 If you have hypothyroidism occurring at the same time as issues in your gut, you may not respond symptomatically to that thyroid hormone medication. Hi everyone, I'm here today with Paige and we're discussing some of the good results she's had with her health in going through the program laid out in Healthy Gut, Healthy You. Paige, thanks for being here and welcome. It's my pleasure, thank you. So I said just a moment before we start the recording, I'm bridling myself, I don't want to ask any of the background, I want to get it all fresh. So tell us about what you were suffering with and what the road up to Healthy Gut helped you kind of look like. Sure, well I have a very fortunate story in that I'm first of all, I'm a firefighter, I've been a firefighter for 16 years and oh thank you and it's been a wonderful career, I have been blessed with great health and I've always been a very high energy person and the fire service has always been such a great fit for me in that respect. And I think something changed about three years ago where I just started to need required naps after my shifts just felt like I was getting more tired for some reason. And I was also getting cold, I've always been sort of cold but I was colder than normal, everyone would always tease me, I'd be all wrapped up with every single layer that I could at work. And then also moodier and a little bit less able to retain information than I used to be, if a little less sharp. And a lot of it I was able to sort of rationalize and explain away with, well I'm getting older or it's a sleep deprivation, I was very interested in sleep and always have been interested in health and I've always taken that as a high priority in my life. But again, all those things I would have never gone to a doctor and said hey I'm feeling this, this or that, these are things that I just need to make some adjustments and I did and it definitely made a difference. And I'd say in addition another time marker that looking back that I say you know there was a shift in my health was we responded to the Sonoma fires two years ago and got there early morning the first day and were heavily involved in the structures and I definitely noted in wildland firefighting we don't use respiratory protection and so there's a lot of exposure in two weeks of you know lots of sleep deprivation exposure etc. And I definitely felt a difference coming back and again I was sort of in denial about it but man just don't feel as sharp and don't feel sharp I don't know why and I just kept thinking I just need to sleep more I just need to recover and so all of that's kind of the background. This super fortunate thing that happened is this year my department sponsored a we're calling it a pilot program a health pilot program six month program that we partnered with California Center for Functional Medicine they're heading it up and they did all the blood work for us the initial blood work we started with a diet reset I already eat paleo more or less paleo a pretty nutrient-rich diet exercise consistently weights always been the same all those things so I thought I was going to be very validated being part of this study in fact everyone was like why are you doing this like that we have you know many people that need to get their health on you know whatever so um so the blood work came back and the nurse said um and I think I'm gonna get all good news and she said um your thyroid is way out of whack and I my original or initial reaction was that there's no way that test is wrong you know she said it was maxed out the tsh was at 140 and that's the max at the test so yeah so she was do you feel this way this way that way and at first I was like no no no because it didn't really fit with my narrative and you know when I got the phone I thought about it and talked to my husband he said I have noticed those changes in you and like skin and some other things that again like I said I was just able to rationalize away so I had that tested again and sure enough I was very hypothyroid and um and then they tested the antibodies and so the Hashimoto's seems to be the the diagnosis at that point so we were already well into the diet reset which was a kind of whole 30 paleo criss-cruster diet and I felt more or less the same and I've done the whole 30 before and which for me is like always just kind of getting sugar back on you know like reducing sugar and uh so I felt more or less the same I started the autoimmune protocol and I felt better for about two weeks I felt better and then it was like again kind of the same meanwhile I'm also taking thyroid medication didn't really feel much different and then um I happened to be listening to Chris Kressers um his podcast interviewing you and I really loved your approach during that interview I was starting to think SIBO really hoping it wasn't SIBO but um I had asked one of the doctors at the California Center for Functional Medicine I'm like hey what if it is SIBO should I get tested you know you're starting to think that way I was I was being perfect with my diet and um and they were like well you know they kind of gave me some some general direction you know you could try this you could try that but it wasn't definitive enough and when I heard the interview with you it was like the perfect timing and I loved um I loved your approach of like a don't try to be perfect be you know you don't stay on any of these diets forever and um and make sure you're still enjoying your life your family um social life all that and so I basically got your book I I read it ravenously and I got to step two I started the low FODMAPS diet and that was huge and I bought your your supplements for the um probiotics and the adrenal support and within days I was like whoa okay this is I felt like old me and you know again I probably wouldn't have even felt like there was such a big difference until you feel better then you're like oh okay I was not feeling myself so that's my story wow so that is a fantastic story that there's so much there that exemplifies things that I found in the clinic to be important that I've written about in the book and I really want to help to reach a broader audience and one of those again such a perfect example of this is if you have hypothyroidism occurring at the same time as issues in your gut you may not respond systematically to that thyroid hormone medication and unfortunately what happens to some patients is they get taken to this rabbit hole or trying to fine-tune everything hormonally with their dose while they're missing what's going on in the gut and that is oftentimes the cause of the symptoms and what a beautiful example where you were a hypothyroid you went on medication you weren't feeling any better and then thankfully as you said you found healthy gut healthy you tuned up your gut and then that was a missing piece and allowing you to respond to the thyroid hormone and see that resolution of all your symptoms which were probably part caused by thyroid but oftentimes again we forget how much of the symptoms that we're suffering with are actually caused by someone's gut so it's very beautiful and it wasn't hard low phobiasal diet probiotics adrenal support you know again you made a great point which is sometimes when we you know we google these things we read about them we get this narrative that is so despairing that we think oh my god this is going to be years to recover and I'm not going to be able to eat out and and I'm gonna have to turn into you know the food police and you know there may be a select case that has to go to that extreme but for most people it's not that hard if you have the right process so beautiful beautiful and so now symptoms are pretty much gone right you're you're sleeping better your energy is better you're feeling more sharp are all those things you know fully responded true and the thing I didn't mention is I did have some intestinal symptoms that I again I just thought were kind of the new normal bloating especially at the end of the day I used to eat tons of apples and you know certain things that now I've reduced those or eliminated them for now and what I found about your book that I love just super empowering itself empowering and I love what I've learned about functional medicine I think it's amazing to me I'm like oh god you know it's I didn't even realize that that sect of medicine existed but it does seem prohibitively expensive for most people and you know I mean I thought about that it's like my insurance wouldn't cover that and I love how empowering your approach was in that like and I'm on you know step two at this point and I fully intend to go to step five you know and I've already kind of reintroduced some of the AIP you know things and and some of the paleo as well that I had originally eliminated and have found great success with that so yes to all those things I'm sleeping sleeping better feel sharper don't need naps again much to the chagrin of my crew they were really liking napping page because I was always very high energy and you know they're like I had told them hey you know I just got diagnosed with Hashimoto's and it done I might explain why I've been you know a little more tired you were like this is tired page oh great so anyway there's the normal page back again but I let them nap as it's important and on the note of empowerment what an empowering situation you're now in which is you have a diagnosis but yeah are powerful as energetic as you've ever been and and I think it's really important that patients understand that that if you have the right approach then you can feel phenomenal and in a diagnosis of SIBO or of Hashimoto's doesn't have to change who you are as a person but there is an important caveat there which is you need to have the right therapies to get you back to balance and in your case again I'm so appreciative that you were able to find my book and not get pulled into this Hashimoto's black hole you know and you were able to get to the root cause of your symptoms because unfortunately some patients will internalize that Hashimoto's diagnosis and think that means are going to have symptoms for the rest of their life and if you if you get the system healed which in your case required some medication for your thyroid yes but at the same time needed to heal your gut if you get everything healed then just like you said you're as energetic as you were before and people at their firehouse are having a hard time keeping up with you which is great and there was one other thing that you said I just want to kind of touch on for people which is sometimes there's this belief that you have to follow more restrictive diets as you're trying to get healthier so you start with the elimination diet of of paleo and you cut out processed foods and grains and dairy and if that doesn't work you go to autoimmune paleo or now you also cut out nuts and seeds and eggs and might take vegetables and if that doesn't work perhaps you also add in low FODMAP and it's not the case that we usually need to aggregate all these dietary restrictions together and make your plate smaller and smaller and smaller but rather feel into one approach as I outlined healthy gut health to you kind of the elimination paleo direction and if that doesn't work we can kind of divert over to a low FODMAP direction and we can identify where you need to restrict and where you can be liberal which helps keep your your food intake broad and not kind of pigeonhole you into this narrow way of eating absolutely yep absolutely agree awesome well what a fantastic case this is again it's a it's a really powerful example of why it's important to make sure we have a broad view on our health and we don't get kind of tunnel vision into just thinking about in this case thyroid you have any any closing thoughts that you want to leave people with no I've just been telling all my friends because now I think everything that anybody's suffering from is their gut so you know I'm telling everybody you've got to buy this book I'm telling you but now that's the why I wanted to actually have this conversation with you really just to say thank you I think again just the empowering piece is so important to to give people that opportunity to put that back into their hands and not feel like again you have to go and have all these expensive tests and that send you down all these it's so easy to get overwhelmed I think and I'm I very much enjoy this process of you know research and I feel very fortunate that I was given the diagnosis without you know I've read enough stories now to see that people feel unhealthy for a very long time and can't figure out what's going on with them and so I was very lucky in that respect and um and so that's really the main thing that I wanted to say it was thank you for the work you're doing it's very important well a pleasure page and it's cases like these that really make all the long days and late nights of research and writing worth it to see the impact it has on people because I was there at one point and I and I remember how terrible my life was in fact your story sounds a lot like mine actually where I was very healthy then all of a sudden there was this acute drop-off and I couldn't figure out why so I feel that kinship with you in that regard and it is unfortunate when you can't bring your full self to your life and then you know to get that back is just such a gift and seeing other people being able to receive that is just a tremendous honor to be a part of that so thank you for sharing again and congratulations on your newfound health thank you thank you so much