So uh, i get a lot of questions, obviously on like so what causes hashimoto’s and um and – and i don’t feel like – maybe i’ve – put out a succinct enough explanation of this um just based on like thinking back to some of the presentations i’ve made and and And i wanted to do this to either update or clarify that question for people hashimoto’s patients come into us and back in the day before we knew a whole lot about hashimoto’s and how to determine if the person even had it.
The numbers were all over the place: nobody knew what the ranges were. A lot of people still don’t know what the ranges are they’re still all over the i mean i’ve. I’Ve talked to somebody in alabama the other day where the range was zero to 100.
. The mayo clinic is now agreeing that the range is zero to nine. I in this m in my in my city, there’s a hospital zero to nine there’s another hospital zero to thirty four and there’s another hospital zero to twenty four.
So there was a lot of confusion on that and and and those types of things made it really challenging. So we went a lot on symptoms and one of the things we started to recognize was if mom had a thyroid problem and the grandma had a thyroid problem and her sister had a thyroid problem.
This person’s probably got it. So we understood in the beginning that genetics was a big player so and then and then there’s the genetics, so we used to do the the hla dq testing and we’d. Oh my god, you got the positive codes for it.
You have it and then now we know that that’s not necessarily true, you can have the genetic code for it not get it and not have it. So you can be treating it and for a lot of people out there who are still going by the genetics.
There’S a lot of doctors out there, treating people by the genetics for things that they don’t have there’s things that they could have, but they don’t have. So. Having said that, genetics genetics are involved, you usually have to have one of the genes.
That say, you can get hashimoto’s to get hashimoto’s. So this is why you’ll see it in your family and if you’ve got it, you’ll see your sister’s got it or maybe your grandmother’s got it. Your great-grandmother’s got it or your brother’s.
You know and and usually that’s a prerequisite there used to be like two genes that we talked about, i think, was the hla b27. I forgot the other one was because it was so long ago, and why do i forget it because now there’s 90 genes that are listed, that indicate a vulnerability to hashimoto’s 90.
, so so yeah that doesn’t mean you should go out and get genetic testing. Okay, just means that if you really want to know the cause, there’s been some sort of an evolutionary issue to where hypothyroids are turning into um into pr into problems, and maybe these genes have been there forever, but we haven’t been doing the things that turn turn It on so um, so the things that make us more vulnerable to um and that contribute to the expression of these genes is um smoking.
I mean you’re gonna i mean you’re gonna get a lot of these things, but the reality is. These. Are the things that make you vulnerable to these 90 genes being able to turn on smoking alcohol? You know alcohol is one uh for sure, a lack of selenium.
So a lot of you already know that with thyroid problems in many cases, selenium helps to dampen inflammation. So it can bring the tsh under control um, it’s kind of bandage, if you’re not using it with a lot of other things, but but it’s but and and but it’s uh um.
But but it’s a player in in in setting off the genes that cause uh hashimoto’s to not have enough of low vitamin d. Vitamin d has a lot to do with thyroid inflammation and if it’s too low it allows the gene to express itself iodine iodine for hashimoto’s is bad.
I mean i’ve done plenty of stuff on that. You can look that up, uh and and it’s um, and so so, but but we’re saying it can actually turn on the genes. Okay. So if you have hashimoto’s and you’re kind of vulnerable and you’re eating a lot of iodine table salt, a lot of see a lot, you know a lot of a lot of [ Music ] like hard shell seafood like crabs and lobsters and shrimps and stuff like That this can actually set it off.
This can actually set it off. I think another. Next one’s, not a big surprise with just stress stress, is like probably the number one that can set it off and then infections can set it off so you’ve heard of um.
You know of the person who says: oh, it’s all i’ve seen bar virus. It’S not, but epstein-barr virus is one of about 10 infections that we know of that can set it off. Epstein-Barr viruses, the herpes virus, is a lime.
The lyme bacteria can set it off. Um mold can set it off h. Pylori can set it off there’s a number of things that you can get that can trigger the gene to set this off and the last one is drugs and there’s just a ton of drugs that can set off hashimoto’s and we’re kind of a drug-laden country.
Right now we’re in the process of uh of you know, of of normalizing uh uh marijuana, which, which is kind of controversial for my world, i’m looking for pristine balance in a in a uh um in in a world, i’m not like.
Oh, maybe i want to bed and you know, but the reality is this is a drug and it alters function and it alters physiology when you alter physiology and you have the um, the the the uh vulnerability of having the genetic code to be able to develop.
Hashimoto’S – and they have, there hasn’t – been a study on this, yet i’m just using this as an example. It’S probably a bad example, because it’s not the only drug, it’s far from the only drug, but the point is so many people come into my office they’re on four five: six, seven, eight drugs, so some of them are bad for each other and some of them Are actually causing their problems, so i mean it feels to me like the drug thing is a little bit out of control overall, so i was just using that as one example of one more step, we’re taking to take that many more drugs, because drugs is a Big trigger taking taking medication that alters physiology, certainly just logically, if you understand the physiology of the body, is going to make it vulnerable to expressing a gene.
You know these genes are in your they’re in your cells, they’re in your cells, okay and they’re, in the in the dna of your cells and then, if the cell is affected, if these drugs cause inflammation, if they cause a cell to alter, then there’s this little, Then there’s this little transcription, what’s called where the signal is sent to the dna and the dna gets, it gets shook up a little bit and then, if you’ve got some genes that are vulnerable, going off they’re going to go off now a lot of people do A lot of these things, which is which is possibly which probably why we have a an explosion of autoimmunity when i got into this, they estimated that there was maybe five six, maybe 10 million people in the country that autoimmunity and others.
I’Ve never heard estimates up to 150 million people, they have autoimmune conditions in this country, and i so i i believe that this is. This is really why it is interesting that the the ratio of hashimoto’s is ten to one females to men.
My assumption is because females physiology is continually more challenged than the male physiology you’re having periods every month you have children. Estrogen fluctuations are much more common. Um male physiology is just it’s just way more calm, it’s just way more stable, and i suspect that that that’s a big that that’s a big reason after the genes turn on.
So those are the things that will turn on gene that that that will turn on the genes. These are the things that, if you have no hashimoto’s, no autoimmunity and and and you but you have the genes to get it, those are the things that will turn them on and then once those things turn on, then that’s where we come in now, you’re getting Into dietary triggers you’re getting into glutium gluten you’re getting into iodine you’re getting into all of the dietary triggers, the the food sensitivities, the food allergies, the environmental allergies you’re getting into the toxins you’re getting into that again, this crosses over now the pathogens can be a Big deal the secondhand smoke becomes a problem uh the grains that all the all the things, the diet, the lifestyle, i’m not sleeping too much, i’m over exercising my blood sugar’s off the charts.
All of these things now become the the triggers of continually flaring up immune, inflammatory responses. After it’s gone lifestyle um you know lifestyle and and diet and pathogens and chemicals. So i don’t know i hopefully that clears things up.
Obviously we come in after the genes are already uh. Um are already going um, i mean if the person’s smoking and they’re drinking and – and you know, they’re eating, like crap and they’re on a ton of drugs, it’s they’re things that some we can deal with some.
We can’t uh, so you know i’m not a medical doctor, so i can’t i can’t really help the person modulate their drugs. I can suggest that they talk to their medical doctor about it and then that can that may or may not wash with you know with with that particular physician, but that’s how it works.
Okay, that is the that is the the what we know to date, that this is how you turn it on and then once it’s turned on all the things that we do are about the after. The genes are turned on triggers and getting those under control.
The sibo, the food sensitivities, the leaky gut, the no hydrochloric acid and all that stuff comes into play once the genes are turned on. So i hope that’s a little bit more clarifying for you on that subject.
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