Episode 39: Dr. Heather Stone Explains: Effective Ways to Manage & Heal Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

Discover the secrets to managing your thyroid health as Dr. Heather Stone, a leading functional medical practitioner, joins us to demystify the complexities of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Our metabolism and energy levels hinge on the tiny yet mighty thyroid gland, and when it falters, the repercussions can be profound. Dr. Stone opens up about the often-misunderstood symptoms that can leave sufferers feeling frustrated, despite normal TSH readings and traditional treatments. We unravel why thyroid disorders tend to target women more frequently, exploring the role hormonal shifts play in triggering such conditions.

Navigating the murky waters of autoimmune diseases, Dr. Stone emphasizes the importance of pinpointing the root causes rather than simply masking symptoms with medications. We delve into the critical connections between blood sugar regulation, adrenal health, and hormonal balance, and discuss how personalized testing and tailored dietary plans are key to effective treatment. With autoimmune conditions, it's not just about what you treat, but how you treat it, and this episode sheds light on the functional approach that could redefine your health journey.

In our final segment, we address the broader landscape of health and aging, stressing the significance of muscle mass in maintaining vitality as we grow older. Resistance training emerges as a hero in the battle against sarcopenia and its associated health issues. This conversation goes beyond the boundaries of thyroid woes to encompass the larger picture of wellness, providing practical strategies and insights for anyone looking to optimize their health through lifestyle choices. Join Dr. Stone and myself as we explore how to fine-tune your well-being, one episode at a time.

Thanks for listening! Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the your Lifestyle is your Medicine podcast, where we do deep dives into topics of mind, body and spirit. Through these conversations, you'll hear practical advice and effective strategies to improve your health and ultimately add health span to your lifespan. I'm Ed Padgett. I'm an osteopath and exercise physiologist with a special interest in longevity.

Speaker 1: 0:22

Today, my guest is Dr Heather Stone, a functional medical practitioner with over 20 years of clinical experience in private practice. During that time, she successfully helped thousands of women overcome the symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. This is something you may have heard of, with people like Oprah Winfrey, hillary Clinton, kelly Clarkson all suffering from it. Her thyroid transformation blueprint has been used by hundreds of doctors and has helped countless women return to being happy, healthy and lean. Her mission is to change the face of healthcare through her private practice, through her books, her master classes, her webinars, her educational programs and the retreats she runs in Texas. For those of you watching on YouTube, we did have some camera issues during the filming of this, so you'll see Dr Heather talking sometimes and then other times it's going to be just a bio shot, dr Stone. Welcome to the show, dr Heather Stone. Md, md, md, md, md, md, md, md, md, md.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for today, dr.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Yeah, and today we're going to talk about everything thyroid. So I thought it would be a good place to start with you explain to us what a thyroid does when it's working normally and what happens when it doesn't work normally and what are the problems with that. So can you sort of lay the groundwork for us for what is a thyroid, what does it do? How should it be functioning?

Speaker 2: 1:40

Yes, so the thyroid is a gland. It's a butterfly shaped gland in the base of your neck, all right. So the thyroid is is interesting. It helps us with energy throughout the day, it helps us with our metabolic rate so essentially your metabolism and the thyroid produces T4 and T3 hormones and it's unique because the thyroid hormones are the only hormone in the body that has a receptor site on every single cell, from head to toe, so it is the one of the most important. I mean, all of our hormones are really important, but the thyroid is super important. So it helps us feel amazing, it helps us with our body composition, it helps us maintain normal weight, helps us with energy levels and all of our other hormones.

Speaker 2: 2:32

And you really have to have normal thyroid hormones to feel and function normally, and the thyroid is probably one of the most common glands that we see go under function right. So that moves into hypothyroid. Now there's a lot of reasons for why we might shift into hypothyroid and we can kind of get into that, but when we go into hypothyroid, where the thyroid doesn't produce adequate levels of T4 hormone, now there are other reasons why our hormones might be low, but we're just talking about primary hypothyroid, where the thyroid doesn't produce enough thyroid hormones. The symptoms are low energy, you have trouble with weight loss or you have a lot of weight gain. You may have anxiety, depression, you don't sleep well at night, you might have some constipation or irritable bowel issues. So those are the symptoms that we start to experience when the thyroid starts to under function or it doesn't produce enough thyroid hormones.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Okay, I'm sure some people listening to this are putting their hands up and saying me, me, me, me, I've got those things. But before we delve into those, I just want to look at the word hypothyroidism. So hypo is low, so that means we're not producing the right, the correct amount of hormones. But it can go the other way. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 4:02

Yes, you can move into hyperthyroid, where the thyroid is producing too much thyroid hormone, and when that happens you will feel like you have nervous energy or anxiety. You'll have heart palpitations, your heart rate will go up, maybe even your blood pressure goes up, and that sometimes causes thyroid eye disease, where you get the kind of the bulging of the eyes. And most of the time hyperthyroid is related to an autoimmune condition called Graves' disease, or you can have more of a like a Hashimoto's thyroiditis. But either way, the immune system is attacking the thyroid and really making it push out loads of thyroid hormone, which can be very detrimental to a patient.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Okay, so we've got the two ends of the spectrum, we've got two different symptoms groups and we've got people listen to this. Perhaps he put the hand up for one or put the hand up for the other, but we want to talk more about hypothyroidism. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 5:03

Yeah, so hypothyroid is more common and there's a lot of. You know, when you're in hyper thyroid there's only a few solutions. When you're in hyper or the immune system is really attacking the thyroid, you know they'll give you like um, you know, radioactive iodine to kill the thyroid, or they may take the thyroid out because this can be quite detrimental, like you could have a heart attack or a stroke and things like that. So it's more of an immediate, acute medical situation that needs to be handled. The majority of women who have issues with their thyroid are going to be more in hypothyroid than they are going to be in hyper.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Okay, and you mentioned women there, so is it more common in women than men?

Speaker 2: 5:48

It is. So men do have hypothyroid or even hyperthyroid, but it's at a much smaller degree Usually. I mean, there are millions of women who have low thyroid and I think only a small percentage of men experience that, and there's a lot of, you know, speculation and a lot of theories out there behind why this happens. But typically you'll see this hypothyroid when we have big swings and shifts in our hormones, and most men don't go through big hormonal shifts. Women we go through hormonal shifts at puberty, through pregnancy, through perimenopause and menopause, so we have these other triggers that might cause this hypothyroid For men. Anytime. I worked with a male and I have discovered they have hypothyroid. I usually can trace it back to a major stressful event in their life and that would be what really triggers hypothyroid in males, but mostly for females, because we have such huge hormonal shifts at different phases in our life. I really think that that's what, why more women than men have hypothyroid.

Speaker 1: 7:01

OK, so can you take us on the journey of someone in the normal medical world who feels there's something not quite right? Perhaps they've got one of those symptoms, or IBS, slow metabolism, hair thinning, putting on weight whatever it is what generally happens to them in the normal medical model?

Speaker 2: 7:22

Yeah. So most of the time, let's say, you have like low energy, you feel really fatigued, you've put on some weight and no matter what you do, you, you know, cut back your calories, you've increased your exercise, the weight's not coming off. You have anxiety and depression. And you know, these days we just consult Dr Google first. That's typically what happens. So we're like, okay, what could these symptoms possibly be? And without a doubt, those symptoms are so common with low thyroid. Dr Google is going to say, hey, you should have low thyroid. And so they will run typically one marker, which is called a TSH. It stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. It's produced by your pituitary. To kind of say, hey, thyroid, you need to make some more thyroid hormones and if that's high, that means that you have low thyroid. Okay. And so many women, they do get that diagnosis and they're like, okay, thank goodness, at least I know what's wrong with me. And their doctor says, here, take this thyroid replacement, um hormone, you're going to take some t4, which is usually levothyroxine or synthroid or some some combination of medication, and they say you're going to feel better in two weeks, okay. So you take the medication and you're like, if I feel better in two weeks, okay. So you take the medication and you're like, if I feel better in two weeks and all of these things go away, I would take this gladly for the rest of my life. So you take the medication, two weeks goes by and you may feel a little bit better. So you're like awesome. And then three and four weeks go by and then the symptoms kind of start creeping back in again and you're like, wait, I thought that I was going to feel better, start creeping back in again and you're like, wait, I thought that I was going to feel better. So then you go back to your doctor. They look at the dosage or check your TSH again increase, decrease, try to figure out what the right magical dosage is for that thyroid medication and off you go.

Speaker 2: 9:18

And I would say, most of the time the symptoms that women struggle with with low thyroid do not go away. Even if they get the TSH regulated and they're on thyroid replacement therapy, they still have all of these symptoms. And so then they start getting on this medication roller coaster where it's like all right, well, you still need to eat less and exercise more and you can't sleep. So here's a sleeping pill and here's an antidepressant and here's an anti-anxiety medication and oh, you've got body pains. Oh, now you've got fibromyalgia. So here's a pain medication, and it just keeps going and going.

Speaker 2: 9:55

And then we get stuck in this situation where, when we keep going back and we keep getting one medication after the other, then the answer typically is oh well, that's just what happens when you're getting older, that's just what happens when it's menopause. I mean, I've even heard ladies at 35 years old, their doctor saying oh, you're getting older now, that's just what happens. And so when you're told that's just what happens because of your age or because of some phase that you're in in life, that gives you no hope, no solution, no way to actually move forward, to try to resolve it. So it's like, look, you got to live with it, take these drugs and then just move on your way. And I think that's where the biggest frustration comes when ladies get diagnosed with this low thyroid diagnosis, because it's not usually a simple, easy fix. For some it is, which is awesome, but for most of us it is not that easy and you have to dig deeper.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So your doctor would test for levels of TSH and then the T4 as well, and if it's low you'll go back and they'll adjust your medications. But sometimes they just keep adding more and more and more and it has a detrimental effect to the body. Can you explain a little bit more about why they do that and what happens?

Speaker 2: 11:20

Yeah. So I think for the most part in traditional medicine they have very limited tools, right? So when they look at the TSH and maybe it's high and they say, okay, you've got hypothyroid, you need more thyroid hormone, and they look in their bag and all they have they have thyroid hormone, called thyroid replacement hormone, because when you put a hormone into the body, the body is very smart and it's just. It amazes me every single day. The more I learn, the more I work with patients, the more amazed I get, even after 20 years. But when you put hormones into the body, there's feedback loops, right. It's like, hey, I've got enough thyroid hormone here, thyroid, you don't need to make any more thyroid hormones, right? So that's actually how we measure do you have enough thyroid hormones as the TSH goes down? So as the TSH goes down, it's not telling the thyroid to produce any more hormone. So the lower the TSH, the less the thyroid is actually working to produce thyroid hormones. So they add in these thyroid hormones and what we typically see is, over time, you need more and more medication or more and more hormones that they put into the system. There's a couple of things that happen with that. So, first of all, when you put thyroid hormones in, or any hormones in, you get this feedback loop where the gland that makes the hormone decreases the amount that it's producing. But on top of that, if you're putting in too much thyroid hormone, a lot of it can be pushed into reverse T3, which they don't usually check that right. So the body can be like, hey, we've got an overload here, we're pushing all this T4 into reverse T3, but you would never know if all you were measuring is TSH and the T4, right.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Other things that happen typically when you're doing a regular thyroid panel free t4. So total t4 mostly 90, about 96 percent ish of the total t4 is protein bound. So hormones have to have a protein carrier to be carried through the body in order for them to actually then get to the place where they need to bind to the cell. So if you I picture it like this, like your hormones are driving around in taxi cabs, that you can't use them until they get out of the taxi cab and actually go into the store and start shopping, right. So the total T4, which is mostly what's being ordered in a thyroid panel is most all of it is protein bound and inactive panel is most all of it is protein bound and inactive, and so there's things that can happen between looking at total T4 and then going into cleaving off that protein where that thyroid hormone is actually usable. But you can't see that if you're not measuring it. All right, and you there would be nothing to do with that when they look in their toolbox and all they have is thyroid hormone, right. So there's there's things that we look at from a functional perspective. Like you know, why would someone not be cleaving off that protein so that it can be protein, so that it can bind to the receptor site?

Speaker 2: 14:38

The other thing that happens when we take too much thyroid hormone is that you can get thyroid hormone resistance. So that looks like your TSH looks pretty good, your T4 looks pretty good, but you still have all of these thyroid symptoms and thyroid hormone. I was doing another podcast and he pulled up a study. Thyroid hormones are the most over-prescribed medication on the market because a lot of practitioners are using or prescribing thyroid hormones to reduce symptoms, even if the TSH and the T4 are normal. They're trying to just increase thyroid hormone to see if they can resolve those issues or symptoms. But when that happens, not only do you get thyroid resistance, just like we were talking about insulin resistance, where if your cells are overexposed to insulin then you start to, they don't respond as well to the insulin and then you get insulin resistance. Same thing can happen with thyroid resistance or thyroid hormone. But the other crazy thing is that when there's too much thyroid hormone circulating in the body, let's just say one cell has 10 receptor sites for thyroid hormone, like they bind at the receptor side, and then it has the action and you feel amazing. But if there's too much thyroid hormone, instead of 10 receptor sites, let's say, it downgrades to three receptor sites because your body is trying to regulate your metabolic rate and sometimes so, if you think about this, the thyroid regulates your metabolic rate, your metabolism. That's why we struggle with weight issues if we have low thyroid. But sometimes your body is doing that on purpose because it's always trying to protect you.

Speaker 2: 16:30

So when you eat something and your blood sugar might go up, your cells take that sugar into the cell and then they use that sugar to produce energy or ATP. But as a byproduct you'll get like a reactive oxygen species. You'll get some oxidative stress that the body has to clear out, like a little piece of garbage that comes off when you make energy. But if your detoxification pathways aren't working, that garbage starts to build up over time and then your cells are like, hey, this is becoming toxic, so I need to slow down how much energy we're producing. So we need to make the cells resistant to insulin, so not as much sugar is coming in. And then it moves over to the thyroid and is like hey, we got to slow down this metabolic rate, so we need to, you know, got to slow down this metabolic rate, so we need to, you know, decrease this conversion of T4 to T3. So the body's always communicating and there's always a reason why. And so the more testing that you do, the more that you can understand what patterns are actually going on, so that we're not just, you know, myobically looking at the body and the thyroid and saying, oh, you have low thyroid, we're just going to overload the body with thyroid hormone, because there's a whole cascade of things that happen and your body's always trying to protect you.

Speaker 2: 17:55

The body is not usually broken. There's usually an underlying issue that it might need a little bit of help overcoming, but it usually doesn't just like go haywire usually. So I have patients that are like my thyroid broke on this day. I'm like well, first, your thyroid can't break, so it doesn't just like break, but it can dysfunction. That we've got to figure out. Well, why is it dysfunctioning? Because it's usually working for you, not against you, that we just have to figure out why that is.

Speaker 2: 18:26

And so there's so many complications that can happen by overtaking any hormone, but especially thyroid hormone, and that's why so many women, after they take thyroid hormone, their symptoms don't necessarily get any better, because it's not really that their thyroid can't produce thyroid hormone, it's that they have all these other issues going on underneath the surface that causes the low thyroid in the first place.

Speaker 2: 18:53

Upwards of 98% of women have an underlying autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's, and so when you have an underlying autoimmune issue, it's not a primary hypothyroid issue, right?

Speaker 2: 19:08

So it's not just that you have low thyroid hormones or that the thyroid gland is for some reason just not making enough thyroid hormone, but you have an underlying autoimmune condition which is the cause of the low thyroid.

Speaker 2: 19:22

And if you don't address the triggers that are causing the immune system to attack the thyroid, then you're never really going to get resolve any of the symptoms that you're dealing with just by adding in thyroid hormone. And the bigger issue here is that when you have one autoimmune condition, you're at risk for developing multiple autoimmune diseases and, in this instance, even thyroid cancer, and so you have to address this underlying issue if you want to get better. It is absolutely not unusual that I see someone who had been diagnosed with low thyroid and then we do more comprehensive testing and what do you know, they've got Hashimoto's. Oh, but then they had previously been diagnosed with lupus or Sjogren's syndrome or you know any other RA I see all the time any. They are all actually the same underlying issue, which the immune system is out of balance, and we've got to really address all the underlying triggers if you want these symptoms to resolve.

Speaker 1: 20:35

I mean, that's brilliantly put and it's something that the normal medical model doesn't do. It doesn't go follow the tree back to the source to say well, what is wrong with the thyroid? Did this like you said? Did this person have some other autoimmune disease before? Oh well, that's a big clue. Okay, so your style of treating is more what we call functional medicine. Can you explain a little bit about why functional medicine is different and then how you would treat someone like this?

Speaker 2: 21:03

Yeah. So in traditional medicine, and certainly there is a time and place, and I will say this if you have low thyroid hormone, it is really important that we get your thyroid hormones regulated or else it actually can be a trigger to the immune system, to the immune system. So there is a time and place. But in traditional medicine it is to drug it out, cut it out or burn it out, right, like that is kind of the underlying model. It's not good nor bad, it just is right and some of those solutions are necessary at some times. But when we're dealing with an underlying autoimmune condition, you can't drug out an imbalance, right, like there is no way to overcome an imbalance with just adding in and adding in drugs. So when you're dealing with someone with an autoimmune condition, you have to get down to the root cause or understand what all the triggers are. So, for example, one of the most common triggers is insulin resistance or insulin surges. Some women, when they hear the word insulin resistance, they say, oh, I don't have that because I haven't been diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes. But this is a big spectrum that happens from hypoglycemia all the way to diabetes. But every time we have insulin surges if you have an underlying autoimmune condition, it'll cause the immune system to attack the body. All right, so getting our blood sugar regulated is absolutely foundational. And then you've got to look at your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands help you deal with stress. Especially in America we are on stress overload and overdrive and we actually are addicted to all of those stress hormones. And even when we don't have stress, we start worrying about the past or worrying about the future so that we can generate those stress hormones, so that we can keep that addiction going. But that is all unconscious or in the subconscious. We don't even know or realize that we're doing it and so that continues that triggering or that immune system attacking the body. And then you can look at estrogen and testosterone surges. You can look at food sensitivities. You can look at biotoxin illness, where we're dealing with mold or Lyme or any other biotoxin. You look at heavy metal toxins Did I say food sensitivities? Underlying infections, bacterial viral infections, leaky gut. So all of these things are impacting your immune system, which is why they're really for the majority of us.

Speaker 2: 23:42

There is not a quick fix. There is not like here take this pill and everything's going to be amazing. But it is about understanding what each individual person is dealing with, what is each individual person's triggers, and then you start to customize a treatment plan so that you can help a person overcome these imbalances and eliminate or resolve the symptoms that they're dealing with. And so for me, everything starts with, first, a really good health history, because you have loads of clues about what's happening with this patient when you really understand the body's physiology. And secondly, you have to do very thorough testing. And I don't just mean like testing the thyroid, although there are 12 different markers that make up a true and full thyroid panel, and mostly we only get one marker done, or maybe four if we're lucky, but there are 12 different markers that make up a full thyroid panel, but still that's only like a small, you know, scratching the surface of what's really going on.

Speaker 2: 24:47

So, looking at all the different imbalances or all the different triggers by testing very thoroughly so that we stop guessing. You know I always make this joke and I can because I have Hashimoto's as well but whenever I used to see patients in clinic, I used to the ladies would come in with bags of supplements. I'm like, oh, that's a thyroid patient and I always knew. Because we're always searching right, we are googling what supplement works for this symptom. And so we're guessing right. Oh, I must have adrenal fatigue, so we take an adrenal supplement. And then, well, we must have inflammation, so we take every antioxidant and curcumin and all these loads of supplements. But you're just still guessing. And if you guess right, then you're going to have some success. But if you're not addressing all the underlying triggers and you're not metic, have some success. But if you're not addressing all the underlying triggers and you're not meticulously customizing exactly what someone needs, then you're going to still be frustrated, even though you might see some success.

Speaker 1: 25:54

So, with the testing, how do you narrow down to which avenue you go to, Because you did mention many, many different reasons for an autoimmune disease. How does it look in practice? Is there more likely to be one cause, like a nutritional cause? 80% of autoimmune diseases or a mold is 5%. What's your go-to in clinical practice?

Speaker 2: 26:23

you'll go to in clinical practice. I would say this I test very thoroughly from the beginning and that is kind of my. Not all practitioners test like that. They kind of test in a little bit in the beginning and then add on testing as they move forward. But for me I do very thorough blood work where I'm looking at blood sugar, underlying infections, I'm looking at liver function, all the detoxification pathways, certainly looking at all the thyroid stuff, and then I do a genetic test to see should I be concerned with someone having an issue clearing out biotoxins? All right, so it doesn't necessarily test, do you have biotoxins? But genetically about 30 percent of our population cannot clear out mold, the mold toxins. And so what I have found over the years after testing? Almost every single patient for this, probably about 80 percent of my patient population has a hard time clearing out mold, has a hard time clearing out mold. And so I do all of that testing Plus I do. I test their adrenal function, we look at circadian rhythm, I do all of their hormones and then I'll do a stool test to see what's going on in the gut.

Speaker 2: 27:35

Now I have been able to really work with, because I've been doing this for 20 years and I have my own personal experience as well. There is a way that we start everybody off with nutrition, like most people have, you know, four main food sensitivities, or at least foods that really cause a major elevation in blood sugar. So there's a more of a blanket dietary recommendations that I start people on and then we kind of customize as we see how they're moving forward. And then we spot test as somebody is going through a treatment plan and maybe even get additional testing as we see how a patient's doing. Like I might do a Lyme test later on. I usually don't ever start with Lyme, but I might do a follow-up Lyme test or I might do heavy metals later. I might do all of those specialty testing later on, but for the most part I do the big things like detoxification, blood sugar, adrenals, hormones and gut, all from the beginning.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Yeah, and I think that's such a good place to start, because you know which one of your patients has ever come to you and said you know, I sleep eight hours a night in a cool room that's pitch black. I, you know, I eat just a whole food diet. I never snack, my blood sugar is completely level the whole time. I have no stress in my life, I have no trauma, I have no worries and anxiety about the future and I exercise every day. You know that doesn't happen. So we need to get those building blocks right sorted before we can then do the fancy supplements. And I think what you described earlier is your patients come to you and they've kind of circumvented that they've just heard an advert or spoken to so and so and they've oh, if I take this high-dose vitamin C supplement, this will take care of this problem. But they're not looking at the basics right, what I call lifestyle medicine, and this is what this show is about.

Speaker 2: 29:33

You cannot out-supplement an autoimmune condition and it's only a small piece of the puzzle. And it's only a small piece of the puzzle and I think a lot of patients that's what they go to, because they don't have any other guidance or help. And I will say this too I see a lot of patients that have seen other doctors like me, and so I'm always like, ok, what did they do? Let me see all the testing. And usually they've done a great job with the foundational stuff. I'm like, okay, now we get to dig in and do all of the advanced and the more difficult things to really move you to the next level.

Speaker 1: 30:07

Exactly and it's the same. It's interesting the same with me in more than biomechanical way of treating someone. If someone's got a lower back pain and they've seen a chiropractor or physiotherapist for a long, long time, I asked them what they've done and then it's like okay, well, I'm probably not going to treat your back because you've had that. Let's look wider afield, let's go into nutrition, let's go into sleep, let's go into the lifestyle factors. So, yeah, okay. Now you mentioned in passing about the blood sugar and how that can affect things, how that could almost trigger an autoimmune disease. Can we go into that in a little bit more detail? Because this is interesting because people are starting to become aware of their potential predisposition for diabetes. So pre-diabetic patients, they're beginning to wear constant glucose monitors and they're beginning to get an idea of it, but I don't think the general public is understanding how important it is. Can you tell us more about that?

Speaker 2: 31:06

yes, and I'm glad you asked me this, because this is one of the most important things and I think it's one of the most. It's a foundational thing that is most looked over. And I would say this what I have found is that if you have a weight issue meaning like it's very difficult for you to lose weight or, you know, if you get off your diet even a little bit, all the weight starts to come back or you start to gain weight. Most, if not all, weight issues are caused by a blood sugar problem. All right, so there's a spectrum. So when we eat food, your blood sugar should come up a little bit, but we don't want to see a blood sugar spike, right? So you know, normal blood sugar is anywhere. Non-fasting is 80 to 120. After a meal, fasting should be anywhere from 80 to 95.

Speaker 2: 32:04

For those of you who know a little bit more, an average blood sugar is measured in blood with a hemoglobin A1c and we really want that to be 5.3 to 5.4. That's kind of the range that we're shooting for. What I have noticed is that in my patient population I have the full spectrum, from hypoglycemic to diabetic, and I started putting everybody on a continuous glucose monitor because even for those patients, when I look at their hemoglobin A1c and it looks normal, but they have a weight issue, I'm like something else is going on here and I put a continuous glucose monitor on them and what do you know? They have lots of variability, so their blood sugar is swinging from high to low and you don't really realize that it's doing that, especially when you're looking at averages. Now, when your blood sugar goes up, it causes a release of insulin. Insulin helps your body take that sugar from the blood and it puts it into the cells so the body can make energy from that and anything that's left over that gets stored as fat. And insulin is a fat storing hormone and the more insulin that your cells are exposed to, the more insulin resistant they become, so they just don't respond to the insulin like they should respond over time and that's when someone starts to get insulin resistance or prediabetes and diabetes. And one thing that's really interesting is that food is a huge part, so you want to make sure that you're eating foods that don't cause an insulin surge or a blood sugar spike eating foods that don't cause an insulin surge or a blood sugar spike.

Speaker 2: 33:46

But there's many other causes to having high blood sugar and I think many people get frustrated because they're like Dr Heather my diet is good, I do not drink soda, I eat mostly really good. I may be paleo or keto and I how could I possibly have a blood sugar problem? Say, all right, well, let's look at all the reasons, or all the other things that impact your blood sugar, like an underlying infection will raise blood sugar every time. Like your liver is not functioning as well as it should. Like stress Funny story I'm also wear a continuous glucose monitor because I think I'm addicted. I don't have a blood sugar monitor because I think I'm addicted. I don't have a blood sugar problem. But that actually I did.

Speaker 2: 34:27

But I went on this seven day meditation retreat and one of my big issues with my blood sugar is variability. Like I could eat an apple and my blood sugar would go up to 130 and be like gosh. What in the world is going on with this? Like I should be able to eat a piece an apple. Even if I paired it with almond butter, it did not matter.

Speaker 2: 34:49

So I go on this meditation retreat and my blood sugar has never been so stable in my whole life. I'm sure I was eating papaya and dragon fruit and pineapple, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a stress response that I'm having. And so, as I started to implement meditation practices even when I was out of the retreat, right, I can now tolerate fruit much better because I'm dialing back. You know the stress response. I'm really working with my body to manage and handle stress, and I think that we don't realize how much other outside influences impact our stress level, which impacts our blood sugar. So is diet important? Absolutely. You cannot have a terrible diet and maintain health, but is it the only thing? No way. We've got to look at so many other things that impact your blood sugar.

Speaker 1: 35:44

That is fascinating, and I think that these continuous blood sugar monitors for those of you who don't know, it's a little patch that goes into your arm and communicates with a device or directly to your phone, but they're generally not available, or they haven't been anyway to the general public. It's usually you have to go through your doctor and you have to have diabetes or pre diabetes to get one, but the more that this technology advances, the more availability there will be, and then people like yourself and and I haven't got one, but I do want one we'll be able to use these things and work out what it is that we respond poorly or well to. Because Because back in the I think it was the 90s they came out with this book called the Glycemic Index out of Australia, and it showed these foods that gave a high sorry, a high blood glucose level, and so white bread was on there, bananas were on there and so on, and that's good for the general population. But since people have started wearing these glucose monitors, they've worked out that actually not everyone has a problem with bananas and not everyone has the same response to white bread, and so if you know your individual blood sugar responses to certain foods, then you can start adapting things.

Speaker 1: 36:56

Or, like you said, find out something else that was you'd never have found out if you were just reading a book on. You know, on glycemic index, that stress increases your blood glucose. Or we had a guest on the show not so long ago called Dr Tommy Wood and he showed a great study that had two groups of diabetics and they were given the same milkshake. But they read the label on the milkshake and one label had been altered to say at a high sugar content and the other label said it was the normal sugar content. The ones who had the highest in content had a higher blood glucose level afterwards. And you know that just it just blows my mind.

Speaker 2: 37:39

Yeah, I think it's cool If I tell patients, if you're going to cheat, cheat like, could you just love the food that you're eating and not feel guilty about it. Because as soon as you feel guilty about it and you you label psychologically a food as bad or you shouldn't have it, and then you're cheating, your blood sugar is gonna go higher than it would if you just said you know what, I just love this food right now and it's not going to hurt me, I'm going to eat it and I you know the. The. The mental side of this whole thing is fascinating and I do think that's why I I claim that I'm addicted to my glucose monitor because I always want to just check in. It allows me to see okay, I'm eating good.

Speaker 2: 38:20

My diet is usually not ever off. I live on a ranch and I have to drive like 40 minutes if I'm going out to eat, so my diet is pretty dialed in. I can see on a daily basis, like if my blood sugar is higher or I have a higher variability, like I check in with my stress levels. Did I work out today what's my activity level? Did I overdo it? You can kind of just monitor where you're at. But yes, these continuous glucose monitors are becoming more widely used in kind of like the biohacking world, and there's quite a few companies that were going outside of insurance because insurance doesn't cover these unless you're on insulin, and so going outside of that model and really in the health and wellness space and optimization is really where this is catching on.

Speaker 1: 39:13

It totally is. Let's talk about exercise here as well, because the muscle mass can absorb more glucose and it can be a glucose sink, but also it can help with a whole bunch of other things in the body. Do you recommend exercise as something for your patients as well?

Speaker 2: 39:33

So I get patients from every spectrum. So I always need a patient where they're at All right. So some of my patients are in a wheelchair. So you know, I think to say, oh, you have to exercise or lift weights might make that patient say, oh, I can't even get started, right, so you have to meet the patient where they are in their life, and so what little things could they do? But besides that, yes, first we've got to get movement of any kind, walking, you know. Getting the body flowing that's how our lymphatic system drains and operates is by movement alone.

Speaker 2: 40:12

But weight and lifting weights, resistance training, is so important because, like you said, the more muscle mass you have, the more it burns calories, the more it equalizes glucose from the bloodstream and the more it creates energy. So what I find happens as we start to age it's not the only aging issue is that we have sarcopenia, meaning like we start to lose muscle mass as we age, is that we have sarcopenia, meaning like we start to lose muscle mass as we age. So, yes, there's other consequences that are related to that, like your blood sugar does start to go up as you start to lose muscle mass. But is it because of your age? Absolutely not. It's because of your muscle content or your muscle mass, and so maintaining muscle mass as we age is really one of the biggest keys to longevity. So you know, in addition to balancing your blood sugar, it helps us with osteoporosis, it helps us with our hormone balance, it helps us with our brain function. So doing resistance training is absolutely important, but don't let that stop you from doing anything.

Speaker 2: 41:24

So so many people are like all or nothing, like if I can't do this crazy workout routine, I'm going to just sit here on the couch and watch Netflix. But instead, if we could just do small things a day, even if you're in a wheelchair, I mean you can go, get out you know cans of vegetables and start doing something. Or I talk about just getting some resistance bands and starting so small at least you're starting right. Or getting on a little trampoline right, or rebounder and just barely bouncing up and down to get some motion flowing. Or sitting up and down on a chair.

Speaker 2: 42:01

The number one reason why people go into nursing homes is because they lose their muscle mass in their legs or the quads and they can't get up and down off the toilet. So I'm like, ladies, can we please do some squats, even if you're just down and up in a chair, like we got to maintain that muscle mass so that we don't end up in a nursing home. But besides that, maintaining your blood sugar and so many women want to lose weight and it's like if you can't maintain your blood sugar because your muscle mass is so low, then it's going to be very hard to lose weight. So you've got to really understand why things happen and it's not just eat less. I mean, that is old, that is very old thinking.

Speaker 1: 42:47

Exactly, and so a lot of these patients you have will. One of their symptoms is going to be this weight that they want to shift but they can't. And maybe they're in a house with a partner or a husband or children and they see them eat a little bit less each day and lose weight. And yet these women are eating next to nothing and they're not losing weight. Am I right in thinking this is someone you would help?

Speaker 2: 43:14

Yes. So, first of all, I live in a household full of boys, right? So my husband and I've got two boys, one, they're both athletes, one's a junior in high school, one's a baseball player in college. And I swear, if they had, their body fat goes up to okay, let's just say 14 or 15%, and they want to decrease their body fat to like 12%. They can literally do that in two weeks, like, oh, ok, mom, I'll just stop eating ice cream. Ok, I don't eat ice cream ever.

Speaker 2: 43:46

And for me to lose one percent of body fat takes what seems like an act of God. So, first of all, we as women need to stop comparing ourselves to men, because our hormones are completely different, our muscle mass is different, our bone mass is completely different. So so many women, we get frustrated and we give up because maybe your spouse took doing a diet with you or you kind of go on this challenge with your spouse. Let me tell you, I did a core challenge with my spouse and I could see a little more definition. He totally had a six pack. I'm like all right, I'm not going to compare myself to you, because you just have a completely different body style, shape and, obviously, hormones than I do, and so we are not little men and we are different than men's physiology and as we age, our physiology does change and we've got to really work against losing muscle mass and that should be one of the biggest focuses. And I also think that if you're just trying to lose weight, to lose weight, we will get so frustrated because we will start to implement some kind of like change whether it's no sugar for 30 days or I'm going to eat 800 calories for 30 days and then we expect some kind of outcome and we do something that's not a lifestyle or something that's not maintainable over time. If you lose the weight, you're going to gain it right back as soon as you get off of that challenge or off of that you know, whatever it is that you're doing.

Speaker 2: 45:20

But if we shift our focus to say, all right, what do I need to do to function optimally, what do I need to do to live longer and have a better quality of life, and let's just for a moment, take the focus off of what we look like, what that number is on the scale, and let's focus on our functionality and optimizing our overall health and resolving all of these symptoms. Well, when you do that and you start to put in lifestyle changes that are healthy, like, yeah, I'm going to stop drinking soda and eating ice cream and I'm going to start eating whole foods. I'm going to eat the foods that help stabilize my blood sugar and maybe help me sleep better. Eat the foods that help stabilize my blood sugar and maybe help me sleep better. When we start to have that focus and we take the focus off of the weight, the weight starts to go down and it's easier to maintain. But so many of us like we will say, okay, I'm going to stop eating sugar for 30 days and let's say, you lost five pounds, but maybe your husband lost 15 pounds, or maybe your friend lost 15 pounds and you're like, well, that didn't work for me, so you go eat sugar again. So you're like, well, why were you doing that really? Was it just to lose weight or do you know that eating sugar is? Most of us know that eating sugar is detrimental to our health health.

Speaker 2: 46:46

So if we take the focus off of the weight, off of the number, and we start to say, okay, what do I need to do to optimize function and be as healthy as I can? And and if you start to have motivations that are tied to those goals. Like I want to be here to see my grandkids grow up. I want to be active and play with my grandkids. I I want to go hiking again. I want to. Whatever it is that you want to do in your life. I'm going to live to 120, right. So if I'm going to live to 120, I can't be worried about my health at 100. I'm going to start now so that when I get to 120, I still have somewhat of a quality of life, otherwise, why are you doing that? I still have somewhat of a quality of life, otherwise, why are you doing that? But if you have a motivation tied to the goal and it's something outside of weight loss, then it's easier for us to add in lifestyle changes that are going to stick and that will help your body composition and will help your overall health.

Speaker 2: 47:40

And I think that is one of the biggest flaws that we have in our system is that when you go to your doctor and you have knee pain or you're not sleeping or you have all of these things or diabetes or whatever, they tell you you need to go lose the weight and the reason that you have these things is because you're overweight.

Speaker 2: 47:59

But what we need to realize is that the weight is a symptom. It is no different than fatigue, depression, anxiety. It's like somebody just saying well, you need to go lose your anxiety. So you know if we have a different thought process behind the weight. The weight is just a symptom and symptoms are your body's way of communicating with you that something is not right. So if you address the underlying cause of why you have weight excess weight and you can't lose it whether it's insulin resistance or liver issues or infections or all those things that I talked about when you start addressing the underlying issue and your focus is on health and your focus is tied to deep motivations, is on health and your focus is tied to deep motivations, then you're in a long haul. It's more than this 30, 60, 90 day challenge where we give up if somebody else does better or we have some weird expectation that we pulled out of thin air and if we don't meet that expectation, then we fall back to old habits.

Speaker 1: 48:58

Now, if my listeners want to find out a little bit more about you, I know that you've got a very popular Facebook group and you support people online, so can you tell us a little bit about how you would do that and how they can find you?

Speaker 2: 49:11

Yes, so my Facebook group is called Happy, healthy and Lean, and we are up to 30,000 members at this time, so I'm really excited about that, and it is an amazing community of ladies who are on this health journey, some of them just beginning. Some of them have been on this journey for decades and, as we know, this is a journey and the journey doesn't stop until we take our last breath. So this is this is something that we're always working on, and it's really important to be surrounded by like minded women who are also on this path as well. And it's really important to be surrounded by like-minded women who are also on this path as well. And so go to Facebook. It's Happy, healthy and Lean.

Speaker 2: 49:50

I typically do a master class. Right now, I'm doing a once a month where I spend hours monthly talking about different subjects. I've done them on hormones and menopause and weight loss and, you know, thyroid transformations. So it's a really great not only community, but a place for learning. I wrote a book called Thyroid Transformation Blueprint. You can get that on Amazon, but I also have two free chapters available. I don't know exactly what that link is, but I'll give it to you so that you can put it in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 50:21

We'll put that in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 50:23

Yeah, awesome. So then you can get a little sample and see if it sounds like something that I'd like to dive into Perfect.

Speaker 1: 50:30

Dr Stone, thank you very much for coming on the show.

Speaker 2: 50:33

Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 50:36

That's the end of this episode of your Lifestyle is your Medicine podcast. Thank you so much for joining me with my conversation with Dr Stone. If you'd like to support the show, the best thing you can do is subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so that you'll be notified the next time an episode comes out, and I'd be very grateful if you'd go onto your podcast app and consider giving me a five-star review so I can get this information out to more people Listen. If you're watching this on YouTube, please leave a comment in the comment section below. Remember, if you want my direct help, go to edpadgettcom. Subscribe to my newsletter, drop me a message via the contact us link and I will see if I can help you make your lifestyle your medicine.