Welcome to this week’s episode of Thyroid Strong where Sophie Shepard, founder of SHE Talks Health and women’s hormone and gut health coach, takes a deep dive into how to start your journey of living with Hashimoto’s. Instead of the age-old story of being sick in your body, Sophie teaches us how to turn our hormones into our superpower. There is no reason for your diagnosis to inhibit your life; Sophie illustrates with a detailed framework how to isolate the root cause of your symptoms and work your way back from there to regain control of your life.

Key Takeaways

Learn how to manage stress and overcome past trauma when healing on your Hashimoto’s journey. Stress is the number one thing no one wants to talk about with an autoimmune condition, and the number one thing causing all the issues. Nutrition, stress, and healing the gut are all equally important to the Hashimoto’s healing journey, but stress is the one that is hardly ever touched or changed. Sophie starts with stress and is giving us simple strategies to quickly get oneself out of a fight or flight sympathetic state using butterfly taps, box breathing, humming etc.

About Sophie Shepard

Sophie Shepard is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner (FDNP) and founder of SHE Talks Health. She is a women’s hormone and gut health coach revolutionizing women claiming their hormones as a superpower and slaying the age-old stories of being sick in your body. She is helping women transform their hormones through gut health, uncovering root causes, diagnostic testing, nutrition, and lifestyle science.

How Stress Plays an Important Role in Healing with Hashimoto’s

Stress is one of the main, and often unspoken, root causes of an autoimmune condition. Mental health and gut health are also intertwined, it matters how we feel and what we eat. If stress is not managed, it shows itself as physical ailments. To start the healing process, we need to identify triggers of trauma and use simple strategies to calm the nervous system through box breathing, humming, butterfly taps, etc.

What To Address First When You Are First Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s

Thyroid health needs to be addressed first. We need to build up the thyroid with nutrient-dense food and then reduce sources of inflammation because the body needs to be able to digest and absorb superfoods to fully rebuild the thyroid and gut microbiomes.

In This Episode

Sophie Shepard describes her journey of being first diagnosed with Hashimoto’s [02:45]

Host of symptoms often categorized as something else and considered the norm by most [08:52]

Sophie’s framework of how she treats individuals first diagnosed with Hashimoto’s [11:07]

Absorbing nutrients, what to eat and what not to eat [14:11]

Sophie’s take on autoimmune Paleo approach [17:12]

How Sophie assesses gut health within her framework [19:46]

How gut health affects your thyroid [22:40]

The leaky gut analogy [23:35]

The role stress plays in Hashimoto’s [26:02]

Identify fight or flight and introduce stress managers [29:07]

Quotes

“We're going to run several labs, but it's going to be in a specific order. Once I get to know you a little bit better and understand what's going on and look at all your entire history and everything you've tried already, and then make a plan for you as an individual.” [11:07]

“So I think I like to combine the nutrition part with the gut health part at the beginning, because you'd be shocked how many people I work with who have been to all these practitioners and no one's looked at their gut.” [14:11]

“Stress, it's like the number one thing no one wants to talk about. And the number one thing causing all the issues.” [26:02]

DISCLAIMER THIS PODCAST/WEBSITE/COACHING SERVICE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. The information, including but not limited to text, graphics, images, and other material contained, are for informational purposes only. NO material on this show/website/coaching practice/or special guests are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of YOUR physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding medical treatment. Never delay seeking medical advice because of something you read/hear/see on our show/website/or coaching practice.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Topics Covered:

• Living with Hashimoto’s
• Symptoms of Hashimoto’s
• The framework in which to start treating Hashimoto’s
• Nutrient-dense superfoods to counteract symptoms of Hashimoto’s
• Stressors in life contributing to your auto-immune disease

Resources Mentioned:

• Freebies : Thyroid Health Guide
• Masterclass: Life After Hashimoto’s

Guest Info

Connect with Sophie Shepard on her podcast, SHE Talks Health, Instagram, and website.

Follow Dr Emily Kiberd:

Include links to where listeners can find you online:

• Thyroid Strong Website
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter

I want to do the emotional processing, I want to do the stress management I want to do whatever it is I need to do. And they're walking away in their own assessments with their symptoms either completely gone or greatly, greatly reduced across the board. And not just in a physical sense, right. I mean, I find with the work that I do that this is empowering women to stand up for themselves at work to create boundaries with their partners to raise children in a way that feels empowering for them. Like there's all these different ways that impacts I mean, that's where I would say I see the difference.

What's up lovely ladies, Dr. Emily Kiberd. Here with thyroid strong podcast, I am a chiropractor, a mama to Elvis and Brooklyn and I have Hashimotos but it's currently in remission. On this podcast, I share simple, actionable steps. With a little bit of tough love on how to lose that stubborn weight, get your energy and your life back and finally learn how to work out without burning out living with Hashimotos. Today we have Sophie Shepherd on the podcast founder of she talks health and she talks health podcast. She is a women's hormone and gut health coach whose mission is to revolutionize the way women claim their hormones as superpowers and Slay those old stories of being in sick bodies. She's a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner. She helps educate and empower women around the globe to transform their hormones and gut health through a combination of root cause diagnostic testing, you know, we love that here on thyroid, strong nutrition and lifestyle science so they can finally have straightforward answers to their most mystifying symptoms and get their lives back. Sophie shepherd of she talks health Welcome to thyroid strong podcast so wonderful to have you. A fellow New Yorker moved to Colorado just like me for a better life. Welcome.

We are so similar in that way. I feel like you're Hashimotos we both moved from New York now we live in Colorado.

I know. It's like parallel lives. Yeah, exactly.

That's probably our friends. So everyone

who chooses podcasts has some thyroid disease, probably as Hashimotos, the autoimmune component. And you are a fellow Hashi girl. So I would love for you to share your journey in a nutshell. And then now you work with women with autoimmune conditions more than just Hashimotos. But you do have an Hashimotos audience as well.

I do. Yeah, I think you know, when you go through it, and you're able to, for the most part kind of reverse it or live a life without symptoms. People are like, how did you do that? So hopefully I can share some wisdom today. Yeah, I mean, my journey, I think it's interesting. Like I hear so many hobbies, journeys, and like some of them are very similar. But we all have our unique soup that turned on the Hashimotos in our bodies. So for me, just like a backstory, I got diagnosed almost 10 years ago now. So I'm 32 but to be 33 It was diagnosed in 2013. And prior to that, like the lead up to that was irritable bowel syndrome. You know, endoscopy is colonoscopy is age 16 being poked and prodded, being told, Oh, nothing's wrong, you just have IBS just take a proton pump inhibitor, you know, lower that stomach acid, right? Because of course, that's what they think is better. But we can talk about that's probably a whole other podcast about digestive health. And I just was like, so sick, you know, all through high school all through college. And then I would say that was like the breeding ground, right, because we know how much gut health will impact Hashimotos. But then I had a very severe trigger, which was I was in a very abusive, verbally abusive and emotionally abusive partner that I was living with. So on a daily basis, that amount of stress and trauma being thrown at me, I just didn't have any coping skill that didn't know how to get out of the relationship. I didn't know anything about that, like I had no idea what to do. And so I think the compound of that stress with the physical stress of the gut just toppled me over. And I remember I started having all the classic Hashimoto symptoms, like, my hair was pooling at the bottom of the shower, and my mom was like, your hair is everywhere. Why is your hair everywhere? I had gained like, I think slowly, I had gained some weight, like I think I was 155 or 160. And I'm five, seven. So that's a little heavier than where I'd want to be. I feel best at like 125 130. And so that was starting to show up to but the biggest thing was just like the debilitating fatigue and the brain fog, I just couldn't remember anything. It didn't matter how much I slept. I was still exhausted to the point where like, I honestly was struggling to work and hold up my life. And I was just moved to New York and was trying to make it on Broadway as a stage manager and was like doing these crazy hours, which is also really stressful. And it was just Oh, This is not a good mix for Hashimotos. But I didn't know what was wrong with me and I was really depressed as well. Well, it's

also quite a young age compared to the average age of getting diagnosed right normals like perimenopause, menopause, who you were getting diagnosed in your 20s. Yeah, I

was way early, I felt like I was eight years old. And that was actually one of the reasons I decided to keep looking for somebody who would help me was because I was like, There's no way I'm supposed to be like this. In my early 20s. It's like, like, I'm not even 3030s Like, you're getting old. Now 32 But yeah, I mean, I was really young and I living in New York City, and you're, you're 22 you're like, all you want to do is go out and out flat. But here, I was unable to even just do life. I mean, it was just everything I come to like a kind of a screeching halt. So

you were seeing probably gastroenterologists for the stomach stuff. were you seeing other health practitioners?

Yes, I was, of course, told this is all in your head and you should just take any depressant. Oh, like I was told that one. So I believe that, you know, after a while, you just kind of like okay, I Yeah, sure. Like it's got to be the antidepressant. I was seeing in GYN because of course, I was also prescribed birth control for my cramps. And so getting to the root cause of all of that, so I had a couple of different people. But when I went to my primary care and was like, hey, like, I'm really really depressed, like, I'm having suicidal ideation, I'm, my hair is falling out. I'm overweight, like all this stuff, different stuff that she was the one that said I was probably just in your head. And I was like, Okay, you're gonna run some blood work, though. Like, I remember standing up for myself and being like, but there's something wrong. And I remember she called me and diagnosed me with hypothyroidism, not Hashimotos because she didn't have the whole panel. That was a whole other journey. But I was so elated. I was like jumping up and down on the mattress. Oh my god, I have a diagnosis. Oh my gosh, it's not in my head. Oh my gosh, there's something we can do about it. Like I kind of blocked out the part where she's like, you're going to have this guy or take this medication for then of course, once I realized that, that was like when the real journey started. Do

you remember at that time of diagnosis what cuz I'm assuming she tested TSH? Do you remember what that number was?

You know what, I don't remember what it was. But I know it wasn't so bad. It was like somewhere between six and 10. It wasn't like my was with my friend Ryan Monahan yesterday, and we were talking about his hobbies journey. And he was like, yeah, when I got diagnosed, my TSH was above 150. And my doctor said, You shouldn't be dead. It's like, oh, my gosh, I don't think it was like that bad. I think it was like a 10 or something. Yeah. Which is still awful. You still feel terrible.

I remember getting diagnosed my MS creeping up towards three, which is very close to optimal, still within the conventional normal. And I felt like I lived on my couch because I was so tired. So I just talked to a woman who's 140 After her meds got changed. I was like, how are you living?

Yeah, I know. That's insane. But I mean, the good news is there's so much we know what we can do to at least reverse symptoms, if not completely reverse the autoimmunity. Yeah. And now you work with women with autoimmune conditions do I work mostly I work with women in their 30s, sometimes 20. Sometimes 60s depends on the person and a lot of Hashimotos people are hypothyroid people, but also a lot of women who have menstrual cycle issues like PMS, PCOS, fibroids, and then also a lot of gut and mood because the part that I didn't really get into is the whole journey with my mental health and my gut, you know, that was a huge part of what fix the auto immunity. So what I find is that it's interesting, like when you're starting a business with what's your niche, and I was like, oh, it's gonna be thyroid. And then I realized, like, all the people that were coming to me, yeah, they may have like an end result of an autoimmune disease like Hashimotos. But before that, they had the guts stuff, and they had all these other things going on. And so the women I work with have typically have a whole host of symptoms that they're trying to get back in line.

Yeah, it's interesting how sometimes our symptoms become an acceptable new norm, right, having IBS or you know, having stomach aches, or going to the bathroom too frequently, right? Or like having to run to the bathroom or then being constipated. And then followed by brain fog, but like, you know what, what's really going on? You know, you don't really label brain fog, you just feel like oh, like, something's off. And if it happens for long enough, it's just like, Alright, I guess this is like, what my 30s look like and what my 40s

How sad is this when I got diagnosed with IBS when I was 16. I was like, Okay, well, this is just the way my life is going to be now like, I am just going to be the person running to the bathroom, or dealing with smelly gas or the reflex or whatever was going on that day. Like oh, that's just normal. Like some people have a bad back. I have this. I mean, I just accepted it at 16. Like what

I mean something even as common as bad breath, right? You and I know like, Oh, that's a symptom, but people like oh, yeah, I just woke up. I haven't brushed my teeth. You're like, oh, actually, no, actually.

Yeah. Unless you're doing keto,

exactly unless you're emanating this funk, so I wanted to talk to you because I think you and I both agree that a good practitioner, and it's important to find a good one when you're on this Hashi journey doesn't diagnose you with multiple things, and then treat you all at once, right? Because I think some practitioners do that. And I think it's a disservice to the people who are going on the touchy journey, they've gone to the GP, they've met with their Endo, and now they're seeking more, right, and they start to seek more. And next thing, you know, they're like, I feel terrible, because I'm on like, a million supplements versus a good practitioner will create a hierarchy and a framework of what to treat first and really be a partner in their patient's health, taking them on that journey, versus this kind of like shotgun approach, which I think maybe a newer practitioner or practitioner that's not very good at what they do may start. So I know you have a framework for how you approach the work that you do with the Hashi ladies. And I love to kind of dive deep into that. Yeah, I

mean, I kind of follow guess the framework that I went through that works for me, right? Because, you know, have you gone through it? Why not teach it? Right? Yeah, I would agree. I mean, it's tough, right? I had a call with somebody on Friday, who was like, you know, I just don't know what the root causes are. And I want to get to the bottom of it. And I've tried this and that, and I'm like, Okay, so like, we're going to work together. But we're going to work together over several months. And gas, we're going to run several labs, but it's going to be like in a specific order, once I get to know you a little bit better and understand what's going on and look at all your entire history and everything you've tried already, and then make a plan for you as an individual. So I'll just say, like, I'm gonna go through the framework, and you're still an individual if you're listening to this. So there might be something bigger. For example, I didn't have mold, but you might have mold, for example. And some would argue that that's like the biggest battery out there, right? So why would you skip it, but at the same time, we have to always just make sure the person is ready to for like a big detox. So the framework that I like to kind of follow, I mean, we'll start with a couple things that like I think are just basic that everyone needs to be doing is sleeping. Right, we be sleeping, and then I will go so deep into this because this is your realm, but I think like finding the right movement, because I do find that often what happens is that women with Hashimotos are overweight. And so they are working out so hard. And they're actually burning their adrenals out even more. So I think doing a program like thyroid strong rate plan, ladies good, great plan, great because we want our bodies to basically be healing. And we can't do that if we're burned out. And we're not, we're not sleeping. So those two things aside, they're important, but they're just not the main parts I was gonna talk about today, which is basically you want to start I think in building your body up. And then reducing the sources of inflammation. Like those are the two kind of things you're trying to do. And it's tough because that could be a lot of things. But in the first step is really foods that build up thyroid health, like what are the thyroid super foods? And I just think of that as like a blanket term of like nutrient density, right? So what are the foods that build up the thyroid in general? And then how does that work with your specific body because you might have some allergies or things going on that interact there, but the thyroid needs a lot. It's like a nutrient pug needs iodine. It needs zinc, it needs iron and vitamin E see almost all the B vitamins, magnesium, and he's almost everything. Right? Selenium i There's so many different things that needs. So in order for us to even create thyroid hormone, we need all those nutrients. Right? Yeah. And then we need to be able to digest and absorb them.

I think it's so important, right? Because here we have this like bougie basically gland that's metabolically expensive. And it's metabolically expensive, sometimes, especially with like social media being like, eat these foods. It's like you can eat those foods and they have these vitamins and minerals. But that doesn't mean you're absorbing them necessarily if your guts off.

Right, you know, you do have to kind of find the balance. And I think everyone's a little different too, because some people are like they're like resources themselves, and they want to get to the answer. So I think I like to combine the nutrition part with the gut health part at the beginning, because you'd be shocked, shocked how many people I work with who have been to all these practitioners and no one's looked at their gut. Wait a second. We know that Blasto Candida H. Pylori, leaky gut all indicated in Hashimotos diagnosis that can be linked that can be a causal factor. I think we want to do the combination and then I think about like nutrient density. Just going back to that finishing that thought you have to think about bioavailability and so like there's all these grains and lagoons and seeds and nuts and those can be chock full of nutrients. But if you can't access them, then it's not helpful. So Some people find it impossible to digest these foods and have to remove them completely. Some people have to soak or sprout their grains and legumes and seeds and nuts. But in general, I think most of my clients do really well with like wild caught seafood cooked cruciferous vegetables, we don't wanna do that raw grass fed red meat, anything that has lots of zinc, you tolerate eggs, that can be a superfood, there are also sometimes a huge sensitivity, a little bit of sea vegetable in there, you know, a little Nori, a little kelp in there. Brazil nuts are a great source of selenium, there's just different foods that you can try on. And then if you're like me, you might have to do more of an elimination diet first to kind of calm down the immune system. You know, I see a lot of people who are like, only plant based and they're not absorbing the nutrients when we look at the labs. So then we have to have that conversation. It's a big one challenging being plant, but I think made challenging. It was yeah, it's challenging to get all the nutrients you need. Yeah, without being on like a bajillion supplements, like you said earlier. And it can be really challenging. Some people do really well on it. I wouldn't say I've had a lot of thyroid people do well, on a plant based diet, though. Yeah. Why do you think that is, if you look at just like tyrosine is like an unnecessary reason, B 12, there's certain nutrients that are extremely hard, if not impossible, to really get from plants. And I think you can get some, but maybe just not as body's ability to to get them and uptake them. I also think if you looked at the genetics, and like most people with Hashimotos, you might find that they have some issues with detoxification. And we know detoxification is dependent on, you know, for example, the methylation cycle, my MTHFR is so messed up genetically. And so we know that different ways to get back can be through different foods, and it's just challenging. I don't know, I think maybe the other reason why it's challenging is, like we said earlier, like sometimes seeds and nuts and greens are really tough on the lining of the gut. I mean, there's some people just say, you just shouldn't have it at all because it will destroy the lining of the gut and cause leaky gut, which we know is a precursor for autoimmunity. So I think that that could be potentially why it doesn't work sometimes for people with Hashimotos.

Yeah. Do you have clients try an autoimmune Paleo approach? How do you feel about that? Yeah.

I feel like Jekyll and Hyde with that question, because it works for me really well, and very quickly, when I've done it with a person who's mentally ready for it. It has also worked really, really well. So let me I'm gonna tell you two stories. So client story and autoimmune Hashimotos, all classic symptoms, everything right, her antibodies were over the detectable limit. So the range stopped at like 900. And hers were past that we have no idea how far past it the lab wouldn't even register it. Now, we went through my framework, but we didn't do AIP. We didn't do gluten free and dairy free, because those were direct triggers for her. We worked on her gut, we worked on her minerals, we worked on toxins, we worked on mental health, asleep, movement, all the things. So that was in six months, we did all that her antibodies dropped by 500 plus points. So she's still had 500, which is way too high. But she's feeling so much better, because it's like a least detectable lab. So you know, I said to her, I was like, look like kind of the next step that we could try from a diet perspective is do AIP like, what do you think it's kind of restrictive? And we talked about it, and she was like, No, I feel so good. I'm really motivated, I want to go to the next level. Let's see, I'll try it out. And I'll retest so I haven't gotten her retest back her endocrinologist is amazing, and was actually like, let's see what happens. Like let's run the tests. Again, after you've done you know, 990 days or so they IV, but what I can tell you is that her symptoms are resolving rapidly. And this is somebody who has mold in her system, still, we found mold. So her symptoms are going away just from the nutrition change. So I think that it can be a really powerful tool, I think it has to be thought of as a therapy. I think for most people, they find it really hard to stay on it. So we have to just mentally be like, where's this person at? Because I do get a lot of women who have like binge eating disorder, or they have a history of eating disorders, we have to be really careful when we're talking about removing a whole bunch of food groups, that this isn't going to impact the person's mental health. So for me that's like really dependent on what's the like, positive versus the negative. And where are you mentally? How are you feeling? Is it go right into it like I did? Or is it like, step into it, like my other client did

just an important point is like, we're not meant to be on AIP forever, right? Oh,

that's another big one that I see people stay on it for too long. And I think it's like it gives me the heebie jeebies, like we should be able to eat all these foods. Not maybe not all of them. A lot of them we should be able to consume. Yeah,

so you're starting to approach nutrient density with gut health kind of at the same time. How are you assessing someone's gut health for people who don't know

Well, I think there's like the obviously the symptomology but then there's also the lab testing. So from a symptom perspective, of course there's reflux and burping and gas and bloating and constipation and diarrhea, right. Those are

If gas isn't normal,

I shouldn't be stinking of the room every time I walk in. No. So those are what people think gut issues aren't right. And then there's like all the other ones, right? Brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, depression, like mental health and gut health are directly linked. So if you're having mental health issues, and we haven't looked at the gut, like that's a huge neon sign, you know, for me, weight loss resistance would be another clue for me that there could be something going on in the gut, any sort of histamine response, right, like allergy response would be another one. We were talking about that before we started recording

to like itchy skin, tongue pain, unpaved, sneezing

all the time, your eyes are watery, they're poofy, you know, like you have allergies to something that would be a histamine response. And that's also directly related to the gut, right? Insomnia, potentially, parasites like to wake up and party at night, little jerks. So I mean, there's a whole laundry list of things that are got related that I would be like looking at and asking you a person about and then I typically will do two weeks of a biofilm Buster biofilms are the homes that bacteria like to live in, I think of them as the Harry Potter cloaks. Like a little like cloak over the bacteria or the parasite. They're like, out here. So like to do a little bit of that bustin that up if the person's open to taking a supplement and then do a GI mass test. And GI maps is stool tests. I do your parasites, they do your worms, bacteria, yeast, and then a lot of intestinal markers, like how well you're digesting proteins and fats, and is there inflammation in the gut and all that kind of stuff. So I like to do kind of both together. I've had maybe like three GI maps come back, like, completely clean.

Have you found that when people take a biofilm Buster that they have reactions, and they're like, I haven't even taken the test yet. Like they don't feel good.

I mean, I always want my clients to go super slow with any supplement because we just never know how somebody's gonna react. So I go really slow. And usually they don't have a huge reaction, which is good. I mean, I will say, I also sometimes will combine that with like some detox opening support, like castor oil, dry brushing, things like that. If someone appears to be very toxic in their intake, that's definitely because sometimes we are we're really backed up or like you're super constipated and you start taking a biofilm Buster, you could probably have reactions. So magnesium castor oil packs, whatever is going to help you go to the bathroom. I haven't had it too often. But we will super slow to so that might be why.

Yeah. Can you speak to why gut health because people like Oh, it's my thyroid. This is little cleaned up here how gut health can actually affect the thyroid.

Okay, so your thyroid and just stop working one day, there was a reason? Probably multiple reasons, right? I think about mine, and I'm like, oh, metals, stress, leaky gut everything right. So the balance of your bacteria is really important for your overall health, your mental health, everything but especially in since we're talking about thyroid health, you're so a couple of different things are going on. So your T for your inactive thyroid hormone converts to T three, mostly in the liver and in the gut. And so 20% of t four is converted to T three inside the gut. So if the gut microbes are imbalanced, or there's an overgrowth of a harmful bacteria or pathogen and the process of this conversion that happens in the gut from the gut microbes could be disrupted. That's one, too. We talked about how the thyroid is what did you call it a

metabolic I called it like a Bougie, metabolically expensive organ.

metabolically expensive. I think one of the ways that the thyroid is so metabolically expensive, is that it needs all these nutrients. So it's not what you eat. It's how you digest and absorb, right. So then where do we absorb our nutrients? Oh, also in our gut, right. And so if we have an issue with absorption, we're not going to get the nutrients we need to build and convert and transport thyroid hormone. And then the third part is the leaky gut, and the leaky gut, I think of leaky gut. I don't know if this was ever explained to me like this, or if I just decided to make this analogy in my head, but I think of it as saran wrap. Like it's so thin, it's only you know, your the lining of your gut is only one cell thick, right? We hear that all the time in the functional medicine world. So I think of it as saran wrap. And then I think of like gluten and pesticides and chemicals from metals that are in our water and everything that we were coming in contact with as like little tiny specks in your saran wrap, right and they're like constantly puncturing holes. And so then you go about your day and you're like eating a piece of kale. And the kale isn't digested properly, and it seeps through one of the holes, and all of a sudden your immune systems like what is this thing doing and here, I don't recognize it and it just starts attacking this poor piece of kale and you end up with all these food sensitivities. And so, we know that when when you have leaky gut we have widespread inflammation, we have loss of tolerance to food, we have loss of tolerance to self, which is autoimmunity and Hashimotos. We can have all these kind Have like systemic inflammatory processes go on because the macrophages, the B cells, everything is right there. And so skipping the gut, it's like you've missed the whole point. I think with thyroid health, you have to do God's work first.

Yeah. I love that. I love the analogy, by the way. I've never thought about it that way. Do you want to talk about stress? Because I feel like that was a big piece in your story? Yes, I do. So when I think of stress, I think of showing up in different ways, right? So I think of fight flight. Fun. I think of tending and befriending like us women sitting around and moaning about things. And then I think about showing up with courage and like, taking action and going the next step, but when the stressor is constant, right, and it's not just a little dose, and then you're having brain fog, and you can't process things, and maybe you used to show up with courage, but now you show up with just like, freeze, you know, how have you found that stress plays a role in working with your Hashi? Ladies,

it's like the number one thing no one wants to talk about. And the number one thing causing all the issues. You know, yeah, and I believe that, I would say nutrition, stress and gut are all equally important to the viral journey. But stress is the one that people don't want to deal with. That's the hardest part, right? Like, either Oh, I'm not stressed. Or Yeah, well, my life is just chaos, like, Okay, well, we have to address that do you want to feel better, right. And so it's really hard, it's hard for me, I would characterize myself as someone who's like lived, the majority of my life in fight or flight. We know that, you know, with fight or flight, we're releasing all these stress hormones and cortisol. And over time, you know, at first, that's okay, because cortisol is anti inflammatory, actually. But then over time we do, we'd switch into fawn or freeze, which is the part where the stress starts to turn inflammatory. In the body, where we see all these autoimmune components pop up, I think we live in a society that is driven from stress. And he's one of the reasons I moved out of New York City was I was like, this vibration is too much for me, like I'm kind of constantly dealing with everybody else's stress. I love that city. But it's too is too much for my nervous system. And then we're just never given any tools to manage stress, right? Or how to even interact with it in a healthy way. So we're just like going and going on the hamster wheel and pushing ourselves and pushing ourselves until we literally collapse. I mean, that's what happened with me, and I see it with every client. So when I work with somebody I'm trying to figure out, I mean, now I have some additional tools around subconscious mindset work and processing emotions. So we definitely do that if the person is open to it. Because I find that if you really dig deep underneath people's stress and anxiety, it's usually like I don't feel loved, or I'm not part of the group or something like that. And if we can kind of look at that, and reprogram that, then a lot of other things fall into place. So while I think meditation and walking and deep breathing, and EFT and journaling are all incredible stress management tools, I think, after the past training that I've just gone through, really, truly, if we want to like change the programming, we have to get into that and understand why am I driven to make choices this way? And is there a better choice for me now, is this choice, something that I've done before, that would have served me really well, where I'm just going to go so hard, so that no one can ever? For example, no one can ever make fun of me, or I can't be wrong, because I worked so hard, and therefore I'm safe. Okay, that could have been a really cool tool to use, but maybe it's not what's good for me now. So I think it's deep, it gets a little deep, and we need to address it because it will drive dysfunction over and over again. So it's not necessarily because there's definitely a narrative out there culturally,

don't stress, de stress, like stress less, do more. And it feels like almost impossible, because you're like, well, stress is inevitable, right? And then there's a narrative of we'll manage your stress. And it's like, well, what does that mean? So what kind of tools do you give your HACCI? Ladies? Can you kind of talk through maybe one of them,

okay, so I try to help them to identify when they're in fight or flight, first of all, because I'm sure anyone listening to this has probably realized, like, oh, I spent the whole day not breathing, right? Like I was breathing up here at the top of my chest or I was whatever your manifestation of that is. So what is the firt? I think the very first thing is that the in order to be a resourceful person, we have to be in a resourceful state. So our state has to be we have to be in rest and digest. If we're in fight or flight, we're just running off adrenaline and cortisol, and we're not able to make as many good decisions. So I actually start with like Cymatics and breathwork, anything that's going to drop them out of their brain, which is what I often need and into their belly. So like, just as an example, I might have them do. They're really angry. I might have them do shaking like full body standing up and shaking so that they can get Get that energy out of their body. Or we might do something like Lion's Breath. If you've ever taken a yoga class with breath work and you stick your tongue out and you breathe, I might even have them do like some butterfly taps, which is where you kind of lock your thumb to the center and you tap on either side of your chest, the bilateral stimulation just really helps people to relax. And the other one is just like a four part breath. So you breathe in for four hold, and you release. And you just do that until your body can kind of come back to homeostasis. From there, we can make a lot better decisions. So sometimes it's just getting ourselves to down regulate, I find if someone's kind of constantly in that place, that's where we would do some deeper emotional processing and kind of get into why and then help them with tools to reprogram, but I think oftentimes, it's just getting the person to calm calm their nervous system down,

what would be considered maybe a quote unquote, kind of major life stressor, that it's a different reaction. So for example, we could be stressed out about our kid falling, but they're okay. Versus like, I have cancer kind of thing. Like, you know, that's like, that's like a whole different level of stress. Yeah. Do you approach that in like a different way?

Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things that gets missed a lot is there's like kind of this gaslighting of like, oh, just don't feel your feelings. Yeah, I think that there has to be time to process so right now i honestly I give a lot of my clients like a lot of I'm just, like, amazed that they can get up in the morning sometimes, like one of them's going through a divorce and other person, you know, lost a family member like there's just so much that this life can bring us and so it's never about like gaslighting that right? Like, what's going on for you? Can you really feel that emotion? Do you need to scream into the pillow do you need, like, seriously, like I had a coach once told me to open up my window in New York City and scream. And I'm pretty sure the grandma on the street was really freaked out. But it was good for me, right? So it kind of depends on where the person is in the journey. Because if you're going through something like cancer, or you lost someone, you might not be in a place where you're ready to move to that move through it. Like there's always going to be a space where you need to kind of be in it and feel it and then move past it. So I think it would just depend on whether the person was ready to go to that place where like, have I felt this enough to move to the next level? Not that I would never have grief again, or feel these feelings. But more like, is this still the emotion that's serving me now? Right? Because I think that there is validation and benefit and feeling those feelings, right? And we never want to take that away. So I guess it kind of depends on the person.

Yeah. Have you found that that kind of work around stress without maybe changing other things, which I know is not like your approach necessarily, because your like nutrient density, gut health and the stress? Have you found ever though, that if someone is working on that stress piece that there'll be a shift in lab work? And maybe antibodies or serum levels? Yeah, maybe they weren't compliant on the nutrient density in the gut health? And you're like, Yeah,

I would say there are some people that come into the program, and they don't touch the stress piece, right? Because you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Yeah, but they do all the other stuff. And then they're like, huh, I feel better. But I still have this, this, this and this. I'm like, Okay, right. No judgment on that. But this is why, right, we didn't do that part, you didn't participate in that. And then I have the people that go full hog. And they're like, I want to do the emotional processing, I want to do the stress management, I want to do whatever it is I need to do. And they're walking away in their own assessments with their symptoms either completely gone, or greatly, greatly reduced across the board. And not just in a physical sense, right. I mean, I find with the work that I do that this is empowering women to stand up for themselves at work to create boundaries with their partners to raise children in a way that feels empowering for them. Like there's all these different ways it impacts I mean, that's where I would say I see the difference. And I have somebody who just signed up for just the emotional stuff and the stress management recently, and because it was so clear that until she had belief in herself and worthiness and belief that she could feel better that it wouldn't really matter what lab tests we ran, right. So I will let you know.

So curious, Sophie, you are doing such important work in this world? Where can people find you? Because you do and you are just on it?

Yes, the podcast and website and Instagram and all the things is she talks health. That's the company name. So she talks about podcasts, you can listen to it on any podcast platform, and there's plenty of thyroid stuff in there. And if you are looking for deeper support, you can always go to the contact page on the redox Health website and reach out to me I also have like a $22 thyroid masterclass where I go a little bit deeper into my framework. So that one's really good. And you can just always reach out to me on Instagram. Yeah,

amazing and you all So we're gonna share a freebie, right? Like a thyroid health guide with the audience. Yeah. Okay, I

have a freebie for the thyroid community, because I love you guys so much. Yeah, the thyroid health guide, it just talks through some of the steps that I did at the very beginning. Because you know, you were talking about, like, you know, trying to do too much, right. So these are just some of the basics that I suggest everyone starts with. And so that's available, send you the link for that, and it's free, which is great. We love free things.

Sophie, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I think, as practitioners, right, we have our own journey. And then we make it to the other side, which not a lot of people do. And then it's like, well, we have to help people feel like themselves again, and feel better than maybe what they ever imagined. And you're doing that every single day. Thank you.

Thanks for having me on. It's been really awesome. I love talking about this stuff. And hopefully this inspired just one person out there.

Of course if you enjoyed this episode, or even learned just one new piece of information to help you on your Hashimotos journey, would you do me a huge favor, rate and review thyroid strong podcast on iTunes, Spotify or whatever platform you used to listen to this podcast and share what you liked. maybe learn something new. And if you didn't like it, well shoot me a DM on Instagram Dr. Emily Kiberd I read and respond to every single DM I truly believe all feedback is good feedback. Even the ugly comments if you're interested in joining the thyroid strong course a home workout program using kettlebells and weights where I teach you how to work out without the burnout. Go to Dr. Emily cowbird.com forward slash T 's waitlist. You'll get all the most up to date information on when the course launches and goes live special deals and early access bonuses for myself and my functional medicine doctor friends again Dr. Emily Kiberd.com forward slash T s weightless hope to see you on the inside ladies