show notes
Dr. Anshul Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and the world expert in Hashimoto’s disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto’s disease. He is a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician, with advanced certification in Functional Medicine, Peptide therapy, and also Fellowship trained in Integrative Medicine. He has worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman. He has helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine.
Contact with Dr. Anshul :
https://www.anshulguptamd.com/ https://www.facebook.com/drguptafunctionalmedicine/ https://www.instagram.com/anshulguptamd/ https://www.youtube.com/c/AnshulGuptaMD
audio transcription
(00:00):
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 Hansen, 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 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. 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 envisioned for yourself. Welcome to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast.
(01:21):
All right, you guys. Welcome back to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast. I have Dr. G and he's gonna tell you his name and how to say it the right way. <Laugh>. So welcome.
(01:31):
Thank you so much, Shannon. You know, your podcast is amazing. You're doing great work of helping so many women in need, so thank you so much for doing it. My full name is Dr. An Gupta, so you did a great job. Lot of my A clients, my patients, and my staff calls me Dr. G. So you did a great job of doing that.
(01:53):
Yeah, I love that. Well thank you so much for being on. Why don't you, let's just kind of dive into how did you get started working with Hashimotos?
(02:05):
Yeah, so actually like my journey starts with, you know, after doing my family medicine residency, I was working in a private clinic and just few years into my practice I was having a lot of health troubles. I started feeling tired or fatigued. I was gaining weight even though I did not change anything in my diet or my lifestyle, I was having this horrible stomach pain and it, it'll hit me just randomly at times and I was trying to take medicines for it. It was not working. I was having brain fog issues, like to the point that, you know, after I, I was done with the clinic, I was not able to concentrate on anything else. I was kind of having mood changes, you know, a lot of different problems were creeping into my life and I tried to solve them myself because being a physician, I thought I'm smart enough to doing it.
(02:51):
So I started taking medications. Nothing worked, of course, yeah. And then I thought, well, I'm not smart enough. Maybe let me go to these specialists who can help me out. And I went to specialists after specialists that did a whole bunch of testing, endoscopies, colonoscopies, ultrasounds, blood work, everything was normal. They added more medications into my medical regimen, nothing worked. At one point they were telling me that maybe it's just in my head that I was too depressed or I was just too anxious or too stressed out. Being in being a new physician. And I was like, I have done this for a while. I don't think that's an issue. There is something else going on. I was just 32 years of age and I had no hope of getting better. I didn't knew what to do. That's where I found functional medicine. I heard stories how functional medicine can help people heal their root cause and get their life back.
(03:41):
I got certified into functional medicine, applied the protocol into my own life. I found my root causes of my issues and then made a step-wise plan, which focused on diet changes, taking certain supplements, working on my stress reduction techniques, exercising techniques, and within one month amazing result. My complete stomach pain was gone. Within six months I lost 40 pounds. I was off all medications. My mental clarity was amazing. My energy was so high that I was able to participate in a 5K rugged maniac and I was never an esthetic person. So for me to do that was a big thing. Now, when I saw those amazing results, you know, I started thinking that I need to see people and help them out in this functional medicine model of care. I started working at the Cleveland Clinic Functional Medicine Department along with Dr. Mark Hyman. And then I suddenly I saw that, you know, a lot of females, middle-aged females were coming to see me with similar symptoms.
(04:43):
Yeah, they were all gaining weight, they were having fatigue or tiredness issues, they were having brain fog issues and one thing was common. They all had thyroid problems. They all were taking medications, doing what the doctors were telling them to do, but still not getting better. That's where I decided I need to do research into why they're feeling this way and I need to help them out. So that's where my research led me into my three step process, which, you know, I have discussed in my bestselling book Reversing Hashimotos, that way I help people identify their root causes and help reverse people Hashimotos <inaudible> so they can get their life back.
(05:22):
I, I love that and I love when practitioners have their own story associated with like Hashimoto's or gut health or whatever, because I think it makes us a little bit more empathetic for someone that we're working with and say, oh yeah, I totally know what you're, what you're experiencing. So that's great. Can you explain what Hashimoto's is and how that affects the thyroid gland?
(05:52):
Absolutely. So Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition of the thyroid gland. What that means is that, you know, like the body starts producing antibodies, which starts destroying the thyroid gland in a very slow fashion. And ultimately when the thyroid gland is destroyed to the point it is not able to cope up with the demand of the body of the thyroid hormone, then it leads to low thyroid conditional hypothyroidism. Now, most females or most people actually do not know that the number one reason of thyroid condition or hypothyroidism in world is Hashimoto's disease. And the worst part is this. Most females have never been checked for Hashimoto's disease. So they just have been told that they have a thyroid condition and you have to take this medicine. But they have never been told why, what kind of thyroid condition they have. And the reality is that they have Hashimoto's disease, which is an autoimmune condition, not just one day. The thyroid decided that, okay, well I'm not going to produce enough thyroid hormone for your body. That doesn't happen. There has to be a reason in Hashimoto's disease is the number one disease which is affecting thyroid gland currently.
(07:08):
Yeah, I was just reading like a report the other day that says LEVOTHYROXIN is the number one medication prescribed in the us. So if that doesn't tell you something <laugh> there, there's definitely an an issue with that. So how, I mean, I guess that's perfect way to second way segue into this is how common is Hashimoto's and who is at the most risk for that?
(07:36):
So Hashimoto's disease is the most common autoimmune condition in the world currently. Okay. So that's first thing. The statistics are staggering. You know, like we don't even know the exact number of Hashimoto's disease patient because most of them have not been checked for Hashimotos. But even people who have been checked AF currently are at least 14 million people who have been diagnosed with Hashimotos in United States alone. And the most common people who have been kind of diagnosed with Hashimotos are middle-aged females, you know, which are between 30 to 60 years of age. But the statistics now show that females which are even younger, are being diagnosed with Hashimotos. Even males are being diagnosed with Hashimotos and even children are also getting affected with this. So this is kind of a current epidemic that we are going through, which is Hashimotos and we don't even know the complete extent of how many people are being affected.
(08:36):
Yeah, yeah. Do you, have you seen any research as to like why this is a growing issue amongst, I mean everybody?
(08:49):
Yeah, so what I've figured out is that there are definitely root causes, you know, and our environment is particularly has changed a lot, which affects autoimmune diseases. So the research suggests that, you know, Hashimotos happens between because of interplay between a person's genetic pool and the environment around it. Now our genetic pool doesn't change very quickly, but our environment has changed very quickly, whether it being the food that we eat currently, whether it's G M O, whether it is genetically modified, the way it has been grown, or the amount of toxins which has been poured into our environment, you know, every day we are having new and new toxins which are being poured, which directly affects the thyroid gland. And then plus, you know, like we have different kind of stressors which we are going through each and every day. You know, there is something happening around us in the world. So we all are stressed out. The current lifestyle that we are living in, you know, with all the pressures, especially females go through so much pressures, taking care of their family, taking care of their kids, taking care of their parents, you know, and then sometime they're even working. All of that pressures and all of that stress again leads to triggering of Hashimotos. So I think this all environment things which have been changing, has been leading to more and more Hashimoto's disease.
(10:08):
Yeah, yeah. And so I just wanna summarize. So our environment, what we're eating and then stressors, daily stressors, lowering immune system, burning up minerals, burning up nutrients that are important for our body. So let's, I wanna transition and go into like your three step process, cuz I know that that includes lifestyle, nutrition, all of that. So let's walk through what, first of all, what are those three steps? And then, then we can kind of break them down a little bit further and have you explain,
(10:45):
Right. So the three steps, you know, I've tried to make them as simple as possible for people. So the very first step is identifying the root cause because until we roll the root cause or causes of a particular person, we cannot reverse Hashimotos or cannot help them out. So I've identified five major categories of root causes, which causes Hashimoto sea. The very first category is food sensitive teeth. Our food has been changing a lot and each and every person, you know, reacts to certain kinds of food research have shown that certain foods leads to triggering of Hashimoto. So we need to identify what foods are causing trouble for that person. The second is nutritional deficiencies. You know, our bodies are low in certain vitamins and minerals. Your thyroid needs certain vitamin minerals to completely function properly. And most people with Hashimoto disease have low levels of those vitamins and minerals.
(11:40):
And we need to know which vitamins and minerals are low so we can fix them. The third thing as we discuss is stressors. What kind of stressors that person has gone through. We see it very, very oftenly that females who have either gone through pregnancies or you know, like you know, have gone through menopause or having a bad relationship, they certainly have Hashimoto's disease. So stress leads to Hashimoto's disease and we need to identify what kind of stress then comes toxins, you know, like their toxins, which are heavy metals like leadin, mercury, then their toxins like mold toxins. Then their environmental toxins. We need to identify what kind of toxins are present so that we can remove them. And the last one is the infections. The infections like viral infections like Epstein bar virus, we know that that leads to Hashimotos. Certain kind of parasites in the gut can lead to Hashimotos.
(12:32):
Then there are certain other chronic infections like Lyme disease and barella and baia, they can again lead to Hashimotos. So these are the main five big categories of root causes that we need to identify for a person. The important aspect over here is that most people think that they only have one root cause and they're trying to find that one root cause. And most people have more than two or three root causes, which are playing a role in Hashimoto seed. So this is where need to work with a professional who understand this root cause approach, because the regular doctors will not have no idea about root causes. They will not be able to identify or help you to order these advanced tests to look for these root causes. Yes, but very important in the very first step to identify the root cause in the next step.
(13:20):
The second step is we start fixing these root causes and fixing the thyroid that has been destroyed in that aspect. You know, we have this specific diet which is called the Mith Thyroid Diet because in Hashimoto's patients, not only the thyroid is being destroyed, their mitochondria is also being destroyed. So this diet focusing on healing both the thyroid and the mitochondria. And along with that, you know, there are certain supplements which support the thyroid and the mitochondria to help them function during this second step. The third step is basically removing the toxicities. You know, all the toxicity we spoke about, whether those are the toxins, whether those are chronic infections or whether those are those chronic stressors that persons are dealing with. We work on removing those toxicities so the body can function better and you know, like thyroid functions better than the Hashimotos gets better love. So those are the, I love that three steps person has to go through love.
(14:20):
Yeah, perfect. I love that. I love that it's including you know, finding out like why <laugh> why you're here. And I do tell some of my clients and stuff, I'm like, we may not find everything that has triggered all of these because for them sometimes they just don't know that something is important to tell me. Like, I ha I've worked with one client for like a year and a half and then she finally told me this thing and I was like, why didn't you tell me that a year ago? And she's like, I didn't know that it was related, you know? So I think that that's really important when you guys are working with practitioners and doctors, whoever, like tell them everything, whether you think it's connected or not, like, you know, it could be, it could help us identify some of the things in there.
(15:14):
Food sensitivities, I'm seeing that a lot. Mineral nutrition deficiencies. Also seeing that a lot with the work that I do. And then nutrition, I think one of the big, I'm gonna call it a mistake, and maybe that's not the right word. A big mistake that conventional medicine is doing is missing or overlooking the importance of nutrition. They come from a long line of doctors and practitioners and they all told me all of their nutrition courses, and maybe this was true for you when you were going through medical school. They were like, we crammed that in with all of like the really hard things because we knew that that nutrition class was gonna be like an easy pass. So they, they strategically planned their classes to, to put in nutrition with other things because it was gonna be an easier class. I don't know, was that true for you as well or?
(16:14):
Absolutely yes. You know, like, you know, being a physicians or being, you know, like, you know, new training doctors, you're just looking forward to kind of, you know, like diagnosing those chronic or like, you know, those rare diseases and then trying to figure out how is the quick fix by finding the right medicine for it, right? So in the medical schools, a lot of times, you know, it is nobody's talking about the physiology or the biochemistry of a particular disease or how we can actually reverse them by working on the physiology aspect of things. And medicines most of the time do not work over there. They are kind of actually working at just putting a bandaid, you know, of making that person feel better. And nutrition is great. We know that food is medicine, so certainly we can heal a lot of these chronic diseases through food, but we need to know the right diet and the right food, right?
(17:01):
Because as you were mentioning, a lot of convention doctors say, well, eat whatever you like and if you want to eat McDonald's, if you want to eat Burger Kings, if you want to eat fried food, process food, go ahead and eat. Doesn't matter, just live your life. Right? But you and me know that there is good amount of research suggesting that all these foods which are high end transfers, which are much more processed, definitely her thyroid definitely causes Hashimoto's disease. So they needs to be removed and we need to eat real food, vegetables, fruits, you know, good quality protein, good quality fats, all those things needs to be a part of a person who, Hashimoto's or thyroid condition for them to get better. Unless we make those changes, you know, things are not going to get better, right? So food definitely has an impact. Food can actually make changes to your genetic material. People don't even know that that food has so much power. Food carries information all the way to your genes. So by doing right things with your food, you can actually change your genetic makeup, which is not going to only help you but whole will going to help you with your future generations, you know, which is going to have better genetic poo.
(18:11):
Yeah, yeah. And I love that. So one of the things that like really stood out to me many years ago when I was learning about herbal medicine and nutrition and everything was they talked about how, okay, so this is like, I feel like it's kind of hard to explain. So when I'm pregnant with my daughter, I'm carrying not only my daughter, but I'm carrying like her eggs, right? Because all of her sexual organs have been developed and she has all of her eggs and whatever. So the things that I'm eating and the things that I'm doing and taking care of myself are not just impacting me, it's impacting my daughter and my grandchildren. And when I learned that, I was like, cuz I have four girls. And so I'm like, oh my gosh, this is really important what we're doing. And you know, I I recently told my husband, I was like, we're not going out to eat as much.
(19:09):
I mean, we've never been people that go out to eat a lot, but I was like, I'm buying more higher quality of ingredients and learning to cook some of those things that we go out to eat. And you know, because we're like, oh yeah, we, we enjoy whatever it is and I'm learning to make it at home and, and making those substitutions. And honestly like my family is so much happier with the way that it tastes, the way that our stomach is sitting, all of those different things. And so I really love that you, you brought up the importance of one real food and how our food is changing our genetic makeup. And I mean, I think most of the women that I work with are kind of out of childbearers, but they have kids that they can talk to, hey, like focus on good whole healthy foods. So I love that so much. What, let's kind of wrap this up. What is one other thing, well let me ask this, ask it this way. If someone is wanting to get started restoring like thyroid function, what is the one thing that you would suggest they start with? I
(20:21):
Think obviously the couple of things that I will say that, you know, they should be focusing on as we discuss food is definitely the first priority of anybody that they should be focusing on in that aspect. Removing the food which are bad for your thyroid, which is gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugars, processed food, processed meats, just throw them outta the window. Those are not going to be helpful. Those are not real foods, they're not adding any nutritional value to your life. Just throw them out and then include real foods as you discuss green leafy vegetables, colorful vegetables in your diet, great fruits, you know, good quality proteins, chicken, fish, Turkey, you know, good quality fats, avocados, nuts and seeds. All those things should be part of your life that is going to help you heal your thyroid. So that's the first important thing that is not only going to be helpful for you, but for your whole family.
(21:13):
Whether it's your husband, whether it's your kids, anything. When people start working with us, not only the client that we are working with gets better, their whole family certainly starts seeing a change. Their, you know, like husbands sometimes lose 20 pounds or husband has issues with their gut and suddenly he feel that he's going more regular to the restroom or their kids, you know, who have been having trouble or challenges with a D H D not able to focus at the school and suddenly like, you know, they're getting great grades, they're able to focus on things just with these simple changes, you're not only changing your life, you're changing the life of other people around you. So I think food is definitely number one. And second one is also toxins. I believe we are putting too much chemicals in our body and it is very important, I will not suggest anybody to doing a detox protocol on their own, but what I'm suggesting is reducing the burden of toxins that you are being exposed to on our everyday basis.
(22:09):
We know that females love to do makeup and they use a lot of body products every day. And again, I'm not suggesting that females should stop doing it, my wife does it, you know, like my mother, you know, like loses body products. But people do not know that how many toxins are present in these regular body products they're using. Yes, but there is alternatives. You can use body products which are free with toxins. There is a organization called Environmental Working Group. They have a great app of e wg.org. You can actually look for safe makeups, lipsticks, or any of the body products you can use over there. So that's first thing. The second of all is that food that you are buying try to buy organic as much as possible or locally grown as much as possible so that again, the amount of chemicals or toxins which are present over there that you're getting exposed to will be less and less.
(23:02):
The third thing is cleaning products. Cleaning products. Each and every female, you know, like is buying tons of cleaning products to keep their home neat and clean and also free from all these bacteria and viruses. But what they don't realize is that those cleaning products are adding to the chemical burden of their house. Again, using simple cleaning products, you know, which are free from chemicals, which, you know, have natural ingredients in them. They still do the job and you know, like will be chemical free. So these are simple things that people, females can do that will help them to lower the burden of toxins because time and again, each and every thyroid patients I'm seeing their body is overburdened with toxins. So a lot of people are going after doing these detox protocols, which they are buying online or doing it on their own and getting even worse. I suggest them first. Why not start with lowering the burden of toxins in your body and then working with a professional, you know, like who is expert into a detox protocol, who can safely help your body to get rid of those toxins will be the next step. But first step you can just take on on your own by helping remove or helping lowering the burden of toxins in your body.
(24:14):
Yeah, I love that. I love reducing the burden of toxins. I maybe you would disagree. Maybe you have a different area. One of the places that I tell my clients to start with is start with your laundry room. You know, get rid of the dryer sheets, get rid of like all the flavors and smells and everything. And start, I mean, wool dryer balls. Like there's ways to make your laundry smell good that don't involve the fragrances and the chemicals and stuff because that one room is going throughout your entire house. You're sleeping on them, you're putting them on your clothes. I don't know, do you have, do you have a different area that you tell them to start with or?
(25:03):
No, I think that's a great, you know, like point, you know, like absolutely like, you know, laundry detergents and then laundry sheets and then you know, like fragrances that people are using. Absolutely. That's a great way to start with, you know, doing things, you know, but the, the makeup, you know, and the body products that a lot of females use, you know, there was a recess study done like it was shown that a female before she leaves their home in the morning, they use more than 200 products on their skin before they leave their house on an average. That's the amount of products that, you know, females are using. So just imagine, and people think, and a lot of emails don't even know that skin is the biggest organ of our body and we can absorb things from what we're you are putting on the skin.
(25:48):
So all that chemicals which are, which is high in lead mercury, high in pesticides, high in arsenic, high in a whole bunch of other chemicals gets directly absorbed from the skin into your bloodstream. And thyroid is like a sponge. Yeah. All of the chemicals directly goes to the thyroid and gets deposited over there. So it might be very small amount of the chemical, but because you're putting them each and every day and on your body and your skin is directly slowly and slowly builds up in your system and suddenly one day your throid is toxic.
(26:20):
Yeah, I will say when I switched to natural medic natural medicine natural makeup a few years ago, I did notice that like, and not that you probably experienced this too much with all the makeup you wear, I'm just kidding <laugh>. But I was using makeup to cover some of like the hyperpigmentation that I had from acne and things like that. But when I switched over to more natural, clean, safe products, I didn't have to wear the same level of makeup that I did before because it actually instated healing. And that was my biggest fear with transitioning to like a natural makeup was I can't cover up some of these other issues that I was having. So totally. I I'm on board. I know makeup for women can be a little scary cuz I was, I was in that category <laugh>, it's like I found what worked for me and I didn't want to, didn't wanna, you know, shift to that. But so tell us where you c people can find your book reversing Hashimotos.
(27:31):
Yeah, so I wrote this book Reversing Hashimotos, my three step process that will going to help, you know, like females with improving their Hashimotos, get their life back. The book is easily available on Amazon, you know, very easy name reversing Hashimotos, you know, they can find it very easy read. The good part is that this is a research based book. So I have tons of references behind in the book, more than one 60 references, scientific re references to base the book on and very easy read so that you know, a common person can understand what is happening with their body, what is happening with their Hashimotos, and it gives them a message or a hope or a plan of reversing it. It discusses the three steps that we discuss. It even has certain questions that people can answer over there that'll help them to identify their root causes also.
(28:21):
Awesome. So instead of like spending thousands of dollars towards, you know, like on the testing this book, you know, have these questionnaires that might be helpful to help them identify what certain root causes they might be dealing with. Talks about the diet and the supplements and you know, other things that we discussed about that can be very helpful for people. The biggest thing is that this is, this book has a message. It gives them hope to each and every Hashimotos patients that their life doesn't have to be identified with Hashimotos. They have a hope to reverse it. They have a hope to get better and not get limited by taking this medicine for lifelong and they can get a life free from Hashimotos and get their and live their life to the fullest.
(29:03):
I love that. A message of hope. So you said they can find it on Amazon and where can they find you online and like social media and stuff?
(29:14):
Yeah, so mean I share a lot of information for people who are interested in knowing more about THD and Hashimotos in various ways. So I have a very active blog, which is present on my website, which is unsure gupta md.com. If you allow to read, you know, about Hashimotos or thd, they can do it. I'm also on social media, on Instagram even I have YouTube channels people who like want to watch to watch small videos. My handle is Un Gupta MD over there. And again, you know, I am sharing scientific based information on Instagram and YouTube where people can follow with us. We even have a telemedicine functional medicine practice, so people who want to work with us one-to-one, they can now get an online consultation with us wherever they are in the country. Again, they can go on our website, call lunch gupta md.com and they can find more information over there.
(30:06):
Perfect. Well everything will be linked up in the show notes for our listeners and we really appreciate having you on Dr. G. I feel like I learned a few things, took some notes and I, I love that it's simple. I love three steps, you know, very simple, very easy to follow. And so I know that the listeners will really appreciate it. So thank you for being on today.
(30:32):
It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me over here again. You're doing great work and so I'm really privileged to be here and share this great information with your listeners.
(30:42):
Yeah, absolutely. All right you guys, we will see you on the next
(30:47):
Way Before 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 yours,
(31:01):
Please.
