Dr. Tom: Hi everyone, my name is Dr. Tom Rofrano from the Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and this is lovely wife, Dawn.
Dawn: Hi everybody.
Dr. Tom: Special guest with us today and today we’re going to talk about how to shrink thyroid nodules, even…
Dawn: If you’re a sugar addict.
Dr. Tom: That’s right. So, we had an experience with this earlier this year when Dawn, she wanted to share a little story with you and then I can add in how we were able to turn that around.
Dawn: So, some of you may know that six months ago?
Dr. Tom: In June, yeah.
Dawn: In June, like my close friends I’ve told this story to, a lot of our patients also. I woke up one morning, and I was stretching, and I was kind of like massaging my neck, and I felt this huge nodule on my throat, and it freaked me out. I’ve been under tremendous stress; I lost my first doggie, my first baby and I’ve been going through some other family issues and just under a lot of stress. Not going to bed on time and just staying up late and just burning the candle out both ends and I knew it was a recipe for disaster, so when that nodule popped up I was definitely concerned and had Tom take a look at it and feel it, and he was like “Oh, yeah you definitely need to get that taken looked at.”
Dr. Tom: Then I ordered an ultrasound, and that came back with a finding of a nodule that was, let’s see, it’s size was over 2cms.
Dawn: Oh, you have a picture of it too, you could actually see it, it was so big, it was almost as if it came up overnight. I can’t believe that I hadn’t noticed it, it could’ve been there for a little while because I’m very conscientious, but yeah…
Dr. Tom: I have a picture of it right here, but the icon where I was able to share the screen disappeared somehow.
Dawn: Oh, okay. You can share it in the comments after.
Dr. Tom: Okay, I guess that’s a good idea. So, it was 2.1cms by 1.3cms – so 21 by 13mm on the right side and that’s the one that was showing, there was another one that was 1cm by 1cm.
Dawn: And then there was a few other little ones down below too.
Dr. Tom: Yeah, in each lobe there were two or three, but that big one that Dawn was seeing was the one that was over 2cms and typically over 1cm they like to do a needle biopsy. So, I sent Dawn for a for a referral to a local medical doctor and then what happened?
Dawn: Well I asked her if she would allow me to have some time before we did the needle biopsy because the thought of sticking the needle in my neck was definitely something I didn’t want to do…
Dr. Tom: Multiple times.
Dawn: Yeah, multiple times, I couldn’t even fathom that.
Dr. Tom: Because there were a number of nodules, the needle would’ve gone in multiple times in one area and then in other areas as well.
Dawn: You know, I know what we do here in our practice and our clinic, and I see patients shrinking cysts and tumors and all kinds of things all the time. So, I knew exactly what I needed to do, so I asked the doctor can I just do another ultrasound in a couple of weeks after I implemented a couple of things that my trusted husband and doctor was going to help me with.
Dr. Tom: What did she say?
Dawn: She said this is crazy, I’ve seen so many women these days with nodules, and she actually made a very important… she mentioned that it could be from phones and electronics and she just thinks something is going on that so many women and actually men too are getting these growths. Now, not only did she palpate that nodule here…
Dr. Tom: And you could see it.
Dawn: And you could see it, but I also had a pretty large cyst in my breast that she felt too. So, I knew my body was screaming at me and so, do you want to?
Dr. Tom: So she said okay, Dawn came in, we set an appointment and did some lab work. Went over those findings and the diet and one of the biggest things with Dawn, she was majorly addicted to sugar, so this wasn’t going to be easy. However, just seeing what was happening to her body…
Dawn: I had a reason now. I think I even did a Facebook live a couple of years ago, confessing that I was a sugar addict and that it wasn’t an easy thing but the fact that I had a reason now and I knew that I needed to completely cut out the sugar, even though mind you that wasn’t like corn syrup and refined sugar products, it was coconut sugar and you know, other foods that had sugar in it. So anyway, I knew what I needed to do, I don’t think you believed I could do it, but he really was suggesting that I do the needle biopsy and I just had so much reason not to because I knew that diet and some other things that you suggested which really helped…
Dr. Tom: So, when I got the lab work back there was some, I mean thyroid actually was okay. There was more adrenal stress, adrenal fatigue, adrenal stress, dysfunction issues, so we did some supplements, natural medicine supplements for that and also measured iodine levels, and those iodine levels, it’s actually a 24-hour urine iodine test, and that showed low levels of iodine which can ultimately cause nodules…
Dawn: And cystic.
Dr. Tom: And cystic breasts, right. So, the diet that Dawn, we call it a free diet, it’s a proprietary diet that I came up with because it’s free of those foods that are most commonly responsible for inflammation, fatigue, digestive and other chronic health issues. So, The FreeDiet Dawn committed to doing, so it’s basically free of gluten, grains, sugar, yeasts, dairy, soy, legumes, GMOs… I mean all those foods are responsible in the formation and like they say chronic health and digestive issues.
Dawn: It’s a little different than Paleo or the whole 30 that’s pretty popular out there. It has a couple of different tweaks in there that really made the difference.
Dr. Tom: It’s a combination of a number of different diets, including an elimination diet and on and on. But anyways, as a matter of fact, there’s… I’ll put a link in here, right, if you’re listening, if you’d like a copy, a complimentary one of The FreeDiet Phase I… it goes through multiple phases, you have three phases but Phase I is where you get the most results, typically four weeks and that’s what Dawn committed to.
Dawn: I was having a lot of different symptoms that your symptoms come in with. Some of your patients have a list of 50, and I probably had maybe more? I was just really burnt out. I was foggy brained; I couldn’t think straight, my memory… my emotions were all over the place… what other symptoms did I have?
Dr. Tom: Unable to really get going in the morning…
Dawn: Yes, yes, I wasn’t motivated, I just wasn’t my peppy self, and I was really really struggling.
Dr. Tom: Some mood issues, irritability.
Dawn: Yeah, he can say that he’s allowed…
Dr. Tom: Short-fused… all those symptoms of adrenal stress and fatigue, like brain fog and insomnia… nervousness, things like that.
Dawn: I would drop like I would just panic if something dropped behind me really loud and I would jump out of my skin. It was like that firing adrenaline that was constant, constant go!
Dr. Tom: So, how many… oh so anyway, within two weeks…
Dawn: Oh right, two weeks, I could not feel it anymore, that was just diet because I didn’t actually get the iodine in my system until the test came back.
Dr. Tom: Right, the diet and the initial supplements and then when we got the iodine results back, went on a certain dosage of iodine, and iodine is controversial because half of the sources say iodine is terrible, if you have any thyroid issues you never take it and actually you should avoid it at all costs if your thyroid nodules are autoimmune… I mean it’s just rampant, and endocrinologists are typically on the same page with that. Most will tell you to avoid it if you have thyroid issues. However, it is a considerable source and cause of nodules and goiter. You take it – well, you should if you test low if you’re deficient for it. If you’re not deficient if you’re not a low and you take iodine then that’s really bad. So before you go take in high doses of iodine, you should definitely test and make sure that you really need it.
Dawn: I know, over the year you’ve had so many women that were low in it and they had cystic breasts and were having to go and get ultrasounds and biopsies and many of them didn’t even have to because when I went back, the ultrasound showed that it was gone and when I went back to the radiologist, boy they really gave me a hard time why I didn’t want to do the mammogram, why I didn’t want to do – that’s another topic – why I didn’t want to do the needle biopsy, and I said well can you just do the ultrasound and see what you see? And they were completely surprised. The doctor was like what exactly did you do? And so I told him, he goes “Oh I’ve heard of iodine and how that can help, but I don’t know much about it” and the fact that he acknowledged that was, I really… that was great.
Dr. Tom: Yeah, so, when we had the second ultrasound about 7 and a half weeks later, that actually showed that nodules shrink from over 2cms to 1cm, so it shrunk by over 50% and on the other side it shrunk… it was also by 50%. All of those were under 1cm in the left side. So yeah, they shrunk by over 50% and then that suspicious danger-zone of over 1 cm where they like to be biopsied up because like I said they shrunk by over 50% and they said alright, what did she tell you?
Dawn: They said that I didn’t really need to come back in a couple of years if I wanted to check it again, but because I know that that is not normal, I’m still pressing forward, and I know that if the body created it, the body could heal it, so I’m committed to completely eliminating that inflammation, because I know it’s not supposed to be there. So anyway, I’ll probably get re-tested again, and I need you to check my iodine scans.
Dr. Tom: Right, right. So that’s the thing, really any of these chronic health conditions that they say you need medication for, in this case, the typical treatment for thyroid nodules, if they’re a certain size they’ll want to do surgery. What about your mom? Tell them about your mom too – which was another real concern.
Dawn: Yeah, so my mom, many years ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Dr. Tom: Well, it was borderline-suspicious…
Dawn: They were suspicious and so they just classify it as that and so she’d be “safe” back then, this was probably…
Dr. Tom: 25 years ago.
Dawn: Twenty-five years, we weren’t married yet, and they took out half of her thyroid, which is… now we know is unnecessary. Yeah, that was a concern, I definitely… even though I was in this field, I thought to myself “Wow, that’s pretty big” all of a sudden, and you know, your mind plays tricks on you. But when you know the others side of the coin and the information, and then you have that knowledge, you really can understand that, even if it was cancer, the body can heal it when it’s given the right environment. We’ve seen it, that happened with other people.
Dr. Tom: The body does have an incredible ability to heal itself, so, once you find out what’s going on, what the underlying root cause of the condition is and then adjust that through diet, supplements, lifestyle changes… almost anything you can heal and get better with.
Dawn: Yeah, definitely. Well and also, they did an ultrasound on my breast as well, and the tech would not speak a word, she was just typing away. Being ‘Oh lord, please tell me that there is nothing there anymore,’ and I knew in my heart, I did everything I was supposed to do, I knew it was gone. But she wouldn’t mum a word, she didn’t say anything to me, she just held it there and was typing away, and then the doctor came in and said so-and-so, you didn’t see anything there, did you? So that cyst was completely gone too. So, it’s amazing how our bodies can heal.
Dr. Tom: That’s right. So, thanks for joining us today and again, if you want a copy of Phase I of The FreeDiet just click below and if you have any questions, comments, feel free to do that below also and we look forward to seeing you next time!
Dawn: Hold on one second before you go. I just want to give a really heartfelt thank you to my husband, because that was a really stressful time in my life and so I’m super grateful that you’re in my life and that I was able to heal that with the knowledge that you shared with me, so thank you.
Dr. Tom: Oh, you’re welcome honey.
Dawn: Bye-bye.
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