Dr. Martin shares the results of 3 interesting studies on the thyroid. One showing a link to depression. Another about the effects of no sugar or carbs on the thyroid. Third showing a connection between thyroid medications and breast cancer.
Did you know that the thyroid makes up a big part of your metabolism? It’s your body’s gas pedal and the orchestra leader of your hormones, but it’s also a puppet. There’s a lot of strings attached to it, meaning that many systems control it.
Listen to today’s episode to learn more about your thyroid!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer:Â 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:Â Well, good afternoon, everyone. Hoping you're having a great day today. Holiday Monday for many, and the Presidents Day in the United States. Family Day, I don't know about all the provinces of Canada, but certainly in Ontario it was Family Day. Okay. Just a little bit of news, a little bit of news. I became a great-grandfather again today, so that's number two, and the Anthony Martin number five was born this morning, early this morning. Tony Jr. is now a grandfather, okay? He's a grandfather, and Anthony Shea Martin V was born this morning. How do you like that? Hard to believe. Hard to believe. I told Tony Jr., I said, "You know me, I always used to say, 'If I'd have known grandchildren are that much fun we'd have had them first.'" So anybody out there that's a grandparent knows exactly what I'm talking about. Yep. There's nothing like it.
Okay, let's talk about three studies, three that I flagged over the weekend on the thyroid, three of them. Wow. Yeah. I flagged a couple of others too, but three in a row that I saw on the thyroid, and let's talk about them. The thyroid, the puppet, because that's really what it is. Even though it's your gas pedal, even though it's a big part of your metabolism, it is the orchestra leader of your hormones, it's a puppet because it's got a lot of strings attached to it.
But let me read you the three studies and then we can talk about them. One is the thyroid and the link to depression, okay? So we're going to talk about that, the thyroid and the link to depression, number one. Number two, we're going to talk about a two-week study that was done on the thyroid with no sugar and no carbs. The thyroid TSH T3 to T4 got better, okay, in a two-week study. So it started confirming what I like about the recent PubMed. This is the third study, PubMed. This comes from pubmed.com. The link between thyroid medications, which are huge in terms of numbers, and breast cancer. A nationwide study done on PubMed, at least it's published in PubMed, on the link between levothyroxine, SYNTHROID, and breast cancer. It ain't good. It ain't good.
So let's talk a little bit about these three studies. Thank you for joining me. We appreciate it. Let's get into it. First one, depression and thyroid, the link. It's amazing how many people ... And here's what this study said, "Over 50% of the people who have trouble with their thyroid have hypothyroidism." Okay? A low-functioning thyroid. "50% also suffer from depression." So this is the first study on depression, a huge link between the working of the thyroid gland and depression.
If your thyroid's not working properly, you know, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? I believe that depression comes after the sluggish thyroid. Now remember about the thyroid, often, if there's any organ that gets misdiagnosed, it's the thyroid. And the reason that happens, okay, and I mentioned this to you many a time before, but the reason that happens is because doctors today, I don't want to be negative, but I just got to tell you what's happening, doctors today have been hijacked by the labs. If the lab doesn't tell them you're sick ... And I'm not saying they shouldn't do blood work. Am I saying that? Of course not. But the old fashioned, "Tell me your symptoms ..."
Like a lady, I think it was Friday on Question and Answer, "What should my estrogen be?" I don't know, because I don't rely on the blood test. I don't rely on that test. Not that I wouldn't look at it. I'll look at it, but I need to know your symptoms. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck when it comes to the thyroid. It's often misdiagnosed because the ranges, especially of the TSH, which came when I was in school, the TSH test was developed when I was a young guy in school, way before I was a great-grandpa. Wasn't a grandfather, wasn't even a father when they developed this test, and the TSH has become sort of the gold standard for testing the thyroid. Am I against that? No, but you better not just test the thyroid, do a blood test, and not take symptoms, because you could really miss out. Okay? You could really miss out.
Now, when I've talked to you about depression, many a times I've often said this about depression, "Depression is multifaceted problemo." Okay? And the thyroid is involved. The thyroid is involved. Depression is linked to your gut big time. Leaky gut, leaky brain. Leaky gut, leaky thyroid. Why is that? Well, because there's about 20% of your conversion of your thyroid hormones that occur in your gut. So if you got a leaky gut, if you have an overgrowth of Candida albicans, you can mess your thyroid up. The key to your thyroid functioning properly is a little teaspoon of T3. You only make a teaspoon of it in a whole year. Very finicky.
A lot of things have to go right for your thyroid to work properly, and depression is often a symptom of a thyroid problem. Now, people don't think of that. It's not the first place ... The problem in medicine also, not only is it lab-dependent medicine ... Look, again, please, labs are important, but it's not everything. Lab-dependent medicine, you often miss out. And medicine, the other thing is it's very specialized, so unless you're going to an endocrinologist, right, if you got a thyroid problem, your GP usually will take care of it or at least get blood tests and then put you on some form of medication if that blood work is abnormal.
But the other thing is you get endocrinologists. Now the problem with endocrinologists, they only look at the thyroid. They're never going to look at your gut. An endocrinologist is never going to look at depression, and they don't link the two. They're really linked. And this study, 50% of people with a low-functioning thyroid have trouble with depression. Everything slows down. And some of the symptoms, weight gain, depression, sluggish bowel, constipation, hair loss, eyebrows. And one of the things that I mention a lot with depression is when I was in practice, one of the things that I found consistently in depression, leaky gut, and very low levels of B12.
Now we know that your thyroid doesn't work properly without iodine, selenium. It needs zinc too, by the way. Your thyroid needs vitamin A, by the way. Your thyroid needs vitamin D, by the way. Your thyroid needs all of them for it to function properly, and a lot of times, those are things that are missing in depression.
Now, I'm just going to bring the second study out and I'm going to link them, okay? The second study said ... Two week. It was a very short study, but they were looking at numbers, thyroid numbers, no sugar. Here's the study, two-week study. It's not very long, two weeks, with absolutely no sugar and no starches, no carbs and no sugars. Do I like that? Would that be Dr. Martin-approved? A hundred percent. I suggest longer than that, but at least they did this for two weeks. It increased the thyroid function by 50% in two weeks, by diet. By diet.
You see guys I'm big, big, big on changing fuels, okay? And people sometimes don't understand me, because we had a fellow on the private Facebook group last week. He got under my skin a little bit. I must admit it. I shouldn't let anybody get under my skin, but he got under my skin. Well, first of all, he said that I was too complicated. I said, "Holy moly, first time in my life, I mean it, that I've ever been accused of being complicated." I try and dumb it down, man. For me, right? Remember those study books, Algebra For Dummies? You remember those yellow books? That's me, guys. I need to keep it simple, but he accused me of being complicated. Anyway, but it wasn't that. He just said, "Well, why eggs, meat, and cheese? Why not just low carb?" "Because listen, Linda," his name wasn't Linda, but it could have been. "Listen, because I want you to change fuels."
When you are eliminating your carbs and your sugars, you're getting rid of them, it's really important ... That's all right. I mean, on its own, if you just take sugar out of your diet, it's all going to help. It's all going to be helpful. If you did that, well, I give you a high five. But in order to change your metabolism in order to reset, in order to reset your metabolism, it's important that you change fuels. One comes down and the other one goes up, and it's important. I'm telling you, this study is saying it, your thyroid needs nutrition. Nutrient-dense foods help your thyroid.
And I know there's people out there right now, listening to me at this moment, who are struggling. They don't feel good. They have all the symptoms that I just mentioned, hair loss, weight gain, tired, thinning eyebrows, just not good, and you know, just don't feel good. They don't sleep good and whatever. I'm going to tell you something 100% and I'm right. Your thyroid might not be the major thing that's gone wrong, but I'm going to tell you something. You cannot fix your thyroid without changing fuels. One has to come down, carbs and sugars, because that quick gets-your-fire-started tingling, carbs and sugars, they burn too quickly for your thyroid. Your thyroid wants to have nutrient-dense foods.
Pretend you've got a little wee opening in your thyroid here, okay, the butterfly-shaped organ right here. Pretend it has a little wee opening in it, and it's looking for nutrients like selenium, iodine. Your thyroid, folks, does not work without iodine, and iodine, the most bioavailable iodine, is found in eggs, egg yolks, meat, and cheese. Oh, who knew? Who knew? Nutrient-dense selenium, vitamin A, is not found in the plant kingdom. Beta-carotene will do nothing for your thyroid. It won't. It won't. I'm sorry. Yeah, if you eliminate your carbs and sugars, what did they say? 50% increase in the thyroid already. That was good, but you want to get to the other 50%? You better eat animal protein and fat to get your minerals, to get your amino acids. The bioavailability is key, key, key.
So one study is telling us about depression. The second study is telling us about food and the thyroid. Very interesting. And guys, I had years and years and years and years of clinical experience. You know, it was fun in practice, because I told you, I use my eyeballs. Okay? So, a woman would come in. I look at her, but in a very short period of time. They must have thought, "What is this guy?" You know? I-get-in-your-face type of person. Okay? You're in my office, and I'm looking at you with my eyeballs. I'm coming in to look. I want to see because I'm looking at their eyebrows. I'm looking at their hair. I'm looking at their skin.
I was observant. My dad taught me that. "Patients have inside information," he used to tell me. "Ask questions and look. Use your eyeballs. They don't lie." And the thyroid, I could pick out a mile away, a mile away, and I usually wasn't wrong. And I [inaudible 00:18:26] why can't doctors do that? But I'm telling you, like I said, if you don't feel good, you don't feel good, you have trouble losing weight, your bowel's not even well, you got all sorts of symptoms, your thyroid's not working the way it should. It's just not. And like I said, there's a couple of things that you absolutely have to do, absolutely have to do to fix it. Okay?
Now, let's get to the third study because we can wrap this up. Now, a very popular medication for low-functioning thyroid is levothyroxine or SYNTHROID, major, major. Here's the study that came up, flagged, but I read it on PubMed.com. And it was saying, massive study countrywide in Canada, I think it was a Canadian study, "Levothyroxine and SYNTHROID have enormous side effects." One of them that you never hear about, at least I haven't heard too much about it, is the link to breast cancer.
Now the problem with that med, okay, usually with thyroid, and this is what I told a lot of patients over the years, the problem is when you start on it, you're often never going to be taken off of it. And you know, they don't want to, "Hey, it's working because it's keeping your blood work within sort of normal limits." But I always would try and urge my patients ... Look, I'm not saying we get off of the meds. I never start with getting off meds ever. Okay? Ever. I never did that. I would tell them, "Let's fix your thyroid. If we fix your thyroid, then you'll be able to come off your medication."
But the link to breast cancer is not good. And breast cancer, we see so much of it today. We're not winning the war on breast cancer. It's a scary thought. Always bothers me. Women are sitting ducks in this day and age when it shouldn't be, in my opinion. Sitting ducks. And of course, you know, ladies, your breast tissue is very receptive to estrogen. I don't care if they tell you "It isn't." It is. It loves estrogen. It's very receptive, by the way ... Did I mention this the other day? I can't remember now. Your breast tissue is very receptive to oxalates. "Ooh, what are oxalates?" Your veggies. Oxalates increase your risk of breast cancer. People don't like to hear that, but that's true.
Let's come back to the thyroid. Levothyroxine, SYNTHROID, a lot of side effects, headaches, diarrhea, mood swings, hair loss, hives. How many times did I see that in my office, hives? I said, "That's a thyroid issue. Are you on thyroid medication?" "Yeah." And I said, "Well, you might have gone years without any side effects, so you thought, but that's a side effect." Weight gain, hard to lose weight when you're on levothyroxine or SYNTHROID. Heart palpitations. These are all side effects, but this study was on the breast cancer and the link to thyroid meds. Can't remember the disclaimer. Not telling you to come off. Don't say, "Dr. Martin wanted me off the thyroid meds." No, he didn't. I didn't say that. I'm just giving you the news behind the news, okay?
So, that's our little afternoon session today. Okay? Just a little bit on the thyroid. Now, what is Friday? Question and Answer Friday. Hope you're looking forward to it. Send your questions. I'll try and answer questions. I'll try and answer them all week. If I see questions that I can answer ahead of time, I'll answer them ahead of time.
Ladies, take care of your thyroid. Your thyroid needs fuel. Never forget that. It is a little engine on its own that needs power-packed nutrition for it to work properly, okay? That's really important. Are you a member of the private Facebook group? I hope so. We enjoy that group. We enjoy that group. And if people can't watch this and you'd like to share the message with them, well, you can share right on Facebook if you want, or you can get them to download the podcast, The Doctor Is In podcast, okay? And we appreciate that for the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of downloads. We appreciate that. And even on Facebook, okay, which we probably hit about 50,000 views a week, which is incredible. We thank you for that.
We really enjoy doing this. So remember, Tony Jr. is a grandpa. That is exciting. And so Tony Jr. and Erica, we congratulate them, and my grandson of course, and his beautiful wife, Mac. Beautiful little baby boy. Hey, we're thrilled. Another Martin in the world. Uh-oh. And another Anthony Martin in the world. They're going to call him Shea. He's cute. He is a beautiful boy. I love him already, and I haven't met him personally yet. Okay. Love you guys. We'll talk to you soon.
Announcer:Â 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!