The Body as your Engine, your thyroid is the Transmission!

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, talks to us about health, wellness, and balancing hormones. Comparing your body to how a car works is what we are in the middle of right now. We had a lot of the important bits, the engine, right, with, with With the car, our internal engine. And now we're getting into another important one, the thyroid.

The thyroid. And so for those of you who haven't heard the earlier podcast, we're talking about hormones and we are equating it to a car. So cortisol, think of cortisol like the engine of your car. Your engine needs to be running properly for everything else to work, right? Engine's not running, you're not going anywhere. Or at least not very quickly. You have friends pushing you, you might be, but that's what happens when your adrenals burn out. Thyroid. Thyroid's like your transmission, right? People have high thyroid, low thyroid. If you're not shifting in the right gear, your car's still not running very well.

Yes.

Then you've got your 4 wheels: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA. And you haven't missed that. We haven't talked about those yet. We've only talked just last week about Cortisol. So if you want to start at the beginning, go back to last week and you can hear that. But this week we're talking about thyroid and the transmission, or the transmission.

Which is so funny because the transmission is one piece of the car I just never think about, ever. I have never thought about my transmission whatsoever unless I've heard somebody talking about a transmission in the car. Would you say that that's similar to the thyroid? Like, nobody really thinks of their thyroid as being this real thing that is dealing with things inside your body, and then all of a sudden it doesn't work, and then it is everything.

John, yeah, that's perfect. That's exactly right. You don't think about your thyroid or what it does or where it even is. And, you know, you've heard somebody mention something, but you pay no attention. So it isn't until you have an issue But you become hyper-aware of your thyroid. Same with your transmission, right? You're driving around, you don't think anything of it. Cars are, you know, some people still have manual where they have to shift themselves, but it's automatic. It just does whatever and you don't think about it or worry about it. Just drive along.

Yeah. But man, when that, when that thing goes, it seems like it's all-encompassing because I've known, I've known one or two people where they have thyroid issues Mm-hmm. And then it is like not necessarily all they talk about, but that is where they are focused 100% of their time on trying to make sure that their thyroid is balanced. So, you know, I know we're gonna get into all of the— we're gonna get into all of it, the thick of things, thy— all things thyroid today. Would it be fair to say that, you know, because thyroid is so important, like there's a lot of things that can tell you that it's not balanced correctly? Or like where, where should we— should we start just talking about thyroid in general just to get somebody who doesn't know, because like we said, it's not something you're paying attention about, what does the thyroid do?

Right. Well, when you think about it, it controls your metabolism. It controls how fast your metabolism or slow your metabolism is. And that's why I like to talk about it being like a transmission. If it's running correctly, are you running in a low gear or a high gear? What's happening? And so most people, most things that we have are issues with a low thyroid. Okay. I had a doctor tell me once because I went to him and I said, you know, I think there's something wrong with my thyroid. And he said, oh, all you women and your thyroid, you put a little weight on and you blame it on your thyroid.

Oh my God. What? Really?

He did. Rude. And then when I came back in for my results, he apologized profusely because my thyroid was low.

Right? Mm-hmm.

So, weight gain, like my story, and this can happen. And exactly. So, I had done a challenge. The company I worked for, a bunch of us, the gym came, they came and presented, and the gym owner said, hey, you know, for the group, we'll discount. And I went and I did this challenge and I got fit really fast. I mean, every morning I was up at 7 and we were working hard and I was Trying to drink all the shakes and the food they wanted me to eat, and I was just so tired of eating. I was losing weight, but I was sore, and so they were like, drink more water, and that didn't work. Sleep more; that didn't work. Right? Well, what was really happening was my body was eating itself. I wasn't getting enough food in, and that in turn caused an autoimmune reaction, and. My body killed my thyroid. And so, all of a sudden, I just start gaining weight. Bam! I mean, it just comes on quickly.

Whoa.

I'm tired. You know, it's things like that when you know something's wrong, right? We know our bodies. We know how we feel. And that was my symptom. There are other symptoms.

Hair loss. Mm-hmm.

Being cold all the time, like you just cannot get warm and you're tired, you're overweight, you're losing your hair, you're cold, you can't get out of bed in the morning. You know, when you're sitting, you feel more tired than when you're actually moving around. And this is new, right? All of a sudden this happens. Now, that's a symptom of a low Thyroid, right? That's why you're tired. Things are slow.

Can you have the opposite? Can you have like an overactive or like too energetic thyroid?

You can have hyperthyroidism. And many times, so when I mentioned autoimmune, there is an autoimmune thyroid disease called Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Hashimoto's. I've heard of it. Yep.

Heard of that. So that is an autoimmune disease. And there are times That when our antibodies are attacking the thyroid, it— I don't know any other way to say that. It freaks out because it's being attacked and it will just spit out a ton of thyroid and people will become hyper prior to becoming hypo, right? Because it's hyper, the thyroid is— I can't really say it's defending itself because it's not, but it is under attack and it's feeling the need to put more thyroid out. more thyroid hormone out. And so now you might have heart palpitations, your heart pounds, your resting heart rate is not resting, right? You know, it's above 80. You can't sleep. You're just wired, right? You feel like you just drank a couple of Monsters. Not one, but two.

Oh my God.

And you're just, you know, over long periods of time. And I wish I could remember the actor's name. He was kind of a comedian. And he is an older actor and he was actually very well known. Gene Wilder. Do you remember? And you may not know, he had these eyes that bugged out of his head.

Yeah.

And that was from hyperthyroidism. So if it goes untreated, that's one of the things that can happen. And then a heart attack can happen because the heart is constantly beating all of the time. But you will be very uncomfortable. Hyperthyroid, you will be very uncomfortable.

Sounds awful. I mean, I, I'm not even really joking about this. I can't even drink, you know, a crazy energy drink even though I like caffeine because I feel like my teeth are itchy. So having 2 sounds just diabolical.

Right, right. And, and eventually sometimes it'll burn itself out, you know, before somebody even realizes. They were like, man, I used to have all this energy and all of a sudden I'm tired. There are other causes of hyperthyroid. You can have a goiter, or you can have a type of a tumor on the thyroid, and that can cause the thyroid to put more out. Then what they have to do in that situation is they have to make it stop.

Mm-hmm.

And there is no way to slow the thyroid down. So then usually what happens at that point is they kill it. They stop it from working and then you just replace the thyroid. But replacement is never as good as your own.

Right.

When I test people, when I do my hormone testing, I test for thyroid antibodies and I have caught several people. In fact, there's one I need to think about. He didn't want to address it at that time. He had other things going on and he goes, I'm not ready to address this. But when we find these antibodies, we want to protect the thyroid and try to save it if we can, try to stop the body from killing it. And what we know is many people with autoimmunity tend to have gastric impermeability, intestinal impermeability, not gastric.

Okay.

intestinal, used to be called leaky gut. What happens is the intestines lose their special, special mucus protective layer. The little junctures that are usually tight loosen and food gets into the body, into the bloodstream that shouldn't. Food gets out there into our system that shouldn't. And gluten, the gluten molecule is similar to our thyroid and how it looks. So when it gets into our system, our body says, uh-oh, this doesn't belong here. We got to kill it, right? Just like a virus or a bacteria. We need to kill it. That's our immune system. And we make antibodies to kill the gluten protein. But because the gluten protein looks like the thyroid, then those antibodies, then those soldiers, so to speak, they now go and fight the thyroid. And he'll—

oh my God. See, the way that you explained it, it makes so much sense. But then anytime anybody's tried to tell me what's going on, I feel like, oh my God, that just sounds awful. Right? Yeah.

They'll go, oh, you've got this dog, leaky gut, and you know, you just need to quit eating gluten.

Yeah.

Why? Because. And he's not ready to do that. Um, there are ways we can protect the thyroid with supplementation. Selenium and zinc are a very good one. Um, Many times, people need iodine. There is some controversy over whether people with Hashimoto's should be given iodine supplementation.

Really?

But I'm not talking about— yeah. But I'm not talking about megadoses of iodine. There is a doctor out there that swears by megadoses of iodine. And there is some— there is— I mean, he's got studies. There is something to that. But I believe that we as a society get much less iodine in our bodies than we used to. Because remember, table salt was iodized?

Yeah. Yeah.

You know why?

I always thought that was crazy.

Well, we didn't get enough iodine in our diets, so they iodized our salt.

Yeah.

As a preventative.

But then everybody— now, now here's a question. This doesn't really lead— I mean, it does. It's where my mind went when we started talking about iodized salt. Yeah.

You know how everybody Is—

and by everybody, I just mean myself, but like, I try to be fancy by using a different sort of salt. I use kosher salt.

Okay, so that's why I'm saying I feel that as a society, we're not getting enough. We probably aren't getting enough iodine.

Huh.

And what can happen is if you don't get enough iodine, then you get the enlarged thyroid, you get the goiter, and Now you've got a problem with the metabolic process of the body.

Hmm.

So, um, so one of the things that I will do is if somebody has thyroid antibodies, but yet their thyroid is still working properly, is try to protect it. And so I have a supplement that's especially for that, to protect that thyroid. And so I have him taking that. But he's not going gluten-free yet.

Mm-hmm.

So, you know, I, I need to address that with him again. I didn't, but, um, I need to remind him that maybe it's time to start thinking about that. But, but here's the thing, what most of us don't realize, and it's human nature, it's not just like you said, he's not going to think about his transmission until it gives him trouble. Right.

That's, that's the wrong time to be thinking about it because you're already in trouble.

Exactly. So now he's been warned. He's been told you need to watch that transmission fluid, right? Make sure it stays clean. Make sure you don't get all the metal shavings in that. It ruins your transmission. So make sure that you, you know, he needs to do things to protect it. But that's a lot, you know, if all of a sudden you're told, hey, you have an autoimmune disease and your body's killing your thyroid.

That is a lot. And, you know, I think another part of the human condition is we always still think that we're 20. You know, we can still eat whatever we want and it doesn't actually matter. So, yeah, I mean, if you told me today that, that same thing, I tell you what, I would try to make a difference in my diet, but it would be hard. Because I feel like gluten's in everything, even though we still have lots of options out there because, you know, people are a little bit more proactive about it and people are making products that are gluten-free and so on. I still think I'm 20 and I can eat Hot Pockets.

Right. Well, and it's so much easier than it used to be. I can remember, ooh, 12, 14, 15, 15 years ago, somewhere I worked where her daughter had celiac's and celiac's is where you can't eat gluten at all. That's, another autoimmune disease. You do not want that. So, and that's another thing. So now he knows he has autoimmunity, right?

Uh-huh.

He is at risk for celiac. Hmm.

He may be forced—

if he gets celiac, he's gonna be forced to quit eating gluten.

Yeah.

And I know another person I've talked to that got it and he couldn't even walk into a pizza restaurant without having a reaction because of that flour in the air, the gluten in the air. Oh my goodness. So, these are things you don't— I mean, yes, you can go gluten-free. Yes, you can take a pill and replace your thyroid, but you don't want to do that.

Yeah.

You just don't. But I have to admit, John, you're right because actually, if I was in my 20s and somebody told me this, I would've been like, yeah, whatever. I'll handle it when it happens.

I'll handle it when I'm 80, right? You just kick that can down the road. Right?

I used to say, I'll sleep when I die.

I do remember saying that quite a bit.

So, yeah, I'll just sleep when I die. My mom said, well, you're gonna die sooner.

Oh man, dose of reality. That's tough.

Right, right.

So we're, so we're talking about it and, and I think that the message is pretty clear, but I just wanna, I kind of wanna hit it home is like, you can, you can manage your thyroid naturally with Kind of knowing what, what to expect and then, and then having the right supplements or just having the right plan in place, right? So like in the case of, of what you were talking about, Patient A, he's— they, they've got, they've got their, you know, diagnosis pretty much set and they, they can or can't modify it. But like if you wanted to try to get ahead of that, if you are a planner and you are wanting to—

Mm-hmm.

Not kick the can down the road.

Right.

You would schedule, you would schedule time with you.

Yeah.

Get, get the assessment and then figure out, okay, here's what we're seeing now. And I think that this is a key that we talk about so far in every episode, but we're not— you're not looking at numbers saying you need to get to X number for whatever with any hormone. It's how do you feel and what are you dealing with? And then you're like, what's your normal?

That's a very good point, John. And that is one of the things when we're looking at the thyroid and we're looking at the different levels, right? So the standard, the medical standard that has been for many years, even back when I worked in endocrinology in the early 2000s, early '90s, was we looked at TSH, the thyroid stimulating hormone. So our pituitary would spit out this hormone when our body doesn't have enough thyroid to tell the thyroid. Hey, we need more energy. Let's get some more. Okay, we'd look at that level, and as long as that level wasn't real high, right? High stimulating hormone meant we didn't have enough thyroid. Okay, because that's kind of backwards. But then we've had the ability to say, but what about the thyroid hormones? There is a T1, a 2, a 3, and a 4. We have 4 different types of thyroid hormones. Our traditional practitioners have— are starting to learn in medical school, we better check that T4. When the THS, TSH, TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, spit into our body tells the thyroid to make T4, the thyroid makes T4. So we are now at least traditionally looking to make sure that the body is listening and that it can make that hormone.

Right. Hmm.

But that's usually where they stop. They check that free T4. I go further. I want to make sure because our body— what our body does is our body converts T4 to T3, a little bit of T2 and T1. We don't have a way to measure T2 or T1 at this time, but we can measure T3, which is a really active form that we need our cells, the mitochondria of our cells need for energy. So somebody can have a perfectly wonderful T4 level, but their body doesn't convert it to T3. They don't have enough. To go down that rabbit hole even further to say, well, that's great that maybe traditionally they're checking the T3, but what they call normal for T3 isn't necessarily optimal.

Right.

So I was just going over the results, the lab results for a patient, and her T3 was 2.1. Okay. And I want to look real quick to tell you what that lab said was normal. It is kind of important because this is one of the things that— well, I'll tell you, I had another patient that she was not optimal. She was falling asleep at her desk at 1 o'clock in the— 1 in the afternoon.

Mm-hmm.

And I gave her just the tiniest amount and she feels amazing. She's not over-treated with thyroid. She no longer falls asleep at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and she is thrilled. Okay? The normal, the normal is 2.5 to 4.5. So what happens if you're 2.5 to 4.0? That's normal. She's 2.7.

So she's within that normal range, right?

But optimally, I like to see between 3.5 and 4.5 for my optimal T3.

Oh, interesting. So like you're running, I don't know if this is transmission talk or not, but you're like running it a little bit in the red lines.

Well, no, no, the red line, not the red line. I wouldn't say red line.

No, no.

5 would be a red line. I'm gonna give 5 a red line.

Okay, 5. So you, but you like having it closer to like running a little bit higher?

Yes, optimal. Right?

Okay.

This is where you're going to feel better. This is where her body, she will actually feel better.

Okay.

She scored. So on my questionnaire, when you come to see me, I'll have you fill out paperwork and it's a whole bunch of questions.

Yeah.

On her questionnaire, she scored very high for low thyroid symptoms, putting on weight easily, dry skin, trouble getting up in the morning, Constipated, stiff joints, hair loss. Those are all symptoms of a low thyroid. Are they symptoms of other things? Can be.

Yeah.

But when I see that she's 2.7, she's barely above the lab's norm. Lab's norm is 2.5. She's barely above the lab's normal. She obviously, as you said, not just the number, right? We look at the symptoms. She has symptoms of low thyroid. Okay.

Yeah.

So my thoughts are, well, let's replace a little T3 and we'll give her a little more T4, and then we'll help her body convert the T4 to T3. People tend to feel better with some T3 replacement, and generally Traditional medicine just replaces T4 and hopes the body converts it. They don't check to see if it does. They just hope it does.

I love that theory. Just, let's just dump some in there, see if it works.

Right? How do you feel? You feel great? All right, then you're good. But that's as we've learned more, right? This is as we're starting to learn. Like I just said, we don't really have a way to test T2. So as we're starting to learn someday down the road, Which I myself take a T2 supplement, right? I'm Hashimoto's. I have my T4, T3, but I've added a T2 and I can tell the difference.

Oh.

100%. If I don't supplement my T2 that day on how I feel, my energy level is different. I am not hyper. My resting pulse is not high. But I feel way better if I replace that T2.

Oh, my gosh.

And that's a little bit out of even the evidence-based medicine of today. Okay. But down the road someday, I bet there'll be a T2 test and that will become something that we replace if we say we have symptoms. And I'm going to say energy will definitely be a symptom for T2.

Yeah.

So, so for her, I would replace some of that. I will tell her that your primary care doctor would absolutely have a cow because your levels are normal. There's no reason to be replacing it. Sherri's going to give you a heart attack. Oh, no. Is that what they would say? They might, because they believe if you replace thyroid when you don't need it, you, you know, You make the heart race. Like I said, what happens when you have too much thyroid, right? Your heart races and it's not good. And I'm very careful, you know, I'll be very low. And I tell people, if you at all feel hyper, if you all have trouble sleeping, if you, you know, check your pulse, if your pulse is high, then this is something we can't give you, right? This is— what do we do? No one has had that yet. There are providers out there that will give a supplement. And they'll do that because in that particular supplement, it will have glandular thyroid in it from an animal.

Hmm.

And you can raise thyroid by using the supplements. And then they know they can fly under the radar of the medical provider because medical providers are not going to turn anybody in for taking a supplement, but they might be upset if I'm giving a prescription.

Oh, okay.

Right?

Yeah.

So, but the way I think about it is I can't— there are good supplements and there are good companies. They're not regulated. I can't control their quality. I can't control whether, say, my patient's taking 3 supplements, tablets, and they forget to take it. Or they decide to mess with it and take 4, or they forget, right? I bet you remember to take your prescription medication, but if you don't take your supplement, you're like, eh, I'll take it tomorrow.

Yeah.

So I feel the prescription allows me to have a more stable treatment, and I watch the lab results, and I have some stability there.

That makes sense to me. I never thought about the difference between a prescription and a, and a supplement, but you're totally right. If, you know, I, I feel like we're taking not a ton of supplements, but, you know, vitamins and things. Yeah. But like, if I miss it, then I do the thing. I'm like, yeah, I'll just do it tomorrow.

Right, exactly. And, you know, I've got a patient now that, that takes that does not want to take a prescription and she's replacing— she's doing this on her own. I'm trying to help, but she's 2.1 on the free T3. She's even lower than a traditional. And she's trying to do it with a supplement.

Wow.

And she's everywhere. Sometimes I'm doing 4 and then 5 is too many and then we check her level and it's still low. So it's just very, very hard.

That is tough. But it goes back to what you said. And I think that that's like the main point, which is treating the person, not the number, trying to get you normal, whatever your normal is. And I think that that's a helpful thing because a lot of times, and again, not to You know, not to say that other people do it wrong or anything, but a lot of times in medicine, people treat the patient as these are the numbers, this is where you need to get to. And I think a lot of people can relate to that because that's what you feel when you go to the, you know, to the hospital.

Or my gal who came in and said, well, the provider just keeps saying your numbers look fine, you're fine. And she's like, but I'm not fine. I'm still having symptoms.

Yeah.

I'm not fine.

Exactly.

My numbers might be, but I'm not. And so, her numbers might be fine on the low end of normal. So, the provider's not willing to do anything more, but she might feel better on the high end of normal. But they're still normal. They're still fine numbers regardless of what end you're on.

Right.

Right? And then real quick, reverse T3. Reverse T3 is something that sometimes our body converts to and that Sits on top of our thyroid receptor and keeps our cells from using the thyroid. So I watch that. So if that reverse T3 is high, then even though your other levels are normal, you're like, I don't feel good. I still feel tired. I still feel all these things. You don't check that reverse T3, you don't know maybe that has risen. And so again, that's just support. That's just supporting and paying attention the whole hormone, everything you can, rather than just a couple of the numbers that you can test for that hormone.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I didn't—

I—

did we talk about reverse T3 before?

I feel like this is new information. I did not bring it up.

No. So you can have the right numbers, but then there's a 3rd number that's like getting rid of your T3, so you're not really using it the right way?

It sits on the receptor, so it's called reverse T3. And if you are making too much of that, it blocks the body from being— the cells from being able to use the T3.

Man.

So yeah, it's, it's, it's not as easy as it seems. It really is.

And you're looking at the whole picture. I mean, we're breaking it down one by one here, but when you're doing this with somebody, you're looking at this, plus you're looking at all the other numbers from all the other hormones too.

Right.

Gosh, that is a lot.

They all work together just like the car, right? It all works together. If one of those are not working properly, you got a flat tire, right? You got a motor that's missing a beat, so to speak. Yeah. And then, you just got to get it all balanced out.

And then, if you got multiple ones all messed up, then your picture's all complex too. You got a flat tire and your transmission shot and you're going to need an oil change.

Right? But that's so true. Your cortisol's high, it's sitting on your receptors, you have no DHEA, right? Your thyroid is low. Do you imagine how good you're going to feel when we get you straightened out? Balanced?

Man, I feel like an F1 race car.

That's right.

Well, that is awesome. Well, I think you live up to your name every time we talk here, which is hormone expert extraordinaire, Sherri Griggs.

Yes, that's right. Hormone expert extraordinaire.

Which I love. I think that's so great. But it's so true because you're just thinking about all these complex things as a whole picture for somebody for their own singular levels. That's wild.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So then next week, which one shall we talk about next week? Now we're going to start getting into the sex hormones. I think maybe we should talk about testosterone.

Do you want to do testosterone first? I did know, and, and here's, here's something that I noticed. I, I don't mean know, but I noticed most of the time when we're talking about the tires, you introduced estrogen first.

I do estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA.

Is there a reason they're easier to rattle off that way, or—

I mean, I'm happy to talk testosterone because, well, you know, I think that The thing about testosterone is that it is a little controversial. FDA does not think women need it, although they have it for the first half of their life. And then, after that, apparently, they don't need it anymore, right? So, it can be a little controversial.

Yeah.

A lot of men think that your testosterone is not low until you have erectile dysfunction. And, that's not necessarily true. There are other symptoms that happen first. But it seems to be the one that people just— there's a company out there that just really likes to give people lots and lots of it. So is that safe? What happens if you get too much? And that is the most controversial one.

So let's talk controversy then. I'm all in. Let's do testosterone next time.

Okay. Yeah, come at me. Come at me, John, with some things.

This has been the Balanced Body Medical Podcast with Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness. If you're looking to find Sherri, go ahead and look for the website balancedbodymedical.com. If you're looking for the business and you want to find Sherri at her office, you can find her at 10815 Elm Street in Rockbrook Plaza.

Thank you.