The Hidden Connection Between Hashimoto’s & MS

Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

all of the thyroid related symptoms are actually mitochondrial symptoms. You know, so whenever we see that the mitochondrial dysfunction is happening, typically people will have fatigue, people will have brain fog issues, people will feel weakness in their arms or legs or muscular weakness. So any of these symptoms are mitochondrial symptoms. 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 we have thyroid hormone deficiency in the body, that also will lead to our mitochondria to not function properly. This is Doctor Talks. Welcome to another episode of the MS and Autoimmune Summit. I'm Dr. Cherry Walls, your host, and my next guest is Dr. Anshul Gupta. He is the bestselling author, speaker, and researcher, recognized as a world's expert on treating Hashimoto's disease. He's passionate about educating and empowering people globally to reverse Hashimoto's and reclaim their health.

He's a board certified family medicine physician with advanced certifications in functional medicine, peptide therapy, fellowship training, and integrated 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 Dr. 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, Dr.

Gupta has made it his mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions. To achieve this, he's authored the best-selling book, Reversing Hashimoto's, launched a virtual functional medicine practice, and has created a thriving online presence through his blog and his YouTube channel. His contents reached over 20 million people worldwide. While he's not working, Dr. Gupta enjoys traveling, hiking, meditating, and practicing yoga. So let's welcome Dr. Gupta. I'm so glad to have you here.

Let's get right to the question that I'm sure all of 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 MS, which is the multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's disease are autoimmune diseases. and as we know that you know once you get one autoimmune disease 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 studies on comparing whether the people with multiple sclerosis have 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

Hashimoto's and MS Connection 3:00

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 remyelination. Now as we know that in multiple sclerosis the major issue that is happening with the nervous system is that the myelin sheaths get attacked and it is not able to regenerate. And thyroid hormone plays a very very significant role in this remyelination.

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 remyelination happening and that increases their chance of multiple sclerosis. So it's a 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, remyelination drugs that have been developed that are very closely analogues of thyroid hormones that have been very effective in animals.

I don't know that those studies have been completed yet in humans, but it would make a lot of sense to me that the thyroid hormone is 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 have thyroid disease that you're going to slip over into the progressive phase of the illness. Would that be correct, Dr. Gupta? That is correct too.

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. In multiple sclerosis, the damage is a T cell mediated damage which is an immune function which is damaging the myelin sheath of the neurons. Hashimoto's is also a T cell mediated disease too. So again, their pathophysiology, like if people want to go into a little bit of biochemistry, that is very similar.

So whenever there is Hashimoto's disease and there is a trigger, which people do see again in Hashimoto's disease that their symptoms will wax and vein. 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 our listeners who are thinking like, I've 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 hypothyroidism 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 issues with people having lot of hair related symptoms that either they will be having hair thinning or hair fall issues, very common symptom 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 MS 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 roller coaster ride between being feeling depressed or anxious all the time And then in females we have menstrual issues, dysmenorrhea or menorrhagia 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. So if 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 TSH 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 the thyroid and that doesn't even check for Hashimoto's disease. Now the research is very clear that the Hashimoto's antibodies can be high more than four to five years before finally they will destroy the thyroid gland so that the TSH will be abnormal. So a lot of people by the time they get diagnosed with hypothyroidism by the way of checking their TSH, 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 checked. So there are two antibodies that needs to be checked. One is the thyroglobulin antibodies and the other one is the TPO antibody. which is the thyroid peroxidase antibodies. Now if any of these antibodies are higher than the reference range given by that particular lab that is diagnostic of Hashimoto's disease.

Thyroid Symptoms and Proper Testing 9:00

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 done not just the TSH to know the complete status of the thyroid gland. Okay, so we're talking a free T3, free T4, these are two thyroid hormones, anti-TPO antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies. And would you also get a TSH as well? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So we're talking five tests.

And let's say those come back and we see that I have antibodies. My free T3, 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'm 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 at 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 they never go on hypothyroidism.

So definitely through functional 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 have categorized them 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 cause is nutritional deficiencies. Now, what is happening is that our 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. 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. Did you mention Aira? 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 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 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 the 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. Again a big shift in hormones happen and that's again a second time that we can see that. 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 stresses, hormonal shifts. The other stresses, obviously any kind of social stresses, you know, any kind of emotional stress we go through, childhood trauma that people go through or even physical stress. All of these stresses, you know, hijack our immune system and obviously throw into an inflammatory cascade and causing Hashimoto's disease. So that's the third cause. The fourth one is chronic infections. We know about Epstein-Barr virus infection. We have at least 10 plus research studies which show the correlation of Epstein-Barr virus to Hashimoto's disease.

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 Epstein-Barr virus most of the time during our teenage years or other times we could all get exposed to it. But whenever a immune system goes low, this reactivation of Epstein-Barr actually again can trigger Hashimoto's disease.

So very, very important kind of reason of people having Hashimoto's. Then other chronic infections, especially gut-related parasites can also cause this. One of them is blastocystis. Again, we have at least two or three research studies which suggest that presence of blastocystis hominis, 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 Babesia and Bartolina 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

Early Hashimoto's and Root Causes 16:00

between them and Hashimoto's disease or the newer kind of toxins like mold microtoxins 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. The interesting factor is that most people are looking for that one root cause.

What I have 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 two to three root causes. come together and causes Hashimoto's disease. So people need to be re-evaluated 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. And 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 fine until the third step, these unknown environmental factors. And so the conventional world will say in the MS setting, just take your disease-modifying treatment and don't worry about it. And probably in the conventional thyroid setting, they just say, just take levothyroxine and don't worry about it.

But you and I say, 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, in 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 levoteroxine. So this particular research study looked at around 200,000 people actually in their national database. And what they found out was that if the TSH is below 10, obviously like that, it's 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 TSH 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 and 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 levothyroxine or there are natural versions which is the armor or the NP thyroid which are the glandular natural thyroid hormone replacement that can be done.

But if the TSH alone is slightly abnormal, T3, T4 are normal and you 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 and postmenopausal anyways Females bone density goes down for several other reasons.

So having a direct correlation with thyroid hormone replacement and bone marrow density is not very well established. There is more anecdotal or theoretical concern about it. But yes, you know, like, you know, I'm not in the camp of giving very, very high doses of thyroid hormone replacement so that we can suppress TSH completely. But I think a healthy range of TSH between 1 to 2 is good to shoot for people with thyroid disorders and T3 and T4 levels again being in good range that way. But again, 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 supplementations with it. Exercising, especially weight bearing exercising and a mix of cardio and strength training is great to keep your bones strong anyways. So those, you know, anyways, that is a foundation of any protocol with autoimmune diseases, 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 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. Basically like you know thyroid hormone influences our mitochondrial function. So whenever there 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 what Hashimoto's was that you know they took biopsies 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 and 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 mitochondria. And interestingly, if people will look at that, 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 or of a cell, typically people will have fatigue, people have 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 we have thyroid hormone deficiency in the body, that also will lead to our mitochondria to 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 am 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 diet that we use. What are the inflammatory foods that you tell people to remove or reduce?

So first of all, processed food. So any kind of processed food we want people to remove.

Thyroid Hormone, Bone Health, and Mitochondria 25:00

You know, so going to KFCs, McDonald's, all those processed food goes away. Fast foods and things. Then second, we want them to get off gluten. 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, soy is little bit controversial over here. Some people feel that fermented soy things you know especially being used in 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're 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 there is any soy to it.

So that is definitely not natural soy and they need to kind of get rid of it. No, hang on for the listeners. This is one of the reasons why I'm 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 whole grain rice and legumes, meat, fish. But as soon as you start getting 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, Dr. Gupta. 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. Or same thing, they are gluten-free product. But as soon as you look at the label, there are 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 want people 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, the diet that Dr. Gupta just advised would be fine for somebody with multiple sclerosis to adapt as well. Back to you, Dr. Gupta. So then the next question is that what should be eating, right? Most people you say, well, what is left to eat? So then I said, you know, like there is a big aisle of grocery store, which is open up for you to eat, which is vegetables. So non-starchy colorful vegetable, 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, broccolis, 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 are really great for your body. They have great sulforaphane, which are antioxidants as well as detoxifying products for our body. So, please eat them in good quantities. There is no problem when doing that. What about the nitrates? 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.

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 three to six months, then you suggest taking the nightshades out. That's correct. Yes. You know, like two, three months actually is good enough. You know, like if you have removed, like 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, so for the listeners, this really mirrors my approach with MS that doing the walls level one or walls level two, so either with meat or the Paleolithic version 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.

Diet, Stress, and Toxin Reduction 31:00

We've talked about diet and nutritional approaches, but you had mentioned these other elements, stress, infection, toxins. Are you addressing those right away? Yes, but going back to the diet, a few other tips, you know, like if you might be hiding over here. Yeah. First of all, it's 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 functioning 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 from 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 everybody is 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 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're 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 am a big proponent of working on a mindset as well as including mindfulness exercises like either meditation or deep breathing exercises.

on the regular basis on their regimen so that people can work and rebalance their hormones. 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, it 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 body.

And we're not talking about one hour or two hours. We'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 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 that on their own. So I don't recommend, you know, kind of just going on internet and buying those advanced supplements for the detoxification. But there are certain natural ways.

So our body detoxifies through five major channels. First of all is by sweating. So a certain glands will release, you know, these toxins from there. So optimizing that would be really good. So that's where the saunas comes into picture. Either your regular saunas or infrared saunas. are 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 you know 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 is 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 through a lymphatic channel. Now most people are not even aware that we have this whole system of lymph nodes and lymph glands in our body which plays a very significant role in exchange into our circulatory system.

But one of their 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 recirculating this lymph and also help improving our lymphatic channels. Massages are a great way too. If you don't have access to massages, dry brushing is a great way. You can just use a dry brush 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, gut. So gut is again very important way of removing toxins. So make sure you are pooping regularly, not like every two or three 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 master detoxifier 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 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 self-florophane compounds, you know, which are coming through these broccolis and Brussels sprouts and cabbages are a 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're using on their body are laden with these toxins. Yeah. So again, use natural products. You know, again, there is a great website called ewg.org 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, Dr. Gupta, you and I could probably chat another hour. We need to sort of wrap this up. So for people who are worried about the third, want to learn more, how can we find you? So I'm on social media so I have a website called AnshulGuptaMD.com where you know we have an active blog on it but now actually I'm more active on YouTube so I have a YouTube channel under the name of AnshulGuptaMD where 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, then thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. And again, it's Ancho Gupta, MD, his social media and his YouTube channel. Thank you, Dr. Gupta. Thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being. For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website, www.doctortalks.com. Stay connected, stay healthy, and join us next time on Doctor Talks.

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