The Hidden Connection Between Hashimoto’s & MS

Introduction and guest background 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the MS Autoimmune, Summit. I'm Doctor Terry Wahls your host, and my next guest is Doctor Anshul Gupta. He is the bestselling author, speaker, and researcher recognized as the world's expert on treating Hashimoto's disease. He's passionate about educating, empowering people globally to reverse Hashimoto's and reclaim their health. He's a board certified family medicine physician with advance certifications in functional medicine, peptide therapy, fellowship training, and integrative medicine Dr.

Gupta, brings a wealth of expertise, to his work. His experience includes serving as the Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine, where he worked alongside a doctor, Mark Hyman, and helped thousands of patients address chronic health issues by focusing on their root causes. Driven by his personal journey of overcoming chronic health challenges. Doctor Gupta has made it his mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions. To achieve this, he's authored the bestselling book Reversing Hashimoto's Launch A Virtual Functional Medicine Practice, and has created a thriving online presence through his blog and his YouTube channel.

His content's reached over 20 million people worldwide. Voice out working doctor Gupta enjoys traveling, hiking, meditating, and practicing yoga. So let's welcome, Doctor Gupta. Doctor Gupta, I'm so glad to have you here. Let's get right to the question that I'm sure all my listeners are wondering about is, so what's the Hashimoto's thyroid disease? Multiple sclerosis connection? Yeah. I mean, first of all, thank you so much for having me on this summit. You know, it is really great to be here. The message you're sharing is obviously inspiring.

Not only for general people, but for people like us, you know, who have seen you sharing all your message and all the work that you do. So thank you so much for that. Coming to your question about the connection, so both M.S., which is the multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's disease are autoimmune diseases. And as we know that, you know, once you get one autoimmune diseases,

Hashimoto's and MS connection 2:00

there is a very high chance that you're getting a second autoimmune disease. In fact, there was a review study done which actually looked at 13 K 13 studies on comparing whether the people with multiple sclerosis have a higher chance of thyroid diseases, including hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's disease. And they saw that there was a significant increase in the number of Hashimoto's disease patients. Once you get multiple sclerosis. And there is also a, different connection where we know that the thyroid hormone plays a very significant role, especially in your brain development.

You know, when you are a child, as well as also plays a significant role in re myelination. Now, as we know that in multiple sclerosis, the major issue that is happening with the nervous system is that the myelin sheets get attacked and it is not able to regenerate. And, thyroid hormone plays a very, very significant role in this reimagination. So that's the reason Hashimoto's and multiple sclerosis have this reverse connection where people who have Hashimoto's disease or hypothyroidism have less re myelination happening, and that increases their chance of multiple sclerosis.

So the two way connection, both multiple sclerosis increase the chance of Hashimoto's and Hashimoto's increases the multiple sclerosis chances. Also, you know and I believe there are thyroid pardon me, rumination drugs that have been developed that are very close analogs of thyroid hormones that have been very effective in animals. I don't know that those studies have been completed yet in human, humans. But it would make a lot of sense to me that the thyroid hormone there is a very, very critical for successful repair of our myelin.

And again, for you listeners, the status of your thyroid will have a big impact on, the, severity of your Ms. symptoms and probably increase the probability if you if you have thyroid disease, that you're going to slip over into the progressive phase of the illness. Well, would that be correct, doctor Gupta that is correct. Do. Yes. You know, like so. The severity of the disease also matters a lot because any autoimmune diseases, you know, whenever there is triggers which you get exposed to that increases your inflammation in the body and that also increases the destruction, which is happening now in both.

Interestingly, multiple sclerosis, the damage is as the T cell mediated damage, which is that immune, a function which is damaging the mind and sheet of the neurons. Now, interestingly, Hashimoto's is also a T cell mediated disease two. So again, they're pathophysiology like if people want to go into a little bit of biochemistry that is very similar. So whenever if there is a Hashimoto's disease and there is a trigger which people do see again in Hashimoto's, they see that the symptoms will wax and wane.

So whenever they get exposed to certain triggers, that will increase their symptoms because their antibodies are increasing. And these similar antibodies can also trigger multiple sclerosis symptoms and also make them worse. So for listeners who are thinking like, I never considered the health of my thyroid, so what might be some clues that our listeners should pay attention to so they could be talking to their physicians, exploring the health of their thyroid. So one of the problems with thyroid symptoms is that each and every person who is walking on the street probably will have some or the other symptom which is associated with thyroid.

Because it is such a generalized disease, it literally affects our body from head to toe. But the most common symptoms of hyperthyroidism, or Hashimoto's disease starts from, first of all, people feeling tired or feeling fatigued. The second most common symptom is that they are unable to lose weight or they are gaining weight constantly. Then comes the the issues with, people having a lot of hair related symptoms that either they will be having hair thinning or hair for issues very common symptoms happening, and then brain fog is another one which is a common symptom.

People will be happening now. Brain fog is defined for people is that, you know, they will feel that the memory is not good as before. They are forgetting things or they do not pay attention to it. So kind of very similar to M.S. symptoms that people will have. And then, you know, cold intolerance is again a very important symptom. Then people will feel cold all the time, even though the temperature around them might be even hot. And then mood changes, like they will either feel depressed or they will feel anxious, or they will have this rollercoaster ride between being feeling depressed or anxious all the time.

And then in females we have menstrual issues, dysmorphia or men. A Raja is a very common symptom. Infertility is a huge player in Hashimoto's people, so these are the most common symptoms that people will have with Hashimoto's disease. So literally from head to toe, people will have these symptoms

Symptoms and proper thyroid testing 7:00

of any of these symptoms are happening. They should be having a discussion with their physician about checking the thyroid. Now here's the caution. The problem is that majority of the conventional doctors will order only one test, which is the test which is the thyroid stimulating hormone, to check the status of the thyroid. The problem is that that doesn't tell us the complete picture of it, and that doesn't even check for Hashimoto's disease. But the research is very clear that the Hashimoto's antibodies can be high more than 4 to 5 years before.

Finally, they will destroy the thyroid gland so that the tests will be abnormal. So a lot of people, by the time they get diagnosed with hypothyroidism, by the way of checking their tea, is it their. Hashimoto's has already been destroying the thyroid gland for at least several years. So it is very important not only check your TSH, but ask them to check your free T3 as well as the free T4 hormone levels, which are the actual thyroid hormones and plus also get the antibody levels check. So there are two antibodies that needs to be checked.

When is the thyroid globulin antibodies. And the other one is the TPO antibody which is the thyroid peroxidase antibodies. Now if any of these antibodies are higher, then the reference range given by that particular lab that is diagnostic of Hashimoto's disease. So people have Hashimoto's disease and they should be start looking to work on lowering these antibodies so that obviously they can get their disease process improved. So again very important to get the complete testing then not just the TSH to know the complete status of the thyroid gland.

Okay. So we're talking to 333 T4. These are a two thyroid hormones anti TPO antibodies and thyroid globulin antibodies. And you would you also get a TSH as well. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. So we're talking five test and let's say those come back and we see that I have antibodies. My 323 free T4 are still within the reference range but my antibodies are high. Does that mean I'm okay I don't really have to do anything. Or does that mean I early in the disease process and I should do something. So yes, you are already in the disease process.

So you are one of those lucky people that you got diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, the early stages, which has not yet destroyed to the thyroid gland that you are causing this condition of hypothyroidism. So again, if you go to conventional doctors or even an endocrine doctor, they would say that nothing needs to be done. Come back in six months. We will check your TSH back again if it is abnormal, we are going to put you on a medicine. But right now you don't need to do anything. We know as functional medicine doctors that we can have this opportunity of working on the exact disease process and reverse it so that we can lower the antibodies and safeguard the thyroid gland so that the further destruction is not happening.

And even some cases, we are able to repair the damage so we can reverse the disease. So then never go on hypothyroidism. So definitely through function medicine they can reduce these antibodies. So we're probably talking about looking at some of the root causes that's triggering the body to begin attacking the thyroid. So I guess that leads me to what are those root causes. Absolutely. So the root causes are categorized into five major categories. The first one, which kind of a lot of people already are aware of is food.

So food sensitivities are playing a big role in triggering a lot of autoimmune conditions. The big ones, you know, we already know about are gluten, dairy, the processed food that we know about. These are the foods which we know that, you know, through research that they can trigger leaky gut issues, which is a condition in the gut, which again sets the stage for all the autoimmune conditions. So food sensitivities playing a very, very major role is the first cause, which can lead to Hashimoto's disease.

The second causing nutritional deficiencies. Now what is happening is that a thyroid gland needs several different vitamins and minerals to produce thyroid hormone. And unfortunately, our current diet is low in these particular vitamins and minerals, specifically selenium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin B's. These play a very, very significant role in kind of our thyroid gland and help us to make thyroid hormone, as well as conversion of thyroid hormone. And what do you mentioned? Iron. Iodine is there?

Now, the reason I didn't mention iodine is that initially when we actually started off with knowing about thyroid disorders, everybody has a iodine deficiency and they had hypothyroidism because of that. Now looking at the current situation, it has completely flipped over because of, you know, a fortification of iodine or introduction of iodine into our like food. Generally, we don't see so much of iodine deficiency. That's the reason majority of the hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's disease.

Now, the iodine kind of is a double edged sword. Too little of iodine can cause Hashimoto's and too much of iodine can also cause Hashimoto's disease. So we have to be in that, you know, in the sweet spot for that. But yes, iodine is also important for making, this thyroid hormone too. So that's the second thing. Nutritional deficiencies. Then the third comes the stress. Now stress is a very major player, especially in females. You know, as we know that Hashimoto's is a female predominant disease.

The reason being, again, female hormones are very complex and they go through several stressors in their life. When there is a change in their hormonal shifts. And that's a time we see a lot of times Hashimoto's being triggered. One of the times is obviously having, you know, pregnancies, you know, like their hormonal shifts happen. So post delivery we see a big increase in Hashimoto's disease. Second one is menopause.

Early Hashimoto's and root causes 13:00

Again a big shift in hormones happen. And that's again a second time that we can see. That's interesting. What I'm seeing in my practice now these days is that young females who have just hit their puberty actually are also being diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. And more and more young kids also have Hashimoto's disease. So again, so that's one of the stressors hormonal shifts, the other stressors, obviously any kind of social stressors, you know, any kind of emotional stress. We go through childhood trauma that people go through or even physical stress.

All of these stressors, you know, hijack our immune system and obviously throw into an inflammatory cascade and causing Hashimoto's. So that's the third cause. The fourth one is chronic infections. We know about Epstein-Barr virus infection. We have at least ten plus research studies which show the correlation of Epstein-Barr virus to Hashimoto's disease. And the interesting factor over here is that it is not an acute Epstein-Barr virus infection, which will cause Hashimoto's. Typically, it is something reactivation of Epstein-Barr.

So the difference is that once you get Epstein-Barr virus infection, it always remains dormant in all of our bodies. And most of us, you know, like, you know, get a vaccine by the virus. Most of the time during our teenage years or other times, we all get exposed to it. But whenever a immune system goes low, this reactivation of Epstein-Barr actually, again, can trigger Hashimoto's. So very, very important kind of reason of people having Hashimoto's then other chronic infection, especially gut related parasites, can also cause us.

One of them is blastocysts. Again, we have at least 2 or 3 research studies which suggest that presence of blastocysts is homeowners, which is the most common parasite world over, can again increase your chances of having Hashimoto's disease so that, you know, these kind of infections, chronic infections can cause that. We also have some anecdotal evidences or case reports of Lyme disease and other chronic infection. Like the beacon. Bartonella can also lead to Hashimoto's disease. So these are chronic infections.

Then comes the last thing is toxins. Several different kinds of toxins are present in our environment. Whether it is heavy metals like lead and mercury, which we have significant correlation between them and Hashimoto's disease, or the newer kind of toxins like mold, mycotoxins that we now know about can again affect our thyroid gland and cause Hashimoto's. And then obviously there are several environmental toxins. Each and every day we are adding more and more chemical toxins to our environment, which all of those can affect and cause Hashimoto's disease.

So these are the main five root causes that lead to Hashimoto's disease. Now the interesting factor is that most people are looking for that one root cause. What I've seen through my research is that it is just not one root cause. It's an interplay or a combination of root causes. A minimum of 2 to 3 root causes come together and causes Hashimoto's. So people need to be reevaluated and looked at all the root causes and work on all of them to reverse this disease for them. You know, again, for the listeners, this is a very similar story for multiple sclerosis.

And really, I'm going to say for most of our systemic autoimmune conditions, we have a genetic vulnerability. And I'm sure the same is probably true for Hashimoto's. Then there are infection exposures in most people around the globe have been exposed to these infections. And most often we get the infection, we recover from it. And we do find until the third step is unknown environmental factors. So the conventional world will say in the next setting, just take your disease modifying treatment and don't worry about it probably in the conventional thyroid.

So they just say just take levothyroxine and don't worry about it. But you are. So let's investigate and address as many of these environmental factors optimize them as well as we can. And then we'll watch. And we can be very hopeful that we'll get better control of your systemic autoimmune condition. This case Hashimoto's, the multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune condition, which might be rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis. And as we address these environmental factors, people often gradually do better.

So how do we decide who needs to take thyroid hormone replacement. So again, there is an interesting research which happened in Norway recently actually, because as soon as a TSH is abnormal, most of the people are told that they should be going on a live with Roxanne. Now, this is what a research study looked at. Around 200,000 people actually in their national database. And what they found out was that the time which is below ten now, obviously that is still high and your T3, T4 hormone levels are normal and you do not have significant symptoms.

Those people will normalize their thyroid hormone levels a lot of times in the next five years on their own without even doing anything. So what that told us was that, you know, like just the search alone is not a very good predictor of putting anybody on thyroid hormone replacement. So that again, comes to the point that we have to look at the T3 T4 in the complete thyroid picture along with the symptoms. So definitely if you have T3 and T4 on the lower side, then definitely it makes sense to start thyroid hormone replacement.

Whether you choose like the synthetic hormone, like the liver oxygen or there are natural versions, which is the armor, or the n beta, which are the glandular natural thyroid hormone replacement that can be done, but the search alone is slightly abnormal. T3, T4 or normally don't have significant symptoms. And obviously this is only for adults. You know, like we are not talking about children or even teenagers. This is strictly for adult, you know, like population. So then you can still work on other underlying aspects of things to help to reverse this disease.

Now, one of the things that I know the conventional docs are cautioned is that if we over replace the thyroid, we can cause bone mineral loss, osteopenia, osteoporosis. So for listeners who may have been told about the caution related to bone disease, what's your approach with replacing the thyroid hormone while maintaining good bone structure? So first of all, this concern generally actually is more so in postmenopausal females. You know, we don't see this bone mineral loss in, you know, early ages females or even like, you know, females less than 50 years of age.

And second of all, the direct correlation. We do not have big like research studies that will show that, you know, this will cause it in postmenopausal anyways, females bone density goes down for several other reasons. So having a direct correlation with thyroid hormone replacement and bone mineral density is not very well established. There is more anecdotal or theoretical concern about it. But yes, you know, like, you know, I I'm not in the camp of giving very, very high doses of diet hormone replacement so that we can suppress dosage completely.

But I think a healthy range of dosage between 1 to 2 is good to shoot for, for like, you know, people with thyroid disorders and T3 and T4 levels, again, being in good range that way. But again, like, you know, healthy bones doesn't mean that, you know, you don't work on your lifestyle choices. So having a great diet, which is a combination of antioxidant food, vitamins, minerals, having some sun exposure to get your vitamin D or having a vitamin D supplementation with it, exercising, especially weight bearing exercising, and a mix of cardio and strength training is great to keep your bone strong anyways, so those you know.

Anyways, that is the foundation of any protocol with autoimmune diseases, any Hashimoto's that we want people to be on to keep their health in good shape, that will also keep their bones in good shape. Also. Okay, let's let's talk about the mitochondria and thyroid. Is there a connection? Absolutely. Yes. So there is again a two way connection between the thyroid and the mitochondria are basically like you know thyroid hormone influences are mitochondrial function. So whenever it is a thyroid hormone deficiency in our body that influences our mitochondrial function.

And interestingly, what we are seeing the other way around also that people who have dysfunctional mitochondria, they also have higher chances of thyroid dysfunction. Interestingly, like in Hashimoto's disease, you know, like initially how they came to know about Hashimoto's was that, you know, they took biopsies

When to use thyroid hormone replacement 22:00

of the thyroid gland of deceased people who were diagnosed with Hashimoto's. What they saw in that in the thyroid cells, there was a lot of cluster of these, like, you know, dots, you know, on the staining in the microscope slide, they saw and they realized those dots were actually all dysfunctional mitochondria. There was a big cluster that was seen in these thyroid cells. So they realized was that the hallmark of inflammation, which was destroying the thyroid cells, was this dysfunctional, the mitochondria.

And interestingly, like if people will look at that, you know, they will see that all of the thyroid related symptoms are actually mitochondrial symptoms, you know, so whenever we see that the mitochondrial dysfunction is happening because mitochondria is a powerhouse of our body of a cell, typically people have fatigue, brain fog issues. People will feel weakness in their arms or legs or muscular weakness. So any of these symptoms are mitochondrial symptoms. So interestingly, this connection between thyroid and mitochondria is really very intense.

Where a dysfunctional or damaged mitochondria will cause Hashimoto's or thyroid condition. And if you have either hormone deficiency in the body, that also will lead to our mitochondria do not function properly. So, what do we do? How do we help our folks out? Absolutely. Well, there is so much stuff that can be done, you know, for people to get better. But I again, a very strong believer that a foundation of any healthy recovery process is a great lifestyle. We have so much tools, you know, that has been given to us, you know, in our daily routine that can be used.

Food is definitely a medicine. So that's what I start off with, putting people on a diet, which again, first of all will get rid of the inflammatory food from their diet, introduce food which is anti-inflammatory, as well as use foods which will heal their mitochondria as well as heal the thyroid. So that's the kind of dietary inflammatory foods that you tell people to remove or reduce. So first of all, processed foods. So any kind of processed food we want people to remove, you know, so going to KFC McDonald's all those processed food goes away fast foods and things.

Then second we want them to get off gluten are the third will be dairy. So any kind of dairy that doesn't include unfortunately milk and cheeses. So for people to go away that they will have to give up sugar is another thing mainly processed or like simple sugars, like white sugar and things. We want people to give up and then, soy is another thing which can be very, very inflammatory to a lot of people. Now again, so is a little bit controversial over here. Some people feel that fermented soy things, you know, especially being used in the Asian countries, are good for people.

What we are most concerned about is the soy, which is processed and added to our food. So a lot of people, when they go gluten free, you know, they start buying these gluten free products. And unfortunately the food industry is very smart. So now they are adding these processed soy and corn to majority of the gluten free products. So what I want people is that look at the packaging and see if there is any soy to it. So that is definitely not natural. So and they need to kind of get rid of it. So hang on for for the listeners, this is one of the reasons why I am not very, fond of gluten free products.

I'm very fond of foods that are naturally gluten free. So those are your vegetables, your, fruits, your beets. You could have, if you're a vegetarian. Whole grain. So, wholegrain rice, and, legumes, meat, fish. But so start getting soy. Pardon me? Gluten free products. There's a lot of things that are added that you see on the label. And then you can get generally regarded as safe stuff added that don't even show up on the label. Now, back to you, doctor Gupta.

Bone health and thyroid dosing 26:00

So I totally agree with that. Unfortunately, you know, as I was saying, our food industry is so smart that as soon as you know, they will start, like, mislabeling things you know, oh, there is no sugar added to this. Well, there is already sugar into it. You know, products are same thing, that gluten free product. But as soon as you look at the label, there at least 20 different ingredients. Which half of them you cannot even spell or you don't even know what that means. So I always tell people, read the labels and again, definitely stick with as much natural foods.

So that's where the soy came in. And then we want to remove corn, which is again like you know, majority of the corn is GMO corn that we are using, which again can lead to significant issues with leaky gut. So that's what we remove. We also won't be able to give up alcohol because again that can be very much triggering, especially like increasing the toxin burden for the body. So these are the inflammatory causing food that most of the time we will remove or ask people to remove for Hashimoto's disease.

And again, for the listeners that the diet that Doctor Gupta just advised would be fine for somebody with multiple sclerosis, to adopt as well. Back to you, Doctor Gupta. So then the next question is that what should be eating, right? Most people who say, well, what is left to eat? So then I said, you know, like there is a big, I love grocery store, which is open up for you, to eat, which is vegetables. So non-starchy colorful vegetables. You know, we all believe in this rainbow colored diet because each and every color in that vegetable carries with it a different antioxidant, different kinds of minerals and vitamins and this is what we need to heal our body so that constitute the anti-inflammatory diet, different kind of colorful vegetables that people should be eating as many colors.

If you can eat 8 to 10 colors in a day, that is even better. But try to stick with colorful diet. Now here's a caution over here. You know, like most people have been told that cruciferous vegetables like cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts are not good for people with thyroid disorders. Now, again, this was a very old kind of myth. When majority of the people had thyroid disorders because of iodine deficiency, Hashimoto's disease. Interestingly, these all foods actually improve the antibody levels and really good for thyroid conditions.

So I always tell people, don't worry about it, please eat these vegetables. They're really great for your body. They have great sulforaphane which are antioxidant as well as detoxifying products, you know, for our body. So please like, you know, eat them, you know, in good quantity. There is no problem, you know, been doing that. So that's the nightshades. So most people with a protocol will tolerate nightshades. There is a small amount of people which even by doing the diet and the supplements, their antibody levels do not go down.

Those are the people that, you know, we ask them to remove nightshade because that can be a problem for some of them.

Mitochondria, diet, and inflammation 29:00

But I will say around 60, 70% of our people still do okay with nightshades. So I'm thinking that you probably phase this, that at first people are fine with the nightshades. If they are still having symptoms after 3 to 6 months, then you suggest taking the nightshades out. That's correct. Yes. You know, like 2 or 3 months actually is good enough. You know, like if you have remove like like you done the basic protocol with the diet, lifestyle choices and other things in three months, if you're not seeing an improvement in your antibodies, that's where we kind of ramp up the protocol and remove the nightshades and go on a little bit more stricter diet and more advanced protocol for that.

Okay. Okay. So for the listeners, this really mirrors my approach with M.S. that, you know, doing the walls level one or walls level two. So either with me or the pill, the thick version without without legumes and any gluten free grains that after three months to six months, if you're still symptomatic, that's when I take out the nightshades. So we're very much in agreement with that approach. So, continue on with the protocols. We've talked about diet, nutritional approaches, but you had mentioned these other elements of stress, infection, toxins.

Are you addressing those right away? Yes. But going back to the died a few other tips, you know, like you might be hiding over here. Yeah. We first of all, is good quality protein, you know, very important because we need those amino acids, especially tyrosine is one of the amino acids, which is needed to produce a thyroid hormone. And then other amino acids as well are needed for various functions in the body. So good quality protein very important whether you are a vegetarian, sources of protein, which is comes from the legumes, lentils, your whole grains, your seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, you know or like, you know, nuts and seeds or you know, if you, do eat like, you know, meat products, which, you know, chicken, fish, turkey like obviously source them for good, places.

But good quality protein is very important, which has a complete amino acid profile. Then comes the good quality fats. Again, we have shamed fats for a long time that, you know, everybody's on a low fat diet, which is really not good for Hashimoto's patients. We need that good fat to reduce inflammation in the body as well as to for our body cells to function properly. So good fats, you know again olive oils are great. You know, if you are into, avocados, you know, or if you are again into a fatty fishes or again, nuts and seeds, if you're a vegan or vegetarian, like chia or flax or even like, soaked almonds and walnuts.

But good fats is also very important. So these are the things that make sure people are including in their diet, because these are what we call as healing foods for your thyroid as well as for your Hashimoto's disease. Okay, so once you've taken care of these, then we move to the other lifestyle choices, which definitely stress is a very, very big issue with Hashimoto's disease because as I said, any kind of stress, whether it's physical, emotional, spiritual or hormonal, will cause, you know, a trigger of Hashimoto's disease and the world we live in, you know, like we have all of these going around us.

So I'm a big proponent of working on a mindset, as well as including mindfulness exercises like either meditation or doing the exercises on a regular basis on the regimen. So that people can work and rebalance their hormones. A lot of people think that, well, you know, when we talk about these stress reduction exercises, that they can handle stress very well. And I tell people it is not about handling stress is about stress causing physical changes or physical impact on our body. So if you do have Hashimoto's disease, then definitely stress is impacting your body.

And the only way to reduce that burden of impact is by including these mindfulness exercises for your one. And we're not talking about 1 hour or 2 hours. You're talking about 15, 20 minutes, you know, 25 minutes if you can do that. And great apps. Are there. Some guided meditation or guided relaxation is a wonderful way to get started on this thing. Okay. And can we very briefly, give some suggestions on the toxin reduction? Yes. So toxins are again a kind of a little bit of caution over here. A lot of people, as soon as they talk about toxins or think about toxins, they are buying these advanced supplements for detoxification.

I don't want people to think that they can detoxify on their own with advanced protocols, because there is a process of detoxification. So there is some things you can do to reduce the burden of toxins, which are natural ways. But going on advanced detox protocol can backfire has backfired in a lot of my patients who have done their on their own. So I don't recommend you know, dangers going on the internet and buying those advance supplements for the detoxification. But there are certain natural ways.

So our body detoxify is through five major channels. First of all is by sweating. So a sweat glands will release, you know, these toxins from there.

Stress, toxins, and where to find Dr. Gupta 34:00

So optimizing that would be really good. So that's where the soreness comes into picture. Either your either your regular sauna or infrared sauna is a really good that will help our body to sweat and release those toxins out. If you do not have access to a sauna, then just doing workouts, you can layer up on kind of warm clothing and do workouts, and you can release sweat. That is also an okay way of releasing toxins from your system. Very important tip over here again, as soon as you release these toxins through your sweat, it very important to take a shower so that you can remove these toxins from your skin.

Otherwise they can get reabsorbed. So sweating is the first way of doing it. Second thing is what lymphatic channel now most people are not even aware that we have this whole system of lymph nodes and lymph glands in our system, in our body, which plays a very significant role in exchange, you know, into our circulatory system. But one of the roles is actually removing toxins also. And most of our lymphatic channels are not moving properly because of the sedentary lifestyle that we are living. So dry brushing is a very great way of, we know, recirculating this lymph and also help improving our lymphatic channels.

Massages are a great way to if you don't have access to massages. Dry brushing is a great way. You can just use a dry brush in your in your shower and that will take care of this stuff. Third way is through our kidneys, so that's where drinking enough water plays an important role. Most of us are dehydrated. You know we are not drinking water enough to flush our toxins from the kidneys. So I always recommend drinking enough water so that we can flush those kidneys and release those toxins out. Then comes, you know, a gut.

So gut is again very important way of removing toxins. So make sure you are pooping regularly. Not like every 2 or 3 days, every day. At least one bowel movement is important so that we can constantly get, you know, those toxins out from our GI tract. And then last is our liver. So liver is a massive detoxify for our body. And it handles almost all the toxins. A lot of processes of detoxification is happening in the liver. So for that some natural ways are using again food as a helping with the liver.

So certain spices like turmeric ginger are a great way that helps you know to flush out our livers. Beets are great. Dandelion greens are great. Again all of these will flow roughly in compounds you know, which are coming through these broccolis and Brussels sprouts and cabbages are again, great way to kind of help improve our liver health. So these are like you know, natural ways which people can, you know, improve their detox process. And the second is obviously reducing the burden, less exposure to toxins.

We know that, you know, each and every product we are using has a chemical attached to it, especially females. Before they leave their house in the morning, all the cosmetic products they are using on their body are laden with these tokens. Yeah, yeah. So again, use natural products. You know, again, there is a great website called EWG Dorjee has a list of great natural products that people can look into. And, you know, just replace all of your personal care products to more environmental friendly and natural products that will help to reduce the load of toxins in your system, too.

Well, that goes up to you. And I could probably chat another hour, but we need to sort of wrap this up. So for people who are worried about the Third World to learn more, how can we find you? So I'm an on social media, so I have a website called AnshulGuptamd.com where, you know, we have an active blog on it, but now I actually am more active on YouTube. I also have a YouTube channel under the name of Anshul Gupta, MD will be here again. A lot of great educational videos regarding Hashimoto's and thyroid has been posted, and we keep on posting them regularly so people can find me over there.

Okay. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. And again, it's Anshul Gupta, MD is social media and his YouTube channel. Thank you, doctor Gupta. Thank you so much.