Stop Trying to Lower Your Thyroid Antibodies

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If you've been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, you're probably tracking your lab work like a stock ticker. Especially your TSH and your thyroid antibodies. You watch your TPO and your thyroglobulin antibodies, you're praying they go down every three or six months. You get your blood drawn, you refresh your patient portal hoping that this time something's going to be different.

And maybe you feel good when your doctor agrees to bump up your Levothyroxine or your Synthroid or your Armour, and your TSH finally lands inside the reference range. But Those pesky thyroid antibodies. They're still too high. And now your entire focus is aimed at making that happen.

You're convinced it's the right thing to do because all of the social media experts are either telling you that that's what you need to do, or maybe they're talking about case examples where someone came in to their clinic and their antibody levels were five times the normal range. And They did this and that and something else, and their antibodies went back to normal, and they celebrate that like it's a huge victory. But you might notice that these social media cases rarely talk about whether or not people's symptoms are resolved and their functional capacity has improved. Many of you might have a normal TSH, perhaps even normal Hashimoto's antibodies, but you're still tired, your hair is still falling out, your brain is still foggy.

And you still can't lose a single pound, no matter what you cut out of your diet or how hard you exercise. You're doing everything that you were told to do. Maybe you're even taking selenomathionine, that special forum that's supposed to lower your TPO antibodies. But unfortunately, your body didn't get the memo, and the labs aren't fixed the way that you would expect them to be.

Well, here's a part that people usually don't explain. Is that a normal lab report does does not guarantee that you're going feel good. Right? It's great when you have both normal labs and good function, but that's quite often not the case.

Sometimes people feel good, but their labs look abnormal. And other times the labs look good, like a normal TSH or even a lower thyroid antibody count, but somebody can still feel like dirt. So what's up with that? Well, there are many potential explanations.

But today I want to focus on this recent trend in social media where everyone seems to be telling you that you need to lower your TPO antibodies. That's the main antibody in Hashimoto's hypothyroidism. And if you're like anything like my patients before they come to me, you've probably tried lowering your antibody count directly. Again, you probably took selenium somewhere along the way.

Maybe you did a 30 day thyroid detox, whatever. That actually means. Maybe you you tried to go gluten free or you did an elimination diet, and you're probably at the point now where you're just afraid to eat anything because you don't know how you're going to react to it. And maybe your thyroid antibody body numbers did move.

And maybe your thyroid antibody numbers did move, or maybe they didn't, or maybe it actually got worse. And that's not because you failed, it's because you're chasing the wrong end goal, the wrong target the entire time. So today I'm going to give you several clinical rules, we can call them, or core concepts for Hashimoto's, rules and concepts that I use with my own patients and that I teach doctors in my thyroid seminars. And I'll explain why trying to force your antibody count down is actually pulling your focus in the wrong direction.

But before we get to the immunology of Hashimoto's, because Hashimoto's is an autoimmunity, before we get into that and how antibodies behave, I want to point out something under the heading of too simple, often overlooked. I see this often enough to mention it, and it has nothing to do with your immune system at all. And it comes in the form of a question: How are you taking your thyroid medication, assuming that you're taking thyroid meds? Well, you should be taking it 30 minutes before eating breakfast or having a mor morning cup of coffee.

When you take thyroid hormones in pill form, they are notoriously hard to absorb without anything else getting in the way. Under the best of circumstances, you get about 80% of what you swallow in pill form. And worst case scenario, it's as low as 40%. And that drops even further when you drink coffee or eat breakfast.

Or even take a multivitamin that contains calcium and iron within 30 minutes of swallowing your pill. And here's why: eating food too soon after you take your thyroid meds changes the pH of your stomach, which affects how the pill dissolves in your gut. And the fiber in your food and nutrients like calcium and iron, even if it's in a multivitamin, can actually bind to the medication directly, preventing its absorption, as can the Plant chemicals, what are called phytochemicals and polyphenols in coffee, and even other medications like antiacids and some antidepressants can have an impact here too. And I've had some patients over the years come to me with what they, you know, thought was treatment-resistant Hashimoto's, where their TSH is always elevated no matter what their dosing is, and they're convinced that they need a more aggressive immune protocol or what have you.

And the entire problem turned out. To be the timing of their medication. They get up, they take their meds, they drink coffee, and maybe have some food very early in the morning. And so in a lot of these cases, we simply fixed the timing and we allowed for better hormone absorption, which essentially fixed their labs and improved their symptomatology.

And there was no advanced immunology required. And this too simple, often overlooked rule says never skip a simple foundational rock like medication timing. just to go chasing more advanced immunological concepts like trying to lower your antibody number. So check the simple things first every single time. Okay, let's get into the core concepts for today's episode.

And remember we're really trying to dispel dispel this myth that if you have Hashimoto's, the goal is not just to normalize your TSH, but it's to lower your thyroid antibodies. The first thing to know is that like all autoimmunities, Hashimoto's hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's autoimmunity develops in stages. And in thyroid seminars that I teach to docs, we talk about four distinct stages of development. And these stages act like the analogy I can use would be like a slow leak in your roof.

At first, if you have a leak in your roof, water's leaking through that and you don't even know it until one day you see a stain on your ceiling. But over time, that stain becomes wet and you start to see water actively dripping. Eventually, if you do nothing, your roof caves in because the wood itself has rotted away, and the weight of the water that's soaked into that area just causes everything to crash down. And I'll put this up on the screen if you're on YouTube and you want to pause and take a screenshot of these four different stages, then that's there for you.

The first stage of Hashimoto's is what we call silent Hashimoto's. And that's the point where, in the analogy, your roof is leaking, but you don't know it. In the silent stage of Hashimoto's, you have Hashimoto's antibodies in your blood. And I'll explain what those are here in a second.

And we can find them on a test, but you have no symptoms, and the rest of your thyroid panel is normal. The silent stage suggests that your immune system has flagged your thyroid as a problem. And there is a chance that your immune system is beginning to attack your thyroid, but at a low enough level that you have no obvious symptomatology and it's not strong enough to change your labs. The second stage is called Hashimoto's reactivity.

And this is where you first notice that wet spot on the ceiling, going back to the analogy, right? You have circulating thyroid antibodies, but now you're starting to have some obvious symptoms. Some brain fog, a little fatigue, maybe you need a little bit more sleep than normal to function. And but while you are now symptomatic, your Hashimoto's reaction is still below the threshold that would shift your blood work, that would shift things like giving you a high TSH, which is what your medical doctor is waiting for to diagnose hypothyroidism.

The third stage In the progression is where you've lived with some kind of an underlying immune dysregulation for long enough that now your blood work starts to reflect that. Your lab values change, in particular, your TSH elevates. And this is where the water is actively leaking through your ceiling onto the floor. And what it means in the context of Hashimoto's is that the autoimmune reaction that's been driving this process silently for some time. has destroyed enough thyroid cells that you now can't make enough T3 and T4 on your own, and you need help in the form of medications.

So in stage three, not only do you have thyroid antibodies, you have the full list of thyroid symptoms to one degree or another, and your TSH is now lab high and your doctor says, you have hypothyroidism, we need to get that TSH down and here's your prescription for levothyroxin or synthroid or If it's a more alternatively minded doc, it's going to be something like armor or maybe NP thyroid. And while that's usually a good call, going on medications when you can't make enough on your own, the real problem is not just the high TSH and the lack of thyroid hormones causing your symptoms. It's the autoimmunity. It's the leak in the system that's been secretly destroying the cells that make thyroid hormones.

And that's why medical statistics tell us that 50% of the people who go on medications and normalize their TSH still have unresolved thyroid symptoms. Because taking thyroid meds may fix your TSH, but it doesn't fix the fact that you have Hashimoto's. And how do we figure that out? Well, we measure thyroid antibodies.

These are called TPO and ATA. And here's the disconnect. You would think that if these antibodies that we can measure Tell you that you have Hashimoto's when they're above the lab range, doesn't it make sense that part of the goal is to lower those antibodies? In other words, there is a tendency to think that if higher numbers are worse than lower numbers, then lower antibody numbers are better than higher ones.

But honestly, that's not how antibodies work. And if your goal is to lower your thyroid antibody levels, you're kind of missing the point. If you currently think That your thyroid antibodies are the enemy, then maybe you need a mindset shift. But don't feel bad because this concept trips up almost everyone, including a lot of well-meaning practitioners.

I see this again all the time in the thyroid seminars that I teach. Doctors ask about strategies to lower TPO, which launches us into a conversation of, well, should we really be trying to do that? Is it that important? Well, the bottom line is this: is that.

Even if you had thyroid antibodies that we can identify as being part of Hashimoto's, the thyroid antibodies do not actually destroy your thyroid tissue. Now, I've used the term thyroid antibody several times without some of the details, so here they are. I'll put them up on the screen for you. There are two antibodies with Hashimoto's.

The first is against an enzyme called TPO. which is used to make thyroid hormones like T3 and T4. And normally anybody who's talking about these hormones will say T4 is the inactive form, T3 is the active form, and somewhere along the way we have to convert T4 into T3, and all of that is true physiologically. most of people with Hashimoto will have these TPO antibodies. And because it lives inside the thyroid cell side And because it lives inside the thyroid cells themselves, when the immune system attacks the thyroid, it usually destroys the cells where it finds the TPO enzyme. And that's what it is.

It's an enzyme. The second Hashimoto's antibody is called ATA, which stands for antithyroglobulin antibody, and it's against a protein called thyroglobulin, which is also part of making T3 and T4 hormones. But while the TPO antibody is present in about 95% of people with Hashimoto's, only about 20 to 50%, depending on the study that you look at, of people with Hashimoto's have the antithyroglobulin antibodies. And that's why everyone usually talks about TPO without mentioning the other antibody, is because almost everyone with Hashimoto's has TPO, and maybe up to half of the people have this ATA antibody.

So the conversation almost always focuses on TPO and lowering the TPO antibody levels. Well, either way, whether your Hashimoto's involves TPO or ATA or both, the Hashimoto's process involves the destruction of your ability to make thyroid hormones on your own. Hence the need for thyroid medications. But under most circumstances, neither of these antibodies actually damage the thyroid directly.

That's done by other parts of the immune system. So you can think of these thyroid antibodies, and TPO is the one we're focusing on. Think of them as a smoke alarm in your kitchen. And let's say that you have a kitchen fire and the alarm starts to go.

The alarm didn't start the fire. It's not even capable of starting the fire, but it's capable of detecting the fire. It's just screaming that something nearby is burning. The actual fire, the one that you want to put out, the thing.

That's physically destroying your thyroid tissue cell by cell. This damage is being done by what are called your cytotoxic T cells and a cascade of inflammatory cytokines or chemicals that amplify the damage that are being done by these cytotoxic T cells. So, in the analogy, like you can rip an alarm, a smoke alarm off the wall, you can remove the battery, but that does not put out the fire. It just stops the alarm signal.

The kitchen can still be on fire. And that applies to Hashimoto's and TPO. So with thyroid antibodies, just because they go down doesn't mean your Hashimoto's has improved because the antibodies are the alarm signal. They're not the fire itself.

In functional medicine, we see people with Hashimoto's getting worse symptomatically at the same time that their antibodies go lower. And we see them getting better. Better when their antibodies are going up. And that's the opposite of what we're trained to think.

And for many people, they stay roughly in the same range no matter what they do and how they progress. Their antibody levels are always roughly the same number. Things just don't change. So ultimately, the TPO antibody level or the thyroglobule antibody level on your lab report, it's not the primary target.

It never was. The only reason people focus on that is an incomplete understanding of the immunology. And why does this even matter from a practical standpoint? Well, because I I watch a lot of people getting frustrated because they're chasing down a number that doesn't track with how they feel.

And if you happen to see your thyroid antibodies go down at the same time that you are feeling better, that is almost always a happy coincidence. Because the severity of your Hashimoto's is not tied to how high or low your antibody levels are. And this is a critical key concept. That's why I can work with a client who is stable and functional, with antibodies in the 2000s, like 50 times the reference range, while someone else is falling apart and their antibodies are barely above the reference range.

And let me say that part again because it's the one thing that I want you to walk away with today. Is that your antibodies are almost never the enemy. They're not the fire, they're the smoke alarm, they're just the messenger. Now, there is one confirmed exception, and there are two theoretical ones that are worth knowing, because in specific circumstances, it might change what you pay attention to.

And this brings me to my third point, and that is what we call cross-reactivity. In the world of immunology, There is a concept called cross-reactivity or molecular mimicry. This is where the protein structure of two different things look enough alike that the immune system can't tell the difference between the two. So it as it attacks one, it attacks the other, no matter where that other thing is found in your body.

There was a foundational study in 2007 in the Journal of Neuroimmunology. I'll just flash this up on the screen. And that showed that TPO antibodies can cross-react with what are called Astrocytes in your cerebellum, which is part of your brain or your central nervous system. Now, if you've listened to my recent episode on brain inflammation and microglenal priming, you might remember that astrocytes are not neurons, but they are supporting cells that play many critical roles in how your brain functions and brain health in general.

If your cerebellum is best known for the calibration of movement and balance, when the cerebellum is either damaged or never developed well, or maybe it degenerates with age, you lose some degree of balance and coordination. And this can show up in something as simple as being a little clumsy or klutzy or not being very graceful or athletic. Or it can show up with more overt things like tripping and falling, bumping into things, being unsteady on your feet, and even feeling dizzy or lightheaded or having true vertigo where you have actual spinning sensations. So cerebellar issues can show up in several ways with varying degrees of severity.

If you have Hashimoto's and you are dealing with dizziness or being unsteady on your feet or have a coordination problem, On top of things like your standard brain fog and fatigue and so on, your immune system may be attacking your brain right alongside your thyroid, specifically your cerebellum, in addition to your thyroid. And that's the one scenario where those antibodies deserve a little bit more attention, and they may deserve some focus direct activity, trying to lower the thyroid antibodies. But again, this is the exception to the rule. The rule is.

Lowering thyroid antibodies almost never translates into feeling better and functioning better, unless we're in a situation of cross-reactivity with your cerebellum, which you can pick out by checking your balance coordination, lightheadedness, vertigo, and so on. But here's the kicker. While the cerebellum is best known for controlling movement, balance, and coordination of the physical body, it does the same for thoughts and emotions. And this is important.

Sometimes the cerebellar issue shows up as anxiety, where your emotions are out of sync with the magnitude of a stressor, or maybe you get emotional and you simply can't rein in your emotions. You can't calm yourself down. The cerebellum also helps to rein in thinking, particularly the negative kind. And you know, you can have one or the other issues or some combination of those.

It's not uncommon for people who have Hashi motives to come see me. To tell me that they're also anxious and emotional. And sometimes they know they have a balance problem, sometimes they don't. And we only figure that out because we run them through a battery of balance tests, which we can even do over Zoom, believe it or not.

So do a self-inventory. Check yourself. Are you dizzy or clumsy? Are you nervous and emotional?

Do you have a tendency to fall on the negative side? And when you start thinking negatively, can you stop that and rein that in? And if you have that. Then all of these things can be interlinked.

Now, two other things that are worth mentioning, but fall into the domain of being theoretical. Lab experiments do show that TPO can cross-react with two other enzymes in the peroxidase family. Remember, TPO stands for thyroid peroxidase. And both of these enzymes called MPO and LPO are involved in antimicrobial actions.

They kill bacteria. So one called MPO, myeloperoxidase. This is part of your neutrophils response to an infection. Neutrophils are just one type of white blood cell.

The other is called LPO or lactoperoxidase, which is part of your a woman's breast milk secretions and part of colostrum. Now I have to emphasize that the potential for TPO antibodies to cross-react with NPO and LPO, unlike With the cerebellum and those astrocytes, which is confirmed, this is theoretical, right? Because it hasn't been actually proven in humans, whereas the cross-reactivity between TPO and the cerebellum has been. But the mechanistic logic is sound, at least from a functional perspective.

So how might this play out in real life if someone has cross-reactivity between TPO antibodies and the MPO or LPO enzymes? Well, theoretically. If someone has a cross-reaction with NPO, their immune system might have a hard time dealing with bacterial infections. Now, maybe it doesn't, because making myeloperoxidase and using that as an antibacterial response is only one of several different strategies that things like neutrophils can employ.

So having an effect there may or may not change your immune capacity. But for women who are TPO positive specifically, we might see breast pain. That is not explained by other common causes and it doesn't track with their menstrual cycle. Plus, we might see someone having a poor response to taking a supplement with colostrum in it.

Again, mechanistically, the logic is sound. Whether or not it actually happens in real life, it's difficult to say. But in case you are the exception to the rule where you have Hashimoto's and your balance and maybe your emotional control is shot, you might. Benefit from doing things to reduce your TPO count.

We're in other cases, I would say we don't even need to bother with that. But the only supplement that's been shown to do that in some cases, not in all, is the supplement called selenium. And this is something that you've probably heard promoted and touted on the internet. In fact, I'm I I can think of several different practitioners who active have active social media accounts that say things like, this is the supplement stack, these are the three or five things that I put.

Every person on with Hashimoto's before we do anything else. And selenium is always in that list. Well, here's the deal. First of all, you need a particular form of selenium called selenomethionine.

And I'll throw this up on the screen so you can see some of these distinctions. There are a few things that you need to know about taking selenium to reduce your TPO antibodies. Studies showing this effect used 200 micrograms of selenomithionine. Not just any form of selenium, but selenomethionine specifically.

And what that is, actually, it's a it's methionine, which is an amino acid, that has replaced the sulfur portion with selenium. So it's not just selenium itself, it's actually selenium embedded within another molecule called methionine. And we can't make this in our bodies. We have to get this from our diet or from supplementation.

So it's a specific form. Furthermore, The reason why selenomethionine can even have any effect on lowering TPO antibodies is because the selenium is used to improve the activity and the intracellular antioxidant capacity within the thyroid cells by supporting something called glutathione. If you've been doing any research or learning on Hashimoto's and autoimmunity, I'm sure you've come across. the antioxidant called glutathione. It's the MACD of all antioxidants.

As glutathione levels rise inside your thyroid cells, it protects them from damage. And this can indirectly result in lower antibody production. But maybe the more direct impact is actually the fact that selenium has a balancing effect on the immune system. Now don't get me wrong, You can't just take selenium and expect your immune system to balance itself out because it's more complicated than that.

This is just one thing among many that might be needed to do to get control and coordination of your immune system. So selenium does have a balancing effect on the immune system. And in the face of a selenium deficiency, the immune system becomes more aggressive because you lose balance and control. So ensuring selenium sufficiency.

Is one potential strategy that you can use to help balance your autoimmunity. But here's the critical point: it doesn't work unless you're already selenium deficient. Unless you're deficient, taking extra selenomethionine will not help you at all in this regard. And if you are selenium deficient, you need to take selenomethionine for at least six months to see your TPO antibody levels drop.

Three months doesn't do it, four months doesn't do it, all of the studies, six months is where we start to see the change. In fact, studies suggest that if your selenium levels on a lab test are greater than maybe 100 or 125, taking extra selenium in a supplement or eating selenium-rich foods like Brazil nuts, they're not going to change your antibody levels because you already have enough in your system. And if you're wondering how much your TPO antibody levels can change, that's highly variable in the studies. It can be as low as 10% in some cases to as high as about 50% in others from wherever your starting point is.

So there's no rule that if you take a certain amount of selenium, that your antibody levels are going to drop 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 percent. There's no rule everybody's going to be different. Now, obviously, the higher your TPO antibody levels are to begin with. The more the numbers can change.

So, yes, sometimes we do see someone with an antibody level of say 2,000 dropping down to about 1,000. But if your TPO antibody levels are starting out, say at 100, and by the way, the reference range for most labs is anything less than 34, is considered normal. That's most labs. So let's say that your TPO levels are just above that.

Say they're 50, say they're 75, say they're 100. You're not going to see a 50% reduction there. So the greatest change in your TPO antibody levels comes from a baseline that's super high to begin with. Everyone is different, and it is going to do you a disservice to create the expectation, number one, that TPO will change.

And number two, if it does, it's going to change your quality of life. Remember that the rule is that the antibodies themselves are not the enemy. They are the fire alarm. They're not the alarm itself.

And outside of the specific clinical picture of being TPO positive and having some kind of a cerebellar issue, whether that manifests in movement or emotional control or cognitive control, don't waste your time and your effort and your money using supplements or other strategies trying to chase lower antibody levels for the sake of lower antibody levels. Instead, focus on rebuilding your immune tolerance. In my opinion, before you think about spending money on selenium-based supplements, test your balance and coordination. And if that's bad, check your selenium levels on a blood test.

And if your balance is good, and if let's say you don't have a lot of anxiety, and if your selenium levels are at least 100 or 125 on your lab test, don't bother trying to lower your TPO antibodies. So if lowering TPO antibodies is not the goal, what is? Well, the goal is immune competence and control. And believe me, that simple statement is a mouthful.

Autoimmunity is, by definition, loss of immune competence and control. And listen, I I teach a full three day seminar on this at the postdoctoral level. So there's no way that I can impart to you all the details and the complexity of that here on a podcast. Even if I did a multi part series, I couldn't cover everything.

And I hope that's not too frustrating for you because I see the comments online when I either post these podcasts or shorts and you know, Instagram reels, and people are like, Well, well, but what do I do? Well, that's the hard thing is like all of the social media content is designed to grab your interest and and say, yes, we have some solutions and you might need some help and there's an answer for you somewhere. So again, I hope it doesn't frustrate you when I say that. Well, what I can do is I can quickly cover some of the main levers that you have control over that you can pull on to make some progress on your own.

There's no guarantees here. And of course, me giving you this list doesn't constitute medical advice because I don't know you. I don't know your situation. But the first thing that you can think about doing, and I'll toss this up on the screen again, is listen, start with your diet.

It's a big lever that you can pull. the bottom line is the basic rule I should say is don't eat foods that you react to. Because every time you do, you just stir the pot with your immune system. And anything that creates an immune response or inflammation will amplify your Hashimoto's reactivity. And when it comes to diet, maybe there's one thing that we can point out specifically, perhaps two.

One is is that you know, you should probably go gluten-free. there are certain circumstances where we can see some. cross-reactivity between gluten proteins and some aspects of the thyroid. Now, technically, according to the research, this is more prevalent in people who have celiac disease, but this might be one of those things where let's it's better to be safe rather than sorry. And and listen, when I say go gluten-free, I mean gluten-free. I don't mean mostly gluten-free, which is what I know a lot of you guys are are banking out.

Well, I've reduced it. I'm not totally gluten-free, but that should be good enough. In a lot of cases, in most cases it's not. The other thing that I think is really important is to understand that there are certain protein compounds or called lectins in different types of foods.

And we find them, there's different types of lectins found in different amounts in different types of foods, but typically you'll find them in beans and legumes and nuts and seeds and like nightshade vegetables. This is one of the reasons why nightshades like tomatoes and potatoes and those things can be difficult or or problematic, I should say, for people with Hashimoto's with autoimmunity. But the lectins in red kidney beans, particularly, have been shown in the studies to cross-react with thyroid. And so if you're a bean and legume fan and you're eating red kidney beans, that could be one reason why your thyroid and your Hashimoto's is constantly being stirred up.

The last thing in the diet piece that I would suggest that you do, and this is a huge one, is stabilize your blood sugar so that you're not either spiking insulin or crashing your fast and glucose, or I just should just say your blood sugar. Anytime you either drop your glucose or spike it and spike insulin, there's an inflammatory event associated with that. And every time you do it, it compounds on the last one, assuming that you're doing this on a frequent basis. And so with unstable blood sugar, you're putting yourself into a chronic pro-inflammatory state, which is just going to amplify the Hashimoto's itself.

Next thing to check is your lifestyle. You got to protect your sleep any way that you can because It's during sleep when your brain flushes out all the metabolic waste that builds up during the day, and when your immune system does its actual balancing and repair work. But all of the studies that look at sleep deprivation or bad sleep patterns essentially conclude that functionally, chronic poor sleep is the same as driving or creating chronic low-grade immunological stress or inflammation. Right.

So you have to protect your sleep. And and again, that's like It's not like I can tell you there's one supplement like glycine, for example, is always going to fix your sleep. It's not. There are too many mechanisms that can create sleep for us to say universally one thing is going to fix all your sleep problems.

The other thing in terms of lifestyle, I'm not going to talk about exercise, although exercise is important, but it's very interesting that community and having social connections is important for immune control. Right? If if you don't if you don't belong to something larger than yourself, you don't Have connections where you're with people who care about you and that you care about. these things lead to, like, or let me say it this way isolation and seclusion or lack of community, lack of social connection drives up chronic stress chemistry and inflammation. And the converse is true.

Having real community and having real social connections turns down your stress chemistry and controls your inflammation. So get out there and be among people, be among good people. That's the important part. And then finally, you can control some aspects of your environment.

Like we're all exposed to chemicals and heavy metals and pesticides and all these different things. It's just the world that we live in. But you can clean up your personal care and your household cleaning products, right? Conventional body lotions and soaps and shampoos and cosmetics and cleaning products from their home, they carry a real Endocrine or hormone disrupting load.

And most of the research in this area is about how these environmental chemicals affect thyroid and estrogen systems, particularly. And in the vein of cleaning up your environment, like stop drinking out of plastic. Like use glass or stainless steel, especially if you have hot or acidic liquids. Don't drink that water bottle that's been sitting in the back of your hot car for four hours or a couple of days or a week.

And if you go to a coffee shop, Bring your own stainless steel mug because the inside of those coffee mugs, whether it's coffee or tea, they're sprayed with plastic. And you even sip these three things through plastic lids. And so the heat and the acidity of things like coffee leach the plastics into the very thing that you're using to soothe yourself and feel good. All right, so let's bring this full circle.

Stop chasing. Lower TPO antibody lab numbers on paper and mindlessly following internet and social media trends, unless you fall into the exception to the rule. The rule applies to you. Your antibodies are probably not the enemy.

They're the smoke alarm. They're not the fire. And Hashimoto's isn't controlled by simply normalizing your TSH and reducing TPO levels. It's the result of being proactive, taking early action if you can.

And working systematically through a series of priorities with a plan and with a strategy. It's about establishing immune competence and control in the bigger picture. It's not about taking random supplements that may or may not help one specific part of that picture. Fundamentals first, in order, every single time.

Now, if you've been doing everything that you were told to and you still feel like your body isn't responding, that's not a personal failing. It's just a sign that you need a more comprehensive or complete picture, even more than the core concepts that I can give you on a podcast like this. So why not use that contact information in the episode description? Reach out.

We can schedule a one-on-one discovery consult, talk about your situation, and see if it makes sense to work together. Thanks again, guys, for being part of the Information Nation. Remember to put in your big rocks first. Stay rooted and grounded in the fundamentals.

And I'll see you in the next episode.

00:00 Introduction to Hashimoto's misconceptions

04:19 Too Simple - Often Overlooked: How are you taking your thyroid meds?

06:56 4 Stages of Hashimoto's

10:50 High TPO antibodies are not the problem

16:13 TPO Can Cross React with your Brain

22:01 Selenium won't help unless you are deficient

27:26 The goal is immune competence and control

28:14 5 things you can do right now