Recently I interviewed Dr. Shane Steadman, as we chatted about the brain-gut-thyroid axis. If you would prefer to listen the interview you can access it by Clicking Here [1].
With me, I have Dr. Shane Steadman. We are going to discuss the brain/gut/thyroid connection. Dr. Steadman is an expert in treating and supporting tough cases, such as concussions, migraines, vertigo, peripheral neuropathy, autoimmune conditions, thyroid and hormonal disorders, and other health conditions. Dr. Shane became a chiropractic neurologist in 2003 and is one of only a small handful of chiropractic neurologists in the state of Colorado. Dr. Steadman is the owner of Integrative Health Systems in Denver, Colorado. He has completed numerous hours of post-graduate and advanced studies in functional neurology and functional medicine, including functional blood chemistry and thyroid issues as well as neurotransmitters and brain function through the University of Bridgeport. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Steadman.
Dr. Shane Steadman:
Thanks for having me. It’s going to be fun. I’m happy to be on.
Dr. Eric:
I’m excited as well. The first question I have, just like many podcasts, hosts ask the person they are interviewing to give their background. My question is can you discuss what a chiropractic neurologist is? Then discuss why you became one. Why do you do what you do today?
Dr. Shane:
Chiropractic neurology is newer to the public but has been around since the early ‘80s. Chiropractic neurology is the idea of understanding the functionality of the brain and trying to identify which areas of the brain are working and are not working as well. To make it easy, it’s so much like a physical therapist. If you hurt your hip, you go to a physical therapist, and they say, “This muscle is not working. This one is overactive. The range of motion is not great.” You are able to identify what is going on with the hip, so you can develop a treatment plan.
That is the goal with chiropractic neurology. Sometimes, people might hear a term, functional neurology, which is the same concept. If you get a head injury or have vertigo, why? Why are you having these symptoms? What areas of the brain are overworking, not working, not communicating? What therapeutic strategies can we prescribe to make it so that those areas are doing what they are supposed to be doing? When everything works together in the brain, that is when you see really cool things happening.
Dr. Eric:
You have been a chiropractic neurologist for almost 20 years now, correct?
Dr. Shane:
Yep, that’s a long time.
Dr. Eric:
You have seen a lot of different cases. Let’s dive in. I don’t know where you want to go, if you first want to focus on brain/thyroid or brain/gut or cover it all.
Dr. Shane:
This is where my practice has evolved over the years, trying to understand- You always hear the brain/body connection. That is so generic. We are trying to understand how these systems interplay with each other. When we look at brain function and something like the thyroid, or the gut. This is a great topic because we can explain to people that everything is so intertwined that you can’t just look at the thyroid.
When you talk to patients who are coming in, people are starting to understand that there is more to the story than just TSH. A lot of people say, “My TSH is high, so I was put on this medication.” What we have to figure out is why is the thyroid not working? Now we start looking at all the pieces.
The brain becomes one of those pieces that is still overlooked to this day. To give the story on brain/thyroid function, what a lot of people don’t realize is that the signal to the thyroid- When we look at TSH, it’s a signal or message that comes from the pituitary down into the thyroid. It tells the thyroid what to do. If that signal is off, then we can actually go look at the brain. What is the pituitary doing? If we take a step back from there and ask, “What tells the pituitary what to do?” it’s the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is your big regulator of all sorts of things from temperature to growth to sleep to adrenal stress. Your hypothalamus has to tell the pituitary what to do. But we can’t stop there. We have to take a step back and figure out who tells the hypothalamus what to do. It has all these things that integrate from different areas of the brain and the body that say, “Hey, this is what’s going on.” Everybody reports back to the general or president. This is what the army is doing; this is what the National Guard is doing. This is the economy and the financial economy. All of these pieces come together. Based on all of those signals, the hypothalamus knows what it needs to do to make sure that homeostasis is always there.
Two of the biggest things when we look at hypothalamic function or what activates it are serotonin and dopamine. A lot of people wouldn’t even think about that. Serotonin and dopamine play a role with mood and motivation and joy and happiness and all of these things. If you have imbalances in serotonin, we are going to see imbalances in mood. Does that same imbalance affect the thyroid? The answer is big possibility. That is where we see these brain to thyroid connections. It’s much bigger than just looking at this gland. There are so many factors involved.
That is what we have tried to do over the years is understand that connectivity between brain and body, brain and thyroid. When you throw in the gut, that’s another animal because the brain and the gut have a relationship with each other. If we truly understand that the brain controls the whole body, if we fix the brain, how does that fix the body? If we fix the body, how does that impact the brain? Obviously, I am biased, and this is a passion of mine, but this is how we work in the office.
Dr. Eric:
Amazing. Imbalances in serotonin or dopamine ultimately affect the hypothalamus, which could affect the communication between hypothalamus and pituitary. That can in some cases cause thyroid dysfunction.
Dr. Shane:
It could.
Dr. Eric:
As you know, most thyroid conditions are autoimmune in nature. With hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s and hyperthyroidism/Graves, the immune system plays a big role. In these cases, the brain could be affected as well. You can’t just assume that the immune system is the problem?
Dr. Shane:
Yes. The brain can come into play. What is even more interesting is that your brain can actually play a role with autoimmunity. Depending on the balance within the brain, looking at right/left, the cerebellum, they have roles in autoimmune conditions as well and controlling the immune system. You can have a brain that is causing an alteration of the immune system, so the immune system is impacting the thyroid.
When you said, “The name of his clinic is Integrative Health,” that’s why we named it that. Everything affects everything. How do we address it? Where do we start? When you go fishing, you throw the line out there, and you reel it in. If for some reason it was tangled- I swear I don’t understand how your line gets tangled in the water, but sometimes it gets so tangled that it looks like a bird’s nest. Where do I start in unraveling it? Sometimes you sit there for 20 minutes and are trying to find the one thread or loop in the fishing line. You think you got it, but it takes a while to figure out where to start.
A lot of these complex cases that patients are struggling with are similar. Where do we start? Brain, thyroid, gut, neurotransmitters, autoimmune, inflammation? Sometimes it’s so messy, and that’s what’s important about learning about all the different pieces.
Dr. Eric:
You’re right. Where do you start? If someone comes in, I assume you go through a comprehensive health history. Is it safe to say in most cases you don’t start with the thyroid? Maybe you start with the brain or the gut. Maybe you do start with the thyroid in some cases.
Dr. Shane:
What I try to do is look at each system. We do a consultation, but that’s to see if we would be a great fit. On the exam, we say, “Let’s do a neuro exam. Let’s see what the brain is doing.” Then we will do a health history. If the health history dictates that somebody is on antidepressant medication, and we have a history of depression and traumas, maybe that is a player. Then we start diving into the history and find out what you’ve taken, what you’ve gone through, what life has been like. Then we look at bloodwork, lab testing, cortisol levels. We look at all of it. By looking at all of it, then I can decipher is this a neurological condition? Is this a thyroid gland dysfunction? Is this an autoimmune condition? Are there other systems like hormones and gut dysfunction that are playing a role? I look at every single system and try to decipher which systems to go after. Sometimes, it’s one. Sometimes, it’s all. That’s where I think everybody is so uniquely different.
Dr. Eric:
If I understood you correctly, before, you said that the brain can actually lead to an autoimmune condition. If someone had a concussion, traumatic brain injury, in some cases, that could be the trigger to an autoimmune condition?
Dr. Shane:
Absolutely. There is fascinating research looking at things like the cerebellum has a pretty significant role with natural killer cells. There is some research that shows the right brain deals more with the B cells, and the left brain deals with the T cells. Some literature out there looks at concussions and what their implications can be in sparking an autoimmune condition. Sometimes in the office, we see when someone has a car accident, and they developed multiple sclerosis or another autoimmune condition. It’s interesting. There is another world of looking at neuroimmunology and how it influences. In the same token, autoimmune conditions can create imbalances in the brain and fire up areas of the brain that don’t need to be activated, but they are being activated because of the autoimmunity.
Dr. Eric:
Very interesting. How about the brain-gut connection? Can you talk about that?
Dr. Shane:
Yes. The gut is a rest and digest system. Everybody is familiar with that term. The opposite of that is fight or flight. The gut, we need to make sure it has motility. It needs to move. It needs to absorb. That is a connection that goes from your frontal lobe or cortex into your brain stem. Your brain stem houses the vagus nerve. That vagus nerve then goes into the gut to help with motility, function, movement, absorption, and digestion. You have this connection from cortex to brain stem to gut.
They have done some really cool studies, where they have this group of mice that they activated the vagus nerve and caused a concussion. Because the vagus nerve was strong and sustained, it kept good gut function in that mouse. Another mouse, they created a concussion, and they found all these gut issues. There is a lot of connectivity from the brain to the vagus nerve into the gut.
It’s fascinating that some of your first signs of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is constipation. Some of the biggest struggles in most kids with special needs is constipation. It tells you how much that brain-gut relationship is there. On the flip side, we see a lot of people with anxiety disorders and PTSD, if you are in constant fight or flight, you get this inhibition of the rest and digest. You start seeing decrease in motility and all sorts of gut issues stemming from that. The brain has strong, powerful connections with the gut.
Dr. Eric:
You mentioned the vagus nerve. Are there tests that you do? Is it part of your neurological exam to determine if someone has dysfunction in the vagus nerve?
Dr. Shane:
Every single patient, we look at vagus nerve function. If someone has gut issues, do they have true gut issues, or is there gut issues because of a neurological condition? Part of our neuro exam is looking at the vagus nerve because it’s an idea of what the brain stem is doing, specifically because that vagus nerve has such a major role in a lot of your visceral function: kidney, gallbladder, stomach, liver. All those things come from the vagus nerve. We want to make sure that the vagus nerve is working and not just assume that you have a liver issue, so you need supplements. That may not be the case. You may have a liver issue because of the brain-gut or brain-body connection through the vagus. We check on that in almost every single patient.
Dr. Eric:
If someone does have problems with the vagus nerve, I know there are different exercises like vigorous gargling or singing loudly. How about plain old mind-body medicine? Is that not typically enough as far as getting someone more in a parasympathetic state?
Dr. Shane:
It can be, but clinically, it takes longer, and it’s harder. We’ll use a lot of those exercises. There are some vagus nerve stimulators that we use in the office. You can put them right along the vagus nerve and activate it. Besides the exercises, we use some equipment that stimulates the vagus nerve. We will do some stimulation through the tongue or the face to drive simulation into the brain. These ways to get into the vagus nerve, back door into the vagus nerve, or hit it directly to try to turn it on, so we can get some activation.
That is where testing comes in. If we test, and it’s not working, then we stimulate it, and now it’s working. We have made a change.
Dr. Eric:
Many listeners are familiar with a leaky gut, increased intestinal permeability. Can you talk about leaky brain, the disruption of the brain-blood barrier? There is some overlap with the two if I understand correctly.
Dr. Shane:
Within leaky gut, the best analogy I have is a picket fence. When you look at gut function, you have the barrier that protects you from the world. It’s like a fence in your backyard. Leaky gut is when those fence pickets are broken. They got bumped into with somebody’s car on accident, or your kids were playing soccer and broke the slats. If you break a slat or are missing one or the wind blows your fence over, like we had a few times in Denver this year, now you have a gap in your fence. Animals can get through, and kids and trash, that shouldn’t be getting into your backyard. Everything in your backyard should stay there, and everything on the street should stay there. That is the best analogy for leaky gut.
What ties the slats together are two different bonds, like shoelaces that hold it all together, called occludin and zonulin bonds. Those same exact bonds are formed in the blood-brain barrier system. You have these things that tie it all in together. It keeps everything in the brain, and everything that should be out is out. When you start affecting those bonds, you don’t only affect the gut, but you also affect the brain. If you have a big cheeseburger with fries and a Coke for lunch, and now you have brain fog, you probably also have gas and bloating. You see this gas, bloating, and brain fog as indication that you have messed up those bonds and broken them down a little bit, so you have some slats missing now.
The symptom of leaky brain is brain fog. If anyone is walking around, saying, “I have gas, bloating, and brain fog,” that tells us your barrier system needs to be fixed, and you need to call a fence repair guy out there quick.
Dr. Eric:
Do you do any testing for leaky gut or leaky brain? I know there is one test out there from Cyrex that relates to the blood-brain barrier. I don’t know if you just assume that someone has a leaky gut. I used to use the Cyrex intestinal permeability test. These days, I just assume that most people have a leaky gut. What approach do you take here?
Dr. Shane:
It’s similar. There are times where I will use those tests that look at blood barrier proteins that includes zonulin bonds. You can measure those in the bloodstream. If you have a lot inf the bloodstream, you are probably breaking those bonds down, and they are floating around in the body. We will look at those markers.
I make assumptions now. Most patients that come in now have some kind of brain fog. Usually, the thing we are going to do initially is repair the fence. There are definitely some supplements that can repair the fence. Reducing inflammation is a great way to help repair the fence. I try those things. Usually, people say, “My migraines went away. My brain fog went away. I am able to focus. My mood is better.” We have probably been fixing that blood-brain barrier. I will test more if I get stumped, or something is not fixed the way I think it should be.
Another thing I have done before is straight GABA, which I know you’ve heard about before. It’s too big to go through the slats in the fence. If a basketball shouldn’t get through the fence, but you are finding them in your backyard, there are probably holes in the fence. GABA is too big to get through. If people experience symptoms from GABA that could be good or bad, that could be indicating there are some gaps in your barrier system.
In my career, I do more assuming than testing at this point because if I am going to use dollars for testing, I want to use them toward something else that might be more beneficial.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. Can someone have brain fog without having that disruption of blood-brain barrier? Can there be other causes of brain fog?
Dr. Shane:
There can be. There are different immune mechanisms that take place in the brain. Any time you create inflammation, you can create that brain fog feeling. We see that with food most commonly. You also hear that with people who talk about spilled gasoline, and they have brain fog. “Somebody’s perfume gave me brain fog.” “When I get stressed or don’t eat, I get brain fog.” There are some other mechanisms that can take place, but they usually involve your immune system in some form.
Dr. Eric:
Let’s talk about thyroid-gut connection now.
Dr. Shane:
The thyroid self-produces a hormone called T4. It produces some T3, but T4 is the primary hormone that it produces, which is inactive. It doesn’t do much for us. We have to convert that into T3. T4, the reason why the number 4 is there is because it has four iodines attached to it. Your body takes off one of those iodines, so it is now T3. This conversion takes place within the gut and the liver. About 20% of this conversion takes place in the gut. It uses some enzymes that are produced via your flora or normal gut bacteria, meaning that you have to have good digestive function and a good number of bugs. They all have to be in balance in order to help convert your thyroid from T4 to T3. There is a big role that the digestive system has in this. If you’re not converting that properly, then your active T3 is now on the low side. You can start having thyroid symptoms not because the thyroid gland is not doing its job, but because the digestive system is imbalanced. That starts to look at some of the thyroid-gut function.
What is unfortunate sometimes is that one of the causes of gut dysfunction is hypothyroidism. Now we get into this chicken or egg concept. Do you have gut issues because you have hypothyroid? Do you have hypothyroid because you have gut issues? Who’s what, and what’s what? A lot of times, with patients, this is where you have to develop a treatment plan that catches all aspects of those vicious webs. If we can get the thyroid function better and the gut function better, then we are getting both ends of the story.
I see too many practitioners that focus on one and not the other. The patient is getting frustrated because they are not seeing the results they want. With listeners, it’s always good to say, “When you are talking to a doctor, do you know the whole concept of thyroid function because focusing on one might not get me to where I would love to be?”
Dr. Eric:
In a situation where someone is hypothyroid, and they have a lot of gut dysbiosis, you might recommend for them to take thyroid hormone replacement. That wouldn’t be the only recommendation. You would also do things to help restore the gut as well?
Dr. Shane:
Yes. We have a nurse practitioner in the office. There is a time and a place for medication. Maybe medication is great while I am working on their gut. You might find they don’t need the medication now because you are converting hormones properly. Having a nurse practitioner that we can put them on and take them off as needed if it’s possible. There are other times where we can utilize supplementation to support the thyroid gland while we are working on the gut and then retest and see how we are doing. These are very plausible treatment plans that we see quite often. It’s that functional neurology piece of trying to understand what is their function or dysfunction? How do we improve it? That becomes the goal of working with patients.
Dr. Eric:
Do you recommend any type of gut testing, like a comprehensive stool panel or a SIBO breath test in some cases?
Dr. Shane:
In some cases, we will do that. I don’t run stool panels on every single patient. I think they can be very beneficial depending on patients talking about constant constipation or diarrhea or bloating. You want to find out what is causing that? That is always a question I try to explain to the practitioners I have worked with: We are always trying to ask why. We can’t simply stop at saying, “Someone has gut dysfunction.” It should be, “Why does somebody have gut dysfunction?”
When we are going to the core, we have to ask why. Sometimes it’s really easy. Someone loves to eat pizza and Cheetos every day. But there are other patients who are eating perfectly, so why do they still have issues? That is where testing comes in. That’s what’s cool about lab testing and technology these days. We have different styles of testing to figure out those whys. The further we can dive in to figuring out the why, usually the faster we can get someone feeling better.
Dr. Eric:
Let’s talk more about constipation. I wasn’t planning on going in this direction, but a lot of people experience it. You mentioned earlier the connection between the brain and Parkinson’s, where an early sign is constipation. In a situation where someone is constipated, and they are doing everything from a diet perspective, it seems like they have good gut health and everything is in line, from what you said, it could be the brain. Not to say it’s related to Parkinson’s, but it could be a potential brain-based disorder causing it?
Dr. Shane:
It definitely could be. This is where sometimes in the functional medicine space, they are using everything, every supplement, and they are not getting anywhere. That is where you can look at brain function to find out what’s going on. That is where the neurology testing or degree comes into play, which is helpful because I know not everybody has that capability. If you start looking at frontal lobe function, they are losing their gait mechanisms or their ability to walk smooth; they are losing some of their eye coordinations, not blinking; there is something funky going on that we need to investigate more. Or someone could have a concussion, and maybe their brain stem was impacted, so that Vagus nerve is simply not working the way that it should be. These are all different things from a neurological standpoint that can cause constipation.
That is why it’s so important to look at so many different mechanisms. It’s not always just take magnesium, and everything will be fine. Why do they have constipation? You brought up SIBO earlier. You can have it from too many bugs that produce too many methane gases. It could be a parasite or a virus or an autoimmune condition or IBS-C (constipation). There are so many causes. One that does get overlooked is the brain.
Dr. Eric:
How about blood sugar? Can you talk about the impact of blood sugar imbalances on brain health and even maybe immune health?
Dr. Shane:
Blood sugar might be one of those top things that we are trying to stabilize. A lot of people have either too much or too little, or they are rollercoastering all day long. They are experiencing these highs and lows.
Blood sugar is simple. In some regards, it’s one of those things we can control. We can control what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat. Stress can play a role in blood sugar, which can mess it up. There is a lot of things we could do, so we usually try to focus on it. We know that blood sugar affects the brain because if you have ever met anybody who gets hangry, that’s a neurological change. Did your blood sugar drop, and now you’re anxious, irritable?
I was just working on a kid earlier, and his blood sugar was low, and he started crying during the exam. Mom is like, “Your blood sugar is low. You haven’t eaten in a while.” We know that blood sugar affects brain function by looking at mood.
What people also forget is that that’s one of the main fuel sources for your brain. In neurology, we always talk about your brain needs three things to function: glucose, our blood sugar; oxygen; and stimulation. If one of those three things is off, then how is your brain going to function? Are you able to take a road trip without fatiguing, read, go to work, exercise? Your brain is involved in all those things. Once your brain fizzles out, it’s hard to function and do life.
Dr. Eric:
You mentioned oxygen. That also then ties into anemia. You want to correct not just iron deficiency anemia, but other types of anemia.
Dr. Shane:
Yes. When you’re anemic, it’s hard to deliver oxygen everywhere. You have to have iron to make hemoglobin, which is what attracts oxygen to carry throughout the body. Those are important things. Anemia, sleep apnea, shallow breathing can all impact how the brain functions.
It’s important when you look at brain function to make sure you are getting enough fuel, so glucose, oxygen, and activation, which means going for a walk, getting good sleep, having a good community, figuring things out, learning. All those different things that keep your brain engaged. That stimulation is important for long-term growth.
Dr. Eric:
One of the questions I wanted to ask was how do you diagnose brain-based disorders? I guess you kind of answered that. I don’t know if you want to expand on that. It’s putting people through that neurological exam, correct?
Dr. Shane:
It is. When you put someone through a neuro exam, you are able to look at systems. For instance, if we look at the frontal lobe, we will look at things like certain eye movements are associated with the frontal lobe; fine motor movements; certain aspects of coordination; memory. Then we get into the history side, which is multitasking, motivation, mood, libido, being able to finish a task that you started. Those are all ideas of the frontal lobe. We can see what the frontal lobe is doing by our testing.
Then we can look at the parietal lobe, which is mainly sensory. How well can you feel the right side of your body, the left side of your body with sharp, dull, light touch?
The temporal lobe is more smell, short-term memory, math.
The cerebellum, which is in the back part of your head at the base, looks at balance, gross motor, some aspects of memory, some of your eye movements.
All that to say, certain tasks go to certain parts of the brain. By looking at different parts of the brain, we have the patient go through certain tasks. If they can’t do something, we get an idea of where the dysfunction is taking place. If someone has a hard time with fine motor movements and gait, their long-term memory is getting thrown off, they have lost their motivation, they are more depressed, libido is decreased, they are great at starting tasks but have all these unfinished tasks around the house, you start to go, “I don’t think your frontal lobe is working as well as it should.” That is how we are able to diagnose these dysfunctions.
There are things you’re taught on looking at more pathological conditions as well. Mostly, what we see coming into the office is functional disconnect or functional deficit disorders.
Dr. Eric:
I know you see a lot of tough cases. If you happen to have someone who had Hashimoto’s, and their symptoms weren’t too severe, maybe they were referred to you by one of your tough cases, but this particular situation didn’t seem too challenging, would you still recommend for them to go through a neurological exam? Do you put everyone through that exam?
Dr. Shane:
Yeah, we do. Sometimes, patients will come in thinking that it is a very simple issue. When you start doing the exam, you start finding out these little things that shouldn’t be there. Sometimes, patients go, “You know, I’ve been dealing with that for a while.” You see this twitch in their face or their head, and you go, “Do you have restless leg syndrome?” “Oh my gosh, for the past 20 years. I don’t talk about it anymore because I thought it was normal.” There are a lot of things patients think are normal that are not normal. As you go through a test, you figure it out.
I remember one time, I was working on a 14-year-old girl. Her parents brought her in for simple Hashimoto’s. When we started doing the finger to nose test, where you are looking at your cerebellum, it was terrible. She couldn’t even touch her nose. Her hand was jerking all the way. She ended up touching her cheek. Her parents were like, “What’s wrong with her?” Through the course of it, we did some testing. She had a mix of Hashimoto’s and Graves’, but she also had an autoimmune condition that was affecting her cerebellum. There are some interesting ties between cerebellum and thyroid function, too. The whole case took a left-hand turn. Okay, we have a lot more things going on than just Hashimoto’s.
That is kind of common to see those things. People might be so focused on Hashimoto’s that they miss everything else, or they didn’t think to tell the doctor because they didn’t think it was important. “No, you’re the Hashimoto’s person. I didn’t think to bring up my vertigo to you.” For me, it’s important to do a thorough evaluation on everybody.
Dr. Eric:
You have been practicing for a long time, so you probably have people who have been in past traumas, but until you go through that health history, they don’t even think about it. Maybe they had a car accident 10 years ago. It could be severe, but to others, it might just be a rear end, and they felt fine after, or maybe they had a fall. I assume you see some of those cases, where it might be impossible to pinpoint it was due to that trauma, but they are not coming to see you because of that trauma. When you go through the health history, you can relate some of the symptoms to a past trauma. I’m sure sometimes, you can’t. Again, what are your thoughts on that? If someone had a trauma 20-30 years ago, after that, maybe they felt fine. No pain, no discomfort. Could that, decades later, lead to some of these issues that we’re discussing?
Dr. Shane:
We see that all the time. When you start doing the history and timelines, “When did this start?” “It started in 2008.” “What happened in 2008?” “In 2007, I was in a car accident.” Or, “I slipped and fell and hit my head on the concrete.” “We went through a really traumatic experience.” “I went through a bad divorce.” “Huh. What else has happened since then?” Sometimes it seems like everything ties back to that one moment in time. Then we can start working our way forward.
If there is a trauma, like a car accident, maybe there is a neurological imbalance. If they had a loved one pass away, I’ve had counselors in my office. Counseling might be a great thing for you because maybe counseling is now part of your treatment plan.
“I was sick in 2007. I don’t know what it was, but I was really sick during that time.” Maybe they had a viral infection. We know that Hashimoto’s, the #1 virus that impacts it is Epstein-Barr or mono. Sometimes you go back and realize, “What did you have?” “I don’t know, but I was so exhausted for like three months. I had to take time off from work.” All right, starting to see how this picture is unfolding. A lot of times, things in the past are dictating the future events, but it’s been a slow brew of dysfunction over the next 5-10 years.
Dr. Eric:
When it comes to treatment, obviously everybody is different, so I’m sure you don’t treat everybody the same. Across the board, are there some things you recommend for everybody? With diet, you may not recommend the same exact diet for everyone, but I would imagine an anti-inflammatory diet consisting of whole, healthy foods. Can you talk in general about treatments?
Dr. Shane:
Usually, our treatments are multi-factored. If we are doing a neuro exam, let’s say there are findings that seem to be relevant to the case. Here is our neurological treatment plan. We have a more metabolic treatment plan. Metabolic might be working on adrenals, thyroid, gut dysfunction. We have an immune side of it. A lot of times, we have had that three-pronged approach of neurological, metabolic, and immunology. We combine those worlds together. You can’t, in my mind, do one separately all the time for everybody. That is our protocol, so to speak.
A lot of the metabolic, we have to work on foundational stuff. We have to make sure you are eating an anti-inflammatory diet. If you can’t get someone to sleep, you won’t get far with them. We have to work on sleep, but, blood sugar stability, adrenals. If they are anemic, we have to fix that. That’s that metabolic arm.
With neurologic, if it’s a frontal lobe issue, we work on the frontal lobe. If it’s a vagus nerve issue, we work on the exercising and stimulating of the Vagus nerve. If there is Hashimoto’s, what do we do to support the immune system? that’s our treatment plan.
That’s probably the easiest way I can say that is our protocol for all patients. The only way they don’t get those three arms is if I do a neuro exam, and I go, “Dang, this is one of the best brains I’ve seen in a while,” then they don’t get anything in that treatment plan because it doesn’t make sense. Someone might stimulate the Vagus nerve because that could be a great way to get the gut moving. Maybe they have a healthy Vagus nerve, but I will use that mechanism to get the gut moving and functioning better.
Dr. Eric:
You shared a lot of amazing information. I learned a lot. I’m sure the listeners did, too. Is there anything I didn’t ask that I should have? Anything you’d like to discuss? We could easily go on and on and on. Anything that I missed that you have a burning desire to cover?
Dr. Shane:
No, we talked about a lot. This might be one of those podcasts that they need to listen to several times to get some more nuggets. That’s always my goal. I like coming on podcasts and sharing a bunch of nuggets because not one size fits all. Everybody is a little different. Maybe that is a great way to end.
Sometimes, people get stuck on they did a food allergy test, and it fixed them. Everybody has to do a food allergy test, and that is the end-all be-all. That is not always the case. Everyone is so different with their own history and circumstances and genetics. It’s important to find practitioners who are talented at looking at the whole person. That is the fastest way to get better. In the holistic field, I like holistic medicine and practitioners. If you have a hammer, and everything looks like a nail, I don’t care if I do parasites or adrenals only or food allergy testing or everybody has to gargle. If you have a hammer, and everything looks like a nail, finding somebody else might be a better option. Life is too complex, as are our bodies, to think that one thing can fix everybody.
Dr. Eric:
Well said. Where can people learn more about you?
Dr. Shane:
There are two websites that we use and update. One is IntegrativeHealthDenver.com. I live in Denver, Colorado. The other one is IntegrativeBrainCenters.com. We have two arms. We get people who come in with concussions, so they use the brain website to find us. We are trying to be active on social media. @IntegrativeHealth and @IntegrativeBrainCenters on Instagram and Facebook. It’s good to sign up because we are throwing stuff out there. We do webinars. I am doing one tonight on migraines. We are trying to disseminate information and articles and nuggets and pearls, whatever you want to call it. We want the world to be a better place. Follow us and like us and share. We will keep putting it out there.
Dr. Eric:
Sounds good. It really was a pleasure chatting with you. I learned a lot about the brain-gut-thyroid connection.
Dr. Shane:
Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun.