WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Well, welcome to this month's Ask Your Herb Doctor. My name is Andrew Murray. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:05.500 My name is Sarah Johannison Murray. 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:11.000 And for those of you who perhaps have never listened to our shows, which run every third Friday of the month from 7 till 8pm, 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.500 we're both licensed medical herbalists who trained in England and graduated there with a degree in herbal medicine. 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:21.000 We run a clinic in Garboville where we consult with clients about a wide range of conditions, 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:28.000 and we manufacture all our own certified organic herbal extracts, which are either grown on our CCUF certified herb farm, 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000 or which are sourced from other certified organic suppliers. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:37.000 So you're listening to Ask Your Herb Doctor on KMU DeGarboville, 91.1 FM, 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:43.500 and from about 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock, you're all invited to call in with any questions, 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:47.000 either related or unrelated to this month's topic. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.000 The number here, if you live in the area, is 923 3911, or if you live outside the area, 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:00.000 the toll-free number is 1800 568 3723, that's KMUD Rad. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:10.000 We can also be reached toll-free on 1888 WBM Herb for further questions during normal business hours Monday through Friday. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:16.000 So, this month we're again very pleased and fortunate to welcome Dr. Ray Peat back to this show, 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:22.000 and we will be examining further some common misconceptions surrounding thyroid treatment, 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:29.000 and the apparently normal thyroid test in clients with obvious manifestations of thyroid imbalance. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:37.000 We have ourselves seen remarkable progress made with clients with many and varied symptoms that improve dramatically, 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:44.000 with diet and lifestyle changes that promote thyroid health, revealing a prior lowered thyroid function, 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.000 even in the absence of diagnostic tests that show no obvious problems. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.000 So, welcome again to this month's show, Dr. Peat. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Hello, thank you. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.000 It's very kind of you to join us again. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:56.000 Okay. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.000 Oh, I think we should, Dr. Peat has over 40 years experience. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:06.000 I want to introduce Dr. Peat's experience for those of you who haven't heard Dr. Peat on our radio show last year. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:16.000 But he has over 40 years experience in lecturing, teaching, writing, editing, and nutritional counseling. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.000 So, we're very happy to have him join our show tonight. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:31.000 And he also has a PhD in biochemistry, and he also teaches on physiology, and basically functions as an endocrinologist. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Does that sound right, Dr. Peat? 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Yeah, my PhD is in biology, but my work was all in physiology and biochemistry. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:48.000 So, we wanted to talk about thyroid disease because it seems to be such a chronic epidemic. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.000 And we thought we'd just start by introducing what thyroid disease is, 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:58.000 in case there are listeners that are not aware of what their thyroid is or where it's located. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:05.000 So, Dr. Peat, what would you describe low thyroid disease to be or hypothyroidism? 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:13.000 It's basically a slowing of the oxidative metabolism. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:28.000 And that means your biological efficiency falls drastically because we rely almost entirely on oxidative metabolism. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:35.000 In emergencies, we can use glycolytic non-oxidative metabolism, 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:50.000 but then we have to make up for it by re-oxidizing the lactic acid that was produced in the oxygen deprivation or energy over-stressing. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:04.000 And so everything that is human or mammalian or even a complex organism depends on the thyroid 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:14.000 because all cellular activity to be efficient requires oxidative metabolism. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:21.000 So, thyroid in a sense is controlling the oxygen to all the cells in our system. Is that correct? 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:38.000 And so one of the effects is that our carbon dioxide production is kept at a fairly high rate in relation to oxygen consumption. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.000 That keeps our tendency to produce lactic acid very low. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:55.000 So, if a person is low thyroid, even at rest, they can seem metabolically as if they're doing stressful activity. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:00.000 They can chronically have elevated lactic acid. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.000 And is this something that involves like chronic fatigue? 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.000 People's muscles are chronically fatigued even though they're not really even doing any exercises 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.000 that might seem to be using their muscles besides just walking around? 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:24.000 Yes, because when you don't use oxygen efficiently, you have to make lactic acid to keep the cells alive. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:34.000 And the lactic acid then has to be reoxidized in your liver to turn it eventually to carbon dioxide. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:48.000 And so just sitting passively for a hypothyroid person can be the same as running at high speed for a healthy person. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:06:01.000 And about 60 years ago, it was very well known that a hypothyroid person has trouble relaxing their muscles and nerves. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:11.000 And so there were publications showing that you can just about invariably diagnose hypothyroidism 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:19.000 with a simple thump of the ankle tendon to the gastrocnemius muscle. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:20.000 Which is the calf muscle. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Yeah. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:28.000 And when you're kneeling and you thump that, you can see that the relaxation is delayed. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:37.000 That was very well established as a good diagnostic method in the 1930s and '40s. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:44.000 But the labs and pharmaceutical companies couldn't sell anything. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:55.000 You can use just a table knife or a wooden hammer handle or anything to thump the tendon. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:58.000 And it just takes about two minutes to do it. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:10.000 And so it's a very uneconomical business for doctors in the pharmaceutical industry to be able to diagnose the condition so simply. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.000 So is this why the blood test came about that tests the TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone? 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.000 Yeah. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:30.000 For the first 20 years or so, doctors were told not to use the Achilles relaxation test or the basal metabolic oxygen consumption test 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.000 or any of the proven absolute confirmations of hypothyroidism. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.000 Because they had what they called the scientific blood test to prove it. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.000 And that was called the protein bound iodine test. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:58.000 And that convinced doctors all over the country that where previously 40% of the population had shown some evidence of being hypothyroid. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:03.000 The new blood test showed that only 5% were hypothyroid. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:16.000 So for 20 years, this test was used convincing the whole medical world that very few people are seriously hypothyroid. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:26.000 And then in the 1960s, it turned out that protein bound iodine has essentially nothing to do with thyroid hormone functioning. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.000 And what about the TSH that's used today? 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 Do you think that's relevant? 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:48.000 Yeah. When the protein bound iodine test was thrown out, they looked for other tests which conveniently proved to be even more expensive than the protein bound iodine. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:58.000 And that finally has settled in on the TSH test as the favored one. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:07.000 And they can measure it very precisely, but it just isn't clear what it means in many cases. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:16.000 Because other things can raise it or lower it other than the absence or excess of thyroid hormone. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:23.000 So if someone is low thyroid or is not low thyroid, they can have varying levels of this TSH, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:33.000 which the doctors are saying is thyroid stimulating hormone, but which you're suggesting and other scientists are suggesting doesn't really relate specifically to thyroid. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:39.000 That's true. And it has some bad side effects. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 It promotes inflammation in itself. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:52.000 So low thyroid people not only lack the metabolic energy, but they tend very often to have very high TSH levels. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:58.000 And the TSH is causing some tissue damage chronically. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:09.000 Wow. Okay. So what do you think is causing low thyroid function in a lot of people in the US today? 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:27.000 I think, well, 70 years ago, it sometimes included an iodine deficiency, but with the iodination of table salt, other factors became far more important. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:41.000 I've only seen the iodine deficiency condition a few times in people from South America or the mountains of Mexico. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:11:00.000 And many times it's a protein deficiency or an excess of eating certain foods that inhibit the thyroid, such as raw cabbage or even an excess of any of the cabbage family foods. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.000 So that would include kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:19.000 And mustard and watercress. And even if they're cooked, if you eat a huge amount of them, that sometimes can be enough to make you hypothyroid. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.000 Is this anything to do with the sulfur groups? 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:32.000 Yeah, it's a combination of a carbon that contains an oxygen or nitrogen and the sulfur group. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:45.000 Okay. And so there are known medical chemicals that are used to specifically inhibit the thyroid to treat hyperthyroidism. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:57.000 Okay. Right. I know in the previous interviews that we've done that you've very much brought out the polyunsaturated oils 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:06.000 as being definite antagonists to thyroid function and in fact downright thyroid destructive in some ways. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:10.000 Yeah, they antagonize the thyroid function at several levels. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:22.000 For example, they inhibit the proteolytic enzyme in the gland itself, which are needed to secrete, to form and secrete the hormone. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:31.000 And they bind to the protein in the bloodstream that transports thyroid, preventing the transport to the tissues. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:46.000 And they block several of the active sites in the cell, the points at which thyroid should bind to enliven the cell, the polyunsaturated fats. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:56.000 So they're affecting thyroid health at the production location, the thyroid gland, the transportation through the bloodstream, 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:02.000 as well as at the tissue level where the tissues and the cells can pick up the thyroid hormone. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:15.000 Yes. And they act on several other parts of the system, including indirectly on the TSH and every other part of the metabolic system. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:25.000 So these polyunsaturated fatty acids are found in very high levels, are mainly consisting of vegetable oils, corn oil, soy oil, 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:33.000 sesame seed oil, safflower, canola, rapeseed, and canola are the same, and fish, hemp, and flaxseed oils. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:42.000 So a lot of these oils that are purported to be good for our health are actually quite thyroid toxic and long-term use 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:49.000 could lead to conditions that are common in low thyroid and is as detrimental as cancer. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:14:03.000 Yeah. And there's one which isn't really a fatty acid, but it's a highly unsaturated molecule, carotene, which is the precursor to vitamin A. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:13.000 It not only blocks the cellular sites that use vitamin A, but as a polyunsaturated molecule, 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:20.000 it also blocks the thyroid function every place that the vegetable oils do. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.000 So this would be just basically ingesting lots of cooked carrots, that would be the... 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Yeah. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.000 And cooked pumpkin, anything that had high levels of carotene. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.000 Okay, and that's that yellow pigment or the orange pigment. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:40.000 Yeah, some of the studies confused people because they knew that vitamin A was protective against cancer, 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:48.000 but they saw that some types of cancer increased with supplementation of carotene. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:49.000 Okay. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:55.000 Right, so it's that the carotene blocks the receptor, so your body can't use the vitamin A that's in your diet. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 And so it sits in the receptor, but it doesn't stimulate our receptor. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.000 It sits somewhere in the cell that doesn't stimulate the effects of vitamin A, 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.000 the protective cancer-protecting effects of vitamin A. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.000 And vitamin A and thyroid work so closely together biologically 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:19.000 that the protein that transports them is a single protein. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:26.000 It's called transthyretin for retinol and thyroid transport. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:36.000 And in the 1930s, one of the ways of confirming that a person had died from hypothyroidism 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:46.000 was that the steroid-forming tissues turned red because of the accumulated carotene. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Because you can't use vitamin A if you don't have thyroid. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:58.000 And so the carotene accumulates in the steroid-forming tissue and makes them red. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:06.000 Would this be any reason now behind the basis of people with yellow calluses being very apparent on their soles or their palms? 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Yeah, that's one of the old ways to diagnose hypothyroidism. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:11.000 Okay. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Well. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.000 I think you've told us that before, Dr. Peat. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.000 We're going to pause here for a moment. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:17.000 Okay. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.000 Well, you're listening to Ask Your Ob-Doctor on KMUD Garboville, 91.1 FM, 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.000 and from 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock, 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:31.000 you're invited to call in with any questions related or unrelated to this month's topic of thyroid disorder. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.000 And we can hopefully cover iron and a few other subjects. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:40.000 But again, this month, we're very pleased and fortunate to welcome Dr. Raymond Peat back to the show. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:46.000 And we're going to be continuing to examine some common misconceptions surrounding thyroid treatment. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:47.000 Okay. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:49.000 So, Sarah, did you want to carry on with? 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:50.000 Yeah. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.000 I printed out a long list of symptoms that are common in low thyroid disease. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:00.000 So we've been talking about low thyroid disease, which is known as hypothyroidism. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.000 And we've talked about what it is, what causes it. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:09.000 But I want to mention some symptoms and signs that accompany the disease 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000 because so many people seem to be suffering from these symptoms. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Okay. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:16.000 Well, the list is pretty exhaustive. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:23.000 It may seem a little extreme, but pretty much all of these will be apparent in some people. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:26.000 So things like the obvious ones are less stamina than others, 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:33.000 given that the metabolic rate helps us produce energy and gives us life. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Less energy than others. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000 A long recovery period after any activity. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:47.000 There's also the inability to fight infection, sort of low-grade chronic infections. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:53.000 Cold hands and feet are very kind of symptomatic of low thyroid. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:18:03.000 And then high, usually high or rising cholesterol in low thyroid patients does seem to be fairly common. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:11.000 And then things like dry hair, dry skin, hair loss, dry cracking skin. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:18.000 Also, though, the other thing that seems to be contrary to dry skin is that you can have acne on the face, 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:21.000 the shoulders, the chest and the back. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:29.000 So why would symptoms such as dry skin and dry hair and acne and oily skin both be symptoms of low thyroid? 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:35.000 Partly it's the close connection between vitamin A and thyroid. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:42.000 The skin needs vitamin A to differentiate properly. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:45.000 And mucous membranes require vitamin A, too, 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:57.000 so that in an extreme deficiency, the surface of the eye becomes scaly and like snake skin. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:06.000 But the lack of both thyroid and vitamin A can cause lots of skin problems, 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:20.000 including plugging the pores and allowing infection to set in because the thyroid doesn't allow the immune cells to function properly. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:28.000 And thinning of the skin just because it isn't growing fast enough. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:33.000 Estrogen is contrary to vitamin A's effect. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Progesterone and vitamin A are closely connected so that when you have enough vitamin A and thyroid, 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:48.000 even your skin can produce progesterone and other steroids. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.000 And when they're lacking, then estrogen takes effect, 00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:02.000 and it tends to prematurely harden or keratinize the skin cells. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.000 They're called keratinized because they become horny. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:18.000 The juicy cell collapses and becomes just a bit of leathery scale-like material like makes up horn or hair. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.000 Wow. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.000 That's accelerated by estrogen and retarded, 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:35.000 and the cells are allowed to stay vital and moist longer when there's enough thyroid, vitamin A and progesterone. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:38.000 All those good things. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:39.000 Sandra, do you want to carry on with-- 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:44.000 Okay, well, I don't want to bore people with too many different-- 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:46.000 I know, but there's quite a lot of things here that I think people-- 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:50.000 Yeah, okay, so things like exhaustion, and we mentioned that in the very beginning. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:56.000 Physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, inability to work full-time or work hard 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.000 or feel that other people just seem to have that more go than you do and not understanding that. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:08.000 Lack of motivation, lack of concentration, broken or peeling fingernails. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.000 We've mentioned dry skin. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.000 Tinnitus, ringing in the ears, another fairly common symptom. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Things like joint pain. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:21.000 Fluid retention, almost to the point of congestive heart failure. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:26.000 Swollen legs that make it difficult to walk or painful. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Blood pressure problems seem to be fairly frequent amongst low thyroid people, as do varicose veins. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.000 That's something that many doctors are completely confused about, 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:48.000 which is hypothyroidism typically increases the viscosity of the blood and raises the blood pressure 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:55.000 so that a slightly hypothyroid person might have low blood pressure, 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:03.000 but a very high percentage of the people with hypertension are simply hypothyroid, 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:11.000 and correcting it with a supplement of thyroid, even the point of making them hyperthyroid, 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:13.000 will lower the blood pressure. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:20.000 It just seems so counterintuitive to what most people would understand as being hyperthyroid. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.000 Well, it's contrary to what we were taught in medical school. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:28.000 We were taught high blood pressure is a sign of high thyroid function. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Low blood pressure is a sign of low thyroid function. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:35.000 So to hear the opposite and to see that in our own clients is astounding. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.000 That when they take a thyroid supplement, their blood pressure comes down. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:44.000 And you would think before this came about, 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:49.000 that you think that normally your imagination of thyroid is a stimulating hormone, 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:53.000 when actually it really improves your sleep and calms you down 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.000 and lowers your blood pressure and lowers your resting pulse, 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:04.000 from a point of maybe 90 or more of an adrenaline high pulse, it brings it down. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:10.000 I've seen two people who chronically had a pulse around 180 beats per minute. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:16.000 And one of them had it like that for about 20 years. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:20.000 And both of them, within a couple of weeks of taking thyroid, 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.000 had it down to a normal 90 or 100 beats. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:25.000 Wow. I wonder what they thought. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:28.000 So that's another thing, is a racing pulse. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:33.000 What do you consider to be a healthy, normal thyroid pulse? 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:35.000 And what do you consider to be a low thyroid pulse? 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:36.000 What are those ranges? 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 Because of course in medical school we were taught 70 to 80 beats per minute is normal. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 If you're higher than 80 beats per minute, you could have a disease. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:46.000 So what is your opinion on this, Dr. Peat? 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:53.000 There have been several studies of people of different ages, for example, high school kids. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:24:01.000 And the ones who were healthy and got the best grades and had the best attention 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:06.000 had a resting pulse of averaging 85 beats per minute. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:14.000 And when old people on heart pacemakers were given mental exams 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.000 with the pacemaker set at the usual 70 beats, 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:24.000 they had the usual old person's memory and reasoning ability. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:30.000 When they cranked the pacemaker up to 85 per minute, every mental function improved. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:32.000 So there you go. Cool. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.000 So that's pretty interesting because that's, again, we're taught that high thyroid, 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:43.000 excess thyroid, hyperthyroid is diagnosed by a racing pulse. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:50.000 There is an old doctrine that around the beginning of the 20th century, 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:58.000 they called it the rate of living theory, that the faster your heart beat, the sooner you would die. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000 And the experiment that defined that and proved it for so many people 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:11.000 was to put some cantaloupe seeds in a dish in a saucer of water 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:13.000 and watch them sprout. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:19.000 The ones that sprouted the soonest and grew the fastest died soonest, 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000 but they didn't put any soil. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:25.000 So they used up all their food. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.000 And that's what they were using to support that rate of living theory? 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Yeah. It's just an embarrassment for science. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:40.000 It's like if you gave a person all the thyroid they needed but no food, 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:41.000 they would die quickly. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:42.000 They'd get skinny. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.000 I think Dr. Peat, there's a couple of callers on the line, so let's take the first caller. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.000 Okay, you're on the air. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:52.000 Hello. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:53.000 Hello, is it me? 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Yes, you're on the air. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:58.000 There was no sound. Hi, thank you all. I have a couple of related questions. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:59.000 Okay, go ahead. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:09.000 If a person was quite low in thyroid and it wasn't known for a long time, like more than 20 years, 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:12.000 I wonder what kind of damages that could cause. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.000 About 12 minutes in, Dr. Peat talked about tissue damage, 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:19.000 and maybe you could tell me what he meant more by that. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:29.000 And then once taking supplementation, when could you expect to be much better? 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:33.000 I have been getting supplements for 20 years after not having any, 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:35.000 and I'm still quite incapacitated. 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:43.000 Oh, usually doctors prescribe thyroxine because that isn't the thyroid hormone. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:47.000 It has to be turned into the active thyroid hormone, 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:54.000 which is called triiodothyronine or T3 in the liver to be active, 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.000 and the thyroid gland secretes a little. 00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:04.000 But when a doctor prescribes thyroxine, there's no chance that you'll be overdosed 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:13.000 because as you increase it, one of the first patients I heard about who had a myxedema coma 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:17.000 became totally unresponsive from hypothyroidism. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:28.000 She had been mildly hypothyroid for years, and they prescribed 100 micrograms of Synthroid, 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.000 and she became more hypothyroid, and they doubled it. 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:38.000 And when they reached 500 micrograms, she went into a coma. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:40.000 What about--oh, sorry. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.000 That was supplementing more and more thyroxine. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:52.000 But when in the hospital they gave her an injection of the active hormone T3, 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:58.000 she came out of the coma in just a few hours and was completely well after that. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:08.000 You can have a complete, just amazing recovery from many things in just a matter of minutes in some cases. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:13.000 For example, a doctor who had been having agonizing breast pain, 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:21.000 especially premenstrually for increasing over the recent years, I visited, 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.000 and she said that that was her main problem. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:30.000 I gave her a 10-microgram tablet of Thymel. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.000 She went in to--said she would see me in an hour when she finished with the patient. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:42.000 In 10 minutes, she came out saying, "I can't believe that. It stopped." 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:48.000 And that's a very typical thing in less than an hour with just T3. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:56.000 Pain such as menstrual or breast pain will stop totally. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:03.000 I have taken both of those, and also now I have the, like, armor. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:06.000 It's not synthetic. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.000 So you're saying that no matter how much damage over, like, a couple of decades, all of that could be repaired. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:16.000 Yes, some types of damage such as osteoporosis. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:25.000 When your thyroid is very low, your--one compensation is that your pituitary tends to swell up 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:33.000 and overproduce prolactin, and that's one of the factors in causing breast pain 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.000 and disturbed salt regulation and so on. 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:43.000 But prolactin is a major factor in causing loss of bone. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:50.000 And as at menopause, very often prolactin goes up because thyroid has gone down, 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:55.000 and the prolactin coincides with extreme loss of bone. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:05.000 And so it takes sometimes a long time of correcting your diet along with thyroid before you restore your bones. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:16.000 But I have seen a couple of people--one had her X-ray bone exam showing tremendous-- 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:22.000 I think it was 20% increase in less than a year when she was taking thyroid. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:27.000 Okay, I'm going to go so other people can speak to you, but I don't have a thyroid, 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:33.000 so I don't know if that makes a--you know, if that makes much more of a difference. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.000 I'm wondering if the question you're wanting to ask is what would happen to someone's body? 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:38.000 How much damage is there? 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:42.000 That's what I was asking because for 20 years--the doctor removed my thyroid, 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:47.000 but they never did anything about checking back, so I went for more than 20 years. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:50.000 Without taking any supplementation at all after a thyroid is removed. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:57.000 So what would you--I mean, do you think there's damage that's been done in this client, Dr. Reed, that's irreparable? 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:03.000 It just increases your stress and slows your recovery from stress, 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:12.000 and so it tends to age you faster than usual, just like working too hard would. 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:19.000 But those changes--for example, bone growth. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.000 I grew an inch and a half in my 40s when I started taking thyroid. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:26.000 Wow. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:31.000 So it happened over just a period of a few months, 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:39.000 and so even lifelong things can be corrected pretty quickly. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Thanks again. Bye. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:41.000 Very good. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000 Okay, well, let's see if we have any other callers on the line. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:45.000 I think there's one or two at least. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:46.000 Okay, you're on the air? 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.000 Yes, I am. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Okay, go ahead. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:55.000 Hi. I wanted to ask two questions, and I'll take my answer on the air. 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:56.000 Okay. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:04.000 What is--first of all, let me say, I've had--I was thyroid toxic--in storm. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:06.000 Thyrotoxicosis? 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.000 Yeah, thyrotoxicosis. 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:09.000 Okay. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:15.000 Went into storm for four months, was treated with I-131, 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.000 and for the last 30 years, I've been taking Synthroid. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:20.000 Okay? 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:21.000 Okay. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:23.000 Now, here's my question. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:29.000 Could the doctor please explain the connection between the adrenals, 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:37.000 the--in the brain, the pituitary, and the thyroid gland? 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:42.000 It seems to be a miracle round that goes around and around and back and forth. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:46.000 Okay, can you possibly turn your radio down if you haven't already, 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:48.000 because we seem to be getting some feedback interference, 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.000 and we can barely hear your question. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:52.000 My radio's not on. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:53.000 Okay. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:54.000 It's on, okay. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:55.000 All right. 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000 It's breaking up. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Okay, I think I heard your question. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:03.000 You said basically you had thyroid toxicosis, you were treated with Iodine-131, 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.000 and then you were given a thyroid replacement? 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:06.000 Right. 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:09.000 Okay, and your main question was? 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:15.000 What is the connection between the adrenals and the stress factor, 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:21.000 the pituitary and the thyroid? 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:25.000 How do they communicate with each other, and just how bad is the stress? 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:27.000 Okay, there you go. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:29.000 Dr. Peat, did you hear that question? 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:30.000 I think most of it. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:40.000 When your thyroid is low, because you don't have the efficiency with oxidative metabolism, 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000 you turn a lot of your sugar into lactic acid, 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:50.000 and then your liver spends more energy converting the lactic acid back into sugar. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:58.000 So low blood sugar is constantly a problem in hypothyroidism. 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:08.000 And the compensation for that is that first your adrenal medulla secretes a lot of adrenaline 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:13.000 to force your liver to give up any sugar it has stored. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:20.000 And when that doesn't meet your needs for sugar, 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:31.000 then the adrenal cortex begins over-secreting cortisol to break down protein or muscle tissue 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:35.000 to make sugar out of it to keep your energy up. 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:44.000 And the falling blood sugar itself and the rising adrenaline, 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:51.000 both of those are signals to your brain to increase the stress hormones. 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:58.000 The ACTH is produced by the pituitary gland, 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:07.000 but also other brain and pituitary hormones including prolactin increase along with it. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:13.000 And the ACTH is what drives your cortisol up, 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:20.000 and the cortisol is what causes the most acute tissue damage, 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:26.000 loss of muscle mass and quick loss of bone structure and so on. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:28.000 It's also weight gain, isn't it? 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:31.000 This is low muscle mass in relation to weight and fat? 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:38.000 Yeah, as your ability to burn fat decreases with your falling thyroid, 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:46.000 the cortisol eats up your skeletal muscles that burn fat, 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:54.000 and so the unburned fat gets laid down in your trunk and neck and face area. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:36:03.000 It's probably some kind of a defensive reaction to pad your organs when you're under chronic stress. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:07.000 Right, because muscles burn a lot of energy, 00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:12.000 and so therefore muscular people can eat a fairly high calorie diet 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.000 because that energy is being consumed by the muscle, 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:21.000 whereas people that have an excess of fat and a lack of muscle tone 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:25.000 can very easily get fat on a very small amount of calories. 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:26.000 Is that right? 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.000 Yes. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:28.000 Yeah, okay. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.000 Well, I don't know if that answered the... 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:33.000 I'm pretty sure it helped to answer the lady's question, 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:35.000 if not answered it completely. 00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:42.000 A lot of people who have measured deficiency of adrenal function, 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:50.000 that seems to be a medically popular diagnosis is adrenal fatigue or insufficiency, 00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:01.000 but to get any adrenal function you need the vitamins, vitamin A especially, and thyroid. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:07.000 So many people have been diagnosed as having Addison's disease 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:14.000 simply because their thyroid was so low that they couldn't produce steroids. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:20.000 The other factor for producing steroids is cholesterol, 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.000 and so if you have both low cholesterol and low thyroid, 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:31.000 then your adrenals aren't going to be able to make the steroids 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:36.000 such as progesterone and pregnenolone and cortisol. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:38.000 So really what some doctors would say, 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:42.000 "Oh, you have adrenal fatigue and that would be maybe diagnosed by a saliva test." 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:45.000 Really what they need to be looking at is the thyroid function 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:47.000 and making sure those people are getting enough vitamin A 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:51.000 and that their cholesterol is high enough or they're getting enough in their diet. 00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:52.000 Yeah. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:54.000 Do we have any other corners? 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:55.000 We don't. 00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:56.000 Okay, so let's carry on with... 00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:01.000 I wanted to say another thing that I believe this is what you think, Dr. Peat, 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:09.000 is the temperature and pulse can be a measurement of one sign of a low thyroid function. 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:14.000 So how would you say a temperature is affected with someone who has a low thyroid? 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:18.000 What would their waking morning temperature typically be in the range of? 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:23.000 Usually around 98 degrees oral temperature. 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:27.000 And then after they eat, what would their temperature be? 00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:32.000 It should pretty quickly pop right up to 98.6, 98.8, 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:37.000 and then as they get some muscle activity going during the day, 00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:43.000 it can even rise above that 99 degrees is good in the afternoon. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.000 Okay, so this is a normal function. 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:48.000 First thing in the morning, your temperature should be around 98. 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:53.000 Okay, now I just want to say of all the clients that I've had take their temperatures and pulses, 00:38:53.000 --> 00:39:00.000 about two out of 50 have had--since I've been doing this temperature and pulse thing all of last year-- 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:05.000 about 50 of them have had much lower temperatures than that 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.000 and only two have had what you just described, Dr. Peat. 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.000 So can you say most of them, if they had low thyroid symptoms, 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.000 in conjunction with those low temperatures would be a diagnosis of low thyroid? 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:27.000 Yeah, if you look at the whole picture, the Achilles reflex and their symptoms 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:38.000 and how many calories they can burn without getting fat and how well they sleep 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:50.000 and the activity efficiency to be able to relax instantly after the exertion 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:59.000 and to be able to go to sleep quickly, all of those go with the good temperature curve. 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:03.000 So it's something that can be used in conjunction with symptoms. 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:04.000 Right. 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:06.000 I think we have a caller on the air. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:08.000 Yeah, we do. Go ahead, caller. 00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:10.000 Hi, this is Kevin. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:11.000 Hey, Kevin. 00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:12.000 Hi, Kevin. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:13.000 Andrew and Sarah, hi. 00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:17.000 So I had a question about Hashimoto's disease. 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:24.000 I was diagnosed with that and understand that it interferes with the absorption of thyroid 00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:28.000 and I'm wondering if Dr. Peat can speak about Hashimoto's 00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:34.000 and what, if anything, can be done to alleviate it, cure it. 00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:43.000 The disease was originally defined as infiltration of white blood cells 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:54.000 into the inflamed thyroid gland and since they didn't necessarily like to cut out a piece of gland 00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:00.000 to confirm that that's what was wrong, they started looking at antibodies in your blood 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:09.000 and assuming that you would have the infiltration and inflammation of the gland 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:13.000 if you find the antibodies circulating in the blood. 00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:24.000 But in fact, the antithyroid antibodies overlap with many other problems including arthritis 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:30.000 and so the antibodies aren't strictly clearly diagnostic, 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.000 but they do indicate that something is inflamed 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:41.000 and since the thyroid is the basic anti-inflammatory hormone and organ, 00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:48.000 it's very often the thyroid that is the main problem when you have these antibodies 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:55.000 and there have been several studies in which simply supplementing even with thyroxine 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:05.000 for six months or a year, the antibodies will decrease and the whole problem is solved. 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:15.000 One thing I've heard of also is taking low-dose naltrexone as a way of helping with the condition. 00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:17.000 Have you heard of that? 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:26.000 When you're hypothyroid and produce lactic acid too easily, you tend to accumulate endorphins. 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:34.000 Endorphins are produced in response to the signal of increased lactic acid 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:40.000 to compensate for the stress by acting like morphine equivalents 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:52.000 and the endorphins themselves limit your physiological functions in a protective way, 00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:57.000 sort of like a localized kind of hibernation. 00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:06.000 So the naloxone or naltrexone will clear those out. 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:14.000 Sometimes in two or three days, you can see a person come out of depression or a lethargic state 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:19.000 or there was a study in California of demented people 00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:26.000 who were given very big doses of naloxone for several days or several weeks 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:33.000 and their dementia improved just by blocking the endorphins. 00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:38.000 How long that somebody should be on naltrexone with conditions like Hashimoto's? 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:41.000 Is there any problem with long-term use? 00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:46.000 No, but I usually see good results in just two or three days. 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:54.000 So I think the basic treatment is a good diet and thyroid supplement as needed 00:43:54.000 --> 00:44:01.000 and then the naloxone or naltrexone is a good thing to try once in a while 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:10.000 and if it makes you feel better, then it probably was breaking up a pattern. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:12.000 Okay, thank you very much. 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:13.000 Okay, thank you. 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:15.000 Thank you for your call, Kevin. 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:17.000 We have two other callers on the line. 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:18.000 Go ahead. You're on the air? 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:20.000 Yes, thank you for taking my call. 00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.000 My name is Mike and I have a question for the doctor. 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:30.000 Earlier I heard the show the doctor was listening a number of vegetables 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:39.000 and some polyunsaturated oils that had something to do with making something higher 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:42.000 and I'm assuming that had to do with the thyroid. 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:51.000 My question is, would cod liver oil be placed in with those other oils? 00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:54.000 And I'll take my question off the air. Thank you. 00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:01.000 The fish oils are long molecules compared to the seed oils 00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:07.000 and they are also more unstable to oxidative breakdown 00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:16.000 and the fact that they are long means that they don't inhibit our enzymes for metabolizing fats 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:22.000 as seriously as the seed oils such as canola or corn oil do. 00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:28.000 But their instability means that by the time they get in the blood, 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:36.000 they're pretty well oxidized and several studies have shown that the fish oils 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:46.000 do have an anti-inflammatory effect but only their oxidative breakdown products 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:54.000 which include some serious toxins, only those are really active anti-inflammatory substances 00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:59.000 and what they're doing is poisoning the immune system, suppressing immunity. 00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:07.000 So temporarily, it's effective for alleviating symptoms but in the long run, 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:13.000 it's not good because the breakdown products include things like acrolein 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:25.000 and several of the free radical oxidative damage fractions of the broken down fats. 00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:30.000 And those are both very dangerous toxic substances. 00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:36.000 So not only does it suppress your immune system, it also through this immune system suppression, 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:39.000 it's also releasing toxic substances. 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:44.000 And there are really quite a few articles that people don't get to hear about 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:57.000 showing that the fish oils contribute to atherosclerosis and increase the risk of metastatic cancer 00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:03.000 and are toxic to the brain and so on. 00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:12.000 The commercial promotion of the fish oils, they happen to never mention those. 00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:15.000 Yeah. Well, I think we've got two other callers on the line, Dr. Peat. 00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.000 So let's take the next caller. You're on the air? 00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:20.000 Hello? 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:21.000 Hello, you're on the air. 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:27.000 Hi, my name is Jenny. Thank you for speaking, Dr. Peat. 00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:33.000 I've been on armor thyroid for some years now and they want to change over, 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:37.000 change me and put me on one of the synthetic thyroid. 00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:42.000 And I'm wondering if there are any disadvantages to doing that. 00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:51.000 And also I'm wondering about if the synthetic thyroid, I've heard they are made with milk products, 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:57.000 which I can't tolerate cow's milk. So I'm wondering about those two things. 00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:03.000 The company that makes armor also makes a synthetic called thyrolar, 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:08.000 which was based on the original armor thyroid product. 00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:16.000 And the FDA has been requiring a lot of formula changes in the natural thyroid. 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:24.000 So it seems to vary in quality according to the interference by the FDA. 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:35.000 And the thyrolar as a synthetic, I think it has been pretty steady over the last 40 or 50 years, 00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:44.000 since it is just a synthetic chemical. And it's very equivalent to the traditional armor. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:53.000 But you can find out on the armor company's website, Forest Pharmaceuticals, whether there's milk in it. 00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:59.000 Several other products contain the same synthetic chemicals. 00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:06.000 I get them from Mexico. One is called Novo Tyrol and the other one is Cynoplus. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:10.000 And they're very similar to Armour thyroid. 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:15.000 So when you see your doctor, if you want to ask them to, 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:26.000 if you want to request that you have a prescription for thyrolar, that's spelled T-H-Y-R-O-L-A-R, thyrolar. 00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:28.000 Thank you. You're very welcome. 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:32.000 Okay, I think we might just have time for one more caller before we need to wrap up here. 00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:36.000 So you're on the air? Yes, I'm on the air. Okay. 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.000 This is not related to thyroid. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:55.000 I actually wanted to ask you about something that has to do with tuberculosis and staph infections. 00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:14.000 Okay. I've had somebody at Red River Rural and also at Garberville Clinic, I've been diagnosed with staph. 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:18.000 Okay. How do I treat this? 00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:24.000 Okay, I mean, when you say you've been diagnosed with staph, do you have multiple lesions resembling small boils? 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.000 All over my body. Okay. 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:30.000 Welts. Right. 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:42.000 And it started a cat scratch, went up my nose, and then it went into my eyes, and it went all over my body. 00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:46.000 And then my husband caught it too. 00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:51.000 And they had to put a wick into his chest because he had staph. 00:50:51.000 --> 00:51:05.000 Wow. I don't mean to be personal, but is there any kind of drug abuse or any kind of very low immune status amongst either of you? 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:07.000 Immune status... 00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:18.000 Do you normally get coughs and colds more frequently than other people or any kind of infections more easily than other people? 00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:22.000 Do you have any kind of history of having a weak immune system? 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:36.000 I'd say that I get a cold every once in a while because my stepson comes back from CR and he always gets a cold. 00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:41.000 Okay. All right. I think without going too far into it because we really don't have the time, 00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:46.000 I would certainly come up with a few suggestions of things to try and then we'll throw it over to Dr. Peat 00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:49.000 and see what Dr. Peat would be thinking about. 00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:53.000 I know there's one product and it's actually manufactured in England. 00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:59.000 I don't know if you can get it in America, but basically it's an allicin-rich garlic extract. 00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:02.000 Now, Dr. Peat may not like this much, I don't know, because it does contain a lot of sulfur 00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:08.000 and there's sulfhydryl groups that we were talking about to begin with that you find in the brassica family, the thyroid suppressive. 00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:14.000 So the allicin was used very successfully for staph, for internal staph. 00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:17.000 So that's basically one solution. 00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:25.000 Other immune stimulating herbs from an herbal perspective would certainly be useful to improve your tissues resistance 00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:32.000 to the byproducts of the staph infection that cause that boil and that breakdown of that tissue. 00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:40.000 But Dr. Peat, I'm very interested to hear if you have any comments to make on staph infection, systemic staph infection. 00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:43.000 Well, I'll talk to you directly then. 00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:46.000 Go ahead and Dr. Peat will talk on the air now. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:53.000 I've seen a few cases of chronic infection, some that had gone on for decades, 00:52:53.000 --> 00:53:01.000 that cleared up with just thyroid or thyroid and nutrition. 00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:06.000 And it's good to cover the bases. 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:17.000 Even some antibiotics, tetracycline, for example, happens to have a structure that's parallel to vitamin K 00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:23.000 and to the active ingredient of aloe and cascara. 00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:32.000 And so those three or four molecules have a very beneficial effect on your immune system 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:38.000 as well as being slightly suppressive to a variety of bacteria. 00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:46.000 Doctor, have you ever known somebody who has gone into the VA? 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:55.000 My husband is in the VA clinic and he's gone and we were worried about that. 00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:02.000 I had a friend whose doctors insisted that they first were going to amputate his feet 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:12.000 and then they decided they would amputate his legs because they said the infection in the bones made it incurable. 00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:18.000 And since I had read Broda Barnes' book and had seen a couple of cases of chronic infections, 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:25.000 clearing up myelitis and such, I made my old friend take thyroid for a while. 00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:32.000 And the ulcers, he had gangrene into the bones of his feet. 00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:39.000 Within two weeks, the sores had closed and he was putting on his dress shoes and going to lodge. 00:54:39.000 --> 00:54:42.000 And we went through cycles. 00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:46.000 I think there were three cycles where his doctor made him stop the thyroid. 00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:53.000 The bone infection came back after two or three months and I would see his feet rotting, 00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:59.000 make him take his thyroid and his feet each time cleared up totally. 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:06.000 But the doctor finally said, "Well, there's still infection in there so we have to cut them off." 00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:09.000 Okay, I'm going to have to call it a night there. 00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:11.000 Thank you very much for all of your calls. 00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:14.000 And Dr. Peat, thank you very much for joining us again on the show. 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:15.000 Thank you all. 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.000 I want to mention that Dr. Peat's website is very extensive, has lots of articles on it, 00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:23.000 very much researched scientific information. 00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:28.000 So some of it may seem counter-controversial or counter to what we're told, 00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:31.000 but it's scientific information that you can all check out. 00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:35.000 His website is www.rayPeat.org. 00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.000 And that's spelled R-A-Y-P-E-A-T. 00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:41.000 No, it's dot com now. 00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:43.000 Sorry, dot com, rayPeat.com. 00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:45.000 Okay, folks, so that's the website. 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:46.000 Go check it out. 00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:48.000 Thank you very much, Dr. Peat, for joining us. 00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:51.000 And I just want to say thank you, Dr. Peat, 00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:56.000 and for all those listeners who are interested in trying to eat right for their thyroid health, 00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:06.000 we can be contacted Monday through Friday, normal business hours, toll-free 888-926-4372. 00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:09.000 Which is WBMHerb. 00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:11.000 Okay, so thank you very much for joining us. 00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:13.000 Thank you for all the callers. 00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:16.000 Thank you for being out there and asking questions. 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:22.000 And also Dr. Peat is available for nutritional counseling from his website directly, 00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:25.000 which is www.rayPeat.com. 00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:26.000 Thank you, Dr. Peat. 00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:27.000 Thank you, and good night. 00:56:27.000 --> 00:56:27.500 Good night.