NourishDoc: Hello, everyone. Autoimmune plus early menopause has been on the rise among women. We are going to talk about this topic with Dr. Inge Wetzel. She is a board-certified naturopathic doctor specializing in thyroid and adrenal disorders. I am Amita from NourishDoc, a global platform for natural and holistic therapies; I am thrilled to introduce all of you to Dr. Inge Wetzel, who’s joining us live; welcome, Dr. Inge.
Dr. Inge: Thank you so much, Amita. Yes, we have everything out of the way, and we are functional, so if you are ready, I am ready.
NourishDoc: I am ready. We’ve had some technical issues, and we apologize for the 15-minute delay. So now we are prepared to get started; yes, absolutely, please get started.
Dr. Inge: Thank you. So lupus is on the rise, and there is a lot of research between lupus and hypothyroidism, so an association between those two has been reported literally for more than 50 years. The laboratory numbers when you go to a doctor to get tested for thyroid have been adapted to the average American who goes to the doctor during the year.
So if people, for example, a large portion of the midwest, are exposed to high radon levels in the ground ray, radon doesn’t affect your thyroid function. Hence, people who have thyroid problems and live in the midwest go to the doctor, and their numbers are normal; that means normal for this type of population with all the same problems doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem. Still, medically it is considered a normal average.
I want you to understand that because there are just three control groups in the united states. All of the united states has radon in the ground; that is just something that is part of nature here. But the highest concentration is in the midwest. It affects your thyroid, so as Americans become unhealthier, the problems that we passed down to our children and passed down to our grandchildren. It goes on with the generations, and every generation is then born with a problem; they get exposed to radon; they expose not just to radon but also to environmental factors and chemicals in the air that affect our thyroid function then, that becomes normal.
So Americans get unhealthier every year, and the laboratory numbers are adapted to the unhealthier generation, the baby boomers getting older, so prevention becomes more and more critical to maintain your quality of life so that at age 65, you’re not taking two pages of medications as I see walking in my office. Then people have no quality of life because of all their medications’ side effects.
So let’s look at the next slide here; thyroid cancer is twice as prevalent in patients with lupus compared to those without lupus. It causes many complications and pregnancy miscarriage, edema, and many different things that pop up and again; there is usually a damaging after-effect after pregnancy when you are pregnant, and the child also needs thyroid hormones. So your thyroid has to produce for two. Well, in the meantime, you already have an underactive thyroid. So the effect on the baby is even worse.
You see babies born that have a loss of hearing, blindness, and things like that, all due to environmental factors and improper circulation because your thyroid controls every cell in your body; there is not one cell in your body in any organ that can function without thyroid hormones and people don’t take any support for their thyroid. At the same time, they are pregnant even though there is so much stress on that organ, so women are at higher risk for autoimmune diseases than men.
So you see that women have a 17% higher risk for autoimmune diseases than men. Most doctors never even test for it; people that walk in my office with all these problems, I’m asking them for blood work they’ve had done on thyroid, very seldom do you see testing for autoimmune and so if you look on the internet for autoimmune diseases and thyroids the numbers are low, but that is because doctors are not testing for it. I always ask people to go back and get a test done for TPO antibodies and anti-thyroid antibodies, and here you see the evidence is ignored; clinical studies are out there; it is full of clinical studies on lupus and autoimmune diseases and thyroid dysfunction. The previous lecture was a picture from a book by Dr. Brodar Barnes, a medical doctor. He died about 40 years ago; he wrote his book called hypothyroidism the unsuspected illness and in; he has a whole list of autoimmune diseases directly linked to the thyroid, and people ignore that things like scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis are all linked to the thyroid, and people go undiagnosed.
So we have to be proactive and take supplements. I understand your insurance does not cover supplements; I recently learned that some medicare type programs include vitamins. Well, these are vitamins that you buy at Walmart; if it’s not food, it doesn’t feed the body, a synthetic vitamin E that you’re taking removes natural vitamin E from the body; it’s a chelation effect; it is the synthetic replaces the natural but you can do it the other way around you can take a natural vitamin E and replace the synthetic that’s in the body. Everything says natural, even if it is synthetic because that is how our government or FDA, that’s where they operate; they don’t understand synthetics except drugs.
So we need to be educated; thyroid disorders may cause the early onset of menopause even before age 40 or in the early 40s. I was done through menopause at age 42, and I have seen people that were through menopause at age 38, and nothing is told about that; it’s just, oh that’s normal for you, your body does that well; there is an underlying reason why you’re going through menopause so early you look back at previous generations I know women that had babies at age 48 they were still childbearing. So with every generation, your thyroid function worsens women are also being treated for menopausal symptoms while struggling with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism can cause everything from sweats because it affects your blood sugar, too hyper your body is going at a hyper stage you are hot you think you have hot flashes well your thyroid is just over producing because there are problems in your environment as we age your thyroid gland becomes flattered it reduces output. So for example, I work with an endocrinologist in Europe. I did urine testing on myself because, as a naturopathic doctor, I do not have access to prescription thyroid; even if it’s a natural thyroid, I do not access to that, so I actually have to start working with an MD to get a natural thyroid prescription, and 20 years ago I was diagnosed by an endocrinologist that I had 15 percent active thyroid yet my blood work says everything is normal.
Well, how did this miracle happen? This miracle did not happen; it is just the numbers are adapted to the aging population doctors are not trained in prevention; they merely go to lab reports; you see, your lab says this, so you need B, your lab says that you need C, I don’t know why they spend so much time in medical school because they do not learn to listen to the whole person you can see quickly I had a young lady in my office yesterday with a horrendous goiter. She says I go to the doctor because my fat neck is so self-conscious. Still, they cannot find anything wrong the gourder needs food the thyroid needs food. This heart becomes enlarged and needs food; it is exhausting itself, enlarging, trying to function. Food is what makes the body go around.
God made your body live on nutrients, not chemicals and synthetics, so we need to be aware of our bodies; look at ourselves.
Do you see lines in the neck for low thigh weight? There is so much to do with autoimmune, and it is a virus your body doesn’t start attacking itself for no reason; there is a virus in the body in many cases that we need to eliminate, and it is not overnight result health takes commitment takes quality. I hope you got something out of this. I appreciate your time, and thank you so much, Amita, for allowing me to share my heart with others.
NourishDoc: You’re welcome. So what would you recommend? You talk a lot about our issues and problems, and the doctors are going by the lab reports. Could you give us some kind of for our viewers, like what is the recovery path in a sense like what is the path to healing? So you talked about how to take supplements and food. Could you elaborate on that path and how one can start the healing process?
Dr. Inge: Absolutely. Because we are in such what I call a drive-through mindset, to get that quick fix when you take an aspirin for a headache, the headache goes away; healing is not the same process. So I explain to people that you’re on the mountaintop when you’re born. You’re supposed to have your best health, but life and the environment take you downhill, and now we’re in the valley. You’re trying to get help; it takes three months to heal anything in the body, plus one month for every year you’ve had a condition. So it is a reversal of the pathway that you came down to try to get back up on that pathway, so for example, say you’ve had lupus for ten years, well give me three months plus ten months for the years that you’ve had it that does not mean you don’t get results sooner, that you don’t start feeling better sooner. But to reverse and heal the body takes time because we rebuild every cell in the body with proper nutrients.
NourishDoc: So what would be the key ingredients in a sense? Would it be food, lifestyle, or supplements? What would be the critical ingredients for you to have someone start with the recovery process for lupus, as an example?
Dr. Inge: For example, all disease begins with inflammation in the gut, so gut health is number one, and just a probiotic will not do it. I run labs in my office, and most women have heavy metals in their body matter of fact, I’ve not seen a woman without heavy metals, so when you’re dealing with heavy metals, these are obstructions, roadblocks, so to speak; we’ve got to clean these things out of the body your hormones are messengers it’s a messaging system that sends a message from here to here and these from here to here. So it keeps going so that the body can keep working when you have heavy metals in the body, we have roadblocks, so I cannot correctly and ultimately heal the body without the detoxification and gut health process, so that’s where I start. I have people check pH, we take pictures of the iris audiology called, and I see underlying genetic problems there. So I put that together, stress is a doozy; we all know that there is so much stress, significantly right now, and stress taxes your thyroid and adrenals. So we need to reduce stress, lifestyle changes, and food changes.
Diet & Lifestyle Changes
I recommend a lifestyle change in food; it’s called eat right according to your blood type. I’ve been using this for many years, and it is 90% accurate, not 100%, but it’s 90% accurate, and many people have had good results. For example, if people with a B-blood type want to lose weight if they eat chicken, they cannot lose weight; it is just an antagonist for B-blood types, so that they can look that up on my website. I have a blood type diet, and they can look at foods stress; as I said, nutrition and supplements it’s a combination; it’s a whole body combination because we deal with the natural person and do not treat symptoms.
NourishDoc: In concept, like we just interviewed an Ayurveda doctor right a few minutes back, and we’ve also talked to acupuncturists, I think we’re all. I mean, you are all talking about the same language differently is what I see it Ayurveda talks about the body constitutes a lot, Prakriti and vikriti, you know Vata, Pitta, Kapha, what and then depending on what you are you should eat according to that and when I talk to a Chinese medicine acupuncturist they also have a lot of research on they have four different types of body constitutions, so you are saying based on the blood type which is we have found on whatever eat according to your blood type, so three four four. So it’s a similar concept from a user point of view is what my constitution is whether it’s my blood type or whether it’s but defined by an ayurvedic or an acupuncturist whatever however they represent they have different definitions, so we have to eat according to who I am.
Herbs For Detox
Dr. Inge: Absolutely, and I do use Chinese herbs; I do use some Chinese medicine and spent a few years in china because we all have the basic concept of dealing with the underlying causes of bringing body imbalance. The most complicated issues that walk in my door are diseases I have never heard of; you can hardly find anything on the internet about them. I go to Chinese medicine because if the body goes into harmony and balance, the body heals itself, spirit, mind, and body. Everybody talks about that, and I’m unfamiliar with ayurvedic medicine. I do use some ayurvedic herbs, and ashwagandha is one of them that helps with thyroid and adrenals; it’s adaptogenic it helps the body to reduce the effects of stress that we’re under, and that’s what I’ve said pressure is such a killer people don’t realize I’m trying to manage I’m doing meditation I’m doing this I’m walking that is all wonderful. But if you do not give food to that nervous system, it still wears out; it’s like having siamese twins and feeding one head the other one is going to die, and I always compare Chinese, I mean the thyroid and the adrenal issues to siamese twins it’s like one body and two heads they are so connected. We have to take care of both of them to get healthy.
NourishDoc: So you said like a three-month process approximately that’s what you said earlier?
Dr. Inge: Three months to heal plus one month for every year you have had a condition.
Detoxification for gut health
NourishDoc: Got it. So you talked about detoxification. You said most of the problems are related to the gut, and there’s some heavy metal, so what is the on very high level what is detoxification process or procedure on a very high level for our viewers? What does it entail when you say detoxification?
Dr. Inge: Okay, detoxification, so I use supplements for that because you cannot detox without accessories, and one of the problems matter of fact, I was sending somebody a message this morning, and my support group she has a friend with high levels of heavy metals and mercury poisoning from dental fillings you cannot detox the body if the body doesn’t have the energy to detox people talk oh you’re going through a healing crisis that is unnecessary. If you provide the body with energy to detox, it can do the job; if you don’t have the power at the cell level, you can clean your car all day long. Still, suppose you don’t put fuel into the vehicle. In that case, it’s not going to run, and that’s the bottom line: we have to give the body nutrients so it can detox.
Then we can provide it with the detox ingredients to pull out the heavy metals to start healing the leaky gut because low thyroid also is related to the overgrowth of candida and yeast; there is research to back that because we have lord immunity due to lower thyroid function. It’s such a big picture, Amita, it just involves a lot, and people take a pill of levothyroxine or nature droid or whatever centroid whatever they’re taking without taking a look at the whole body and supporting the system to heal; you have to deal with the entire body spirit mind-body is all interconnected there are good supplements available that can heal the gut that can reduce inflammation so that we can start functioning because sixty percent of your immune system is in the gut. Eighty percent of your brain is in the gut.
Toxins And Early Menopause
NourishDoc: Yeah, we have a question, so the question is, could you please do the blood sugar sensitivity that occurs? Could you please talk about, I think, the blood sugar sensitivity that occurs during perimenopause that’s before menopause? Are there simple interventions at the point of perimenopause symptoms onset that occurs during the menstrual period, and how does that compare with menopause? So there’s a blood sugar sensitivity that happens during pre-menopause, so what they’re trying to understand is if there are any simple interventions at the point before the menopause starts happening, the symptoms start occurring.
Dr. Inge: Okay, so again, it takes; let me draw a little picture here. So you have glucose in the blood; here are thyroid hormones I say I have, and I’m just going to tell a little story here, so to speak, an analogy, I have ten glucose molecules. I have three thyroid hormones to move that glucose out of the blood into the cell so that at least seven-eight glucose molecules take thyroid hormones to move glucose from the blood into the cell; if you don’t have enough, the glucose is going to go too high, hypoglycemia or low blood sugar is a precursor to diabetes. As we age, the thyroid produces fewer hormones; as I said, that affects menopause’s early onset of menopause blood sugar. The key in America is breakfast. Everybody who comes in asks what’s the day’s most important meal. They say breakfast like the lady yesterday with the goiter; what do you eat for breakfast? A cup of coffee? If you don’t eat protein for breakfast, you cannot stabilize blood sugar; you need to take in 20 to 30 grams of protein within 45 minutes of a rising morning, which is the critical factor in stabilizing blood sugar.
Americans eat cereal toast bagels, so if you don’t eat, your hormones that wake up in the morning as the sun comes up go into your bloodstream. They look around for fuel, and the power available in your body signals the level of thyroid hormones necessary to run the engine to get through today; there is no fuel in the blood. The pituitary gland tells the thyroid gland you don’t need to work today. Your hormones are not produced, and America is breaking down from a mere lack of nutrition.
NourishDoc: Yeah, and then there’s a follow-up question to that, are there any herbs that help reverse hypothyroid that have persisted for more than a year or two, or is your go-to always using the synthetic thyroid hormone to start for life?
Dr. Inge: I do not use any synthetic thyroid hormone at all. I don’t believe in synthetics because the body is not made to run on synthetics. I use nothing but food; herbs are food, parsley is a diuretic; you can get it in the grocery store, so I use foods. Hypothyroidism is relatively easily managed sometimes. I don’t know who is listening, so I have to watch what I say here I don’t have any medical personnel. Suppose I give people thyroid supplements who are already taking thyroid medication. In that case, I tell them a week before they get their blood work done, get off the accessories because according to blood work, all at once, oh, now you’re hyperthyroid. We have to reduce our medication when we are not. So that’s why I just said that it’s manipulating the blood work, but that’s the only way people can get help. We add to what you’re already getting; I do not recommend synthetic. Still, I recommend natural desiccated thyroid that the body can recognize as food.
NourishDoc: Any more comments on a follow-up to your answers, you’re welcome to put them in the chat window. Thank you so much for waiting; you’ve been patiently waiting for 15 minutes. I know we were delayed, so that was good; thank you. Alright, so okay; anything else you’d like to add to Dr. Metzel before we wrap up? This is an excellent session, by the way.
Dr. Inge: Thank you very much. It is my passion for you. Can everybody say you glow when you talk about thyroid because it’s been a struggle ever since childhood? I can go back to elementary school as far back as I remember as a child. I had one bowel movement a week constipation is the first sign of low thyroid because your body is not processing. It is sluggish. Yet, everything is always expected. It was not until I became an adult that I used to drink coffee, which is terrible for your adrenals, but then I started going once a day.
Now when I tell people if three trucks go into a tunnel, three trucks need to come out the other end, they look at me as like three times a day every time a baby goes because the system is still working, so prevention is critical, educate yourself get on getting on some quality supplements make sure they’re ISO certified, people, research supplement companies.
Still, they don’t know what to look for, NSF or ISO certifications. They can put anything on a label these days because the government doesn’t want you better, so take care of yourself and educate yourself. I am here; obviously, Amita is here. Thank you so kindly for putting up with me and my lack of technical knowledge. Some people want to help you, but ultimately it’s your decision.
NourishDoc: We have another question, so before it, if someone has menopause in their 30s, oh my god, that’s nice. Is it highly likely that menopause will occur a few years later than other women who may experience it in their late 50s? So someone has a perimenopause issue in their 30s, so the question is, what is the likelihood the menopause will probably occur a few years down the road versus in their 50s? So, in other words, if they start having perimenopause menopausal symptoms when they’re instilled in their 30s, they’re probably going to hit menopause. I don’t know; I’m just making it up in their 40s as opposed to their 50s which is biological age; that’s the question.
Dr. Inge: Yes, absolutely, and that is related to low thyroid; that’s what I said earlier. I know people who’ve gone through medicals by age 38. So you may not come up with any thyroid problems when you go to the doctor because, again, you are normal like the average person who goes to the doctor, but that is a symptom of low thyroid. You can support that system, but you cannot just take a thyroid supplement without ignoring the system that it is attached to because you probably cannot even convert those thyroid hormones in your liver and your kidneys in your small intestines unless you’re taking care of the whole body you can hold things off you can have a quality of life. You can reverse things; it takes commitment, energy, and time, and yes, it does come out of pocket.
NourishDoc: Yeah. I hope that answers your question; let us know, okay? Thank you. Alright, any more questions before we wrap up, and these are educational sessions? I didn’t say it initially; I want the sessions to start. I don’t want people to wait for me to say all kinds of things, so please don’t take it as medical advice; we are bringing educational sessions every week. We are trying our best to get you the best of the best from all over the world. Hence, you educate yourself and help us share our sessions if you like them. Okay, any final comments from the audience? Okay, your closing comments, Dr. Wetzel, before I wrap up?
Dr. Inge: Well, I think we’re going to do another session next month, Amitaa, that you mentioned so that we will do a little bit more of an in-depth workshop, I look forward to helping those that are looking for help, and please know that the power is in your hands, and I appreciate your time.
NourishDoc: Thank you so much for being with us; thank you, everyone, for watching us. Have a great weekend bye.
