Low Thyroid in 21 Lessons (Article 13)

Hello,

I am Dr Michael Teplisky, a holistic medical doctor and this is lecture 13 in our seminar about hypothyroidism called “Hypothyroidism in 21 Lectures.” 

Today we continue the topic of Hashimoto’s, a disease that causes over 90% of all the cases of hypothyroidism in US. 

I told you last time that Hashimoto’s is not the fault of your thyroid gland. The thyroid is an innocent victim, being attacked by antibodies produced by your own immune system. 

As you know, the immune system is not supposed to attack your own cells because it can tell which cells are you and which cells are not you.

But when the immune system is overwhelmed, overstimulated and goes crazy, it starts making antibodies not only against the bad microbes but against everything in sight, including your own tissues as well. This is how auto-immune problems develop.

In other words, we have the immune system fully capable of handling billions of challenges daily. but suddenly it is confronted with 10 or 50 times as many. Of course, it will get overwhelmed and go crazy.

Why does it happen? One of the most important causes of this overstimulation is the Leaky Gut. It happens when the intestine becomes inflamed and damaged and develops multiple little holes in it. 

Let’s briefly describe your gastro-Intestinal tract or GI tract. It starts in the mouth, which is sort of a continuation of the skin of the face. The skin cells slowly transition into the cells that line the mouth. The mouth forms the beginning of the pipe that we call the GI tract. It starts in the mouth, which turns into esophagus, stomach and intestine. Intestine ends with an anus which again joins with the skin. 

In other words, a GI tract is a pipe, a tube that passes through your body. This is an important point.  From the mouth to the anus the GI tract passes through you, and it seems to be inside of you, but it’s not. Not the way the heart, or lungs or kidneys are inside. GI tract, just like the skin, is outside of you. It is located within you, but functionally it is outside of you. Most people need to think about it to grasp this point. 

When it comes to the skin, it’s clear. Whatever microbes happen to be on the skin, they are not inside of you. They are outside. It’s the same with GI tract. Whatever happens to be in your mouth, stomach or intestine, those things are not inside of you. If you take a bite of an apple, chew it and swallow, it will end up inside your stomach, but not inside of you. Because the lining of the GI tract is like a wall that regulates what comes in and what does not. 

To get inside of you, things that are in the stomach and intestine need to be absorbed. They need to be taken in. When we eat food, it doesn’t enter the body as is. First, it needs to be digested or broken down. Our body produces digestive enzymes, which are like scissors.  They cut all the foods into small basic blocks from which the food is made. For example, carbohydrates are broken into glucose, proteins are broken into amino acids and fats are broken into fatty acids. These things are then allowed to enter (absorbed) and used either as fuel for energy production or for building new cells or repairing existing cells or making thousands of things that the body needs, like hormones and antibodies. 

Big things, like bacteria, viruses or parasites, partially digested food, toxins and other large particles are not allowed in. Because the lining of the intestine is made like the skin. It is made of cells that tightly stick together, without any gaps.  They allow only useful things to come in, like water, fully digested food, vitamins, minerals, and so on. All the undesirable things are kept out. 

But many bad guys still manage to sneak in. The good news is we know that’s going to happen, and we are ready for it. That’s why the bulk of the immune system and lymph nodes are located around the intestine, since this is where most bad things try to get into the body. As you know, the intestine is the home to 100 trillion of bacteria, most of them good, some not so good, some very bad. You don’t want any of them getting inside of you but some of them manage to sneak in, which triggers the immune response. 

These trillions of microbes are called intestinal biome or gut microbiome, and it contains not only bacteria, but also viruses, parasites and other microorganisms. The composition of the microbiome is very important and is unique to each person. Ideally the vast majority should be good bacteria, because good microbes make us healthy, they digest certain things that we can’t, they produce substances that make the GI tract heathier, they make some vitamins, they improve the absorption of certain minerals, they help our immune system, they prevent leaky gut, and even affect the brain by producing certain neurotransmitters. 

Intestine also has an interesting structure.  The job of the intestine is to absorb useful substances from food. Small intestine is about 25 feet long and about 1-1.5 inches in diameter. At first glance, it seems like the absorptive area of small intestine is about 3 sq feet. 

That would be true if small intestine was like a smooth pipe, but it is not. It is covered by many billions of finger-like projections called villi, singular villus. Each villus has its own finger-like projections called micro-villi, millions of them. This increases the absorptive area tremendously. Small intestine is like an accordion. When folded, it looks small, but when fully open it looks very big. Similarly, if you consider all the villi and microvilli, the total surface of the small intestine is about the size of a tennis court. 

This court is covered by trillions of viruses, bacteria, parasites, yeasts, and other microbes, but because the intestine is like a wall, only a small portion – millions to billions – do get through. Fortunately, the immune system is ready for them.

Now imagine that this wall develops holes. This is what leaky gut syndrome is, a condition where instead of a solid wall you have a wall with multiple gaps in it. 

And now bacteria, viruses, undigested particles of food, toxins and other bad things can pour in through the gaps. Good bacteria are helpful as long as they stay in the intestine. But if they leak through gaps in the intestine into the bloodstream, the immune system sees them as harmful. Because they are not part of you. They are just the same foreign invaders as the bad guys, and the immune system is going to fight them. 

In short, because of leaky gut, the immune system becomes exposed to 10-20 times more foreign things that it has to fight. This is what overwhelms and overstimulates the immune system. This is why it starts making antivbodies against everything in sight, including your own tissues. 

What causes leaky gut? Many things that irritate the intestine and make holes in the intestinal lining.

We eat Standard American Diet (SAD diet). A good diet is supposed to provide you with the nutrients your body needs and nothing that can be harmful. But the SAD diet doesn’t do that. It has too much sugar, not enough fiber, too much processed foods, not enough real nutrients, lots of chemicals, like preservatives, flavor enhancers, coloring agents, and so on. All of them damage the intestine. There are over 10,000 chemicals that FDA allows to add to food and an average person consumes about 150 lbs of them a year. There are thousands more chemicals that get into the food through processing, packaging, pesticides, and so on. And besides chemicals in food, there are also environmental toxins in the water, air, soil. We live in the ocean of toxic chemicals which damage the intestine. 

We eat about 60 lb of sugar a year, that’s about 18 teaspoons a day. Some people get a lot more. Candida, other yeasts and the bad bacteria love sugar, so they multiply and become stronger, which irritates the intestine and causes leaky gut. 

Unnatural oils. So called “vegetable oils” – corn, canola, safflower, sunflower, etc. Corn, sunflower, cottonseeds are not vegetables, so the oil is not really a vegetable oil. To make this oil, they use high heat and various chemicals that are harmful for the body in general and particularly for the intestine.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils also irritate and damage the intestine. They are used to make margarine and for deep-frying.

Medications. Pain killers, like aspirin, ibuprofen and many others. They directly damage stomach and intestinal lining. 

Acid inhibitors. They kill the acid, which decreases food digestion and promotes growth of bacteria. 

Antibiotics kill bacteria, good and bad. Good bacteria do many good things, one of them keeping bad bacteria in check. If you reduce good bacterial you create what’s called “dysbiosis” or imbalance, so there are more bad bacteria relative to good. The result is more inflammation and more work for the immune system.

Synthetic hormones – birth control, hormone replacement with unnatural hormones.

Food allergies and sensitivities. Many people have them and don’t realize it. Some may notice that a particular food always gives them a discomfort or bloating, this can be a sign. When you eat food to which you are allergic it causes intestinal inflammation. 

Some people have severe allergy, for example gluten sensitivity causes celiac disease with severe inflammation and damage to the intestine. IBS, irritable bowel disease does the same. Candida infection, food poisoning, traveler's diarrhea all do the same. More about gluten later.

Chronic Stress can damage intestinal lining. 

There are more causes, but you get the idea – diet, allergies, chemicals, medications, anything that can damage the lining of the intestine. 

So leaky gut is one major reason why the immune system becomes overstimulated and makes antibodies against our own organs. 

But there is another. 

Certain foods have components similar in structure to thyroid gland or to some other organ. There are bacteria and other microbes that have structures similar to the thyroid gland or another organ. For example, gluten. It has some proteins that are not exactly the same but very similar to some thyroid proteins. If you have gluten sensitivity, even minor, your body will make antibodies against gluten. But because some thyroid tissues look similar to gluten, these antibodies attack not only gluten, but the thyroid also. Sort of a case of mistaken identity. Same with some milk proteins, like casein and whey. Same with some microbes. Since normally these microbes are located in the intestine, outside the body, this is not a problem. But in a leaky gut situation they start getting inside and trigger the antibody production. 

To summarize, Hashimoto’s is caused by overzealous, overstimulated, crazy immune system that has gone berserk. This happens because of leaky gut, certain food sensitivities and imbalance between good and bad bacteria in the intestine. Plus, some cases of mistaken identity, when the immune system makes antibodies against one thing, but they attack a similar looking structure. Overstimulated immune system makes antibodies mostly against the bad guys, but also against the good ones, including thyroid. This slowly destroys the thyroid gland, making a person hypothyroid. 

Now that you know why people develop Hashimoto's, we can start talking about treatment, which we’ll do in the next lecture. 

Please make sure to subscribe to my newsletter which you will get about once a week. If you know someone who might benefit from this information, please forward it to them. Also, if you have questions or comments, please email them to info@LowThyroidDoctor.com. I try to read and answer all of them, time permitting.  

Also, please keep in mind that if you suspect that you have low thyroid or you are being treated and are not getting better, you can get a free, no obligation 30 min phone consultation with me to see if I can help you get better. Just book it online or call my office at 718-769-0997. 

I’ll see you in the next lecture. 

Until then, I am Dr. Michael Teplisky from LowThyroidDoctor.com wishing you the best of health.