| Chantel: |
Welcome to Waste Away. The intermittent fasting podcast. If you want to learn how to lose weight for life through intermittent fasting, burn fat, heal your thyroid and auto immune issues and break the bondage of food then this podcast is for you.
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I’m Chantel Ray, author of Waste Away the Chantel Ray Way and each week I have different guests answering your questions. If you haven’t had a chance to pick up your copy of Waste Away, visit chanelrayway.com/podcast and you’ll automatically get 20% off the book, audio book, recipe book, coaching and inner circle Facebook group. Remember, the thoughts and opinions in this podcast do not constitute medical advice.
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Hey guys, welcome to Waste Away, the intermittent podcast. I’m so excited, we have an amazing guest with us. It’s Dr. Mark Scott and we have his website up on the big screen right here and he has been in practice since 1996. Is that right?
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| Mark: |
That’s correct.
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| Chantel: |
So Mark, tell us a little bit about you, and your practice and what you do.
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| Mark: |
So yeah what I do is called functional medicine. Functional medicine, we really look at the unique person, not just a diagnosis. This is a very distinct thing between modern medicine and what I’m doing is that when you go to your doctor their main objective is to give what you have a name.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
So I have these symptoms, [inaudible 00:01:31]
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| Chantel: |
And drugs.
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| Mark: |
Exactly.
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| Chantel: |
Let’s just put a drug to the problem. You know? Let’s fix it with just-
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| Mark: |
The solution will be a drug.
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| Chantel: |
Drug, yeah.
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| Mark: |
But really just the fact they’re looking for a diagnosis, and that’s their job. Like, “You have hypothyroidism,” pat me on the back. How’d I get that?
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| Chantel: |
Right. They’re dealing with … They’re just band aiding the problem instead of really fixing the problem from the root. So today we have all your questions. I have saved up your thyroid questions, and believe it or not this is just the tip … This is not all of them because I knew we wouldn’t get to them. But we just get inundated with thyroid questions, thyroid questions, and you know as everyone else knows, I have struggled with my thyroid. I used to be on 125 milligrams of Synthroid, and I weaned myself through completely off. I just really last week, I was feeling so tired. I haven’t been eating as clean as I need to.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I went ahead and started taking 15 milligrams of Armor Thyroid.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Just to give me a little perk until I dial my eating back in a little bit, I’ve gotten a little bit off track, and as soon as I start doing more fasting my thyroid will get right back on track.
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| Mark: |
It’s so cool you say that too, because I see this in my practice all the time. I mean, people think when you go to your doctor they say, “Well that’s it, you have a thyroid problem and you’ll be on this medication for the rest of your life.” But really when you do the right thing, you get your diet dialed in, you figure out what it is your body’s reacting to. Next thing you know, I’ve had so many people get off their medication.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
But is it really a cure? Or is it just remission?
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
Right? So like you said, you get off track, next thing you know you start getting those thyroid symptoms again.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah. So let’s jump in. It says here’s our first questions, this is from Beth in Virginia Beach. It says, it seems like gluten free is a big buzzword right now, a lot of my friends eat gluten free, and the other day my girlfriend told me I should consider eating this way because of my thyroid issues. Can you explain how gluten affects your thyroid? So what do you think?
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| Mark: |
So here’s the thing. Gluten is something that causes your immune system … I’ll say this first of all. Everybody’s diff, so not everybody has a gluten problem.
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
So when people say gluten affects the thyroid, it only does for some people.
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
So that’s the first thing, but if you do have a gluten sensitivity, then every time you eat this it’s causing your immune system to be overworked, and then that can start to wreck havoc, and it can cause autoimmune thyroid conditions like Hashimoto’s, and yeah, it can be a big factor for a lot of people, so it’s worth giving a try, and a lot of people have a sensitivity to gluten, so they may have more subtle effects that they don’t realize are causing their problem.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah. And for me, I will say this, it’s not just gluten.
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| Mark: |
Exactly.
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| Chantel: |
It’s all grains for me.
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| Mark: |
Exactly.
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| Chantel: |
So I don’t cut it out completely, but I limit my grains, and that’s why like I said, for me in order for me to be completely off thyroid medicine I have to be anywhere between 80 to 90% of my diet has to be grain free, and paleo in order for me to stay off. Now what happens for me is, so like let’s say if I try to do 100% paleo, which for me I can’t do it.
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| Mark: |
Right.
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| Chantel: |
I wish I could do it, I know I’d feel like a million bucks if I did it, it’s very difficult for me to stay 100% paleo, and I don’t recommend being 100% paleo to anyone, or 90%, unless you have these type of autoimmune, or Hashimoto’s or whatever, I 100% have Hashimoto’s, and I know for me I feel so much better the less grains I have, I can just tell my energy’s up, my thyroid’s functioning, and so forth.
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| Mark: |
Well I’ll tell you hit some key points. Number one, has to be grain free. So this is a big mistake, a lot of people say they go gluten free, and they eat a lot of gluten free products, and a lot of those gluten free products have rice, and corn. Rice is very low, it still has a certain … We have proteins called gliadens, and these are what make up glutens. So almost all grains, including rice has this. So when you’re eating gluten free products you’re getting these other grains, so really being grain free is what I tell my patients. Grain free, including rice.
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Now if you’re gonna cheat, rice is probably a better place to cheat, but for gluten, like heavy gluten like wheat, barley, and rye, that will mess you … You have to be 100% if you’ve got Hashimoto’s and you’re gluten sensitive.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
Then you’ve gotta be off that 100%.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
Now if you’re gonna cheat, maybe a little bit of corn, a little bit of rice.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
But for some of my patients, even the rice won’t do it.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
And then as far as 100% paleo, so there’s a difference between being paleo, and looking at autoimmune diet. So there’s certain foods that affect our immune systems, so you could be paleo, but still be eating like say, nightshades.
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
Which are like, tomatoes, peppers, white potatoes, eggplants, and if that’s a stimulant to you then you’re being paleo, and you’re not getting the results you want.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
And it depends on the person, too. So genetically, and then even just your activity level. So if you’re like a marathon runner, you probably need a little more carbs in your diet.
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
But you don’t have to eat grains to get those carbs, but you could be not quite as strict on the low carb diet, and do much better actually.
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| Chantel: |
Yes, exactly. All right let’s read the next question, it’s from Sarah in Arizona. It says, my online research leads me to believe that I have thyroid issues, but I haven’t been to the doctor yet. Can you do an overview of the symptoms I should be keeping an eye on, and is there a way I can verify without going to the doctor? It’s like, no one wants to go to the doctor anymore.
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| Mark: |
I know.
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| Chantel: |
It’s like, how do I do this online?
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| Mark: |
Google’s amazing, right? I mean, Google … You could get lot of info just by googling it, and doing your own research, and figuring these things out.
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| Chantel: |
So I found this online just to see what it was like, and it’s called Everlywell Thyroid Test. I haven’t used it.
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| Mark: |
Right.
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| Chantel: |
Literally it’s still in the box, I don’t even know what it’s about yet. But I just found it, and it says physician approved lab test, fast and easy to read results all from the comfort of your home.
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| Mark: |
Interesting.
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| Chantel: |
And so I was like, let me just see what this is about. I’m actually opening it right now, but basically you purchase the kit, you collect your sample, and then you send it in, and then you receive online results.
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| Mark: |
What type of sample is it?
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| Chantel: |
So it looks like …
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| Mark: |
Saliva or blood?
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| Chantel: |
Is this blood right here? We’ll have to look into it.
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| Mark: |
If it’s got a pinprick in it.
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| Chantel: |
Must be. Is it that small?
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| Mark: |
So if it’s blood, it could be pretty accurate, and that’s one of the things I tell people is that there’s all kinds of things out there, like checking your temperature.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
And that’s a little bit tedious, and it could be a good indicator, but it’s not 100%, there’s other things that can cause your temperature to vary, and there’s a lot of symptoms that a lot of times people come to my office because they have all the thyroid symptoms, and they’ve read somewhere online that these are the thyroid symptoms, but it may not just be their thyroid. So you could have dry skin, you could have dry hair, you could have swelling around the eyes, you could have fatigue, weight gain, all these things can be a thyroid conditions, but it could also be something else too.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so it looks like-
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| Mark: |
And a lot of times it is.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so it looks like this container, what it has, zoom in here Aaron, so everyone can kind of see it. They’ve got an alcohol prep pad, a collection card, you have your own little lancet, and then so they’re taking your blood, they’re putting it in, they have a biohazard bag, and then you return the envelope and it shows you how it is. So here’s what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna test it, and I’ll let everyone know what it is.
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| Mark: |
Cool.
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| Chantel: |
So I just got my blood drawn on Friday of last week, and then we’ll just have to see-
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| Mark: |
See what that shows versus what your other one, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
How accurate versus the other one shows. But like I said, I did just start back to taking 15 milligrams of the Armor Thyroid, not Synthroid. I had such a horrible experience on that Synthroid, I would never ever recommend doing Synthroid. I personally think the natural thyroid … I think this might be a question, but let me just ask you this while we’re on it.
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| Mark: |
Yeah, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
What is your opinion of the difference between the Armor Thyroid and the Synthroid?
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| Mark: |
So the big story on that is that … The short answer is that everybody responds different.
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| Chantel: |
Differently.
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| Mark: |
Because I have some people that do great on Synthroid, some people do better on Armor, some people do better on Nature Throid, and what it really comes down to is the stabilizers that they use in the products. So everybody reacts differently to the stabilizers. In a perfect world if you can get bio-identical compounded thyroid, that should be the best because it’s more closely related to your natural thyroid, but Nature Throid used to be great.
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| Chantel: |
Well, and this is-
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| Mark: |
They changed the formula.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so what-
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| Mark: |
So some people don’t-
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| Chantel: |
What I’ve heard is, and from all my doctor friends, my dad is a doctor, and what he says, and I think it’s really the drug industry trying to say this.
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| Mark: |
I agree.
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| Chantel: |
Is because they’re trying to get people to use Synthroid instead of Nature Throid, and the Armor Thyroid.
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| Mark: |
Totally.
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| Chantel: |
What they’re saying is, that the exact dosage in the natural methods like Armor are not specific enough, and so you might be getting this much, and you might be getting this much, you don’t know, and with Synthroid it’s exact because it’s made in a factory I guess.
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| Mark: |
Well when you’re dealing with … No, when you’re dealing with Nature Throid, and like-
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| Chantel: |
So tell everyone why it’s called a natural thyroid medicine.
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| Mark: |
So there’s a couple different ways to look at it. So things like Nature Throid are compounded, which means they take … Any drug has to be … Can’t exist in nature in order to patent it. So they take a chemical exist in nature, so you got a couple carbons, and hydrogens, you take one of those little hydrogens and move it to the left, and now it’s different, and you can patent it.
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| Chantel: |
Okay.
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| Mark: |
So that’s how all drugs work, and that’s something that doesn’t exist in nature, so when you take thyroid hormone, which exists in nature in your body, you duplicated exactly chemically, then that’s called a natural compounded thyroid, and Nature Throid-
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| Chantel: |
Isn’t it from pigs? Like Armor Thyroid, isn’t that thyroid compound made from pigs?
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| Mark: |
Some are, and this is where you were talking about not knowing exactly how much is in it. So there’s glandulars, a lot of times people … Different products, like natural products you can buy over the counter have glandulars in them, so they have like, pig glandular, or cow, or whatever, and then they’ve got that thyroid hormone in it, and you’re getting that. So it’s kind of like taking a supplement, but it’s got a little bit of thyroid hormone, but again you don’t know exactly how much you’re getting, your dosage could be off a little bit.
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But you’re dealing with any of those other products, and I’m not exact positive on the different ones like Nature Throid, and there’s a couple of others out there. I’m pretty sure that those are pretty accurate.
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| Chantel: |
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I think so too. My goal obviously is to completely get off 15 milligrams is so small, it’s like the smallest dosage you possibly can get. But lord willing, once I just clean up my diet a little bit better now, I am going to be right back onto weaning myself completely off again.
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| Mark: |
But I tell my patients if your thyroid numbers aren’t right, you’re better off on thyroid medication.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
Because-
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| Chantel: |
Because you get exhausted.
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| Mark: |
Your thyroid has so much effect on our body, so you gotta keep it right.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so that actually leads us into our next question. This is from Sarah in Arizona, and Sarah thanks for letting us know where you’re from. Always when you do your emails, and you’re putting your questions in, we want to know where you’re from, it’s kind of fun to know.
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| Mark: |
It’s cool.
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| Chantel: |
But it says, my online research leads me to believe that I have thyroid issues, but I haven’t been to the doctor yet. Can you do an overview of the symptoms that I should be keeping an eye on, and is there a way I can verify without going to the doctor? So name some of the symptoms that you’ve seen kind of going in.
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| Mark: |
Well those common things are just fatigue.
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| Chantel: |
Number one, hands down.
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| Mark: |
Yeah, number one, fatigue.
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| Chantel: |
Number one is tired. Are you tired all the time? Even if you’ve slept all the way through the night, right?
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| Mark: |
Exactly. Inability to lose weight even on a low calorie diet.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
Tend to catch colds, and flus fairly easily, wounds tend to heal slowly, you have itchy dry skin, dry brittle hair.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
Hair tends to fall our fairly easily.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so at one point my hair, this was years and years ago before I got it diagnosed. Literally my hair was falling out in chunks. I had to get-
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| Mark: |
I had no idea.
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| Chantel: |
My hair cut off to here, and then I had to get extensions, and extensions are so expensive. I mean, it was such a nightmare.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I think for me, one of the things is being cold all the time.
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| Mark: |
Yeah. Cold hands and feet.
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| Chantel: |
Just I-
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| Mark: |
Or just sensitivity-
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| Chantel: |
First of all, intermittent fasting makes you cold anyway, but then if you also have thyroid issues you’re just gonna constantly be cold, and your temperature’s gonna be low. What about some hormonal issues, like periods and stuff like that?
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| Mark: |
Totally. The thing about the thyroid is that every cell in your body has thyroid receptors, so it has an impact on just about everything, and that’s why it’s so important, and it’s a big part of my practice. Even people coming in for other conditions I’m always gonna look at their thyroid.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
A lot of times they have sub clinical thyroid issues and don’t even know it. So yeah, so all those things.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so I would say-
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| Mark: |
Sleep, hormones.
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| Chantel: |
Tired, mood swings, pain in your muscles and joints.
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| Mark: |
Anxiety, depression.
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| Chantel: |
Yes, depression.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Anything with your hormones as far as irregular periods, low sex drive.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Drier skin. What about the nails?
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
So talk about like those lines-
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| Mark: |
So brittle nails, and the little ridges on the nails.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, the ridges on your nails. I want to put a picture of that.
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| Mark: |
Nail fungus.
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| Chantel: |
That’s a good one.
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| Mark: |
So people that tend to have nail fungus like, on their toes and stuff like that, a lot of times that’s thyroid.
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| Chantel: |
And then it can be any of these, or just one or two of them, but it could be like forgetfulness, or just general brain fog, and I think a big one is constipation.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I tell everyone all the time I’m like the worst pooper in town.
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| Mark: |
Classic.
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| Chantel: |
But my biggest thing, and that’s why I know when my thyroid’s really acting up because I’m just … You can’t pay me to poop.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I’m just like, it’s just not gonna happen right?
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| Mark: |
Yeah, so chronic constipation, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
So talk about, have you had anyone use a basal body temperature thermometer at all to check their thyroid?
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| Mark: |
I’ve studied that, I’ve learned all about it, and I just don’t use it in my practice. I just think it’s a little bit tedious, and I like bloodwork.
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| Chantel: |
Bloodwork yeah.
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| Mark: |
I just like bloodwork, so it’s simple and it’s easy.
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| Chantel: |
And I will tell you, I agree. I mean, the first thing, like this test. I mean, it’s like come on, just go get a full panel, you know?
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
But the only reason I like this, my suggestion would be, go get a full panel, come see you, and let me ask you this, can you do this for someone who is in Arizona?
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| Mark: |
Totally.
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| Chantel: |
Okay, so how would that-
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| Mark: |
That’s a big part of my practice.
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| Chantel: |
So how would that work for you? So you would just do a phone consultation?
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| Mark: |
Yeah. So everything that I do is just through the internet, through phone. I mean, nowadays with the internet we can do screen share, I can show bloodwork on the computer.
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| Chantel: |
Perfect, so yeah-
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| Mark: |
You really don’t have to, you know-
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| Chantel: |
I think something like this would be fine, but to be honest I think this kit was like $159.
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| Mark: |
That’s pretty good.
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| Chantel: |
So it’s like-
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| Mark: |
Well it depends on what they’re gonna give you. So are they gonna give you just TSH? Are they gonna give you T4? T3? Are they gonna give reversed T3?
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| Chantel: |
I’m gonna do it just to see what it is.
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| Mark: |
To see what they give you, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
Antibodies, right?
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so I’m gonna come see you and have you do a full panel and see how it goes, and see everything that it does. What I like the temperature thing for me, because I think it’s really accurate. I think it’s more accurate than people think, and so when I want to see how I’m doing, you can’t go take a blood test every day right?
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| Mark: |
Right.
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| Chantel: |
So for me, it’s so accurate. I take my temperature, you can buy a basal thermometer on Amazon.
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| Mark: |
Amazon yeah.
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| Chantel: |
And just check your temperature in the morning.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I mean, it’s like it takes one minute.
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| Mark: |
It’s pretty simple yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I mean, it takes one minute.
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| Mark: |
But you have to remember to do it-
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, but I stick it right on the edge of my bed-
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| Mark: |
It’s a habit.
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| Chantel: |
It is, you gotta create a habit to do it.
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| Mark: |
You just wake up and you do it right away.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, so I think it’s good to see how am I doing.
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| Mark: |
I think it’s good to say okay, yes, potentially my thyroid’s off because my temperatures are low, and then if you raise your temperature then that’s a good sign that your thyroid’s functioning better, but then what do you do? If you find out you have low temperature, and you don’t know how to get your temperature up, what do you do?
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
So that’s where you need to get the solution under control, and that’s where it takes sometimes other testing, and other knowledge to really figure out what your particular problems are because I can have seven people come in with a specific diagnosis like Hashimoto’s, and they can have seven different reasons why they have it. And that’s where-
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| Chantel: |
So explain to us, what is the difference between someone just having hypothyroidism versus Hashimoto’s. What is the difference?
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| Mark: |
So here’s what I would say, it comes back to some concepts with just names, and then understanding function. So medical world has named these things, so you named hypothyroid, that’s just a way to describe the thyroid’s not functioning. But there’s over 24 different patterns of hypothyroidism. So when I look at someone I not only look at it that way, I look at it like okay, you have low thyroid function, now why is that? Maybe you’re not converting T4 to T3, so sometimes you have imbalance in the gut bacteria, so 20% of your conversion takes place in those bacteria in the gut.
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So you have problems in your gut, even if have no symptoms-
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| Chantel: |
That’s my problem.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
I have gut.
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| Mark: |
And you’re not converting, yeah. But that’s common, you know?
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
And even if you don’t have symptoms, but you’re not converting, so that’s 20% decreased function right there. The liver is probably 80 to 90%-
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| Chantel: |
And that’s why … And that kind of makes sense of why … Listen, why is that when I eat a paleo diet that all of a sudden my thyroid starts working well? Because when you’re eating paleo, your body can digest that food, and so then it’s like, okay you’re not having all these liver issues, gut issues, so now the thyroid can function.
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| Mark: |
Totally, totally.
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| Chantel: |
And it can convert.
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| Mark: |
Yeah, and that’s just two of like 24 different patterns, but even people have problems in their neurotransmitters where their brain isn’t really working properly, so when your thyroid sends a signal up to your hypothalamus, which is part of your brain, it’s gonna send another signal to your pituitary back down to the thyroid, and if that conversion, if it’s not connecting then the thyroid keeps sending the signal, but it’s not a thyroid problem it’s a neurotransmitter problem. So it’s not a thyroid problem, it’s a gut problem. It’s not a thyroid problem, it’s a liver problem. And that’s the difference between a functional approach to care, and conventional medicine just says, “Oh, you have Hashimoto’s, take Synthroid.” What about my immune system? “Well no one knows what to do with that.”
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
But you know.
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| Chantel: |
Well this next question I think we’ve kind of already answered, it’s Erin in Lynchberg, she says I’ve been taking Synthroid for almost a year now. Recently I’ve read some terrible things online about it. If you Google like, why Synthroid’s bad for you, you’ll get like a laundry list of stuff. But it says, should I try something more natural like Armor Thyroid? My answer for that would be a resounding yes because I have had a terrible experience with Synthroid myself, and just like I told you before, I just kept taking Synthroid-
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| Mark: |
Totally.
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| Chantel: |
And I would just gain weight, gain weight, gain weight, gain weight.
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| Mark: |
Right.
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| Chantel: |
It made me worse, and worse, and worse. So I am definitely an anti-Synthroid person. I bet like if anyone is like a Synthroid sales rep they’d be like-
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| Mark: |
Yeah, well I would say that I’m an anti-medication.
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| Chantel: |
Yes, and I am too.
|
| Mark: |
But I also would say that you know, from my experience, try different ones. I’ve had people that say the same thing about Armor, and they say, “You know what? I tried Armor, and I felt horrible. I went back to Synthroid and I feel great.” So if you have to take medication just try it. There’s a couple different ones out there-
|
| Chantel: |
But the ultimate goal is we want to try to ultimately see how we can lower it, or wean you off completely.
|
| Mark: |
And that’s my focus in my practice is that I want to try to get you off the medication completely, but I also managed expectations and say, “Look sometimes-”
|
| Chantel: |
Takes a while.
|
| Mark: |
Or you’ve had damage to your thyroid, so if your immune system’s been attacking your thyroid for years, you may never get full function, but we get those other things tweaked like the gut, and the liver, and the neurotransmitters, and now you’re getting more benefit from your thyroid. So a lot of people have something called thyroid resistance, and this is where just like insulin resistance, your cells become desensitized, so even though you got your TSH at a normal level, you still have all the symptoms, and you have to figure out how to restore proper sensitivity to your receptors. So once you do all that, then you may need less Synthroid or whatever it is you’re taking. And you may still need some-
|
| Chantel: |
Well I think this next question really is gonna address that because Angela in Pennsylvania says, what is the difference between T3, T4, and TSH? I’ve been trying to do some reading online about the thyroid, and I’m not understanding the difference between T3, T4 verus TSH.
|
| Mark: |
Right.
|
| Chantel: |
And it does get complicated, it’s like oh my gosh. Can you explain these in an easy fashion where I can understand? So we do … Try to make it as simple as possible.
|
| Mark: |
Real simple.
|
| Chantel: |
Really take the doctor piece out.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
Explain it as easy as you can.
|
| Mark: |
So real simple, TSH is just your thyroid telling your brain that you need to make hormone.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
And then there’s a feedback between the brain and the thyroid, it’s a signal, it’s a messenger that doesn’t do anything.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay it’s just the messenger.
|
| Mark: |
It’s just the messenger. Then your thyroid makes T4.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
I’m gonna explain T4 but I don’t need to. So T4 is just what your thyroid makes, and then your body has to convert that to something that … So your body can’t use T4.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
So you make it, you have lots of T4, does you no good.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
Your body has to convert that to something called T3.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
And that’s what the body can use. So that’s the difference.
|
| Chantel: |
So you could be making all this T4, but if your body doesn’t convert it to T3, and that is-
|
| Mark: |
And that’s Synthroid, so Synthroid is T4.
|
| Chantel: |
Yes. So that’s the perfect thing, so I believe that that’s-
|
| Mark: |
So Cytomel is T3.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
So a lot of times pl will say, “Well I take a combination of Synthroid and Cytomel.” Because that’s giving you the T3, and I don’t know why they don’t just say give people T3, but a lot of people are taking T4, and they’re not converting.
|
| Chantel: |
So that’s a perfect example, so that must have been what was happening to me, right? Because I kept taking the Synthroid, and I would take Synthroid and I would go to the doctor and they’d say, “No you’re thyroid’s terrible.” I’d go back, I’d take thyroid they’re like, “No it’s still not functioning.” So they kept increasing it.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
And increasing it, and increasing it, so that means that you’re giving me this T4, but now your body can’t use T4. T4 has to convert to T3 in order for your body to use it.
|
| Mark: |
And it’s even harder to find a doctor that will even check that. So like I said, a lot of times you’ll look and you’ll just get TSH, maybe T4, but they might not even check T3.
|
| Chantel: |
Right. And so I hope that, Angela, answers your question. I think that makes it clear to me.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
With Synthroid, Synthroid is just T4, correct?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
But the more T4 you have, your body is supposed to turn that T4 into T3.
|
| Mark: |
Exactly.
|
| Chantel: |
If it’s not-
|
| Mark: |
If it’s functioning normally.
|
| Chantel: |
So then if it’s not, what about Armor Thyroid? What is that?
|
| Mark: |
I think that’s just T4 as well.
|
| Chantel: |
It is?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
So is there a drug, so you’re saying there’s another drug-
|
| Mark: |
Cytomel.
|
| Chantel: |
Cytomel.
|
| Mark: |
That is T3.
|
| Chantel: |
That is just goes straight to T3.
|
| Mark: |
It just is, it’s just synthesized T3 as opposed to giving T4, you’re giving the already converted form called T3.
|
| Chantel: |
So why would … If Synthroid is T4.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
And if Armor is T4, why would someone’s body respond to the Armor Thyroid, but not as well to the Synthroid? What would be a reason-
|
| Mark: |
It’s back to the formulation, and how the body’s responding to the formulation.
|
| Chantel: |
Gotcha.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, so that’s just what it comes down to.
|
| Chantel: |
Hey guys, I’m so excited that my new book, Waste Away the Chantel Ray Way is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and pretty much anywhere you can find books, but we also have the audiobook, the ebook, and my new recipe book that you can download all the recipes that I love that I make, and it’s super cheap. It’s all my favorites.
|
|
Anyway, if you have a minute to write a review on Amazon I would be ever grateful.
|
|
All right, this person did not even put a name or where they’re from.
|
| Mark: |
I read that one, yeah. And I know why.
|
| Chantel: |
So they don’t want to know.
|
| Mark: |
They want to know about their poop.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah, once we read the question you’ll know why they didn’t put their name or where they’re from. It says, I’m having trouble pooping since I’ve been doing intermittent fasting. I’ve always been a terrible pooper, and my thyroid is acting up. Do you think me not pooping has anything to do with my thyroid? Anonymous.
|
| Mark: |
You know, it can. I can’t say 100% because we don’t know enough information, but thyroid and constipation go hand in hand.
|
| Chantel: |
Yes, it’s a classic sing of hypothyroidism.
|
| Mark: |
Classic sign, yeah. But intermittent fasting too, so if you’re changing your dietary patterns, that can cause constipation. A lot of times people drink coffee every morning, so that stimulates the bowels, and they stop drinking coffee, they start fasting, then they get constipated, or they’re eating whole wheat bagels every morning, and then they go fast, and they’re eating that, because that’s an irritant that stimulates the bowel, so there could be other answers to that question.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah, and I would say just straight up fiber is really a great answer for this in your eating window, and without enough thyroid hormone your body’s … All your body functions-
|
| Mark: |
Slow down.
|
| Chantel: |
Slow down, so that is including your digestive tract, right?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
So we’re trying to speed everything up, and-
|
| Mark: |
It’s also liver and bile function. So that’s classic, is that your bile is part of what helps transport a lot of these things through your body.
|
| Chantel: |
So let’s talk about that. Expand on that for just a second. Explain to everyone what is bile.
|
| Mark: |
So bile is, when you eat fat, your body produces bile to break down fats.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
So a low fat diet can cause congestion, but the biggest factor is poor stomach acid. So in our world, we have a rampant case of hydrochloric acid.
|
| Chantel: |
So let’s talk about this, and this is-
|
| Mark: |
Low digestive juices.
|
| Chantel: |
Oh my gosh, so let’s talk about this for a second because this is a problem … This is what I think my problem is, okay?
|
| Mark: |
But that stimulates, so the hydrochloric acid stimulates the gall bladder, so if you have heart burn, reflux and you’re taking antacids, or god forbid, prylosec, which shuts down all the proton pump, so there’s no acid being formed at all, then you get bile congestion, and then you end up having your gall bladder removed, and that’s another nightmare to deal with.
|
| Chantel: |
So when I was younger, when I was in my early 20s.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
I was bulimic for like, about a year and a half to two years. Because I was like, okay, I really want to eat, how am I gonna work this out? I really like being skinny-
|
| Mark: |
I figured it out.
|
| Chantel: |
So I’m just gonna kind of throw up a little bit right?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
So that I did for about two years, so that’s terrible for your gut lining, right?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
And for your low acid.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
But that was 20 years ago, but when I had my son, I was the sickest pregnant woman in the world, okay? I threw up six to eight times every day from the day that I got pregnant until the day I gave birth, so literally while I was pushing I was like, “Blah,” and then push and, “Blah.” I mean, I was terrible.
|
| Mark: |
Nightmare.
|
| Chantel: |
People would literally … We’d be on the … Me and my husband would be on the side of 264 while I was throwing up. People would be texting, “Hey, is that you on the side of 264th throwing up?” And I’m like, yes. That’s how sick I was, and it never stopped. It wasn’t like the first three months.
|
|
So with that, I mean, think about, that’s 10 months of just throwing up eight times a day every day. So anyway, with that being said that’s why I don’t have good stomach acid because those two episodes I believe. So don’t you think that could have?
|
| Mark: |
So thyroid, so it’s kind of like chicken or the egg. So low thyroid can cause low stomach acid.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
Gluten intolerance, if you’re oversensitive to gluten, that can cause low stomach acid, and then just our general-
|
| Chantel: |
Diet.
|
| Mark: |
Diet, and just eating constantly, and I don’t get too much into food combining in my practice, for the most part there’s so many simple things you can do, but even just combining different foods.
|
| Chantel: |
Yes.
|
| Mark: |
So like if you’re eating heavy starches with heavy proteins, those take-
|
| Chantel: |
That’s a recipe for disaster.
|
| Mark: |
Different enzymes to break those down, it really stresses your system out. Plus we just eat-
|
| Chantel: |
Too much.
|
| Mark: |
And we snack, and then we eat, and we snack, and eat, we snack. And then our digestive system gets overwhelmed.
|
| Chantel: |
And that’s why intermittent fasting-
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, it’s great.
|
| Chantel: |
Has healed my thyroid.
|
| Mark: |
Totally.
|
| Chantel: |
Because-
|
| Mark: |
It heals your digestion.
|
| Chantel: |
It heals your digestion.
|
| Mark: |
It heals your stomach acid, which then allows your gall bladder to function, which then … That’s functional medicine, so everything is interconnected.
|
| Chantel: |
Yes.
|
| Mark: |
It’s not just your thyroid.
|
| Chantel: |
No, it’s not, and I love that.
|
| Mark: |
It’s not just your thyroid.
|
| Chantel: |
So for her, I would say the two things that really helped me get things moving if things are kind of backed up.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
One would be just straight fiber, and two would be like, sometimes I’ll have coffee with coconut oil.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
That might help things move along. I don’t love coffee because coffee doesn’t … I mean, for me personally I try to limit my coffee because A, I get too much caffeine, and two it’s just not great for my gut biome.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
So I try to avoid it. I don’t have too much of it. I have a little bit, and it definitely helps things get going.
|
| Mark: |
Everybody’s a little different, and I usually take people off caffeine for a little trial, but some people can introduce it back, but if you have any issues with sleeping, or anxiety, or any of that kind of stuff, you gotta stay off caffeine.
|
| Chantel: |
Caffeine.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah. But it does stimulate the bowel, and that’s where a lot of people rely on it for that purpose, plus the MCT oil, or the coconut oil is gonna stimulate the gall bladder. Should, if it’s working.
|
| Chantel: |
So talk about that one more time, so you said you were talking about the …
|
| Mark: |
So part of your liver function.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah, let’s talk about-
|
| Mark: |
Is converting T4 to T3.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
That’s the primary place that we convert that T4 to T3, so when people have liver disfunction.
|
| Chantel: |
Let’s save that for just a second because that is the next question, so Tracy in Chesapeake says, I got some blood work done on my liver, and my doctor said that my liver is not in good shape. Do you think this has anything to do with my thyroid.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
This is what I’m saying, like we’re getting all these questions-
|
| Mark: |
Totally.
|
| Chantel: |
And it’s like, well this isn’t good, do you think it has to do with my thyroid? So how would you answer that?
|
| Mark: |
So 100%. Yeah, and that’s one of these again, functional approaches to thyroid that I would say look, we may be treating stuff that doesn’t seem like it’s related to your thyroid, so we’re gonna work with your digestion. Why? Because we gotta get your gut flora so you can convert T4 to … That’s 20% conversion, but you also have to get your liver functioning, and that’s where like you said, it could be low stomach acid-
|
| Chantel: |
So would you agree with this, that 80% of your thyroid functions actually occurs through your liver?
|
| Mark: |
Yes.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah. And so, T4 is one of those thyroid hormones that we talked about earlier is actually inactive until the liver activates it to become-
|
| Mark: |
Exactly.
|
| Chantel: |
T3.
|
| Mark: |
That’s it.
|
| Chantel: |
So that could be, if your liver … So do you, when you’re doing your bloodwork panel-
|
| Mark: |
Yes.
|
| Chantel: |
Are you checking the liver function?
|
| Mark: |
Yes.
|
| Chantel: |
So what is that test, that bloodwork test?
|
| Mark: |
Well, SGOT, SGPT, and GGT are the common terms now, they changed them from others, but anyway. Those are the key things you’re looking at.
|
| Chantel: |
Okay.
|
| Mark: |
And just looking to see how those … But-
|
| Chantel: |
So if we call you and say, “Okay Dr. Scott, we want you to do a panel.” How many different tests are you running?
|
| Mark: |
So it depends on our consultation, what I find. But there’s a general basic thing that I’ll run that gives me a little bit of everything. So we’ll look into your immune system, we’re gonna look at your lipid panels, we’re gonna look at your digestive markers, we’re gonna look at a little more complete thyroid panel. Not a what I consider full, but I’ll look at TSH, T4-
|
| Chantel: |
Can you do a full one?
|
| Mark: |
T3 uptake. Yeah. But again, like what I tell a lot of patients is that when I treat people, I treat thyroid every day. I rarely have to really treat the thyroid. And that’s where people get a little wigged out. They’re like, “I’m here for my thyroid.” I’m like, “I know, but that’s down the road. First let’s see what the foundations are, and then once we get the foundations fixed, half the time I’m gonna have to do that, so you know-
|
| Chantel: |
Well what I’d like to do is have you back on the show.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
I’d like to come and get a full panel, and then let’s just read it for everyone, and kind of diagnose it and go, “Here’s what we’ve got, and here’s what we find,” because I think that would be pretty interesting.
|
| Mark: |
It really is.
|
| Chantel: |
And so if someone wants to get a hold of you, and wants to get this, they could go right here to thyroidvirginiabeach.com. All right, perfect.
|
|
All right, next question. Ashland in North Carolina, it says, I’ve noticed that my nails are super brittle, and they have these little lines on them. Uh-oh.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
I started doing some research online, and it seems like it could be thyroid related. I read that thyroid issues can also make your skin and hair dry, which mine are. Am I over analyzing this too much? Do I need some lotion and a manicure? L-O-L. Isn’t that funny? Oh my gosh I really like this girl already. Or do you think this is truly thyroid related? I love that question, Ashland. Ashland in North Carolina.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, and the key point with that is that you have to listen to your body. So we’ve all been kind of conditioned like you said, I just need a little lotion, or I need a kind of cream, or I need to just get a manicure. But this is your body saying, “Hey something’s not right.”
|
| Chantel: |
Something’s not right.
|
| Mark: |
Why is this going on?
|
| Chantel: |
Well yeah, and normally, you know it’s funny because they say like, sometimes you know how you can have a problem, and then you can Google it, and then you think-
|
| Mark: |
[inaudible 00:37:27]
|
| Chantel: |
You’re about to die, right? But I mean, I would say 100% you gotta go to the doctor ASAP, you’ve gotta call Dr. Scott and get that panel tested.
|
| Mark: |
And I’m glad you said that because-
|
| Chantel: |
So what do you do? You just send them to like Lab Corps or something like that, right?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, so again there’s just a basic panel. For me, it’s basic, but it’s really comprehensive, it’s like four, five different vials, but to me that’s my basic foundational bloodwork that I build from there. And then from there then I may order other tests, or some different labs based on what we find, but the key point is that you can go to your doctor, and they’re not gonna be able to address any of the stuff we’re talking about.
|
| Chantel: |
Right.
|
| Mark: |
And that’s what’s frustrating-
|
| Chantel: |
And they might just do T3, and not look at your T4-
|
| Mark: |
But they’re not gonna understand any of the stuff we’re talking about, so-
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah.
|
| Mark: |
Again, that’s where people are so frustrated, and that’s where people come to my office, and they’re just so frustrated with the conventional care, they’re looking for something different, and that’s part of it’s nice to do these podcasts, and let people know that, because people well say that, “Well I just need to change my medication.” It’s like no, there’s so much more to it than that.
|
| Chantel: |
Yes.
|
| Mark: |
They don’t even know there’s other options because all the stuff out there is saying … You go to your doc, and they say, “Well that’s it. This is the solution.”
|
| Chantel: |
Right.
|
| Mark: |
There’s no other answers.
|
| Chantel: |
All right, Tara in Charleston says, how do I know when I started in a fat burning state? It was kind of brief and to the point. I think what she’s saying is like, we’ve talked about getting into that fat burning state, and we get this question like probably every week. I love it, it’s a great question, but if someone asked you that, what would you say?
|
| Mark: |
So first of all it’s cool that people are catching onto this because you have three different types of metabolism. You’ve got carb burning, fat burning, and then like an intermediary. So most people don’t understand that, so 90% of us are … Probably 99% of us have been in a carbohydrate burning metabolism since birth, and never gotten out of it.
|
| Chantel: |
Right.
|
| Mark: |
So just-
|
| Chantel: |
And we call it sugar burning, which is the same thing.
|
| Mark: |
Sugar burning, yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
Sugar burning, carb burning-
|
| Mark: |
Sugar burning, carb burning, whatever.
|
| Chantel: |
It’s the exact same thing.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, but to even understand that yes there is a different metabolism that relies on fats is cool that she’s even asking the question, and there’s lots of different ways you can try to measure ketones, and stuff like that, but you don’t really have to be in ketosis to be in the fat burning. I would say the biggest simple marker is when you stop craving carbs. So if you’re feeling like you have to eat, and you say you eat a big meal, and it’s like big filling meal, but then you’re still … Like you didn’t have any carbohydrates, you had big piece of meat, some vegetables, and salad, but you still feel like you’re hungry, you’re in that carb burning mode.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah.
|
| Mark: |
So your body needs carbs.
|
| Chantel: |
Carbs.
|
| Mark: |
Once you start getting into fat burning, then that eases up. You don’t feel the need to eat after you just ate, you don’t feel the need to snack, you go longer, and you just feel better, more longer lasting energy. That’s a general case-
|
| Chantel: |
And it’s funny because I think what the people … They keep asking this question, trying to get me to answer it in a different way, but there is no scientific way to say like, okay, three hours after you eat, or 10 hours after you eat, or 15 hours after you eat. That’s when you start going into fat burning mode because it all depends on what did you eat for your last meal, and how big was that last meal? But I would say-
|
| Mark: |
It really depends on a lot more than that because you can cut all carbohydrates out of your diet, and go ketogenic, and not get into fat burning mode.
|
| Chantel: |
How would that? Because you’re eating-
|
| Mark: |
It can take a week or two, so it’s not just after each meal. Now once you get good at it, once your body is like, really well trained, and a lot of athletes can do this very quickly where they can flip from carb burning to fat burning fairly quickly or even in the intermediate zone, but the average person that I see, it can take up to two weeks. So when they first cut the carbs out of their diet they are struggling, they have low energy, they can’t stand it.
|
| Chantel: |
Well let’s talk about … Let’s say someone is just eating regular carbs, right? But they’re eating carbs, but then they decide to go on a fast or they’re fasting for 48 hours, okay? Wouldn’t you say that after about I don’t know, depending on what they ate at their last meal, right? That after 24 to 48 hours once they burn through all their glucose storage, then at that point they burn through all their glucose, they have no more glucose storage left, now their body is forced to go into a fat burning mode.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
Because there’s no more glucose storage there, that’s empty, so that’s when it is. So my thing to her would be that once you’re … If you’re fasting, and your stomach starts growling, not a growling where your stomach could growl after you finished eating dinner, right? Because it’s just the juices, and the gases, but I’m talking about once you’re … Like for me, when I go, okay I’ve fasted, my stomach is growling, then I can almost … I know it sounds weird, but I can tell my own body that once my stomach growls, and in several hours after my stomach growls because I fasted-
|
| Mark: |
That’s when you start kicking in.
|
| Chantel: |
That’s when I can … I almost can feel it. I know it sounds weird, but I can almost feel like, “Hmm, my body is …” I kinda get happy, you know?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
And it was so funny because there’s this girl who her name is … She was Miss Virginia.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
She’s very thin, you know, one of the things I did is I interviewed all these women when I wrote my book Waste Away the Chantel Ray Way. I interviewed thousands of women, and they were all thin, and had been thin their whole life, and I would ask them these questions, and that’s when it like literally light bulb clicked on.
|
| Mark: |
So yeah, [inaudible 00:43:31] she was fasting versus … So if you’re eating, you know, you’re eating like paleo, and some people bodies are better at this, you can actually take your proteins, it’s called gluconeogenesis, and you can actually make glucose out of those proteins, and that keeps you in that sort of burning metabolism. So to really kick in, but if you’re fasting-
|
| Chantel: |
Yes, when you’re fasting though-
|
| Mark: |
Then you’ve run through all your glycogen stores, there’s nothing left, and that’s the quickest way to kick in-
|
| Chantel: |
And that’s my point.
|
| Mark: |
Yes.
|
| Chantel: |
And that’s why we have this podcast, and that’s my whole point.
|
| Mark: |
That’s it, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Is that’s why intermittent fasting-
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| Mark: |
Is so awesome.
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| Chantel: |
Is so awesome because I don’t have to worry about counting every carb and da, da, da, da, because once I fast I already know-
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| Mark: |
That kick you into fat burning much quicker.
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| Chantel: |
You are going to go into fat burning because you’ve already burned through all your glycogen stores, but like you said you could do the ketogenic, and just keep eating all this stuff, and not go into fat burning because it still has a little bit of that glycogen-
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| Mark: |
That’s it.
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| Chantel: |
And it’s still using that, so oh my gosh, that is such a good point.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
We need to make that like, so good, so good.
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| Mark: |
You’re right, so fasting is just so powerful.
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| Chantel: |
It is.
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| Mark: |
On so many levels.
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| Chantel: |
At so many levels. Okay, this is a long question from Jazzmin in Miami, and it’s J-A-Z-Z-M-I-N, here we go. Hey guys, I’m so thankful to have your show during my morning commute. Maybe it’s a synchronicity, but most of the questions I have about IF almost always seem to be answered on your podcast, that’s so cool. I’ve been doing IF for about three weeks now, and it’s definitely working for me. I’ve found that I have more energy, and I’m so much less crabby and cranky throughout the day. I know you’ve mentioned PCOS in previous podcasts, and the advice was super helpful. I’ve recently started feeling some changes in the way my body feels that I relate to my cycle. Tender bosom, I love using that word whenever I get a chance, L-O-L, slight cramping, and other PMS like symptoms, mood, and cravings.
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I had my cycle just before starting IF, so experiencing these symptoms this soon is a bit out of character for my body. I have extremely irregular periods, and I’m curious to know what about IF … IF by the way is intermittent fasting, contributes to managing PCOS if anything at all? I was also curious to know if you’ve ever heard about taking metformin for PCOS. I’m not diabetic, nor do I have any other ailments outside of PCOS. My midwife, nurse practitioner recommends this. I’m a little unsure if I want to go this route as I’m usually hesitant to take medication. Do you think this could interfere with my IF journey? Do you think it would be an assistant to the benefits of IF? Any advice or opinions you have would be awesome.
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| Mark: |
So yeah, this is one of my fun things, you know? Metformin, so again, it just goes back to our conventional doctors, and their education, and their being taught by the pharmaceutical companies. So metformin is a diabetic medication, and high blood sugar is a foundation, so when someone comes in my office, that’s the [inaudible 00:46:50] thing we’re looking at, so everybody’s got insulin issues, and things like that. Even if they’re not diabetic or even pre diabetic, they’ve probably got these insulin issues. So when your blood sugar is off, this can cause massive imbalances in your hormones. I mean, it affects so many different levels.
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So that’s why the studies show that metformin can help with these things.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
Because it’s just a way to try to manage your blood sugar.
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| Chantel: |
Blood sugar.
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| Mark: |
But it makes you dependent on a drug versus just doing what we’re talking about-
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| Chantel: |
About, yes.
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| Mark: |
You know, intermittent fasting, watching your carbs, and learning how to optimize your insulin sensitivity versus taking a drug.
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| Chantel: |
I agree.
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| Mark: |
So that’s my answer to that is that metformin, the reason your doctor’s telling that is because your doctor’s not being educated about function and natural treatments, and what we’re talking about on the podcast, they’re being taught that the studies show that metformin helped with that, so I understand where they’re coming from, but they might not understand why.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah.
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| Mark: |
It’s really about getting your blood sugar managed.
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| Chantel: |
And I think that the thing is is that Dr. Scott and I are both like, if there’s any way to not take medicine.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
That’s the route we’re gonna go. We just don’t want to be taking medicine every single day, and-
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| Mark: |
Well that’s my specialty.
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| Chantel: |
I first want to address, let’s address her regulated periods and all of that. So when I first started doing IF, my periods were a mess as well.
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| Mark: |
Yes.
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| Chantel: |
Because it really regulates it. Now I am like clockwork. 28 days, and boom there it is. Like my husband’s like, 28 days here we go. Like he knows. But in the beginning while your body’s adjusting you are gonna go on a little bit of a roller coaster ride, and I feel like since I’ve been doing IF, my periods and everything, I had PCOS, and everything has really just-
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| Mark: |
Totally.
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| Chantel: |
Completely healed.
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| Mark: |
It takes getting your blood sugar back.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
So in other words when you fast it just improves your insulin sensitivity, so there’s even studies showing that type one diabetics, which are people that have an immune system attacking their pancreas, and the pancreas cells become damaged and they can’t make insulin. Fasting can actually rebuild those cells.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
So you can even get-
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| Chantel: |
I know a ton of people who have been after they read my book, they were either borderline type two diabetic, which I was borderline type two diabetic.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
And I healed myself, my blood sugar has never been better ever in its life, and people who were actually type two diabetic that have emailed in, “Great news, through intermittent fasting I’ve literally … I’m not type two diabetic anymore.”
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| Mark: |
That’s it.
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| Chantel: |
They’re not taking medicine, so talk a little bit about estrogen and fat stores a little bit.
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| Mark: |
So again, this goes back to the liver, right? So when you don’t make bile it’s hard to excrete these hormones, and that’s when the main pathways of excreting bile. Not only that, your liver has phase one and phase two detoxification, so your liver’s a big detoxifier, and this is where you can clear your hormones. So a lot of women have excess estrogen, and just enhancing that liver detoxification pathway can do wonders.
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| Chantel: |
So what are the things that they can do to detoxify the liver?
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| Mark: |
There’s certain nutrients that I use, certain products of stuff that really … So probably the nutrients that help ramp that up, but just all the things we’re talking about as far as cleaning up your diet-
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| Chantel: |
Cleaning your diet, yes.
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| Mark: |
Getting the grains out of your diet. I mean, just standard American diet, all of the fast food, and the packaged foods, convenience foods, and all those different things have lots of different things that clog up our system-
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| Chantel: |
They’re damaging our liver. Yes.
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| Mark: |
And then the sugar, so the blood sugar and the carbohydrates just really … That’s where you get fatty liver even if you’re not drinking alcohol you can still get stress on the liver, so when I see people with high blood sugar, and high hemoglobin A1C, a lot of times they’ll have elevated liver enzymes and they’re, “I don’t drink.”
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| Chantel: |
Right.
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| Mark: |
Because everyone thinks alcohol’s the only thing.
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| Chantel: |
Yes.
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| Mark: |
That can do it.
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| Chantel: |
And let’s see what mine are, we’re gonna test it.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Okay, so Jean, she doesn’t say where she lives or what part of the country she’s from. She says, I’ve noticed I’m staying up a lot later at night, not sure if it’s from intermittent fasting. Perhaps I have more energy or something, and sometimes it’s hard to wind down. Right now it’s after 1 a.m. and a few nights I was up til after 3 and could not fall asleep until around 4 or 5. I already have to take 50 milligrams of lorazepam, I don’t know if I’m saying-
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| Mark: |
Yeah, lorazepam.
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| Chantel: |
Lorazepam.
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| Mark: |
That’s how I pronounce it.
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| Chantel: |
Most nights to stop me from thinking, so I can sleep. It would be great if I could get off that also. I have only had to take it for the last several years, and I’m 61. Before that I slept just fine. I don’t drink much coffee, maybe half a cup twice a day especially on the days I didn’t get enough sleep.
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I also try to do one cup of decaf green tea, and sometimes one of the sleep time teas later in the evening. I can go several days with no coffee, so not sure why I wound up late longer at night. Any guidance is appreciated, thanks so much, have a blessed weekend, Jean.
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| Mark: |
So I would say that’s a sign of adrenal stress, and she said she’s intermittent fasting?
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| Chantel: |
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
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| Mark: |
So sometimes when you start intermittent fasting it can be a stress to your adrenals. So one of the ways your body tries to get energy is through stress hormones, like cortisol, and epinephrine, and norepinephrine to try to break down your muscle tissue, and your fat tissue to create energy.
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| Chantel: |
Okay.
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| Mark: |
So sometimes when people start fasting, if they’ve already got stressed adrenals to being with, now they may have other issues. They may have heavy metal toxicities, they may have food sensitivities, gut dysbiosis, they maybe have other things that are stressing the adrenals, and then they try to fast on top of it. So sometimes you have to kind of heal the adrenals, and then start slow with the fasting, but that’s something that doesn’t get talked about a lot with fasting, is the negative aspect of it is that sometimes you can kick into those hormones, and then your sleep patterns become off.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, and I would say one of the things about intermittent fasting is that everything in your body, when you’re intermittent fasting, it’s almost like double fold. Meaning if you’re just eating regular, like every two or three hours like the typical American diet.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
And then you have caffeine, when you have that caffeine it affects you one way, right?
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
But like for example, for me because I do intermittent fasting, or the days let’s say I decide to do a 24 hour fast.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Or something like that, or even a longer fast, if I drink caffeine on those days that I’m intermittent fasting-
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| Mark: |
It hits you.
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| Chantel: |
It’s double, or triple the effect because the food, I don’t have the food to like absorb any of that, so that’s part of the issue too, is that even if she’s only having one or two cups-
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| Mark: |
Half a cup or whatever she’s saying-
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| Chantel: |
Or half a cup or whatever she’s saying, the effect of that is doubled, that’s number one. Number two, you know, I never have a problem sleeping. Like when I hit the sack I am like done, but I also work out five to six days a week, and so I don’t know if she’s working out, but that will get you to get your body to kind of relax. I would suggest her doing even walking.
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| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
To kind of get her back on sleep, so I would say to really cut back on that caffeine number one.
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| Mark: |
Even the green tea. Even your teas, they have a different type of caffeine cousin, but that can even stimulate, so only the caffeine free, not decaf. So caffeine free herbals are fine, no caffeine whatsoever, but also just look at maybe cutting your fasting down to like a shorter window instead of maybe jumping into it too fast, and then there may be some other issues with the adrenals, but magnesium is another big easy thing, yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Magnesium, you know, there’s something-
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| Mark: |
Just simple answers.
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| Chantel: |
There’s something that I drink that helps me poop too. I haven’t been taking it-
|
| Mark: |
Yeah, magnesium’s great for that as well.
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| Chantel: |
Yeah, it’s called Calm.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
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| Chantel: |
Have you ever seen that?
|
| Mark: |
Yeah.
|
| Chantel: |
That Calm drink.
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| Mark: |
Quite popular.
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| Chantel: |
It really is good for that. So there’s a product, I’ll put that on my things I love page, so we just have to remember to do that and take a picture of that and put that on.
|
| Mark: |
But simple things would be magnesium, and then like, thiamine, which is also a chemical that’s in green tea that you can get a supplement for.
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| Chantel: |
What about melatonin?
|
| Mark: |
But really just simple things. You know, I’m not a huge fan of melatonin. Only time I use melatonin is for like, when you’re coming back and forth from different time zones. So if you’re like in California for a week, and you come back, take some melatonin an hour before you want to go to bed to reset your clock. But sometimes I’ll recommend really low doses like, half a milligram for a little while, but only just to kind of get your clock started to get you falling asleep, but it’s not gonna keep you through the night.
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| Chantel: |
And I would definitely say I would try to wean yourself off of this stuff that you’re taking, just slowly, slowly, slowly, whatever you’re doing, I think the best way to do it is to just if you’re taking some kind of drug, and you want to wean yourself off. The best way to do it is as slow as possible, cutting that pill if you can in half, or cutting it in three quarters, and then a half, and then one quarter.
|
| Mark: |
But that’s also where there’s a lot of things you can do on your own, but that’s where maybe sometimes getting some help.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah.
|
| Mark: |
And that’s where having a good functional doctor can say, okay you’re doing some of the right things, and maybe the things you’re doing are right, but you’re missing just a couple pieces of the puzzle, and maybe get someone to help you out.
|
| Chantel: |
Well we are going to hopefully have Dr. Scott back on our show, and we want to have your questions, so if you have a question that you want answered, go to questions at Chanel Ray Way dot com, or if you want to get your bloodwork done go to Thyroid Virginia Beach, and Dr. Scott can do it no matter where you are in the country, he can have you go take your blood, and analyze it. We’re in an internet world-
|
| Mark: |
That’s right.
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| Chantel: |
We can do it all via phone, do it Skype, via Zoom, or whatever.
|
| Mark: |
And a good place I think to start, go to the website, check it out, and then there’s a place to sign up for a free consultation.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah.
|
| Mark: |
And then we can talk, and decide if we want to take it further.
|
| Chantel: |
Yeah. Well thank you so much for coming.
|
| Mark: |
This was awesome.
|
| Chantel: |
This was awesome.
|
| Mark: |
I enjoyed it.
|
| Chantel: |
And I know the listeners really enjoyed it, I got so much out of it as usual.
|
| Mark: |
Yeah this is cool.
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| Chantel: |
Thank you guys so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time.
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