Recently, I interviewed Dr. Lorraine Maita, and we discussed the the complex relationship between thyroid health and your sex hormones, the prevalence of thyroid disorders in women, the impact of estrogen on thyroid function, the importance of holistic approaches to hormone replacement therapy, how lifestyle factors influence overall health, and more. If you would prefer to listen to the interview you can access it by Clicking Here.
Dr. Eric Osansky:
I am very excited to chat with Dr. Lorraine Maita. We are going to be talking about thyroid and autoimmune issues in women. Let me go ahead and dive into Dr. Lorraine’s bio here before we start.
Lorraine Maita, MD, The Hormone Harmonizer and Detoxifier, is a triple board-certified physician who specializes in helping you have boundless energy; stable moods; a lean body; a sharp, clear mind; strong bones; and balanced hormones, so you can feel like yourself again.
Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Lorraine.
Dr. Lorraine Maita:
I’m so happy to be here. We have to get the word out to help women have a healthy thyroid. Thyroid disorders are very prevalent, especially in women. I want to talk about why.
Dr. Eric:
We definitely will talk about why. Before we do that, if you could expand a little bit on your background. How did you start focusing on hormones, becoming the Hormone Harmonizer and Detoxifier?
Dr. Lorraine:
I used to work in an emergency room in New York City. I got into functional medicine because a patient gave me TB. I was on antibiotics for nine months. I was getting all kinds of gut issues and other issues: rashes, gaining weight, feeling tired.
Then I got myself together, learning functional medicine. I went into a company. I used to save people’s lives in the ER and the hospital. Back in the day, there were very few women executives. One day, I’m in my office, and a really senior woman came down. Not senior as in old, but she was right next to the chairman. She came down and said, “You have to help me. I’m standing giving a presentation, and all of a sudden, I get a hot flash. I’m sweating, I’m forgetting my words. Men were either casting their eyes down, like I can’t look at this, or elbowing each other, chuckling. People are not going to take me seriously.”
In those days, there were very few women executives. I could probably count on one hand how many there were in this huge Fortune 100 company. I had to be like, “Oh my god, I could fix almost anything, but not that.”
I started to learn. I did these women’s circles. They laid everything out on the table. I was a newbie. I was young. I learned so much from them. I continue to learn.
Then I went through my own perimenopause, which was really difficult. I started losing friends. I was irritable and tired all the time. I was moody, gaining weight. Why, all of a sudden? I am doing all the right things. The lightbulb went off: it’s perimenopause. I dove deep into that. I’ve never looked back.
I have helped so many women because they’re either judged or dismissed. That was the same thing that happened to me. I also do hormones differently because I went to about four different doctors, and they’d give me the standard of what they did. If it didn’t work for me, which it didn’t, I was out of luck.
I trained probably under six different philosophies. I feel like I’m a chef. The difference between a short order cook and a chef. I can take a little from here, a little from there. If something doesn’t work, I have another bag of tricks. I also look at the whole person and found that makes all the difference in the world. You can’t just give somebody hormones and say, “Everything is going to be fine.” Even if you tailor it to them, there are so many other things that come into play.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. There is definitely a time and place for hormone replacement therapy, which we’ll talk about. The problem is there is a lot of doctors who that’s all they do. They just give HRT and don’t do anything to improve the person’s health in other ways. That’s great that you take that whole body approach. It’s so important.
Dr. Lorraine:
I found that the people who had some side effects or did not feel right on hormones, it was because of something else: their gut or their thyroid. The thyroid, again, I have a lot of patients who are dismissed. They are tired, they can’t think, they’re constipated, they’re cold. They have all the symptoms, but the numbers look good. We’re not treating the numbers; we’re treating the patient. Getting your whole body in shape and getting everything else in shape, sometimes your thyroid bounces back. Thyroid is very overlooked, even though it’s so prevalent.
Dr. Eric:
Without question. It’s still overlooked, still misdiagnosed. Of course, we are going to talk more about this, but getting to the question: Why are thyroid conditions so common in women specifically?
Dr. Lorraine:
Women have more estrogen. We have that X chromosome, and there is something about that X chromosome and estrogen that kicks up your immune system. Estrogen unopposed or not balanced by progesterone can be very inflammatory. A lot of women are on the pill, or they have had IVF. Oral estrogen will increase thyroid binding globulin. Even your own estrogen will increase thyroid binding globulin. The thyroid binding globulin holds onto the thyroid, so you can’t allow it to be free to get into the cell.
These types of hormones work by getting into the nucleus of the cell. If they are bound, they can’t- People being in a train station, in a train, with the door locked, they can’t get out. They’re not free to go to work.
We need to have estrogen in a good range. A lot of women are hyper-estrogenic. They’re estrogen-dominant, which means they have estrogen, but they don’t have enough progesterone to balance it. Estrogen will make your thyroid grow.
I realized late in life that I was estrogen-dominant. I didn’t know what it was when I was a medical student. My thyroid is a little bit big. Everybody had to feel my thyroid. Any rounds we went on, any type of clinical training, people would always want to feel my thyroid. I never had nodules. Too much estrogen, not balanced with progesterone, will make the thyroid grow. Too little, you get hypothyroid.
Hormones fluctuate. We go through stages in life where they fluctuate, especially during perimenopause. This is when I was gaining weight, and all these other things were happening to me. It was around the time of 9/11, so I thought I was just stressed. Who wasn’t stressed then? I used to live across the street from the World Trade Center. When I realized I needed to balance my hormones, I had the same stress, but I reacted very differently to it.
Estrogen will change the ability of thyroid to be able to work. It also can decrease your thyroid converting T4 to T3. Progesterone increases T4. T4 is actually the hormone made in the thyroid. Having the right hormones in balance on board is really important. We’re built to have children. If the thyroid is off, you have infertility. You have abnormal periods. People always think it’s just estrogen. No, it’s not estrogen. It’s the whole symphony of hormones.
Women are more prone to thyroid disorders because of estrogen and the X chromosome.
Dr. Eric:
If someone has estrogen dominance, it could interfere with the conversion of T4 to T3, as you said. When you said it could make the thyroid grow, you mean it could be a factor in a goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid?
Dr. Lorraine:
Yes. Too much estrogen not opposed with progesterone is going to make the gland itself grow. It can cause goiter. Too little is hypothyroid.
Estrogen, people think it’s just for reproduction, and it’s not. There are estrogen receptors all over your body: in your brain, in your blood vessels, in your kidney, in your skin.
I had some dairy last night, so I’m a little congested. I was at an event where I had no choice. Food sensitivities play a role, too. I broke my own rules last night, but I couldn’t help it.
Dr. Eric:
For the most part, I avoid dairy, too, but I can’t say I’m perfect. I kid around sometimes. If I have pizza, it’s usually a cauliflower crust, but it’s not the vegan cheese; I’m going to have my mozzarella when I have pizza. I’m not perfect either.
Most thyroid conditions are autoimmune. Most hyperthyroid conditions are Graves’; most hypothyroid conditions are Hashimoto’s. Autoimmunity is also more common in women. Is that for a similar reason?
Dr. Lorraine:
We have evolved to have children. Women have four times more antibodies than men. It’s estrogen that gives you all those antibodies. We have more antibodies to protect the unborn child and to be able to transmit the antibodies when we’re nursing. It keeps the infant healthy, and it protects the mother against infections. That’s a double-edged sword. It does protect the infant. It does protect the mother but only against infection. It increases the risk of autoimmune disorders.
I always have a woman look back: What was happening at the time you first noticed something going wrong? It’s always when your hormones are changing. Either you have stress or infection.
When you’re pregnant, your antibodies are at their highest. That’s when we see the biggest number of autoimmune disorders occur: post-partum. I call them the four P’s. This is when hormones fluctuate. Your pituitary gland in your brain doesn’t know what to do, so it signals making thyroid hormones, making all your other hormones, like your sex hormones; prolactin, which makes milk; estrogen; progesterone; growth hormone; thyroid hormone.
When you have fluctuating hormone levels, the signals get crossed. Some women during puberty, estrogen is easy to make. Progesterone, no. You need to actually have an egg ripen and burst, so they call it the follicular phase. The corpus luteum from that egg that has ovulated, that piece of tissue makes progesterone. That doesn’t always happen very easily. During puberty, your estrogens are ramping up, and your body is trying to ovulate. It’s a very synchronized process.
Post-partum, your hormones are at a high level, and all of a sudden, they plummet. Some women bounce back. Other women don’t.
Perimenopause is probably one of the worst times. Both hormones are fluctuating. Estrogen goes up and down, and that’s why thyroid disorders are very common then. All those signals get crossed. Your hormones are all over the place.
Where in puberty, progesterone is ramping up, in perimenopause, it’s ramping down. We are born with a set number of eggs. We start running out. Some months, you’ll ovulate, and things will be nice. Other months, you won’t, and you’ll feel anxious and irritable and tired and PMS and get breast cysts and fibroids and irregular bleeding, heavy bleeding. You can get hot flashes and night sweats because even though you’re not making progesterone, and you’re estrogen-dominant, your estrogen is fluctuating up and down. A lot of the same symptoms in menopause occur during perimenopause.
All these fluctuations mess up your pituitary gland, and they also stimulate the immune system. Once your immune system kicks off, if you have the genetic predisposition, it doesn’t know how to turn off. It turns on, but it doesn’t know how to turn off. That’s why most autoimmune disorders in women occur during the four P’s: puberty, post-partum, perimenopause, and post-menopause.
In Graves’, I understand you do a lot with Graves’. It’s very common post-partum. Did you find that to be the case?
Dr. Eric:
Yeah, I do see women who are premenopausal, too. It’s not just post-partum. I also see a good number of women with Graves’ where it develops in post-partum. You are right about the hormone fluctuations. Sometimes, we’ll see teenagers. Not a lot. Most of the women I’m seeing are adults. It’s less common, but these days, unfortunately, it’s more common than in the past.
This suggests there are other factors, too. I think you would agree. It’s not just hormone fluctuations that are responsible for thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions. When in combination with other factors as well.
Dr. Lorraine:
I call it the autoimmune soup. It’s stress, toxins, adverse food reactions, inflammation, hormone imbalance, nutritional excesses, nutritional deficiencies, lack of sleep. People ask, “What affects my hormones? If you give me hormones, will I stay at the same level my whole life?” No, not really. What you eat, what you drink, how much you sleep, how much you exercise, the stress you’re under, the toxins you’re exposed to are all going to affect your hormones.
Most of the chemicals out there, a lot of them are estrogenic. All these herbicides and pesticides act like estrogen. Women are estrogen-dominant without estrogen. They’re taking these chemicals in, not knowing we are exposed to about 200 chemicals a day, especially women. We use personal care products. I use something on my hair, face. My makeup. Body lotions. I don’t use perfumes anymore. I don’t put nail polish on anymore. I don’t need to. I don’t want to. I’ll do a little bit of makeup, but not every day.
Even if you have eaten clean and had a clean lifestyle for the last five or ten years, every toxin you have been exposed to since birth gets stored in your fat and bone marrow. When it starts releasing, it starts in perimenopause. Women wait to menopause to get all this testing done. Perimenopause, everything starts to go downhill. That can precede menopause by 10 years. Perimenopause is big for autoimmune disorders. Post-partum and post-menopause.
I just had a podcast with someone about the oral microbiome. Women get dry mouth. They get more infections after menopause because estrogen makes saliva. Then the infections can affect your thyroid, your cardiovascular disease. It sets up a chain reaction of so many different disorders. Getting things in balance is extremely important, especially for your thyroid. It’s the canary in the coal mine. It will be the first organ to show some signs of having a problem.
People don’t look for the problems in the thyroid; they don’t measure antibodies. They don’t look at free T3 or reverse T3. They are allowing the lab reference ranges to dictate the patient’s health. That’s not the case.
Dr. Eric:
It’s funny you mention the term “canary in the coal mine.” Another recent interview said the same thing. I agree. It’s not the cause of the problem. I agree with most doctors not looking at the full picture when it comes to testing the thyroid. Most just do TSH and maybe T4. You suggested the lab ranges versus the optimal ranges. Too many doctors also don’t pay attention to those optimal ranges. I appreciate you bringing that up.
When it comes to sex hormones, you mentioned perimenopause. How challenging is it to test the sex hormones because they’re fluctuating? How do you handle the testing of progesterone and estrogen during those times?
Dr. Lorraine:
That’s a good question. If somebody has a regular period, an average 28-day cycle, do day 19-22. Measure your hormones then. If somebody has a shorter cycle, I measure days 16-19. Some people have periods all over the place. I tell them to measure two different times 10 days apart. Or when you’re having raging PMS, measure then. It will give me an idea.
If your cycles are all over the place, a lot of women don’t know when to test. I give them a graphic and show them “Here’s two lab slips. Do one when you think you should be doing it, and do another one 10 days later. One of them will show.”
We are looking for having estrogen and no progesterone. At the beginning of the cycle, you don’t have either or very much of either. Two weeks, estrogen goes up first, then progesterone goes up after you ovulate. Then after that two-week period, both drop again. That’s when you’re supposed to have your period.
But when you have estrogen and no progesterone, the uterine lining just grows and grows. Progesterone stabilizes, but you don’t have progesterone to stabilize it. It may grow to a point where it’s breaking off, so you get irregular bleeding or spotting. You don’t know if it’s a period or not. That’s why sometimes you have to test two different times 10 days apart.
Oftentimes, when people are having the most PMS-type symptoms is when you have that imbalance. That’s what’s causing it. I call estrogen the hormone of energy and growth. Too much estrogen is anxiety, irritability, impatience, insomnia, growth of the breast, cyst in the breast, tender breast, bleeding, spotting, fibroids, weight gain, and more. But those are your most common symptoms. Progesterone just calms it all down.
Estrogen’s inflammatory, hence all the extra antibodies. Progesterone’s anti-inflammatory. When they’re ramping up in puberty, when they’re all over the place post-partum, and when they’re ramping up and down in perimenopause, you’re going to get the antibody spikes. When estrogen is low, you’re not going to get the thyroid hormone. What women tell me is, “I lost my zest, or I lost my effervescence, or I lost my luster. I don’t feel like a woman anymore.”
I do see tremendous changes in the thyroid as well during that time and changes in the microbiome and changes in the oral cavity. They’re dry, foggy. They have hot flashes and night sweats. Sex is painful. It’s not fun to go through this.
But the beauty of it is even if you didn’t go on hormones, you can improve your life with just improving your overall health, like your microbiome, your detox pathways, and getting your thyroid in order. No one would question to give you thyroid if you’re hyperthyroid. If you’re low in estrogen and progesterone, people say that’s a natural phase of life. Yeah, but it’s affecting the quality of life.
Dr. Eric:
Yeah. I agree. That’s a really good point. If someone has low thyroid, there is no hesitation to give thyroid hormone replacements. Many medical doctors just dismiss. When you look at the lab ranges, if you look at the lab ranges for post-menopausal for estrogen and progesterone, if it’s zero, it’s considered to be okay. Crazy!
Dr. Lorraine:
Exactly. Estrogen preserves your bones, brain, cardiovascular system. It helps with lipids, and it makes you feel good. Women have to realize that there has been a lot of misinformation about hormone replacement.
I was around when Prempro came out. In fact, when I was a newbie and had to learn everything about hormones, because these menopausal women came down to me, they wanted to be taken seriously and rise up the corporate ladder, when I decided to do something, I do it all the way, so I learned from so many people, and I learned a lot.
I realized that when women came to me on Prempro, they were never quite right. Some of them were a little more depressed. Some had spotting. Those are synthetic hormones. Prempro was what they used mostly in that Women’s Health Initiative.
I was recommending bioidenticals long before. When Prempro came out, and I saw the difference, when I sent women for bioidentical hormones, I would have women come to me and say, “I want what she has because she is not gaining weight. She is not depressed. She just seems better. Whatever you recommended seems better.” It was. I converted a lot of women from Prempro to bioidenticals.
Then I switched companies. The Women’s Health Initiative came out. Oh my god, all these women stopped their hormones, and it was bedlam. The rug was pulled out from under their feet. They got all the symptoms of menopause so abruptly. I mostly had departments of mainly women. It was so hard on them. I still knew and did things differently and kept studying and learned bioidenticals were safer.
The analysis of that study was very flawed. Hence in 2017, the principal investigator came out with a paper saying, “Listen, this study was hijacked.” We never even got to see it before the press came out with this “It’s dangerous. It increases heart attacks, stroke, and breast cancer.” When you put it in perspective, it didn’t do any of that. Oral estrogen does. Oral estrogen causes clots.
I was there during all that time. I continue to help women only because I saw how much they were suffering. When you don’t make a decision, and you do so out of fear, you’re deteriorating. You lose your bone. Your thyroid gets messed up. You start not to remember. You get dry. You can’t have relationships because it’s too painful. It affects your marriage. You’re irritable and can’t sleep and are tired, so it affects your performance. There are so many factors to consider. Quality of life is one of them.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely agree. I have a two-part question. How do you determine when a patient of yours needs bioidentical hormone replacement therapy? A second question is if there is a time and place for bioidentical hormones in those who are not in perimenopause or post-menopause?
Dr. Lorraine:
That’s a very good question. First of all, I do this all day every day, so I know the symptoms. But I don’t necessarily treat the symptoms. I will measure. I will have women do some blood testing. Then I will also detox them. Some of it can be due to toxins. Some of it can be due to inflammation. Inflammation is terrible for your thyroid. Toxins are terrible for your thyroid.
I do a very different type of detox. Everybody calls it something different and does it differently. When you come to me, I want to do it my way once, at least. You have to bear with me.
I just had a conversation with someone yesterday, and she said, “I’m eliminating those foods.” That’s only one small piece of what’s going on. We are going to refurbish you. We’re going to remove the toxins, give you detoxifying herbs, remove the most common foods, just for two weeks. I do it very short. Otherwise, people won’t do it.
For two weeks, you remove the most troublesome foods. You give something to decrease inflammation and heal the gut. 80% of people come back to me feeling good to great. So many symptoms go away. I have actually had some women say to me, “I feel so good, I don’t think I need hormones.” I go along with it. If you’re feeling really good, and we subsequently measure, a lot of people go back into balance.
Some women feel better, but there’re still big imbalances. I will treat them. You don’t realize that in perimenopause, that is where you start losing bone. People think you only lose bone in menopause, but you lose it in perimenopause. Progesterone is extremely important for bones, as is testosterone. All of those hormones go down.
I also measure cortisol. If your cortisol is high, all your other hormones are going to be low. I decide based on symptoms, on measurement, on response to a really good detox vacation and elimination diet and decreasing inflammation.
Dr. Eric:
How do you measure cortisol?
Dr. Lorraine:
I measure it in saliva, four points. You get up in the morning and spit in the tube. Noon, you spit into a tube. 3-5, you spit into a tube. Before bed, you spit into a tube. You should have a nice curve of high to low.
Lately, I have been seeing flatline cortisol, where there is no get up and go. This is burnout. Some people’s cortisol goes up at night, so they can’t sleep. If you can’t sleep, it disrupts all your other hormones. It’s like baking a cake. You leave one ingredient out, and it’s a flop. We have to look at the full picture.
That’s what I do when I initially see someone. I want a fuller picture, so I can hit all the key points, get them feeling better faster, and then we decide when the dust settles, “Okay, whatever is left over, we treat.” I save people a lot of money on supplements because I have people coming to me. Every symptom has a supplement. It’s no different than a pill for an ill. It’s a supplement for a symptom. That’s not getting to the root cause.
Then I give the supplements based on what’s left over. Then I give the hormones based on what’s left over. Where are you at? I know even if you feel a lot better, if you’re still having either symptoms or your hormones are low, you’re setting yourself up for problems down the road.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. I’m glad you use saliva testing. I do a lot of saliva testing, too, just because you can look at the Circadian rhythm as you described.
You mentioned elevated cortisol. If someone does a blood test, and cortisol is high, is it truly high? Is it because they were stressed out while doing the blood draw? You can have that false elevation of cortisol when doing serum testing. Do you do any DUTCH testing in your practice?
Dr. Lorraine:
Once I put people on hormones, I do DUTCH testing. The mistake I see some people making is they take menopausal women who have no estrogen, and they do the test, but it’s not as accurate although it’s helpful to some extent. I get the hormones to a certain level, and then that is when it’s really testing the pathway. When you have enough estrogen in there to see where it’s going, how is your liver metabolizing it? Can you get rid of it? If you don’t have any estrogen, that’s not going to be very accurate.
As I give hormones, I tell people I look at it 3D. if I did your financial plan, I’d have to look at your bank account, your savings, and your income and expenses to do a good job. That’s a complete financial plan. If I just looked at your blood, that’s like your bank account. You have enough money, but you have no money in savings. If something happens, you don’t have any reserve.
Saliva is not the most accurate test, but it gives me a good idea. That gives me free hormone. It doesn’t always match the blood. A certain company did some tests that when they did uterine biopsies and looked at the hormones in the endometrial lining and then did saliva, they matched. It gives me an idea of how much free hormone is floating around.
Some women, I can give them hormones until the cows come home, and it doesn’t rise in blood. I have to look at where it’s going, so I do blood and saliva to see how it compares, and then I do blood and the DUTCH test. The DUTCH test is so valuable. It tells me how the body metabolizes all of the hormones.
If your liver, I call it the giant recycling plant, where you can have clean recycled garbage; dirty, stinky garbage; and something in between. If you make this 4 hydroxy estrogen, which is like dirty, stinky garbage, it damages DNA. They did a study where women who made 4 hydroxy estrogen either had a history of breast cancer or a family history of breast cancer. I want to know if you make a lot of that. If you do, I give you diet and supplement advice to make more of the 2 hydroxy estrogen. When they did studies on women who made that, it’s like clean, recycled garbage. I can shift the enzymes to make more of the safer version.
I have to see. If you just threw your garbage out on the curb, the garbageman won’t pick it up. If you just have these hormone metabolites floating around, you could reabsorb them if you don’t have a good, active methylation process. That’s methylation is done by the COmt enzyme, which is like putting those toxic metabolites or even the safe metabolites in a bag, so you can dispose of them.
That’s why I’m such a stickler for bowel movements. I’m going to be known as the Poop Doctor. Are you moving your bowels? If you’re not, you’re reabsorbing all those things you want to get rid of.
The DUTCH test will tell me how you get rid of them. It will also tell me how you’re metabolizing your cortisol. It will give you a cortisol curve. It will tell me if you metabolize testosterone to a form that will give you more masculine features, like I have the Italian beard and mustache. You can get more of that if you metabolize or break down your testosterone into a form that is more androgenic. Think facial hair, but hair loss on the head. God has a sense of humor, right? You get hair where you don’t want it, and you don’t have it where you do want it. I can see all of that in the DUTCH test. I love that test.
Dr. Eric:
I like it a lot, too. Getting back to 4 hydroxy. If a patient of yours has elevated 4 hydroxy, making sure they have regular bowel movements. Make sure they have healthy methylation. Supporting methylation if necessary. Anything else?
Dr. Lorraine:
I have different cocktails for different enzymes. The one that’s in between is not as toxic as a 4, not as clean as a 2. That responds better to resveratrol. That’s the 16 hydroxy. You can have high estrogen, normal estrogen, or low estrogen and still be estrogen-dominant. You could be menopausal and be estrogen-dominant. You decrease the toxins coming in.
Eating organic, because the herbicides and pesticides act on the estrogen receptors and make you gain weight and make you estrogen-dominant. Hormone-free, antibiotic-free, poultry and dairy.
Look at your personal care products because a lot of them have chemicals that disrupt your hormone system, your immune system, and nervous system. Some people take certain creams that have hormones in them, and they don’t realize it.
Yesterday, I just got a blood result back with somebody’s estrogen at 799. That is the highest. It’s either a lab error, or she is taking- A lot of the estrogen skin creams are very nice. Some people don’t realize it, but if the estrogen is 799 because of that, she’s in trouble.
Look carefully at your skin care products and your cleaning products. That decreases the toxins going in.
Cruciferous vegetables help you break down the estrogen. We call it metabolize, into safer forms, like the 2 hydroxy instead of the 4 hydroxy. I make sure people get a lot of cruciferous vegetables.
The other thing is fiber. Fiber binds the metabolites and allows you to poop them out. A lot of women say when I ask, “How are your bowel movements?” “They’re normal.” “How often?” “Every three days.” “What do they look like?” “Pebbles.” That’s not normal or good. That won’t help you get rid of your toxins. You have to poop a snake every day.
I had to say that over a lunch, and I did not like saying that over luncheon. You know what? It is so important. Women come to me and don’t feel right; they’re fatigued. Any toxins you’re trying to get rid of, you’re just reabsorbing if you’re not pooping. It’s like flushing a backed-up toilet. Ew! People tell me they feel absolutely great. “Oh my god, I didn’t realize it made a difference.”
The other thing is gallbladder. A lot of women had their gallbladders out, or their gallbladder doesn’t work well. They don’t realize that bile is more than just digesting fat. It binds toxins and helps you get rid of them. Bile is an antiseptic for your bowels.
All this dysbiosis, meaning you have a family of microbes in your gut that are not friendly versus friendly. The bile helps you. Your microbiome, the bugs in your gut, can take the bile that is bound to all these toxic metabolites, and it’s carrying it out.
Some of the microbes are stinky. “You think you’re smart? I’m gonna break it off, so you’re just reabsorbing this stuff.” That’s called beta glucuronidase. It’s an enzyme that they make, so your bile can’t get rid of this stuff. You reabsorb it, and you’re estrogen-dominant, but it’s not going to measure because it’s a metabolite. Getting your bile flowing is really important.
I recommend bitters. When I had a woman come to me four weeks before she was going to have her gallbladder removed. She said, “I need more than four weeks.” She was having a lot of pain and gas and digestive issues. We got everything going. She is okay. Things are better. She didn’t have to have the surgery. If you don’t have your gallbladder out, make sure your bile is flowing.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. Gallbladder problems are really bile metabolism problems. There is a time and place to remove the gallbladder. It’s not fixing the problem, just like anything else. There is a time and place for thyroid surgery, but if someone has thyroid surgery, is it fixing the underlying cause of the problem, especially if they have Graves’, and they end up getting radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery, but it’s more of an immune system condition than a thyroid condition. I’m glad you brought that up as well with the importance of supporting bile.
Do you do stool testing to look at beta glucuronidase and the gut microbiome overall?
Dr. Lorraine:
I don’t do it in everybody. Some people feel so good and don’t want to spend the money on it. When somebody feels better after my detox, we have to look deeper. It’s mold, metal, gut.
When I first started, I used to see a lot of bacteria that didn’t belong there. Now, I’m seeing more of what I call a desert. People have no probiotics. They have been treated with antibiotics. They are not eating enough fiber. They are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. There is nothing in there that’s going to help you because people don’t realize that microbiome, there is more cells in there than there are in our bodies. The microbiome is like your community. They’re communicating. They can disrupt your hormone system, immune system, and nervous system, or they can make them great. Having the right balance of the microbes there is important.
The other point is you need iron, iodine, and other nutrients to make thyroid hormone and any hormone for that matter. Oftentimes, the digestion is off. We are eating on the run. We’re not relaxing. You’re either in fight or flight, rest/digest, or reproduce/regenerate.
If you’re eating on the run and multi-tasking while eating, you’re not relaxed enough to get all the signals from your brain to your gut to make digestive enzymes. You’re not digesting the food; therefore, you’re not absorbing the nutrients.
I say choose, chew, and chill. Choose the foods that nourish you. Chew thoroughly because the chewing releases stomach acid. The stomach acid starts the digestive process. That is antibacterial actually. All you people with SIBO, you need stomach acid, and you need stomach acid to absorb iron. Iron is essential to making thyroid hormone. The stomach acid is going to tell your gallbladder and liver to make bile and store it in the gallbladder and your pancreas to make other digestive enzymes.
If you don’t give time, it’s like rushing through a car wash. You have the suds on, but then you rush through the rinsing process, and it’s stuck there. Take a little time to eat and chill out. Choose, chew, and chill. Relax when you eat. This way, all your digestion will take that food and allow the nutrients to absorb.
So many little things. That’s why when people just think, “Give me hormones, and I will have a standard dose. I only have to see her once a year.” Is she taking care of all the things? No.
If you really want good overall health and a good, healthy health span, I can’t guarantee a longer life. While we’re on this planet, why shouldn’t we live with vibrance and vitality and a sharp, clear mind and energy? Feeling good.
Dr. Eric:
Fully agree. We all want to feel good. Sometimes, we also have to pay attention to the smaller things like chewing our food. I have two teenage daughters, and one of them, I always have to say, “Slow down” because she likes to scarf down her food and do whatever she’s doing.
Very important to talk about even the basics. So many people aren’t doing the basics. Like you said, they’re eating quickly or not really- They might be on their computer while eating and watching TV, not to say there is not a time and place to do that, but they are not relaxing. They are just trying to eat a quick meal in between their break, for example, and get back to work. Try to block out some time.
Dr. Lorraine:
Or they eat in their car. I had so many people who just eat in their cars. Stop. It will affect your thyroid. Anything that causes inflammation will affect your thyroid.
I had a woman the other day where I know she is a sugar addict. Her TSH from her pituitary gland went up again. I said to her, “You know what? Please stop the sugar. Let’s remeasure.” That inflammation affected the communication between her thyroid and her pituitary gland. Came back normal. Otherwise, somebody might have put her on thyroid hormone. I don’t like when people overdo hormones either. There is a time and place, and that’s why reducing inflammation and taking care of all these other things makes all the difference.
Dr. Eric:
That is awesome. I’m so glad you take that approach. Not just have a cookie cutter approach where everybody gets hormones. I’m not against hormones. There is a time and place. You try to improve the person’s health. If someone needs hormones, they need them. If someone doesn’t need them, then they don’t need them.
Dr. Lorraine:
Exactly. It’s getting to the root cause. That’s why I have so many people who say, “I feel so good.” Then they don’t need anything. I just had somebody who came back to me. I did my process. She was great. Now, it’s seven years later. She needs them now. Let’s measure.
Dr. Eric:
You covered a lot of great information. Before we wrap up, anything else you want to mention? Anything that I should have asked you that I didn’t ask you?
Dr. Lorraine:
I always like to end with telling people to have some fun. Enjoy life. Some people approach this like a checklist. I ate, I exercised, etc. They’re uptight about it. They’re too anal about it. Relax. Enjoy. Have fun.
I know a lot of women have fear about hormones. I have a course called “Is HRT Right for You?” It will lay out all the studies. Also, have you do a self-assessment. What would happen if you did take hormones? What would happen if you didn’t? What are the risk factors? How is your life going to be different with or without?
I also give you a list of the studies. The studies, I have been doing this for so long. It makes you feel comfortable because the latest studies show that bioidentical hormones are safer. Part two of the course is what to expect if you do go on hormones. That is a big course. It’s very reasonable.
However, I have a Hormone Harmonize Kickstart that I’d like people to download for free. It will go through a lot of these things. It will give you more detail about what to do. We’re taking care of the whole person, not just one gland, your thyroid, or not just your estrogen and progesterone and testosterone, or your cortisol. The Hormone Harmonize Kickstart gets into a lot of the things that I covered here.
I know I was a little bit divergent in many places, but I can’t help it. That’s how I think. I will go and hone in on different things, so that I can get to the root cause faster.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. Anything else? Where can people find you?
Dr. Lorraine:
I have two websites; it’s confusing. I have the coaching website, which is FeelGoodAgainInstitute.com. I have my medical website, VibranceForLife.com. I have a private Facebook group. You can use my name. Instagram is my name. The private group is The Feel Good Again Institute. You can find me all over. I’m even on YouTube.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Lorraine. This was an amazing conversation. I had a great time talking to you about thyroid, autoimmunity, hormones. Definitely check out Dr. Lorraine’s websites. Find her on social media. Sign up for her Hormone Harmonize Kickstart. Maybe check out her HRT program as well.
Dr. Lorraine:
Thanks so much. You gotta spread the word. I like people to feel good again. That’s why I named my company The Feel Good Again Institute.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. Thanks again, Dr. Lorraine.
Leave a Reply