What Causes Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?
What is the root cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?
4
| Hey, guys. Dr. Shook |
| The leading cause of hypothyroidism is not lack of iodine, because there's so much iodine in our food supply. In other countries, though, lack of iodine is the reason that most people have goiters, where their thyroid gets large, and it's also the reason they have hypothyroidism. When they go into these countries, like Iran, China, Sri Lanka, there are numerous studies that they've done now. They've been able to actually, in some of these, they've been able to, like Iran, they've been able to measure people and their TPO, anybody [inaudible 00:01:21] to have Hashimoto's. Prior to introducing the iodine into the salt and the food supply, and then years afterwards, and comparing the rates, and that's really the only thing that had changed, was this introduction to iodine. |
| What they find in all these population studies is that the rate of hypothyroidism goes down, but the increase ... There's a dramatic increase, a statistically significant increase in Hashimoto's. We know that iodine is a trigger for autoimmune thyroid conditions. That's one trigger, right, and then we know bacterial infections can be a trigger. We're talking about things that can initiate the event. They may not be things that drive or perpetuate it, right? That's something that's different. Someone can have a bacterial infection that initiates the autoimmunity, and at the same, they develop leaky gut, and they start reacting to food proteins, and then they get this dysbiosis, or this overgrowth in bacteria, or imbalance of bacteria in their gut. Possibly, that causes their GI motility that drives hypothyroidism, because you develop Hashimoto's and you have poor thyroid physiological stimulation. |
| What happens is maybe your GI motility slows down, and you develop not only this bacterial imbalance, but yeast overgrowth in the gut. That just sets off this whole chain reaction of things that you have now chronic infections that were not the triggers, but now that are persistent, right? Now that you're stuck in this inflammatory state with, let's say, yeast infections, and bacterial overgrowth in the GI tract. Now the gut motility is slow, so your stool stays in the colon longer than it shows, and it's not this normal transit time where it makes its way through. It's more stagnant, and it stays there longer. It ferments and grows more bad bacteria, more yeast, and perpetuates this infection that keeps the gut leaky, and then lets every food that you eat come in, and leak into the bloodstream, triggering an immune response. You start reacting to more and more foods. |
| These are the things that perpetuate it, okay? We didn't even talk about environmental chemicals. There's several different mechanisms here, but the point is this. There's usually a triggering event. It's usually something that's ... It could be iodine intake. It could be bacterial. It could be viral. It could be hormonal, right? Hormonal. We know that with women, the most common time in life is going to be puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause, because there's a shift in the hormones. The shift in the hormones, we think ... We know it increases a dominance of particular types of immune system cells, and we know that that ... What we think is, I say I don't know, but what we think is that that makes the immune system hypervigilent, so it's on the watch for foreign substances. |
| Maybe there's an increase in intestinal permeability at this time as well. There's a lot of factors, but we blame it on the hormones. The mechanism is that during those times of life for women, there's this significant shift in hormones that is predisposing them to the factors, the environmental factors, and then if they had the genetic makeup, so if they had the genes, it's going to trigger an autoimmune condition and Hashimoto's is one that we see commonly activated. There are a lot of different things there, but we know that medications can also do it, certain medications. If you just think about NSAIDs, right, these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. They have all these warnings about, don't take them for a prolonged period of time. You can get these over the counter. They're for inflammation. Don't take these for a prolonged period of time, because they can cause ulcers and bleeding, right? |
| Do you know why that is? Because those medications break down your GI tract wall, your mucosal lining. Guess what kind of like leaky gut is? It's a breakdown of your mucosal lining. We know that certain medications can be a trigger for Hashimoto's, and we know that there are these environmental toxins that can do this stuff too, which is becoming a much, much bigger thing. I'm seeing it much more clinically. It's getting to a point now where if you really want to work up someone thoroughly, and if they really want to know triggers, right, they need to look at their gut intestinal tract in most cases, right, to see what's happening to the local GI environment. Are there bacterial imbalances or overgrowth? Is there a yeast overgrowth? Is there a parasitic issue? Did they have deficiencies in their short chain fats like butyrate, which helps to nourish and heal the gut? |
| There are a lot of different things ... Got five minutes to go. There's a lot of different things that can be perpetuated, in the GI tract locally that can perpetuate a leaky gut. We want to look there. Then we want to look at things like, all right, what food proteins are they reacting to? If we know that they're reacting to partial food proteins, we want to eliminate those from the diet. Then we can look at environmental chemicals, so looking at environmental chemicals is not just testing the quantity of the chemical. Everyone has the quantity of chemical. Everyone has high levels of chemicals. I'm just telling you, everyone has them present in their body. |
| What you want to look at is really, what we're finding is most useful is, are you reacting to it immunologically, right? Is your immune system reacting to the chemical as foreign, because of it's not, it's kind of there, but it's not triggering any type of immune response. It's just kind of, don't disturb it. That's the kind of approach that I really look at it and take, because when you start to mobilize some of these things ... People would do kelation, and they'll take these other approaches to these chemicals. I'm really very, very cautious of that, because when you start to disturb these chemicals, are you going to trigger an immune response? Are you just going to redeposit the chemicals somewhere? |
| A lot of these metals, they have an affinity, or an attraction, to areas of high metabolism. What's the highest level of metabolism? Bone, brain, bone marrow, glands, right? These are all very high rates of metabolism, so do you really want to use a kelating agent, pull this stuff out of the, let's say the big toe, get it into the bloodstream, and then have it redeposit in the brain? I don't think so. What I would tell you is, is that when you detoxification, there's a time and place for that, but I think that we don't know enough. Let me just say that, and then I think that there are a lot of approaches that are being taken with people that I think could very potentially be detrimental to their recovery and their health longer term. |
| I think that looking at just mineral quantities, or I should say, toxic, the amount of toxic chemicals in someone's body, it's not sufficient. You're looking at what they're excreting. What if they're poor methylators, or they have poor mechanisms of elimination of the metals, right? If you're looking at urinary levels, and you're using that to reflect what's in the body, how do you know that that's what's in the body, right? How do you know that that's what's in the body? What you're seeing in the urine is more of a reflection of the body's ability to excrete and eliminate those metals, right? What if the person has a poor ability to eliminate the metals? Then what? |
| You look at the urine, and it looks like the quantities are low, but they're high in the body, because they have poor ability to eliminate them. I just think that these tests looking at the quantities, hair analysis and everything else, you're looking at the ability of the body to excrete the metal in the hair, right? What if your body cannot eliminate and get it out? What if it's in there, but your body cannot eliminate it efficiently? Then you're looking at these things as if everyone eliminates the same, and that is not the case at all. I think the best thing that we can do is to look to see if there's an immunological response to the environmental compounds, and then look for sources of where they might be getting exposure, reduce those, and then work on improving immuno-regulation, and things to maybe safely, what I would say safely kelate these things, like using high dose acetylated glutathione, okay, that will more encapsulate it, or improve the elimination of it. |
| Make sure that the barrier systems are very, very much intact, and as healthy as you can get them before you start this process of trying to remove the chemicals. I'm really kind of digressing here. This is all about triggers, and now I'm talking about why you better be careful with I think detoxification. What you think you're interpreting, as far as detoxification goes, may not be what you're actually ... What you think you're measuring may not be what you're measuring, and I think that's really the problems that we come across with a lot of these types of test. It's like, is this test really measuring what I think it is, and it is usable clinically? |
| Okay. I hope that makes sense. That's a huge topic. I should do a whole video on that, because so many people are doing detoxes, and they have leaky guts, and they have infections, and they have a disregulated immune system. All they're doing is mobilizing all these chemicals and metals, and they've got this immune systems that disregulated. They've got barrier systems that can't effectively help you to eliminate these chemicals. They just basically are reabsorbed through a leaky barrier, so there's a process to this, okay? I just want to let you guys know, that's really, really important. I wanted to talk about the triggers of Hashimoto's, and I kind of expand on things. I just go wherever my mind takes me, but I appreciate you guys. |
| I hope this has been super helpful for you to understand the triggers of Hashimoto's, understand more these chemicals and environmental chemicals which I think are huge problems today, and help you to better get a grip on some of the things that can drive the process, right? The whole thing is, knowledge is power. The more that you know, the better you can be in control of your health. You just need to identify your triggers, get control of your condition, and then just really do the best that you can to improve your quality of life and health. That's going to be different for every person. Anyway, Dr. Shook here. Appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming here to learn more about your health. If there's anything that we can do for you, just let us know. |
| People ask me a lot of times about where to start. I created a guidebook called The Nine Tests Required to Understand Your Thyroid. That's a great place to start understanding your thyroid function, and the overall physiology. That's a great, great place. We do have a six-week Hashimoto's transformation program, which helps people implement a dietary program and lifestyle changes that I have used clinically for years, that we know it works, that it can be very, very helpful. We have a private Facebook community that's part of that, and that's also something you might want to check out. If you're interested in that, just let us know in the comments, and we'll post a link to it so you can learn more. I appreciate you guys so much. I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you for listening to me for 12 minutes. |
We understand that thyroid problems are complicated and that is why Dr. Shook has created several resources so that you can be your own advocate and take your health back!
Dr. Shook created “The 6 Week Hashimoto’s Transformation Program” to help people figure out the diet, lifestyle and nutritional supplementation they need, and do it with a built-in support group. This is a clinically tested program that we can help people get their health back. If you want to learn more click here: https://hashimotosdoctor.com/auto-webinar-registrationwhq2lzrf
You may want to begin with Dr. Shook’s lab guide, “9 Tests Required to Understand Your Thyroid,” and take a look at a a few of the resources below:
1) HAIR LOSS "How Can I Prevent Hair Loss With Hashimoto's?"
https://hashimotosdoctor.com/free-guide-plus-hostin g-feeqht…
2) THYROID LABS "9 Tests Required To Understand Your Thyroid"
https://hashimotosdoctor.com/free-book-pageqpuqvcr1
FREE 15 MINUTE CONSULTS
**As of 2016, Dr. Shook is offering 1, 15-minute consultation per day at no charge. These consultations are provided to help you best determine options to consider, and they are offered as a coaching service that is free. No doctor-patient relationship is established; the consult is informational in nature.
Click below to request a free 15-minute consult with Dr. Shook:https://hashimotosdoctor.com/15-min-consult-requestisf8ol5u
$20 FOR THYROiD ANTIBODY LABS
**If you would like to get your thyroid antibodies (TPOab and TGab) checked, you can complete the form online:https://hashimotosdoctor.com/antibodies-order-form6yld3ebm
INTEREST IN MAKING AN APPOINTMENT
**If you would like to learn more about becoming a patient or distance consulting client of our office, you can learn more here: https://drbradshook.com/new-patient-center/
You can also learn more on Dr. Shook's Facebook page at The Office of Dr. Brad Shook https://www.facebook.com/drbradshook/?fref=ts.
You can also visit his practice website at www.DrBradShook.com.
