431: Fix Your Thyroid with Dr. Amie Hornaman

The thyroid is the master gland. I mean, to think that this little teeny, tiny, little butterfly shaped gland that's in your neck controls your body is mind blowing.

Welcome to Midlife Conversations. I'm your host, Natalie Jill, and I'm passionate about having amazing conversations that matter to us midlife women. On this podcast, I do what I do best, taking complicated health topics and breaking them down simply so that we can optimize aging together. I share actionable steps to help you thrive in what I believe are our best years to come. Join me as I interview the most inspiring people living their best midlife years and dive into essential topics like hormone changes, health optimization, weight management, blood sugar, emotional well being, relationships, beauty, and so much more. When it comes to midlife symptoms, especially with women, perimenopause, menopause, even postmenopause, we start talking about things like we're getting thicker in the middle, that weight gain, foggy headed, losing focus. Where's our energy, where's our drive, where's our motivation, where's it going? We get told a lot of times that it's just our age or it's just something we need to accept. And then sometimes even savvier people will tell us, hey, you gotta look at your hormones, you gotta check your hormones. And they're traditionally talking about our sex hormones, so they're thinking estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. But there's something that is highly overlooked and sometimes it's actually too simplified and it's a bigger, more important conversation than something that can just be totally brought down to a simple it's a one size fits all. And that's what our thyroid is. That's coming to our thyroid. Now, some of you are very familiar with your thyroid. You've been through this dance with your doctors, with your labs, and some of you, you're just starting to question, is my thyroid an issue here? And maybe you've been told something that is not helping you or sitting right with you. Today on Midlife conversations, I've got Dr. Amy Hornman. She is known as the thyroid fixer because she truly is the thyroid fixer. She's got her own joint journey around thyroid, but this has quickly become her expertise. She has helped thousands, thousands of women navigate their own thyroid, understand, get empowered, treat it so they can start feeling their best possible selves. So thank you, Dr. Amy, for being here today.

Oh my goodness. That was a beautiful intro and all so very true. I agree with you that the thyroid is often overlooked and I love, I love that we are getting More and more focus on hormones in this day and age, because women's health has taken a back burner and now we are screaming from the rooftops, hey, women deserve better. We deserve to live our best life in midlife. But if we don't look at the thyroid, we're missing a critical piece. And it's a piece that could literally make or break whether a woman enjoys her midlife journey or not.

Absolutely true. Now I want to. Where do we go wrong with thyroid? Let's start with that where. Because I feel like this gets lumped into an oversimplified category. You hear you have either low or high thyroid, you're giving us what's going on there. Yeah.

The biggest issue with thyroid is in, it starts in the testing. So in conventional medicine, we will see that conventional medicine docs, if you go to your PCP and you ask for a thyroid panel, you are going to get one test called the tsh, thyroid stimulating hormone. It's not enough to get that full picture. There are multiple other tests that we have to do with your thyroid, to your thyroid to check to see what is the health of your thyroid, is it really functioning? And especially if you're dealing with weight gain and low energy, you're dealing with all the symptoms surrounding hypothyroidism or a low functioning thyroid, we need to know more information outside of one little itty bitty test. So it starts with testing and I'll even say, you know, I say conventional medicine a lot, but this spans over into the functional world, which we can dive into.

Okay.

Where even functional practitioners that, that we love them, they're, they're breaking out of the mold of conventional medicine and they're really, really helping people. But sometimes they miss the mark with thyroid as well.

Okay, I got a lot of questions here. So I'm going to start sort of really basic here. When it comes to the decline in midlife, especially talking late 40s, over 50, we start having these declines with women. There's kind of an order of operations that I look at and I want to get your thoughts on what is the important order of operations here, because we could look at, is it our nutrition, is it our other lifestyle variables like movement, Is it the hormone replacement, is it thyroid, is it gut health? Like there's all these different things. I have my own opinion. But what's kind of your opinion on order of operations?

First order of operations, when we're, when we're actually looking at, let's say, a midlife woman who expresses her frustration with trying all the things to lose weight, her clothes are just getting tighter. She doesn't have the energy she used to. She doesn't have that motivation, the drive. She's starting to forget things and thinking like, oh, here goes my memory, right? She's counting the hairs that come out of her head when she's in that state. The order of operations has to be thyroid and then hormones, and then we can unpack the rest. So then we can go deeper and go, okay, what's going on with your gut, what's going on with your adrenals? How's your nutrition? It all plays a role. And I am not discounting any of that. I'm not discounting the nutrition piece, I'm not discounting the cortisol stress piece. But the issue that we see in really trying to help these women is that if they have a low functioning thyroid, that's going to tank their sex hormones. So just like I said, I love, love that we're getting more, more focus, more love on bioidentical hormone replacement. And now we can use it wholeheartedly and not worry about it causing cancer. We can use estrogen, we can use progesterone, we can use testosterone. But if you use those hormones and you're not focused on the thyroid itself, which controls the hormones and controls whether or not you go into early menopause and controls whether or not you are, are properly making enough testosterone to drive your libido and your strength and your, your body composition, if you don't focus on the thyroid, you're missing that piece. And then what ends up happening is we give some hormones, we treat the gut, we treat the adrenals, and the woman goes, well, you know what? That I feel like 10% better, but it's not quite there. I still haven't lost weight, I still haven't gotten my hair back, I still haven't gotten my energy back. And she still feels like garbage. And then so to her, she's like, well, why am I even doing all of this? Why am I spending the money? Why am I taking the supplements? Why am I taking the hormones? I'm not feeling any better. And that's where the, so the order of operations we have to start with thyroid hormones come second and, you know, yet let's look at everything else below that. But we can't start at the bottom and work our way up.

Okay, makes sense. Now, what's interesting, and I, Dr. Amy, is every time I interview somebody and their specialty is whatever, they always start with their thing first. So I wanted you to. I wanted to hear. So for listeners there's. I don't have a right. Like this is this exact answer I want. The reason I do midlife conversations and have these conversations is I want people to start really getting clear and go. This resonated with me. That made sense to me. So I think many of you listening will. That will have really resonated. And you like, you know what, I've not actually dove down that path yet. This is important. This is the piece I've been skipping. But some of you listening are like, well, wait a minute, I saw a difference here. And that's okay. There's no black and white. But I wanted to make sure I got Dr. Amy's take on order of operations. So thank you for sharing that. That's important. I'm going to ask you some basic questions about thyroid and then I want to kind of get into the problem that goes wrong if we do not treat. Because this is important. So we hear a lot of things thrown out. And I'm just going to say the names and the words because if it's confusing to me, I'm sure it's confusing to other. What does it mean? Hypothyroid, hyperthyroid and what is Hashimoto's? Explain the difference.

Beautiful. Okay, so let's start with. Let's start at the top. Let's start with Hashimoto's. Hashimoto's is hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is low and slow. So I want you to think hypo, low and slow. Everything is low and slow in your body, from your metabolism to your brain function to your energy to your skin cell turnover, your body temperature regulation, your hair growth, your, your gut motility.

So this even det. Like your detox pathways, could that be amazing?

Yeah, just think of everything slowing down. So this is where people get tired, depressed, heavy, like water retention, that heavy feeling, fat gain, heavy feeling. Everything is low and slow.

Okay, are they interchangeable, Hashimoto's and hypothyroid, or are they, can they be different things?

Well, they're. They're the same thing. So when we look at Hashimoto's, that's the autoimmune form of hypothyroidism. And that accounts for 95% of all hypothyroid cases. So when we, if we took a group of women who all said, oh yes, I have hypothyroidism, 95% of them, it will be caused by their immune system attacking their thyroid gland, that is Hashimoto's. Only 5% will be caused by, let's say over exercising, under eating. Eating disorders, chemotherapy, radiation. Certain medications can tank the thyroid, but that really accounts for a very, very small percentage of all hypothyroid cases. Got it. Hyper.

Now that means, that means, that means high thyroid. Like too fast.

Yeah, exactly. Just think hyper, like you're hyperactive. So everything is running at high speed. This is a much more rare condition, usually fueled by the autoimmune. It's autoimmune fueled by your immune system attacking your thyroid. But during that attack, it's called Graves disease. When it's hyperthyroid, during that attack, the thyroid gland and ends up spitting out way too much thyroid hormone. So a person will experience weight loss, anxiety. That's where you see that thyroid eye disease.

A bulging.

Yep. Yeah. Okay. Though much more.

Okay, so if you already have one, autoimmune disease. So if you have celiac like me, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and any autoimmune, you have a high likelihood, is this accurate that, that you could also get an autoimmune with your thyroid.

What is the role?

I want to get real basic here. Kind of make sure we're covering everything. What is the actual role of a thyroid in somebody? Like why do we need a well functioning thyroid?

Well, and this goes back to your comment about everybody that's on says, well, you got to start with X, Y, Z of whatever their specialty is. I totally get that. But. But I can build a case for the thyroid.

Let's hear it.

So it answers your question right now. The thyroid is the master gland. I mean, to think that this little, teeny, tiny, little butterfly shaped gland that's in your neck controls your body is mind blowing. And quite frankly, this is why I believe in medical school they should have a full month of thyroid training. Not a day, a month. Because that gland runs your body. It literally determines whether or not your cells turn over. It determines whether or not you poop every day. It determines whether or not you have any kind of metabolism at all. So you could be doing everything perfectly. They could be in your thrive program, they could be doing the meditation. They could be literally living life in a biohacking perfectionist state. And if their thyroid is low and slow, none of that is going to work. They will hit brick walls left and right and all the symptoms will remain. So that's why I say you have to start with the thyroid. So the thyroid is the master gland of the body.

So when you say master Gland. I'm going to dig a little deeper here. Like, when we think of like your liver, your kidneys, we know that it's cleaning things out. We know. So what is the thyroid actually doing? I get that it's the master gland, but what's it, what's it actually doing? Like, if we were to take it out, what would happen? Like, what's going on there?

Right. And that, that has happened to some people who have had it removed. So the thyroid produces hormones. Now, we know hormones are signaling messengers, so they hormones will go out and they will do a specific job in the body. The thyroid hormone T4 and T3, both produced by the thyroid gland, they go out to do a job. Now that T4 thyroid hormone is inactive and T3 is active. So those thyroid hormones have to, they have to go through a little bit of a conversion process. T4 has to become T3, and then T3 goes out into the body and goes. Okay, what do we have to do here? Okay, you go over there to that set of cells and, and, and kick up fat burning. You go over there to the brain because there's T3 receptor sites on the brain. Light up her brain so she can think and focus. Okay, now go to the heart and. Oh, this person has a really slow, low heart rate for no apparent reason. A really low blood pressure. Let's work on that to regulate that. Let's go to the gut and make.

Sure it's kind of like the guy in the orchestra, the conductor. Is that okay? Exactly, it's the conductor. Am I explaining that right? So the thyroid is the conductor of what? How everything is being used in our body. Is that, Would that be an. I know I'm simplifying this, but I want to make sure I'm fully clear.

No, that's beautiful.

It's our conduct.

Yeah.

Okay, so thyroid is our conductor of how everything. So it's control, it's working on our hormones, it's working on our function of everything, really. All of our organs or it's. It's important for conducting all of that. Is that accurate?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Every cell in your body, every cell has a receptor site on it for thyroid hormone. Every cell.

Okay, so let's go for it to extreme real quick. What happens if you remove your thyroid?

Oh, yeah. So if you remove your thyroid, you will eventually die, actually. So that's the extreme. If we were to remove someone's thyroid gland and not give them thyroid hormone as a replacement.

Okay.

They would die. Okay.

So it would be like insulin is To a diabetic?

Yes. Yes, it's a hormone. Insulin's a hormone. Thyroid, T4 and T3 are hormones we need.

You have to have them.

Have to, have to. Now, that's an extreme statement, but yet it's true. But if we do take out a thyroid gland, we replace it. Now, conventional medicine doesn't do a great job at properly replacing those thyroid hormones, but we do. We give people that. We take out their thyroid gland, we give them those hormones to replace it.

Okay, now I'm going to ask.

I'm going to.

I want to ask because I know some of you are like, but what the heck is T3, T4, TSA? There's a lot of, like, questions there, and I'm going to get to that. But I want to understand what triggers thyroid dysfunction. Like, what is, What's. Is this something that you can just be born with? Is there stress that, like, do we have any control over if we're going to have dysfunction here or not?

That is an excellent question as well. There are multiple triggers for thyroid dysfunction. So let's go back to our talk about Hashimoto's. That's autoimmune immune. 95 of all low thyroid hypothyroid cases are autoimmune. So we start. There we go.

Okay.

What triggers autoimmune? So with you with celiac, you know that you were, you were born with a predisposition to have an autoimmune condition, whether it's your mom, your grandma, your aunt, somewhere in your family.

So you have to have the gene to be able to even get it. Yes, exactly.

You just have that genetic. And autoimmune is very hereditary. So your mom could have type 1 diabetes and you have celiac. So it doesn't have to be the same. Autoimmune. Yeah, it's just that confused immune system. So you have to have that. And then on top of that, we have to have a trigger. Now, oftentimes we see hormonal fluctuations. So during pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause, we see those hormonal fluctuations as a trigger to literally turn that Hashimoto's switch into the on position. And this is why so many women will say, you know, it was when I hit 40 that it all went to hell in a handbasket. All these symptoms started coming on, like, out of the blue. What the heck was happening to me? And it's because we go through that hormonal fluctuation during perimenopause, and that is enough to turn on that that autoimmune switch, can you turn it on yourself.

Like by being in a high state of stress or by like not eating properly? Can you create that?

You can, you can. So any stressor. So we said, you know, pregnancy, perimenopause, hormonal fluctuations. The reason why we say that is because those are stressors on the body. So even though pregnancy is a beautiful natural thing that a woman does, huge stressor. I mean, come on. I mean, you know, when you were pregnant, you gained weight, you know, your hair goes wacky. I mean, it's a stressor on the body. So think about any kind of stressor. If you under eat, if you over exercise, if you lost your job, you know, death of your parents, being a caretaker. All of those major life stressors.

Yes.

Can be a trigger for thyroid dysfunction.

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Okay, I got you. I, I, I love, like you're talking.

To a five year old.

Yeah, we're going to use analogies then. Okay, okay, so tsh. Now a five year old might not deal with a flood in their house.

Though I'm still going to break it down.

So tsh, thyroid stimulating hormone. I want you to think if you walk downstairs to your basement and all of a sudden one day there were, there's two feet of water in your basement, okay? And you're like, what in the heck is going on? You call a plumber. That plumber comes in on your top level, walks over to your kitchen sink, looks in the sink and goes, yeah, I really don't see a problem here. I'm gonna go. You're like, wait, no, hold on, timeout there. There's stuff going on down below. He goes, well, I don't see that. All I see is that there's not water spewing out of your kitchen sink. So I don't see it as a problem. That is tsh. When we're testing tsh, if it is flagged high, if it is red, then your doctor is going to go, well, yeah, you have a problem. Same way if the plumber walked into your house and you had water spewing out of your kitchen sink, hitting the ceiling, dripping down the wall, sinking into your basement, he's going to go, well, we have a problem here. Same thing with tsh. If it's flagged high, major problem. It's obvious, it's a no brainer. There's a thyroid problem here.

So we don't know where it's coming from yet, but we know that there's a problem. So it's the alert one.

Is that so what if there's not right. What if there's not water spewing out of your sink? There can still be a. There's still a problem. There's still a problem because there's two feet of water in your basement. We have to go deeper. We have to look beyond.

So if your TSH is not in range, and it's subjective, what we talk about with range. So, like, what my doctor said was normal with T. With tsh, you said was different. So it's like there's difference. There's different interpretation. Right on. Like what TSH is. But. So if I'm hearing you correct, tsh, if it is out of range, that's the alarm. That there's a problem. That's like, we've already, like, passed the preventative stuff. We are in a problem.

That's in a problem.

We're in a problem. Okay, so this is the alarm, and that's what most doctors are testing for, correct?

Yes. They're looking down. Yeah.

Okay, so now let's talk about the other three. What's re. What is in whatever order T3, reverse T3 or T4. What are those?

So free T4, like we said earlier, that's inactive. You do not have a receptor site anywhere in your body for T4 thyroid hormone. So you go, well, why the heck do we even make it then? That doesn't even make sense.

And what does it do? Right.

So it. It really is. It's this inactive hormone that has to basically a. A. Somebody has to come in and. And rip one of those atoms off of it. They said you have. You have four iodine atoms attached to you. We need to take one off in order for you to do your job. So really, it's. Gosh, I should really think of a good analogy for T4. It would be like, it's like a.

Water bottle filled with water, but until I remove the top, I'm not getting hydrated. Is that accurate?

Okay, I like that. All right.

So.

Yeah.

Okay, so, Mike, I want to make sure T4 is kind of like, you're thirsty, you need water. Here's your water bottle. You're not going to get hydrated until you undo the scap and you actually drink the water, right?

Yeah, exactly. And take it one step further. Let's change what's in the water bottle to get properly hydrated as some electrolytes. So now we're changing the structure, the molecular structure of the water to be more hydrating.

Got it.

That's what we have to change the T4 in order to Be that active hormone.

So we can take it on our hike, the bottle. But until you add your electrolytes, take off the cap and drink it, it's not doing anything. That's T4.

So it's kind of C4.

It's just a little useful.

It's a little carrier.

Got it.

Okay.

You know, sorry, Amy, I gotta get basic here, because I want to love this. We all get confused. Okay, so that's the water bottle. Okay, now let's talk about T3. And what's the difference between that and reverse T3?

So we're going to put reverse T3 and free T3 in the same category.

To.

To use an analogy with them, I'll give you two separate ones to. To understand it. So T3 is the gas. Reverse T3 is the brakes.

Okay. So T3 is the gas.

Okay. Reverses the brakes. Okay. So you know, when you're driving a car, there's a. There's a time to use your gas and there's a time for the brakes to be on. But in order forget to. To get from point A to point B and do a task and get the job done of what you have to do that day, you got to use your. Your gas more than the brakes.

Got it.

So we really want the gas pedal down in order to run your body. It's. It's. It's the fuel for your body. T3. And. And I know we're not getting into, like, the optimal ranges. Just like you said, there's optimal standard, all of that. That.

Yeah, we'll talk about how they can get that next. Believe me, I'm. God, I'm going in order here, because there's a lot.

And I think there's a lot of.

These parts, and this is important.

But, yeah, when you're looking at the free T3 level on your labs. Yeah, you. You. You want that to be good because that's your gas. If that's low, if it's out of our optimal range where we want to see it, then you're not going to have enough gas to run the show, to run your body, to do all the things that we talked about earlier.

Okay, so this is starting to make sense to me. So what is wild, though, y'?

All? This is.

This is bizarre to me. Number one, most doctors are only testing tsh, right? Okay, so that's problem number one. And so now we've already.

We know that there's an alarm, so.

We haven't even, like, tried to prevent the thing, anything. We just know the alarm Then if TSH is not good, they then go a little deeper. But then it seems like the medicines they prescribe are not actually fixing the problem. What's going on there?

Right. So, and I know this, this is going to get a little bit, a little deep, but I'm really going to try to simplify it. When we're Talking about reverse C3, this ties into the medicines. When we're talking about that, reverse C3, remember we said that's the brakes?

Yep.

Another analogy that I sometimes use to get people to understand what reverse T3 is, and this actually applies to your Labs, is reverse T3 can also be thought of as the bouncer at the clubs. Remember we said every single cell think, think of just like a little, little ball is your cell and it's got a little receptor site on it for T3. And it's like, please help me, give me some T3. Reverse T3, if it's elevated, is sitting outside of the cell door like a bouncer going, yeah, I see you over there. You're not getting in tonight. Yeah, you're, you're not getting in. Which is why some people can have a really pretty T3 level. But if that reverse T3 is elevated, that T3 is just hitting up against the door, closed door, can't get in, can't do its job, cannot attach to that receptor site to give you a metabolism, to light up your brain, to give you energy.

So if you have T3 being produced, but reverse T3 is also high, it's not going to be doing anything in your body. Is that accurate?

Exactly.

So you. Okay, got it. Okay, so when most doctors go and test deeper after TSH, are they looking at T3 free T4 and T3, do they start doing that or what do they automatically go to?

Typically, rarely. So what I see, in conventional medicine, they'll test TSH and they'll test free T4.

Okay. They will tell random. Because that's the water bottle.

Yeah, exactly. Very random. Because they have been taught in med school. And this is why I argue that we need a month long course. And so they were literally taught in med school that if TSH is elevated, meaning it's flagged high, it's red on your labs. If TSH is elevated, then you give this person the inactive thyroid hormone and you just tell them, oh, no worries, Sally, this will convert and you'll be just fine. Here's where the problem comes in. The only thing that can convert over to the brakes, reverse T3. The brakes or the bouncer, the Only thing that can push up that reverse T3 is T4. So if you have a problem converting your thigh, your T4 to become T3, and there are many things that can interfere with this conversion process. If you have a problem converting T4 to T3, your reverse T3 will be elevated. You will have the brakes on the whole time. The bouncer will be outside of your cell blocking T3 from getting in. And you will feel horrible and your symptoms will increase. And it's a shame that conventional medicine doesn't know this. Wow. And go deeper.

What are traditional names of those medications?

That's your Synthroid, Levothyroxine, Tyresin. So they all kind of fall under the same T4 category. Just going from generic to brand.

Will they ever help anyone? Is there like a rare instance that those medicines would help?

So I heard a stat at a 4M, the academy for Anti Aging Medicine. Brilliant speakers there. I heard a stat one time and it stuck with me because I agree with it. Okay, 2% of those with hypothyroidism do well on. And they didn't really define what do well on means, but do well on T4 only. 98% of those with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's need a blend of T4 and T3 or T3 only.

What is even the point of blending it with T4? It sounds like it doesn't do anything.

You know, it's okay. Here's another analogy for you. Checking and savings. Checking and savings account. So I am T3 only. I do not convert. I have a genetic snip that prevents me from converting T4 whether it's produced by my own thyroid or whether I take it, it prevents me from converting that T4 over to that act of form T3 and I end up with an elevated reverse T3. I am T3 only, meaning I have to live off of my checking account. And that sucks. No one wants to live off of their checking. But if you have to, you have to. Ultimately, I would love to have a savings account. And I try to give my patients who can tolerate it a savings account by giving them a little bit of T4 for savings. And then we give them T3 for the day to day spend for checking. But if they ever get into a bind, their bodies can pull from the savings account and move it over to checking. So ultimately, in a perfect world, that's what we would do. But like, you're, you're very much like me. We got to do T3 only because you have a tendency to push up your reverse.

So, Dr. Amy, this is. This is so fascinating to me. I mean, gosh, I've learned so much about thyroid from you. And just to give you. You all an example, I was. I'm that example. I had a higher reverse T3 pushing into Hashimoto's was also told the wrong things. And thank goodness, Dr. Amy interrupted it. She's like, that's not gonna do anything. That's literally not gonna do anything. So my next question is, if someone feels amazing, they feel amazing. They don't have any of the stuff you're talking about. They're not gaining weight, they're not having hair, they're not having any of the symptoms. Okay. And their labs are showing something wrong. Like, they do their T3 and it shows low or whatever it's showing, but they feel amazing. Do they still need to treat it?

They need to keep a close eye on it, because that amazing can shift in a heartbeat. And I've seen it over and over and over again. And. And literally sometimes within a couple of weeks. So there was a time I remember the person. I can see her in front of me. We had that conversation, same thing. I'm like, oh, well, look at your labs. But.

But look at you.

You're not gaining weight. No, I feel great. I'm operating at a higher, high level. I'm good. And it was literally three to four weeks later, she's like, oh, my gosh. Like, what you told me about the thyroid is right. I just literally put on five pounds. I haven't changed anything with my diet. I'm sluggish. I'm holding water. Now all of a sudden, like, what in the hell do you still. That it just eventually caught up to her. So.

And I have this theory that I think especially people that are extra aware of their health, that are extra cautious of things, they might be doing a lot of things to keep their energy up and all the things. And it's still. I'll tell you, all this was. This is exactly my case. You know, I don't have symptoms of low thyroid at all. Like, none of. None of the things. But Amy has told me, you gotta just keep an eye on it. I am on a very low dose of T3 right now. Very low dose. Just keeping an eye on it, because I don't want that to start happening, because I think. And you. She shared with me that if I didn't eat healthy and do all the things that I do, I probably would feel those things. So I think we can strong arm it to some degree. But we do need to keep an eye on this and be really aware if we do not pay attention to this and we go into decline. Just remind us again, like, what would happen if we just ignore our thyroid.

If you ignore your thyroid, number one, you're, you're going to get all of the symptoms. You will get the weight, you will get the fatigue, you will get the hair loss, you will get the constipation, you will get the cold intolerance, hands down. But there's a much deeper thing going on as well. And we have to again, look at the thyroid as the master gland. It controls your heart, it controls your whether or not you become diabetic, it controls inflammation in the body, it controls your blood pressure, it controls your lipid panel and your cholesterol levels. So these are things that, you know, we don't tend to focus on because as women, we're like, I don't want to, I don't want my clothes to be tight. I want to have energy. Yeah, I don't want my hair falling out, thank you very much. And I would really like to poop every day. But we don't think about our health on a day to day basis about our heart, our blood pressure. What about all those underlying factors that are going on beneath the surface? And it's funny, it's like you don't think about your thyroid until you have to.

Totally.

Yeah.

Gosh, this is so fascinating. I've got, I have so many more questions to ask, but I don't want to. Like, we could go on for hours and hours and hours. Here's what I want to, I want to share with you. I wanted to do this podcast today. I wanted to do this first take of things because I really just wanted a basic education on why the thyroid's important, what could go wrong if we don't address it, and what are some of these things mean? So thank you. You've totally helped clarify that. I just want to share with you all where you can go a lot deeper on this. There's kind of a couple, there's a couple options coming up. Ultimately, Dr. Amy has a program which is really super cool, which kind of, it doesn't take the doctor out of the equation. Like, we all need doctors, right? But it lets you kind of take back control and figure out what you need and correct your thyroid yourself. Like, that's pretty cool. So she's got that, that's, that's one option. But even better, I would love for you all to do this because it's free and it's fast approaching on the 26th. So that's coming up soon. Her and I are going to be doing a joint class together, a group. What'd you call it? It's I. I call it a workshop.

Would you call it a strategy session?

A strategy session. I'm gonna do a fun interactive strategy session on the 26th. And this is free, by the way. But you do have to save your spot because it's gonna get full and it will not hold a lot of people. So it's kind of like first come to register, first come to show up. But we're gonna do this strategy. And what's really going to be cool on this is she's going to go deeper on these things, but she's also going to talk to you about the triggers of thyroid dysfunction. Like, what's triggering it, why a lot of these standard approaches fail, all the different medications and treatment options, like, what is actually good and what's not good, just so you could be really aware and also what to ask for, like, so you know what you're looking for in testing. This class is free now. She. I will be on there with her because I'm going to have more questions, of course, so you'll see me there. But she's going to be really teaching and leading this, and I think you're going to leave time for Q and A, right? Like, you're going to, oh, yeah, I love you. And you can come, like, with your labs and, like, really be ready to say, hey, help me here. So this is totally free now. If you just go to Dr. Amy's page, you'll see she. She's offering different classes. I want you to come to the one that we're doing together specifically, because you all know where I'm going with this. I'm going to make sure we, like, really go deep and get these specific things answered. So come to our class. So I know that you came from this show and that you're all the things, and we're going to do that. So to find that, I'm going to link it in the show notes. But also if you go to midlife conversations.com so midlife conversations.com forward slash thyroid. So midlife conversations.com forward slash Thyroid. That's where you can sign up and register for the class. If for some reason you are listening to this episode way after the class, I will still have that link redirecting to where you can get help. So don't worry. So, but come to the class so you can get that live help. Anything I miss that you want them to know about this class. Dr. Amy. Or even your program that, that we're going to ultimately want. Because I like what the reason I want I'm glad you're doing this class first is I really like all of you. Before you ever join a program or do a program, try on the coach as a coach first. So the reason I love and I insist, anytime I ever talk about someone's class like program, they need to do a class first because I want you to try on their coaching and make sure it's resonating with you.

Absolutely. So one last thing I will say about this class that we're doing together. You will learn things that I have not talked about on my podcast if you happen to follow me that you have definitely not heard on any kind of thyroid expert talk summit. Nothing. So a lot of what I talk about on these classes, I hold back. I don't put it out there for the public. I want it to be information that just a select few people get. And, and you know, I love your audience. Many of my patients have gone through your programs. We just, we really help a great, great group of women. We really do. And I have a special place in my heart for them. So that's why I want to go deeper and especially with your audience, give them something that they have never heard before.

I love this. Thank you so much. Dr. Amy thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

This will be fun.

Thank you for joining this midlife conversation today. If you found this episode valuable, please share it with friends and family and be sure to tag me on social media. Natalie Jill fit the biggest thank you you can give me if you love this show is to leave a review and hopefully a nice one at that. Now, as a gift, if you do leave me a nice review and screenshot and send it to support Natalie jill.com we will happily send you our digital DSR journal as a thank you to advertise on this podcast. Partnerships on this show are done by partnerships by Category 3 media group. To advertise or to inquire about that, reach out to Sales Adminategory 3 cat.