Graves Disease Vs. Hashimoto’s: Understanding Hyperthyroid Symptoms

Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reversing Hashimoto's and Thyroid Disorders Summit. And, I'm your show host, Doctor Gupta. I have a very special guest with me today because he's talking about a very special topic about how she talks psychosis, as well as hypothyroidism and graves disease. A lot of people talk about Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism, but they're very few experts, you know, who want to talk about hypothyroidism. So, Doctor Eric Kazansky is one of those, you know, who specializes into that.

So I'm really excited about our topic today, but let me introduce him first before we move into the questions. Piece of it. So Doctor Eric K is a chiropractor, clinical nutrition ist and a certified functional medicine practitioner who has over 20 years of experience in health and wellness industry and has been helping people with thyroid and autoimmune disorders since 2009. He is the author of the books Natural Treatment Solutions for Hypothyroidism and Graves Disease, Hashimoto's Triggers, and the Hypothyroid Healing Diet, and is a host of the Save My Thyroid podcast.

The True Sense Ki was personally diagnosed in 2008 with graves disease and after taking a natural treatment approach, has been in remission since 2009. After seeing how well natural treatment methods help his condition, he began using these natural thyroid treatment protocols to help others with different kind of thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions, including hypothyroidism, graves disease, hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's disease. Douglas and Ski welcome all here. Thank you so much for having me, Doctor Gupta.

Really looking forward to this conversation. Absolutely. And I think, you know, like you had a great story of having a personal disease of the season, overcoming it in natural ways. So I think, why don't we kind of like to hear your story of how you were able to overcome it? Sure. So this was, back in 2008. I was intentionally dieting and detoxifying and trying to lose weight. And I was very successful, but was losing a lot of weight. And it took me some time to realize that that was related, or at least partially related to hypothyroidism.

And the reason I knew is because one day I was walking around a retail store or a Sam's Club, and they had one of those automated blood pressure machines, and I took my blood pressure, which was normal, but my resting heart rate was was high. It was it was 90 beats per minute. And, which was unusual for me. So I took my heart rate the next few days, and it was anywhere between 90 and 110 beats per minute. And so I went to, primary care doctor, got some blood testing done, thyroid testing specifically.

And, sure enough, was, diagnosed at hypothyroidism. And then eventually, once it ended, chronologies and then was diagnosed graves. And so

Personal Graves Disease Recovery Story 3:25

up until that point, I didn't have experience with graves. I my background is a chiropractor, but I when I took my continuing education credits, I took some functional medicine courses. That or functional medicine seminars that focused on endocrinology. And they spoke about thyroid conditions, both Graves and Hashimoto's and natural approaches. And so I knew I was going to at least give the natural treatment approach a try. I didn't know if it would be successful. So I made dietary changes, did some testing, and, took some supplements.

And long story short, but gradually my condition improved, my symptoms improved and went away. And the blood test eventually normalized. Antibodies, the graves, these antibodies normalized. And then I decided to help others with starring in autoimmune thyroid conditions. And, even though I wrote a book on Hashimoto's as well, I have, as you mentioned, two books on hypothyroidism. And just because I personally dealt with hypothyroidism, I see more people with hypothyroidism and graves than those with Hashimoto's just because of my story.

And so, yeah, that's, and, brief summary how I went about restoring my health. Absolutely. And that is so fascinating. You know, a lot of people are not given a hope that they can be in remission or are able to reverse their thyroid condition. So people like you, who are practitioners and have helped people to not only reverse their own condition, but others, that is a huge, huge achievement. So why don't we actually delve directly into like talk a little bit more about like what is graves and, you know, or like also a little bit about how she talks psychosis, you know, situation.

So tell us a little bit about those situations. So people are a little bit aware of that. Sure. So what graves. Graves. It's just like Hashimoto's. Both graves and Hashimoto's thyroiditis are autoimmune condition. So with graves disease you have what's called thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins. Those are the antibodies associate graves. They're a type of TSH receptor antibody. And they bind to stimulate the TSH receptors of the thyroid. And that causes the thyroid gland to secrete excess amounts of thyroid hormone and so on.

A blood test you'll see elevated thyroid hormones. So T3, T4 and then TSH is a pituitary hormone. And TSH it signals to the thyroid gland either to produce more thyroid hormone or in the case of hypothyroidism, since you have too much thyroid hormone, it'll do the opposite. It doesn't want your body, it doesn't want your thyroid to produce more thyroid hormone. So you'll see low TSH, depress TSH, and so, so graves low T at low or depressed TSH, elevated thyroid hormones, and then elevated thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins which again are the antibodies for graves.

So Hashimoto's we'll get into actually toxic doses in a in a minute. But Hashimoto's we see that. Well not well the opposite as far as say it's you usually have lower thyroid hormones. It might be within the range but not within the optimal range. And then as a result, as high as high in Hashimoto's thyroid hormones low or on the lower side and the antibodies associated with Hashimoto's, you got the thyroid globulin antibodies and then you got the peroxidase or TPO antibodies, which are actually also pretty common in those are graves too.

And some people have all three antibodies, the antibodies for both Hashimoto's and Graves. So what is hoshi toxic ptosis. Because I'm guessing that a lot of people watching this are not familiar. What? Hoshi talks psychosis. So Hoshi talks psychosis. So with Hashimoto's, a lot of people again experience the hypothyroidism because the thyroid is low. But when you get damage to the thyroid gland, it could also cause a rush of thyroid hormone into the bloodstream and can cause transient hypothyroidism.

And so the if you did a blood test, they would actually show hypothyroid markers. So again you'd have elevated T3, T4 that depress TSH. And so how do you know if it's Hoshi toxic poses or graves disease. And you know because the antibodies the antibodies if someone tests, let's say all three antibodies if they have hypothyroidism

Understanding Graves, Hashimoto's, and Hashitoxicosis 8:12

and they're Tsai those thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins are negative. But the thyroid globulin and or the TPO antibodies are positive. And that is a pretty good indication of hoshi toxic doses. I mean, it's not perfect because you could have false negative antibodies, but most of the time if someone has graves, they will have those. Tsai I mean, another sign of graves is a lot of people have thyroid disease. So if if even without testing the antibodies, if someone has hypothyroidism and they have eye pressure, eye swelling, eye bulging, then in all likelihood, it's graves disease.

And then there's also something called the radioactive iodine uptake test that looks at, the uptake of the thyroid uptake of iodine and, in graves usually that's elevated. I don't I can't say I love that test, but again, and most people don't need that if they know that if the TSI is elevated, they do the KCI. Then again, you know, it's graves. Like I said, if you have have the symptoms of thyroid disease and in the presence of hypothyroidism then probably is graves. But if those TSI, those thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins are negative and the person's not experiencing that any thyroid disease symptoms and they have those other antibodies, one or both of those other antibodies, and again with with the hypothyroidism, then that is most likely hoshi toxic osis.

Does that make sense? Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much for kind of clearing these things, because a lot of people with Hashimoto's disease have been told by their doctors they are hypothyroid. And then, you know, suddenly they don't know what is happening with them. Because if you go online and search and then obviously it was told that it is Hashimoto's is associated with hypothyroidism. So this makes absolute sense for those people that for some amount of time you might be into harsh toxic doses and the way to differentiate into these antibodies.

So thank you for kind of sharing that. But the interesting point that you brought up was that antibodies can be shared between Hashimoto's and Graves disease. Both are autoimmune conditions. Yes, there is some difference in the antibodies, but there is also overlap between the TPO and the thyroid globulin, which can be positive in both. So essentially, can you say that the approach to lower the antibodies, you know, is very similar in both Hashimoto's and Graves? Or is it different? Yeah, it is similar.

I mean, the main difference between Graves and Hashimoto's, it's the symptomatic control. So with, with graves, typically you'll take anti-air medication or anti-foreign herbs such as bugle weed. And then a lot of people with Hashimoto's will take thyroid hormone replacement. But again, we got to keep in mind that there are primarily immune system conditions, autoimmune conditions. And you're absolutely right. Because regardless of whether someone has Graves or Hashimoto's, you're going to the approach is going to be the same again, the book, like the book that I have, Hashimoto's triggers, I could have easily crossed out the Hashimoto's triggers and put graves and like maybe changed some of it.

Like 80% of what's in that book will also help people with graves as well. And same thing with a lot of the information that's in my hypothyroid. But obviously symptomatic symptom wise it's going to differ. But a lot of the as far as finding remove and trigger is healing the gut, which we very well might talk about here. But but again, yes. So to answer your question, there is definitely overlap when it comes to addressing that autoimmune component and lowering those thyroid antibodies. So again a very important point.

I think most people, you know, do not understand that there are two separate components of either Hashimoto's and Graves disease. One is an autoimmune component and one is the thyroid component. Whether your thyroid is producing excessive hormone or less amount of hormone, and the conventional medicine is only taking care of that piece of the puzzle of addressing your thyroid hormones, but then not doing anything with the autoimmune piece of it. Is that correct? Yep, that is absolutely true. And that's where, you know, like through your approaches.

That and obviously the functional medicine approach is, is that where we work on the root causes and address these autoimmune components so that we can lower the antibodies. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's I mean really with any autoimmune condition, I mean there's going to be there's going to be some differences. But whether it's Hashimoto's graves or multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, again, all these are immune system conditions. So the approach is going to be the same. There might be there might be a tendency to have different triggers, like some people with maybe rheumatoid arthritis more likely to have triggers that are not as common in other autoimmune conditions, but and same thing with Graves and Hashimoto's.

But yeah, there's, there's there's different categories of triggers and and yeah, it's yeah. Like you said, I mean, you know, just same thing I mentioned my book, your book behind you Reversing Hashimoto's, same thing. You could like cross out the Hashimoto's, but grave and just, similar because it's all about addressing that autoimmune component. But like you said, there is a forward component and it is important to manage it because there are some people don't want to manage it. They just want to focus on the immune system because they hear us talking about how it's immune system. But it's important.

You don't want to add hormones be too low. If you have Hashimoto's, and same thing if you have elevations in thyroid hormone, you definitely want to do things to address the hypothyroidism. Absolutely. So tell us like a little bit about how people can lower these antibodies. You know, like what is your approach of dealing with these things. Yeah. So there's what's called the triad of auto immunity, also known as a three legged stool of auto immunity. And so what the triad, there's a genetic component exposure to one or more environmental triggers, and that increase in intestinal permeability, which is the medical term for leaky gut.

So genetics we can't do any anything about I mean we could change the expression of genes, but we can't change our genes completely. So the good news is we can find or remove the triggers and they usually are multiple triggers. And then we could do things to to heal the gut. And there are different types of triggers. There's there's food. There's it's stress. There's chemicals, there's infections. People could have nutrients, deficiencies. I mean, there's again, a number of different and there's different types within those categories.

So like infections there's bacterial infections, it's viral infections, there's stealth infections like Lyme disease, Bartonella there's parasites. So it can get complex. Just that's I mean, that's not always easy to find or remove the triggers, but that's what we want to do. And sometimes we could accomplish, just by going through a conference of health history. Other times, we need to, many times I find we need to do some type of functional medicine testing, whether it's looking at the adrenals, looking at the gut, doing a comprehensive stool panel, doing organic acids testing, or maybe doing a stealth infections panel, doing molds like testing your home for molds or doing a urinary mycotoxins test.

Those are some of the tests. Again, I don't recommend that these tests on everybody. It depends on the person. And then the gut. Just trying to find out what is affecting the gut, what's causing the leaky gut. And not not everybody who has a leaky gut has symptoms. That's, So just there, I'm sure you experience where someone says, oh, my, my gut feels fine. I don't think there's any issues with my gut. And again, many times, many, many times it might look okay, even on a stool test, like, you might not see parasites or H.

Pylori, but even that doesn't completely rule out a leaky gut. So that's, so yeah, I incorporate, like, the five hour protocol, try to remove the factors that can cause a leaky gut, whether it's something like gluten. So dietary changes, even stress can affect permeability of. The gods are trying to reduce your, perception of the stressors. And, again, infections, if you have if you do have a gut infection, obviously trying to address that gut infection and then replace with, digestive enzymes, stomach acid, commonly low in people, dietary fiber reinforced with pre and probiotics, repair

Autoimmune Triggers and Gut Healing 17:08

the gut and and rebalance the parasympathetic nervous system. So, so yeah, really just finding removing the triggers, healing the gut again, make it sound easy. But like I said, it's it's very as you know, it could in some people could be complex. And the other thing which I've seen is that a lot of people are looking for that just one particular root cause, and that's where they are very focused on changing their diet a lot of times. But then they don't do anything beyond it. And a lot of times they tell that, okay, well, my antibodies or symptoms are not getting better.

From my experience. I've seen that generally people who have more than one root cause between 2 or 3 root causes playing a role together. Is that what your experience has been with two? Yeah, it's I mean, even in my book, my most recent book, The Hypothyroid Healing Diet, I still have an entire section that is beyond the hypothyroid healing diet that goes beyond just cleaning up your diet. Because you're absolutely right. I find that eating and and a whole foods anti-inflammatory diet very important when it comes to healing, but it's usually only a piece of the puzzle.

I mean, everybody's different. There are certainly some people that might just eliminate gluten, and then maybe that's the only trigger, but most of the time it goes beyond that. They they need to not only change their diet, but do a good job of managing their stress. And again, it's very common that functional medicine testing will show, one or more other triggers. So yeah, diets important. But I definitely agree that you usually have to do other things besides just clean up your diet. So now as you're talking about the topic of the diet and obviously, you know, with your recent book.

So I mean, obviously there's a lot of confusion about the diet because there's so many different diets out in the market. You know, whether it's the AARP diet or, you know, doing a carnivore diet or a ketogenic diet. So, you know, like, do you have any affiliation or like, you know, a recommendation for any particular diet? Or again, it is depends on the person to person. I mean, it does depend on the person. I mean, for example, in my book, The Hypothyroid Healing Diet, I talk about three different diet.

So it's not just like one diet fitting everybody. And even those three diets aren't I mean, you like you said, everybody's different. I mean, you mentioned carnivore, which, I can't say I have my patients follow a carnivore, but for some people it could be very effective in helping with autoimmunity. I usually have people follow. I mean, I, I do have people eat plant based foods, so it's not typically carnivore, but, so yeah, I, I think it's a great diet. It is pretty restrictive. But for graves, Hashimoto's.

But also some people aren't ready to follow an IP like mentally either. They're they they might be better off following just a regular paleo diet or, maybe a modified paleo diet. And, the the challenge again, everybody is different. So some people might be fine eating nightshades, other people might not be fine eating nightshades. Same thing with some other foods, I think. Well, we all would agree. Definitely myself and you and then probably everyone else participating in this and that. We, you know, whole healthy foods and, and avoid the refined foods, avoid the sugars, avoid the unhealthy oils.

Avoid the gluten, the common allergens, gluten while healing dairy. I mean, again, can you can someone with autoimmunity reintroduce gluten and dairy later on? Again, there's controversy. A lot of people would say no, you know, avoid gluten forever. Some would say even avoid dairy forever. But while at least while you're healing, I usually recommend take a break from the gluten, take a break from the dairy, take a break from the corn, or, you know, and, try to avoid the unhealthy oils and stick with olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, avoid the refined foods and sugars.

And, so, so yeah, there's not a single diet that fits everyone perfectly. But I do put people on an elimination type diet. And in a type diet, that's essentially what it is. It's a type of elimination diet, just eliminating certain foods. But like I said, if someone's not mentally ready to follow an AP diet or if they're vegan or vegetarian, it would be very difficult for them to follow a IPE diet. So maybe we'll have them be more flexible, making sure they get enough protein and just see how they progress.

Absolutely. I think that's very, again, a balanced approach towards a diet, because I think the extremes of the diet, you know, can always be difficult for people to follow. And sometimes it can backfire. So I'm very glad that, you know, you have a balanced approach. Plus also very customized approach to each and every patient can be different. So now from the diet, why don't we talk about a little bit about chemicals and toxins. Because you know like you know that's again a very important topic.

A lot of people get exposed to different chemicals and toxins. So what kind of toxins do you see typically are playing a role, you know, and as a trigger, especially for Graves and Hashimoto's disease. Yeah, a big one are the xeno estrogens, the endocrine disruptors. We have, in our environments. And and that's in the research as well. So they could directly affect thyroid, but they could also affect the immune system and potentially be a factor when it comes to autoimmune conditions such as Graves and Hashimoto's.

So, a big one, which more and more people are getting better about. But still, there's a lot of people that drink out a plastic water bottles and, I mean, just I think overall you want to minimize exposure to plastic. And, I mean, I'm definitely not perfect. I'm I try to avoid the plastic water bottles as much as I can. And I mean, if you're going on vacation or something like that, I understand every now and then it's not going to be a big deal. But if you're buying plastic water bottles by the case, then that might be something you want to change.

Because again, it's not just me and other functional medicine practices. You're saying this it is in the research how it can negatively affect the thyroid gland and also potentially negatively affect the immune system. And then, I mean, so there's the endocrine disruptors, the xeno estrogens, and there's and and again, it's not just I mentioned plastic water bottles, but there are other other sources of plastic, even thermal paper receipts. So whenever you go to like a grocery store and you get the receipt and again, this is in the research.

So you touch a receipt and you get the bisphenol A going through your bloodstream, the BPA and and some would say speak of BPA some more with the water bottles. Now you see the BPA free water bottles, but they have other you know, they have other xeno estrogens or BP's BPF. BPA. Yeah. So anyway, and those have been shown to be just as bad and maybe even worse than BPA. So. So yeah, I would say even the even the BPA free bottles I would try to stay away from, I would say stainless steel glass and heavy metals.

So heavy metals, mercury is a big one. There's still unfortunately, a lot of people who have mercury amalgams in their tooth, in their teeth. So just, potentially seeing a biological dentist who will remove the mercury amalgams, taking the appropriate precautions is because if you go to a regular dentist, they won't take those precautions. They might not even want to remove them. A lot of times they'll say, they've been in there 30, 40 years.

Diet Strategies for Thyroid Autoimmunity 24:58

Just leave them in there and, and again, that's not always a trigger. I, I definitely work with people who don't remove them and still get into remission, but I still would make it a gold, even if someone gets into remission for an overall health perspective. But yeah, mercury can also affect the thyroid, also affect the immune system. And then there's other environmental talk, other heavy metals like aluminum. Nothing in the research that shows that it triggers Graves or Hashimoto's. But it is an immune stimulator.

I mean, it's that's why it's used as an adjuvants and certain vaccines. And so and you could definitely take steps to avoid the, aluminum by making sure you're not not using aluminum pots and cans, not eating regularly out of canned foods, not using aluminum deodorants, for example. And and there's so many other toxins that, I mean, again, not all of them are tied to autoimmunity, but still, just the flame retardants. I believe there are some studies showing that that can affect immune system and potentially cause an autoimmune disorder, or at least be a contributing factor, maybe in some cases not the whole.

Like we said, there's usually multiple triggers, so it's hard to know. Is it the flame retardants. Is it you know, is it the xeno estrogens combined with eating gluten and all these other things or the glyphosate. So the glyphosate also, but, well, before going into glyphosate. So flame retardants found in like clothing, furniture. So like the mattress you sleep, that you sleep on, like, we have a natural mattress and it's I mean, if someone just got a mattress like, recently or even a year or two ago.

I'm not saying replace your mattress, but again, just something to keep in mind because we spend and most people are going to spend 6 to 8 hours in their bedroom, hopefully at least six hours hopefully, honestly, at least seven, eight hours sleeping. So and if not, definitely want to work on that. But yeah, so just the fumes. So that so that could be a factor. I mentioned glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in the herbicide roundup. And again, I don't I haven't seen anything showing that glyphosate specifically triggers Graves or Hashimoto's.

But there definitely is evidence that it disrupts the gut microbiome, which is important. Most of the immune system cells, like 7,080% of the immune system cells, are in the gut. So if you have an unhealthy gut, you're going to have an unhealthy immune system. So eating organic, will at least help to minimize the deficit. You're not going to eliminate it completely. There are some foods now that'll like, say, glyphosate free. And I mean, if you're eating whole healthy foods again, you're going to minimize your exposure to glyphosate.

And that's what it's all about. You're not well, no matter what you do, you're not going to completely eliminate your exposure to environmental toxins. So you just want to do as much as you can, especially in your own home. Again, there might be other speakers who I'm sure who spoke about this, but natural cleaners and cosmetics, again, the the oh, you don't have to go crazy and change all your furniture like I mentioned, flame retardants, but still just be aware of that. And definitely cleaners, cosmetics, the food you eat, the water you drink, purify your water.

You know, consider a shower filter or a whole house filter because it's not just the water you drink, but the water you bathe in. And then, yeah, just air purifier. So and so once you step out your home, you don't have a whole lot of control. So you definitely want to do as much as you can in your own home. I think it's a process. You know, I think people just need to be aware of it, that, you know, there are multiple exposures that, you know, they might be going through in the daily life and being aware of it and being cognizant in the future of making better decisions, because, as you said, you know, it will be too overwhelming to completely turn your life upside down, and it can be very expensive to, you know, if you do want to remove these exposures, but like at least be cognizant about it, reduce your exposure today. And then obviously in the next couple of years you can be really be clean, right?

Yeah. Well, I mean, and I will say this, I mean, it's not it's not that expensive. I mean, you know, I'd like to change, like to get a water filter or even like a shower filter, like, yeah, if you get a whole house filter, then that could add up. But getting a shower filter for $80, a water filter. Yeah, maybe it costs a couple of hundred dollars. But again, if you're buying water, buy the case that that's going to add up to. And and again natural cleaners, cosmetics, you know, again, I mean it does add up, but it's, it's not like you have to spend thousands of dollars, to make some changes.

But but I think just like with the food, some people might not be ready to jump into AI diet again. Like, I don't want people to get overwhelmed and say I have to make all these changes. I would say, you know, start with your water. At the very least, if you're not drinking purified water, if you're drinking tap water again, water out of plastic bottles, maybe start with that and then and then yeah, maybe you could like start with some of the more commonly used cosmetics and cleaners. Like if you spray around the house, maybe you just replace that one spray that might cost like $5 to get something natural or that, or you can make your own even what, like, baking soda, apple cider vinegar.

Environmental Toxins and Endocrine Disruptors 30:28

But yeah. So you definitely don't want to get overwhelmed. So, I don't think it should take most people, like, years to make all these changes, but I mean, certainly doable within a few months for, for most of the major, you know, things that we use on a everyday basis, absolutely. Again, that's great. So we spoke about the diet. We spoke about the toxins. What else you do, you have, like, you know, that can help people to lower the antibodies and also improve their graves. So I mean, stress stress is a big factor.

So we spoke about food. We spoke about environmental toxins and stress is also something we usually can't completely get rid of because we're always going to have stressors. And so just doing things to improve our stress handling skills is important. And it's it's also important to keep in mind it's not just emotional stressors. So one thing I mentioned earlier when I was dealing with graves went up before being diagnosed. I was dieting and detoxifying, but I was also overtraining. I was overdoing it.

I was so I was putting a lot of stress on my adrenals, not just with the emotional stressors, but over exercising. So a lot of people are doing high intensity exercise, which nothing. I mean, there's some definitely some health benefits of high intensity interval training, but some people are overdoing it, some people running marathons and triathlons. And again, I'm not saying there aren't health benefits of that, but you want to listen to your body. And so it's it's a combination of the emotional stressors, the physical stressors, the trauma, as even past traumas from many years ago could be a factor.

And sometimes we might need to, speak with a counselor or work with another expert that deals with trauma. And, but from just a basic stress management perspective, I recommend just getting in the routine of stress management. Starting out with five minutes per day. Just because, again, it would be great if we could do 20, 30 minutes or more per day. And maybe eventually you will. But you want to get in that routine of doing something every single day. Just like eating healthy. You don't want to just eat healthy three days a week.

Okay, I'm just Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm going to eat healthy and every. So the same thing with stress management. You want that every single day. But even if it's five minutes and just getting in the routine and once you're in the routine, maybe still some days you just do five minutes, but then other days you'll gradually increase to ten, 15, 20 minutes per day. So so yeah, stress is huge and sleep is also huge. That kind of ties into those because stress affects adrenals negatively and sleep will affect the adrenals negatively.

And again, sleep could be a work in progress. Some people neglect their sleep intentionally, but then others want to get sleep. They just have problems. And again, just there could be so many different factors when it comes to sleep issues. But but yeah, getting proper sleep and then making sure you're doing things, a properly manage your stress. Absolutely. I think those are all great tips. And, each and every person can easily implement them. That's the beauty about things that you're talking about that you know, each and every person, if they're a little bit regimented and if they want to make some changes and these can be huge game changer for all these people.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right. I mean, it's not five minutes per day. Just about everybody could do five minutes per day. So yeah, that's that's the stress. I'll say that when I work with, you know, again, I see a lot of great patients. And I mean, with Hashimoto's, too, stress is a factor. But with graves, it seems like, like 90% at a time. When I consult with someone, someone will say that I think stress is my trigger. And it's very, very common. So they'll know you were speaking with me. And, so again, I mean, some stress management sometimes might not be enough.

Again, I like testing the adrenals, whether it's a saliva test or doing a dried urine test like the Dutch test and seeing what the adrenals look like, look at the circadian rhythm of cortisol and some people do need supplements to help support adrenals or all these can benefit.

Stress, Sleep, and Practical Next Steps 34:48

Maybe they don't need it, but to help speed up the process. But if all you do is take supplements and you're not managing your stress, you're really not going to get optimal results. Absolutely. I think that's very important. A lot of people undermine the impact of stress, you know, on graves disease or Hashimoto's. So I'm glad that, you know, you stress the importance of it. So I think we covered so many different topics. And we are coming to the end of our discussion today. Any parting words you have for people or anything we have not yet covered?

Well, I mean, there's a lot of things we didn't cover, but, you know, again, we could go on easily, I'm sure another hour or two. But I mean, just, I would say that I mean, there's definitely hope whether you have graves disease or Hoshi toxic ptosis or obviously Hashimoto's. I mean, it's, there's as we discussed, there's usually multiple triggers, but you do need to incorporate the basics. So, I mean, some people will jump into the functional medicine testing, but if you're not incorporating, if you're not eating a healthy diet, if you're not managing your stress, if you're not looking to work on sleep, I mean, those are definitely the priorities.

We were just saying in the beginning that it's not usually you have to go beyond, diet and lifestyle. So yeah, so again, functional medicine testing is great, but definitely incorporate, the basics. And then yeah, we'll consider obviously working with someone whether it's, doctor, a Doctor Gupta here or me or, or someone else, it's really hard to I mean, it's even when work with a practitioner, it's it's autoimmune is challenging, but definitely it's more challenging doing it on your own and and lowering the antibodies, again, does take some time, but, definitely can be done.

Absolutely. I think those were great words from you. So tell people where they can find you, the great, amazing work that you have been doing, where they can know more about all this information. Yeah. So I do have a podcast. It's called Save My Thyroid. And you can either visit Save My thyroid.com and click on podcasts, or just go to your favorite podcast platform and type and say My Thyroid. And, that most of the episodes will benefit those with both hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's. There is a little bit of an emphasis on hypothyroidism, just because there's not a lot of information out there when hypothyroidism and then, and then my books again, you mentioned the three books, thyroid related books.

So you can just search my name, Erica Sandusky, on Amazon to find the three books. And then, Natural Endocrine solutions.com is actually my first website that has mostly articles and, blog posts, related to thyroid health and thyroid autoimmunity and, yeah, those are the I also have a YouTube channel as well. So you could search for my name on YouTube. But those. Yeah, those would be the, the main places people could find me. Absolutely. And you'll have all of these link in the description, so please go check it out.

A lot of great information. Thank you so much for coming over here today. You know I know we just scratched the surface today, but at least giving hope to people that they can get their graves better. So thank you so much for coming. Yeah. Thank you so much. Doctor Gupta was, great having this conversation. Absolutely. All right, guys, this is it for today. Thank you so much. Like.