Patient-Centered, Whole-Person, Functional Metabolic Care For Hashimoto's and Low Thyroid

Low Thyroid Symptoms, Hashimoto Thyroiditis, Brain, and Gastrointestinal Connection

What’s the connection between your stomach problems, brain fog, and hashimoto’s? How are they related?

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One of the most frequent questions I get asked by new patients suffering from low thyroid symptoms is why we do a functional neurological exam on them.  There are several reasons why we do this.  First, the brain directly communicates with the thyroid.  The brain tells the pituitary to talk to the hypothalamus to tell the thyroid to release hormones.  Kind of like a domino effect.

The brain also directly communicates with the stomach and intestines (which is what we call the gastrointestinal system) through the vagal nerve.  In previous posts I have talked about how important the gastrointestinal system is in patients with low thyroid symptoms.  If you have been reading or watching then you know the number one cause of low thyroid symptoms in the United States is an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.  85 to 95% of all low thyroid conditions in the United States as an autoimmune condition of the thyroid.

The liver and spleen have a huge effect on the immune system, and are also directly connected to the brain through the autonomic nervous system.   Researchers have known for years that if you damage the vagus nerve, you will have dysfunction of the organs that we talked about.  When those organs don’t function correctly, the thyroid health is directly and negatively impacted.

The gastrointestinal tract and liver also convert inactive thyroid hormones into active ones.  So if they are not functioning correctly, you will not have enough active thyroid hormone to bind to the receptor sites.  That will translate into low thyroid symptoms like brain fog, constipation, hair loss, weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, and all the other low thyroid symptoms.

Another important reason why we do function neurological exam on all patients complaining of low thyroid symptoms is because we want to check and see how the brain is functioning, particularly the cerebellum and the basal ganglia.  Research has shown that these two areas in the brain can also be attacked just like the thyroid is attacked in people with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

If you are still suffering with low thyroid symptoms, make sure you find a doctor that knows we’ve just talked about.  You want to make sure that you get more than just your TSH and free T3 and free T4 checked when you are trying to find the cause of why you are still suffering with symptoms of hypothyroidism.

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Can Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroiditis Be Cured?

Dr. Chris Heimlich DC, Director of the Arizona Thyroid Institute in Scottsdale, AZ Answers a Common Question Asked By Women Suffering With Low Thyroid:

Here is a question I get asked a lot.  Can you cure Hashimoto’s?  When I get asked this question, I always tell the patient about Dr. Hawkinson.  He was one of my instructors in school and he would always drill into our heads that-

“You only cure two things: bacon and ham.  The power that created the body will heal the body.  Your job as a doctor is to figure out why the body isn’t healing itself, remove any road blocks that are stopping it, help support it when necessary, and let it do what it was intended to do. “

So the answer is “no”.   You cannot cure Hashimoto’s.

But…Can the symptoms of Hashimoto’s be reversed?   YES! 

Now Hashimoto’s is a genetic condition.  That means you get it from your parents.  It usually happens at three different times in a woman’s life:  puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause.  And at these times your epigenetic factor can get turned on and your body has an auto immune response to your thyroid.

That means that your body starts to attack your thyroid and starts destroying it.

Now I know there are a few doctors out there saying that they can cure Hashimoto’s.  That is not the case.  Many times what they will do is look at the TSH level and when it goes back into the normal level they will say that the Hashimoto’s is cured.  That is not the case.  You can look at a woman’s TSH level throughout the year without treatment and it can bounce up and down.  The same is true for antibody levels.  They can fluctuate as well.  That is why we are lucky when we test antibodies and they show positive.   An estimated 15% of woman that have Hashimoto’s will not even show the antibodies on the blood test.  That means they don’t make the antibodies.

So what do you have to do to help these ladies with Hashimoto’s?  Well you have to help with reversing the symptoms; the constipation, fatigue, dry skin, cold hands and feet, brittle hair or hair falling out.  You can reverse those symptoms.  That can be done without question.  So how do you reverse the symptoms?  How do you do that?  Well, the first thing you have to do is find a doctor that understands that Hashimoto’s is an auto immune condition.  You have to look at gut toxicity, T cells, B cells, vitamin D and food sensitivities, blood sugar, adrenals, and all the stuff that plays a role in the immune function.

If your doctor is not trained in that and is not schooled in those ways, they are not going to be able to offer much help in reversing those symptoms.

So don’t get caught up in the idea of having to cure your Hashimoto’s.  That is not possible.  But it is possible to reverse the symptoms.  You can be better.  You can feel better.

What if you could to feel 70%, 80% or 90% better and your Hashimoto’s had not been cured?

Would that be worth it?  Of course it would.  So can you reverse the symptoms of Hashimoto’s?  Yes you can, as long as your doctor knows how to help you.