Heart Health Starts With Your Thyroid: Nutrition, Lifestyle, And Mindset That Work

Introduction and guest overview 0:00

Welcome back to the reversing Hashimoto's and Thyroid Disease Summit. I have a very special guest today, doctor Jack Wilson. I'm going to tell you about him. And then we're going to get down into the nitty gritty on the heart's correlation with hypothyroidism, and even tackle some myths that are out there that you might be hearing spread by maybe your conventional doctor, maybe Facebook groups, maybe your friend told you we're going to break through all of those those myths that might be clogging your brain and confusing you when it comes to proper thyroid treatment.

So doctor Jack is a board certified cardiologist. He is a number one Amazon bestselling author, and he is the founder of Natural Heart Doctor. He is the nation's number one natural heart doctor. He is your go to for all things heart. I can't even tell you how many patients I refer to doctor Jack because of various heart conditions. Heart issues. I'm sending them to doctor Jack, not to conventional medicine. So, Jack, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Doctor Amy, pleasure as always.

And, you know, I understand there are so many people out there who struggle with with thyroid concerns and how it relates to cardiovascular issues. So really excited to dive into it. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with the general topic of how does having that low and slow thyroid function hypothyroidism or full blown Hashimoto's, the autoimmune condition? How does that actually have an impact on our heart? Well, it's you know, one of the first things we learned in medical school and certainly into internal medicine training and cardiology training, that you learn that the thyroid really is that kind of that spark plug, if you will, that just kind of, you know, provides that extra source of energy

How hypothyroidism affects the heart 1:58

to the heart to improve cardiac function. So it all really relies on that adequately working thyroid to stimulate mitochondrial function, cellular function. And make the heart, you know, really, really tick. And we see that people who have underactive thyroid or hypo thyroid, there are higher risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation as well. Now, atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm problem. We see that certainly with hypothyroid but also see it with hypothyroid.

So I think the relationship between thyroid health and heart health is really intricate, which is why you and I are talking about it on the summit. Yeah, absolutely. And I see this a boatload in my patients and even in my community as they're talking about their overall health, that many of them have been put on blood pressure medications, some of them on beta blockers. And to me, and I want to get your opinion on this, to me, that's more of a Band-Aid for a situation that could be remedied by properly addressing thyroid function.

Can you talk a little bit more about, like, why is it that we're just handing out these BP meds to cover something instead of getting to the root. You know, and I love that's what you do is that, you know, you get to the root cause and that's what it's really about. If the thyroid is not functioning optimally, well then what are the tips and strategies to make it function optimally? And certainly that impacts the heart as well. You know, I think that when you are doing these things from a foundational standpoint, then that's going to help that thyroid, you know, work better.

And there's a time and a place certainly for thyroid pharmaceuticals, people come in sometimes with profound, hypothyroidism issues in the, you know, 60s, 70s and 80s, and they're in congestive heart failure. And then how do you go with that? But I think the main thing that people are dealing with are just, you know, just millions of, women and men with this, underactive thyroid and how that impacts the heart. And then, yeah, you take all these people in addition, there on pharmaceuticals that are going to suppress thyroid function directly or indirectly and indirectly.

You said beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, statin drugs are going to have a tremendous impact. And we talk about all the things that make the thyroid go well. If you're using a statin drug that would inhibit the production of cholesterol, which is necessary indirectly, more so for thyroid function. If you're, you know, taking the, you know, the, the, the, the statin drug that also interferes with things like CoQ10 and other parts of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, which is cellular energy.

So if you're really taking these pharmaceuticals,

Medication band-aids and thyroid side effects 4:47

they're going to kind of mess up, thyroid function. The thyroid receives thyroid, stimulating hormone. You know, all these things are impacted by it by, you know, seeing conventional cardiologist, unfortunate. And, you know, you just said something that I didn't even think about, that some of these medications that they're giving out as band aids are actually having that negative impact on the thyroid, making the whole situation worse. So not only is this person dealing with being hypothyroid it and maybe having high blood pressure, maybe, okay, the whole cholesterol lipid panel is a whole nother topic.

But so they get put on a statin. And now that comes back to basically punch them in the face to make their thyroid worse, which then is going to have an effect on their blood pressure and cholesterol regulation and insulin regulation. So it seems like one big circle that we're getting into, if people stay in the conventional medicine realm and they're looking for help with thyroid and with heart conditions, anything any of the heart conditions. Yeah. And then you look at, you know, a certainly a common pharmaceutical that we use is called amiodarone.

And the listeners here, they may not be out of themselves, but maybe one of their loved ones is, you know, I'm just thinking about maybe like, I don't know, the, you know, the 50 year old woman who's listening to this thyroid issues. And then her husband, is, I don't know, a few years older and he's on amiodarone, which is a nasty pharmaceutical that, clearly interferes with thyroid function in a tremendous way. Like, that's not debatable. So, I mean, I think ultimately, you know, this foundational approach is going to be key.

I see so many people as you do. You know, these, you know, women with thyroid issues, and they've got tachycardia, heart racing feelings, PACs, which are premature atrial complexes, premature ventricular complexes. But there's these feelings of palpitations. And they're really unheard because they go to their medical doctor and they are either, you know, canceled like, okay, doctor. And it's not it's okay. Like, you know, it's just some flip flops. It's nothing dangerous. You know, it's not going to kill you.

And you're like, yeah, but I feel like I'm going to die. I feel like I, you know, I want to die if I don't like this. And, you know, I think, you know, kind of that root cause getting to the, you know, foundation of the thyroid is going to be very important there when it relates to these palpitations and heart racing feelings or back to what we said with the pharmaceuticals. The medical doctors say, well, you know, try this pharmaceutical. They quiet down those extra heartbeats, the racing hard feelings, which only leads to more sickness and not getting to root cause.

Right. Exactly. That's what's so frustrating. So let's talk about treatment because this is a question I get all the time I'm having, like you said, heart palpitations. And that's how they all phrase it. So it could be a it could be PBC. We don't know. But they're saying I'm having these flutters and having these flutters. And I go to my doctor and my doctor says I am overmedicated on my thyroid medication. Now half of the time is, you know, they're not over Medicaid and half of them are 90% of them are on T4.

Only it's barely working to help them with any of their symptoms. Or maybe they are on something like arm or thyroid, or a little bit of like irony with their synthroid. And immediately that doctor freaks out. Must be your thyroid medication. Give me anything with T3 and IT. We're throwing it out the window. We're dropping your T4 and yeah sorry. If you gain weight lose your hair and get constipated. Too bad. But we're going to work on stopping those heart pops are the heart palpitations that these people are feeling.

Can they be from being under medicated

Heart palpitations, overmedication, and TSH-only treatment 8:27

or wrongly medicated for their thyroid condition? Or is it both? Like, yeah, it could be over medicated. It could be under what are we dealing with with heart pops here? Well, I think I would summarize it by this and I'm sure you'll agree, like the main problem that people have is that they work with conventional medical doctors and seek their advice. So that's exactly what the problem is, is that when they're not working with real thyroid root cause experts like yourself, that that's the message that they're getting.

And like you said, the doctor is just going to be looking at numbers, and not all the right numbers. And, I mean, a lot of times in conventional medicine, they're solely looking at the TSH as the arbiter of, of, you know, thyroid, treatment efficacy. And yeah, when they solely rely on that, there's a lot of problems, you know, with that, as, of course, you and the people who work with you now understand. So, yeah, I would agree that there's, a lot of ignorance in the thyroid space amongst conventional practitioners.

And I was one of those as well. When, when, you know, I went through all that medical training, but you just know what you know, and you monitor not even symptoms really. You're just monitoring that TSH number. And I think that's where a lot of people, have a problem. So I think that we really, you know, we use this combined functional approach where, you know, you're looking at the nutrition, you're looking at the lifestyle, you're looking at all these other surrounding ancillary tests that could be helpful.

And ultimately you're just you're listening to the patient as opposed to relying on on any particular number. So then if a patient comes to you, they are hypothyroid. Obviously you are going to look at their thyroid function because of your very, very holistic approach taking into account all factors. And and let's say they they do have some different heart issues. I mean, there's so many different heart issues I can't I'm not a cardiologist. Don't play one on TV. So I, I'm not even listing all of them when I say AFib, tachycardia, the PVCs, that's all I know.

But I'm sure there's a laundry list of others. Even just having high blood pressure. What natural approaches would you take to number one? Possibly get these people off of the pharmaceuticals? That could be coming back and kicking their thyroid, but but also to actually help improve their heart condition? Yeah, we utilize what's called a 100 year heart method. And that's, I guess can be summarized as this, you know, eat well, live well, think well. Tests don't gas evidence based supplements, biohacking strategies and kind of trying all those things.

And then of course, depending on where they're at, you'll mix in prescription pharmaceuticals. Like again, there is definitely a place, you know, an end time for, you know, you know, I guess bioidentical, you know, T3 and T4, you know, whenever possible and working with an expert, you know, and, you know, like yourself in that arena to really dial in that thyroid function. But, you know, I definitely see a lot of people who who have elevated, you know, TSH. And I feel that that is very impactful.

Certainly, to the heart. And as you mentioned, whether it's heart rhythm problems, blood pressure, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, sudden cardiac death, we want to make sure that we are at optimizing that thyroid function. So when you start off, you know, with the diet, nutrition, lifestyle, all those different things, then I think a lot of times we can get them, to the ideal thyroid range and ideal thyroid recovery, because again, there's always going to be some cause as to why they're having thyroid dysfunction.

And at the end of the day, the causes may be so detrimental or you can't overcome them. And damage has been done. And then that's when you can reach into that. You know, that bioidentical hormone, toolkit, and really help people.

Natural heart care and thyroid optimization 12:24

Well, I'm glad you actually said bioidentical hormones, because, yes, that does include thyroid hormone replacement, but it also includes the estrogen progesterone, testosterone bioidentical hormone replacement. And I think that has a place in this conversation because we know that bioidentical hormone replacement is tied back to proper thyroid function. Progesterone helps with T4 to T3 conversion. Testosterone helps bring down antibodies. But can you talk a little bit about hormones as they relate to heart health?

Because we can't do things in a vacuum, we can't just treat thyroid and leave all of these hormones in the toilet and expect people to have 100 year heart. So can you talk about the The Bahati piece as it relates to heart health? Yeah. And I think, you know, the that silo approach or you know, just, you know, kind of we're not in a vacuum, whatever kind of, you know, metaphor we want to use. That's just it just really sums up conventional medicine and why people need to work with holistic practitioners like yourself, you know, to, to, you know, really achieve what they want to achieve.

Not, you know, and looking at that whole picture approach. So yeah, when we check those hormonal panels, we're checking for thyroid panels, we're checking the thyroid antibodies and we're checking for the, you know, sex related hormones and things like aldosterone and cortisol. You know, as well to really see where the whole hormonal picture is at, I think where people run into trouble is that that, silo approach, where they come in, testosterone is low. Here's your testosterone. Goodbye. In the case of a male or in the case of a female.

Like, here's your set of hormones. Whatever combination of, you know, epi and t, you know, that it may be, and then you're on your way. Really, it has to rely on the foundation. And I think that's unfortunately where a lot of, you know, studies that have been done on hormones come up with negative, you know, results are null, you know, no, no, efficacy in that arena is that you're doing it on a populace. And if you do it on the foundation of people that are eating the right foods and getting the sunshine and the sleep and the physical activity, and people who are working on their mindset are right there and happy relationships there, you know, have a good sense of community and spirituality, all those things.

And then on top of that, you overlay, you know, whatever kind of hormones are necessary from there. I think you get great outcomes. I'm not I'm certainly not the female hormone expert, but from a from a male hormone standpoint for the people, you know, again, I think men run into trouble when they get slapped on testosterone and then they're still drinking, you know, too much alcohol and or eating fast food, and, they're not sleeping well, all these other things, you throw testosterone at them, I think you're going to wind up in trouble.

And that's in the evidence. And then, of course, you gotta monitor things closely after you start that hormone therapy, which, I think you and I both would see, I've seen that a lot over the years where people are put on therapy, but they're not closely monitored by symptoms. They're not monitored by bloodwork. And then you see all kinds of problems there. You know, as far as female hormones, you know, I think obviously there's a lot of debate in that arena. My personal approach on that is that, hey, listen, for since the dawn of human existence, women have gone through menopause in a healthy way, in a happy way.

I don't think it was like this crisis period of life. I don't think we see that in other primates, as well, you know, that is this crisis. I don't think it should be that way. I think there is a time and a place for female hormone replacement, post-menopausal. But I think ultimately, again, it has to occur on that good foundation and then maybe one other area that, you know, a time and a place, you know, for these female hormones. But the issue really lies is if people are living in mold, if they're living in a home that is water damaged, that contains mold and or bacteria, I think it leads to, monumental health problems, including menopause, all, severity and the symptoms of that.

So my first approach and women who are perimenopausal and having symptoms is going to be through that. Eat well and live well and live well as all these environmental toxins. You know, we talk about, you know, plastics and phthalates and parabens and pesticides and all these environmental chemicals. But don't forget about the mold that so many women are living in.

Hormones, menopause, and environmental toxins 16:48

That is known as endocrine disruptors. So I just want to interject that part of the story as well for the women that we just don't want to throw pharma, bioidentical or not, on a woman who is not optimized. Oh, I love that though, because again, this all ties back to the thyroid. Everything is so mixed in one big bull and related and feeds each other. And it's just so true because even with mold and thyroid, we see we can throw all the thyroid medication at a person that we want. Going back to what you said, if they don't have that base foundation, they're eating like garbage.

They're not sleeping, they're stressed out. Then add on top of that, they're living in mold. That's our medication isn't going to work. The hormones aren't going to work. I mean, it might even produce a negative reaction. Going back to what we talked about in the beginning, maybe you will start having high blood pressure or low blood pressure a-fib just because your body is in such chaos, such chaos. So I'm so happy you mentioned that. Super. Have you mentioned that? Let me let me throw a question, to you that, you know, like along that same line is that, you know, it's like, when do we decide when to adjust thyroid, you know, medications as opposed to.

Well, again, maybe it's not the thyroid medication that needs to be adjusted. Right? It's it's everything else that we need to explore. Yeah. And you know, it's just about looking at the person. So you know, whether it's myself or my team that is working with people, we all, you know, even you guys and your team, you get into their lifestyle. And when you start talking to someone, you get that feeling and that knowing that they're not doing all the things they don't have, their lifestyle and their nutrition down pat.

And that's where you go. No, we're not going to throw more thyroid medication at you until you do this, this and this and make these things a priority. Then we can come back and look at the full picture and say, okay, maybe we need to tweak this, adjust this here and there, add more here, take some off of there. Whatever it is, it really personalize the treatment. But it comes back to your point of having that that base foundation of health, eating well, living well, thinking well, working toward that 100 year heart.

Because when you do that and you make that a priority, your your body is more primed to change in a good way. Your body is more primed to take, bioidentical hormones, thyroid hormone replacement and utilize it how it should instead of, well, in the case of thyroid pushing it to reverse T3 because you're drinking alcohol, you're you're eating fast food, you're not sleeping and you're stressed out. Well, yeah. All that medication is going to push to reverse T3 and put you in survival mode and cause additional issues.

So I think it comes down to to your point. Yeah. And you mentioned alcohol too. And you know, again, there's a lot of people who are listening, you know, who are casual alcohol drinkers. You know, they have the 1 to 2 drinks a day to kind of decompress and unwind. And I think that really, that's a good opportunity to have people look into, you know, that. And is that really necessary? You know, and, and the impact of alcohol on cardio vascular health, thyroid health. So it's a good, you know, I think, you know, place for people to take inventory and say, you know, even those 1 to 2 drinks a day, they can they do affect you, to the negative.

And you know, certainly cardiovascular related, you know, disorders from that. So I think that's a great kind of segue right there. So thank. You. Oh, yeah. And I think we could do a whole show on just alcohol for sure. So I want to I want to ask you one last question before I let you go. Nutrients. So now I know that you have a full line of supplements really targeting heart health and obviously overall body health because these, these supplements that that you are looking at and studying and putting together for your audience also help thyroid patients.

Again, without magnesium, we can't convert T4 to T3. But I know magnesium has a very beneficial impact on the heart. So can you talk about your your key or your favorite nutrients combination supplements that people should be taking on the regular to have full body health, but also heart health to. Yeah. And the way that, you know, you and I practice differently from the conventional medical doctors is that, you know, we also do advanced testing. So you really look at where those deficiencies are.

So from a cardiac standpoint, for example, somebody with palpitations, you can go on the internet and someone's like take magnesium and someone else says, take this or take that. But you know, you don't really nece, you know, unless you test the individual. Like, maybe it's not a magnesium issue. May intracellular magnesium levels are nice and high.

Nutrients, supplements, and organ-based support 21:38

Maybe it was a potassium issue. Maybe it's a B vitamin issue. Maybe it's an omega three fatty acid issue. Or maybe it's, you know, excessive environmental toxins and pollutants. And that's why, you know, when you work with, docs like you. And I was like, you get that kind of attention that they're just not getting in the conventional world, like, one iota. So my particular favorites, I think if I'm thinking about things to support thyroid health, for example. Right. You talked about magnesium, you talk about selenium, you talk about omega three fatty acids.

You talk about all the other B vitamins or really, I mean, you're just kind of naming the litany because everything impacts everything. You know, you and I can say, well, what about molybdenum? Like, how does that and of course it impacts like everything impacts lithium as part of, you know, superoxide dismutase and and lowers oxidative stress. If you have excess oxidative stress, you're not going to have good thyroid function. So, you know, to that end, I guess I would say that, you know, some high quality multivitamin, but I'll go even a step above that just eating organ meats, you know, so when you're eating, bison liver, for example, you know, when you're eating, bison hearts.

And if you can get your hands on thyroid, if I were, it's kind of hard to get from a supplemental form. You can get a prescription, and there can be some concerns with eating too much, like bison thyroid. That could be an issue because you could obviously overstimulate your own. But I think if you're taking in some of these organ products and eating the foods, eating the seafood, iodine, of course, is is paramount. And are people getting it? Iodine in from their food because they're eating clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab.

Iodine is going to be inside of the animals because animals need iodine, just like humans do. Eggs contain iodine. Raw dairy is going to contain iodine. So I think when you reach into the animal world where you and I are certainly big fans of regenerative, we raised that from a supplemental standpoint. That could be, you know, your spot. And I usually find that really just kind of, you know, cures everything. I think I would be concerned with, me personally. And I'll defer to you as the expert. But when I look at some of these herbal remedies or some of these, you know, again, you know, plants that are used to kind of what, you know, whether it's address the adrenals or address the thyroid, people aren't necessarily deficient.

And, you know, Irish, you know, you know, Moss, you know, whatever. But yeah, they are deficient in some of these other things that I think could provide, better foundational, support. And then if you're missing, you know, a little bit of tweak at the end, then I think you can reach inside some of these herbal remedies. Just my $0.02. You know, on that one. Yeah. Now, totally, totally agree. Totally agree. And yeah, just to clarify for the audience, we're not talking about the base baseline, what I call like the node, supplements

Where to find Natural Heart Doctor 24:28

like iodine, magnesium, selenium, vitamin D, all of that. But but to Doctor Jack's point. Yeah. Like the Irish Sea moss or even even the adrenal ones that I know thyroid patients are all fans of. I take ashwagandha every day, like, okay, are you deficient in Austrian? You know, so I'm with you there. You have to be careful of how much you throw at your body, because you don't know what that particular, or herbal remedy is going to do due to the whole system. But I'm super happy that you have a line that you have curated, really, with your decades of knowledge and experience that, you know, this is this is what's going to help people.

And even so much as I even got the, the one for the AFib because my my husband was having AFib and they wanted to put him on all the pharmaceuticals of heavy hitting pharmaceuticals. So I love your line. Love that you curated it. I love that it's out there for people. Can you tell people where they can find you? Look at your line, find more about you, listen to you, contact your team, all that fun stuff. Yeah, and I appreciate that you said that. I've got decades of experience because I guess, I guess that is true, right?

So I started practicing 2002. So, yes, decades and decades in this, in this brain, you know, natural heart doctors. My is my company. If you're looking to get off of statin drugs, if you're looking to get off of blood pressure drugs, that's really our expertise. You know, coronary artery disease, maybe you had a coronary artery calcium scan, which I call a calcium scam. If you had that done and you're worried, you're looking for a second opinion. That's where we're here for natural heart, doctor.

Dot com, so I appreciate it. Doctor Amy, as always. Love it. Love it. Thank you so much for your time, Jack. I appreciate you as well.