Gut, Liver, And Adrenal Health: Keys To Reversing Hashimoto’s

Introduction and Speaker Background 0:00

Hello everyone. Welcome back to reversing Hashimoto's and Thyroid Disorders Summit. I'm your show host, Doctor Anshul Gupta, and I'm really excited for our discussion today and our speaker, because we are going to talk a lot about how you can reverse your Hashimoto's, how your liver, your gut, your gallbladder, your adrenals, all of those things are connected towards Hashimoto's. But before we get into the discussion, let me introduce my speaker today. So Divya Gupta is a seasoned, functional nutritionist.

She specializes in empowering busy professionals to transcend their familial health patterns. Her unique approach combines her corporate experience with personal victories over gallbladder removal and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, enabling her to craft bespoke wellness strategies that seamlessly integrate into fast paced, modern lifestyle. As a bridge between cutting edge functional methodologies and practical, real world solutions. Divya's mission is clear to guide her clients towards reclaiming their vitality and living life on their own terms, but expertise lies in creating personalized health plans that not only addresses immediate concerns, but also pave the way for long term well-being.

Based in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, California maintains a thriving practice while embodying the work life balance she advocates. The personal journey stands as a testament to the transformative power of functional nutrition. Her story continues to inspire clients, demonstrating that with the right approach, it's possible to unlock one's full health potential and lead a vibrant, purposeful life. Divya, welcome over here. Thank you so much, doctor, and you for having me. So excited to be here.

Absolutely. And just before we were just having a discussion that you yourself went through Hashimoto's disease. So I think we will like to start with if you're okay with sharing your health struggle with Hashimoto's disease and how you were able to overcome it. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, that's how I got into the space. You know, as a very typical stereotypical Indian immigrant. You know, we are either doctors or engineers or lawyers. You know, I know you went the doctor out, I went the engineering route and I was I'm a computer science engineer by in my education background.

I came to the US from my master's and, you know, and started working in corporate America like I was in top four consulting firm and I worked in corporate America for 16 plus years. So everything you know, as you know, what you dreamed of, you know, what your parents dreamed of. You know, I'm living that life. But this is a huge change. One 8360 degree. So what I was actually trained for and it happened stemmed from my own health challenges and watching my own mom go through it, too. So as I said in the story, you know, I before my Hashimoto's diagnosis, I

Divya's Hashimoto's Journey 3:04

my gallbladder was taken out at the age of 20 while I was still in India. And again, that was a long time ago. More than I would like to admit. You know, you know, to two decades ago where seemingly healthy, everything's fine and, you know, healthy young. You know, I was I was in college, right. That then, you know, I really was dealing with gallbladder stone attacks, which was, you know, it really you may have, you know, a heart. I know probably not. Experience intensified night after night. Again, long story short, within a span of a few months after we figured out what it was, the doctor offered, hey, we can take it out.

You can live without the gallbladder. I'm like, sure sounds good. Get me out of this pain. And at that point, I had no idea what the gallbladder is, what it does. Just get me out of this pain and misery. And, you know, once it was out, you know, lights got back to God and God normally, you know, I came to the US, you know, I was in a Ivy League school studying the masters. You know, the stress. Now you add the food changes. And a few years later, I got my Hashimoto's diagnosis. And again prior to that, I was dealing with a lot of symptoms that I'm sure a lot of listeners are listening.

You know, I was tired. No matter how much I sleep, I'm tired. You know, my muscles would ache all the time. And, you know, and I'm still I'm still in my early 20s, you know, still in the early 20. You know, you chalk it up to late night, working late, but something didn't seem off. You know, I remember going to the doctors as well and being dismissed. That you're too young. It's in your head lead, you know, and it's very, frustrating. But at that point, you know, when you're so young and naive, you don't know how to advocate for yourself.

You think maybe something it's me. I should toughen up and, you know, take it up. You know, I had a lot of heating pad and lotions and potions that I would carry with me, but didn't, you know, look back does seem normal. I got my Hashimoto's diagnosis and, like, you know it and I know it like, it's all connected and real, like, you know, gallbladder and Hashimoto's. The thyroid is connected and we'll dive into it. But for me, at that point, you know, the turning point was why when I got my diagnosis, I was around 25.

At that point, my mom, who also had Hashimoto's, who also had a gallbladder removed, got her second autoimmune condition, diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. And and something in me would click. I'm like, okay, I'm following this. Her exact footsteps. And she's an amazing woman. I, you know, you know, love my mom. I would follow her, but not in this regards. And from when it comes to the health, I did not want to be her because I saw how painful having this rheumatoid arthritis was. You know how it's, you know, you couldn't do the things you love, the normal chores.

And she was probably in her late 40s, early 50s at that point. You know, that is still pretty young. And I just knew I had to take control of my health and really change to change my trajectory. And that's what got me into okay, learning. Okay. What do I do? And this was, you know, this is a long you know, as I said, a long time ago, nobody was talking about gut health. We didn't have these amazing summits out there where you can at least find information, look for. So it was all through research and okay, I can control my diet.

I can control my life. So I start making really small, you know, baby step changes and it wasn't overnight. It wasn't a magic pill. But I felt different. That really got me into this space. I'm like, there's more I want to know more. And, you know, now it's been, you know, ten years later or like, you know, I went back to school to study more because I'm like, that has to be more about what I can do for my Hashimoto's, because the doctors are just giving me this prescribed synthroid. That's about it, you know, doesn't throw it off.

You go. Honestly, I did not even know when. What is hockey? What is autoimmune condition mean exactly. And it's connection that like, you know there's no education. You know everyone we were talking about it right before we've had a recording like the doctor spend maybe ten minutes, 15 minutes maybe with you and and you're like, okay, what does this even mean? So, so that's that's how it got, you know, my journey started with this. And and now it's been a few years where I like, couldn't couldn't look back.

I'm like, this is my purpose in life. If, you know, I've been able to help myself and I want to help more people get over this disease, it is reversible or even getting manage. You know, if you get one autoimmune condition. I want you to write this down. You are three times likely to get another one. I see it in my mom and I don't want to get another autoimmune condition. I completely off my like, do I reverse my antibodies? No, I'm still working on it. Still work in progress. But they are like 75% more antibodies that reduce that meat.

My inflammation has gone down. I'm reducing my chances of getting another one and I'm still working on it. I'm sure I'll get there. It just takes time and, you know, different factors affect it. So that's my story of how I got into the space and, and, you know, living my mission by helping more people dealing with thyroid dysregulation or Hashimoto's to really live life on their own terms because, we don't want to get old and sick and just give up, man. And that is that is such an empowering story, you know, like, and I'm sure most of the people who are listening over here will relate to it because, you know, either that the story is the same.

They have been suffering for a long time. Finally, the diagnosis is finally they started taking the medicine, but nothing happened. They're still getting worse or the dosage of medicine kept on increasing. Most people never knew they had a Hashimoto's disease because the antibodies do not get checked right. They were just told they hypothyroid. So that's another thing. And I'm sure most people don't even know the root cause of Hashimoto's. Why they got it right, whether it's a gallbladder, whether it's a leaky gut, whether it is toxins, all kinds of things.

And that's exactly the point of doing these kind of summits is you suggested that, you know, sharing information. So again, empowering people with the right information so they can get better. So thank you for sharing that story. I'm hopeful that people who are listening will get hope that they can get better. So as you were suggesting that a lot of people, you know, like there is a good connection, right? You know, and then, you know, we were just discussing that, you know, how is this not one thing which people have to do or that one thing will finally lead to Hashimoto's?

This is a combination of things, right? You know, like, how are you discussing about liver, gallbladder, adrenals and gut, how they are all connected to Hashimoto's. So tell a little bit about more about your experience and what your thoughts are about that connection. Oh yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, I tell all of my clients or whenever I'm talking about this topic is, you know, when your thyroid starts this regulating, it's like the yellow canary in the coal mine. It is just sounding the alarm that something is off.

It's not just your thyroid. We have to look deeper and figure out, you know, what is malfunctioning within the system. Because our bodies are so beautiful and interconnected, it doesn't work in isolation. I thyroid I know they like it's it's your your liver is on the right side and where a different organ, different position. But they are all connected to each other. And I love analogy. So the other one that is like a love to give is when people, you know, when you see an iceberg, when you see the tip of the iceberg, we just see the tip.

We don't see how deep it is, how wide it is, what's going on underneath. So I want everyone to start thinking about, you know, when you're you get the diagnosis of hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's or, you know, if you go the other way hyper or great, that's just the tip. You know, we need to look deeper, you know? And when you need to look deeper, you need to look at your liver. We need to look at our gut, and we need to look at the adrenals like what's going on in there, what's not working or not optimized or malfunctioning.

That has caused the thyroid to start sounding the alarm so that, you know, just to preface it, just to set the stage. And then how is it connected. Right. So, you know, I'll just briefly touch on the gut and then move on more deeper into the liver and gallbladder piece, like, you know, in the thyroid. And, you know, as hypocrisy said, I'm sure you've heard it in other interviews on the summit, you know, or health disease begins in the gut or your health begins in the gut, however you want to phrase it, right?

And your thyroid and gut has such a bidirectional relationship there. So we need the thyroid hormone has a direct connection with the gut mortality. You know how soon, how fast the food is moving through your system. It you know, your thyroid also has, influence on your digestive enzyme production and so much more. And conversely, when it comes to the gut, your gut also plays a huge role in converting your inactive thyroid hormone, which is your T4, into T3 in the gut tissue. So it plays a role there.

It also plays a role in absorbing the nutrients that we need for the thyroid selenium, iodine, zinc, all the amino acids you have. And so we need those. So your we need to have a good functioning gut.

How Thyroid, Gut, Liver, Gallbladder, and Adrenals Connect 12:28

And we need the proper microbiome balance for your thyroid hormone metabolism. And and Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition. It's related to your gut your immune system. 80% of it lives in the gut. So if you have Hashimoto's, you have you have to work on your gut. And and unless we have a proper immune system, you know, we never going to heal the gut. We never going to reverse Hashimoto's or even, you know, even reduce it or reduce the attack. So that's why I want to briefly cut into how thyroid and gut connected when when we dive into the thyroid and liver connection.

And this is how I stuff started, you know, my story started and I had to really research. You would think, you know, what does a gallbladder have to do with the thyroid or the liver? But there's so again, intricately connected, you know, again, everything has a bidirectional relationship. So your liver, which is one of the most hardest working organ and one of the largest not by surface area that is your skin by organ, but it is one of the largest organ. Everyone knows it all it helps would be toxic. Yes.

And it does so much more. So one of its responsibilities is to again convert the inactive thyroid hormone T4 to T3. Like 60% of T4, ATP conversion happens that. So yes, your thyroid could be functioning if a liver is not functioning and the conversion is not happening, it's you know, you can have all the T4, all that. You know, the TSH looks fine, but it's the T3 that's important that gets into the cells and does amazing things that it does for metabolism, our energy, fertility, everything is connected to thyroid hormone.

It also know that your liver also plays a role with regulating your thyroid hormone metabolism. It helps to get excess hormones out of the body and and by directionally your thyroid also helps with cholesterol production which is actually produced in the liver. And we need cholesterol for its life. Every cell has we need cholesterol. We don't you know, we need this layer of fat. It's not a bad thing. People are going for low cholesterol, all this stuff and medication. But I'm like cholesterol is like, you know, if you see any really sick people, when the cholesterol really drops, that's that's danger.

And when it comes to bile, which is also produced in the liver, cholesterol is one of the main ingredients of the bile. Bile is a mixture of bile, bile, salt, sodium bicarbonate, lecithin, and so many other things that this portion is produced and it's stored in the gallbladder for your fatty foods, digestion, for clearing out excess hormones, and even an antimicrobial. It's again, everything in the body is multifaceted and doesn't really provide one function. So now you can see how if your thyroid is, you know, better, suboptimal or you know, not hypo not working well, it can influence the liver and its function, whether it's hormone clearance, cholesterol production by production.

And now everything is it's a cascade domino effect, like in my scenario. Like why did the stones form like I don't have blood reports and things to go back to now, but probably my liver was the one need needing help and it could have been excess toxins. It could have been the diet related. It could be environmental toxins. So many triggers is hard to really pinpoint. Like this is it. It's a combination. And we need thyroid hormone for energy, right? It provides energy, energy that we feel every day for getting up and doing the activities.

But it's also for the cellular energy. Like so much energy goes into, each and every different function that a body is performing internally that we may not be aware of, like the gallbladder or squeezing the bile out. When you eat a food, it's energy. And if you have low thyroid hormone, your gallbladder may not have enough. You know, the T3, not enough T3 available in your liver is malfunctioning. That's not conversion not happening, or your cell receptors or it's not going in getting into the cell.

The 83. It's not squeezing out the bile nine the bile is going to back up. It's going to get sludgy and, you know, end up forming stones again. This is one one of many reasons that could happen. So it has a really like a very symbiotic relationship that the liver and the thyroid share. And, you know, in turn the gallbladder. So they are so like without without it wasn't it wasn't my thyroid that Hashimoto's diagnosis that came like in a few years later or somebody had really dug in deeper when my god, bit of a malfunction, maybe they would have found signs of, hey, there's something more going on, and maybe it things could have been reversed.

That didn't happen. So that's when I run. Yeah, that's what I urge people to, you know, if you have a gallstone, a gallbladder issue, a liver issue, get get your thyroid checked or vice vice versa. So that's again, we can dive in deeper on the thyroid and liver. And then, you know, we were all talking about the thyroid and adrenal which is it's very very interesting. And nobody ever thinks about thyroid. And I've been a how are they connected. You know adrenal the associated with are like a stress hormone.

And you know cortisol. Everyone knows that. But I mean I love analogy. So I'll give this. It's like your cortisol is like your accelerator in the car and your thyroid is a brake. I have never tried it. I don't know if you have. I don't think the car will run if you're progressing both at the same time, it probably wouldn't move much or it's going to harm the car. Similarly, in a body, you know, if we are always in a state of fight or flight and the cortisol is always high, which, you know, the thyroid is going to be like, okay, it's not my time, I cannot function and it's, it's going, it's and the cortisol will influence your thyroid hormone metabolism even.

It can it doesn't convert but it can inhibit the conversion from T4 to T3. It can convert 34 to reverse T3, which is the opposite of T3, which does nothing right. And also it can you know, you know, have you know, you can again play such a huge role and and cortisol again is not a bad thing. It again gives a negative connotation. Oh have too much stress. We need it's it's a hormone that gets us out of bed. We needed it has a circadian rhythm. We just don't want to be in a constant state of stress or constant state of high cortisol, which is I live in the heart of silicon Valley, where everyone is stress, you know, whether you are working or not working, everyone is always stress, and that's what causes the harm, right?

You know, how is the thyroid going to work? Maybe it's a not a functioning well, but it could be the cortisol, the adrenals inhibiting your thyroid hormone metabolism or the conversion or it's converting to reverse T3 and nobody really check for reverse T3. Come on. And so also the other role that the cortisol plays is it can actually, inhibit the cell sensitivity to get the thyroid hormone in. And that's why, you know, sometimes the doctor can be like your normal your bloodwork looks great. It's just normal.

Whatever. Normal is a wide range of your deeper T3 looks good. You're fine. But maybe the hormone that even if they're optimal. But if they're not getting into the cell because you're constantly stressed, that could be an issue. So so again going back you know the thyroid is that yellow canary the tip of the iceberg. And until you really get deeper into what's going on with the liver, the adrenals, the gut, we can never really heal or reverse the condition. And I think that's great. You know, like, you know, sharing all this connection of liver and adrenals and how the gallbladder is connected.

You know, I think a lot of people can still think about maybe liver, how it is connected because of detoxification, but not so much of the gallbladder. So thank you for sharing that gallbladder is just not an organ of storing bile. It does much more than that. And there is a strong connection between thyroid and gallbladder. So that was very very great. Now going back to the liver you know like you know, because especially a lot of people think the conversion of this T4 to T3, which is the inactive to the active thyroid hormone happening inside the thyroid gland. Right.

But you said that, you know, it is happening in the gut. It is happening in the liver. So it's, you know, like now share a little bit more about this liver connection and what all things liver influence thyroid. You know, the conversion with the metabolism of thyroid hormone. You know how the toxins are connected and stuff. Yeah. So you know that again if you go back to the liver role right. So liver also plays a huge role in your blood sugar regulation. People don't think about blood sugar and liver connection.

But there's a huge connection there. Liver you know, as we mentioned, also helps get rid of the excess toxins, whether the endotoxin that a toxin that are produced, the byproduct of metabolism in our body or, you know, exogenous environmental toxins that we breathe in or come in contact with that the liver needs to get, get rid of it as well. And, you know, we we talked about the conversion. Yes. You know, if a thyroid produces the hormone, the T4 and some amount of T3 and based on how our body is released, complex and smart, right.

So based on how much our body needs and when it's needed, the liver and the gut plays a role in converting how much we need. And it gets into the cells. And it also happens in other areas and tissues of ourselves and other areas. But those are the major sites. So that's when we get into the liver. You know, it. And again from a detoxification standpoint as well, liver doesn't really detoxifies. That's a very complex process. That's all you dive into. And we need so many more nutrients that gets into it so that, you know, for the space couple of pieces that the liver, processes the toxins out of our body.

And in the first phase, it really does. You know, it's like a chemical process, you know, that we've done chemistry. Does it converts it into an an intermediate form which can be pretty toxic as well. And they want to just make it more water soluble so body can excrete out. And for that to happen and for that toxins to convert we need a lot of B vitamins. We need a lot of antioxidants and know we need to have the right enzyme, do the CP for 50, right. And then some people can have a challenge with the right enzyme as well.

So once the phase one detoxification is done, then the phase two comes in where again that's what gets it out of the system. Whether it's through urine, whether it's through stool, whether it's sweating, it gets. And again, that is, you know, salvation. We need a lot of sulfur related, compounds in our through our diet. We need a glutathione on which is the matra antioxidant that the body produces on its own. Again, we also can support that. And again, for environmental toxins, you know, look around when that happens.

So it goes through those two phases to get all these toxins out. And if your liver is not functioning well, you know, whether okay to say even though the thyroid is right now normal functioning, if your liver is unable to get rid of these toxins in our bodies, is going to start re absorbing these toxins back into our system because it needs to go somewhere it can't excrete out. It's not able to. It could be phase one. It could be phase two. And that's something to work. I'm sure you do what I do.

Like where does the person need support? You know, because we don't want to support face to face. One is the one that needs support as well. And these toxicant toxins can then hinder your thyroid again. You know, we know a lot of like fluoride and fluoride and bromide, so many other environmental toxins can harm your thyroid gland as well, so they can indirectly harm the thyroid. And then we and these toxins can also impact our, our gut lining, which is really, really thin. It's just one cell wall thick.

It's supposed to be semi-permeable so we can get the nutrients into our blood. But now these toxins can be harming that lining, creating holes. You know, you know, gets into leaky gut. It can cause a ton of inflammation. And now your gut health, you know, I touched upon it briefly can also be impacted. And that in turn can impact your thyroid hormone production. So it's like it's not a direct but you can see how one thing can have a such a compounded or impact on your thyroid. You know, when your liver and blood sugar dysregulation, which we know 93% of people in the US are metabolically unhealthy.

And I I've been reviewing bloodwork, you know, this past week, as young people as even in their early 20s, you know, that it's that sugar dysregulation. They're, and your liver plays a huge role with that. And that can be very stressful for the body. And, you know, then the adrenals come in, you know, the blood sugar is high. It's can cause oxidative stress. Your cortisol is high. And that can be stressful. And that alone when you have high insulin. But most people over, you know have high I'm seeing high insulin low not in the standard range functionally there it's high.

And that can also impact your thyroid hormone production. You know. But I wanted to kind of all the talk a little bit about this fatty liver. Right. Because that liver is such a common phenomenon with happened with high and hypothyroidism. And you know, as you're talking about the metabolic syndrome, fatty liver is a part of that piece of. Right. And then so we will have fatty liver issues, you know, obviously there is no medicine to fix it. They were they were in a lot of them were told that don't drink alcohol.

But obviously there is much more to fatty liver. And you know again the thyroid dysfunction and metabolic syndrome can cause fatty liver too. So talk about the little bit of connection of the word and what the metabolic syndrome can do to deliver to oil. Yeah. Like, you know, it's you know, it's a great stat. You know, if you have hypothyroidism reading this, that you're 42%, I don't quote me something about that. 42% more likely to get a fatty liver because of the connection, how the thyroid influences your liver and all the cholesterol and, production as well.

But yes, again, fatty liver again, as he said, it's another metabolic condition apart from blood sugar dysregulation. It's you know, it's, you know, high triglycerides. You know, your cholesterol lipid panel is off. It could also be, you know, your uric acid on, you know, told me different values that we can see that can point to it. And again you know when what is fatty liver. It's this it's a nonalcoholic fatty liver right. It's not the alcohol is not behind it. It's the sugars and the diet that the behind it.

Your liver has fat stored in it. You know, it's making it not function well. So and liver acid that's like what 500 different functions as far as that we have documented so far.

Liver Health, Fatty Liver, and Thyroid Function 27:38

Probably more so again if you have a fatty liver your liver is again if not optimized and it will have an impact on your thyroid whatever the hormone production, utilization, metabolism. But yes, we definitely seeing a rise in it and uncontrolled. So I again I've come across a lot of young people just oh yeah I'm a doctor said I have fatty liver and they're so casual about it. And I'm like, you got to take that seriously because it just sets up the stage for so much more because you have fatty liver, you know, probably detoxing.

You're probably not digesting your fat. You probably have cholesterol problem, the blood sugar and then the thyroid as well. And the immune system. And yes, it's yeah, the classic just cut out the alcohol and change your diet. That's one aspect of it. Yes, but exactly what you know, it's the blood sugar, the carb, the toxins, the ultra processed food, the sad, sad American diet that people are consuming that's causing the fatty liver. And it's not the alcohol, it's the sugar which is hidden like everywhere.

You know, in a food system. Food cycle. Unfortunately. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, so that is so important that people should be aware of that. You know, fatty liver is basically, again, one of those things that is leading to a big metabolic syndrome which is happening in your body, and you need to address it. Otherwise you're looking at further issues with, let's say, diabetes or like, you know, pre-diabetes and weight gain and metabolic issues and other autoimmune conditions. So that's very important.

So now people know that, okay, well, you know, they have this Hashimoto's, they have the thyroid disorders. You know, most likely their liver is congested or not working optimally. Maybe they they got gallbladder is not good. What can people do to kind of optimize withheld gallbladder health and renal health. What are some of the things that you know, have you found useful. Well yeah, absolutely. And and I wish everyone had a magic pill out here that I could tell this, do this and it'll make it all better.

If it was doctor and I would have been bottling it up and selling it and been billionaires on our own island. But no, it isn't. It's a marathon. Not a, not a race. And it's never just one thing, that you have to do. And really taking stock of your, you know, the foundational items, your diet, your exercise, your sleep and your mental health. All all those four areas are foundations that will come back again and again to. So, you know, I again share my tips and what I, how I work through across all these areas.

Right? So when it comes to diet, definitely cleaning up your diet and, you know, removing processed foods, you know, which I'm sure you've heard it over and over again from a lot of places, from other experts as well. And if you're looking at, you know, ultra processed food, processed foods are really not helping. They have additives, no matter how clean it is. It's processed in the plant. So how can you clean up your diet and really move to a more real, full with real food type diet, right? And really finding the right diet.

And I hate the word diet. You know, I really struggle with the word that because against like, you know, dieting and, but, finding the right foods for you. And I think that's one thing I help with, you know, you know, spinach could be healthy, but if if, you know, if you have developed food sensitivity towards it, it may not be helping. So, you know, really maybe working with somebody to figure out what are the right foods for you, but you know, you know, find the right food that's going to help you.

And again blood sugar management is key. You know, the right macros. I you know, carbs are life. You not that you have to go for a car, but figuring out what is your, body type and what's working for you, like figuring out, then again, the right carbs, sweet potatoes, you know, whole grains, quinoa. Going for that. And if you're dealing with Hashimoto's, which most people listen to the summit are, you know, definitely getting gluten out and dairy, those are the two at least most inflammatory food.

And, you know, through molecular mimicry we know can impact the thyroid tissue. We don't want to degrade that further. So getting those couple of food groups out. And if you get gluten now we get a lot of the processed foods out pretty much, you know, it will just help you. And it's it's not easy. It's it's a it's a big step, but it's it's doable. And to support the liver, you know, adding a lot of cruciferous vegetables like your broccoli cauliflower or your cabbage, Brussels sprouts, a lot of or bitter herbs, dandelion milk thistle.

I have my milk. Isn't the right here, supporting your, you know, that is a bitter melon and vegetable. An Indian continent or even a lot of Asian like gorilla adding those into your diet. Not just once a week. Like a beat a few times a week. Getting those. Enough of it. Not half a cup, at least 2 or 3 servings of it into your diet can be helpful. Again, hydration. The number of times I see people are not really dehydrated, they're not hydrated as well. So getting that from a diet perspective, cleaning can will go a long way.

And when I started my journey and that's where I started like okay, these are things I can control through changing. And again, it took a while, but your body will will reward you for the changes you're making. The second is also exercising, right? Exercising is important and you don't have to kill it in the gym.

Lifestyle Foundations for Healing 33:08

Or we do CrossFit getting 15 20 minutes or a movement in some high intensity that's getting your heart rate up. Heart rate variability up is again important and you know, people may have different, you know, injuries or other like movement. You know, even if it's going on for a walk or stopping there, it can be great for blood sugar regulation as well. So get out and get moving. And it can also promote circulation, supports detoxification and, you know, enhancing metabolism. So exercise and when it comes to sleep, you know, how can we oh I'll sleep when I'm up and out of day.

It's such a, you know, you hear it and it is speaking living in Silicon Valley, it's just crazy. Like, you know, even a few days, a couple of nights of really bad night's sleep can have a huge impact on your blood sugar. You know, your cortisol is going to be high. People go to alcohol to relax end of the week because and they don't realize that can actually the next day will have your sleep is going to be interrupted. Sleep is going to be worse. Your cortisol is going to be higher. So really think rethinking of how can you relax, how you know good build up, good sleeping habits, sleep hygiene, getting a good eight hours, getting to bed by ten.

You know, that's some of the tips I get. Get my clients. How can you move back your clock? Half an hour. An hour. Good. The 10 to 2 sleep is so crucial because that's when your body detoxifies. That's when the garbage collector can go to your brain, go to, you know, the liver and other organs because it's working all day for it to clean up. So sleep is more than just for rest, but it's also for cleaning your system. So really cleaning and getting adequate sleep and mental health and stress management again it's so key you know, for for adrenals you know, which in turn for your thyroid.

And again this is a place where everyone has to figure out what works for them. Maybe, you know, meditation is great, but it's not for everyone. It doesn't have to be. You know, it's journaling, gratitude practice. You know, I've really been trying to incorporate more breathwork into my day because, you know, we are not breathing, right. We are like shallow breathers and, you know, deep breaths and taking a moment to get into the parasympathetic state is to relax like no matter what happen, you know, election just got done and we're recording this and it's quite a stressful time.

But we, you know, how can we get back to our get back to grounding. So and leverage there's so many tools out there you know is out there. You know whether it's batting, the ordering, getting a sauna in just a thread, you know, get get a sauna, an infrared sauna. There's so many different fun stuff that can, you know, people can make it fun. I tell my clients, you know, make it a couple activity, go get a float session in or, you know, go get it on a session in. Can be really supportive to help along with, you know, these are the lifestyle basics.

And then, you know, they're definitely supportive supplements can help targeted I'm not a big like you need a day 20 supplement, but at the right place at the right time. It can they can do wonders. And it's better if you don't have a gallbladder like me. I have to rely on biosolids and ox bile to support my fat digestion because I don't have a storage unit anymore. Absolutely. I just loved it that, you know, like majority of your recommendations were like, you know, involving lifestyle changes, you know, specific dietary needs, you know, specifically focusing on stress management, sleep, exercise, body movement and things.

Because I think somehow we forget that, you know, these are the basics of our life. And, you know, as you correctly pointed out, we are not like, you know, doing a 100 meter sprint. This is a marathon, right? So you if you have Hashimoto's, if you have a diet or disorder, you have to change your whole lifestyle. And then after adding some certain supplements will be useful based on the given conditions. But unless you have the foundation of the great lifestyle, nothing gets better and you know whether it's a leaky gut, whether it is a liver, whether it is the gallbladder problem or your adrenals, you know, like these lifestyle can fix all of these issues.

So I'm so glad that, you know, you kind of touch base on really nice, practical ways of including these things in fun ways where people can do it. I mean, you know, initial times you were also talking about, like, you know, optimal levels of thyroid testing, you know, and then what are the optimal and what are the all the thyroid testing. And I think you have made a comprehensive guide for hypothyroidism symptoms and also for these thyroid testing. So tell us a little bit more about it and how people can kind of utilize this guide.

Yeah, absolutely. You know I want everyone to feel really as you know, as I started out this income, you know, to feel empowered. That's a goal of the summit, right. Amazing meeting a different expert, sharing the knowledge. So how do you get empowered? So and when I was starting out this journey, like I said, I didn't know, like, what is Hashimoto's, what is the gallbladder or what is hypothyroidism take you know, you know, take the medicine. But I want everyone to start becoming the CEO of your own health.

Don't let your doctor or anybody else tell you what to do. You should know your body and what it needs. Not the nitty gritty, but have a good understanding. So I created a guide, comprehensive hypothyroidism symptoms and a labs guide that everyone can find on my website. The darknet. And they can go fill up a short form and get that email to them. And in that guide, I really listed, like, again, you know, when because your thyroid gland influences every every cell in your body, every function in your body, the symptoms of how you will experience hypothyroidism could be very different.

And even for men and women, it could be different symptoms as well. Because, you know, you know, men and women are more likely to get it because of the estrogen and the chromosome that plays a role. But men are also I'm I'm hearing more and more are getting impacted by it. And the symptoms are different. So there is a list of symptoms that you can review a you know, weight gain and fatigue and hair loss are very common. Or most people know about it and you know that. But there are others to like, you know, the muscle and joint pain or even carpal tunnel.

Thyroid Testing Guide and Closing Remarks 39:28

You know, for men, especially, you know, hair loss on their face where you should there are different nuances that can really help you figure it out. It could it could be my thyroid. And then when it comes to the labs, getting a full thyroid panel is important. You typically in convention system everyone just checks for Pts. That's your thyroid stimulating hormone. And again that's just one part of the story. That's just your brain sending a signal to your thyroid. Period. But we need six different tests to at least get a full picture of what could be going on. Is it with your brain?

Is it with your cells not absorbing? Is it the conversion issue? So that guide list all these tests. And again what should be the optimal range. Because we don't want standard range because standard ranges are made when you test a bunch of sick people and then you do a standard deviation and you get a wide range, you don't want to be standard health out. We want optimal health. So optimal range as well where you want it to be and what each of these values indicate are described that do so print that out and take it to your doctor and be like I want all these tests.

Or if you have tests done, you see, where do you fall? Because you know the dog. He could be subclinical like, you know, it could be higher or lower. And and you still may be feeling symptoms. So really that was my goal behind creating that guide to really make everyone empowered. Become the CEO of your health. Absolutely. And obviously we have all this information, you know, in the description. So make sure go check out our website. A lot of great information especially for this guide. I think that will be very, very useful for you to kind of get more information about what your lab tests actually mean and what lab tests to ask for.

So I am glad that you created this guide. Thank you Divya, again. You know, we can keep going on and on about, you know, this great topic, you know, which we just scratched the surface from. But I think people have enough at this point of time to know what is wrong with them and how this all plays together the liver, the adrenals and the gallbladder. So thank you so much for sharing all this great information. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, doc Rachel. And doing this. As you know, the more we need to talk about it more and this is just scratching the surface.

There's so much more. Again thank you so much. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you again. And this is it for the folks today. We'll see you again next time. Take care everybody.