Hashimoto’s And BHRT

Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

Hello! Welcome to this episode of Hormones and Mental Health Overcoming Anxiety, depression and ADHD in women. I am excited to have Doctor Gupta with us today. He is a Hashimoto's expert and so he's going to help teach us how Hashimoto's changes with menopause and how our hormones in menopause affect Hashimoto's and vice versa. He's also going to help us figure out why women with Hashimoto's sometimes maybe struggle a little bit more with mental symptoms as we have hormone changes. And so I'm very excited for him to share all of his expertise with us today.

So Doctor Gupta is a bestselling author, speaker, and researcher recognized as a world expert in Hashimoto's disease. He's passionate about educating and empowering people globally to reverse Hashimoto's and reclaim their health. As a board certified family medicine physician with advanced certifications in functional medicine, peptide therapy and fellowship training, and integrative medicine, Doctor Gupta brings a wealth of expertise to his work. His experience includes serving at the renowned Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine, where he worked alongside Doctor Mark Hyman and helped thousands of patients address chronic health issues by focusing on root causes.

Doctor Gupta's dedication to patient care earned him the prestigious reader's Choice Best Doctor award, and Northern Neck Area. Driven by his personal journey of overcoming chronic health challenges. Doctor Gupta has made it a mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions to achieve this, he authored the bestselling book Reversing Hashimoto's, launched a virtual functional medicine practice, and created a thriving online presence through his blog and YouTube channel. His content has reached over 20 million people worldwide, offering actionable insights and hope to those battling thyroid dysfunction and other chronic conditions.

When he's not working, Doctor Gupta enjoys traveling, hiking, meditation, and practicing yoga. He's also a dedicated husband and father, balancing his professional life with a deep commitment to his family. Thank you for joining me, Doctor Gupta. Thank you so much for having me. Doctor Smith, you know, this summit is really great helping so many women who actually need this kind of information. So thank you so much for sharing all this great content with them. Yeah, I'm super excited to bring this to people.

You know, a lot of women struggle as they go through menopause or just as their hormones change in life. And one of the things they struggle with, you know, obviously way hot flashes, things like that. But there's a lot of, you know, mental changes that happen with hormones. And so there's a lot of women who do, who struggle with anxiety and, and depression, and they feel like, well, why do I feel like this? And I'm crying and I don't feel right. And so I just wanted to get your expertise on how we can maybe like, tease that out with people with Hashimoto's and hormone issues, what kind of goes together.

And I'm hoping that people will see, you know, as we talk about health and as we talk about different spectrums in health, whether it be hormone issues or whether it be Hashimoto's or the combination that, you know, your gut plays a big role. Functional medicine as a whole plays a big role. Sleep, adrenals, things like that. Absolutely. And you nailed it down with saying that, you know, there are multiple things and we are all complete human beings. So everything is interconnected. So let's say people with Hashimoto's disease, most people will think that they only have a problem with their thyroid hormone, and they need to focus on that, but that is not a reality.

All our hormones are interconnected. It's like a symphony in all of these different endocrine organs are just part of that symphony. So if you have one organ which is not working like Hashimoto's or thyroid, then other organs and also hormones get affected like menopause is a big trigger for a lot of females. Being diagnosed with Hashimoto's after they reach menopause, because that's a big change which is happening in their life. And these hormones can affect, you know, like the thyroid hormones too.

How Menopause, Hashimoto's, and Mental Health Interact 4:07

We have seen that several females who are going to thyroid disorders will have a lot of different kinds of symptoms, especially to their brain, like feeling anxious, feeling depressed, low mood, having brain fog symptoms where they feel the memories not that great, or the concentration abilities are very much less. And we have seen that the hormone replacement therapy can be a big boon to these females because as soon as they hit the menopause, the good estrogen is gone, you know, which is helping their mental health, which is helping their cardiovascular health.

And as soon as you start replacing those hormones, they not only improve the symptoms, they also support the thyroid health. We have some kind of data also supporting that. You know, as soon as there is hormone replacement therapy, which is happening, that can actually reduce inflammation in the females and actually improve the antibody levels in Hashimoto's, too. So you're not only doing hormone replacement therapy to improve the symptoms, but you're also doing to control this autoimmune process and also improve inflammation in your thyroid gland.

Yeah, I think that's so powerful, Doctor Gupta, in such good information, because right now there's this huge, you know, misconception in the world of hormones like a lot of people are still like, oh my gosh, hormones cause cancer, right. And so there are so unfortunately, there's this 20 year span of women who have just been terrified of taking hormones. Right. And so I think they've missed out on a lot, especially with estrogen. That's what I tell women. Like estrogen is so powerful for lots of things.

But your mood is one of them. And the other thing is your gut. You know, as a functional medicine doctor, you know this. We talk about this all the time, whether I'm talking about Hashimoto's or menopause, like when you don't have estrogen as a woman, it affects the microbiome of your gut. And when the microbiome of your gut is off, you can't absorb micronutrients, you can't make serotonin and dopamine and all your happy hormones, and it causes a big problem. And so we've just got this, you know, unfortunately, this misinformation out there about hormones and causing cancer, where we've done a lot of really, really harmful negative things to women from withholding the hormones, but also mentally, as we tell them, you know, they can't take it.

And so then that drives their anxiety and depression even worse. Right? Because you've got these women who are already spiraling, who don't have estrogen. And then half of society says you can't take estrogen. Well, that's going to make everything worse. Their microbiomes a wreck. Their thyroid is inflamed. Nothing's working well, now that their thyroid inflamed, their guts inflamed, now they're insulin's high. They're gaining more weight. It's just like this big circle. They can't sleep. And so it's kind of a big mess.

That is true. I mean, definitely there is a lot of misconception and also fear around hormone replacement therapy, right? You know, because obviously everybody's watching media and a lot of these people do not listen or pay attention to the research that we have. And we have several research studies that now proves that these hormone replacement therapy are a big boon and also safe in majority women. Obviously, you have to make sure that you know, you choose the patient correctly and then there is no like family history or other other conditions are there.

But for majority of women, it is pretty safe to take these hormone replacement therapy. And along with the hormone replacement therapy, like, you know, it is very important to work on a whole body approach where gut definitely kind of takes the priority. You know, you have to work on the gut, you have to work on your sleep, you have to work on your stress. You have to work on your diet. You have to work on body movements. All of these pillars which are there for foundation of your healthy lifestyle, has to be work towards.

If you don't work on these things, yes, hormones will give you benefits, but that is not going to give you the optimal benefit that your body actually needs. Let's say for instance, right? You know, if you have a leaky gut, you know the issues, then you are not able to process all the food which is going through your gut. You're not able to absorb things. The inflammation levels are always high in those people, and your body's always constantly in a fight or flight mode where it is constantly fighting this inflammation to keep it at bay.

Now your body has limited resources. Either you can put those resources to build your body or fight off this inflammation. So that way these resources get divided. So first you know, like nail the gut where you kind of work on the leaky gut, work on a good diet, which is a good balance of prebiotics, probiotics, and a lot of antioxidants that you need to consume through all of these great veggies. And the microbiome is so important. We have trillions of these great bacteria that lives in our gut, some good and some bad, and we have now tons of research papers which shows that if you had the bad microbiome, the bad bacteria in your gut, that definitely indirect affects your hormonal levels.

It will affect your how you process estrogen, how you detoxify estrogen. It will affect how your thyroid hormone is converted from the inactive T4 to T3. It will also affect your adrenal glands, you know, like by increasing your cortisol levels, as well as also create this insulin resistance in your body, which will again create more pressure on your body to kind of create more insulin resistance and causing inflammation. So you see this gut microbiome literally controls all of the different hormones in the body.

And if you don't work on those, then definitely you are going to be doing a disservice to your body. Yeah, everything is very interconnected. And I think what's fascinating to me in the functional medicine world is like a lot of functional medicine and traditional doctors, they see that like the top of the pyramid, right? Like they see the hormones and they understand, oh, hormones are important now and thyroid hormone is important and adrenals are important. But like that still just the top of the pyramid.

The bottom of the pyramid is your gut, right? And your sleep and your stress level. And so it is really important for people to look at that, like when they're looking for quick fixes. Like that's not always a quick fix. Like it may make you feel better for a little while. But if we don't address the root cause or the bottom of the pyramid, you know that's only going to work for a little a little while, right? Absolutely. No, I totally agree with that. You know, like, again, like, you know, we spoke about how the gut affects, you know, different hormones.

The same thing is asleep, right? When you have good quality sleep, the RDM or the deep sleep, that's where you know, you're processing a lot of different hormones, especially mental hormones like serotonin, the dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine a lot of those are being processed as end products, you know, into your brain. Your brain cells are flushing out those old hormonal metabolites and making space for the new hormones to come into the cells to have effect on the next day of your life. But most of us, you know, because of poor quality

Gut Health, Inflammation, and Hormone Balance 10:40

sleep, those old hormonal metabolites are not being flushed out and they're still keeping accumulated. And that's the reason they get too much inflammation in their brain. And that's the reason the new hormones cannot enter. And that creates more hormonal resistance at the cellular level. And that's the reason a lot of females will feel either fatigue, tired, you know, or having these mood changes with feeling depression and anxiety. Because these hormones, even though they might be present, but they cannot work on their brain cells.

So sleep is so much important. It is so important for immune function in Hashimoto's because it's an autoimmune condition. Your immunity is poor. Your body is fighting off this inflammation. Now, sleep is a time where you can rejuvenate your immune cells. You can turn those immune cells towards your own body and make it friends towards those immune cells, and not fight off with them, because during the day, that's what is happening. Those immune cells are constantly fighting with your own body and damaging it.

But in the in your sleep time, you can make those immune cells as your friend so that they don't damage your body further. So working on your immunity to sleep is so much more important. Same thing with the melatonin hormone, right? You know, melatonin is such a hormone. We think it only helps with sleeping. But we know that research studies proves that melatonin not only works on the sleep, it is a very powerful antioxidant, reduces inflammation in the body. Can can help to rebalance other hormones too.

So sleep is a very powerful tool and we should all use it very, very wisely. I couldn't agree more. So I want to you to kind of focus for people listening to this summit right now on people with Hashimoto's. So I want to look at Hashimoto's with hormones. So can people with Hashimoto's take bioidentical hormone replacement therapy? Since you're a Hashimoto's expert, I want people to hear this from you. So if you're if you're a woman out there listening to this and you're having issues with hormones, whether that mean your PCOS, you're becoming perimenopausal, you're transitioning into menopause, is it okay to take bioidentical hormone replacement therapy?

Absolutely. So it is perfectly safe for women with Hashimoto's disease to take biomedical hormone replacement therapy. In fact, as I was saying, that these hormone replacement therapy will be beneficial for Hashimoto's patients because it will reduce it. Inflammation will actually improve your TPO and thyroid globulin antibodies in majority of the cases to and obviously obviously improve the symptoms along side to. And when you say symptoms that include symptoms of anxiety, depression, things like that.

Absolutely yes. Mental health symptoms are the first symptoms which we see an improvement in when Hashimoto's patients start taking these hormone replacement therapy, they will suddenly feel that they can think more clearly. Their mood will be much more calmer, that their insight levels will be much lesser than it is compared to before. Most of the women will have this feeling of overwhelm that constantly like, you know, they're overwhelmed with a lot of things going around with them. And as soon as they start the hormone replacement therapy, the feeling of over will goes away and they feel that, you know, they are in much more control of their emotions, of their mental health, as well as of their own body, mood gets uplifted.

So that feeling, which is, you know, the feeling of depression or even just low mood also improves significantly. When's the start? These hormone replacement therapy, the same thing happens with concentration and brain fog abilities. Again, like, you know, as soon as like, you know, women are hitting 50s like especially menopause, they all get concerned that, oh, well, you know, am I going through dementia or Alzheimer's? No, it is just these hormones which are going out of your body. And as soon as you start these, you will see a significant improvement in your mental capability, like you're able to concentrate on things that remember things better.

And also memory gets improved too. Yeah. So memory, mood, sleep and then all these things feedback to make your mental symptoms even better. Right. Anxiety and depression are higher when you're not sleeping well. They're higher when you can't make these hormones. They're higher with inflammation. And so not only that, but people with Hashimoto that do hormone replacement therapy, do you notice as well improvement in symptoms such as like temperature regulation, hair loss, body composition, any of those things.

Yeah. So in a big issue with Hashimoto's is hair loss. Hair loss or hair thinning. Again especially hitting the menopause again makes it even much more worse when the hormone replacement therapy starts there. Definitely improves the hair quality. They will see that, you know they will have thicker hair and they will at least see, you know, like they will not lose the hair so much as compared to before. So definitely hair improvement is is very much, you know, like as soon as, you know, they even start using it.

Yeah. And so a lot of people think, you know, oh with hormones I'm going to actually lose hair. Well, and I tell people this, you know, with every treatment out there, there's a, there's a where you want to be and then there's an excess. And so it is really important for people listening this to understand if you are in menopause, especially if you have Hashimoto's and you have all this inflammation, hormones can actually help that, because a lot of my patients, you know, will lose their eyebrows.

You know, that's like you can't, you know, you lose your eyebrows, you're losing your hair. I mean, you can't make that up. You see that. And so hormones actually can help with that. And then additionally like temperature regulation, do you see that that gets better as the inflammation gets better. And they use hormone replacement therapy. Yeah that also improves. But that is the last thing that generally gets better. That's what my experience has been. But yes, significantly if you be consistent with an anti-inflammatory diet and supplements, plus at the hormone replacement therapy, the the temperature dysregulation actually does get better with them.

Also. Yeah for sure. And also the body composition, you know, like you were talking about earlier with lack of estrogen. It does affect our microbiome. It affects our metabolism. It causes us to put on weight in places that we don't necessarily like around our, our abdomen. And so I, you know, I see with hormone replacement therapy, especially in horses, as you lower that inflammation, you get those hormones better and you actually help them to be able to develop muscle mass. Their body composition changes as well. Would you agree?

Absolutely. You know, like so again, a lot of menopausal women have tried different kinds of diets, right? They are focusing on very, very low calorie diets or doing excessive exercising. Still not able to lose that belly fat. You know, like they are taking supplements, you know, like you name it. They have tried everything and still says, well, we don't even lose a pound. And obviously the conventional doctors or any of the doctors who do not know the details about hormone replacement therapies will always blame, oh, it's menopause.

You're just not going to lose this weight. This is the way it is going to be. But you and me know that is not true, right? Once you start rebalancing these hormones, these hormones will help you reduce inflammation in the body and also rebalance other hormones, which will include your cortisol, your insulin, your thyroid hormones. And once these hormones gets balanced, your body will definitely get better because your mitochondria will work better. So that is the reason your metabolism will improve.

That metabolism improvement definitely will help you to shed that excessive belly fat, which most females are not able to get rid of, you know, after menopause. So definitely that metabolic syndrome will improve significantly, you know, obviously, along with the lifestyle changes. But the biological hormone replacement therapy will significantly, you know, fast in that process. Yeah. And so speaking of that, what is the best diet that supports Hashimoto's and hormone rebalancing. Like what do you recommend to patients with Hashimoto's.

And does that diet change depending on where they are in their cycle of life,

Sleep, Cortisol, and Adrenal Support 18:30

like in hormones like younger or menopause? So a couple of things which I have noticed is that, you know, like obviously the diet remains very similar, that, you know, we definitely want to stay away from the really bad foods, which causes inflammation in the body. So there is no brainer whether you know you are in perimenopause or you know you are in menopause or any other part of your cycles or time, you have to remove food, which is really inflammatory to your body, which includes, obviously the processed food, the fast foods, a lot of sugary foods, even giving up gluten.

And it is very important because they feed to the inflammation cascade in your body. So those are the things that definitely people need to like remove from their system. Then we also recommend, if you have Hashimoto's, to either remove soy and corn and also remove sugar and caffeine and alcohol beyond that too, because again, those are like toxins which are again overburdening our system and again, adding to the inflammation level. So those are the things that I recommend people to remove completely, does not matter where they are from.

Now, depending on if you are in menopause, some people might have to go even further of removing certain other foods, which might trigger more inflammation levels. So in that aspect, certain times we have to go on a very, very low carb diet for those people so that again, we can help them to lose that extra weight that their body will do. And having a little bit more extra, proteins, as well as having extra fat, especially extra protein, is really important after menopause because we lose muscle mass very quickly.

So having that strengthening obviously helps, but then having a good quality protein on board helps them even further to build up more muscle mass, because we know that muscle is actually a metabolic hormone, right. So it is an argument is going to burn that excessive calories that you are consuming. So that's the reason definitely building that muscle is important. That is where the protein comes into picture. So that's what we recommend. Like you know after menopause for sure. Before that. Also it is good that if you have a good protein diet, but after menopause that's a difference that we see a lot of veggies, right.

Each and every vegetable that we are consuming comes with an antioxidant with different colors in the nature. People do not know that each and every color is a different antioxidant. Antioxidants are compounds which help to lower inflammation in the body. Whenever our body is functioning, we produce these reactive oxygen species. These are basically garbage which is being produced in a factory. Now just imagine that if the garbage keeps on accumulating in the factory and nobody moves, it starts rotting and starts hurting the people working around it.

So same thing with these reactive oxygen species. Our body and each and every cell is producing it constantly. These antioxidant compounds help to remove these reactive oxygen species. So we need to consume more of these antioxidant compounds so that we don't accumulate them and remove it. So that's all of these vegetables with all of these different colors are so important because they help us to remove that. Especially like in Hashimoto's, there is a big myth that people should not be eating cruciferous vegetables.

Now, the problem is that these cruciferous vegetables are very high in sulforaphane compounds, which is really important for processing your hormones, as well as really important for lowering inflammation in the body. So again, very important myth that again, it was a very old study where the thyroid disorders were mainly because of iodine deficiency. But now in current situation majority of the thyroid disorders are because of Hashimoto's disease. And these cruciferous vegetables are actually very very useful.

So make sure eating those veggies are very, very important, whether you eat them in the salad form, like raw form or in the cooked form. So very important. With that, we already spoke about the protein. So high protein content diet is very important. Good quality protein especially, you know coming from good sources of chicken, fish or even grass fed organic, you know, beef, you know, if you want to consume that too, or if you're a vegan and vegetarian, the sources get limited. So you might have to work extra hard to get that extra quality protein.

And then comes the good quality fats. Very important. Again, as a food industry, we have been told time and again that fat is really bad. We have accumulated that there is no difference between a good fat and a bad fat. But in reality we know that like our body is made with good fats, so we need that good fat to sustain our body, sustain our hormones. In fact, all of our female hormones are made with good fats. So we need to have those good fats in our system, whether it's coming from avocados, from olive oils, whether it is coming from nuts and seeds, all good fats needs to be included.

Yeah. So lot of information there. To recap, protein is very important, especially after menopause. You want good healthy fats. Sometimes you need a lower carb diet. And I see that too, especially when insulin resistance is high. Or we need to focus on getting carbs from good sources like fruits and vegetables, not from processed foods. No sugar, you said no caffeine. Also, I remove caffeine majority of Hashimoto's patients because that can actually toxicity details. Yes okay I just making sure that don't shoot the messenger.

I actually don't drink caffeine. So I'm a I'm a decaf kind of girl. But and then cruciferous vegetables. That was a good point. A lot of people with Hashimoto's bring that up. Can I have cruciferous vegetables? Is it bad? But then a lot of them also say, can I have iodine? Can I salt things? Can I have seafood. What is your take on that. Yeah. So iodine is a double edged sword. You know, like we know that two little bit of iodine will cause Hashimoto's and too much will cause Hashimoto's too. So there is no like, you know, and obviously different people will have different opinions of mine is a middle path over here.

What I say is that, yes, you need to have iodine. So you need to look at all your sources of food where iodine might be coming from. So I try to replenish as much as iodine through food. So I tell people, if you can eat seafood, you know, which is high now you die and you do that. If you can eat seaweed or sea vegetables again, that those are great snacks for a lot of my clients do that because you will need some iodine source, you know, in your diet to support it. For some reason, if people hate it or cannot consume them.

That's where I do supplement with iodine through supplementation on a very low dosage, not very high dosage. So that's my take on it, that there is has to be some iodine into our diet so that we can support the thyroid in function. But you know, like a lot of other practitioners are doing very, very high doses of iodine. And I think we have recent studies that might not agree with what they are doing. So what I hear is there's a balance. So don't it doesn't mean you can't salt your food. It doesn't mean you can't have seafood.

It just means there needs to be a balance. And what I like to do in my practice, you probably do too, is check levels, because that's the easy thing to do, right? Like get some data. But okay. And then as far as the fats, the healthy fats, I wanted to point this out to you. That's where demonized, like you said, especially in women, you know, low fat everything. But to your point, you need fats to make hormones. And this is really important. You also need fats, you know, for inflammatory anti-inflammatory to your brain.

And so like you need some of these omegas and things like that so that you don't have inflammation in your brain. And like you talked about, you know, this detoxification process in our body with foods, you know, the color of the rainbow or, or the detoxify or, or the people that clean stuff out. You need that in your brain as well. And so a lot of people as they have this hormone transition or their, their gut, you know, having issues, they don't absorb things from their gut as well. They get more inflammation in their brain.

And so to your point, healthy fats and a lot of these cruciferous vegetables are what helps our body detoxify and get rid of all this, this garbage that you talk about. Yes, absolutely. That is absolutely correct. You know, like, you know, everybody's afraid of fats. Oh, well, you know, I'm already on a low carb diet. You know, my calories are going to go high if I'm going to eat fat. You are telling me to eat fat. I cannot lose weight. And I tell that. Don't worry about it. Focus on the quality of the food, not the quantity.

That's what your body needs. Once you focus on the quality, your body starts working better. Your inflammation levels go down. That's the time you are going to start losing weight or your, you know, metabolic machinery is going to work better. Your brain is going to be on like, you know, and functioning at a much, much better level if you include these good fats, because, again, 70% of your brain is good fat, right? So all of the brain cells need that good fat to lie in their lining so that they can function better.

So absolutely don't shy away from good fat. But you should be knowing what is good fat. Before we just directly jump into and start eating those fried food or fast foods, you know, or like lots of butters and things. So absolutely, that's not the good fat we are talking about here. Yeah, you need good fats from, like you said, avocado, nuts, seeds, salmon, olive oil, things like that.

Bioidentical Hormone Therapy for Hashimoto's 27:40

I eat a lot of good fats every day. And then you have to have some detoxification happening in your liver, right? So you want to make sure and protect your liver. You want to make sure that your liver is is well protected so that you can actually detoxify. Yes. So absolutely detoxification is so important. What people don't realize is that, you know, detoxification is just not when you get exposed to the toxins. We have multiple toxins. If you are getting exposed to especially living in the modern world, you know, each and every day we are pouring more and more toxins into our environment.

Doesn't matter how clean you are, still, each and every person does get exposed to toxins. These hormones in our body again go through this detoxification pathway so that they can safely being eliminated from our body. So we need to work on all of these detox pathways. You know like so absolutely very important. Especially liver health is so much important because majority of detoxification is happening over there. Obviously there are different phases of detoxification. You know, as you know, we have phase one, phase two and phase three.

All of these three phases needs to be optimized. Yep 100%. And so you have to make sure that you're thinking about your liver as well. And and again this all goes back to like mental clarity and health as well. Like it all plays together. So if you can't detoxify things from your liver you're going to have more inflammation. It's going to cause other issues as far as and as far as mental, you know, so anxiety, depression, things like that because your insulin level is going to go up as well. So what about so talk to me about sleep and adrenal glands and hormone balance.

So a lot of people you know they say well I'm following the diet I'm supposed to I'm exercising like I'm supposed to. You know, I'm doing all these things and I still can't lose weight. And I am flabbergasted whenever I start talking to people about how much they sleep. How much do you sleep, how consistent is your sleep? You know, self-talk, stress, things like that. You know, people just look at that as like, oh, well, that's just a part of life. And then they wonder why they can't lose weight.

And so all of that is very tied to your mental health, but also your physical health as well. Correct. Absolutely. So again, like recently, because we have better gadgets and better ways of monitoring sleep, that's where we actually came to know that sleep is such a vital role, you know, into our health. As you said, it not only plays a role into a mental health. Obviously, once you have a good sleep, you feel much more refreshed in the morning. You feel that you know, you have more energy, you have more mental clarity.

But on the physical level, also sleep plays a significant role. Most people will say, well, you know, like always been operating at a four and five hours of sleeping. Why should I do seven hours? Well, because you need 7 to 8 hours through research studies to do all the processes that is required. We have different phases or different cycles, which happens during the during the sleeping RDM. And the deep sleep is a time where our body is being rejuvenated. You know, our immune cells are being kind of rejuvenated.

Our hormones, you know, are being balanced. A lot of these waste products, like reactive oxygen species and toxins, which are being accumulated in our cells during the day, again, you know, get flushed out, especially from our brain. So that way they can work better. In fact, there was a research study done that people who are sleeping less than seven hours every night, they have higher chances of having hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto's disease. Obviously, those people have higher chances of also not able to lose weight.

Having all the other mental related symptoms like, you know, brain fog and anxiety do. Definitely. It affects you at a physical level. Now the important part is also it is not about the duration of the sleep, also about the quality of the sleep. This is what happens like when you are doing before you sleep. Most of us, you know, I don't know gadgets either. Watching television or on our cell phones. This is 90% of people before they sleep. Now we know that all that EMF exposure, all that red light exposure that we are going through just before we sleep definitely affects that quality of the sleep also.

So very important that before one hour you sleep, there are no gadgets around you so that your melatonin levels can rise up. Can also give you a good, better quality of sleep. So creating a great sleep hygiene you know will improve not only the duration but also the quality of sleep also. So that's the reason sleep is definitely very important in that way. And that's where adrenals also comes into picture, not melatonin. And cortisol are again hormones which are interconnected. Cortisol is a stress hormone.

Whenever a body gets stressed out, doesn't matter whether it's physical stress, mental stress, emotional stress, your body will release this cortisol hormone to kind of tackle the stress that our body is going through. Not a short amount of time. This is great because you know, your levels of cortisol are high, you're able to tackle the stress and you're fine with it. But when we get bombarded with stress all the time, with inadequate sleep is also a stressor for our body too. So inadequate sleep, you know, or like not paying attention to our physical health or being stressed out or being like, you know, in a bad relationship or like, you know, busy with work all the time.

These cortisol levels will be high all the time with you. High cortisol levels will cause more insulin resistance because cortisol is an anti insulin hormone. Same thing happens when your cortisol levels are high. The conversion in the liver from the T4 T3 doesn't happen that you know greatly. And that again causes more hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's symptoms to that high cortisol level. Again makes it more difficult for you to lose weight. High cortisol levels will cause inflammation levels to go really very high in the body, which a lot of people will have these muscle pain and mental fatigue and always feeling like wired and tired, feeling that they're two anxious or depressed, you know, all the time.

So that's the reason sleep and adrenal glands are very, very important, not only mentally but also physically. Do. Yeah, it's kind of mind blowing to think that, you know, our body takes so much in every day, right. Like we have all these just inputs coming in all day long. You know, it's just like almost overwhelming. We have so many choices now when you look back 100 years, right, there's so many choices. You have the choice of looking on your phone and scrolling through things. And if the choice of watching a hundred different doctor Talk summit

Diet for Hashimoto's and Menopause 34:10

and you have the choice of just so many choices, you're just inundated with all this stuff. And, you know, to your point, like, you shouldn't be on your phone, you shouldn't be doing any of this before bed. You're supposed to let your body like, take a minute and relax. And so to me, it makes sense that all these people are walking around with anxiety and depression and all these all these issues because you're you've got all this stuff coming in, all this input, and then your brain is already tired, right?

It's already tired from just the input that's coming in. You put on top of that, we're not sleeping like we're supposed to. So we didn't get to clean out all the cobwebs from the night before. So we already started with cobwebs. Now we've got more stuff coming in. Then we choose to eat something that's probably not what's best for us. Right? So then that's putting off toxins into our gut, which goes to our brain. So now we've got stuff sticking into the cobwebs, you know. And this is just happening over and over and over all day long.

And then till the last minute before we go to bed, we're doing things. So again, decisions, decisions, decisions. And it's like people wonder, well, why am I anxious? Why can I not make a decision? Why am I depressed? Well, just think about your your lifestyle, you know, and so just starting to change some of these things and making sure when you do fuel your body, you're giving yourself the things that actually help your brain, not hurt it. You know, give it. Its that so it can work. And put your phone down an hour before you go to bed and get off your computer so that your body can just naturally make some melatonin and get in tune with your body. Listen to yourself.

Just these little things that you do can help so much, but it's just like we live in this society of more and more and more and you know this too. Like the reason I created my podcast earlier this year in February was because I had on Instagram and for the first three things I saw on Instagram, they were highly influential people. I didn't say smart, but influential people who were talking about how if you want to own a business and do well, you need to sleep no more than four hours a night and you need to just get it done, get it done, get it done.

And I was like, these people are the dumbest people I have ever heard. And they're not doing that. They're just saying that like, there's no way you're sleeping four hours a night and functioning and really doing a good job at anything in life. I don't care who you are. And so it just made me angry because I was like, this is such bad information for people, you know, what we need to be saying is like Monday through Friday, give it your best, but rest on the weekends like you need to spend time actually like healing your body, resting your mind.

Because when you do that, when you provide yourself this quiet space like you're talking about to allow things to, you know, fully shut down or to fully meditate or to make melatonin, like that's where I get some of the best ideas I've ever had. Like, you know, when you're just like in this thoughtful meditation of like, kind of nothing, that's where your brain, like, puts all these things together and, and grabs it. And but if you never allow yourself that ability, we wonder why we're always stressed out, right?

Like what's important. Yeah. I mean, people are talking about these exercise routines and everybody's into exercising, which is a good thing, but nobody's talking much. So about the mental health routine or a sleep routine. So very important to incorporate some of these things. Nobody wants to kind of, you know, just slow down. Nobody wants to just spend time with their own self. This is a reality we are living in, because we are all kind of bombarded with so many, so much content, like in all. Well, you know, like and, and the fear again that I am going to miss some information.

So there is so much out there. You cannot do each and everything. So you have to make your own choices and you have to give your brain, your eyes, your body, your break from all of these things. Develop a great, great relaxation routine, maybe a meditation routine, maybe a deep breathing routine. Right? All of those things are so powerful and we're not talking about 1 hour or 2 hours. You're talking about ten, 15 minutes. That's it. That is more than enough to give you that break that your body needs.

Your brain needs. Yeah. And that's kind of why we decided to take this hormone summit and kind of shuffle it more towards, you know, the mental aspect that people have when they go through menopause or just hormone changes in general, because there are so many millions of people out there struggling with anxiety and depression, and I don't know if it's ADHD or just overwhelm, and it's like that's just a part of life, but it's not. And so just teaching people that we have way too many choices in life and I don't know if you've heard of the book essentialism, but it's a pretty good book where it just kind of teaches you how to go back to like the things that are important and just get rid of all the noise.

And that's kind of like your health as well. You have to figure out, like, what do I need to do to really be healthy? And I do think there's just so much overwhelm with all the things out there on social media like do this, eat that, just like we were talking about, follow this diet. But really it all comes down to just starting to take things away that aren't helping your body and figuring out what's best for you. Would you agree with that? That is so important. You know, I keep on seeing patients after patients.

You know, who are on like at least 20, 25 supplements or they're doing so restrictive diets. Oh, this is bad for me. That is bad for me. I said food is not bad. Food is your friend. Yes, there are a few foundational aspects of food that you need to follow. But you know, like food alone is not going to fix things. So follow some foundational aspects of your food, some foundational aspects of body movement, some things for mental health, something for sleep, and maybe some basic supplements. If you just do these things, 90% of people will get better.

It is not rocket science. I tell people, just do these things and you will see a huge improvement. And most people say no, no, no. But this person says, don't do this, don't do that. I think just that's okay. People are talking about a whole bunch of things, but not everything makes sense in each and every person. For 90% of the people, just doing basic things, following certain things in your life would be more than enough to get your life back. Yeah for sure. So speaking of somebody being on 25 supplements, can you give us just maybe a few different kinds of supplements that can help with hormone health, especially if you're somebody struggling with Hashimoto's?

And then maybe also are any of these supplements good for our, you know, anxiety, depression, that sort of thing? Absolutely. So for Hashimoto's and some hormonal health supplements, selenium is a very good supplement that definitely helps. Hashimoto's cleans. It helps in lowering antibodies, helps in conversion of the inactivity for T3. So that way you know it is really good supplement. This next one is zinc. Again a great supplement with not only boost your immune function, but again helps you know your thyroid hormone to function better.

So again a very great supplement. The third one is magnesium. Magnesium support like more than 300 enzymatic processes across your body. So it helps not only the weight but also your other hormones in the body as well as your mental wellbeing. And you know, like your mood and also sleep and things. So one of those supplements, which I think each and every person should take, there are different forms of magnesium. So you can pick and choose based on your situation. That is magnesium like an aid, which is really very relaxing.

Most people will tolerate it really well. Take it at bedtime will definitely improve your sleep quality. Going through constipation issues, you know, do magnesium citrate which will help you with the constipation as well as will still give you the magnesium. So magnesium is one of those supplements that I think everybody should be taking. Next comes the omega three supplements, which is a high dose EPA and DHEA. Again, you know, like as you mentioned, so many important people will need to lower their inflammation levels.

And these omega threes can lower inflammation levels support or hormonal health, whether it is thyroid or Hashimoto's. All you know like your female hormones definitely omega three are again top priorities. And then comes the gut related supplements. Or those probiotics definitely are very important. Good quality probiotics. At least 20 to 30 billion units is what you're looking at, so that you can rebalance those gut microbiome of yours. Once you have good bacteria in there, your hormones are going to be processed better.

You know your thyroid is going to work better. Your conversion of your T4, T3, which happens in the gut again, happens better. So probiotics are again one of those supplements that I recommend

Supplements for Thyroid, Hormones, and Mood 42:30

people to take. Vitamin D is a large supplement, which I think everybody should be taking. I think everybody knows about it and I think everybody is taking. But somehow I want to kind of reiterate the importance of vitamin D for our health because it is literally like a hormone now, right? Because it works from your head to toe for each and everything, not only for your bones. Everybody thinks it's only about bones. Vitamin D, so much important for your immune function, for your inflammation levels, to kind of how your hormones work in the body as well as hormonal resistance gets lowered once you have optimal vitamin D.

But again, the issue is that most people do not know the optimal levels of vitamin D. They are looking at the range which is very wide, you know, anywhere from 30 to 100, and most people are lingering around 30 or 32. And they are very, very happy with it. Generally, I feel between 40 to 60 is this is the range that most people at least should aim for. Even higher is better, but at least that ranges should be raw for vitamin D that people should be aiming for. These are definitely the basic supplements with safely.

You know, like I will say, most people can take no side effects, no should be a problem and will definitely be useful for people. Yeah, and I even like my patients. Have a vitamin D of 60. 60 to 80 is what I shoot for in the end. If they've had a solid organ tumor, 80 to 100. So if they've had cancer. So to recap selenium which you can get in Brazil nuts, zinc I'm not sure what foods are high in zinc, but I could look that up. Magnesium. So magnesium I and I take all of these every day, or I eat or I eat them for sure.

Omegas. Great for your brain. Probiotic. Yes. Our gut is under assault, just like our liver. From all the things and the environment and vitamin D, these are all very important supplements that will help not only Hashimoto's, but will help hormones and will help your brain. Because they all have with with free, radical extra excretion. They help with detoxification and they help with inflammation. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And these are easy to do and easy easily available. So I feel like, you know these will be good obviously.

Then, you know, there are other supplements which can help with like, you know, hormone detoxification and also liver detoxification, which people can do. But I think that once you reach that level, it is good to work with the practitioner. You know, like, you know, who knows what they're doing so that, you know, they make a right plan with you. Them. Yes of course. So to to recap, I just want people listening this to understand, especially if you're somebody struggling with Hashimoto's, but also any sort of hormone issues.

First of all, you're not alone. There are millions and millions of people with Hashimoto's out there. You see people all day long and have helped millions of people, you know, through your social media outreach. But you're not alone. Your hormones will change. And if you're not proactive, you're going to have some symptoms from that, right? If your horseshoes is not controlled and you're not proactively doing things as your hormones, as you lose them, you are going to have some symptoms and a lot of them are going to be unfortunately, you know, mental.

So anxiety, depression, brain fog, fatigue, things like that. So if that's happening to you, first of all, what I want you to know is please don't accept that as the new normal because you don't have to. And we I mean, we lose it. It's mind boggling to think how many billions or trillions of, you know, dollars and manpower and hours we lose of productivity every year because people have these issues and they don't have doctors that help them or help them understand how to fix it. So this may happen, but it's not something you have to live with.

And some of the things that we kind of talked about in general seem very basic and simple because they are. But we have to put them together. We have to nourish our body correctly. We have to make sure we're feeding our gut correctly, giving ourself good nutrients, giving ourself good supplements, giving ourself adequate rest, giving ourselves, you know, adequate good brain space because everything you think and say to yourself, your body actually hears. And just being kind to ourselves, treating ourselves like we would treat our children or treat our friends.

And in doing that, not having such a, you know, holistic or not having such like approach where it's like, I must do everything, you know, in order to succeed. It's just trying to do what's best for you and what you can do that day and just trying to continue to be better. Right. And so I just want people to make sure that they hear that we gave a lot of information. Doctor Gupta is very well versed and gave you lots of things you can do, but I don't want somebody to go away from this with, you know, a list of 100 things and think, oh, I have to check every single thing on this to get better.

That's not what we're saying. We're trying to give you lots of options and ways that you can put little pieces together to continue to to get better and to heal and to not need medications forever. And, you know, to to just feel normal. Would you agree? Absolutely, absolutely. There is so much information. And don't be overwhelmed. There is hope for you to get better, get the information, whatever makes sense for you. Start doing that. Just don't put all your eggs in one basket. That's what I want people to know.

So just, you know, like make some changes to your lifestyle. And it's a process, but you cannot do it in one day. So don't even try that. But start somewhere. You have to start somewhere and keep working on this process. And eventually you will reach there. So just keep doing the process, keep doing small steps and small things and those accumulate over the course of time. It will give you big results. Yes. And hopefully you're finding some, you know, key elements in each of these summit interviews where people are kind of saying the same thing.

But, you know, Doctor Gupta is a specialist in Hashimoto's. And so there's going to be saying similar things so you can pull from them what you need. But we're just trying to give you some very basic tools so that you can help make yourself better without being overwhelmed. So thank you for joining me on this summit episode. I'm sure that people will find this very helpful. Can you tell people just briefly kind of where they can find you if they have more and like want more information about you?

Absolutely. So we are on social media, we have a great YouTube channel, puts out a lot of great informational content or handles. Anshul Gupta, MD so you can just, you know, find me over on YouTube. A lot of great information we are putting on. So I think that's the best ways for people to find more about me and what content I am putting out and learn more about Hashimoto's and how to lower inflammation levels in your body. Okay, so unshackled! Gupta A in sage ul Jay, you've a Indy is his social media handle.

And then do you still see patients? Yep. So we see patients. We are a completely telemedicine practice. So people from across the globe actually come and can see us. So again they can go on our website, which is unreal. Gupta md.com. And they can find more information about how they can work with us, you know, through telemedicine. Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you for all that you do. Thank you for being a part of this summit. I appreciate it. Absolutely. It was really a pleasure. And again, thank you so much for having me here.

And thank you for all the great work that you are doing.