Toxins & Hashimoto’s: Making the Connection

Introduction and Dr. Guptau2019s Hashimotou2019s journey 0:00

Hello. It's Dr. Jen. Welcome back to the Heal Your Thyroid and reversing Hashimoto's summit. We are going to today talk about Hashimoto's and different toxins. Mostly we're going to touch on heavy metals and Dr. Anshul Gupta, he's a bestselling author, speaker and researcher and an expert in Hashimoto's disease. I'm so excited to have him here to talk and share his knowledge. So, Dr. Gupta, welcome to the summit. Please tell us a little bit about you and your health history and how you left convention or medicine and veered over towards functional medicine.

Thank you so much for having me on the summit. You are doing amazing work of sharing all these different knowledge that we have accumulated in the functional medicine integrative medicine field with people with thyroid and Hashimoto's, because certainly it's a topic with conventional medicine cannot handle properly. So thank you for doing that and inviting me over to the summit. My journey actually, you know, by training, I'm a family physician, so I was in a very busy job where I was seeing patients day in, day out.

But just a couple of years into my own private practice, I started having a lot of symptoms. I was feeling very tired. I was feeling fatigued. By the end of the day, I was feeling kind of brain foggy that I was not able to concentrate on things. I started gaining a lot of weight. You know, I was £40 overweight and I was having this gut issue where I was having this random stomach pain, could not associate with any food, could not associate with anything I was doing. The pain was bad. I was having bloating.

Being a physician myself, I thought, well, it's basically acid problem. Let me start with that. And I said I started the antacid, added more medications to it, but the pain was not going away and I kept on gaining more and more weight. I thought I was not a smart physician. Let me go to these specialists who can help me out to figure this out. I went to these different specialists, you know, like they do testing after testing endoscopy, colonoscopy, ultrasounds, bloodwork. Everything was normal.

They added more medications in the hope it will help me, but nothing got better. At one point, the label that maybe you just do a stressed out or maybe you're just going through a phase of anxiety or something because you just entered, you know, like into this medicine world. And I was like, well, I have done this for some time and I know it is not inside. It is something else. But then I got across functional medicine and then I hear stories about functional medicine, how it has helped people to heal in very similar fashions.

So I got into functional medicine, started using their own protocols. First of all, identified my own root cause. What causes of this problem? And then through a systemic step waste plan, by changing my diet, changing my lifestyle, changing stress management techniques, adding some supplements. Within one month, my pain was completely gone. Within six months, I lost that £40 of the weight. My brain fog was completely gone. I had more energy in my life than I ever had before. I even competed for a five day rugged maniac.

And I was never an athletic person. So for me to do that was a big thing. So that was a big aha moment for me that within a few months and within a few changes I could change my life. So I need to share this with other people. So that's where actually my started, my journey of functional medicine. I was invited at the Cleveland Clinic Functional Medicine Center to work alongside Dr. Mark Hyman, who can do more research on new functional medicine. And when I reached over there, you know, I was kind of choosing my own field, and that's where I found my passion for Hashimoto's and thyroid disease.

Because the interesting part was that whenever I see these thyroid and Hashimoto's patients, they have exactly the same story as mine. They are the same exact symptoms. They have the weight issue. They have the stomach problem, the feeling tired. They have brain fog issues. And the biggest part is that they are all doing things which they are physicians are telling them to do of taking the medicines, but still they are suffering. So I kind of felt connected to them. I started researching why they are feeling the way they are, and that's where, you know, I found the underlying root causes of this disease.

And I made a stepwise, a three step program of my own. And they implemented that program at thousands of patients to reverse this condition and get their life back. And that's what motivated to write me the book, which I like introduce the book. Last year there was Hashimoto's book to help people even a bigger scale. So everybody can get their life back. Oh, that's such a great story, Dr. Gupta. And it's so important that, you know, we see this with time and time again with physicians. They they get sick themselves and conventional medicine doesn't work.

So then they actually find out root causes. And yes, with Hashimoto's and thyroid, so many people are struggling and they're taking their medicine and they're not getting better and they're actually told their disease can't get better, which we know is not true. So let's dove into toxic ones. What are some toxins that can, you know, agitate the thyroid cause Hashimoto's? Absolutely. So toxins is a major player. I feel that almost each and every of my client, which I'm seeing who have Hashimoto's disease toxins, are playing a role at some level, maybe in somebody it is like one person playing a role and the other it might be 30 to 40%, but certainly they are playing a role.

The problem is that, you know, the current environment we are living in, it is built around toxins each and every day. We are adding more and more chemicals to this environment and our body can only take so much. You know, we have this inherent detox system, but it can only take so much of the toxins and it can only detoxify so many of them. So that's the issue. So I have categorized these toxic into three big categories. The first category is the heavy metals. This is the category that we have known for a very, very long amount of time because metals, you know, were introduced to our culture or any lifestyle for a long amount like lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum.

So these are the main heavy metals that we see which are adding burden to the thyroid and causing Hashimoto's. So that's one category. The second category we are talking about is more the toxins. So this is kind of a relatively new category which, you know, we just came to know about, you know, maybe in the last decade. So mold is basically present in the environment

How toxins contribute to Hashimotou2019s 6:48

and we have been exposed to it for a long amount of time. But certain people and in certain amount of exposure to this mold is mold actually starts producing these mycotoxins which live in our body and that can lead to the triggering of Hashimoto's or other autoimmune conditions. The interesting part is that majority of the research about the mold toxins, we have known about it for more than 50 years and it was done on in the livestock's in animals. That's where and livestock the major mold studies were done because they were consuming these moldy grains or things and they were having a whole bunch of health problems.

But nobody could put and put two and two together that oh, well, if they are getting these health problems, maybe humans couldn't do. And obviously now we are able to understand it better. So that's the second toxin that people get exposed to. And the third, toxins are basically environmental toxins. And that, you know, the big category of happens, you know, like the pesticides, organic sides, the organic phosphates, the glycosides, other chemicals that we are getting exposed to in daily cleaning activities or like plastics.

And you know what? Our furnitures, anything, you know, which has all these chemicals in our environment, this is a big category which we have it. But these are the big three categories which lead to triggering of Hashimoto's or play a very important role in thyroid disorders. Yeah, absolutely. And toxins, they're everywhere. We live in a really toxic world and it can be super overwhelming. But when we when we reach a certain tipping point, then we just we we go over, ah, our body can't take it anymore.

And it ends up, you know, presenting as a disease, usually an autoimmune disease. So, you know, what we have to do is identify the toxins. So let's specifically go into heavy metals. How if someone is worried about heavy metal exposure or toxins, what do they say to their doctor and how would they test for this? So this is a big controversial topic because, you know, like majority of the conventional doctors unfortunately do not understand the toxin piece of it. So the toxins, toxicology field actually understand this concept where, you know, like one particular toxin needs to be at a threshold level and that became toxic for your system.

But what we are understanding, humans are a little bit different. It is not about only reaching that particular threshold of the toxin levels. Even smaller doses of exposure to that particular toxin over the course of long time can actually lead to Hashimoto's disease. So they would actually research study done, which was done in males which were actually working in fields, which were their very small exposure to lead because of the kind of work they were doing with lesbians and things. So it was a very small exposure.

They compared these people thyroid as compared to the other males which have not have even a single exposure. What they saw was that they do have some led in their body, but the levels were very low, but all of these males had died or disorders either Hashimoto's or just plain hyperthyroidism. But that tells us that even lower exposure can cause actually diseases. So there are three ways or different ways of checking these toxins in a person's body. The most common way that people know about is checking it in their blood, you know, getting a simple blood drawn, which would take the toxin levels in their blood.

And then the other two are one is checking in the urine and the third one is checking in their hair. The problem, the most common conventional doctors will only check the toxins in the blood, but the blood doesn't tell us the total toxin burden of that particular heavy metal in the body. The blood is telling us whether you are getting exposed currently and how much level. The most of the time these blood tests will be either negative or be showing very low amounts of toxins and not a total body burden.

So that's a downside about getting it done. But people like you and me, you know, who have access to these advanced testing or functional medicine or integrative medicine because they have access to these urine here analysis that tells us the total body burden of that heavy metal, especially leather and mercury in the particular person. Because these toxins are not only circulating in our blood all the time, they get deposited right in our fatty tissue and, you know, even in a diluted gland and even other places.

So we need to know the total body burden so that way we can calculate it and then help them out to detoxify to that particular heavy metal. Yes. And and it can be very confusing and especially if you go to a conventional doctor and you're like, I'm worried about mercury poisoning or lead. So this is where functional and integrative medicine is so important. So they know how to order the test, the right test for you and how to interpret it. And usually the blood testing. Wow, you can get them. It would be an acute exposure.

That would be something used more in the hospital or the E.R.. So that one thing also that we want to focus focus on is reducing our exposure. So, Dr. Gupta, do you want to talk a little bit about how to help reduce exposure to heavy metals? Absolutely. So, first of all, it is very important to understand where are we getting these heavy metals from, right. So that we can reduce the exposure. So let's talk about mercury. So mercury exposure generally happens.

Heavy metal testing and exposure reduction 12:18

Most commonly, exposure happens, you know, from fish or seafood, which has been contaminated with mercury. So that's made it very important to know where your where your food is coming from. Again, I'm not discouraging anybody from eating healthy fatty fish. I always encourage my clients to do that. But it's very important to get, you know, wild caught fish in that way, organic and then which are raised, you know, in a mercury free environment. So mercury exposure a lot of times happens from these seafood contaminated with mercury.

The second exposure is these mercury fillings. Now, in the new generation, you know, we are not using these mercury fillings. But when I was growing up, you know, like I had two mercury fillings are a lot of people still have those mercury fillings over the course of times, these mercury fillings starts leaking and that low exposure to these mercury starts happening. So it's very important to look into your mouth and see if you have any any silver fillings that those are basically mercury fillings or even going to your dentist and asking them about it.

But as a cautioned, don't get these mercury fillings removed. All at one time by a regular dentist because they don't know how to do it safely. So you have to work with a biologic dentist who knows how to remove them safely. And even then you have to work with a functional integrative medicine provider to put you on the right detox protocol when you do that. But anyways, that's the second exposure of mercury that people get it from. The third biggest exposure actually, which I am seeing in my clients.

I don't know what you are seeing in on from actually taking fish oil supplements. People are taking these fish oil supplements from over the counter companies which are getting these fish oil from, again, high mercury fish. And they are actually overburdening or poisoning their system by taking these fish oil supplements. So making sure that where they're getting it from is very, very important. Yeah. Dr. Gupta, I think that's a great point. Make sure you're getting your supplements recommendation from your integrative or functional doctor, because there is a lot of contamination with heavy metals and not just in fish oils, but like lead and some of the other supplements, even over-the-counter.

And then I love the point that you brought up about going to a biological dentist for safe mercury removal. You want to make sure that that mercury it's safely removed, but there might be a little bit of mercury in your blood system. So that's when you'd want to be on the proper detox. And another point with Mercury fillings are the silver amalgams. You can't start a heavy metal detox until you get those taken out. So that is one of the things that I'm sure Dr. Gupta also ask on a patient intake, like, do you have any mercury fillings?

And I remember I had some as a as a child, they're all replaced now. And I know for a fact that I just went to a regular dentist because I think I was in medical school. I mean, this was decades ago and they just popped them out like I worry about that poor dentist. Like, how is he doing nowadays, right? I mean, all that mercury exposure in the air, it's scary. Do you do you have a good dentist near you that you can refer people to because they're I everyone has to drive an hour and a half or I want them to fly to Texas.

There's really no one around me. Right. Well, Cleveland, we know we do have some good biologic dentists that, you know, we can people a to. But yes, you know you could argue it is very difficult to find one. And then obviously it is a little bit expensive to be able to afford it. So that adds to the value. But yeah, it's so important, it's worth it. And that's one thing that I tell patients, you know, this is something that the first visit we're going to talk about it. We're not just going to jump into it because we're going to fix the gut health anyway before we even deal with mercury.

But it's it's for them to put money aside to get that out because every time it's heating and cooling, you're releasing mercury into your body like those old thermometers. So it's it's just another part of you taking care of your thyroid to get that mercury out and don't eat a bunch of high mercury fish, you know, at the sushi joint. Just go for the low mercury. No, that is true. And that is one of the bigger toxins. But lead is another bigger one, which I'm seeing in a lot of folks. So I actually am from Indian descent.

So what I am seeing is that I do attract a lot of Indian clients, you know, who want to work with me. Unfortunately, a lot of these spices and things which are coming from Asian countries like India, China, Pakistan and other areas, they are contaminated with high amount of lead. So people think that eating healthy, you know, like they're eating these spices like turmeric and other things, which is great again, nothing against them. But unfortunately, they do have a high amount of lead, as you said.

Again, a lot of supplements, especially I reading supplements and other things. They are again in high amount of lead and people have no idea that they're harming their body by doing these things and by not kind of taking it from an organic approach or from better sources that they don't get these toxins in their system. You know, one thing that they can do is ask for a copy or certificate of analysis from the supplement company or where they're getting it from. And then you should get a heavy metal report.

So these spices coming from India, do they think that it's from the soil or where do they think the contamination of blood is coming from? Yeah, so it's actually multiple levels definitely from the soil, although, you know, like the soil has been contaminated with lead because, you know, like the practices are not very organic and you know, a lot of the pesticides and a lot of added products are used. And obviously these added products a lot of times do have heavy metals added to them. So that's the first place the soil the second thing is, is processing when you are actually using these foods or actually in a in a in a raw form and then when you're grinding them, those grinding machines, actually, they came to know how a lot of these chemicals, you know, which are being released, you know, when the machines grind together like lead and other things, aluminum that gets added to the spices do so because of, again, these practices, which has been, you know, like rampantly happening to lower the cost.

That's a reason. So again, as you said, like looking at the company's practices, making sure they're organic, making sure that, you know, they're giving you the certificates, then that way you can lower the burden down. So that's definitely one of the places that lady is coming from. But the lead can also come from water, too. Like in a lot of the water, bodies are contaminated with lead. So if you're drinking tap water or well water, the lead might be contaminated over there. So using a grade water filter, which does filter out lead is very important to know.

So that's another thing. The third thing is interesting for females and this is not good news for them is that all that makeup, you know, like in all the body products they're using, lot of them have heavy metals added to them. Right. And, you know, as you know, there was a recent study done before like a female leaves. You know, they at home they have like 200 plus, well, chemicals that they have put on their skin. And what a lot of people don't know is that skin is a biggest organ of your body.

So it does absorb things. So when you're putting something on your skin, it does get absorbed directly in your bloodstream. So all that chemicals do get absorbed and led is in a lot of those makeups that, you know, our present. But the good part is that a lot of the good companies are coming up with, you know, these chemical free makeups that we could have been by a good resources EWG dot org you know like Environmental Working Group they actually give the ratings to all of these different companies and products that females can easily see and then buy the products which are safer and without chemical free.

So lead is another big one, especially for females, I would say. Yes, swap out your lipstick. So don't freak out. You know, just swap it out once you're done with it, then replace it with something that's lead free. It's funny. So my daughter, she's 15. I went into her bedroom, which is, you know, a scary site. And she had some like Maybelline mascara in there. And I texted her, I'm like, Whose is this? Where did you get this? Because we, you know, I get her clean products and she it was her friends and I'm like, you know, if you ever need an alternative to anything and you feel like you're missing out, you know, I could get you something but healthier.

And my kids kind of know that, you know, there's better swaps, you know, for for makeup products, beauty products, even perfumes. Now there's like nontoxic perfume. So it's not like you're missing out. It's just you need to swap things out for your children's health and for your health. And this is just not just the thyroid. We're talking about hormones, gut health, everything. So so, Dr. Gupta, what about arsenic? Right. So arsenic is the third most common toxin that I see a lot of the arsenic is actually coming from rice again, the rice which is coming from Asian countries.

Again, I think a lot of people are going to hate me that, you know, I just keep on saying that. But I just kind of give the facts out. The arsenic, you know, like a lot of rice is contaminated with arsenic again, because of the soil over there is contaminated because, again, they're using so many chemicals and all of those things, you know, are added to that. So that's the major source about it. But we are seeing that even the regular spraying which is happening in your yards or your neighbors yards or if you are near a farm which is spraying a lot of these things, arsenic or lead is added to those chemicals also.

And you might be getting exposure to that. So raises a bigger one, you know, and then the second one is definitely these other spraying which is happening around you. That is also a source for arsenic, for a lot of people. Water can be the source, especially again if your water is contaminated, which is again near a farmhouse or you have beans being heavily on your garden or you're living in a neighborhood

Lowering toxin burden through detox pathways 22:00

where the majority of the people do spray their yards. Then again, the well water can be condemned with arsenic. Do you? Yeah. So arsenic, that's pretty scary. So encourage your neighbors to not spray their yards. You know, we we don't spray ours. And it looks pretty sad, but that's okay. It doesn't we don't need these perfect lawns. Right. The other thing with rice, which is interesting, so many of our Hashimoto's is patients and thyroid patients are we're working on their got health, they're gluten free.

So then they're having more rice products because gluten free cakes and breads. So I worry about arsenic with that. So, you know, I try to talk with them like don't go too crazy on the baked goods. You know, we don't want too much rice. When I have rice in my home, we soak our rice. We soak it overnight. So soaking can reduce some of the the arsenic. Now, you know, once again, don't get worried about everything. So a lot of these heavy metals, they are coming from the ground and our body can deal with a small burden.

But it's when we just get too high of a burden and too much. So, you know, don't be scared of certain foods and stuff, but just make sure you're doing the little things like soaking your rice or checking to make sure your spices are organic or they're tested for heavy metals. Make sure you're taking the fish oil that doesn't have mercury in it. So all of these little things can make a make a really big impact. Do you have anything to add to that, Dr. Gupta? No, absolutely. And I think, again, like, you know, I think somehow, you know, we as functional medicine, integrative medicine doctors are creating this big havoc where people are afraid of eating.

Now, these days, you know, like each and every person now these are talking about this is bad. That is bad. Don't eat this. Don't need that. And literally I'm seeing clients in my in my clinic will really eating fatty foods because they're terrified to eat anything beyond it because they have heard so much that everything is bad. So I tell people like just food is are not our enemy, it is our friend. So let's use it as a friend. You know, we don't have to be scared about it, but we want to be smart about it.

So, as you said, minor changes. Just be more vigilant about where your food is coming from and then how much you need to eat. Just don't overdo on one particular food when we are body needs. What ideal food? We need vegetables. We need protein, we need good fats. All the things are needed, you know, with our body. So we cannot ignore just saying that. Okay, well, let's just eat vegetables. Let's just forget about protein and fat or low carb. No, we need each and every thing as a proportion might be different.

So that's an important message to let people know is that do as much as you can. But this interesting part is there is another recent study that was done. So there was research already done in mothers, you know, like what younger kids who went to this clinic and the clinic, the method that was given to them was that, okay, well, you know, you're burdening your children with toxins. They use organic produce only now these mothers were like, you know, do not have the affordability of buying expensive organic foods in the neighborhoods, the the grocery store selling organic food was very, very expensive.

What they saw was that the children's health three months after that was even worse than what it was before. They they actually questioned the mother. And the mother said that you only told us to eat organic, but we cannot afford organic fruits and vegetables. So we are not giving them fruits and vegetables. We are, as you said, just giving them these gluten free breads or gluten free things. So literally, they were not eating real food. So sometimes, you know, like it is very important to get the message right is that, yes, you try to reduce the adoption burden.

It doesn't mean that you replace your real food, you know, with any artificial, you know, like food. So very important to do that. There's certain other things, you know, like, you know, like which people can do that can help them to lower their toxin burden. Right. So what I talk about is that we have five different channels which we get these heavy metals out from our system. The first one is the gut to make sure you are having regular bowel movement. If you're having one bowel movement at least every day, that is regular volume.

And for us not having volume and every two days or three days, no, that's not regular. So in that aspect, obviously, like if you are having constipation issues with a lot of data in Hashimoto's, patients do have it. Make sure you talk to your functional doctor about it, how to improve it. But again, a good balanced diet, eating a lot of fiber, eating a lot of vegetables can help you with that. But make sure your gut health is great so that you can detoxify to that. The second is your kidneys. Your kidneys take a lot of burden out of heavy metals from your body.

Drink that water. Right. You know, I cannot imagine that. You know, I just keep on talking to a lot of my clients who have a healthy diet, but they forget to drink water. So make sure you're drinking, you know, like good amount of water and coffees. These, you know, sodas do not count as water a lot of times. Again, a lot of times think that will give you just drinking liquids, no drink, plain water, maybe add some lemon to it for flavoring purposes. But that is very important for your kidneys. The third thing is by sweating, because sweat also releases these toxins and you can do it easily working out, you know, like, you know, go for a great walk or maybe on a treadmill or a workout if you have access to a sauna that is even greater, that sweating will help you to eliminate those toxins that you can easily get out from your system.

And the last one is the liver. For the liver, again, a healthier diet, all those colorful vegetables that you can eat, whether it is beets, whether it is a fruit like pomegranate, blueberry is turmeric, ginger, green tea. All those things are great foods with different colors which supports your liver health and that again, can help you out with your kind of detoxifying your body in a more natural fashion. And they're pretty safe to do, right? You know, food, you know, you can easily do. So these are other easy methods that a lot of people can incorporate in their life that will help to lower down this heavy metal burden that they have.

I love that. Thank you for sharing that. It's kind of the way to think about it is you need to have your body running like a car, like a well-oiled machine. And if a part breaks in your car, the check engine light is going to go on. You're going to take it to the shop and get that part worked on. So because then your whole car won't work and won't drive and that doesn't work. So when we look at our bodies, we get symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, constipation, bloating. Those are check engine lights for our body.

And if we're ignoring them, then the other parts of our body aren't going to run as well and we're not going to run as well. So that's very important. Like you said, no one really likes to talk about poop. I mean, I talk about poop with my kids so they know. I talk about like what a good poop is, you know, shouldn't be super masturbation smell really bad. And they, you know, they'll tell me, like, I had a good poop today, you know, it's good to talk about poop. So so definitely that is a really important warning sign and check engine light for your body.

So, Dr. Gupta, you wrote a book about reversing Hashimoto's disease, and you talked about it a little bit before your three steps to this. I would love for you to share a little bit about this if you are willing. Absolutely. Yes. So I kind of, you know, decided to write a book, you know, because there are certain other books out there in the market, you know, which are great books and have brought a lot of details about it. But for me, I want to write a book where people get understand

Root causes and Dr. Guptau2019s three-step Hashimotou2019s plan 29:30

in a very easy language, but it is backed by science and data behind it or what we are doing. So that's the purpose of this book, reversing Hashimoto's. The very first step in this process is basically identifying the root cause because unless you find the root cause or causes, then you know you cannot move forward in reversing your disease. So I have categorized, you know, five major root causes. One of the root causes we already spoke about is toxins. The second root causes infections like Epstein-Barr virus infection.

Parasites in the blood like blastocyst is Candida infection, even COVID infection. Right. You know, and a whole bunch of infections can trigger Hashimoto's. That's the second major root cause. The third one is food sensitivities, right? There are certain food triggers like gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, corn. Those can be related to Hashimoto's. So knowing those food sensitivities of that particular person, the fourth one is nutritional deficiencies. Our body is running low on a lot of vitamins and minerals, and the major reason for that is not only that a diet is poor, but again, our soil is deficient in a lot of these vitamins and minerals, especially, which is needed by a thyroid like selenium, zinc or magnesium.

Research shows that, you know, our soil is low in into those things that you might your body might be low into these vitamins and minerals which your thyroid needs. And the last one is the stress. You know, we under mind the value of stress, you know, in triggering Hashimoto's. But each and every of my client I asked them will give. And when you do get diagnosed with Hashimoto's just go back two years and see if a major event happened in your life and obviously there would be something or the other, whether they went to a difficult relationship or a divorce or, you know, work issues or work pressures or even pregnancies or even going through menopause.

Those are all big stressors for bodies that can happen. So these are the five main root causes that people need to identify. And here's a deal. Most people try to find that just one root cause. And what I see is that Hashimoto's patients generally have between 3 to 4 root causes, not just one. The lot of people will work on a diet or, you know, their food habits, but they will not work on the other root causes and they will never get better. So it's very important. That's the reason. The first step is very important.

That identifying all the root causes of your Hashimoto's so that you have an idea now again how to identify it is a very difficult and a complex process, but in the book you know, I talk about I have given certain questions or, you know, like a maybe an idea where people can ask those questions to themselves and that might hint to them. And the kind of creating or knowing the root cause even created a free thyroid quiz on our website. So people can go on a website and then they can find that free thyroid quiz, which is a root cause analysis.

By asking a few questions, we can give them a score of the root cause. So that's the first step, identifying the root cause. The second step is fixing the thyroid and start addressing some of these root causes. So I made this my do thyroid diet, which is a diet which is mainly focused on Hashimoto's patients and thyroid patients by removing foods which is destroying the thyroid gland and introducing foods which is healing for the thyroid and reducing inflammation. So that's what we do. And then we also recommend certain supplements that will help to address some of the root causes.

The third step is removing the toxicities. The toxicity that you spoke about are these toxins of heavy metals more that environmental toxins or stress. That is a bigger toxicity that everybody needs to work on removing it. And also the third toxicity is all these infections, the chronic infections like, you know, we discussed about parasites or viral infections or maybe Lyme or other things, the ones we do, all of these three steps, then we see phenomenal results. People, you know, get their life back, everything, you know, get reversed back.

So that's the whole process I discuss in the book, and each and everything I talk about is backed by the research. So you have at least 150 to 160 references of research articles that kind of support all of these things. That's so amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And and that's that's it, right? That's how we reverse disease and get the body back in homeostasis. You know, you indentify the root cause you support with nutrients and you remove toxins. So it's not I know it doesn't sound that simple, but but it is it takes time, though.

It definitely takes time to reverse these diseases if they've been there a while. So definitely don't don't give up. Don't get frustrated. You'll get there. As Dr. Gupta and I, we have done it for so many clients and patients. So it's it's really exciting. And I just love your passion and what you're doing. Dr. Gupta So. We're the only message that I always tell people, don't lose hope. You know, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Don't let anybody tell you that you have to live with Hashimoto's for the rest of your life and that your life is defined by Hashimoto's, whether in terms of symptoms, whether in terms of things that you can do, that is not reality, just simple steps.

You can get your life back and you can live your life to the fullest. Yes, you can. And I don't even like to say that I had Hashimoto's anymore

Where to find Dr. Gupta and final thoughts 35:06

because, you know, my antibodies are near their zero. They've been zero for a decade. So but you know, it's still it's part of my past and it's my passion. So I just I love that people are healing out there. So, Dr. Gupta, how can everyone find you? Where do you hang out? You were telling me YouTube's your favorite. What are your handles and your websites? Absolutely. You know, like, again, I try to reach people on from all different angles. So we have started this YouTube channel again, cheering small videos.

You know, again, easy things or easy tips that people should be aware of. So my handle over there is until Gupta M.D. and that's where people can find me on their channel. Again, very easy videos. People can do that. Our website is a great resource for people who want to read. You know, we have a great blog articles where we share all different information. Again, a lot of them are research backed, you know, websites anshul Gupta M.D. dot com again you know people can find all the blogs they want to read over there. They can do it. We hang out.

Instagram also with the same handle of Anshul GUPTA, M.D., that people can do. But I would encourage everybody to go on the website and take this free thyroid quiz. At least be aware, you know, of what the root causes that you might be dealing with because it can be eye opening. Once you know the power of what is wrong with you, then you can take steps to kind of reverse it or improve it. So you can again go on the website to do that. But again, speed, please feel free to follow us on YouTube and more than happy to share all that great information over there.

Great. Thank you so much for for being here and talking with us about toxins and Hashimoto's. Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Again, thank you so much for having me over here and sharing all this great resources for everybody who has thyroid and Hashimoto's. Thank you for doing this summit.