Did you know that diet can help heal your thyroid? I have been in practice for over 30 years and have seen over 100,000 patient visits. Many of those patients come in with thyroid issues—hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules, and autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s or Grave’s disease.
In my years of practice, I have seen a common thread between patients with thyroid disease, autoimmune disorders, and chronic health conditions such as fatigue, pain, headaches, anxiety, and depression. That one common thread among them is digestive issues. I want to let you know how the two are related and how you can use your diet to improve your thyroid issues, become healthier and start feeling better.
Causes of Thyroid Conditions
There are several main causes of thyroid conditions and nodules that some doctors often miss. These include deficiencies, toxins, infections (bacteria, parasites, yeast, viruses), hormonal imbalance, and food reactions. Sometimes food sensitivities alone can affect the thyroid, but it is usually more than just one thing. This is often the case with chronic health issues and autoimmune health conditions as there are multiple root causes and often linked to food reactions and gut issues.
Using The FreeDiet® to Help Your Thyroid
The FreeDiet® is a diet that I have come up with that can help with gut and thyroid, and other chronic health conditions. My wife, Dawn, had a thyroid nodule that was 2.1 centimeters, and within seven weeks the size was down by 50% at her follow-up ultrasound. Within the first two weeks, she started seeing an improvement in size. Dawn was using my FreeDiet® as well as our Natural Medicine Formulas®, including iodine which she was deficient in.
Another patient of mine was a young girl, about seven years of age, with a very large thyroid (or goiter). Typically, the recommendation for a nodule this size is surgery. But the question is, what caused it.
The FreeDiet® is free of gluten, gluten grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods, as these are the foods that cause the most inflammatory issues. When you avoid inflammation, the gut can heal. Also, when the inflammation is calming down, so are the autoimmune conditions, and the thyroid nodules. The FreeDiet® can help the gut heal, improve absorption, eliminate inflammatory food reactions, allow the body to calm down, and allow many chronic symptoms start to fade away.
Finding the Root Cause of Thyroid Problems
When it comes to thyroid issues, there is a root cause, and it is my job to find it. Patients are normal up until a certain point in their life and then suddenly start having issues. These issues can appear out of nowhere. So, what is the cause? In the case with the young patient earlier, she had deficiencies that included vitamin D and iron. These are both commonly related to thyroid issues.
Other issues she was experiencing were toxins, yeast overgrowth, and unhealthy bacteria and a parasite in her intestine. These are all commonly related to thyroid issues, food sensitivity, and leaky gut. All these issues together resulted in an enlarged thyroid and impacted her health.
Natural Treatment for Thyroid Conditions
For some patients, the FreeDiet® and supplements are enough to help with their thyroid issues, including nodules. I have had emails from people telling me the diet has helped them reduce the size of their thyroid by more than 50% within the first few weeks of using it.
It is important to remember the diet addresses the food sensitivity part of thyroid issues. The diet also helps because if you have yeast, bacteria or parasites in your intestines, they live off the sugar, yeast, and grains you are consuming. By using the FreeDiet®, you minimize their food source and essentially starve the problem.
Leaky Gut and Thyroid
The FreeDiet® also helps with leaky gut. This is because, again, you are eliminating those inflammatory foods that cause you to have the leaky gut problem. If you want to use the diet and get tested for other pathogens, I highly recommend you have a comprehensive stool analysis and blood tests done to determine your deficiencies. These tests can show toxins as well as food sensitivities and allergies. Using the FreeDiet® can help with eliminating the most common foods that cause reactions leading to leaky gut issues and thyroid issues.
I hope you have learned a little more about how your diet and food sensitivities can affect your thyroid and your gut health. If you would like help with this, you can contact us at info@nmcwellness.com.
Today I’m going to talk to you about IBS, which stands for irritable bowel syndrome, or in my opinion, It’s BS. And why would I say that? Because certainly millions of people have IBS. Well, I’ve been practicing for over 30 years and have seen over 100,000 patient visits, treating all sorts of conditions—pain, fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, thyroid, adrenal issues, autoimmune.
But the one thing though that almost all my patients have in common is digestive issues. I’ve seen it more so lately, and it seems like almost everyone comes in with some sort of gut symptoms. Many of my patients have been to other doctors and get labeled as having IBS.
IBS Traditional Treatment
So I want to talk about what you can do to find out what’s causing it and how to correct it. So, typical scenario, you go to the doctor saying you have symptoms such as gas, bloating, abdominal pain, cramping, constipation, diarrhea. Even mucus in the stool can feel miserable.
And so you go in and your primary doctor says, all right, well why don’t you take this medication (usually acid-blocking drugs)? See if that works.
You go back, still no better. All right, well, let’s send you to the GI doctor.
So you go to the GI doctor. What’s going on?
Well, doc, I don’t know, I have some gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, just feel really irritable. My bowels feel irritable all the time. I don’t know what’s going on.
All right, well, let’s do some tests. We’ll do a colonoscopy.
Maybe they’ll do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. So you get the results back and go in.
So what is it?
Oh, well you have IBS.
Oh, what’s that Doc?
That stands for irritable bowel syndrome.
Well, wait a minute isn’t that what I told you I had, irritable bowel?
Right, you have irritable bowel syndrome, exactly.
Well, what causes that?
Well, no one really knows what causes it.
What can I do about it?
Well, you can get this medication for it. We have acid-blocking drugs.
That’s the one that didn’t work.
Okay, we can do muscle relaxers or anti-anxiety pills, or you can do these pain meds or even anti-depressants. These are all common medications used for IBS.
And that’s why I say It’s BS because IBS is not a condition, it’s simply a description of what’s going on. It would be like going to the orthopedist and you say,
Doc, my neck hurts, it’s been really hurting a lot lately.
They do some x-rays, maybe an MRI.
Okay, well, you have something very serious. It’s called HNS.
HNS, what’s that?
Hurt neck syndrome.
What do you mean?
You have HNS.
Well, I know, my neck hurts.
But this is an actual condition. Look it up online.
You go online, HNS, there are support groups. There are all kinds of blogs, websites all over the place. I’m making this up, by the way, maybe I’m not, maybe it does exist. But this is how it works. Anyway, that’s why I say it’s BS.
Root Cause of IBS
However, IBS does exist. I know, I had it years ago, even as a kid I had all these symptoms. I was miserable. And as I got older, it even got worse. So I went through all this. I was able to get it cleared up and basically what it comes down to is finding out the root causes of IBS.
Number one is pathogens (infections)—bacteria, yeast, parasites. And why don’t they ever test for this? It’s so rare that you can even get your doctor to order a stool test. I like to order these comprehensive stool tests, not just to check for parasites, but also yeast, bacteria, digestive enzymes, different markers of inflammation, immune health. So it gives a clear picture.
So parasites, for instance, in one study I read almost half of the IBS patients had this parasite called Blastocystis hominis. I did other videos on that if you want to check that out. But 46% had blasto. and all the symptoms of IBS can be from this blastocystis and other parasites, the gas, bloating, cramping, diarrhea, constipation.
Yeast overgrowth is also a common cause of IBS symptoms, and bacterial overgrowth (dysbiosis) as well. And when I tested myself, these are just some of approximately 20 stool test parasite pictures and everything that I did years ago when I had these issues. I wanted to get to the underlying root cause. And it took me a while to figure out and get it cleared up. But you should do a comprehensive stool test if you want to find out and figure out what’s causing your gut symptoms.
So infections, pathogens are one. And what do you do about that? Well, depending on what it is, for parasites, there’s certain natural formulas we use and sometimes you need a prescription medication. For me, I use a series of products that I found really worked, and this was after I tried a few different prescription drugs for the parasites which did not work.
Natural Treatment for IBS
If it’s yeast, there are certain protocols for that. I use a product called Yeast Defeat™. If it’s a bacterial overgrowth, I use Microb-Balance™. There are probiotics that I use that are effective and powerful called ProbioSupreme™SB or other of our probiotics depending on the findings. So, eliminating the cause of the infection is one thing.
Second, are deficiencies—nutrient and digestive enzyme deficiencies, so that has to be addressed and they are different types of enzyme supplements, such as GastricZyme™ or PanAbsorb™ that can be a huge help.
Third, are food allergies/sensitivities. Gluten is the most common one I see. There are other foods that are highly reactive as well. You have to find out which foods you are sensitive to. That’s a major cause of digestive issues. Two ways to do this are, you can test, there is a comprehensive gluten celiac test, food allergy and sensitivity tests. You can check upwards of 100 or more foods.
So the typical tests doctors run for gluten, if you can get them to do that, is for just 2-3 markers for gluten sensitivity and celiac. But meanwhile, there is a particular lab test I use to check more than 20 different antibodies, which is a very comprehensive approach to find out if gluten is an issue.
Testing Options for IBS
So another option besides testing for gluten are testing for others. A food allergy test if you can get your doctor to order that. Some of the major labs offer panels of 10 or 15 foods, and those are true allergies. Most people have sensitivities more so than allergies, so I like to test both in panels of about 100 foods or more.
So aside from food testing, another option I came up with is a diet I call the FreeDiet® because it’s not only free of gluten but gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods. And you go through that, phase one is typically four weeks where you are eliminating these potentially reactive foods. And most patients, usually within the first couple of weeks are doing so much better.
And then as everything clears up, we go onto phase two, we start adding foods back one at a time. So, this is what worked for me. Because I tested positive for gluten sensitivity, and I went gluten-free but was eating all the gluten-free grains, millet, rice, corn, gluten-free pasta and bagels, everything.
I was not feeling any better because you must eliminate the bacteria, yeast, parasites, all of those things. All of those live on, they love sugar, grains, yeast, starches. So this diet, the FreeDiet® is free of all of those.
It really helps your gut calm down. If you want a complimentary copy of the FreeDiet® phase 1 food chart, feel free to click here to check that out. So the FreeDiet® gives your gut a rest, calms down the inflammation, allows it to heal. If you have infections, pathogens, it also is the diet you would follow for that. So it’s all-encompassing as far as to help clear up gut issues and that’s what worked for me after I finally figured it out over many years of testing and tweaking and for many of my patients since then.
Contact Us
If you need help with your health, feel free to contact us and feel free to share this with someone you know, who is having gut or thyroid issues. We would be happy to help.
I’m Dr. Tom Rofrano from The Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I’ve had the privilege of helping over a hundred thousand people over the last 34 years. There are simple things you can do at home to help maintain healthy blood pressure. In this article, we’ll talk about the things you should consider.
What is High Blood Pressure?
What is high blood pressure? A reading of greater than 130 over 80 is stage one, and stage two is greater than 140 over 90. The stage one levels were recently lowered to 130 over 80, so now more people are categorized as having high blood pressure. In our office, it is one of the more common issues patients are dealing with.
Almost half of Americans have hypertension, and 54% of African Americans have hypertension as the rate is proportionally larger in the African-American community. We are going to go uncover some of the underlying root causes and some solutions on how to maintain a healthy blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure Medication Alone May Not be Effective
One of the things that my patients with high blood pressure have in common is that most are on high blood pressure medication. When I take their blood pressure, it’s still high even though they’re on medication.
Oftentimes one hypertension medication is not effective and then you need to go on a second medication, and sometimes a third. One of my patients had a cardiologist husband who was on five different prescriptions for high blood pressure, and it was still high! They were having a hard time figuring out why.
One of the reasons is when you’re not addressing the underlying root cause, and instead just trying to cover it with medication, the body adapts, and the blood pressure increases again because you are not fixing the issue.
What Causes High Blood Pressure / Hypertension
Here are some underlying root causes for high blood pressure.
DEFICIENCIES—ESPECIALLY VITAMIN D
First, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, in particular vitamin D, is a huge factor in this category. As far as getting back to why I believe African Americans have a disproportionately higher amount of blood pressure is because the darker your skin, the less you absorb vitamin D from the sun.
I had a patient from The Bahamas who was a gardener and was out in the sun every day, all day long. He came in with a long list of symptoms, including high blood pressure, aches and pains, and fatigue. His vitamin D was one of the lowest I’d ever seen, and he was out in the sun all day long. The reason is, the darker your skin, the less you break down and absorb vitamin D into your bloodstream.
Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies I see repeatedly, especially in people with hypertension.
TOXINS
Toxins are another underlying root cause. When someone comes in and we perform testing, oftentimes we will see high levels of mercury or iron overload.
INFECTIONS
Infections are another common root cause of high blood pressure. There’s a particular virus called cytomegalovirus, as well as other gut infections, that can cause high blood pressure.
HORMONES
Other causes of hypertension are hormonal imbalance, such as insulin, cortisol, DHEA, estrogen, and others.
FOOD REACTIONS
Food allergies and sensitivities can be a root cause for high blood pressure, especially gluten.
Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Supplements for Blood Pressure
I had a 68-year-old female patient who came in with neck and back pain, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, insomnia, sinus congestion, digestive issues, and high blood pressure. After lab testing, one of her root causes was gluten sensitivity. I put her on the FreeDiet®,as well as vitamin and mineral supplements that she needed. Thirty days later, her blood pressure dropped 66 points to normal, as did her blood sugar, triglycerides, inflammatory markers, and she lost 12 pounds.
The FreeDiet®is free of not only gluten, but gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, and other common allergenic foods that result in inflammation, digestive, and other chronic health issues. Underlying inflammation in the body is a driving force for high blood pressure. By following the FreeDiet® inflammation can be reduced.
Supplements for Blood Pressure Support
I typically recommend five supplements, which I call the Functional Five™. I suggest switching your diet to the FreeDiet®. The first part of the functional five is a good quality multivitamin and fish oil. OmegaSorb 3X is the particular one we use.
Vitamin D is an important nutrient and testing will reveal what your levels are and what dosage you need to take. On average, most people need 5,000 IUs of Vitamin D along with Vitamin K2. It’s really important to get vitamin K2 with Vitamin D to help with absorption.
Magnesium is an important mineral to take, and I believe magnesium malate is the best form. You can take magnesium citrate if you deal with constipation, but magnesium malate is my first pick. Typically, I recommend approximately 400-600 milligrams a day. A good quality probiotic like ProbioSupreme is very important to take as well.
Other vitamin and mineral supplementation would be recommended unique to your specific levels. For instance, B12 and folate deficiency are common deficiencies with hypertension, so I would recommend MethylFolate B12 Plus. If your inflammatory markers are high, curcumin is a great supplement to support healthy inflammation.
Case Review
A 54-year-old male patient whose blood pressure was 182/108 followed all the guidelines to avoid hypertension. He didn’t smoke and only drank alcohol occasionally.
He wasn’t overweight, exercised regularly, consumed a generally healthy diet, monitored his salt intake, and still had high blood pressure. His doctor said it was hereditary and needed to be on medication for the rest of his life, but he didn’t accept that.
After testing, I put him on the FreeDiet® as well as all of these supplements listed above. At the follow-up appointment four weeks later, his blood pressure had come down 71 points. A lot of people don’t realize when they have hypertension, they are actually experiencing food reactions.
Gluten, in particular, can aggravate inflammation and raise blood pressure if you have a gluten sensitivity. In addition to taking supplements, it’s important to follow a good quality anti-inflammatory diet, such as the FreeDiet®.
Schedule an Appointment Today
If you’re tired of dealing with high blood pressure, we would love to help. Give our office a call to schedule your appointment today. We can run labs and get to the root cause of your hypertension. If you would like a free copy of The FreeDiet® Phase 1 food chart, click here.
If you would like to read more about this, I have a chapter in my book on High Blood Pressure and you can click thefreedietbook.com for more information.
I’m Dr. Tom Rofrano, founder of The Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I have had the opportunity to see over 100,000 patient visits over the last 34 years. Today, I’m going to talk about how a stomach bug called H. Pylori can cause your gut and thyroid issues and how to fix it.
What is H. Pylori?
It’s a bacteria that can inhabit your stomach. Over 50% of the world’s population has it, over 80% in some undeveloped countries, and in North America, over 20% of the people are estimated to have it. It can cause a wide range of symptoms.
It’s the primary cause of ulcers, gastritis, abdominal pain, burning, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, and belching. H. Pylori can also cause bad breath. You can develop other conditions like autoimmune diseases, thyroid Hashimoto’s or Graves’, and skin conditions from this bacteria.
H. Pylori Symptoms and Testing
Pylori is a prime cause for malabsorption, anemia, and esophageal and stomach cancer. It is important to be aware that this might be an underlying cause if you have any of these symptoms.
How do you diagnose H Pylori?
There are three different tests, but I recommend the stool test for the most accurate testing.
1. Blood and Breath Tests
There are blood and breath tests available, but they aren’t as accurate as stool testing. I’m not fond of the breath test because you have to drink a liquid loaded with aspartame, an artificial sweetener.
Some people also suffer from side effects of the drink, like burning of the throat and stomach, nausea, and diarrhea. Many of these symptoms are already present in people with H. Pylori.
2. Stool Test
I prefer the stool test because it’s accurate and easy to do. The stool test is an accurate diagnosis of whether you have an H. Pylori infection. I’ve recently had five patients diagnosed with H pylori, and I’ll briefly discuss their issues and how they got rid of H. pylori.
Traditional Treatment for H Pylori
The traditional treatment is antibiotic therapy. It is called triple therapy because it has two antibiotics and an acid-blocking drug. Over time, it has been proven not to be that effective.
So now the protocol is quadruple therapy, which adds an additional drug. There are also different combinations of hybrid therapies. Sometimes these therapies may involve having a patient take 14 prescription pills in one day for two or three weeks.
The success rate for these treatments varies from 29% to 90%, depending on the person and the area. Antibiotic resistance has evolved over the years, so it’s shown not to be as effective. That’s why the protocols had to keep changing and increasing dosages.
Sometimes people take three or four drugs for two weeks and then move on to other drugs.
Natural H. Pylori Treatment
Now that we’ve gone over the medical treatment protocol, we will cover the natural treatment. We’ve been able to help many patients that come in with an H. Pylori infection resolve it naturally.
There are three steps.
1. Get Tested
First, if you have symptoms, you get tested and find out if you have it.
2. Change Your Diet
Next, there is a diet that I created and use called the FreeDiet®. The diet is free of gluten, grain, sugar, and yeast- all foods that are commonly inflammatory, and bacteria love feeding on sugar and starches. You want to help starve them while at the same time giving products that help clear them out. That’s where the FreeDiet® diet comes into play.
3. Take Specific Supplements to Support Gut Health
As far as supplements go, I’ll tell you what I found to be helpful below.
Effects Of These Natural Methods on My Patients
Here is a look at a few of the cases I’ve treated in my clinic:
Female – 20 Years Old
I saw a 20-year-old female patient who was suffering from extreme stomach burning, reflux, pain, bloating, and black stools, which is common. Typically that means ulcerations and bleeding in the stomach. Her stool test came back positive for H pylori.
Female – 36 Years Old
I also saw a 36-year-old woman dealing with severe fatigue, weakness, nausea, and constipation. She ended up with an iron deficiency, anemia and other deficiencies, which are common with H pylori. She was so fatigued and weak that she couldn’t even work for two months.
Conventional medical doctors told her she had anemia and to take iron supplements, but that wasn’t helping because it wasn’t fixing the underlying cause. She had internal bleeding because H. pylori can cause ulcers.
Male – 67 Years Old
I had a 67-year-old male patient dealing with constipation, diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain, and heartburn.
Female – 37 Years Old
A 37-year-old female patient had similar symptoms: nausea, vomiting, constipation, bloating, iron deficiency, anemia, very weak, and couldn’t even exercise.
Every one of them had low thyroid function and gluten sensitivity.
Diet and Supplements for H. Pylori Gut Support
The diet I recommend is free of gluten and grains and is extremely helpful in treating this type of infection. The program also involves a combination of different supplements.
I recommend a very strong probiotic as well as our supplement called GastroBlast™. It is a combination of different nutrients like mastic gum, licorice, zinc carnosine, and cabbage extract. These are all compounds that have shown to be very helpful with this condition. It helps the stomach lining heal as well.
All the patients mentioned above did a three-month protocol, and they all showed resolution with follow-up testing.
The last step of the protocol is to retest to make sure the infection is gone. All of my patients’ tests showed the infection was gone, as well most of their symptoms. Their gut symptoms and skin symptoms like eczema, rashes, and itchiness (which are common symptoms) had all cleared up. They typically resolve when you follow the above-mentioned protocol.
Why It’s Important to Eliminate Alcohol with H. Pylori
I did have a 37-year-old female patient with all these similar symptoms that I mentioned. When I retested her, it hadn’t completely resolved. When I look at the differences between the patients, she was the only one that drank alcohol.
She did not quite follow the FreeDiet® 100% accurately, as she drank a lot of alcohol every weekend. Alcohol is very inflammatory to the stomach lining and can damage the stomach lining.
When you are trying to heal the stomach, alcohol is avoided on the FreeDiet® phase 1 for a reason. When you’re going through this, it is important if you want to get better, you have to strictly adhere to the diet. If you want to get better, then you have to stick with what works.
H. Pylori is a Stealth Infection
In the midst of all this, I found out I had H. pylori. I was in the process of testing another company to ensure I was using the best stool testing for my patients, and all my colleagues were talking about how great this one company was. I was comparing their stool test to the one I had been using, and so I did a test on myself. I used three companies- the original one and two others. To my surprise, the test came back positive for H. pylori, and that was through the company I’d been using all these years.
Not Everyone with H. Pylori Has Symptoms
It’s possible to have no symptoms and have H. pylori, as I wasn’t exhibiting any symptoms. I’ve had digestive symptoms and thyroid issues in the past, as well as Hashimoto’s, skin, joint, autoimmune, and other conditions.
I was surprised I came back positive for H. pylori as I hadn’t had any gut symptoms in a while. I did the complete protocol for six weeks, as I wanted to see if it would work in that amount of time. I did it for six weeks instead of three months. I retested, and the infection had been eliminated.
Contact Us Today for An Appointment
I hope this information has been helpful. If you think you may have H. pylori and want a natural functional medicine nutrition approach, please contact our office today. We would be happy to help.
After 34 years of practicing at the Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, I’ve seen over a hundred thousand patient visits. More and more I am noticing patients coming in with thyroid and gut issues, and, in particular, thyroid nodules. With this increase, I’ve set out to discover not only what causes these, but how I can help my patients treat and shrink their thyroid nodules with natural treatment options. There are many symptoms that can be associated with thyroid nodules, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and brain fog. You can read more about these symptoms here. Treatment of thyroid issues is important, but finding the root cause of thyroid nodules is just as important.
Finding the Root Causes
I recently helped a patient shrink her thyroid nodule by 73% in the first three months of treatment. At only 36 years old, she had multiple nodules, one was over four centimeters or two inches, the size of a plum. Naturally, she was very bothered by it. Not only was it uncomfortable, but it also made it difficult to swallow.
Doctors did ultrasounds and biopsies, finding them to be benign thyroid disease, but said that the only solution was surgery, which she did not want. After finding my practice, she flew down for evaluation and testing.
What Causes Thyroid Nodules?
What we found after testing were the root causes of her thyroid nodules:
Deficiencies
In her case, she had an iodine deficiency, which is one of the more common causes of this condition. And, while you may hear or read the information that says iodine is bad for the thyroid, it can be quite helpful with things like nodules, thyroid disease, and goiter if someone is deficient. As well as aiding in the production of thyroid hormone T3 and hormone T4.
This patient also tested low in other nutrients like vitamins B12, B6, and several minerals. A Vitamin D deficiency can also be a common cause of nodules.
Toxins
We also tested for toxins, specifically heavy metals, mercury, arsenic, and lead. Commonly, I see mercury, arsenic, and fluoride, and in her case, she had high levels of fluoride.
Fluoride can interfere with iodine absorption and can make thyroid disease, conditions, and nodules worse. Because of this, I often recommend that my patients use a more natural, fluoride-free toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental floss.
Hormones
On top of that, we looked at hormones as estrogen dominance is common with this condition. This patient had high levels of estrogen versus progesterone, as well as high levels of testosterone. This can be associated with PCOS, an autoimmune disorder, which is another condition, but one that is commonly related to thyroid issues. It’s necessary to balance these by addressing diet and supplementation.
Infections
Next, we looked at pathogens or infections by running blood and stool tests. The health of your autoimmune system is important for understanding the thyroid hormone levels, and how the thyroid function is at time of lab tests. Oftentimes, we’ll see bacterial overgrowth, viruses, parasites, and yeast, which are very common and cause inflammation in the body. Which in turn can cause an autoimmune response.
Nodules and goiter are caused by inflammation affecting the thyroid. And anytime you have inflammation, an autoimmune response is likely. Therefore, even if you remove this gland, you’re never really addressing the underlying issue.
Infections that are found must be solved individually. For this specific patient, she had a bacterial imbalance, or dysbiosis, in her gut, so we had to work to create a proper balance.
Food Reactions
After infections, we looked at food reactions. A big one for goiter and thyroid nodules is gluten sensitivity, which was also the case here. She was sensitive to gluten, along with other foods, and, like many others, she had a leaky gut. Therefore, we worked to remove the offending foods from her diet.
Changing the Diet
The diet that I use and recommend to my patients is called The FreeDiet®. It is free of gluten, grain, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods. I call it the FreeDIet® because the diet is free of the foods commonly responsible for inflammation. Which should help prevent thyroid nodules and disease.
My new book, The FreeDiet®, addresses this and explains the plan in a lot more detail. There is even a chapter about thyroid nodules.
The Results
As mentioned, after three months of addressing these issues, my patient was able to shrink her 4.3 cm thyroid nodule by 73%. Additionally, her fatigue, brain fog, headaches, and digestive issues were resolved. Which shows how her thyroid nodules were responsible for many of her symptons.
After years of failed attempts to lose weight,she lost 23 pounds and her hormones, including adrenal and thyroid hormones, were balanced. Furthermore, her inflammatory markers, which should be less than 1.0, went from 57 down to less than 1.0 in four weeks.
Finding the Root Cause
So, the important thing when dealing with thyroid nodules is to address all five of these different areas to find out what the root causes are. The FreeDiet® is a great place to start as it works to remove the most common foods responsible for inflammation and therefore gut and thyroid issues.
As far as supplements, I recommend what I call the Functional Five™. These include a multivitamin, fish oil, Vitamin D, magnesium, and probiotics. Beyond that, depending on testing and deficiencies, I recommend iodine, selenium, B12, zinc, and iron. Iodine plays a vital role in the thyroid function, and works with the gland to help make the thyroid hormone T3, as well as the thyroid hormone T4. Which all helps aid in prevention of thyroid disorders.
Seeking More Information?
For more information on shrinking thyroid nodules and goiter, feel free to check out my book, The FreeDiet® here.
Another option is to download and follow The FreeDiet® Phase 1 food chart and get started on the foundational supplements. If you have specific questions regarding natural treatment of thyroid nodules, please reach out. I look forward to working with you!
Today I’m going to talk to you about leaky gut, what it is, and give you some tips on how to clear it up.
I’ve been practicing over thirty years now and have seen over one hundred thousand patient visits. We saw a typical patient recently, a young woman in her twenties, complaining of headaches, brain fog, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, gas, bloating, diarrhea, joint pain, fatigue, insomnia, chronic sinus issues, and the list goes on and on. She was feeling really miserable, going from doctor to doctor, not really getting answers other than another prescription for this and another prescription for that.
We started with an initial evaluation and lab testing to find some underlying root causes, and a whole lot of things came up, one of which was leaky gut.
What is Leaky Gut?
Within the inner membrane of your small intestine are what they call tight junctions, with small pores in between them that allow for the absorption of nutrients such as amino acids and essential fats into your bloodstream for nourishment. These pores are about the size of a hole made in a piece of paper by an acupuncture needle, and that’s normal permeability. Leaky gut is increased permeability, where those pores are increased to the size of a hole made by a nail.
How Does Leaky Gut Harm My Body?
Instead of just nutrients getting into the bloodstream, whole proteins, toxins, bacteria, and yeast can leak out of that protective barrier into the bloodstream and trigger a whole host of things, like food sensitivities and allergies. Leaky gut can also trigger autoimmune conditions, because these whole proteins, toxins, etc., which aren’t supposed to be in circulation, are then identified as foreign invaders, and your body starts to attack them. Over time, it can start attacking certain parts of your body, like your thyroid (Hashimoto’s Disease, goiter, nodules, hypothyroidism, Graves disease), your joints (Rheumatoid arthritis), your nervous system (MS), and your intestine (celiac disease).
Is There Research to Support Leaky Gut?
When I was going over the findings with this patient, she said that she thought she might have leaky gut, but her father is in the medical field and doesn’t really buy into all this natural stuff. She asked if there was anything she could tell him or show him to prove leaky gut exists.
The three underlying, basic causes of leaky gut are physical, chemical, and mental stressors, and you can break chemical stressors down into four interrelated categories:
Deficiencies: Deficiencies in zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D can lead to deterioration in the intestinal wall.
Toxins: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil, Ibuprofen, and Aspirin have been shown to cause leaky gut. Antibiotics, too, can be a major contributor.
Infections/Parasites: This is where yeast, bacterial overgrowth, and parasites come into play. Antibiotics can wipe out the healthy bacteria in your gut and allow unhealthy bacteria, or pathogenic bacteria, to take over and damage the intestinal walls. It’s the same thing with yeast overgrowth.
Food Sensitivities: Gluten is a very common, well-researched cause of leaky gut and can damage the intestinal lining. Other food sensitivities are can be involved with this condition as well.
How Can I treat Leaky Gut?
As far as treatment goes, you have two options. You can go the route of traditional medicine, which treats symptoms with particular medications, or you can choose health and functional medicine, which is our approach.
The FreeDiet™
The diet that works best for leaky gut is what I call The FreeDiet™ (download a complimentary copy here), which is free of not only gluten, but also grains, corn, sugar, yeast, soy, legumes, eggs, dairy, and GMOs. These are the foods most commonly responsible for inflammation and digestive issues, and we remove all of them in Phase 1 of the FreeDiet™.
The FreeDiet™ allows your gut a chance to heal by calming down inflammation and removing those foods that promote inflammatory reactions.
Natural Medicine Formulas®
Which specific nutritional supplements we use depends on testing for each individual patient, but the most common supplements we recommend for the healing of leaky gut are zinc, fish oil, L-glutamine, vitamin D, bioflavonoids, curcumin, and ginger.
ProbioExtreme 350: Probiotics are vitally important to healing leaky gut. We start with a very powerful probiotic, ProbioExtreme 350 for short-term use, and then we graduate into a lower level one after that.
Paleo Protein: We use the collagen-based protein, Paleo Protein, because collagen can help with leaky gut. Bone broth is another excellent source of natural collagen.
Gut Immune Repair and GI-Mend : Two other product we use to treat leaky gut as it contains ingredients to help support the intestinal lining.
Stick With the Treatment
We had two patients not too long ago who had similar symptoms of massive digestive complaints, fatigue, joint pain, headaches, dizziness, skin issues—again, whole body issues—and they both tested positive for autoimmune conditions. The patient that followed our recommendations with the FreeDiet™ and supplements was able, after three months, to lower her ANA antibodies from 1:640 to less than 1:40, which is normal.
The other patient only somewhat followed our recommendations, but cheated some and went on and off the diet. She was feeling better, and she lost a bunch of weight, but was still going back and forth with a number of cheat days per week. When I reached out to her after two and a half months, her antibody levels hadn’t moved at all. Even though she was feeling better, her immune system was still being fired up.
If you have these chronic health issues and you want to get them cleared up, you really need to find the underlying root causes and stick with the plan. I believe that most all conditions, once you get to the underlying cause, can be addressed and cleared up, because your body has an incredible ability to heal itself.
Don’t forget to grab your complimentary copy of Phase 1 of the Free Diet™, and subscribe to my channel for early notifications of new videos.
Thanks for joining me again, and I look forward to seeing you next time.
Today I’m going to talk to you about healing autoimmunity, and specifically a case we recently had where I was able to help a patient completely resolve her elevated autoimmune antibodies in three months. I’m going to talk to you about the exact framework and protocol we used for her case, and exactly what you need to do to help yourself in the same area.
I’ve been practicing for over thirty years, and I’ve seen over 100,000 patient visits for nutrition, chiropractic, and functional medicine. One of the more common things people come in with these days is autoimmune conditions.
My Personal Experience With Autoimmunity
As a matter of fact, over ten years ago, I was busy in the practice, things were going really well, but I was feeling pretty miserable physically. I did a lot of testing, and was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, which is an autoimmune thyroid condition. I also had elevated Rheumatoid arthritis antibodies on top of that. I went to doctors and they told me that Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition where antibodies attack the thyroid, and with Rheumatoid, the antibodies attack your joints, and it continues to get worse.
I asked if there was anything I could do about it, and they said yes, you can take medication that can control it, however your condition will continue to deteriorate, and that’s it. I asked them what causes it, and they said they don’t know what causes it, and there’s no cure.
For me, that was just one option, and for a lot of people, that’s okay to go down that route where they just take medication and go on with their lives. But for me it just wasn’t enough. I really had to figure out what was causing it. If it wasn’t there at one point, and now it was, there had to be some cause that was bringing it on.
After doing a whole lot of research and a whole lot of testing on myself, I figured out some things that were triggering it, and over time—it took me a little over two years—I was able to completely heal the condition and normalize my antibodies. They’ve been at normal levels for over ten years now.
Transferring My Success to My Patients
Since then, I’ve been able to continually refine the process and help many other patients with all kinds of autoimmune conditions.
We recently had a patient come in, a fifty-six-year-old woman, who was feeling awful. She had numerous symptoms, including: constant headaches; vertigo (since she was a teenager, sometimes so debilitating she couldn’t get out of bed); depression; brain fog; poor memory; fatigue; insomnia; difficulty losing weight; hair loss; dry, itchy skin; pain in every joint in her body; constipation; gas; bloating; abdominal pain; indigestion—and the list goes on. She had been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and was already on medication, but was still feeling miserable.
A Natural Approach
The first thing we do is a complete evaluation to figure out what tests need to be ordered to get to the underlying root causes.
Autoimmune conditions basically come down to three causes:
Physical stress
Mental stress
Chemical stress
When we look at the chemical stress aspect, we break it down into:
Deficiencies
She had low levels of magnesium, B12, vitamin D, zinc, iodine, iron, and selenium. All of these deficiencies affect your immune system, and remember that autoimmunity is where your immune system starts attacking different parts of your bodies.
In the case of Hashimoto’s, it’s your thyroid, and in this patient’s case, she had severely elevated ANA, or antinuclear antibodies, indicating scleroderma or connective tissue disorder, where the antibodies attack connective tissues such as skin, joints, muscle, tendons, and ligaments.
Deficiencies are a very important aspect of autoimmune conditions. Once we tested and identified deficiencies for our patient, we started working on correcting them.
Toxins
The other important aspect are toxins. We ran tests and found she was highly reactive to mercury, vinyl chloride, and other toxins. Following our protocol, we worked on cleansing or detoxifying her from those.
Pathogens and Infections
Next, we conducted comprehensive stool testing to test for any pathogens and infections that might have been causing her symptoms. She had elevated levels of yeast and bacterial growth, which can then lead to leaky gut.
When you have these types of infections going on, they ramp up your immune system. Your immune system’s antibodies are trying to fight these things off. Then it begins to attack different parts of your body, depending what kind of autoimmune condition you may have.
Then we work on identifying and elimination what is causing the bacteria and yeast, in this case, to clear it up and calm down the immune system.
Food Sensitivities
Finally, we look at food sensitivities. This patient was positive for gluten sensitivity—actually celiac disease—which is the most common sensitivity among all the autoimmune cases I see. Almost every single one is either gluten sensitive or celiac. It’s a common cause of the immune system’s seeing and attacking the gluten as a foreign invader, and then in turn attacking other various parts of your body in molecular mimicry. This response leads to all sorts of symptoms.
Along with gluten, the patient tested positive for a number of other food sensitivities. I prescribed the FreeDiet® as treatment, which is the diet I came up with over the years, initially for myself, when I had Hashimoto’s and Rheumatoid antibodies and had tested positive for gluten as well.
Back then, I found that going gluten free didn’t really help, because I was eating a lot of gluten-free products, like gluten-free breads and bagels and cookies and pasta. If you have yeast issues and bacterial overgrowth, which I did at the time, this is not the diet you want to be on, because yeast and bacteria thrive in that, and you want to starve the little critters.
The FreeDiet®, which you can grab a complimentary copy of right here, is not only free of gluten, but also grains, sugar, yeast, corn, dairy, soy, legumes, eggs, and GMO’s—all the most common inflammatory foods. The Free Diet allows your gut to heal, calms things down, and allows your immune system to then balance out.
A Healthy Patient
After going on the FreeDiet®, taking the Natural Medicine Formulas we prescribed to address her adrenal dysfunction and balance her thyroid, and regular manual therapy treatments, the patient’s antibodies began to drop considerably in just two months. After three months, they were completely normal. They’d gone from some of the highest levels I’d ever seen to normal in three months.
Not only that, but all of her symptoms cleared up. No more daily headaches, no more vertigo, she was sleeping well, she lost over twenty pounds, and she had great energy. Clearing out the underlying root causes allowed her body to heal.
In these cases, people can choose the medicine route—the drugs, the procedures and surgeries—or they can choose health. They can choose to do some discovery, find out what is causing their issues, and get them cleared up. My belief is that most every single health condition has a solution. If you discover what the root causes are, you can be provided with long term, permanent solutions.
Thanks so much for joining me today, and don’t forget to pick up your complimentary copy of the FreeDiet® .
Feel free to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you get early notification of new videos. See you next time!
I’ve seen more than 100,000 patient visits and many of our patients come in with chronic complaints of digestive issues, IBS, IBD, headaches, migraines, aches and pains, fatigue, anxiety, depression, skin issues, brain fog; just a host of chronic complaints. I mean, we’re talking complaints beyond those, but those are the basic ones — the foundation, really — and they’ve had them for years. They went to this doctor, that doctor, they tried gluten-free diets and nothing worked long term.
Testing and Going Gluten-Free
We do a lot of testing and almost everyone, the majority of our patients, is gluten sensitive. So why would I say gluten-free diets don’t work? Well, one reason is when you’re sensitive to gluten, when you have these chronic issues, you’re not only sensitive to gluten but I found it’s also grains, yeast, sugar, soy; a number of different foods that you’re sensitive to. So just eliminating the gluten out of your diet might make you feel good for a little while, but is not going to do the trick.
My Symptoms
Roughly 10 years ago now, when I personally had a lot of these same health issues like IBS, aches and pains, fatigue, brain fog, skin issues, and just overall felt miserable. I had thyroid Hashimoto’s, and my rheumatoid antibodies were elevated so I had aches and pains all over. I was just feeling really miserable and I found out I was gluten sensitive, which runs in my family, so I went on a gluten-free diet. For breakfast, I would have gluten-free toast that contained millet, yeast, and other ingredients. For lunch, I would go to the Chinese restaurant next to my office at the time for rice with plenty of vegetables. For dinner, I would have gluten-free pasta or more rice or millet. I mean, I was feeling miserable.
Feeling Worse
I might have felt a little bit better mentally because I was doing this, but I just continued to feel worse and worse. I stopped to evaluate what was going on. It turns out there were many other foods I was sensitive to as well. And when you are sensitive to gluten, I’ve found the best diet is free of all the common allergens, which I call the FreeDiet™. Those foods are the most commonly responsible for digestive and other chronic health issues in hundreds and thousands of people.
Process of Elimination
The common food allergens include gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades and corn. When I started eliminating those all the grains, sugar, yeast, I was eating lunch and dinner full of proteins and vegetables. (You know, more meat, chicken, fish, lots of vegetables, essential fats and eliminating those common allergenic foods.) Then I started to feel better: Digestive issues started clearing up, brain fog lifted, my skin started clearing up and the antibodies went down to normal. And that’s when I really started healing.
A Different Way to Eat
Since then, I have had so many patients on The FreeDiet™ and found it really effective for people to follow. The other thing that’s interesting is when people go on a gluten-free diet is they start buying all these gluten-free products. Some patients come in and with symptoms like IBS and say they’re gluten-free. I ask what they eat for breakfast, and it turns out its gluten-free bagels or gluten-free toast. Then for lunch, they eat rice and gluten-free pasta and the same thing for dinner. They might have some protein with that but they’re eating starches, carbs, and grains for meals. And then there are snacks like gluten-free cookies, gluten-free cake, and gluten-free brownies. Like seriously, it’s the grains, the sugar, and the starches that are driving all that inflammation.
I had a patient who had chronic migraines her whole life and was in her early 50’s by this point. She had a lot of symptoms associated with gluten. She had depression and anxiety, chronic pain, digestive issues, and migraines — debilitating migraines. We got to a point between the Free Diet, supplements, and treatment where she was completely better.
Relapse to Migraines?
Then one day she called for an appointment and came in with a severe migraine though she hadn’t had one in quite a long time.
“What do you eat? Do you have anything gluten?” I asked.
She said she had not.
“Well, any new foods or snacks or anything?” I asked.
“I have been eating these gluten-free rice crisps,” she said.
And after I got the name of these snacks, I looked them up online. Sure enough, it says gluten-free. You know, it’s another example of great marketing, saying no high fructose corn syrup, low cholesterol per serving, made with corn and a whole grain brown rice. But I looked at the ingredients. The gluten-free snacks contained brown rice flour, corn, whey, salt, corn, sugar, cheese, and monosodium glutamate (MSG). Aha, there’s MSG in these ‘healthy gluten-free products’ and you’re wondering why you have a migraine?
Gluten-Free Products – The Deception
Just because it says a gluten-free product does not mean it’s healthy or it’s not going to mess you up. Be aware of that. So there are gluten-free products per se that have a lot of these other things in them. If you’re going to eat gluten-free, then just choose foods that are naturally gluten-free; like vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, you know, avocados, and fruits. Those are all naturally free of gluten, but these packaged products, you can often land you in trouble.
Another Reason They Don’t Work
And then lastly, there’s another reason why gluten-free diets don’t work. A huge factor is that when you have a chronic digestive or other health issues or pathogens, infections, most are phases. These issues have yeast, parasites, or bacterial overgrowth. So we do lab testing, we do a lot of stool test kits that we send patients home with to check for all these digestive markers, pathogens and infections. Almost everyone comes back with parasites, yeast overgrowth, bacterial overgrowth, or all three. So when you have these growing in your system, just avoiding gluten isn’t going to get you better.
Get the Facts
You really need to find out what’s in there first, and then we can provide solutions to clear it up. There are different things we can do to help resolver bacterial overgrowth or parasites. The bottom line: It comes down to honing in on what exactly is the root cause of your symptoms and then providing long-term permanent solutions so that you can get better.
Thanks for joining me this week. If you know anyone that would benefit from this, feel free to share it. If you’d like to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can get notification of new videos, go ahead and do that. And if you want a copy of The FreeDiet™, you can just click here.
Hi, everyone. My name is Dr. Tom Rofrano from the Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and today, I’m talking to you about food allergies, food sensitivities, and how do you know if you have them. So these can cause all sorts of health problems.
Health Issues and Food Allergies
Everything from- starting from the head down, headaches, brain fog, lack of focus and concentration, fatigue, throat- sore throats, canker sores, sinus congestion, ear infections, digestive issues, constipation, diarrhea, IBS. Food sensitivities and allergies can also cause skin reactions, itchiness, eczema, psoriasis, acne. I mean, there are just- at almost any health issue you can think of, food sensitivities or food allergies can be involved.
Even in the heart- heart palpitations, fast heartbeat, lung congestion, asthma- I think one of the most common causes for asthma is food allergies- bronchitis, and muscle- overall body aches and pains, inflammation- rheumatoid arthritis is linked to food reactions and sensitivities, food allergies. In overall, fatigue, sluggishness, even hyperactivity related to food sensitivities. And weight gain is a huge issue with food sensitivities- inability to lose weight.
Patient with Food Allergies and The FreeDiet™
I had a patient recently. She was 35 years old, and she came in for a host of health issues but one was that she was unable to lose weight and she even- she went on a number of different diets- even the ketogenic diet which, as you know, is really popular right now. So she did that for an entire month and lost- she said, lost like two or three pounds at the most in a month’s time. And once we figured it out, we put her on the FreeDiet™ which I’ll talk to you about in a little while and also provide you a free copy of phase one of the FreeDiet™. But anyway, she went on that and in the first two weeks, dropped ten pounds. But weight gain and losing weight, it’s not all about the calories per se, but food sensitivities are a huge part of inability to lose weight.
True Food Allergies
And we’ll talk about the basic types of food allergy. So one is a true food allergy- acute immediate reaction and this is something like for instance, if a child eats peanuts they’re allergic to, they can get- I don’t- you know, swelling, difficulty breathing, anaphylactic shock or you know, even cause death. That’s a true food allergy and there are different levels of it, from mild to severe.
Skin reaction types and breathing issues are the most common but also vomiting- vomiting and diarrhea- the digestive issues as well. But those are true food allergies and how do you know if you have them? Most people know because they have an immediate reaction that’s very easy to see. And also, there are skin testing- skin test for that, testing a number of different foods or environmental allergies. And secondly, blood test, you can do a panel of- a number of different foods to see if you have a true allergy.
Food Sensitivities
Much more common than that is food sensitivities. Those are very common and probably, almost every patient that comes into the natural medicine clinic- and I’ve been practicing over thirty years now- and I would say almost every person that comes in with health issues has food sensitivities. And these are delayed reactions. You don’t necessarily notice something right away. It could take an hour or two, even the next day or two- two or three days later. Gluten is a common one where if someone eats gluten, they’re not necessarily gonna have very quick reaction, necessarily. But you know, within an hour or two or in the next day or day after, it’s a sense of food sensitivity, not necessarily a true allergy.
Finding Out if You Have Food Sensitivities
So how do you know if you have sensitivities? So this is two ways- for this also, there are food sensitivity tests you can do and there are a number of different labs that do food sensitivity test. I’ve used quite- I use quite a few different ones over the years and I found one recently that I like the best because it has a multitude of different factors, not just, say IgG or like IgG, IgA, IgM and two other separate distinct pathways. So that’s you know, very comprehensive blood test where you can check 150, 200 or more foods and even chemicals and preservatives, things like that- molds.
An Elimination Diet
So that’s one way to find out and another way is to do an elimination diet which- the elimination diet but like- typically, what that means is you eliminate one or more foods and see how you do and then you bring it back in and see if your symptoms clear up but that is very difficult. I’ve done it- again, followed with different ones over the years but I came up with a better option which I call the free diet because it’s free of not only gluten- gluten but also the most common- actually, the most common allergens and sensitivities- gluten, grains, yeast, soy, corn, legume, eggs, sugar, GMOs. So ten different main categories of foods and again, we’ll provide a link there for a complete copy of phase one. So typically, what happens, you follow the free diet for- phase one is four weeks. It takes about three weeks for your antibody levels for these particular foods to go down.
Clearing Up Health Issues
So phase one is typically four weeks and usually within that time, a lot of these health issues will start to clear up and then when we get into phase two, we start adding foods back one at a time to see if there is- to see what kind of reaction is and then we can gauge the certain way we add and back, you know, once- so many days, you know, one new food so you can really pinpoint what it is. So that’s a great way- an alternative to say, lab testing where you can identify what you’re sensitive to.
Gluten-Free Experience
And we just saw an example that- I have a patient who’s 25 who ate- she actually had some- she was giving some gluten free cookies. She has a real strong sensitivity to gluten. You know, it caused a lot of health issues for her and she was doing great. And so she had these what she thought were gluten free gingerbread cookies for the holidays and then turns- come to find out, they weren’t though. So what happened is after she started eating, easily within an hour, she started getting headaches, nausea, and indigestion.
She’s just wondering what was going on. So she then looked at the package, at the ingredients and she’s like, oh my gosh, the first ingredient was wheat. So she just didn’t realize it. Not only that, this lasted for the next day and that leaded into other- like more long-term digestive issues for a couple weeks. Because like I said, your antibody levels can- it takes a few weeks for them to go down, when you eat a food that you’re sensitive to. So that’d be an example of a delayed sensitivity.
Another Patient’s Experience
Another example- well, speaking of the holidays, so you know, we just got through with Christmas. And so I had patients come in, just tell me different things. So one patient, she’s a 29 year old woman, and she gained five pounds over the holidays not from eating a ton of food but just eating foods that she was sent to. She had already gone through phase one of the free diet, lost a bunch of weight but with her was mainly sugar and gluten- those are the two big ones. And she gained five pounds within you know, over the holidays and another patient who actually- 49 years old- and she lost three pounds over the holidays because she’s stuck with- she was in phase one so and she’s stuck with it because she’s doing so well that she didn’t want to screw it up.
And actually, she’s actually into it for three months now and she has lost 28 pounds over three months. So she didn’t want to get off track which- so it is possible to yes, even during the holidays, to stick with something if you’re motivated enough and really encouraged about how great you’re feeling compared to how you used to feel.
An Extreme Case
I did have one extreme case where a patient was very sensitive to gluten, yeast, and sugar and she had a slice of a cookie cake and by the next morning, she said she was seven pounds heavier- after one slice. Now, it’s not the calories. It’s not the amount of food but when you eat a food you’re sensitive to, it can cause inflammation, watery tension, bloating, and you can really just get all swollen just literally overnight.
So on the plus side, you can also get phenomenal results if you identify what foods you’re sensitive to and then eliminate those. When you’re testing the FreeDiet™, you can really clear up a lot of health issues whether it’s energy. You know, literally having fatigue, or skin problems, or brain fog, anxiety, you know, lack of focus, you know, again, digestive aches and pains- just a whole- a whole lot of issues that we mentioned earlier can be cleared up when you eliminate foods you’re sensitive to. So if you have any questions or comments or have an experience you want to tell us about, you know, feel free to comment below. And if you want a copy of phase one of the FreeDiet™, just click on the link. And thanks for joining me today and look forward to seeing you next week. Take care.
Thank you for reading our blog! How can we help you? Contact us today.
Today, I’m going to talk to you about healing Hashimoto’s. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune thyroid condition where your body produces antibodies against your own thyroid tissue. The thyroid starts to get destroyed over time causing typically low thyroid function. It is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the United States.
Many Are Unaware
Most people aren’t even aware that they have it. Over 20 million Americans have hypothyroidism, most of which are caused by Hashimoto’s. Many are even unaware that they have that. Most people that have it are women, although some men do have it.
Usually, I’ll tell the story of certain patients I’ve treated with it. But today I’m going to talk about my own experience because I had Hashimoto’s over ten years ago. I was able to clear it up so I’m going tell you about how I was able to do that.
The Symptoms
The usual symptoms that you’ll have with this are fatigue, brain fog, difficulty getting up in the morning, aches and pains, numbness and tingling, carpal tunnel, anxiety, hair loss. These are all very common symptoms, even headaches, plantar fasciitis which is heel pain. And infertility and miscarriages are very common for low thyroid function. Chronic infections, constipation, and many more symptoms beyond that. As you can see, it can really make you feel terrible.
Why It Goes Undiagnosed
The reason why it mainly goes undiagnosed is typically when you go to a doctor and get lab work, they will check just a few different things like a chem screen CBC, lipids, and TSH. And TSH is not enough to evaluate the thyroid. That’s a pituitary hormone that indirectly measures your thyroid function, but misses most cases.
When patients come in, I’ll order typically six different thyroid values along with everything else and often a TSH will be normal but when I look at the free T3 and free T4, they’re often below optimal ranges and the thyroid antibodies are often elevated, and that’s what indicates Hashimoto’s.
You May Never Find Out Unless…
So, if you’re just getting a TSH and maybe a T4 test and you’re not checking the others and your antibodies, you may never find out. You can go on feeling tired, have hair loss, brain fog, anxiety, depression, and feeling miserable.
What’s even worse than that is if you do go to your doctor and they find it, they’ll usually prescribe synthetic thyroid medication which in my experience, many people don’t do well with. It synthetic T4, and it doesn’t address T3 which many people are low in.
If they do know that you have Hashimoto’s, if they have your antibodies tested usually by an endocrinologist, they’ll say, and this is what happened to me, when I went in back in 2005. When I went in after I tested myself and found out that I had Hashimoto’s, the endocrinologist told me, “Well, there’s no known cause and no known cure. It continues to get worse, your thyroid will continue to deteriorate over time and your antibodies may go up, they may go down, there’s no sense in even measuring them because it’s not going to get better and you will just continually need more and more Synthroid as you get older because the thyroid will continue to deteriorate. You’ll usually get more nodules and bigger nodules and that’s there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Investigation and Research
That didn’t settle well with me, and I couldn’t accept that. So, I started investigating and researching what causes Hashimoto’s, what causes autoimmune in general because at that time I also tested positive for rheumatoid arthritis antibodies. Usually, when you have one autoimmune, you have another one and one or two or more beyond that.
I thought, there’s something going on, so what can it be? I feel every health condition has a cause, every problem has a solution, so I started researching this. What I found out is it came down to the cause of most autoimmune and chronic health conditions–physical, chemical, and mental stress. So I am going to talk about the chemical stress component. So, breaking that down, I first look at deficiencies.
Nutritional Deficiencies
So, if you have nutrient deficiencies, that can cause your body and immune system to breakdown. In my case, I was low in vitamin D which is incredible because at that time I lived at the beach and was out on the beach, multiple times a week. And I was extremely low in vitamin D. So, that was a shock. When you’re low in D, that can affect your immune system and it’s been linked with autoimmune conditions. I was also low in magnesium which can cause aches and pains and contribute to numbness and tingling and a lot of other symptoms. Vitamin B12 was another one, I was deficient in and that can contribute to fatigue, brain, nerve and blood issues.
The Physical Impact of Deficiencies
So in my case at that time, I was having carpal tunnel syndrome and peripheral neuropathy. It got so bad that I wasn’t able to even work on patients for a number of years. I had to hire another chiropractor to come in and did the manual therapy while I did the evaluations and nutrition and functional medicine. So, I figured out the low B12, magnesium and vitamin D, just to name a few. I was someone who ate what I thought was a healthy diet and was taking supplements but certainly not enough and not the right ones.
Functional & Free
That’s why testing is step one in our treatment program which I call Functional & Free which is a seven-step treatment program to get to the root cause of your condition and provide long-term permanent solutions. Step one is getting an evaluation to find out what’s going on so that’s what I was doing. Another form of chemical stress besides deficiencies is toxins.
Toxins
When I tested heavy metals, I was high in arsenic and mercury which are nerve toxins. Again, the numbness, tingling, carpal tunnel, ulnar neuropathy. As far as arsenic, I was eating a healthy diet which included a lot of rice. I went to the Chinese restaurant, the next door at my office, and I would load up on it. I would get mixed vegetables with rice. I would skip the chicken and would get me extra rice instead.
I thought that was healthy. So, I was eating lots of rice multiple times a week. I was also drinking this detox shake which was rice protein. The healthy hypoallergenic detox shake was at the time made from rice protein. It turns out, it just loaded with arsenic, go figure.
Pathogens / Infections
The third form of chemical stress is pathogens, meaning infections like bacteria, viruses, parasites, and yeast. After doing a comprehensive stool testing, I had yeast overgrowth. I had a lot of antibiotic use when I was a kid. My father was a medical doctor so I was often on antibiotics for all kinds of things.
I had parasite also. Infectious disease specialists say that it doesn’t happen in the United States. Well, I had one. I think I picked it up in Rio de Janeiro, when I was in chiropractic college in early to mid-twenties. A friend and I went down there for spring break to Rio. I guess we thought we were going to pick up women but instead I picked up a parasite!
That wasn’t expected, and all these years I was living with chronic digestive issues, feeling terrible. So when you have yeast and you have parasites, it ramps up your immune system and you’re constantly, your immune system is trying to fight this off. And meanwhile, it can start attacking your own cells, in my case, the thyroid, and joints.
Food Sensitivities
The fourth cause of chemical stress is food sensitivities. So, getting food sensitivity testing is one option, that’s what I did. You know, in my case, I was sensitive to many different foods but gluten was a big one, dairy, yeast, legumes, among other foods. So, that can cause inflammation, leaky gut and in turn, be a trigger for autoimmunity. The immune system is fighting off these foreign invaders, these food reactions.
Mental Stress
On mental stress, I had adrenal fatigue issues that I found after testing so I was treating that. At the same time, I was taking digestive enzymes, natural remedies to clear up the parasites, the yeast, and replacing all these nutrients. Over time, I started to get better and my thyroid antibody, started to go down and down and down, and by the spring of 2009, they were completely down to normal. So, it took many months of investigating and finding all this out but I recovered and it’s been about ten years that my thyroid and rheumatoid arthritis antibodies have been in normal range.
Using Research and Experience to Help Others
Since then I’ve used this information I learned on research and figured out to help many other patients. One of the more common things patients come in with over the last many years is thyroid issues, Hashimoto’s. So and when I see that, I just go through the Functional & Free protocol. Do the evaluations to get the underlying root cause. So, besides clearing up all these sources of chemical stress like the sensitivities, the toxins, clearing those out, addressing adrenal fatigue, and, parasites, yeast overgrowth.
Benefits of The FreeDiet®
The type of diet, I ultimately figured out works best. So, I was gluten-free for a while and I found out that it did not work so I started avoiding other foods, the most common food allergens. This list I came up with that really worked well for me and ultimately helped get me better was a diet free of not only gluten but gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes. Those are the most common food allergens.
I call it The FreeDiet®. And that’s the diet that really helped me. Within this diet is also a candida diet for yeast overgrowth which most everyone that has Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune condition, almost every person I’ve seen is dealing with yeast overgrowth issues. Ramping up that immune system and wreaking havoc on your whole body. So if you and if you want a copy of phase one of The FreeDiet®, I’d be happy to share that with you.
Replacing the Deficiency
And the other thing is replacing deficiencies. So after testing to find out specifically what’s going on like when I was deficient in all those things. The most common recommendations of the foundational nutritional supplements typically recommend for Hashimoto’s and hyperthyroid conditions are our Natural Medicine Formulas. ActiveMulti, a fish oil supplement, magnesium, probiotics, vitamin D with K2, These are the basic foundational supplements, and there are specific ones beyond that based on testing.
Often selenium is low. Iodine, which is very controversial because so many people out there saying iodine is the devil if you have Hashimoto’s. However, when I tested myself, I was low in it and many other patients I test are low. When we give iodine and that can really help. If you’re low and you replenish that, it helps tremendously. If you don’t need iodine and you take it, it can make thyroid issues worse. So, that’s one thing really needs to be tested before you go and take it.
Lifestyle Matters
So, The FreeDiet® and supplements, are two of the biggest things that help and there’s a lot of different lifestyle issues. Addressing stress and things like that, and if you’re suffering from aches and pains, and physical issues, of course, the manual therapy, the physical aspects of treatment and functional training exercises, are all part of the whole treatment plan.
It’s important to know that if you have an autoimmune condition, Hashimoto’s or any chronic health condition you can get better if you first discover the underlying root causes. Once that is figured out, coming up with a plan to help provide permanent, long-term solutions. You find the cause then you can find solutions to getting better.
So, yes, you can get better. With everything I learned, I was able to do it with Hashimoto’s and a lot of other health issues that I had and fortunately, I’ve been blessed to be able to help so many other patients as well.
Click The FreeDiet® If you would like a copy of the FreeDiet® phase 1 food chart.
Schedule An Appointment
We can help you look and feel the best you have in years!
Content on this website is based upon the opinions of Thomas Rofrano, D.C. and is not considered medical advice. It is designed to be a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Rofrano and his community. Dr. Rofrano encourages you to make your health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. Dr. Rofrano is a chiropractic physician and offers physical and nutritional support and guidance to those seeking alternative or complementary care to traditional medicine. His care is not meant to replace that from your primary doctor and specialists but rather to help you on your path to achieving life-long vibrant health.
Regarding any supplements mentioned: *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your physician before using this product.
