The thyroid is a finicky gland that causes issues mostly for women. Dr. Martin says it’s a puppet because there are many things that can pull its strings. Both the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus are the bosses of your thyroid and can cause you issues if they get out of whack.
Join Dr. Martin as he does an overview teaching about the thyroid in today’s episode!
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. Once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day, and we're going to have some fun today. Back to the drawing board. Okay, now guys, back to the drawing board. Now, I got to make sure you guys can see this, okay? Okay. We're going to teach the thyroid today. Thyroid. Thyroid, okay, got it? Can everybody see it? Yeah. Good. Okay. Now, what we're talking about today is that famous gland, the thyroid gland. Okay? And when you get trouble with the thyroid, 90% that probably 95 is women, okay? 95% are women, and we're going to break that down today. Now, I'm not saying men, I got a thyroid gland. All men have a thyroid gland, but because the thyroid is a puppet, the thyroid is not the boss. The thyroid actually has two bosses. Okay?
So when we look, here's the thyroid. There's the thyroid, there's two of its bosses, the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, okay? In the brain and the pituitary. Listen, the thyroid is a puppet. It's got a lot of strings attached, and I'm going to make this easy for everyone to understand the thyroid. I'm a simple guy. The thyroid is complicated, but when you get the basic principles of it, you'll understand what I'm saying. Okay? So when the brain senses, okay? Think of what the thyroid does, it's there for your metabolism. Your metabolism, that is really important. The thyroid metabolism, body temperature and mood, the thyroid, it's your metabolism. Metabolism won't work properly without your thyroid functioning on all cylinders. Your body temperature, your mood, hair. Ladies, hair, it starts with an H. And because it's connected to your horrormones and other H, okay? Nails, skin, all part of your metabolism, weight, all part of your metabolism, okay?
So that's what your thyroid does, okay? Your thyroid is your furnace, your thyroid is a very important gland, but there's a lot of things that affect the thyroid, and if you don't understand that in medicine, that's what the big problem can be in medicine. They don't understand it in a sense that they forget all their physiology and how the thyroid works and how it's connected. Okay? So again, the measurement I like the best for the thyroid is your T S H, okay? Thyroid stimulating hormone, okay? I like that in terms of your blood work. But listen to what I'm going to say really, really important. Always, always have to look at your symptoms, because blood work, even on the best of days, it can throw you off. Now, let me just give you the questionnaire I used to give to my patients in my office. Here was the questionnaire before we get back to this. Are you tired all the time? Do you suffer from depression or anxiety? Do you have trouble with PMS? Do you have trouble getting pregnant ladies? Are your hands and feet cold all the time? Or the tip of your nose? Do you have low sex drive? Do you have trouble concentrating or have memory loss? Do you have vocal changes?
Are you always clearing your throat? Okay, do you have irregular heartbeat? Do you have swelling around your neck? Do you have dry skin? Do you suffer from constipation? You see that, Liz, it almost affects every area of your body. This is really important. Do you have thinning eyebrows? Do you have thinning hair? Are your nails brittle? Those were all the questions I asked, and I wanted to know the answers to that before you came into my clinic. Because symptoms are really important for thyroid because if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck. And if you've got those symptoms, your thyroid is not up to snuff. Now, all your blood tests might come back within normal limits. I have a little secret sauce. I call it my secret sauce. I'd say 95% accurate is looking at your T S H, okay? Is looking at your T S H, because usually when your TSH is not right in the numbers I look for, you got some of those symptoms I just talked about. So thyroid is really an important gland.
Now, let's go over this again. Okay, so here we are. When your brain senses that you need to secrete thyroid, it sends a message to the pituitary, your hypothalamus to the pituitary. The pituitary it releases thyroid stimulating hormones. So again, T S H doesn't come out of your thyroid. It comes out of your brain. The pituitary, the pituitary releases, thyroid stimulating hormone tells the thyroid gland to secrete. Look, you got T1, T2, T3, T4, but just for the sake of understanding the thyroid, it makes T3. This is the key and reverse T3, don't get in the weeds. Your thyroid will not work without T3, okay? Your thyroid won't work properly without the conversion of T3. You only make about a teaspoon in the whole year. You see how finicky that thyroid can be? If this doesn't compute, if it doesn't make T3 properly, your thyroid's going to be sluggish. It'll slow down. Understand that.
Now we're going to get into a little bit of where your T3 gets hampered. We'll talk about that. Okay? But let me talk to you about foods. Why did I talk to you yesterday about the reset and number six on that list? Remember hormones, it really makes a difference. I'm going to show you why, okay? Foods that slow the thyroid down. What slows your thyroid down? Ladies? Soy, bread, yeah, gluten smuten. Look, gluten has an effect. I'm much bigger on the fact that it's a carbohydrate. Okay, now look, bromide. What is bromide? Bromide is what they make bread in today, not iodine, broma and bromite in the flower. It slows the thyroid to a crawl. Thus the reset, you see? Thus the reset. Okay, so carbs become sugars. You guys know this. Insulin goes up. What does insulin do? Insulin is a growth hormone. Insulin makes fat. It takes carbs. It's a storing hormone.
As long as you have insulin present, your body can't get rid of fat. Remember the jail guard? Remember in the books that I wrote, I drew a picture, I didn't, of a jail guard and fat was in a cell in jail, and fat can't escape as long as the jail guard is there. You know who the jail guard is? Insulin. Insulin increases fat production, and when you have insulin resistance, okay, your cells are resistant to insulin. It increases your leptin resistance. Leptin tells your body you're full, don't need to eat anymore, but leptin doesn't work properly. Just like with insulin resistance, you get leptin resistance and leptin, you're hungry. And usually people that are hungry, you know what they do? They choose the wrong food. They choose a carbohydrate. They choose the quick fix. "Oh, Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat bread. It's 12 grain." It's 15 grain. I don't care. I don't care. It don't matter. It's rye bread. I don't care. It's going to be sugar in five seconds. It's going to increase your leptin resistance and your insulin resistance. It's a growth hormone. Insulin makes things grow, including your thyroid, and it slows the thyroid down. Okay? Got it?
Okay, foods avoid soy. Soy gives you cancer too, so avoid it like the plague. Bread, noodles, pasta, blah, blah, blah. Watch your carbs because it's important. Okay? Now, here's when the thyroid thrives. Okay? The thyroid thrives when you increase protein. Ladies, what's the king of the castle? Protein. What's the dirty rascal? Carbs for your thyroid, for everything else too. Protein, protein, protein. Got it? You need protein. Women don't eat enough protein. I'm sorry. On average, women avoid protein, and when they get it, they get plant protein. I'm sorry, your thyroid needs animal protein, the most bioavailable of all proteins. Okay?
Now before I get to these two, I'm going to get to the fourth one, fat. Because when you're eating protein in animal protein, when you eat eggs, it has protein and fat. Perfect combination. You need fat to circulate your hormones. Remember what I told you above cholesterol? Why do you want to have low cholesterol? You don't want to have low cholesterol. And most women, they have low H D L and they don't eat enough cholesterol. Where's cholesterol found in food? Eggs, meat, and cheese. That's where cholesterol is found. It's not found in the plant kingdom. That's why the plant kingdom and Dr. Kellogg's and Ansel Keys and other gurus, well, don't eat eggs, meat, and cheese, because that's bad because it's got cholesterol and your thyroid doesn't work without it. You need protein and fat in combination. See, when God gives you food, he gives it to you exactly the way it should be. Protein and fat in combination, not fat and carbs. That's bad for your thyroid. Fat and carbs.
Think of a donut. What's in a donut? Fat and carbs. Bad fats. Carbs. It's not nature, guys. Nature, God driven gives you eggs. What's in an egg? Fat? Protein. Cholesterol. What's in butter? Fat, protein, cholesterol. What's in meat? Fat, protein, cholesterol. How can that be bad for you? It's not bad for you. Your thyroid thrives on it. Just doing the reset has helped tens of thousands of women with their metabolism, because they used to be over here. They used to be over here. I bring over here where the thyroid thrives. You need protein, okay? You need protein. You need fat, good fat. Good fat is saturated fat, okay? Saturated. It's saturated with vitamins, amino acids, everything that your thyroid needs. Okay? And I'll get into this now.
Okay, now I'm going to get into the other two. Today, there's no iodine in the soil anymore. It's been stripped by fertilizers and chemicals. It strips away the iodine. And that's why how many years ago, 70 years ago, they started to iodize salt. No more iodine in the salt because it wasn't even salt, but it's not in the soil. But do you know that you get a lot of iodine, my friend in eggs, meat and cheese? Did you know that? Yeah. Look, you want to eat seaweed? Go for it. Okay? Got a lot of iodine. I agree, but so does eggs, meat, and cheese. But the key iodine is a key, and so is selenium. Most people don't even know what selenium is. Your body, your thyroid in particular needs selenium. It needs selenium. Can't work without it. Selenium is found in. You guys know the answer to this? Eggs, meat and cheese. Selenium, okay? All your B vitamins, thyroid's very important. Even B12 for the thyroid, again, where do you get B12? Red meat.
So those are the thyroid thriving foods. Your thyroid thrives on that. Why do we see so much thyroid problems today? Okay, number one, food. People are eating the wrong things because they've been duped. "Dr. Martin, fiber, what am I going to do without fiber?" And they think fiber is the king. It's not. Protein is the king, and fat is the queen. Okay? They're sitting on the throne. You need it not fiber. Fiber is so overrated, guys, I tell you, it is so overrated, but it's in the craw of every guru I ever listened to. They just can't get over fiber. I said, well, where did you learn that? Dr. Kellogg's. What are you going to do without fiber? You know what they say fiber's good for? I know going number two, but more than that, they'll say, it mops up cholesterol. Why would you want to do that? Why do you want to mop up your cholesterol? You need cholesterol. Your thyroid don't work without cholesterol. Why do you want to mop it up? Fiber mops up cholesterol. Why do you want to do that? Tell me why, why, why. I don't understand it.
Okay, now, let's look at the puppet we talked about. Your thyroid's, a puppet with lots of strings attached. Okay? Lots of strings attached. Puppet don't work without strings. And now you have to understand that. So we already talked about the brain. Okay? We talked about the brain. It's a string. Your thyroid is attached to the brain. Okay? We'll get back to that in a minute. I'm going to show you something, okay? There's four main things that really affect the thyroid, those puppet strings. Number one on the hit parade. What will slow your thyroid to a crawl? Stress. Cortisol. Cortisol. When cortisol is high for too long, it slows your thyroid to a crawl. You get belly fat, you gain weight, your hair's not as good. Your eyebrows start thinning out, and you go, "doc, my thyroid's supposed to be normal." I know, but it's not. But stress is a major factor. Cortisol wasn't meant to be for a long period of time, only a short period of time where it's high. High cortisol, low functioning thyroid. Okay?
Now, when everything is going good, and let's say I scare you, your metabolism's going to go crazy. Your body temperature's going up, your pulse rate goes up, everything goes up. You're on high alert. But oh, if that cortisol goes on and on and on and on, it has a major effect on the thyroid. Now, instead of increasing your thyroid to get you going, it'll slow you down. It slows the thyroid to a crawl. Okay? Now, cortisol, one of the puppets from your adrenal glands, okay? Ad-drenal, on top of kidney. Number two, estrogen. This is why women have so much trouble with their thyroid. They're complicated. The thyroid's only a puppet, and one of the strings goes right down to your ovaries. Yikes. Men, we don't have ovaries. Oh, don't get me going. Men don't have ovaries. I'm sorry.
Now, back to the puppet. Estrogen, very important for the thyroid, and it needs to be balanced with its best friend. You know what estrogen's best friend is? Progesterone. Now, here's a whammo. When the cortisol is high, it robs progesterone, it robs it. Progesterone goes down. What happens? Your estrogen goes up. When your estrogen goes up, your thyroid slows down. Estrogen dominance. Women that are estrogen dominant, they're too much of a woman, and they got too much fat on their body, in their hips, and they go, "why doc, why? I diet, I exercise and why do I got extra fat on my hips?" Because you're too much of a woman and your estrogen is slowing your thyroid down. Okay? I got to do this more quickly.
The fourth reason is your gut, leaky gut, leaky thyroid. Why? Why is that? Why is the gut a puppet string attached to your thyroid? Why is your gut? Because 20% of your conversion of T4 to T3 what your thyroid needs to work properly. T4 to T3 occurs in the gut 20%. You know where 80% of it occurs? And I should have put this here, okay? Liver. Liver. You know how many women that I treated over the years. In the questionnaire, have you been on antibiotics in the last few years? Yes. And the reason I'm asking you is because you've got leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky thyroid, the thyroid's not up to snuff because that T3 20% of it is made in the gut. And when you have leaky gut, your thyroid slows down. It's a very, very common thing in autoimmune, leaky gut, leaky thyroid, and you can get Hashimotos or Graves can come out of that, but I'm telling you, it's a big thing. Leaky gut.
And then the liver, think about this for a minute. Think about this. 80% in your liver, T4 to T3. And what do we have today? We have the vast majority of the population walking around with fat in their liver, fatty liver, maybe not diagnosed. And when that liver is all gummed up with fat and what turns your liver fat, guys, come on. You know it. What makes fat in the liver? Carbs, sugars, turn to fat in the liver. Fatty liver. That's why we see kids with fatty liver. I feel sorry for children today. They're walking around with fatty liver, for heaven's sakes. But guys, the liver, it's so key. It's so key to that production of your thyroid. And people today got fatty liver and they don't even know it. And sure it's bad. It makes triglycerides and all that, but it's bad for your thyroid because you can't convert T4 to T3. And T3 is the key to the thyroid working properly.
So guys, that is thyroid 1 0 1. There's a lot more to it, really. But if you get this, you're getting the big picture, okay? You're getting the big picture. You like my boards? I know I can't write. I remember teachers saying, if I can read Tony Martin's writing when I was in grade 5, or I don't remember what grade, we're going to give you an extra recess. I couldn't write. I could spell. I won the spelling bee. I could spell because I love reading. See? But oh boy oh boy, my school days, I majored in recess.
Okay, guys, we love you. You know that. I don't mind telling you that. I don't mind repeating that. Thank you for the feedback we get all the time. Thank you for the referrals that we get all the time. What do you mean by referrals? Well, you tell people to buy my book, Sun Steak and Steel. You tell others to listen to our podcast, The Doctor Is In. You're telling others. Thank you. Those are referrals. We appreciate it. And Tony Jr. and I were talking the other day, and we said to each other, we just love giving out information, okay? If you didn't get our emails, get our emails. Because today, Tony Jr. and I, we did a little podcast, I don't know, a little teaching on probiotics. And we have intention of working together. Do a lot of this stuff, even more and more and more. Information, information is power. Information provides choices. We give you info. You guys got to decide what to do with that info. But if you wonder, let me finish with this. If you wonder why so many people struggle with their thyroid, that's why. That's why. Okay? Okay, love you guys. 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!