Dr. Anshul Gupta 0:04

I want to give hope because I was without hope and I had no plan. So I want people to know that they don't have to live this miserable life. There is better life out there and there is hope.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:16

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast, I'm your host Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream healthy and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life.

You're about to hear from Dr. Gupta who is an expert in hashimotos thyroiditis, he's going to share what the Mito thyroid connection is and we'll get into tips for thyroid and adrenal health. Let's get started.

Thank you for joining me for another episode of The your longevity blueprint podcast today I have Dr. Entre Gupta. He is a Board Certified family medicine physician with advanced certification and functional medicine, peptide therapy, and also fellowship trained in integrative medicine. He has worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic department of functional medicine as a staff physician along Dr. Mark Hyman, and he now specializes in treating hashimotos disease to help people reverse their unresolved symptoms of thyroid dysfunction. conventional medicine doesn't have all the answers for a vast majority of patients suffering from hashimotos. And that's where functional medicine model can be very helpful. Dr. Gupta makes personalized functional medicine plans for people with hashimotos to end fatigue, reduce brain fog and lose weight substantially. There his three step process. He not only heals the thyroid, but also rejuvenates mitochondria to help females with hashimotos to live their life to the fullest. So welcome Dr. Gupta.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 1:44

Yeah, thank you so much, Stephanie, for having me on the show.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 1:47

Well, tell me your story. Tell me about yourself and how you got interested in functional medicine?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 1:51

Yeah, absolutely. No, always, like have this joke around, you know, with all my colleagues is that each of us, you know, who you who ventured out into functional medicine has a story behind it. So similar to that, you know, I have my story. So my story starts with, you know, after my residency of Family Medicine, I started working in rural Virginia, in a busy, traditional practice, I was just 32. At the time, you know, I was working hard. At the time, I started having some health issues. So I started having this stomach pain, which was very, very excruciating, and I had no real apparent reason for it. Then I started gaining weight along with it, and I was, I was feeling much more fatigued than you know, I've ever held, you know, in my life. And then I was having some brain fog issues. Again, I could not put all these things together, the major complaint was the stomach pain, because that was bothering my life, like everyday basis. So being a physician, I thought I will can treat myself so I started doing it. So I started taking some medications, but it was not helping. I kind of added more medications to see that would do the trick. But that was not working either.

So I thought, Oh, well, maybe I'm not smart enough. I need doctors to kind of get on board. So I spoke with my colleagues, you know, who are like specialists, GIS specialists and stuff. So one by one actually, I saw so many different specialists and nobody had an answer. No, they literally did each and every investigation that you can think about, you know, they scoped me from top to bottom, they kind of scan me they did CAT scans, ultrasound, allergy testing everything. And nobody could figure out why I was having this stomach pain. And I was like, really, I'm just 32. And nobody can fix me, that is not done. And like after a while, actually, it was not funny anymore. It was getting depressing, because you know, I was getting the stomach pain, which was affecting my quality of life. And it was so sudden that in the middle of like my work, like seeing patients, this pain will hit me suddenly.

And you know, I didn't know what to do. So it was very, very frustrating, you know, and started losing hope, you know, like, I was like, Okay, I don't know, is this the way I'm going to live the rest of my life, right? And when I spoke with my other colleagues, and they said, Well, maybe you just have to take these medicines, and they will eventually work for you. And we're like, Are you kidding me? I'm taking four medications, and you're telling me eventually they will work for me. I was like, that is not satisfactory. So I was like, I don't know what to do. So then, you know, obviously you start looking around. So then, you know, somebody suggested functional medicine and started looking into it. So then they have different modules. And I started kind of training myself in one of the GI modules they have. Yeah, and then after the training, I started implementing it. And you will not imagine within one month, my pain was gone.

In six months time, I was off all the medications. You know, I had never had any pain. And I was down 40 pounds.

Wow. Yeah. It's amazing to hear right? But it's also depressing that it took you how long how many doctors getting sculpt from head to toe, how many medications and then you and who knows how much on that cost? And then you on your own finding, essentially your path to healing. So it's exciting, but it's also actually depressing. conventional medicine doesn't have those answers. There's so many patients are not well served until they find functional medicine.

Exactly. And that was like, you know, like, why should I not be knowing about these things? You know, like, you know, if we have like an alternative way of helping, you know, patients out or helping me out, and you know, like, nobody's even talking about it. So that was his, you said, you know, so kind of annoying at times that, you know, why should we not talk about it, but also happy at the same time that I can help out like, people like me now? Right, right. That's the silver lining. Yeah. So it sounds like with your personal story, you had a lot of gastrointestinal symptoms, which actually can relate to hashimotos. And I know, that's something you specialize in. So at what point did you get interested in hashimotos? And in treating those clients?

So then, you know, like, when I went into working for functional medicine clinic, in the, in the Cleveland Clinic center, yeah, so then I started looking like different kinds of patients, and a majority of lot of those clients were like, hashimotos, and I started finding some similarities, you know, with what I went through in hashimotos. So they were all having gut issues, you know, they're all having like fatigue issues, they were all having difficult time in losing weight. And they were all having brain fog issues. And the worse was that they were all losing hope. Yeah, they have seen all these specialists, like endocrine specialists, and family doctors, and their PCPs. And they will all say that, well, you know, your numbers look good, you know, you're taking the right medication, maybe this is a way you probably will have to live the rest of your life. Again, these are like females in like middle aged females in the prime of their life, and they will live this way the rest of my life. Absolutely, I, I all the time, every single day, see patients who come to my office who say, well, either they haven't had their antibodies tested, or they have, but their doctor says there's nothing we can do about it.

So basically, just keep on taking the medication, or some of them aren't even on medication, but they're told there's nothing that we can do. And so they're kind of in my office as a last hope, because they don't know, they don't know what else to do, but they know something's not right. And I know that helps helps you be out there, they're just looking for it. Exactly. So I started digging deep into the research part of it, because you know, I'm kind of more like an academic person. So I started looking in research side of it, what does it say? So then, you know, like, there was a lot more research about it, like, you know, how we are misunderstanding hashimotos? And, you know, what are the things that we can do to help out with it, and I started developing a protocol, you know, we're there to help, you know, these clients. And then I started implementing it and saw phenomenal results, you know, patients were, you know, getting their brain fog was gone, their fatigue was so much better.

They were like losing weight. And most of all, you know, like, they were feeling much better, and they were living their life to the fullest now. So that was the most, you know, like, rewarding part of it. Sure. Well, I want to know what that protocol is, but I think we should rewind a bit because we should define hashimotos. So first, let's define it. What What is hashimotos? Yeah, absolutely. You know, like an important question. So hashimotos is an autoimmune thyroid condition. So in that situation, what happens is that, you know, our body starts producing antibodies against our own thyroid gland. So like, over the course of time, these antibodies starts destroying a tidal gland, and which ultimately leads to what we call as hypothyroidism. And then, you know, like, that's the time that you know, most of the hashimotos patients are diagnosed when they check, you know, the thyroid hormones, which is just essentially TSH. And they say, Oh, yes, you know, you have hypothyroidism, you just need to take a leave with her oxygen or thyroid hormone.

And that will fix it. But nobody ever kind of, you know, talks about hashimotos, or why did they get, you know, this thyroid issue? So that's where, you know, like the hashimotos, a little bit different than a regular thyroid problem,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 8:45

right. But it's one of the top causes for that the thyroid problem, right? So I like to tell my patients, it's more of an immune disorder, right? The immune system is attacking the thyroid, we literally are seeing antibodies to your thyroid in your blood, which probably started long before, for many cases, long before the thyroid function, actually tanks and patients, you know, become very symptomatic. So with conventional medicine, and I want to talk a little bit about labs here, but with conventional medicine, usually hypothyroidism is diagnosed based on a TSH alone. So you go to the doctor, you say I'm tired, they screen you, they run a TSH, it might be normal, they might say you're fine or it might be high. If it's high, that's more of a brain hormone. So I tell patients, that's your brain screaming at your thyroid to spit out more thyroid hormone. But as a late mentor of mine, Joe Collins once said, which I will never forget, he said TSH stands for too slow to help. Because by the time the TSH is high, many times that T four and T three, the most important thyroid hormones are really low and patients are really symptomatic. So it's very important that these patients have a comprehensive thyroid lab screen. Do you want to speak to that a little bit?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 9:50

You know, very important point. You know, as you mentioned, there were several several of the clients that I see in my practice, you know, who have been diagnosed with thyroid disorder, but they Never has been checked for your like hashimotos right. And it's so like appalling to me like How is that possible? So, you know as you said, you know conventional medicine The only thing like thyroid hormone that you need to check for a diagnosis or even management of thyroid dysfunction is just TSH which absolutely is not enough right because TSS is just one hormone and as you said, By the time the TSH is abnormal, you know, we are already at a very, very fairly advanced stage of thyroid dysfunction. So, we need to do a complaint or like a complete comprehensive panel to kind of evaluate the thyroid completely. So then that I kind of divided into like first of all thyroid hormones so we need to check a TSH we need to get you know your T three hormone levels D for hormone levels, total and free and also reverse t three just to kind of know you know, where all this stuff is happening. And most of the conventional doctors or endocrine doctors will not even know what reverse t three is. So that's a different story. Right?

Dr. Stephanie Gray 10:56

So what we'll come back to that but keep talking Yeah,

Dr. Anshul Gupta 10:58

yeah. And the second part is antibodies right. So check out her hashimotos antibodies which again involves like the TPO antibodies and the title globulin antibodies. So those are the two antibodies who like to check. The third part actually, I add also inflammatory markers, you know, like, you know, HS CRP and ESR you know, in ferritin levels just to see like how much inflammation is there because again, these labs have never been checked and majority of my clients and they don't know whether they have inflammation or not. So that's where I divide my thyroid testing in these three big categories, like thyroid hormones, you know, antibodies, and also inflammation markers.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 11:35

Wonderful. And for those listening, we will put all these labs in the show notes so that you can reflect back and and know which labs you need to have your doctor check on you with ferritin went to high that is an inflammatory marker, but some patients have low ferritin which is your iron stores and iron ore ferritin are really required for thyroid hormone production as well and a lot of my thyroid cases, I have anemic patients, their their iron and ferritin are low and we have to optimize those to to improve thyroid function.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 12:02

Absolutely.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 12:03

But let's go back to reverse t three. So what is reverse t three?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 12:07

Yeah, so, we have like, as I said, you know, we have different kinds of thyroid hormone that our body produces, you know, like to kind of just give you a quick update on anatomy, so people can kind of follow along. So, you know, first of all, we have this master gland which is the pituitary, okay, that produces the hormone TSH, which goes into your thyroid gland, which tells us reproduce the thyroid hormone, and it uses basically T for hormone right, and then the T for hormone needs to be converted into T three, which is your active thyroid hormone. During this process, we also produces what you call as a reverse t three, you know, which basically antagonizes this you know, t three, okay? So what I call is that if t three is your gas pedal, you know, reverse t three is your brake pedal.

Okay. So, you know, like, a lot of times, you know, like, people come to me saying that, okay, well, you know, like, my tire numbers look good, I have my T three is good, t four is good. Why am I having problem I said, Let's check, reverse three, three, and the reverse D three super, super high. So basically, even though you have good amount of T three, but you know, the functioning of T three is hampered because the reverse t three is too high. That's great. That's the exact analogy I use with my patients, you don't want your brake pedal on and your gas pedal off, right? You don't want to have high reverse t three or low free t three. So if reverse t three comes back high, then what do we do? What is that a sign of what does that tell us? So there are various things you know, which kind of play a role in kind of having reverse t three being high. So first of all, I kind of go into the like root cause analysis, okay, well, what is going on in your body, which is asking your body to make so much diversity three. So in that situation, sometimes some nutrient deficiencies can do it, you know, our poor diet can also play a role. And then third, stress, you know, is a very, very important factor, which can also kind of, you know, cause reverse Titi to go Hi.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:55

Wonderful. So, maybe, maybe those responses, answer the next question that I was going to ask you, like, Why do hashimotos patients continue to suffer with symptoms and they don't get better? Can you maybe answer that question and start walking us through briefly your treatment protocol for Hashimoto?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 14:14

Absolutely, so like initially, as I mentioned, like, you know, we are categorizing hashimotos in the same category as what we call as low thyroid or hypothyroidism. While Hashimoto is a total different disease, right, you know, as you mentioned, it's an immune disorder, right? So it's an autoimmune disease. So actually, in hashimotos, what is happening is these antibodies or autoimmunity in our body, which is destroying not only thyroid, but also an important you know, another organelle called mitochondria. And because of destruction of thyroid and mitochondria is actually causing people to have all the symptoms of brain fog of hair, loss of fatigue, you know, weight loss issues, all of that stuff. And we think actually, it is because of deficiency of tiredness.

So, we keep pumping people with thyroid hormone without any relief while we are not doing anything with the root cause of the problem, which is destruction of thyroid and the mitochondria. So, here's where the Mitel thyroid connection comes in that you talk about. Exactly. So, in a biology class, you know, like just we learn only one line about mitochondria that is the powerhouse of our body Okay, which is the case, but might So, you know, like our body has like, like a millions of cells right. And each cell of our body has these teeny tiny structures in it, which are called mitochondria, okay. So, these mitochondria are actually required to power our body. So, these are basically again as the is the Word says powerhouse that they are powering our body and giving us energy. Without mitochondria, we will not be there, you know, we cannot function we cannot live. But the interesting piece is that you know, we or we thought like, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago that mitochondria is only involved with energy production, but now, the new research says that mitochondria is involved in many, many more things, it regulates our immune function, you know, it read it or it is involved in aging process, you know, it is involved in autoimmunity. So, it is involved in so many different things that you know, now there is more and more research coming into it.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:21

Could you be missing out on magnesium, if you aren't already taking magnesium you likely should be are deficient food sources caffeine consumption, stress and exercise robba sub magnesium which is an important cofactor for hundreds of processes in the body, it can calm your mind and ease your nerves to help you sleep at night and help reduce anxiety, PMS and headaches. It can relax your muscles when you have cramps your bowels when you're constipated, and it's required for energy hormone production and vitamin D absorption. If you're interested in exploring more about how magnesium can help support you living a longer, healthier life, and the exact type of magnesium supplement to look for, check out my blog post the magnificence of magnesium found at your longevity blueprint comm forward slash blog and use code magnesium for 10% off our magnesium keylite product at your longevity blueprint calm. Now let's get back to the episode.

I've had previously several guests talk about eating clean to fuel your mitochondria or certain supplements like an ad to fuel your mitochondria or peptides to help with mitochondrial function. So watch, I know you're an expert. And also so there are a lot of things that we can do to improve our mitochondria. So what are your top tips? for that? You can you can repeat some of what I just mentioned. But what what are your top strategies in your patients to restore that vital thyroid connection?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 17:41

Absolutely. So for me like the top three things which helped with you know, might like restoring the mitochondrial connection. The first is the Mito thyroid diet that you have. Okay, so food is so important, you know, like, it just plays in like, you know, a pivotal role in kind of helping our body to heal. So in my, the thyroid diet, you know, what I do is that, you know, like, I remove first of all foods, which are destroying this connection. Okay. So those are the foods which are inflammatory to our body, which is like mainly gluten, dairy, soy, corn, peanuts, sugar, processed meat, and processed food, all of those things. So we remove those foods to make sure that we are not doing anything to destroy this connection further. And then we introduce along that, you know, we introduce foods, which are healing to thyroid, as well as mitochondria. So the first category of foods is vegetables. Okay, so the green leafy vegetables and colorful vegetables. So the more color you have in your diet, the better it is. So I always ask my patients is that, you know, make sure at least you have eight colors in your diet every day. Okay, and always make a joke, make sure they are no, those are not m&ms.

Because it was an interesting story, like one of our patient, I told her, like, you know, eat as many colors as you like, and she's actually a human literally started like, coloring her food, you know, by artificial colors and eating and thinking that I was like, that was really funny.

So as I said, green leafy vegetables and colorful vegetables, that's one thing that we do. And the second thing is that good fats. So that's where, you know, we introduce, you know, like your olive oils and avocados, you know, and then ghee all of those, you know, good fats in there. And then fish fatty fishes good, you know, good fatty fishes, omega threes, you know from them. So that's the source, you know, that we would like to introduce that, then we reduce the amount of carbohydrates, you know, in the diet so that again, you know, the mitochondria can regenerate and actually can power through that. So we do that also. So, those are the kind of, you know, things that we do we all obviously introduce a lot of nuts, you know, and seeds in our, in my diet, you know, because I like the way our body works on those nuts and seeds with them.

So that's the first thing that we do the mighty thyroid diet, you know, kind of, you know, introducing all of these things to them and working to rejuvenate their mitochondria and tyroid together, then the second thing that we do. Along with this diet, I introduced intermittent fasting. Okay, intermittent fasting in a wonderful way that rejuvenates the mitochondria, you know, and then lower down the autoimmunity saves the thyroid gland reduces, you know, the burden of oxidative stress kind of you know, helps to rejuvenate the title that way. That's the second part that I help my clients to introduce that. And you know, what that is, too.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:25

For more details, I did an interview Cynthia thurlow, we had a wonderful, lengthy podcast on intermittent fasting that I recommend listeners go back and listen to but briefly tell the listeners what intermittent fasting is.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 20:38

Absolutely. So like, so, again, going back to like, 100 years ago, you know, our body is not used to having food 24 seven, right. So we had brief periods of, you know, time, maybe like hours or days where we will not have any food, right. And that's the way actually our body was used, you know, was made up that, you know, when we have no food, then you know, we will use all the fat stored in our body to kind of burn it. And kind of you know, our mitochondria will be able to rejuvenate that way. So intermittent fasting is actually using the same kind of methods to rejuvenate the mitochondria now, because now we are eating 24 seven, you know, like, you know, there is no time that we don't eat, you know, like, all the time, food is so much available now these days. So in intermittent fasting, we have a span of time, where people will not be eating, so that they go into that little bit of what we call a starvation or a ketosis mode, which switches how mitochondria makes energy because I mitochondria can use two kinds of fuel one is carbohydrates, and one is what we call as fats. Okay? So when we go into that salvation, or when we go into that ketosis mode, we're using fats to burn, which has lots of benefits to it. So the typical time, you know, when you when what is needed for this intermittent fasting, or the fasting window is at least 12 to 16 hours, okay, so you need to fast for between 12 to 16 hours, most of the people will do 16 hours of fasting and eight hour of window where they will eat food, okay.

Like it will work for majority of people. But for some people, it is very, very challenging. So I will say that, even if they can even do 12 hours of fasting, that is also great. Sure, every single day, do you have patients cycle in and out of that, or change the feeding window hours, or just kind of just everyday about 12 to 16 hours. So I'd like to do it 12 to 16 hours, because I generally don't go to 16, my clients most of the time do between 12 to 14, and I just have them do it all the time. If somebody's doing 16, then I gently cycle them like do for like five days or so and then kind of give them a break for a day or two. Sure. And then do it again.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 22:45

So to the listeners, that means stop eating right by 7pm or whatever time you choose, and then don't eat for another 12 hours. So you wouldn't eat breakfast until 7am if you want to do seven to seven, and a 12 hour fast or 12 hour feeding windows. Or if you can wait till nine or 11am to eat then you're extending that out. So I would start with 12 hours and then slowly work your way up if you if you can to a longer fasted state.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 23:11

Absolutely, yes, that's the way to do it. You know, like, again, if you're feeling miserable, then you need to do a shorter window. But if you don't feel miserable, most people actually I find it that they you know, for them, it's easy to do 14 hours to 16 hours. It doesn't need to do it slowly, as you said, third thing is supplements.

So y'all love supplements, but you know, like, especially for restoring this mighty thyroid connection, we need some supplements. Yeah, so some of the supplements that are on my list, you know, as an ad, you know, which, you know, as you said, You have already been covered on the show. But and it is wonderful, you know, entity, the substrate, which is basically needed for mitochondria to produce energy. And then as we age, or you know, or as our body kind of, you know, goes through a lot of autoimmune processes. You know, our body cannot keep up with producing energy. And that's the reason, you know, that level decreases. So sometimes we need to, you know, supplement an ad for it to work. What's your favorite form? I have a sublingual ad here that I recommend to many patients. What form do you recommend usually? Yeah, I'm actually trying to figure like, you know, working with different kinds because every day there is a new ad, which is coming up. And then you know, like, for for interestingly, for my client, there has not been one that works, you know, for them, but I like the sublingual one too, which, you know, again, works great. That's, you know, that's also the good one.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 24:27

So nada is one supplement, what are a few others?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 24:30

So acetyl l carnitine. You know, that's another one which kind of powers your mitochondria. The third one is co q 10, which is kind of, you know, very, you know, powerful and has been there for a very, very long time. So, again, different versions of CO q 10. The one that I like is mitoku. You know, I think you know that it gives the most benefit to most of my clients. So that's the third supplement. The fourth is magnesium. You know, I feel that magnesium is so powerful in mitochondria, and often missed.

Unknown Speaker 24:59

No, magnesium doesn't get, you know, the same Limelight as all of these others. But I think it is very, very powerful and very, very useful. I totally agree. I think some patients say, Well, I tried magnesium and it didn't work. Well, what form did you take? How much did you take? When did you take it? There are a lot of questions that I asked and I myself have even experimented, I get a lot of palpitations and magnesium is helpful, but usually more magnesium is more helpful. Some patients need to find that therapeutic dose for them of magnesium. Magnesium is not just important for mitochondria, it's really important for hormone production. It's essential for thyroid hormone production, it's a great for sleep. It's just great for everything. So most patients do need some magnesium.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 25:41

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I want to kind of overlap what you've said with the top supplements for thyroid health. Also, since we're talking about you know, hashimotos here and obviously, supplements for mitochondria are going to influence the thyroid because of this Mitel thyroid connection that you've talked about. But earlier in the episodes, you alluded to T for converting to either free t three or reverse t three and obviously we want it to convert to free t three, there are some cofactors that are needed for that conversion. So can you talk about what cofactors are, what nutrients are needed there and just needed for the thyroid in general? What supplements you use there.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 28:57

Yeah, so they are good, like a few supplements you know, which are essential for like optimal functioning of the thyroid. top of the list for hashimotos patients is Selenium. Again wonderful supplement which helps you know a lot of thyroid patients especially reduces autoimmunity and antibody production. So Selenium is number one second one is zinc. Again, an important you know, like cofactor, which is needed for conversion from t 43. So that zinc is the second one. The third one are B vitamins B for boy. So B vitamins are also needed a different steps for you know, like thyroid hormone production. And the fourth one is iron. You know, as you said, a lot of females are anemic, so they don't have enough iron, you know, so I want to make sure that they have enough iron in them. The fifth one is controversial, which is IoT, you know, like there are two different camps of thoughts, you know, like one camp thing that everybody should get IoT in the other camp things. Well, IoT might not be that great. I'm in the second camp, because the research does say that you know, very low iodine is also bad and very high. Iodine is also bad. So what I want, what I do for my clients is I checked I odine levels. And if it is like in the upper normal range, I generally just, you know, kind of push for iodine containing foods. I don't give them a supplement. But if their levels are low, then I give a supplement for a short amount of time.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:12

I totally agree. I've seen iodine really help patients and I've seen it really backfire on certain patients. So I feel like there just isn't one blanket rule for its use. We have to assess like we have to test levels and try it on patients and see what happens did their antibodies go down their their antibodies go up? I mean, every patient is different. So I, I like that you, you test. There's also a thyroid adrenal connection. So can you briefly speak to that because a lot of my patients come to me saying, Oh, I have adrenal fatigue. My chiropractor told me I have adrenal fatigue, I'm really tired. I did the saliva cortisol test, and they think, just fix me and you're gonna fix everything. And it's not always that easy. But we do know that the adrenal glands help with thyroid hormone production, they help with sex hormone production. So what's this connection? And what can we what can we do about it to improve adrenal health?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 31:04

Yeah, it's a very important question. And, you know, to answer that question, what I say is that, you know, our body is a symphony, right? You know, it's not kind of, you know, each and every instrument doing its own job. It's like all working together to kind of make our body function, you know, optimally. So that's where, you know, like this, thyroid and adrenal connection also comes into place. So what are adrenal glands? So adrenal glands are like teeny tiny glands, which are sitting on top of our kidneys, which are very, very important endocrine glands, because they are secreting all these stress hormones like cortisol, your adrenaline, and all those things are secreted by our you know, adrenal glands. So what happens is that, you know, whenever our body gets stressed out, you know, or feel that it is exposed to any kind of stress, it secretes these hormones to protect our body from, you know, those acute stressors that we might be getting exposed to these cortisol, again, you know, the way they function is that, you know, they go to the thyroid gland, sometimes shut off the production of the thyroid hormone, and also sometimes can interfere with the optimal functioning of the T three hormone.

Now, in reverse, what happens is that the thyroid hormone also controls, you know, like how cortisol works. So again, you know, like, at the cellular level, sometimes these thyroid hormones alters how cortisol can make changes. So it's kind of a two way connection that is present in thyroid and adrenal glands. So now, what happens is that, you know, in acute case, you when we are exposed to stress, you know, our cortisol gets secreted, that is a good thing, because that is a defense mechanism. But what happens is that when our body gets exposed to chronic stress, then we have chronically elevated cortisol levels. And that's where we get into trouble. And that's what people talk about adrenal fatigue or kind of, you know, digital dysfunction. And that kind of comes along with the thyroid glands too, because, you know, entire disorders like hashimotos people are going through chronically stressed all the time because of those antibodies, body's inflamed, right? So that's what is happening.

Now, what happens is that, you know, like, unfortunately, the symptoms of adrenal dysfunction or adrenal fatigue, overlap a lot of times with thyroid dysfunction. So, it's very, very difficult to differentiate, you know, whether patients are adrenal fatigue or whether it is actually thyroid dysfunction. So, there are some ways you know, that you can kind of differentiate, you know, obviously, there are some symptomatic ways and there is also testing ways so, so, in some ways, you know, like, if you have adrenal dysfunction, majority of the time, the symptoms will be that, you know, there will be weight gain, but all of these weight gain will be around your abdomen, okay, so that, that muffin top or, you know, like, you know, the terminology that we use or that, you know, difficult to lose weight around your waist, you know, that's what you know, happens with it. The second thing is most common is that with adrenal dysfunction, people will always be kind of, like, anxious or wired, that's what I call them, like, they will always be have, like this underlying anxiety, and they will say, I don't know, but I just feel anxious all the time.

And that's new for them. The third thing is that they're fatigued. You know, like, you know, and the fatigue is like, basically, they're just wiped out, in like, you know, that as soon as they wake up in the morning, they are able to function for a couple of hours, and after that they are done. So that's a typical story of adrenal fatigue, you know, that they will be just, you know, able to function only for a few hours, wired and tired. Yeah, why exactly why didn't die it and the fourth thing is skin. So they have very, very fragile skin, you know, like, like an old person, you know, I don't want to mention that, but that's the, that's the best analogy I can come up with, is like, you know, as soon as like, they will strike something or somebody will scratch their skin, they will have a big wound, you know, so that's, you know, very, very fragile skin is another sign you know, I've had you know, dysfunction. So, those are the top symptoms. You know, I will say that, you know, adrenal dysfunction or adrenal fatigue people will have,

I totally agree I have a lot of patients with a low blood pressure also lightheaded and dizzy, very low blood pressure. So what do we do? What do we do about them? So how do we treat these? Briefly? How do we treat these adrenal cases? What do we do to help these patients?

Yeah, so they are come bunch of things that we can do, obviously, you know, like, again for my philosophy is that okay, well first figure out that you know, why we're having this, you know, problem of adrenal fatigue or dysfunction, right? So the first thing is that okay, well, stress right. Now, obviously, in the present scenario, stress is everywhere, you know, we are getting exposed to stress, you know, just talk about present COVID situation, it is stressful each and every day, because it's Jen changing, and nobody knows how long is going to last right. So similarly, we have worked really stress, you know, relationship, stress, financial stress. So first, I always encourage my patients to develop some de stress techniques.

We know it can be easily like meditation or deep breathing, you know, like, cultivate a hobby, or just five minutes of you know, every day where there's just don't do anything. You know, like, you'll be surprised that, you know, when I tell people there for five minutes, try not to do anything. They say, yeah, that's easy. I said, Okay, give it a try. And they'll come back and they say, the toughest thing you told me out of almost anything was not to do anything for five minutes. I was like, Really? You said that would be easy? She said, Yeah, but that was very tough. I totally agree. I have a lot of patients, especially patients who are just wired and jittery like you tell them to do nothing. Because our bodies need downtime. I always tell my patients our bodies need physical and mental downtime. Aside from when we're literally sleeping in her beds, like we need downtime during the day and I'm sure with your your profession and mine. I mean, we go go go all day seeing patients I'm constantly talking to patients I feel like at the end of the day, I'm like what just happened because it's busy.

So we need to honor our body's need for downtime and literally do nothing and it can be difficult and our mind can wander but that's so important. I think that's a very underrated important tip. So I like them. Yep. And the second thing is then I asked them okay, after like cultivating or tackling the stress piece, then we use something supplements called adaptogens. So these adaptogens are basically herbal or supplements, you know, which help out you know, your adrenal fatigue or adrenal dysfunction. So top of my list first is ashwagandha. The second thing is Jen Singh. The third thing is rhodiola. So I think you know, a combination of these three, like help out like majority of patients go No, like, go through this adrenal dysfunction of fatigue easily. Totally agree, I love all of those. We have a product called adrenal calm, which has those as well as some elfi and Ian and Phosphatidylserine. So my patients who are just jacked up or feel jittery or irritable, who just need they need help calming their body down, help adapting to the stress, we have the herbs, we have the calming amino acid, l theanine, which is my favorite supplement on earth. And then also title Syrian, which is a calming phospholipid, both of which have effects lowering cortisol. So that adrenal calm product is just wonderful. That's something that many of my patients need.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:01

I agree with you there. Well, that was all very, very helpful. I have to ask what your top longevity tip would be, you gave us a lot of tips today, but what's your absolute top longevity tip?

Dr. Anshul Gupta 38:12

So for me, as I said, magnesium is the key. You know, like there are so many things that he spoke about, but you know, the said magnesium doesn't get the limelight, as it should be. Because, you know, like, magnesium is involved in like more than 300 enzymatic processes in our body. So that's like one of the most like, you know, important mineral that our body needs to function. So it is involved in thyroid health, it is also involved in mitochondrial health. The worst part is that, you know, most of the clients are low in magnesium, the reason being our soil is deficient in magnesium. So there was a research study done, you know, which again, you know, checked our soil to see if it has the same, like, new mineral quality as like 10 years ago, and it showed that there are several minerals that our soil was low on, and magnesium was one of those. So even though you know, we might be eating the most nutritious diet that you know, on the earth, but then then also we might not get enough magnesium.

So that's the reason, you know, that's, you know, like an important thing that I always recommend to all of my patients, they that get magnesium get magnesium get magnesium and the and the good part is that you know, it is not toxic. So, we have hardly seen any cases, you know, people said, Oh, you know, like, you know, as you were mentioning that you know, to find the right dose for them. So, there is no toxicity of magnesium so you can go and very, very high doses and still it will not bother, you know, most of the people and a lot get toxic, you know, or in the body. So then we can use high doses when people who need more only agree, make sure you are purchasing a high quality supplement, though that doesn't come from China. It's not laced with, you know, things we don't want. Make sure it's very high quality that it comes from a company that has that's testing their product, for sure which licensed clinicians like both of us, you know, only recommend

Dr. Stephanie Gray 40:00

So where can listeners find you, they want to connect with you.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 40:04

So I have a website, you know, it's, it's called unsure Gupta md.com. So that's where you know, all of my information is listed, I have a very, very active blog. So every day, I'm researching more and more new things about hashimotos patients, and I kind of post over there through a blog about different things, you know, at least once a week, you know, I post over there. And then obviously, I'm on social media, so people can connect me over there on Instagram or Facebook. So I do a lot of live videos for people to educate about those.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 40:33

And we'll put all those links in the show notes. Of course, lastly, I know you have a free gift for our audience. So tell us about that.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 40:41

Yeah, so like, so I was talking about, like, you know, I always want to look at the root causes, you know, of why people have hashimotos. So what I kind of figured out was that, you know, why not kind of make a quiz for people to know that what root causes they might be going through. So that's where I prepared like an easy quiz, which can be done like in three or four minutes for you know, folks, and that will give them an idea of what root causes you know, they might be suffering from or might be the reason for the hashimotos. So that's what the free gift you know, I have for you know, for, for your show notes for your show people who can take this unitized quiz and that gives them information about the root causes of their thyroid problem.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 41:18

Wonderful. I'm gonna have to take that myself. So we'll post a link in the in the show notes. Well, thank you Dr. Gupta for coming on the show today defining hashimotos talking about the Mito thyroid connection, what the Mitel thyroid diet is what supplements are important, and they're just thank you for sharing your story and forgiving our patients hope that they can recover and heal from Hashimoto. So it's a joy to have you on. So thank you for being here. Yeah, my pleasure. It was really nice talking to you. And that's my goal to kind of help, you know, so many people out because I want to give hope, because I was without hope, and I had no plan. So I want people to know that they don't have to live this miserable life. There is better life out there. And there is hope.

Dr. Anshul Gupta 41:56

Absolutely. And I would say for listeners, finding a functional medicine provider like ourselves can help you personalize that plan to build your health back. That's what we do. That's what functional medicine is here for. So if you don't have a practitioner, find one. Absolutely.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 42:11

That concludes another amazing interview. hashimotos is so common in patients need to know that options exist to help them recover. Our body is a symphony and Dr. Gupta provided so many tips on keeping that Symphony well orchestrated. If you're interested in taking some of the nutrients that Dr. Gupta mentioned, you can find most of them at your longevity blueprint calm. We carry high quality magnesium, zinc, selenium, iodine, and even a thyroid support complex mitochondrial complex and my favorite product for the adrenals adrenal calm, use code hashimotos for 10% off.

Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time the course is 50% off, check this offer out at your longevity blueprint.com and click the course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. And leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all of the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. The podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative. As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting.

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai