The Surprising Truth About Thyroid Lab Testing And How Thyroid Hormone Affects Your Mitochondria Function

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Hi, Laura, how are you doing?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Good, good, well, this is fun ’cause outside of doing the summit, we happen to be friends also and get to see each other a couple times a year. So I’m really thankful that you are coming on here and sharing your wisdom with this community. And I wanna introduce you to everyone. We’re bringing you on because you’re a thyroid expert. And thyroid and mitochondria have a lot to do with each other. There’s a lot of questions around thyroid and what all those thyroid numbers and lab tests mean and how do I know if my thyroid is even being well-attended to by my physician. So you are known as the thyroid fixer. I love this. And you actually have a proprietary transformational program, the fixed method, and you’re the founder of the Institute for Thyroid and Hormone Optimization. So you are over the top qualified to talk about all of this. You created this method because you actually had an experience of terrible symptoms, misdiagnosis, improper treatment yourself. So you decided to do something about it. So welcome, welcome to the summit, and let’s jump right in. Well, first, tell us a little bit about your story. Like what happened to you? I mean, I’m sure that our audience can identify with that and then let’s get deep into mitochondria.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Yeah, absolutely. So we’re all basically here from a pain to purpose story. We’ve gone through something that led us to help others. So my story started 20 some odd years ago. Back in my 20’s. I was competing. I was doing NPC figure competitions. I was doing fitness modeling. I was doing power lifting. Very Type A behavior. And I would have to… I came from an obese family. We had diabetes. We had all kinds of obesity issues, food issues. So I would always have to really bust my butt to get down to that teeny-tiny weight where you’re stepping on stage in a bikini and being judged by everyone. And there was one particular show, and I had done this multiple times, it wasn’t easy but I had done it multiple times. So I knew how my body would respond to the diet, the exercise, the contest prep. And this one show was a big show, NBC Pittsburgh. The scale started going up instead of down. And I’m talking 20, 25 pounds. 

I stopped weighing myself after the 25 pound mark. And I was so frustrated. I was discouraged. I had to quit getting ready for the show. I had to X the show off my list. And I started doing what we all do. I go to doctors. I went to my doctor and I said, “Hey, Doc, this is what’s going on. I’m gaining weight. I’m tired all the time. My hair is falling out.” And they looked at me and they said, “You’re normal, everything’s fine.” Six doctors later, and I got the whole gamut. It’s all in your head. You’re just getting older. I was 20 years old. Eat less and exercise more. I mean the whole realm of medical gas lighting that you could possibly get, I heard.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Medical gaslighting, yes.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

It’s real, it’s a real thing. It’s true. So you’d be there thinking, “Well, maybe it’s my fault.” And you start self-shaming. You’re like, “Maybe I could be doing more. Maybe I cannot eat less and exercise more. Maybe it’s all in my head.” The seventh doctor actually diagnosed me with Hashimoto. So I left her office excited, right? I got a diagnosis. I got a pill. Now, I have an answer. This is awesome. Things are gonna change. Five months later, nothing changed. That’s what actually led me into functional medicine. That was the shift in my life where I kept hearing the name. You know, the universe gives you messages. I kept hearing the name of my mentor over and over and over again. Finally went to see him, changed my life, did the right testing, the right meds, the right supplements, the right diet, laid it all out. I got my life back. I got my body back. And then I just changed my career. So I went down the road of functional medicine. I wanted to do what he did for me. I wanted to give to other people because I knew if I’m in little pode on Pittsburgh, PA suffering with this and getting misdiagnosed six different times, how many other people are? And 27 years later, I still see multiple, multiple patients who are misdiagnosed, mistreated, still suffering with symptoms. They can’t get out bed. So that’s why I’m here.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, so this whole experience is really the foundation of everything you built. And out of that came something beautiful. So let’s talk about thyroid function and can you break down all those labs? TSH, T3, T4, what’s happening there that’s so confusing it’s like alphabet soup? I feel like when you’re a patient going to your doctor to talk about these things, it’s really just a lot of, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, it looks good,” but you really don’t understand what all these numbers mean and what’s happening and the fact that half of it’s inversely related. So it’s extra confusing.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

And if you even get all of the tests that you need, right? So let’s start with the thyroid. The thyroid is the master gland. The master gland. It controls everything. Every single cell in your body has a receptor site on it for thyroid hormone, and I’ll tell you which one in a second. So every single cell in your body needs thyroid hormone. We’re talking your brain, your heart, your muscles, every cell. So let’s start there. If the thyroid is off, you can have a variety of symptoms. Yeah, the big ones are waking. You can’t lose weight. You have brain fog. You’re tired. I mean, dead tired. You could take a nap at 2:00 PM. Constipated and on and on and on. Joint pain, hair loss, everything. So it’s controlling every aspect of your body. 

Every organ, every aspect. Now, when we get testing, when you go to your doctor, if you go to your doctor like I did, and back then, I remember, I didn’t know all the tests. I wasn’t in the functional space yet. So I guarantee you, they just did TSH and free T4. Okay, so we’ll start with those to break those down. But if you stop there with testing, you’re not going to get the full picture of your thyroid health. TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. It is a pituitary hormone. It is not a thyroid hormone. It’s released from your pituitary because your hypothalamus and your brain talks to your pituitary. Your pituitary talks to your thyroid. And TSH is released from the pituitary to basically poke the thyroid. So I want you to think about if you’re yelling at your kids and you’re like, “Johnny, will you pick up your toys?” Doesn’t do it. Voice gets louder, right? “Johnny, pick up your toys.” And that is the pituitary yelling at the thyroid, telling the thyroid to do its job. So as TSH gets louder, higher, your thyroid is not working as well. It’s getting lower. It’s being like, “Johnny is not listening.”

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Ignoring.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

It’s not doing job. Totally ignoring like earmuffs.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That’s the best explanation I’ve ever heard.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Well, thank you. I tell them all the time, yeah. No, it helps to see things, to understand things visually, like even in pictures in your mind or just. Yeah, it just really helps to understand what your body is doing.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, yeah, everybody thinks, “My TSH is high, that means my thyroid is high.” But it’s not. Your thyroid is low if your TSH is high. So that analogy of the mom yelling at her kid is perfect. So keep going.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Yep, high means low with TSH. High means low. Then as we move on, there’s free T4. Now T4 is the inactive thyroid hormone. Your thyroid gland produces two thyroid hormones, T4 and T3. T4 is inactive. T3 is active. You do not have receptor sites on yourself for T4, but it still gets tested. So the free T4 test is showing us how much of that inactive thyroid hormone is in your body, ready to be converted to the act of thyroid hormone T3. Now the problem that I see in conventional medicine is they stop there. TSH, free T4. Okay, Susie, you’re normal. But we don’t have that full picture. And you just tested a pituitary hormone and an inactive thyroid hormone. How is that gonna give you the full picture of your thyroid health? It’s not. You have to keep going. You have to keep testing. So a good doc will test free T3, your active thyroid hormone that is telling us how much of that active thyroid hormone is ready to bind to that receptor site on your cell, to give you metabolism, to grow your hair, to strengthen your nails, to give you energy, to let you poop every day. 

This is all what we want. So that free T3 number is vital to know how much active thyroid hormone you actually are dealing with. How much is your thyroid producing? How much is T4 actually converting over to T3? So we wanna look at that. The other test is reverse T3. So I’m gonna throw you another analogy. Reverse T3 is like the bouncer at the club, sitting outside the cell door going “Okay, T3, you’re not getting in, and you’re not getting in either.” So reverse T3, when it’s high, it will block T3 from actually binding to its receptor site on the cell. So that’s why that’s so vital to test as well because reverse T3 is great if you’re in the hospital, if you’re in the ICU, if you were just in a car crash. We want reverse T3 high because that’s survival. 

That is what’s keeping you alive because your body is so smart. It knows that you don’t have to grow your hair. You don’t have to lose weight. You don’t even have to feel energetic when you’re laying in a hospital bed trying to survive, trying to heal. So reverse T3 will go up in those situations, but we don’t want reverse T3 high when you’re walking around trying to live life and raise a family and go to work and get stuff done around the house. So that’s why we wanted to test reverse T3 to make sure that your body isn’t in survival mode when it shouldn’t be. And then there’s TPO and TGA antibodies, thyroid peroxidase, thyroglobulin antibodies that we’re testing for Hashimoto’s. We want to know if you have the autoimmune form of thyroiditis, Hashimoto thyroiditis. And we wanna know is your own body attacking your thyroid. Now, is that going to change how I treat you? No, because I want you symptom free. I want that free T3 elevated in the upper quadrant of the range. I want reverse T3 below a 12. So we have all of our optimal functional ranges where we want you. It’s not really gonna change things, but it gives us knowledge. And it allows us to direct you in terms of how you’re eating, gluten-free, all of that so we can address the autoimmune component as well.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay, so this is so good. So you just broke down all those complex labs. It’s not as hard as it seems. And if you’re working with somebody like Amie who really understands how all these work together and how to support you, what I just heard you say is there’s a lot of lifestyle stuff you can do to support your thyroid as well. It’s not all about taking a medication, so we’ll get into that too. Okay, so now connect the dots for me between mitochondria and thyroid. Why the heck did I bring you on this summit to talk about thyroid in the first place?

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Well, if your thyroid’s not working, you don’t have energy. So your mitochondria powerhouse ATP production, energy. That’s what’s getting you through the day. That’s what’s giving you the energy to get through your day to actually go to work, to take the kids school, to clean the house and do your job, and whatever you’re doing through the day. It’s your cells. It’s your mitochondria giving you that power. So we know two thyroid hormones that activate the cell, that actually produce ATP at the cell level. And that’s T3 and T2. Now I didn’t mention T2 in the lab test. I know, we haven’t yet developed an assay to test for T2. You can get T2 in supplemental form. T3 is in medication form. So both T3 and T2 stimulate the mitochondria to produce more energy. So remember, hypo is low and slow. Hypo means low and slow. Everything is low and slow. So when we think about having a thyroid problem again like I was spewing off the different symptoms, yeah, weight is a big one, right? So none of us wanna be gaining weight. 

None of us want to not lose weight when we’re putting in the effort. That’s a big one. Metabolism is down. It’s low and slow. Energy, that’s the second biggest symptom that I hear from my patients is low energy. Crushing fatigue. And that’s an issue with low and slow cell function. You’re not producing that ATP like you should be when everything has woo, just slowed down almost to a crawl. That’s why you’re constipated. That’s why you have brain fog. That’s why even your brain isn’t firing on all cylinders when everything is low and slow. So it’s T2 and T3 actually get to the cell and stimulate it. Like do-do-do-do, make more ATP. Give this person more energy. Yay, more energy. So when we get you optimized with your thyroid levels, you naturally feel better through the day. You’re like, “Hey.” And it’s not this caffeine jacked up energy. It’s this nice steady, “Oh, this is great. I can get things done and I’m not looking at the couch over there going, ‘Well, that looks good,’ and it’s 2:00 PM.” So it actually gets you through the day and keep your energy levels up.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That was so good. So we’ve really covered the symptoms. You wanna touch on those one more time, you might know you have thyroid dysfunction if, and really break down for me if it, so hypo and hyper, let’s just categorize those real quick. Go back to that for a second ’cause we’re sharing so much information here and I know people are taking notes and I wanna make sure we cover that again. So just go over that one more time real quick.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Yep, so hypo, that’s low and slow. Metabolism is down. So you’re gonna gain weight and you’re not gonna lose weight no matter what you do. You can be on the best diet, the most perfect exercise regimen. You’re meditating, you’re sleeping, you’re doing all the things, but you’re not losing weight. You’re carrying around that extra 10, 20, 30 pounds. So that’s hypo. And again, with hypo, it’s low energy, low motility in the gut, i.e. constipation, low brain function, and then we can even check vital signs and we’ll see low heart rate, low blood pressure, low body temperature. So everything is low and slow. Hyper is more rare. We seem, I mean, 20 times the amount of hypothyroidism than hyper. So hyperthyroidism is very, very rare. It’s usually in the graves disease category and we don’t leave people there very long. If they are in a graves hyper state, conventional medicine is more apt to remove the thyroid, radioactive iodine the thyroid, just to stop that overproduction of thyroid hormone because that can be very detrimental to health. You can have cardiac problems and that’s where a person will be feeling very anxious and jittery and they’ll lose weight and they can’t sleep and just they’re sweating. Everything is hyper. Think amped up, hyper. So that’s the difference between hypo and hyperthyroidism.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay, perfect. So now can we get into talking about hormones a little bit? So what are the most important hormones for your cells to be happy?

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Ah, so number one is T3. T3 makes cell happy because remember we said our cells only have, well, they have receptor sites on it for T3 and T2, but not T4. I know lots of numbers, lots of numbers. Two and three are the most important. That’s what makes the cell happy because why? We’re stimulating the cell. We’re producing more ATP. We’re giving the body a metabolism. And metabolism is so much more than just fat burning. Metabolism is your life. It’s growing your hair. It’s cell function, division, reproduction. Everything is metabolism. So when we say that, we tend to think of, “Oh, my ability to burn fat.” Yeah, it is that. It’s a big part of that and it’s so much else. It’s everything that your body does on a daily basis is your metabolism. Use of energy is metabolism. So in order to make the cell happy, we need adequate amounts of T3 which we can measure as well as T2. And you combine those together. And man, you can get someone into optimization land really quickly.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Okay, so now, I know there’s people watching right now who say, “All right, I’m on thyroid medicine. My doctor checks it regularly. My TSH is in the normal range. My TSH is 3.5. I’m good.” So why are they still suffering from symptoms if they’re on medication for hypothyroidism? Let’s go there.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Okay. Okay, where to start? So first of all, if you’re just getting TSH tested just like we said earlier, you need more testing to get that full picture of your thyroid health. That’s part one. So if your doctor is only testing TSH and is diagnosing you and treating you and telling you that you’re normal and you’re fine on TSH only just looking at that one lab marker, it’s time to get a new doctor. Because if you just look at TSH, you’re gonna stay stuck, and especially if you’re suffering with symptoms. So the foremost important words that you can hear from your doctor or your practitioner is how do you feel? And those symptoms that you tell me, that you tell your practitioner are vital for treatment because if you’re not feeling good, then those lab numbers really don’t mean anything, do they? It’s all about you and how you feel, and you know your own body. 

So we have to start with testing. We have to do thorough testing. The second part to that is if you are on T4 only. So that was the magic pill that I got from the sixth, seventh doctor that finally gave me the diagnosis. And I tried that for about five months and it didn’t work. I have patients that have been on T4 only for decades and they’re still suffering and no one has ever changed their medication. There are multiple different ways to treat thyroid problems. Some we can do naturally. We can do with dietary changes. We can do with nutrient depletion addressing that. And then sometimes we need thyroid hormone replacement therapy, i.e. medication. But I like using thyroid hormone replacement therapy better because some people are like, “I don’t wanna take a medication.” I’m like, “Well, if your thyroid hormones are in the toilet, we probably need to build those back up again, right?” So T3, T2, important for the cell. We wanna make sure that you have adequate amounts of free T3 that we can actually test in a lab. 

And then we wanna test that reverse T3 to make sure that you are converting. Because again, going back to, if you’re on Levo, Synthroid, Tirosint, those are all the T4s. If you’re only on that, your body has to take that T4 medication and as well as the T4 that your thyroid is producing and convert it to the active thyroid hormone T3. Has to convert. And I always say that conversion process is like running 10 tough mudders. It is a hard thing for your body to do because there’s so many different things that can get in the way. What if you’re estrogen dominant, insulin resistant, anemic, you’re low in D, you’re low in mag, you’re low in zinc, you’re low in selenium, you’re low in iodine. What if you have a genetic snip? The DIO1, DIO2 genetic snip. That will prevent you from converting. There are so many, and the list goes on, there are so many different things that can prevent that conversion or get in the way. That’s another issue. You don’t just leave someone on T4 only and not check reverse T3 because what if they have a conversion issue? And that’s why they’re walking around going, “I have all these symptoms. I wish someone would listen to me.”

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So Amy, this leads me to a question. And I don’t know, you can answer this however you feel comfortable answering this. But if that’s the case, why is the Western medicine world fixated on just prescribing these pharmaceuticals? And I’m sure that endocrinologists know that that conversion is like running a tough mudder. So why is the Western medicine world not supporting people in a way that really helps them?

Dr. Amie Hornaman

So I do have an answer. I gave a talk years ago to a group of integrative wellness physicians. And I came in and I was talking on the importance of testing reverse T3, why we wanna test it, and also I had a secondary point that I wanted to make to them and actually have an interaction on this topic of the Synthroid box. That’s what I called it. T4-only box, Synthroid box. And I said, “Why is it when you have a patient that let’s say needs an antidepressant and that antidepressant isn’t working so we’ll put ’em on another one, and that one isn’t working so we’ll put on another one, and then we’ll add in a secondary one to stack with it and we’ll throw in an anti-anxiety med, but you only prescribe T4. Then one doctor raised his hand and goes, “That’s all we’ve learned.”

I was like, “Well, thank you for your honesty. However, I think we need to break out of that box. And I once heard a quote, I forget who said this, I wanna say Dr. David Brownstein, but as soon as you leave med school, I think he had a professor in med school that actually gave them this speech at graduation. And they said, in three years, 50% of what you’ve learned here will be obsolete. So it’s like, well, then keep learning, you know? Expand your knowledge, think outside of the box, because that’s the only way you’re going to be a kick butt doctor and help your patients is if you keep learning.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Totally, and I think also, I don’t know, let me know if you agree, there’s a piece here about feeding the pharmaceutical machine as well.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Mm-hmm, oh yeah. You can follow the money trail and find out who is, let’s say donating a couple mill to a certain med school. Synthroid, you know, Abbot Pharmaceutical. I mean, you can trace it back and follow the money trail. And then it’s kinda like, “Hey, nudge, nudge.” You know that T4 only really does work for most thyroid patients, right? Of course, they’re gonna prescribe.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

– So thanks for going down that rabbit hole. So tell me, or tell our audience, you mentioned that there’s some things that it’s like running a tough mudder getting this conversion. So what are some things that they can do to support that conversion? I know there’s a lot of lifestyle stuff. I mean, can you talk about iodine? Can you talk about some of these nutrients that are important? I think, giving some people some really practical tips today on how to support their thyroid.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Absolutely, so number one, insulin. High insulin is the one thing that I see in so many thyroid patients and that is a huge driver of elevated reverse T3. So that will block conversion. And let’s face it. We are in a society of an obesity pandemic right now. I mean, just sit on the side of the road or go to the mall or go to a restaurant and look around you and play the pick out fit people game. You’re only gonna get one or two out of 20, a hundred, a thousand people that you see. So we’re in an obese society. We have a huge amount of insulin resistance. And in addition to that, when you have a thyroid problem, the thyroid, being the master gland, is going to control your insulin. Insulin is a hormone as well. So it’s going to have a direct impact on your insulin signaling. When you’re insulin resistant, that insulin can’t get into the cell. Now we see a lot of insulin resistance, even in people that are eating perfectly, eating a low carb, non-processed food diet, but we also see it in people that are eating the standard American diet. 

So lowering carbohydrate intake, and I’m not saying you have to go keto, but my goodness, lower your carbs. Get out the processed food. ‘Cause anything that’s in your cabinet, it’s in a box. I guarantee you is gonna be high in carbohydrates. And if it’s labeled keto, this keto, that low carb, it probably still does contain brown rice flour, tapioca starch. It might be high in sugar. We don’t know. So eat real food. Get rid of the processed food and lower your insulin level so that that conversion can take place. You mentioned iodine. Iodine is very controversial, but I love jumping in on it. Because I am in, I love it. Iodine is the one mineral that you will find the functional community split in half, maybe a little bit 60/40, but about 60% say, “Yay, iodine, we need it,” and 40% say, “If you have a thyroid problem, you better avoid it.” I’m in the 60% camp. Every single cell in your body also needs iodine. 

Your thyroid gland needs iodine to produce thyroid hormones. It needs iodine to convert that T4 to T3. Your breast cells need iodine just for protection against breast cancer. In World War II, soldiers carried around iodine for pretty much anything. It’s like, oh, you got a gunshot wound, iodine. You’re sick, have some iodine. Iodine does everything. It’s antiseptic, antibacterial, antimicrobial. It boosts your immune system. It helps every single cell in your body. Now can you overdo it? Sure. But the biggest cause of high reverse T3 is low iodine. The biggest cause of thyroid nodules, low iodine. So when we use a good quality iodine and we dose it properly, it can do amazing things at lowering that reverse T3 and helping out with conversion. And then we can keep going down the rabbit hole.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I take it. I take it every day. And I have clients who get worried too ’cause they have thyroid problems and they’ve heard somewhere like, “Well, I should be avoiding iodine.” And I’m glad you’re addressing this other side of it because it is important for, “Cellular detox is my thing,” and we need iodine support to detox yourselves.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

So good for detox.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what else besides iodine, besides, you know. Let’s go into some other lifestyle things that they can do. What else can people do?

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Okay, I know you guys have heard this ad nauseam, right? But gluten-free. And I say this because it’s not a fad. It’s so easy to fall into that thought process of, “Oh, here’s another one chirping about being gluten-free.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gluten-free is not a fad. It got a bad rap years ago when everyone went gluten-free because all the gluten-free products came out. So everyone’s like, “All right, sweet. I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna lose weight and feel better. I’m gonna replace my gluten-free pasta or my pasta with a gluten-free pasta. My cookies with gluten-free cookies and my bread with gluten-free bread. And they were still taking in, back to my point about processed foods, they were still taking in processed foods. Yeah, it says gluten-free, but it’s still high in sugar. It’s still high in carbs. It still has inflammatory ingredients in it to where then people said, “This gluten-free thing doesn’t work. I didn’t lose a pound. I don’t feel better. Well, no, of course you didn’t ’cause you weren’t eating real food. You were eating the gluten-free version of whatever food that you’re so used to be eating in your standard American diet fair. 

So when we go gluten-free, truly gluten-free, when we start actually cooking and baking with real food ourselves instead of relying on a box, when we actually go gluten-free, and I’m sure you see this with your patients too, Laura, people feel amazing. Inflammation goes down. You take that inflammation down, now the thyroids gonna work better. Now you are going to convert your T4 to T3 at a much better rate. You’re not gonna have that elevated reverse T3 because inflammation is down. And gluten is a molecular mimicker. So that means that it looks in chemical structure like the thyroid gland. Now let’s say, going back to the Hashimoto piece, remember I said test TPO, test TGA. Let’s see if you have an autoimmune condition. And again, another analogy, when you have an autoimmune condition, you have these little soldiers and these soldiers like to go out and beat up your thyroid gland. 

That is Hashimoto’s. It’s a slow destruction of the thyroid gland where we can actually see your thyroid on an ultrasound start to look all kinda funky and smaller and it’s just not working that well. ‘Cause if I came to your house and beat you up, you probably wouldn’t work very well that day or any other day after. So we want to see if you have Hashimoto’s. When you introduce gluten and you have Hashimoto’s that your soldiers see that gluten molecule come in and go, “This looks like an invader. We should probably mount a war.” And they go out and they attack the gluten molecule and then they move over and they attack your thyroid. So every single time you eat gluten, if you have Hashimoto’s which, again, 95% of thyroid conditions is Hashimoto’s, so if you have Hashimoto’s, if you have a thyroid problem, you probably have Hashi, now you’re eating gluten, now you’re actually spurring on that attack of your own thyroid gland every single time you consume gluten. So that’s a big lifestyle thing that you can do to significantly reduce inflammation, reduce the attack on your thyroid, improve T4 to T3 conversion, reduce reverse T3. That’s a big one.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That’s huge, okay. In the time we have left, give us two more lifestyle tips. These are fantastic and these are things that you can do for free and things you can start doing today, yeah.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Okay, so supporting your body, I’m gonna give you something not to do as well. Supporting your body with nutrients is vital. So the thyroid needs magnesium. It needs a little bit of selenium. I’m gonna circle back to that. It needs zinc. It needs adequate amounts of vitamin D. If you’re not taking those on a regular basis, they’re going to go down. So vitamin D, quick story, we move, I was taking vitamin D every single day. I got my D tested. We wanted 80 or above. I was at 85. I was like, “Cool.” A year later after going through a move, and you know when you move, you put things in different, you’re not in your groove, right? Here’s my supplement cabinet. I’m gonna reach in there and take my vitamin D every day. Well, I got out of the groove. So it’s not that I stopped taking it. I just wasn’t taking it regularly. I got retested, it was a 27. So it plummeted because I wasn’t being consistent with my vitamin D. 

So you have to be consistent with these nutrients. But I’m gonna circle back to selenium. Every thyroid patient I know goes online, goes on a blog, goes on a Facebook group and pumps the selenium in like it’s going outta style. Selenium can easily go too high. I see it all the time on labs, high selenium, and that will also raise reverse T3. So you really kinda want like a sweet spot with all of these nutrients. You want to take them, but please don’t go out and buy the next greatest thing that you saw on a Facebook group, thyroid Facebook group, because Joe Schmos sister’s cousin said it was amazing for her thyroid. So you really want to be careful with the nutrients, but you wanna get them in because they’re very supportive. They would be relevant.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing is what I’m hearing.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Yes, definitely.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes, okay. Okay, so one more thing.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

One more, sleep. I know, and again, this is another eye roll, right? Everybody tells you you have to sleep, but I’m gonna tell you the why. So like I said, when we look at thyroid patients, hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s, like I said, 95% of you have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance, I call that the double whammy. So when you have a thyroid problem, you already have low metabolism, right? You’re already struggling with the weight, the weight gain, the weight loss. Now you have insulin resistance over here. Insulin is a hormone that we need for life, but we don’t want too much of it because it is the fat storage hormone. So it’s just literally taking everything that you eat and storing it as fat. Just putting it in storage ’cause it can’t handle it. When insulin levels are high and thyroid is low, you’re just in a weight gain cycle. I mean you could look sideways at a brownie and put on five pounds. So what do we know about sleep? 

We know that bad sleep, and I’m not saying insomniacs, I’m not saying three days with no sleep. I’m saying three days with let’s say five hours of sleep or broken sleep. You drank alcohol before you went to bed. You didn’t go to bed until 1:00 AM. Just that broken sleep, not deep high quality sleep can actually produce diabetes within three to five days. We see insulin resistance in three days. We see full blown Type 2 diabetes within five days. And this was done, it was a study done on a set of twins. So they put twins in a sleep lab, and obviously DNA, identical, they controlled for food, for exercise. They controlled their environment. The only thing they did was they stimulated the one twin’s brain enough to bring him out of REM. They didn’t wake him up. They brought him out of REM sleep through the night and they were testing insulin, glucose, A1C. So they were, well, A1C is a three month, but insulin and glucose they saw shot up within three days. So that one twin became insulin resistant and then full blown diabetic by day five.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Wow, so you can’t ignore this piece, you know. I really think it’s important and imperative for people to know like there isn’t a magic pill for this. You must shift the way that you are living your life. You must. And I mean we’re bombarded with food everywhere we go. Everywhere, I mean, we are such a food-driven culture. That food is a part of everything. And really, really just embracing that you must get control of this food piece and you must turn away from some of these processed convenience and eat real food as Amie says so vital. So thank you for sharing that.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Absolutely, and I know, like I said, I know it sounds cliche, but it really does work when you actually go to bed at 10:00 PM instead of 1:00 AM, when you get good quality sleep, when you don’t drink before you go to bed, when you get your insulin under control, when you balance that out. I mean, it really does work to improve how you feel. And yes, we can do the medical interventions. We can do supplemental interventions. We can do all of that, but I have a theory it’s both end. Meaning I can fix your thyroid all day long. I can fix your hormones all day long. But if you’re going out and not sleeping and eating in McDonald’s, it’s not gonna work. It has to be the both end.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, these are honestly, quite honestly my best biohacking things that I do for myself. So I’m a busy person. I burn the candle at both ends. I go, go, go, go, go. And there’s two things that I have dialed in, and that is what I eat and how much sleep I get. And because I have that hacked, I can actually function at a much higher level and push, push, push. If I didn’t have those two things dialed in, I would crash. Those two, they’re like nature’s bio-hacks.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Exactly, and they’re free.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I know, it’s so good, it’s so good. So Amie, this has been amazing. You’ve just broken down information so simply, so easily. You’ve given tips. You have a full, people can work with you on a full level. Tell us how we can get in touch with you. Tell us where we can find you, what your programs offer. Tell us a little bit about that.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Absolutely, so for my podcast, just to get free info, educate yourself, it’s The Thyroid Fixer podcast on all podcast platforms. And if you are interested in working with me, you can go to dramiehornaman.com and book a free assessment call. That’s we’re gonna go over your health, make sure that we’re a good fit to work together. We’ll go over all the different avenues and programs that you have choices on and find one that fits you and your needs. And then of course, all social platforms, Dr. Amie Hornaman on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. You’ll find me.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Everywhere. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming in here, sharing your expertise, your wisdom, and for just being such a advocate for healthy thyroid. I mean, you have niche down to thyroid, is it? And this is so vital. If you don’t get this piece dialed in, it’s gonna be really hard to boost up your energy. It’s gonna be really hard to be productive. It’s gonna be really hard to enjoy the life you love, leave a legacy to your family, all of it. So by all means, get your thyroid checked.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Absolutely.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

All right, Amie.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Thank you so much, you have a great day.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you, you too.

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Okay, bye now.