Are Food Allergies Killing Your Thyroid?

Thyroid dysfunction is a very common problem I see frequently in the office.  Addressing a thyroid can be a simple fix or may take some serious investigative work.  I would like to address a few of the common causes of thyroid problems and how correct these issues.

Physiology

When our thyroid hormones get low our brain creates a hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to signal to the thyroid to make more hormones.   The thyroid gland will respond to the TSH and make more of our thyroid hormones, T4, T3, and reverse T3 (rT3).  We can make T3 and rT3 from T4.  T3 is our most active thyroid hormone, it is 4x stronger than T4.   rT3 does not effect your metabolism but will block our T3 causing low thyroid symptoms.  Since the brain only senses hormone levels not hormone effectiveness, elevations of rT3 will not alter TSH, T4 or T3 blood levels.  To really understand thyroid function all of these hormones need to be checked.

Adrenals, Stress and Cortisol

Our adrenal hormones are often times overlooked as a cause of many conditions.  We will limit this article to how it effects our thyroid.  When we are stressed our adrenal glads make a few hormones to help us deal with the stress.  Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by our adrenal glands to help us mange stress.  If you are chronically stressed, you may have high cortisol levels.  This is a problem for your thyroid because cortisol will cause an elevation in reverse T3.  Cortisol is also a powerful anti-inflammatory.  If you have high levels of inflammation from food allergies, a poor diet, candida overgrowth, chronic disease, etc you will likely have elevated cortisol levels and a sluggish thyroid.  It is always a good idea to measure blood cortisol levels when evaluating a thyroid.

Iodine

Iodine deficiency is a common cause of sluggish thyroid.  We make thyroid hormones from iodine, tyrosine and other building blocks.  Some studies have shown that our daily need for iodine is as high as 12.5 mg, the RDA for iodine is 0.15 mg.  If you don't regularly eat seafood there is a good chance you are iodine deficient.  

Immune System Dysfunction

Hashimoto's disease is a common autoimmune disorder.  The immune system attacks the thyroid gland and damages it.  This damage makes the thyroid gland unable to efficiently do its job and make thyroid hormones. Immune system dysfunction is very complicated but can be helped by reducing offending factors like intestinal hyper permeability AKA leaky gut syndrome, adrenal fatigue, and food allergies.

If you suffer from symptoms of low thyroid function and would like a comprehensive evaluation to help correct the cause of the problem our number is 801-798-2515

Article written by Dr. Steven E. Davis, chiropractic physician.
 

5 Steps to beat Candida overgrowth

What is Candida albicans?

Human Tongue with Candida after antibiotic use

Candida is a yeast that normally lives in our digestive and urinary tracts.  It is part of our normal healthy intestinal flora (microorganisms that live in our gut).  Candida helps prevent us from being infected by harmful bacteria.

Candida is kept in balance by having a healthy immune system and normal levels of good bacteria in our intestinal tract.  However, if given the opportunity from a weakened immune system or a decrease in good bacteria, for example following a dose of antibiotics, or given the proper environment, from eating a high sugar diet, Candida will shift from its yeast form to its infectious form called a mycelial fungus.  It is in this state that Candida can invade the body.

While in its fungal form, Candida produces finger like projections called rhizoids that can penetrate the intestinal wall and allow toxins, bacteria, and other things into the body that shouldn’t enter.  This will cause a large amount of inflammation and lead to a long list of symptoms like food allergies, auto-immune disorders, fibromyalgia, ADHD, muscle aches and pains, sore joints, recurrent urinary tract infections, fatigue, foggy brain, acne, anxiety, depression, adrenal fatigue, bad breath and many, many more.

How can you know if you have Candida?  In our office, Dr. Davis, our natural medicine expert and chiropractic physician, most commonly runs a simple urine test that will test for Candida overgrowth.  You can also have your stool or blood tested.  It is very important that you test for Candida.  If you make the assumption that you have an imbalance and reduce the Candida levels too far you could end up with a difficult condition to correct called small intestinal bowel over growth (SIBO).

Once we have identified that Candida overgrowth is the culprit of your symptoms we follow a few basic steps to support the body’s natural balance.

Step 1:  Eat a healthy, low glycemic index diet.  Carbohydrates like sugar can feed Candida and promote overgrowth.  Your diet should consist of 30-40% protein.  The basis of the rest of your caloric intake should be low glycemic index vegetables, healthy oils like coconut oil, which helps balance Candida levels, and no more than two serving of fruits per day.  Avoid things that negatively affect your gut flora like alcohol, herbacides and pesticides in our food i.e. eating non GMO products, and reducing other toxins like cigarette smoke.

Step 2: Supplement with the correct probiotics.  Not all probiotics are equally effective at balancing the gut flora.  Some are effective at reducing Candida levels and healing the gut and others are not. For example Saccharomyces Boulardii has been shown to reduce Candida overgrowth.

Step 3:  Support your immune system.  There are a number of great products that will help your immune system to reduce Candida levels.  A coconut oil extract that is high in caprylic acid is a good choice.  Just eating two tablespoons of coconut oil each day can also be effective.

Step 4: Digestive aids that reduce biofilms.  Candida overgrowth can weaken you body’s ability to properly digest food.  Taking proper digestive enzymes will help you to fully digest your food which facilitates better absorption.  Some enzymes will also reduce one of Candida’s protection mechanisms called a biofilm.  Biofilms surround and protect Candida from your immune system.  Digesting this away will help you body fight the overgrowth and create microbial balance.

Step 5: Regular exercise has been shown to influence improve your normal gastrointestinal flora.  Exercise will help you body to function more efficiently and will strengthen you immune system.  It will also help restore energy levels.

Written by Dr. Steven Davis, Chiropractic Physican

Image source: Human Tongue infected with oral candidiasis By James Heilman, MD (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Vitamin D: How much is enough?

The Verdict is out.  We simply are not getting enough Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is crucial in every disease from inhibiting cancer and heart diseases to mental disease, recurrent infections, tooth loss, osteoporosis, narcolepsy and auto-immune disease.

Unfortunately the reference range of Quest and Lab Corp is commonly 30 to 75 nanomols per liter (nmol/l).

Scientists who are experts in vitamin D chemistry are now finding that the actual need for vitamin D is greater than 75 nanomols per liter (nmol/l).

What is the problem?

The problem is millions of people who are around 30-75 are told by their physicians that they have a normal level of D, when in fact it is too low.

Now here is another more serious problem.

When you do have a good therapeutic level, doctors using the "normals" (30 to 75) on conventional labs will erroneously tell you that you're too high and you should cut back.

Researchers have shown we could cut the cancer and heart attack rates in half in this country if people just had enough vitamin D.

Sadly, it will take many years before medicine catches up.

As a consequence, we will see even more of an explosion of our current epidemics of diabetes and depression, cancer and heart disease. In addition, more people will develop auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and lupus, not to mention Alzheimer's.

Basically the take away message from today's article is people who have too little vitamin D are told they have just enough. And people who think they are taking enough will be told they have too much and should cut back.

Functional medicine practitioners also understand that cheap and synthetic forms in foods and nutrients lower the good level of D3.

So make sure you use a quality Vitamin D3 supplement and don't forget the value of 30 minutes of natural sunshine.

References

Adams JS, et al., Update in vitamin D, J Clin Endocrinol Metab 95:471-8, 2010

Souberbielle JC, et al, Vitamin D and musculoskeletal health, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity and cancer: recommendations for clinical practice, Autoimmun Rev 9:709-15, 2010

Pierrot-Deseilligny C, et al, Is hypovitaminosis D one of the environmental risk factors for multiple sclerosis? Brain 133:1869-88, 2010

Carl Lindner B., et al., Low vitamin D and narcolepsy and cataplexy, Sleep Diagn Ther 6; 5:47-50, 2011

Compliments from Functional Medicine University
 www.FunctionalMedicineUniversity.com

Natural Solution to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

What is I.B.S.?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a very common problem.  It affects 11% of the population globally.  It can also be a cause of other conditions such as adrenal fatigue, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, and more.

Clinical diagnosis is usually based on symptoms.  The Rome III criteria for diagnosing IBS are the following:

• At least 3 days per month in the last 12 weeks of continuous or recurrent abdominal pain or discomfort.
• With at least 2 of the following:
  • Relief with defecation
  • Altered stool frequency
  • altered stool form
  • onset of symptoms more than 6 months prior to diagnosis

Often times it is difficult to differentiate between irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  The FDA approved lab marker to differentiate between these two conditions is called calprotectin.  Calprotectin is a marker of inflammation found in the stool.  If someone meets the Rome criteria and have low levels of calprotectin then we can diagnose IBS if calprotectin is high then the diagnosis is IBD and should get a colonoscopy.

How can IBS be helped

From a natural medicine approach there are many things that can be done for people who suffer from IBS.  The first question that should be asked is "why are my bowels irritable?"  The most common answer to this question is a condition called small intestinal bowel over growth (SIBO).  SIBO is an overgrowth of the good bacteria in your small bowel.  Dr. Davis wrote a great article on SIBO that can be found here. Bacterial overgrowth  has been shown to be present in 84% of IBS cases and proper treatment leads to a 75% reduction of symptoms!  Treatment for IBS starts with a proper diagnosis of the cause.  Organic acid testing (a urine test)  and stool analysis will give the most comprehensive information as to why you may have IBS.  Once we know the cause then we can correct the underlying problem.  This usually is done by following one of three specific diets.  The specific carbohydrate diet, GAPS diet or a low FODMAPS diet.  They are all very similar in nature.  These diets will promote healing of the intestinal lining and balancing of the gut bacteria and yeast levels.  While on this diet your natural medicine doctor will prescribe some antimicrobial supplements to reduce the bacterial over growth and then promote proper healing of the gut with probiotics, fish oil, L-glutamine and digestive aids.  Over a few months time, the gut will heal and huge reduction in symptoms will follow.

If you suffer with IBS and would like to feel better, please give us a call at 801-798-2515.

Written by Dr. Steven Davis, D.C., chiropractic physician and natural medicine practitioner.

Are hormones inhibiting your weight loss

We consistently see people who eat healthy and exercise and are still unable to loose weight.  Why can't they loose weight? Maybe they just have bad genetics?  Wrong!  When I comes to weight loss there are a number of factors to consider.   In this article I will address the following factors: Diet and exercise, hormones and detoxification.

Diet and Exercise

Diet and exercise are the basis of any weight loss program.  Calories in vs calories out is a simple truth that usually applies to weight loss.  Have you ever considered that the types of food you eat play a big role?  Here is an over simplified example to prove a point.  100 calories of donut  vs 100 calories of steak.  The doughnut is absorbed easily and you nearly get all 100 calories in your body.  The steak on the other hand requires some work.  You have to chew it more, and your gut has to expend some energy breaking down the steak before you can absorb it.  This simple example shows that different foods of the same caloric value do not really yield the same net caloric value in the body.  The donut also will cause your blood sugar to raise.  The elevation of blood sugar will signal the body release insulin.  Insulin will drive the sugar out of the blood and into your cells.  What ever doesn't get used by your cells will be stored as fat.  Insulin is a fat storage hormone.  This leads to the next topic of hormones.

Hormones as they relate to weight loss

Hormones are key factor to weight loss.    There are many hormones involved in weight management. With natural medicine and proper diet you can activate your weight loss hormones and experience rapid and sustained weight loss. Here are just few examples of hormones and how they relate to weight loss.

Thyroid

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Duval F, Mokrani M-C, Monreal Ortiz JA, Schulz P, Champeval C, Macher J-P. Neuroendocrine predictors of the evolution of depression. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. 2005;7(3):273-282.

Most people know and understand that our thyroid hormones set our metabolism.  Our thyroid hormones are T4, T3, and rT3.  T4 is basically our inactive hormone that gets converted to T3 or rT3.  T3 is our active thyroid hormone and keeps our energy up.  Reverse T3 (rT3) is an inactive thyroid hormone that will increase when we are stressed.  It will compete with T3 so it has a harder time doing its job.  This is why is is critical that when we test thyroid hormones we test these hormones as well. Looking simply at TSH and T4 is not adequately examining your thyroid function. Since we are natural medicine doctors will do a complete work up to get a more clear picture of where the failure is occurring.

Adrenals

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Our adrenal hormones are often times overlooked as a cause of many conditions.  We will simplify our discussion in this article to weight gain.  Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by our adrenal glads.  Cortisol plays a large roll in our body.  It reduces inflammation, helps to manage blood sugar, helps us manage stress, can weaken our immune system, plays a large roll in our energy and even affects our neurotransmitters (brain hormones) that control our mental health.    The images to the right demonstrate that elevated cortisol will inhibit thyroid hormone production.  In addition cortisol causes more conversion of T4  to the T3 competing rT3. 

Things that can increase your cortisol levels are blood sugar swings, stress, tissue damage, inflammation and pain.  Inflammation can be caused by injury or poor diet.  Inflammation due to poor diet is a major cause of chronic disease.  For example cholesterol sticks to the blood vessel wall because of inflammation, that leads to cardiovascular health problems.  Cortisol is our bodies anti-inflammatory hormone.  In fact, cortisone that is used in injections is the inactive form of cortisone.  If we have a poor diet our body will produce cortisol to counter the inflammation.  This will lead to decreased thyroid function which will cause fatigue and weight gain.

If you are interested in learning more about adrenal hormones we teach a free class on adrenal health.  Give us a call.

Insulin

Insulin is a fat storage hormone.  It causes the blood sugar levels to decrease by getting the sugar into the cells of our body.  Insulin resistance has two major causes.  One is a poor diet that keeps the blood sugar levels high.  The other is a poor diet that is inflammatory.  Inflammation is a major player in insulin sensitivity.  In fact some anti inflammatory foods, herbs and spices have been shown to be as effective as some medications at lowering insulin needs.  

Detoxification

There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to detoxification.  True detoxification is much more than a simple juice fast or a lemon juice and maple syrup cleanse.  These simple ideas have their place when used correctly, however, true detoxification is a multi step process.  It involves providing all the nutrients the body needs to process toxins and prepare them for excretion.  Toxins that are water soluble are easy for the body to dispose of via the the urinary tract.  Fat soluble toxins are much more difficult to get rid of.  They require going through two phases of liver processes that create a lot of free radicals.  Phase I liver enzymes have to be slowed and phase II liver enzymes sped up to reduce free radical stress on the body.  It is this difference in enzyme speed that forces the body to get behind on it detoxification and store the excess toxins in the fat cells.  Proper care must be taken to get the toxins out of the fat cells where they are stored, and then processed through the liver.  Once the liver has been able to process these toxins they can then be excreted via the urinary tract.

We often times see rapid weight loss in patient who undergo one of our physician guided detoxification programs. 

We offer customized weight loss programs that have given people a long term weight loss solution.

If you are interested in learning more about weight loss or if you are looking for a functional medicine doctor (natural medicine doctor) fill out the form below or give us a call at 801-798-2515

Article written by Steven Davis, D.C., chiropractic physician, natural medicine doctor.