In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Niki Gratrix in a discussion about adverse childhood experiences, overcoming trauma, PTSD, EMDR, somatic experiencing, relational trauma, anxiety, depression, emotional freedom technique, ADHD, chronic fatigue, and psychedelics.  Niki speaks with great passion about her work which is why I wanted to interview her.

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to the Dr. Hedberg show, this is Dr. Hedberg. I'm very excited today to have Niki Gratrix on the show. I heard her on the 15-Minute Matrix with Andrea Nakayama and just really enjoyed that interview. So, I wanted to have her around today. So, Niki, she's actually an award-winning nutritional therapist, bioenergetic practitioner, and transformational coach. She helps people to optimize energy. And in 2005, she co-founded one of the largest mind-body clinics in integrative medicine in the UK. The results with patients at the clinic were published as a preliminary study in 2012 in the British Medical Journal open. In August 2015, she hosted the largest ever online health summit on overcoming fatigue, interviewing 29 world leading experts on optimizing energy with over 30,000 attendees. So, Niki, welcome to the show.

Niki: Thank you so much for having me. It's awesome to be here.

Dr. Hedberg: Great. So a lot of my listeners are familiar with the material I've been putting out on average childhood experiences, but why don't we just lay some bedrock for that? Can you give us just an overview of what adverse childhood experiences are?

Niki: Yes. So, it's very interesting. It's based on a lot of data that's been done actually. It's been a lot of mainstream research that should get more attention in my view. So there were some big studies done by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, looking at what they were calling adverse childhood events, and they called them ACEs. And they were looking at if you had a high level of ACEs, the sort of correlation with illness in adulthood. The sort of things they were looking at were sort of parents separating, divorce, that would count as an ACE, things like physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, physical or emotional neglect, domestic violence, mental illness in the family, substance abuse, or things like incarceration of a family member. So those were the particular categories that were chosen by the researchers that were working on this. It's about the mid 1990s, they started that work. And it's important work because it really... I'm sure you've covered some of the data, it never does any harm just to mention, you know, if you had a high level of ACEs, you have an increased risk of 7 out of the top 10 causes of death, 67% of all the people in these studies. And it was a huge study, they were like...it was almost seventeen and a half thousand people in the study. Sixty seven percent had said, "Look, we had exposure to some degree of this." And that was probably an underestimate, which we can talk more about why that is. I got into this topic because things like chronic fatigue, you have a six-fold increased risk of chronic fatigue in adulthood if you had ACE's in childhood. So I called fatigue and the kind of fibromyalgia and those kinds of related illnesses, I like the poster children for adversity and childhood. You know, and if you have six ACEs, you have a 20-year reduction in lifespan. So you that gives people a bit of an idea about why we're talking about it and the types of things we're talking about.

Dr. Hedberg: Yeah, it's a big issue. And in my 15 years of functional medicine practice, I do admit that it's something that I overlooked, you know,

In this post I'll cover everything you need to know about ferritin and hypothyroidism.  The ferritin test is a simple blood test and it is one of the most important tests you should have if you have Hashimoto’s disease, Graves’ disease, and hypothyroidism. Ferritin is a storage form of iron and the ferritin level test can tell you if your iron stores are low and need to be increased. The ferritin test is rarely ordered by conventional doctors so many patients are left with the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism when it is actually their low ferritin levels that are causing their health problems.  The first issue with iron is that iron deficiency may be quite severe but blood markers such as hemoglobin and the red blood cell count may be normal. This leaves many patients, especially women, misdiagnosed as not having anemia.

What are the symptoms of low ferritin?

* Weakness

* Fatigue

* Difficulty concentrating

* Poor work productivity

* Cold hands and feet

* Poor short-term memory

* Difficulty remembering names

* Dizziness

* Pounding in the ears

* Shortness of breath

* Brittle nails

* Headaches

* Restless legs

The above symptoms overlap with Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism so it can be difficult to ascertain what is causing the symptoms.

What causes iron deficiency and low ferritin?

A lifelong history of blood loss due to heavy menstrual bleeding, blood donations, pregnancies, surgeries, accidents, atrophic gastritis, antacid medications, and celiac disease. If you have gut problems that are causing malabsorption of nutrients then your ferritin levels may be low. Additionally, if someone is a high-level athlete or vegan/vegetarian, they are also at risk for low iron. These lead to excessive loss of iron or poor absorption of iron leading to low ferritin levels.

What are optimal ferritin levels for thyroid health?

Once ferritin gets below 30, this is considered iron deficiency despite the fact that the lower end of the laboratory cut-off range is usually 10-20. However, even the ferritin level can be normal, around 50-100, and the patient may still actually be iron deficient. This makes the diagnosis somewhat tricky in certain cases.

According to Dr. Esa Soppi of the Eira Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, optimal ferritin levels for hypothyroidism are >100 and iron therapy should be continued until symptoms have resolved. He also recommends that the ferritin level should be checked regularly to be sure the levels stay normal.

He also states that if someone has restless leg syndrome and their ferritin is <75, then they should be considered iron deficient.

This is interesting because I have noticed that many patients with Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, start to feel worse when their ferritin drops below 80 and usually there is hair loss when it drops below 50.

According to Dr. Soppi, 10-20% of menstruating females are iron deficient. If we think about the reasons why this could be prominent in those with Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism, we can see what a big problem this may be.

Hashimoto’s disease is very common in those who have celiac disease and celiac disease often leads to iron deficiency due to malabsorption in the intestine from the damage that gluten has inflicted on the intestinal barrier. Not only that, but hypothyroidism can lead to low stomach acid which would also impair absorption of iron.

In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Lynne Farrow the author of the book, "The Iodine Crisis:  What You Don't Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life."  We had an in-depth discussion about iodine and how important it is for your body.  We covered many topics including why iodine deficiency is so prevalent, bromide, fluoride, sources of iodine, the best iodine supplements, how to test for iodine deficiency, breast cancer, iodized salt, goiters, iron and ferritin, hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's disease, seaweed, and conditions associated with iodine deficiency.

Lynne Farrow and The Iodine Crisis Transcript:

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to the Dr. Hedberg show. This is Dr Hedberg, and I'm excited today to have Lynne Farrow on the show. So, Lynne is a journalist, researcher, former college professor and a speaker. And her own experience with breast cancer led to the discovery that someone had stolen a medicine with proven benefits reaching back 15,000 years, a medicine that not only helped her, but has helped millions. She currently serves as the Director of Breast Cancer Choices Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the scrutinizing the evidence for breast cancer procedures and treatments. So, Lynne, welcome to the show.

Lynne: Thank you. It's wonderful to be here.

Dr. Hedberg: So, I heard about you when I recently started doing some deep research into iodine and your book came up, and your book is called "The Iodine Crisis:  What You Don't Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life," and it's an excellent book. So, why don't we kind of jump in there and talk about the iodine crisis. So, what exactly is that? And what can we do about it?

Lynne: Well, when I started doing research on iodine, it took me in a long and winding road back into history, but it came up until 1970 when I was able to really comfortably say that there was an iodine crisis, because in 1970 iodine fortification was removed from bread or flour. Now that might've been okay, but they replaced it with bromide, which is, for purposes of this discussion, is an anti-iodine. So that was the first thing that happened. And then NHANES, which is a government group decide... discovered that we were now consuming 50% less iodine, say, in the year 2000 then we were in the 1970s, and that's a huge drop. Now that's just one thing, but it's sort of a perfect storm because at the same time in the 1970s you have bromide pesticides, fire retardants, all these bromide products are being introduced into the culture in a sort of ubiquitous way. I mean, your car seat has fire retardant on it. Your rug, your children's pajamas had it at that time. It's now removed.

But, upholstery, everywhere you go, if you go in airports, it's hard to look at anything that doesn't have bromide in it. So, this kind of bromide storm you could characterize that came after the 1970s when iodine was removed. And what happened at this time when you have this perfect storm of iodine being reduced in the diet and consumption of it being reduced. And bromide being added, there's a kind of... since they compete with each other, there's a bromide dominance effect. It's a way of characterizing it. And at this time, if you go back and look at the statistics, all sorts of, especially endocrine disruptor diseases, thyroid cancer went up 182%. It's a different breakdown for men and women, but that was Hashi's went up. Just a lot of different endocrine problems seem to happen as the bromide storm came along, when iodine was reduced in our diet and bromide began to just suffoca...

One of the main priorities in my practice is to stay on top of the latest cutting-edge research in Hashimoto’s disease and thyroid disorders. My latest round of research reviews involved six clinical studies that examined inositol and selenium and how they conferred major benefits in those with Hashimoto’s disease and subclinical hypothyroidism. The highlights of each study are summarized in a table at the end of this article for ease of reference.

What are Inositol and Selenium?

Before we get started, let’s do a quick review on the supplements inositol and selenium.

Inositol is referred to as Vitamin B8 but is not actually a vitamin but a sugar. It naturally occurs in foods such as fruits (especially citrus), beans, grains and nuts. It helps provide structure to your cells and also affects the hormone insulin and how chemical messengers work in your brain.

Some of you may wonder if myo-inositol and inositol are the same thing and the answer is yes. So if you buy a product that is just called “inositol”, this is the myo-inositol form.

D-chiro-inositol is another form that works equally as well as myo-inositol, but the d-chiro-inositol has a slight edge in reducing excessive androgen levels in PCOS whereas the myo form is better with insulin resistance.

I have mainly used inositol over the years with excellent results for the following:

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

Insomnia

Anxiety

Insulin resistance

PMS

Depression

Fibrocystic breast disease

Uterine fibroids

Selenium is a trace element that is essential to well-being. It plays a role in the immune response, cell growth and viral defense as discussed in previous research including the studies of Huang et al. and Brownand and Arthur. Selenium also plays a huge part in the synthesis and function of thyroid hormones. It has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown in previous investigations including those headed by Gartner et al., Landucci et al. and van Zuuren et al. to reduce an inflammatory condition in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Chris Kresser about his new book "Unconventional Medicine" as well as "The Paleo Cure."  We discussed many topics including how to reform our healthcare system, functional medicine, gut health, SIBO, social isolation, diet, psychoneuroimmunolgy, social media, ancestral diets, and eating seasonally.  I think you'll find many excellent takeaways from this interview whether you're a healthcare practitioner or someone interested in health.

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome, everyone, to the "Dr. Hedberg Show." This is Dr. Hedberg, and I'm really excited today to have Chris Kresser on the show, been following his work for a long time. And Chris is the CEO of the Kresser Institute, he is a licensed acupuncturist and he's also the co-director of the California Center for Functional Medicine. And chriskresser.com most of you who do any kind of reading on the internet have most assuredly come across Chris's website for some excellent health information there. And he recently published a book called "Unconventional Medicine" as well as "The Paleo Cure" and this was a New York Times best-selling book. And Chris was also named one of the 100 Most Influential people in Health and Fitness by greatist.com. So Chris, welcome to the show.

 

Dr. Kresser: Thanks, Nick. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Hedberg: Great. So why don't we jump in and just talk a little bit about conventional health care because obviously there are some big issues there with conventional medicine. And so what are the areas that you see in conventional medicine that really need to really be changed and really worked on to get people in this country you know, much healthier.

Dr. Kresser: Yeah, I think the biggest issue with our current system is that it's not set up to address chronic disease. It was...the conventional medical system really came out of a time and a place where acute challenges were the biggest issues that we face. So if you look at the turn of the 20th century top three causes of death were all acute infectious diseases: typhoid, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

And you know, conventional medicine today is remarkably effective for those kinds of problems. If you...I always say if I get hit by a bus, I definitely wanna be taken to the hospital. You know, we have pretty amazing medical technologies and interventions that allow us to even reattach severed limbs. You know, we're starting to maybe be able to restore sight to the blind. And you know, if I get an infection, I'm grateful that I can, if necessary, take antibiotics that might save my life. So there have been some incredible developments in conventional medicine that have extended our lifespan and, you know, basically eliminated certain causes of death that were the scourge of humanity for many years.

Unfortunately, that's not the biggest problem today. Today we are suffering from an epidemic of chronic disease, in fact, seven of 10 deaths are caused by chronic diseases. Things like cardiovascular disease and lung disease and cancer and now Alzheimer's and dementia at a growing rate. And our conventional medical system was really never set out to deal with those conditions because they weren't as big of an issue at the time when the medical system developed. So now we have this huge burden of chronic disease and the conventional health care system really, its main approach is to prescribe medication. And these medications though they might be somewhat helpful in addressing the s...

In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show I interview Dr. Carrie Jones of Precision Analytical on hormone balancing and testing.  We cover a lot of detail about reproductive and adrenal hormones including testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, DHEA and more.  Dr. Jones explains the causes of elevated and decreased hormone levels and some strategies on balancing these issues.  We also discuss the best way to test hormones including the DUTCH test which is my favorite hormone test offered by Precision Analytical.

Dr. Carrie Jones, ND, MPH is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and educator on the topic of women’s health and hormones. She graduated from the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM), School of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon where she also completed her 2-year residency in women’s health, hormones and endocrinology. Later she graduated from Grand Canyon University’s Master of Public Health program with a goal of doing more international education. She was adjunct faculty for many years teaching gynecology and advanced endocrinology/fertility and has been the Medical Director for 2 large integrative clinics in Portland. She is the Medical Director for Precision Analytical, Inc, creators of the DUTCH hormone test.

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to the Dr. Hedberg Show. This is Dr. Hedberg, and I'm excited today to have Dr. Carrie Jones, on the show. I've been listening to her and reading her material for some time now. And I've also heard her speak in person. So Dr. Jones, is a naturopath and she's definitely an expert on hormones, we'll be talking about all the different hormones today. So Dr. Jones welcome to the show.

Dr. Jones: Thank you Dr. Hedberg, I appreciate you having me on, hormones is my favorite subject.

Dr. Hedberg: Great. So, why don't you just fill everyone in on what you're working on these days and your area of expertise.

Dr. Jones: Yeah, so like you said hormones is it. So I went to school and did my residency in all things women's health, hormones and gynecology. And expanded a little bit into men's health and hormones, just by default as women would bring the men in in their life, and they would say, "He has a hormone problem too." So I always joke and my ongoing joke is that if something's wrong with your child, don't ask me. And if you hurt yourself, like you hurt your knee, don't ask me that either. But if you're a hormonal mess I can help you with that, that's what I'm good at.

Dr. Hedberg: Right. So you work for Precision Analytical which is the lab that I use for hormone testing and they do the Dutch test. So why don't we jump in and excuse me. Why don't we jump into the first hormone which is, I always like to start with start with progesterone. So why don't we start with cycling females. So when you talk a little bit about what may be some of the reasons why we would either see high or low progesterone, in a cycling female?

Dr. Jones: Yeah, and actually will start with a level because I think that's well, a lot more common. So there are two reasons that a cycling female will be low. One is she does not ovulate. So when a woman releases an egg she has two sets of cells around her follicles, and they convert into a third set of cells called the lutein cells. And that's what makes progesterone. So if she doesn't release the eggs, then she's not gonna get that little conversion and she's not going to make progesterone. Now the other reason the second big reason is she may ovulate. She might release an egg, she feels it, she notices it, her mucus changes what have you. She does the you know, ovulation predictor kit from the grocery stores,

In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Sara Lewis in a discussion about the health benefits of yoga.

If you struggle with pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia, gut issues, or have adverse childhood experiences, this is one episode you should really listen to.

Sara spent 25 years providing program management expertise to international public health projects in South America, Eastern Europe, Africa and South Asia.  The work included directing, managing and planning projects in maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition.  After her career in public health, Sara began a second career as a Holistic Health Coach and Yoga Instructor.  As a Health Coach, she helps clients discover the benefits of using food as medicine and making small lifestyle changes that have big impacts.  She has been practicing yoga for over 15 years and teaching since 2014.  Her passion for cooking and food led her to yoga when she began studying the connection between mindfulness and stress eating.  Sara teaches both vinyasa flow and yin/restorative classes.  Her yin classes include pranayama (breath work) and deep relaxation.  When she's not on the mat or working with clients, Sara can be found in the kitchen fermenting foods, experimenting with locally sourced ingredients from the farmers market or out exploring the hills of Western NC on a bicycle.

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to "The Dr. Hedberg Show." This is Dr. Hedberg and I'm excited today to have my good friend and colleague Sara Lewis on and we're gonna be talking about yoga. So I've known Sara for quite a while and she's actually my yoga teacher and she's also a health coach. So Sara, welcome to the show.

Sara: Thank you Dr. Hedberg, great to be here.

Dr. Hedberg: So why don't we just start off by you filling everyone in on your background and what you do and what you've been working on lately?

Sara: Sure. So I had a career in international public health for about 25 years and I traveled all over the world. I was in Latin America, South Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. And I worked mostly in maternal/child healthcare and nutrition and it was a very gratifying career, but at the same time, it was very stressful with all that travel. And so I looked for support from the health coach and I got so much from my health coach that I decided to become one myself. And one of the healing modes that my health coach suggested was to increase my yoga practice and that led me to become a yoga instructor in addition to the health coaching.

So now I have a business called Simply Sara Wellness and Yoga, and I teach about six classes a week at the Waynesville, North Carolina Yoga Center and I provide health coaching to individuals and group clients. So sometimes people will say to me, "Well, what is health coaching?" Health coaching is similar to a personal trainer, but I focus on food and nutrition and lifestyle. So if you came to me and you said, "Sara, I need help with insomnia or my IBS, or I want to prevent type two diabetes because it runs in my family," then I would work with you to create short-term and long-term goals and I would support you and I would challenge you. I'd probably gave you some homework. I'd wanna know about your life's ambitions and your fears. I'd probably ask you what you had to eat today. But health coaching is much bigger than food and nutrition. It's about finding balance in your life and feeling your best.

Dr. Hedberg: Excellent. So I've been doing yoga for many years. It's been very beneficial. Some of our listeners are probably already doing yoga or have done it so far. And even those who have been doing it, they might not really know the background of it. So for those who have never done it before and don't really know about it, can you just kind of break down the basics of yoga and where it comes from?

The Therapeutic Effect of Cordyceps on Hashimomoto's Disease and Graves' Disease

In 2016, a clinical trial was conducted in China that aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of cordyceps on Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease.

The research paper was entitled, “Dual-Directional Effects of Corbrin Capsule on Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases” and was published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Let's find out what this research paper showed if cordyceps could help Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease.

What is Cordyceps?

Cordyceps, also known as Cordyceps sinensis Sacc., is a fungus closely related to the mushroom. While it is not officially classified as a mushroom taxonomically speaking, it has been described as an exotic medicinal mushroom used in traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine for over 2,000 years.  This fungus has active components that have been determined to have highly positive effects on human health including these roles:

* Increased oxygen utilization of ATP production

* Stabilization of blood sugar metabolism

* Regulation of the immune system by exerting anti-tumor effects, modulating the immune system in organ transplantation and the prevention of kidney, liver and heart disease.

In recent years, studies have revealed that cordyceps has immune-mediating effects on autoimmune inflammatory diseases including lupus, chronic hepatitis, chronic kidney disease and diabetes.

The active constituents in Cordyceps include: cordycepin, polysaccharide, cordycepic acid, nucleosides, ergosterol, aminophenol, and trace elements.

Background Information on Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases

Autoimmune thyroid diseases come in a few forms. They include:

Graves’ disease

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Idiopathic hypothyroidism (atrophic Hashimoto’s)

Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO)

Post-partum thyroid dysfunction

A main characteristic of autoimmune thyroid disease is an elevated level of auto-antibodies and hyperactive T and B lymphocytes that are reactive to thyroid auto-antibodies.

The researchers in this study identified a unique opportunity to investigate the effect of cordyceps on autoimmune thyroid disease because despite the administration of anti-thyroid drugs and thyroid hormone replacement to control symptoms of autoimmune thyroid disease, a means to actually target thyroid autoimmunity has been lacking in scientific research.

The study authors pointed out that if the immunoinflammatory process in autoimmune thyroid disease cannot be intervened, what will consequently occur is that the disease will just end up progressing and become full-blown in afflicted individuals.  Likewise, those who had success managing their autoimmune thyroid disease at ear...

In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interview Dr. Lindsey Berkson in an in-depth discussion about hormones, brain health, gut health, Hashimoto's disease, post-birth control syndrome and much more.

Dr. Berkson had breast cancer 24 years ago and has made remission her mission. Dr. Berkson now specializes in working with breast cancer survivors to do the same; addressing food, herbs, hormone balancing and sometime protective replacement as well as nutraceuticals. Dr. Berkson formulated Metagenic's female hormone protective nutrient line. Dr. Berkson is considered a thought leader in functional medicine and now teaches MDs, Nurse Practitioners, pharmacists and other health care professionals continuing education courses. Dr. Berkson has authored 21 books, hosts the Dr. Berkson's Best Health Radio, writes the Berkson Blog (see it at DrLindseyBerkson.com) and is a research fellow with Health Sciences Collegium. Dr. Berkson has published original research with the University of Houston Medical School and Nathan Bryan PdD, the world's authority on nitrous oxide.  Dr. Berkson was a scholar at an estrogen think tank at Tulane University and worked with the scientists that discovered estrogen receptor functionality and endocrine disruption.

Dr. Berkson is a best-selling author; Healthy Digestion the Natural Way (Wiley 2000) was the first gut, nutrition, mind book.

Her newest book SEXY BRAIN explains environmental castration and how to test, detox and protect your hormones and brain.

Below is a transcript of my interview with Dr. Lindsey Berkson

Dr. Hedberg: Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to the "Dr. Hedberg Show." This is Dr. Hedberg. I'm excited today to have a very special guest, Dr. Berkson. She's been in practice for many years, has a lot of experience. And welcome to the show, Dr. Berkson.

Dr. Berkson: Very nice to be on the show with you. You have such a nice radio voice that it's like an extra audio candy here. So, thank you.

Dr. Hedberg: All right. Well, thank you for that. So why don't you, just fill everyone in on your work and what you're focused on these days.

Dr. Berkson: So, I've been in practice for many decades. I've got 21 books out and one of the big deals in my background is that I had the honor of being a hormone scholar at an estrogen think tank called the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane University. So, I got to work academically with the scientists that discovered the first and second estrogen receptor, Elwood Jensen, and Jan-Ake Gustafsson. And they taught me so much about how hormones really work. So, really knowing about hormones isn't just getting a blood, urine, or saliva level. It's whether the hormone can really deliver its signal and all of the bigger picture that's involved in that. I've written many books on hormones. Hormones have been my love. I did my very first rotation in integrative medicine in 1977 with Dr. Jonathan Wright who's now called the father of bioidentical hormones. So, I've been testing, running, looking at, writing about hormones and hanging out with the scientists that have really changed the way we understand hormones. And even Elwood Jensen was responsible for how we profiled breast cancer tumors.

So, besides that, I have a lot of background and degrees in nutrition, so I merged all of that together and I wrote one of the very first books on the concept...

Can Genistein Help Heal Hashimoto’s Disease and Hypothyroidism?

In the fall of 2016, a study was conducted in China and published in the medical journal Immunobiology. The researchers looked at the compound genistein and Hashimoto's disease to see if it affected thyroid function in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.  The research paper was entitled, “Genistein improves thyroid function in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients through regulating Th1 cytokines.”  To clarify, “Th1 cytokines” refer to a type of thyroid-helper cells that indicate how much inflammation there might be in the thyroid gland.  In other words, they are markers of inflammation.

The results of this study were very exciting so you might want to pay close attention.

What is genistein?

Genistein is an isoflavone which is a plant-derived compound with estrogenic activity.  It falls in the class of phytoestrogens and is found in soybeans.  Clinical studies in the past have demonstrated that this compound has immune-regulating properties by exerting anti-inflammatory effects in certain health conditions including encephalomyelitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord), cardiac inflammation resulting from diabetes, coronary obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other serious diseases.

In this study, Zhang and four of his colleagues began by pointing out that Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is now considered the most common autoimmune disease in the world.  It is believed that excessively stimulated thyroid-helper cells play the main role in giving rise to the autoimmune condition in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients.  While conventional treatment has typically addressed only the symptoms of the illness via oral administration of a thyroid hormone replacement, the fact remains that there is still an autoimmune condition in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis which can be a concern.

Why is it problematic for an autoimmune condition to persist in an individual with Hashimoto’s disease?

Previous studies have demonstrated that in those with fully or partially functional thyroid glands but not “fully hypothyroid Hashimoto’s patients”, long-term Hashimoto’s thyroiditis closely correlated with the prevalence of thyroid cancer.

Chronic inflammation is never beneficial for the body so if someone is invested in his or her health, mitigating any autoimmune condition would be prudent.  In this investigation, the researchers wanted to evaluate any beneficial anti-inflammatory properties of genistein for those with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and examine what impact it might have on the chronic inflammatory condition associated with Hashimoto’s disease.

How was the study done?

Two-hundred eighteen female subjects between the ages of 20 and 80 were recruited, all with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

These requirements had to be met in the subjects:

1. Normal levels of free T3 and free T4 with or without thyroid replacement therapy

2. Normal TSH levels or slightly elevated TSH levels below 20 mU/L

3. Increased blood levels of thyroid antibody (thyroid peroxidase) greater than 100 U/mL

Subjects with any of the following conditions were excluded:

1. Prior use of immunoregulators

2.