Your thyroid is like the gas pedal in your car. Push harder and you go faster. Take your foot off the pedal and you slow down. For many women, it’s like their car is stuck in neutral. Their thyroid has become sluggish almost always because of horror-mones.
In today’s episode, Dr. Martin looks at some obvious signs that you have a sluggish thyroid. When a woman starts losing her hair, it’s a sure-tell sign the thyroid is involved. Same goes with weak, brittle nails. There’s a good chance you have a sluggish thyroid!
Make sure to listen to part 1 of this 2 part series on the thyroid!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. And once again, welcome to another live. Hope you're doing well this morning. Nice to have you on with us. We're going to talk this morning about the thyroid and why do I use the term a sluggish thyroid? Okay. Because look, you can get where you're actually getting hyperthyroidism, whether it's hyper or hypo. I mean, you could have an autoimmune disease, right? Hashimoto's. You could have Graves. These are autoimmune with the thyroid, but most people, when they get in trouble with their horror-mones, the thyroid is in the middle of it. Okay. The thyroid is in the middle of it. Especially when we talk to women. And I have a little sweet spot that I'm not going to reveal to you, that I look at in blood work. It just comes with my experience. Okay.
Over the years. And I like that term sweet spot, because if your TSH numbers, which by the way, between normal TSH, in a lab, normal TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. What is normal in labs is from here to eternity when it comes to numbers. Okay. From here to eternity. And that's why over the years, man, I, you know what? I was a big guy on symptoms. Give me your symptoms because I'm not going to rely on your blood work. Almost invariably I wouldn't because a lot of people didn't feel well and yet they were told that their thyroid was normal. Well, I always had news for them. I would use the term your thyroid is sluggish.
Now we've often talked about the thyroid never really been independent. It's very rare that you will see a thyroid that is not working properly, that doesn't have manifestations almost everywhere in your body. And there's a reason for that. Because your thyroid, folks, is your gas pedal in your car. You're driving alone, but you can't press on the gas. Okay. You're sort of running in neutral. You're not really advancing in terms of energy. I mean almost every area of your body is affected by the thyroid because it's the gas pedal. It's your body's thermostat. When that becomes sluggish, if it's not working. I rarely have ever seen this anywhere else, but I should have taken out a teaspoon. Just, you know what a teaspoon is. At the end of the day for your thyroid to work properly, the T4, okay. Your body produces a lot of thyroid... T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and calcitonin on top of that.
That's what your thyroid produces when it gets it from headquarters up there in the hypothalamus. Now repetition for those who are joining us in the last little bit and always repeat, even for my faithful, faithful people who have been on with me for years. Two main areas of the brain, the hypothalamus and the hippocampus. If you remember that, you got it. You pass my exam. Okay. What do I need to know about my brain doc? Well, first of all, it's full of fat. If someone calls you fat head, that's a compliment, but you have two main centers in your brain. One is called the hypothalamus and that is the control center of all your hormones. Okay.
And the second one is your hippocampus. Now that one's easy because it reminds you of school. Campus. Memory center. When you see dementia, Alzheimer's is a form of dementia. When you see that the prevalence in our society today, where the brain is literally shrinking, it usually affects the hippocampus first memory, obviously. But it becomes much more destructive and the hypothalamus starts to shut down. It's a sad, sad state of affairs. So the thyroid, I use the word finicky. It's finicky. It's like a puppet. You know me, I love to use illustrations. And a puppet has a lot of strings attached to it. The hypothalamus, the pituitary gland at the base of the brain signaling to the thyroid gland to produce hormones. And your thyroid is essential.
The problem in women, and I say that, that of course men can have a sluggish thyroid. But men are not complicated like that because there's nothing that will affect your thyroid, ladies, more than your ovaries. They're directly connected. And because men don't have ovaries, we're not as complicated when it comes to horror-mones. Okay. We're just not. And again, I'm not saying that men will not get a thyroid problem. They certainly can. And the thyroid in a man, when it's become sluggish, they're going to have trouble with testosterone. But that's another issue. I don't want to get into that too much. Let's talk about some of the things that I want you to watch for. Okay. Now when I give you these, it can always be something else too. Okay. So these are general. Okay. But I always tell people look, I'm a big guy on hormones. Hormones.
I'm big on that. And by the way, ladies, listen, Linda, listen, this is very important. In order for the delivery, your body's working on T4 to T3. You need T3 a teaspoon of it a year. That's not much. And like I say, it's a very finicky organ. But you better have an empty liver for that to happen. You don't want your liver to be like the Costco parking lot, full of fat. I feel sorry for kids today. I really do. They have been duped big time. They're being taught even in school, animal product, stay away from. It's bad for the environment. And they're indoctrinated and they're filling their livers up with sugar and crappy carbohydrates. Remember the conversion of T4 to T3. The T3 is the one your thyroid needs to work properly. Where does that occur? Mostly in the liver. The Costco parking lot.
And I say this to ladies. When you insist on filling up your liver with carbohydrates and sugars, it will mess up your thyroid. That is why the reset is so good for horror-mones. Yeah, for sure. Number one goal of the reset. The number one goal is what? Insulin resistance. Get out of the 88% of the population that is unwell in North America. Science. 88% of the population is messed up. Insulin. They have insulin resistance. Their body needs to make even more insulin to do the same job, to break down carbohydrates and to take sugar out of the bloodstream and park them. Remember, insulin is a traffic cop that will park sugars in your liver, primarily. So what do I want you to look for when it comes to your thyroid? Some obvious things I want you to look for. Visible things. I want you to look for. Hair, ladies. Your hair. Men? Eh, the thyroid had nothing to do with hair. Okay. Men just lose their hair.
What am I lusting after? Hair. I look at my old pictures and I used to have lots of hair. Men. It's almost invariable with a man. Okay. Ladies, listen. The Bible tells you about your hair. What is it? A woman's hair. It's your glory. It's a gift. It's a gift. I'm very observant. Okay. It's just my nature. And like I tell you folks, when they used to come and see me in the office, I was all eyeballs. Like, okay, I'm looking. They, of course, when people didn't know me, they might have found that intimidating to some extent.
But when I look at a person, a woman, I'm looking at her hair. And when it thins out, you know what? In my head? You got a thyroid problem. Your thyroid's sluggish. It's not working properly. Ladies. Hello? I'm talking to you. Yeah, but my doctor, my doctor. I know what your doctor sometimes. Because they have been hijacked. Listen, medicine, God love them. And I mean that you get hit by a bus. Don't call me. I'll pray for you, but you don't need me. You need emergency. You need medicine. You got a raging infection. Don't call me. Okay. Call the doctor. But medicine. And here's my beef. Here's my beef with medicine. They got hijacked. We have a medical school here in Sudbury and I just can't understand why I'm not teaching there.
But I'm not holding my breath. Because I'd like to, just to be able to get them to think a little bit more holistically. I want them to learn everything they're learning. I really do. But what they don't learn and what they don't realize, because that's all they know. Is they've been hijacked by the lab. When in doubt order blood work. Okay. I'm not against blood work, but don't get hijacked by it. Don't get hijacked by the labs because if you do, you can't think outside the box, doc. My dad used to tell me, listen, Linda. He didn't use the word Linda, but he used the word Tony. Listen, Tony, listen. Your patient has inside information. Listen to them. Okay. My dad was very wise.
Patients will tell you what's going on. Listen. Okay. I was talking with a physician yesterday. They don't have time or they're not taking time. It takes time to listen. Ah yeah, your blood work came back normal. Hi doc [inaudible 00:16:09]. I don't feel good. I'm exhausted. Hijacked by the labs. What? Okay don't get hijacked. And that's why I tell you folks. My faithful followers. I'm very interested in blood work. You know that. But I want your symptoms because you marry the two. I used to teach Nick and Jeanette and my staff, marry the two. Marry your symptoms to the lab because you need both.
And as a matter of fact, I used to use a word in practice all the time. Symptoms trump, easy to remember that name. Donald Trump. Symptoms trump, right? The lab. That's why you can't be hijacked by the lab. Medicine today, medicine today, their Achilles tendon. Do you know what I mean by that? Their weak spot. Is what? The lab they get hijacked. And two is the pharmaceutical hijacking. Everything's got to be a drug. If you saw the research. I read an article Saturday, I think. It might have been yesterday or so. You know Dr. Fauci, personally? Takes 6,000 international units of vitamin D every day. I read an article about it yesterday by one of his associates.
And when the NIH researchers who worked in the NIH wanted to discuss vitamin D and a very inexpensive therapeutic on quoting what the article said. Dr. Fauci said, "We're only interested in vaccines, we're not interested in therapeutics." And it was shut down. Vitamin D. And I brought you some of those studies, what it does to the immune system, whatever. Well, what am I saying by that? What is my point? My point is this, medicine has been hijacked by the labs and hijacked by big pharma. Now that's behind the scenes guys. And that's why women and I speak to you ladies, especially have fallen through the cracks. When it comes to medicine.
Because when medicine relies only on the labs, they're in trouble. Because you have to look at the body holistically. Even the thyroid. Well thyroid, especially. Because there's so many strings attached to it. And you know doctors will say, "Well, your thyroid's normal. And I tested your estrogen and it's yeah, it's coming down, but you're in menopause or whatever. And don't worry about it. And this is just part of life. You're in menopause." Says he. I get women. Endocrinologists. Doctors, who were specialists in endocrinology coming to see me and they didn't know how to fix their own hormones.
Well, my blood work seems normal. And I said, well, I know I went on a huge rabbit trail there guys. And I promised in my mind I would come back. Because I was talking about observing. And ladies, observe. Use your eyeballs on yourself, first. Look at hair. Look at your hair. Now listen, unless you're 90 years old, your hair shouldn't be thinning. Okay. Men? Don't compare us. Okay? I know they want to put the genders together there. Ooh. I'm so old fashioned. I don't like that. Okay. But let's not go there because I'm going to be in trouble. Ladies, your hair is your glory. Look at it. Look at your eyebrows. They're thinning. Men, we get older and we're growing hair where we shouldn't have it. It's sticking out here and out our nose and our ears. I go for a haircut and they're usually more worried about taking the hair out of my ears and nose and shaving my eyebrows then the top. Men, when we get oldly. But ladies, your hair is your glory.
If you're losing it, your thyroid's involved somehow. And I mean it. Your thyroid is involved somehow. It may not be the primary thing, but it may be too. Because a woman, when it comes to horror-mones, needs to have balance. It's a balancing act. I actually used to have this in my office. A person on a tight rope. You know you ever seen, what was it? The Belinda brothers or whatever. The family there. They walked across the Niagara Falls. I liked that because when I was watching him walk across Niagara Falls, all I could think of, he was Ooh, the wind. You remember that? I was under my chair, scared of heights. I was just imagining myself up there. Okay. But you remember that? With the pole and he's trying to balance himself on a tight rope. Guys, that's your hormones. It's a balancing that.
And when your hair's not right, think thyroid. And by the way, just going to say this. Because of what happens in the liver. For the conversion of T4 to T3, happens in the gut too. Okay? 20%. You got leaky gut? Leaky thyroid. But liver, fatty liver, one of the big reasons we want to empty the parking lot of your liver so that your thyroid will work better. Oh yeah? Yeah. Nutrition wise, you know what your thyroid loves? Yeah, it loves salt. It loves iodine. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. It likes that. Selenium. You know how you get that? When you eat steak, vitamin S. That is so key for your thyroid. And ladies, I know you like your chicken and you like your salad, but that don't do nothing for your thyroid.
It don't. Why do you think I rail against that stuff all the time. Look, you want to have chicken, eat your chicken, but it's not good for your thyroid. It's not going to give thyroid what it needs. It won't. You want to empty the parking lot, your liver. And you want to feed your thyroid. And by the way, you take a strand of hair. Okay? What is it? What is hair? You ever thought about that? Well, it's actually, there's a makeup to it. What? Yeah, your hair. Take a strand of hair. What's it made up of? Protein.
If I eat too much protein, then it's going to be so hard on my kidneys. Then that's what my doctor said. Ooh. Your hair is protein. Drives me crazy. You look at hair, one. So be observant to yourself. And then when you see your daughters, or your granddaughters, or your friend next door or whatever. Ooh. I think that person has a thyroid problem. Secondly, I'm not going to do all of them today. Okay? I promise. There's too many. But be observant on skin. Skin. Your largest organ. That's all it is. Your skin is an organ. It's the one you see. But when you see dry, flaky skin, I always talk to you about this. I always talk about the gut and skin connection. There's a huge connection, but there's also a thyroid skin connection.
When your thyroid's not working properly, the skin is usually involved. You've got skin in the game. And I look and I watch. Skin. Dry, flaky, hives, itchy skin. I don't know, I so itchy all the time. Well, your thyroid's not working properly. You know your skin, ladies. You know your skin. You know what it's supposed to be like. You know what your hair is like. You know what your nails are like. Ladies, right? You got those nails are brittle. They're not growing. They don't look as well. You know men, we don't care about our nails. Who cares? I see all these shops, you know. Come and get your nails done. What? I wouldn't put one plug nickel into that. What? My nails? My ladies, true or false. That interests you. That's a woman's industry.
I don't mind a pedicure. I want them to rub my feet. I don't care if they cut my nails. I like what they put my feet in hot water and rub my feet. I like that. But ladies, you guys know what nails are. They're important to you, aren't they? For most women. But they're a sign. There's a sign in your nails. And if they're not what they used to be, that's your thyroid. It's your thyroid going, hello, you there. You're not paying attention. You see how much fun I had in practice? I used to have a ball.
I did. People wait to see me for a couple of months or three months or whatever. And they're getting in and I'm eyeballing them. Like, and I know what's going on already. You know? How did you figure that out Dr. Martin? Well, I'm watching. I just saw your eyebrows. Hmm. I'm looking at your hair. Hmm. That was me. Almost too personal. But Hey, you want to be a good doctor, you better be very personal. Right? Okay. Did you have fun with me today? Sometimes I get silly. Okay. Okay now, we got a good week lined up. Okay. Lots of good stuff. Lots of good studies.
We might do part two of the thyroid. What things are obvious when it comes to the thyroid and which things are less obvious. Okay. What is less obvious? But you want to look at. Some things are obvious. Hair, skin, nails. Some things are less obvious than that. Okay. Now what's Friday? Friday's question and answer Friday, isn't it. Okay. So get your questions in. We always enjoy that Friday. Because you guys are so smart. You always have such good questions. And when I say that to you guys, I mean it. You're smarter than the average bear, I can tell you that. When it comes to your health. Okay guys, you know what Proverbs 23 and 23 says? Get the truth and never sell it. It's my life verse. Okay, guys, we love. Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!