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AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
(00:00):
Four strategies to improve an underactive thyroid. Let's go. Welcome back to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast, where we choose to become empowered patients and take our health into our own hands. Hi, I'm Shannon Hanson, a Christian entrepreneur, a mom of three. And after dealing with my own health mysteries, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about the thyroid. I soon became certified as a holistic wellness practitioner, a functional nutrition practitioner, and a functional diagnostic practitioner. And so much more after that, I founded the Revolutionary Thyroid Program, the Handsome Method. As a health professional and a mom, I fully understand the importance of having a fun, simple, and sustainable plan for achieving a responsive thyroid. So I share actionable and practical strategies for developing a responsive thyroid so that the ambitious moms and women can gain freedom from fatigue and lose the thyroid weight once and for all.
(01:06):
Each week, I will be here for you, along with my guest experts, we will be sharing simple and tangible tips that work for not only your thyroid, your hormones, your family, and your mindset, so that you can get back to living the life that you envision for yourself. Welcome to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast. All right, you guys. Welcome back to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast. We are talking about four lifestyle tip and tricks that you can use to improve t4 or improve underactive thyroid hormones, because obviously that is primarily what we use or what most people have when it comes to thyroid. They have an underactive thyroid or maybe they were hyper at one point and now they're hypo. Again, super, super common when it comes to thyroid. And so I wanted to talk about four strategies that you guys can be using to improve and support an underactive thyroid.
(02:06):
So one of the things I like to do on these podcast episodes is just do a quick overview of, of the things which, if you've been around for a while, some of this is repeat for you, <laugh>. So what are the factors that affect thyroid health? Just like many different functions, the thyroid plays a huge role in the body overall, and this can affect health and help our body properly function, right? So amongst some of these F factors, it's going to fluctuate hormones, especially during pregnancy, throughout your menstrual cycle. Even if you are postmenopausal, and I think this is a common myth out there because women are grossly uneducated about their cycle. Even when you are premenopausal and postmenopausal, your body still goes through the hormonal fluctuations throughout the month. So you still may be experiencing breast tenderness, you still may be experiencing some fatigue or food cravings or things like that, even though you're not having a cycle.
(03:18):
So it's really important to be paying attention to those symptoms and understand that they could be telling you something that you may not be un like you may be missing just because you're not having a cycle. Okay? The other things is stress and sickness, lack of sleep or poor quality sleep dieting or changes in your diet that may include an overabundance of goitrogenic foods. I, I personally do not have my clients avoid goitrogenic foods like Brussels routes and cauliflower and broccoli and kale, because one, you have to eat an extreme amount <laugh> of them and lightly cooking them, lightly sauteing them takes out that goitrogenic effect. And I mean, to be honest, most of us aren't going to eat a raw brussel sprout. I know I, for me personally, I'll eat some brussel sprouts in a salad, like a raw brussel sprout in a salad where it's shaved down with some kale and things like that.
(04:22):
But that is not my everyday norm. And so anyways, just making sure we have a variety, making sure that we're eating foods and, and things in the right amount in, and not just focusing on eating only those things, but they are super important for helping to support overall liver function inside the body. Other things that can be considered gorgen are peanuts and cassava and sweet potatoes. Once again, this is, you have to eat a lot of them <laugh>, so keep 'em in your diet. You don't have to take them out. I have a lot of women who say, you know, they want to take them out or they did take them out, and I'm like, the benefits outweigh it. A big part of this is also balancing out your iodine levels, balancing out other minerals in the body which leads me into the ne the next factor that affects your thyroid.
(05:23):
So that's going to be mineral levels, namely iodine and selenium as well as parasites and leaky gut. And I wanna give you just a real quick example. So I had the privilege, I've been working with one of my clients for almost two years now. And she's in like our alumni program where she gets, you know, a certain level of support and she has decided to test her entire family and do some htm a testing. And, and so I've been working with the entire family across the board and the interesting things. We were doing these things and I'm looking at each individual person, but then I'm also looking at them as a family collectively. And I'm like, man, all of these people, all of the people, three kids, the hu well, we haven't done the husband yet, he's a little reluctant, he's gonna let me do it <laugh> now, but I was looking at her and I was like, they're low in this, they're low in this, or, you know, across the board.
(06:25):
And as I'm putting together their protocol, I was like, boom, all of these minerals, all of these nutrients that are being depleted from this entire family shows signs of parasitic activity and leaky gut. And so after the holidays, we are going to do an entire family parasite cleanse if this initial protocol does not yield the results that we're looking for. So her kids are, I'll give you just a little bit of a background. So her kids have a d d adhd one of them may be on the spectrum. Another daughter is having, she's nine and having like some hormonal acne on her face which is pretty young. And just a few other things, poor sleep across the board. Some of the kids are just super, super hungry all the time, but still not putting on weight, just things like that. And so I'm like, yes, like we should definitely look at that parasitic activity and that can lend to that underactive thyroid.
(07:32):
Other things that we've talked about is certain medications can interfere with thyroid hormone levels or their actions with TSH and the overall compensation for for the body. And if you head over to episode, let me, I'm looking right now for you guys. There's, there's two. So there's episode eight and episode nine of the podcast is, why is your thyroid medication not working? There's a part one and part two. And then in episode five, there is prescription medications that block thyroid hormone. And this is so surprising to me, it shouldn't be surprising, but it always is. In that episode, I break down different medications that block different parts of thyroid hormones. So some of them block tsh, some of them block the conversion between T4 to t3. And unfortunately, when you go into your doctor, doctor, they're just gonna give you more and more medication.
(08:44):
It is my <laugh> that is my nemesis right now, and something that I can definitely rant on quite a bit. But I see a lot of metformin, I see a lot of SSRIs, so anxiety, depression, medication and caffeine, right? We love caffeine for giving us energy and unfortunately that's also blocking thyroid hormone. And a lot of us use caffeine to just like make it through the day <laugh>. And obviously that's, that's an issue. So we, that is why when I work with my clients, we start with our clean energy blueprint. I want to give you good, clean, fast energy as quickly as possible so that you don't need to have caffeine. If you want to have a coffee, great, I'm gonna teach you. Cuz I have some women who are like, I just love the taste. Like I just, please don't make me give up coffee.
(09:44):
You know what? My job is not to tell you, you can and can't do something. My job is to coach you through the process and help you make the changes. I had one client before she even joined the program. She was like, Shannon, her name is Rachel. She's like, Shannon, I love coffee and I will not give it up. And I said, great, we're gonna just teach you the right way to do it and so that you're, it's not causing the energy crash later and it's not gonna be blocking thyroid hormone, blah, blah, blah. Well, after about two, three months, and maybe it was about a month and a half, two months into the program, she started having energy and she's like, you know what? I, I don't love coffee the way that I thought I did. I don't need coffee the way that I thought I did.
(10:30):
And she decided to give it up on her own. She, you can see many testimonials of her all over our page where she's dropped 20 pounds with celiac, she has multiple autoimmune conditions and her liver would hurt. So she would have these aches and pains on her right side up under kind of her rib area, and she didn't know what it was before working with us. Well, after working with us, all of these things started to change because her body was no longer blocking and the pathways were starting to open up and things were starting to work and flow the way that they should. So some common signs of that underactive thyroid are gonna be tiredness. Sometimes super extreme to the point where I've had some clients where they're like, I, on the way to work, I have to pull over and take a 15, 20 minute, like power nap or between, so I had one lady who was in sales, she did some sales for salons and between going from one salon to the other salon, she would pull over and take a nap or you know, whatever it was.
(11:41):
Or some women have to go to their car in the middle of the day and take a nap instead of having the lunch break because things are so severe. Or you come home from work and you just sit down and you're like, I'm done, I'm done, done. Like, my body is just, is done. Okay, so next thing, weight gain or resistance to weight loss. This is the resistance to weight loss is something I've been dealing with postpartum, and it is a wonderful reminder, <laugh> of what my clients are going through it and the emotions behind it, especially this time of year, taking family pictures. I'm like, oh my gosh, like, this is so defeating and I have to remind myself I'm being very vulnerable here. I have to remind myself that the scale is moving and it's going down and it's actually at a really healthy rate.
(12:30):
I'm at like a pound to a pound and a half every single week. So after like six months of not being able to lose weight, which that is, I'm gonna say my mo I've had four babies and that's been pretty consistent for me. Nursing and all of the things I, I envy the women who can nurse and just drop weight like crazy <laugh>. Anyways, so I am, I am being reminded of how it feels and I also, I told my husband literally just this morning before recording this, I was like, it's moving. And I, I'm pulling, you know, a four month report every time I, or a four week report, every time I feel discouraged in where I'm at, I just pull the report and I'm like, okay, over the last four, four weeks, keep saying four months, the last four weeks, everything is trending down.
(13:24):
Everything is doing what it's supposed to be doing. My bmi, my body fat percentage, the number on the scale, everything is trending in the area that it should be, but it can be so, so difficult when you haven't been able to lose weight for a long time. So I want you to know that I love you and I see you and I hear you, and I feel you and I, and I understand, and I also know what it takes to overcome those things. All right, so other signs of an underactive thyroid is gonna be depression or mood swings, cold sensitivity, you guys, I live in Arizona and it doesn't get very cold here and I'm so thankful because my toes are cold. I have to wear socks around my house. We have like tile floors and I'm like, yep, I <laugh> I sympathize with people who live in much colder climates than I do.
(14:23):
Dry skin, dry or dry skin, hair loss muscle and joint aches and pains. I've had clients say, you know, I wake up in the morning and I feel like I'm stepping on glass. So again, who can develop an underactive thyroid? Both men and women can have underactive thyroid. And although it is more common in women, children can also develop these conditions. And some babies are even born with it. We, I've had a client who, she was actually one of my very, very online clients. She was like I think she was eight, I think she was eight or nine when she was diagnosed and had her first like, thyroid storm. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, that's so young to be dealing with. So there are other conditions that deal with thyroid and every, I I get this question a lot is who do you work with?
(15:23):
You know, is it just Hashimotos? Is it just hypothyroidism? Those are the two big ones. You guys, I work with all of them. I work with hyperactivity, I work with Graves, I work with Hashimotos I work with Gors, I work with thyroid nodules, I work with thyroid cancers. People have had partial thyroid ectomies and full thyroid ectomies. Just the wide range. So there are four lifestyle tips that I encourage all of my clients to participate in to help manage that underactive thyroid. And the first one, da, da, da, da is regular exercise. And keeping that body weight in check. So this can be super difficult when you are gaining weight and you have some weight loss resistance, which we talked about. But I had to reframe in my mind years ago that exercise was not for weight loss. Okay? Exercise is for body composition, it's for your heart, it's for lymphatic.
(16:31):
There are so many other benefits because it can be really, really discouraging to go to the gym 3, 4, 5 times a week and not see the physical changes. And as we, we are speaking as I'm recording I actually think this is gonna be going live the week that I'm in training for becoming a peer bar instructor. And so one of the things I encourage all of my clients to do is find some kind of low impact exercise. So what is low impact? Low impact is where at least one foot is on the ground at all time. Okay? so jumping squat, well, I guess squatting, you have it, but like jumping or jump roping or things like that where your feet are off the ground, both feet are off the ground, that is considered more of a high intensity exercise. I was a dancer, and so pure bar just feels very comfortable in my body.
(17:40):
The movements feel like things I've done for years it's lower impact, it gets my heart going. I do get a little bit of a sweat. However, it's also something that I feel like I can go get a workout in and just, you know, do a quick refresh, put on, you know, clean out my armpits and put on some new deodorant and, you know, touch up my makeup if need be. But usually I, I mean, I don't really need to touch up my makeup <laugh>, maybe if I was going out on a date or something, but for every day, you know, I get a light glisten. There, there are a few different classes. There's a classic and empower and anyways, all of all of those things. So some of them are more intense, but I, I'm a sucker for the classic. And there's a rumor if anybody, if any of my listeners out there do bar there's a rumor that a new a new format is coming out, which I'm super excited about.
(18:43):
I'm like, I was, the morning before I found this out, I don't know if I'm supposed to say, but I was telling my husband, I was like, I really want this as part of my exercise regimen and routine, and I just don't feel comfortable and confident to like, figure it out myself. And so I was looking, I was, I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do, and then I went to a training and I heard, I heard this rumor and I was like, that's exactly what I'm looking for. So anyways, super exciting stuff happening with that. But regular exercise, I, a lot of my clients are like, I just don't have the energy to do it. So I tell them, just walk, you know? One of the best things that we can do after eating you guys here, here's like, if you wanna lose weight, try this.
(19:40):
Okay? So eat your dinner and then go on like a five to 10 minute walk. This could be like in Arizona, a lot of the mailboxes are kind of down around the corner. They're not in front of the house. Go walk and check the mail and come back or go walk around the block really quickly and come back and then clean up dinner or maybe go walk on a treadmill if you have one or go you know, if you're in your house quickly pick up dinner, put it away, and then go to laundry and then come down the stairs and do the, like, just move your body for five to 10 minutes because that's going to help stabilize blood sugar levels and it's going to help you lose that weight. Now here's what I'm not saying, <laugh>. I'm not saying eat really quickly and while you're standing and then go do that.
(20:35):
We need to rest and digest while we eat our food. So sit down, take your time, chew your food, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew your food and then get up, go walk, move your body because that's gonna help with the insulin levels. So if you are insulin resistant, if you also have P C O S, that is going to be a lifestyle thing that you can incorporate that will have really great benefits for you. Okay? So number two really goes along the lines with number one. So manage your stress. So there has been links that meditation, yoga have been proven to positively impact hypothyroidism when we rest and digest and allow our body to just be, we can see some really, really big benefits for our thyroid overall because we're not gonna be burning through those minerals for high stress the way that we do <laugh> when we're just under a lot of stress.
(21:52):
Because as mentioned in previous podcast episodes, our body doesn't know the difference between real stress and perceived stress. And so incorporating some good practices, whether that's journaling or meditation or yoga or I don't know, taking a bath with no music or writing in the car with no music. I mean, even still writing in the car you can, there, there still can be stressful things happening, right? Like somebody's cuts in front of you and you've gotta respond or whatever. But finding those moments, even five minutes a day is going to improve mineral levels and it's going to get you in an overall rested state. Number three, eat food supporting your thyroid and mind your minerals, okay? Especially be careful with supplementation when it comes to thyroid, especially iodine in particular. Taking too much, not taking enough. Iodine, I'll be honest, is not one of my favorite things to supplement with.
(22:59):
I choose to coach my clients a lot on food nutrition and our body being able to break down and absorb the food and then obviously get your iodine ch levels checked and, and do some comparison. Again, best way to test test that is through that htm a to see where those levels are. All right. Number four, everybody's favorite and something to think about through the holidays is decreased alcohol intake. So we all know in general that alcohol is not the best. I've had lots of clients who, not lots, I shouldn't say lots. I've had, I've had a fair share that don't drink alcohol at all. They gave it up years ago, they just didn't feel good on it. And then I've had a few clients that are like, I'm not giving up the alcohol <laugh>. So we will not go into all of the all of, all of the, what am I trying to say?
(24:17):
All of the do's and don'ts when it comes to alcohol. In episode 46 and 47, we talk about alcohol in the thyroid and how it impacts it, but the big things that you need to know and understand is that alcohol is filtered through the liver and thyroid hormone is also filtered through the liver. So learning how to manage alcohol consumption, learning different ways to consume it and not experience the negative side effects can be really, really important. So go, I mean, go check out those podcast episodes. There's a lot of really good information in there when it comes to, to alcohol and, yeah. Okay, so let's, let's keep going here. Something that you guys need to understand is that medication may be necessary for your thyroid, even if you're doing all of your due diligence above, right? Partial thyroidectomy, full thyroidectomy. However, a qualified and knowledgeable practitioner like myself can help you manage these conditions through lifestyle.
(25:36):
I, many of my clients have been able to reduce medication, get off medication get rid of thyroid symptoms, because when you go into the doctor, they are telling you, you know, here's your thyroid medication. Some of 'em will say, go on a diet or cut carbs and lose weight, <laugh>. And I was like, I, I always just look at the person because, and, and I watched their facial expression because there's so much in that in the face, right? When a client tells me, you know, my doctor just said, here's your medication and cut carbs, or here's your medication and go on a diet and just lose weight, and you can see the defeat in that person because I know by looking at them, they've cut calories, they've cut carbohydrates, they've quote unquote dieted and done all of the right things and they're not getting the results.
(26:35):
And it makes them feel like a shell of a person. It makes them feel defeated and de deflated and, and their self-esteem really takes a huge hit because they think something is wrong with them when it's not wrong with them, right? It feels like your body has betrayed you in, in this. And to have a doctor, to have a professional tell you, well, just do, do this and well, you must not be taking your medication, right? Or you must not be dieting or whatever. When, let me tell you, these women that I work with when it comes to thyroid, they are some of the most dedicated, restrictive, compliant people that I've ever met. Unless I get them to a point where they are so beat up and so downtrodden. I mean, then it, then it takes some coaxing, right? But overall, you guys are amazing.
(27:41):
You guys are incredible. And it takes a professional to just show you just a few things, a few tweaks, a few hacks that are gonna make a really big difference for you specifically. And that is one of the things that I really pride myself on when it comes to the way that I work with women. I don't put you in a shoebox. I don't put you in a cookie cutter program. Everything we do with the testing is customized to your body. And we make adjustments as needed and as necessary because it's really, really important that we're not just following one one way of doing it. Okay? As many underlying causes of thyroid can be an autoimmune condition. There are, I don't even remember the statistic. I think it's like 70% of women with hypothyroidism also have Hashimotos and that underlying inflammation. So again, a lot of you guys have 20 to 30 pounds that you wanna lose.
(28:52):
That is inflammation. As soon as we can get the body to calm down and not be so inflamed, the weight is, is really effortlessly. And it's such, it's such a beautiful things because the body doesn't hurt. You're not in pain, you're not inflamed, your digestive system isn't hurting, inflamed in pain all the time, and you're able to just settle into eating the right things and participating in the right lifestyle activities that make a huge difference. All right? Today has been a little bit of a rant <laugh> for that underactive thyroid. And this week is the last week to jump into our thyroid our black Fri Day thyroid special. So what that looks like is I'm gonna be coaching you through the middle of January and giving you everything you need to know about food, nutrition some lifestyle things if it comes up on some of the coaching calls.
(29:58):
And we're gonna be doing group coaching. I'm gonna teach you my exact blueprint for the Clean Energy Blueprint, okay? I want to, I was gonna pull up my little cheat sheet here and I can't, okay, that's okay. I remember <laugh>, I remember most of it. So it's really going to be everything you need to know about food, nutrition and what I've been teaching my clients for several years when it comes to learning how to optimize your metabolic function, balancing your mineral levels. So in that first section, I'm gonna teach you how to combine food. I'm gonna teach you how to do that so we can maximize the absorption and diminish digestive discomfort and inflammation in the body. So I don't want you experiencing gas, bloating, buring, constipation, diarrhea, any of that. That is like key, right? When we are experiencing those digestive issues, heartburn, indigestion, like it's going to block your body's ability to absorb and assimilate the food properly.
(31:12):
The next part of this is getting it in those key thyroid nutrients. I am going to dispel all of the myths that we talked about today and help you learn how to fill in those new nutritional gaps so that your body has a nutrients that it needs to make the hormone, create the hormone, convert the hormone and absorb the hormones, thyroid hormones properly inside the body. And then lastly, I'm gonna teach you how to detox from any dirty energy foods. How to get rid of the dairy if you can't, how to get rid of the gluten in a way that is not deprivation based and actually gets you results because those foods can be highly inflammatory. But I also want you to understand that you may not have to be dairy free for the all of your life. There is ways that we, you can learn how to eat and support your own body and get the nutrients in the right way.
(32:15):
A lot of people, I, I don't know if anybody follows west Westin Price. I, I believe in a lot of those methods of eating. I do believe again, after working with tons of thyroid women, that we have to cut out inflammatory foods, but overall we can get back to eating the old way, right? We can get back to eating those really nice clean grains that are non gmo, that are non spray, you know, all, all of those things. And that's one of the things that we can talk about and I can teach you inside of there. So just so you guys know what to expect Sarah said, I'm part way through week three. I weighed myself this morning and I'm down 12 pounds crystal after four months she says, I'm feeling amazing. I'm so productive. I've been so productive this morning.
(33:12):
I woke up feeling tired, or I woke up feeling rested for the first time in 20 years, went on a walk and didn't need coffee. Then I cleaned out my pantries and medicine cabinets. As of today, I've lost 20 pounds. I'm over the moon. And then my lovely Tara who works with me she had her best thyroid labs after her thyroidectomy in 10 years, and she had her life back. And last but not least, Amy, in three months, my levels have gone from 0.018 to 2.15. I can't believe it. And she started having energy. She started feeling good. Inside this program, you guys, I'm gonna be giving you a 32 page DNA hair analysis. This provides a really quick turnaround. It also provides tons of valuable information on what nutrition your body needs in order to balance out the minerals, restore thyroid function.
(34:13):
We're looking at environmental things like parasites and fungus and mold. And the best part about this is you're gonna get that individualized protocol that is valued at over $250, just as is. You're gonna get lifetime access to the curriculum. So you can go back to the done for you meal plans and recipes and prep guides. You're gonna get support from our community with group coaching. You're also going to get that customization. This is, like I mentioned before, this is not a cookie cutter program. And I'm gonna be doing individual assessments on you to help understand where your imbalances lie and so that I can better coach you and support you. So this is a, an incredible program. You guys, there's a one time payment of $497, or you can do two easy payments of 2 49. I have 20 spots available and with over 7,500 members in our Facebook group and online and in our emails and all of the things, I do think these will fill very, very quickly. So head over, check it out. It's in the show notes, you can purchase it, and I will see you on the next
(35:32):
Wait. Before you you go, please subscribe. If you found value in today's episode, leave us a review and share on Instagram and please tag us. We love your gift,
(35:46):
Please.
