicate balance in how well you can use those powerful little concentrated hormones that come out of the thyroid. And good adrenal rhythms are a key to make that work well.

So the critical things that you can do to support good, healthy adrenals, what would your top ones be?

The top ones, the first one I mentioned briefly about just carb timing. So cortisol is the main adrenal hormone. You want to have it in the morning and you want it shut off at night. Now, healthy carbs, having them in the diet and timing them right is a really easy strategy that can help fix cortisol rhythms. So good carbs, things like sweet potatoes, squash, turnips, lentils, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, quinoa, these are foods that, if you have them in the evening, they help lower your cortisol. If you do a bunch of carbs of any type early in the day, that can cause lower cortisol when you don't want it. So having some good carbs, not doing none, but shifting them to the evening is one of the easiest things in the world you can do. That helps to improve the cortisol rhythm.

That is such a critical point to hit, because I know right now the ketosis diet is back in style again. And what I'm seeing with people is they're going on it and not cycling it, and then they end up with elevated blood sugar and cortisol dysregulation.

Yeah, it's a paradox. Your brain needs glucose so badly that if you're not eating carbs that you can make directly into glucose, you will convert your muscles into glucose. There's no way to get away from it. And that's how ketone formations work. You're still going to make glucose, but you use your muscles to form it. And stress hormones like cortisol, they are the ticket that pulls your muscles apart and turns them into sugar. Yeah.

And to be very clear, that means that you are breaking down your muscle to do this. This is not something you want to do. You want to preserve muscle. So that is a very bad effect. And then you'll see your blood sugar rise. And that's one of the classic things you can see is all of a sudden you're eating a low carb diet and your blood sugar is starting to elevate.

Yeah.

Be aware of that on your blood test.

What are a couple other key things.

That you find that help with adrenal. Good adrenal health.

My favorite, the biggest needle mover next to the diet would be getting exposed to bright light in the morning. And you can do this outdoors when you're at a place where the latitude, the sunlight and your schedules allow. There's also really good light boxes. And this doesn't take, you know, bronzing and a Speedo. You could just be outside, even somewhere where it's covered. Even on an overcast day, the light intensity outdoors is literally hundreds and thousands of times greater than it is in the brightest room indoors. And your brain is waiting for that to start. The whole day's rhythm of waking up your adrenals and getting them ready to shut off 14 hours later for a good night's sleep.

Okay, perfect. And I know I just got my indoor light that you recommended. What was the brand of that? Because I don't remember it. Sitting in the other room.

That's a Veralux. And you want to look for ones that put out. There's a unit called lux or lux. And the better units put out 10,000 lux and they stand up, put them on a table or a desk. Our light, our eyes expect that bright light to come from above like the sun. So it doesn't work if the light's shining straight at you. You want to be looking down at a surface with that light from above you.

Okay, great.

So if you can't get bright sunlight, I'm fortunate where I am, and I know you are, too. But then when the days get shorter, if you need it, this is an option for you now.

Is thyroid disease.

Are there things you can do to prevent it?

Is that possible, or is it just.

Something that could be inevitable?

For some of us, yeah, there's a balance. Some people have just such a high rate of it in their families that they're very apt to get it. Others, there are circumstances that make it more likely and they've got more to change with it. Some of the easiest things, one of which is getting adequate amounts of selenium, which is a really important mineral that helps the thyroid. You know, a lot of the better multivitamin multi minerals will give about 200 micrograms of selenium per day. That's a healthy thing. Brazil nuts are just a crazy dense source of it. And if you do a couple per day, you know, a handful a week on average, that also makes sure you're getting enough to help your thyroid.

Any other top tips for keeping your thyroid healthy? We talked a little bit about adrenals. I know you can get more in your adrenal reset diet book, which is awesome. Highly recommend that. But maybe your last three parting top tips for thyroid health that you'd recommend that people might not think about thyroid health.

Keeping your body detoxed and making sure there's wastes that are not building up in your system makes a huge difference. And the ways you do this are just minimizing what you're exposed to. Biggest thing there is your indoor air quality is huge. So take off your shoes when you come home. Don't track the shoes into the house. Many cultures make this almost the house, like a sacred space where shoes are left outside. Maybe you put on some slippers at the door. So most of the waste that we're exposed to comes from our air, and most of the waste in our air is what we track into our homes. So that's a very easy practice. That makes a huge difference.

That's one. I lived in Japan and I remember that was when they were always yelling at me for. Because we just don't think about it in the States. And one more thing I'd love to hear from you is, and I know.

You'Ve got a load of these, so.

This is not very fair, but I'm going to ask you for just one.

Of your favorite success stories.

Oh, heck, sorry about that. No, no worries. Susan would be a favorite. She was a participant. We did a clinical trial on the adrenal reset diet. And I remember going into it, she was very sweet. She said, hey, I don't know if I should be in this because I want you to get good numbers in your clinical trial. And I'm going to be going on a cruise. I'll be on a cruise for the first month and it's going to be a hard time. And I said, you know what? I want to see what people do in real world experiences. So go on your cruise. Let's keep you in the, let's watch your outcome. And her first month, she dropped a little over 4 inches around her waist, which while she was on a cruise for the first half of that month. So that was awesome. And about six months into it, she's been down 43 pounds. And in her case, she had thyroid disease. It was stable. She had been on treatment for a little while, but it really was a simple dietary change of how she timed her carbohydrates that caused that big shift for her. And there was one time where she was talking about how much she was down and I knew she was going to be coming into the office and I brought in a 45 pound plate from my weight set, one of the big giant exercise plates. I had it in the room when I was talking with her and I said, hey, do you mind just picking that up for a minute? She goes, are you kidding me? And she didn't get what this was all about. And then I had her pick it up and just walk around for a few moments and then set it down. And I said, you've lost more than that. You've shifted your body by more than that amount. You know, this is your joints, your circulation, your nervous system, your brain, all systems are going to be firing so much better now after this, the pre diabetes was reversed. You know, she was at a whole new state. So it's awesome to see that. And that's what's possible for our bodies.

And what's so exciting, what I've seen you do time and time again is yes, when you dial in the thyroid, it can, can be magical in moments. But taking that integrated approach, dialing in the adrenals, shifting the food, doing things like the light and cleaning up the house, taking that integrated approach where all of these things together, they like make this massive shift.

And you really didn't have to do.

Wasn'T like this dramatic lifestyle change at all, you know, but it had a dramatic impact. So I want to thank you for your work. It's awesome. I highly recommend the adrenal reset diet. And you're walking proof, as is your family and your patients, that it works. So thank you.

Thank you so much, Alan.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Today and for you listening, be sure to visit drchristiansen.com to get more of Alan's awesome information. Now after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question, so be sure to stick with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. Today's question ties in perfectly with Dr. Allen's interview and it comes from Charlene Kidd.

Hi JJ, I am 52 years old and have been following your program for the last couple of years, doing fantastic, held my weight, was in great health and physical condition. Earlier this year I started getting hot flashes, mood swings, emotional changes, etc. All due, I'm sure, to menopause. Blood work came out in the normal ranges. However, I've gained 20 pounds in the last four and a half months and still doing nothing different. But following your program. Very frustrated, but I'm sure there's a way to get through this. I would love to get back to being satisfied, comfortable and happy with the way I look and feel. Thanks.

So if you're struggling to lose weight and you've been diligently following the Virgin diet or the Sugar Impact diet, hopefully you've done one and then gone and done the other. You done the perfect hybrid combination. And I'm not talking that you went and did these programs 90% or you tried it. I mean that you really went and went through that, that, that identification process to really customize the diet to work for you, if you've done that and you are still not where you want to be and you're still struggling, guess what? First thing that I want you to.

Do, and that's why I was so.

Excited to get this question and bring it on to today's show, is you're going to check your thyroid function, your adrenals. You know, if your thyroid is not working well, it is the master switch for your metabolism. You will not be able to lose weight. So the first thing you're going to do is go and get your thyroid checked and make sure you're getting everything checked, thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH free, T3 and T4. So often I see people who have hypothyroidism but their doctor told them they were in range. Remember what you heard today. Range does not mean that you're ideal. So you're going to take your thyroid and also of course your adrenals because the two play together. The two go hand in hand. If you've got adrenal exhaust exhaustion and you've got thyroid fatigue, you are going to struggle with weight loss no matter how great you're doing with your diet. Now, if your thyroid adrenals look good, the other things that you want to look at are menopause, any kind of sex hormone imbalance, insulin resistance or diabetes toxicity, or some gut issues like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. But I got to tell you, the first step is always get your diet dialed in. Remember, go through the program Virgin Diet, the Sugar Impact diet. Go through that assessment, go through the reset period, then go back and customize. You're becoming a detective. Customize the program to work for you for the long haul. Look at things, get your exercise dialed in. Like I work you through with both those programs and then if things are not where they need to be, check that thyroid, check the adrenals and then you can start going through being a detective with the other things I just mentioned. Now if you'd like to submit a question, just go to jjvirgin.com ask and you can leave a voicemail for me. And I love hearing from you. And one more way I'd love to hear from you. I would hugely appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. You know it helps a bunch. And be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worthy. Dare to live a life that matters.

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