Dr. Angela Lucterland discusses Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis with Dr. Ben Weitz.

[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.] 

 

Podcast Highlights

4:15  Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common autoimmune disease and in the US it accounts for about 95% of cases of hypothyroid. [Hakuru Hashimoto was a Japanese MD and researcher who discovered Hashimoto’s Disease and published a paper on it in 1912.]  In general, the conventional medical profession diagnoses hypothyroid via an elevated TSH and prescribes thyroid medication, typically synthetic T4.  If you don’t test the antibodies, then you will miss the diagnosis of Hashimoto’s and taking thyroid medication will not fix the autoimmune component.  Antibodies are often present 10 years or longer prior to enough tissue damage for someone to feel it, which gives us a huge opportunity to treat it with a Functional Medicine approach.  A full thyroid panel should include TSH, Free T3, Free T4, reverse T3, and TPO and TGB antibodies.

6:03  It is important to run both of the thyroid antibodies–both the TPO and the TGB antibodies, even though high TPO antibodies are more common.  Ideally we would like to see their labs improve, their symptoms improve, and also see their antibodies go down, then we know that they are improving.

7:05  Dr. Lucterland considers a TSH above 2 or 2.5 to be significant, though it may be useful to measure the TSH several times, since there can be some fluctuation of TSH levels.  Also if you take vitamins with biotin, it can affect the measurement of TSH levels, so you should probably avoid taking multivitamins or other vitamins with biotin for a week prior to testing. 

11:31  For patients that require thyroid medication, Dr. Lucterland feels that most patients do better with natural thyroid, like Armour vs synthetic T4 like Synthroid, since these natural products have not only T4, but they also include a little T3, which usually makes patients feel better.

13:37  Besides giving thyroid medication, since Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease, we need to restore barrier function and restore self tolerance.  We need to remove environmental toxins and pathogens. 

14:45  To get an idea of barrier function, Dr. Lucterland likes running a comprehensive stool analysis and she includes zonulin, which is a marker for leaky gut, though it is marker that tends to fluctuate quite a bit.

19:15  Before she runs the stool test, Dr. Lucterland will do a month of Lifestyle Intervention, so she will often start with the paleo diet

 

Dr. Angela Lucterland is a Doctor of Chiropractic and a Functional Medicine practitioner with a specialty in treating patients with autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Her website is AngelaLucterland.com.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also specializing in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure and also weight loss and also athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

 

Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:                            Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates,

Dr. Damiana Corca discusses How to Improve Your Sleep with Dr. Ben Weitz.

[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.] 

 

Podcast Highlights

2:50  What is good sleep?  It is falling to sleep within 10-20 min and sleeping for seven and a half to nine hours, depending upon the person and depending upon the season. Ideally you would like to sleep through the night, but it’s okay if you wake up once or twice briefly, such as to urinate, as long as you back to sleep pretty fast.  Our sleep typically happens in cycles of about 90 minutes and we typically have 5 or 6 of these cycles.  It is probably best not to wake up in the middle of one of these cycles.

6:34  There are very few people who only need 5 or 6 hours of sleep, despite claims from many that that is all they need.  Most of these people are just very driven for work and they run on the stress hormone cortisol.  But this is not that healthy.

10:18  Taking a 15 to 30 min nap is very beneficial, but take it no later than 1 or 2 pm in the afternoon. If the nap is too late, it might interfere with night time sleep.

 

Dr. Damiana Corca is a Holistic Sleep Specialist with training in acupuncture, Chinese medicine and functional medicine. She is committed to supporting people who struggle with sleep issues, by helping them discover the root cause of their sleep issue so they can get good sleep and continue to do so for the rest of their life.  Damiana has a local private practice in Boulder, CO and serves her clients worldwide through private telemedicine consulting and group sleep programs. She is the Founder of the Corca Sleep Method Program. Her website is DamianaCorca.com.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also specializing in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure and also weight loss and also athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

***Get 15% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s Daily Synbiotic by visiting  seed.com/drweitz 

or by using code DRWEITZ at checkout.

 

Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:            Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness podcast for weekly updates, and to learn more, check out my site, drweitz.com. Thanks for joining me, and let’s jump into the podcast.

Hello, Rational Wellness podcasters. Today, we will be talking about sleep. We all know about the importance of sleep, and there are so many people have problems with sleep. In fact, it’s rare. when I talk to somebody who says their sleep is great and they never have any issues. Today, we have Dr. Damiana Corca, who’s a holistic sleep specialist, and she’s also trained in acupuncture, Chinese medicine and functional medicine. Dr. Corca is committed to supporting people who struggle with sleep issues by helping them discover the root cause of their sleep issue so they can get good sleep. Damiana has a local private practice in Boulder, Colorado, and sees clients through telemedicine and group sleep program.