Announcer: You're listening to RadioMD. What's good and good for you? Why Family Food Kitchen of course. Here they are, Ellen Briggs and Carolina Jantac.

Interviewer: I remember when my mother had my older sister, they just trotted off to the doctor because they, she wanted their thyroids checked, and boy I just didn't get it. I'd like, what's the big deal about getting your thyroid checked? It's just a little organ in your neck. I just didn't get it. But here to explain why she was really on to something is our guest, Dr. Nikolas Hedberg. He's the author of The Complete Thyroid Health and Diet Guide. Just write that down, The Complete Thyroid Health and Diet Guide, because by the time we're finished talking with him, you're gonna want to go get it. Thanks for being in our Family Food Kitchen today Dr. Nik. That's what his patients call him, so I'm calling him Dr. Nik. Please explain why were you so compelled to write about your thyroid?

Dr. Hedberg: When I started practicing, I started seeing a lot of patients taking thyroid hormones and it really wasn't helping. Then when I was out lecturing in the community on various health topics, one of the things I noticed is that every time I gave a thyroid lecture it was always standing room only. It was always a packed house. It was just such a big topic. So many people were suffering from thyroid problems, and the conventional treatment was failing them. So there was just a huge interest. And so, here's the matter of seeing a lot of it, and just seeing the real interest in it in the public who just wasn't getting answers.

Interviewer: Tell me how do you know that you have a thyroid problem? You said you had a roomful overflowing with people. How did they know they had thyroid problems?

Dr. Hedberg: Some of them were diagnosed with hypothyroidism already. They were taking medication, but it wasn't helping. And then a lot of people identify with some of the most common symptoms of hypothyroidism, which are mainly fatigue, weight gain with an inability to lose weight, constipation, cold hands and feet, hair loss, depression, all kinds of metabolic problems where the body just can't make energy, and those are really the main consequences of not being able to make energy.

Interviewer: That's a really long list of symptoms that are attached to just that one organ, just the thyroid. So I guess it would be helpful if we explained, is the thyroid's function directly related to all of those different functions you just mentioned as symptoms?

Dr. Hedberg: Right. Because basically what the thyroid does is it produces a hormone that controls metabolism. So if you're wondering what happens to the food that you eat, where's the energy made from, from the protein, carbohydrates, and fats? All of that is regulated by the thyroid hormone. So any symptoms that we would see related to a sluggish metabolism or an inability to burn and make energy from the food that you eat, we can tie those in with low thyroids. So fatigue, the weight gain, you can't burn fat, constipation. The thyroid hormone really drives the movement of food through the intestine, so that would become sluggish. Skin, hair, and nails, those are all made from proteins and various vitamins and minerals. Depression, we can tie that in with serotonin metabolism etc. So yeah, a lot to tie in there and a lot of those symptoms can overlap with other health issues, but those are very, very common symptoms.

Interviewer: Boy, it sounds like everybody needs some help with their thyroid, but I want to ask this part of question. I have a very slow metabolism, but I don't have a thyroid problem. My body functions well. I have lots of energy. I feed it right, but my metabolism does not burn a lot. Where, you've got the other people who just, their metabolisms are like furnaces that are in blaze all the time.