Episode 16: The Safety Theory- How to Signal To Your Body to Promote Thyroid Healing
Everything that we do, eat, experience, feel, and think– they’re all messages that we send to our bodies. And these messages often have physiological responses.
The messages we send create physical responses in our body– either in the direction of health or disease.
In this episode, we’re focusing on a newer theory as to why women deal with thyroid issues more than men and talking about a key part of that theory– how the signals that we send to our body can impact our actual, physical health and of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today.
Glad you're here,
Sarah
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Take the Quizzes: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Products and Tools to Support Your Thyroid Naturally: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Disclaimer: Information shared on this podcast and any referenced websites are not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I’m sharing my educated opinions & experience but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis and we always recommend you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and practitioners, and take full responsibility for any health & medical choices you make.
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Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript?
We are constantly communicating with ourselves, with our own body. Everything we do, everything we eat, experience, feel, think everything, they're all messages that we are sending to our body. And those messages have actual physiological responses. So if we send messages like, I'm so stressed out, or this situation doesn't really make me feel safe by the feelings that we're having, then that in and of itself can cause just for one example of many things that can happen can cause a spike in cortisol, and that can create kind of a cascading effect that throws our hormones out of whack. If we send messages by the choices we make, like a choice to skip a meal or to drastically reduce the number of calories that we're eating so that we can try and lose a few pounds, then our body might receive that message and think, oh, we're, we don't have food.
This must be a famine. We need to sort of shift gears. And then it responds by downshifting into a lot of more secondary functions like growing hair, having babies, things in instead of in an effort to focus on keeping us alive. So the messages that we send our body create physical responses within our body, either in the direction of health or disease. And so that means we get to choose the messages that we send. So in this episode, we're focusing on a newer theory as to why women deal with more thyroid issues than men. And we're talking about a key part of that theory, how the signals that we send our body impact our actual physical health. And of course, I'll have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today. So grab a notebook and a pen and let's get started with today's episode.
Before we jump in, I'd love to remind you to head over to bit.ly/thyroid-tools to take a number of quizzes that I've created to help you assess your more subjective symptoms that you might be dealing with. I've got the hypothyroid symptom assessment where you can see if the random collection of, uh, not good things that you're feeling are actually associated with hypo hypothyroidism. That's one little quiz that you can take. You can take one to assess your level of toxic load and your liver function, because that is a key. The liver is a key connector to feeling good when you have thyroid issues, cuz it plays such a critical role in our thyroid hormone production. And then the, the last one is the adrenal dysfunction assessment. Most people who are dealing with thyroid issues have some level of adrenal dysfunction. And truth be told, I think that most people have some level of adrenal dysfunction if they haven't actively tried to not have adrenal dysfunction. That'll give you a little quiz that can kind of check through your symptoms. You can answer a few short questions and it will give you kind of where you fall on the possibility of having these issues. This is super helpful when you are trying to work on health issues from a holistic perspective because it gives you a starting point, which is really important. So you can take any of these three quizzes at bit.ly/thyroid-tools.
Welcome to the Natural Thyroid Fix. I'm Sarah Geisinger, a holistic lifestyle and nutrition coach and former hypothyroid mom who has reversed her thyroid disease using a natural approach to thyroid health. Trust me, I know what it feels like to move through the life in a brain fog, needing a nap by mid-afternoon and constantly be cleaning the hair you've lost outta the shower drain. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're here, I bet you do. So if you're ready to reject the notion that this tired hypothyroid life is as good as it gets and start implementing simple natural strategies to live a vibrant symptom-free life, then this is the podcast for you. Let's dive in into today's show.
Well, hello. So in episode 15, we talked about some of the common theories about why women deal with more thyroid issues than men, which honestly, as a woman is just annoying as if we don't deal with enough right? <laugh>, then we are more likely to deal with thyroid issues than men are. And so this statistics show that one in five women are gonna be dealing with thyroid issues at some point in their life. That there are eight women for every one man who has thyroid disease. That's just, you know, just a bummer. It's a bummer. But there are some interesting theories as to why women deal with this problem more than men. And so if you wanna hear some of the other theories, I'd encourage you to head back to episode 15. At the end of the day, I'll give you like the, the shortened version here in just a second.
But we're gonna dive into, um, another theory that I think is super interesting and really compelling. But, so the traditional theories as to why women deal with the, with thyroid issues more than men have to deal with. Number one, women have major, uh, hormonal life events like pregnancy, puberty, menopause. We have these, you know, major shifts in our hormones. And so that can be a factor in and of itself. Again, I go into more detail in episode 15. Number two, theory as to why women deal with the, with thyroid issues more than men is just to increase exposure to chemicals. Women tend to use more personal care products than men. They tend to be the ones who are maybe doing the majority of the housework, and so they're more exposed to cleaning products. So there's just a, a range of things and, uh, especially it's like a close contact.
You know, if we're using personal care products that have lots of chemicals, we're actually putting those on our body and maybe using those multiple times a day. And so that is one of the theories. There's an increased exposure to chemicals. And then the third theory is genetics. That genetics just plays a major role and that that is the reason, you know, if your mom and your grandmother had hypothyroidism, then you are more likely to have that. And while that is true, there's also some other factors there, really, I believe it's likely to be a combo of all of those things. Plus the, by far and away the research suggests that lifestyle factors are the overwhelming deciding factor of whether or not you're going to have thyroid issues. And so I love that. I mean, it's annoying again, but I love that that means if the lifestyle factors have an overwhelming amount of influence on whether or not we have thyroid issues, then that also means that we can control, we can make choices that that set us up to not have those issues.
So we're gonna talk today though, about another theory that I really love and I love the way it brings together a lot of different ideas and it brings together the way we are designed and some history and all the things. Anything that has that approaches describing what's happening in our body from a holistic perspective gets a thumbs up from me. So I'm gonna talk today about something called the safety theory. And again, I love this idea. I think there are some real trigger factors connected to the reason that women deal with hypothyroidism more than men. And also it gives us some clues as to how we can make sure that we do not trigger, uh, a thyroid disease within our body. What does trigger Hashimoto's thyroid? And if you are new here, you will oftentimes hear me use the terms hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's interchangeably. And there's a reason for that.
The reason is, is that the research has shown that in the majority of people who are described, or they would say diagnosed as hypothyroid, which just means that you have low thyroid hormone, the majority of people who are, are described as hypothyroid. They actually have autoimmune thyroid disease, which is autoimmune. Thyroid disease is the most common one is Hashimoto's thyroiditis. And Hashimoto's thyroiditis is where the immune system sort of mounts an attack and starts attacking the thyroid, making it ineffective in producing the correct number or the correct amount of thyroid hormone. And so this is somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of people who are hypothyroid. They are actually, they actually have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. And so if you've not been tested for that, it can be handy to understand if their, if your immune system is creating antibodies to, to attack your thyroid. It's not necessary.
But I just always think more information is good. And so you can talk to your doctor about getting tested for that simply by asking for a thyroid antibody test. So what, what triggers this problem though? The, it's the combination of all the things <laugh>. Uh, unfortunately there's not just one problem to solve. There's like many little shifts to be made to solve the bigger problem and the combination of being nutrient deficient, having some food sensitivities and continuing to be exposed to those foods, causing inflammation, having an impaired stress response, not being able to manage stress really well, um, or even having a plan for managing stress, having a lowered ability to move toxins outta your body. And so they just can kind of build up and cause problems and bog down our liver, having intestinal permeability or leaky gut. And so our guts not functioning properly.
And then having the, potentially having underlying infections. And these can be from coming from all sorts of places, any and all, and likely little bit of all of these things can trigger Hashimoto thyroiditis or hypothyroidism. And so there's again, lots of theories as to why women statistically are more likely than men to deal with autoimmune disease in general, which I would just encourage you to go back to episode 15 to check that one out. But when you think about all of these factors, you think about the, the stress response, the food sensitivities, the nutrient deficiencies, not being able to move toxins out, having, uh, leaky gut having infections. When you think of what all those things have in common, there's an interesting common thread. So all of these factors, they are messengers, they're sending messages to our body. And the message that our body is getting is that we are living in a world that is not safe.
It's not a safe place, and that our body should go into energy conservation mode. Our body needs to sort of protect itself because all of these things are clues to our body that it's not safe, it's not safe to do all the normal things. So one of my most favorite and most impactful thyroid experts that I love to read her work, and I think she is just doing great things in the world, is Dr. Isabella Wentz, who's written quite a few books on the topic, including a cookbook that I often refer back to and a couple other books. But in one of her books, she talks about the Irish potato famine. And my family's Irish, I'm always interested in history. And so this kind of caught my attention. So she theorized in this book that more people, when you look at the statistics in Ireland, there are more people who have Hashimoto's in Ireland.
And the reason that they suspect that is the case is because having a lower metabolic rate helped them survive, help the Irish people survive the potato famine that occurred in the mid 19th century. So think about that for a second. So you have this great, this massive event that had all sorts of implications in, um, history, you know, immigration and changes to socioeconomic structures, all sorts of things. The potato famine simply because the potato crops failed. That was the primary staple of food, uh, for people in Ireland. But a physiological impact could be that it helps people to actually survive. And the reason is, is because when your thyroid hormone drops, then your metabolic rate, your, your metabolism drops, and so it actually forces you to rest. You don't need as much food because you're resting and your metabolism has really slowed down. You probably, well, when your thyroid hormones are low, you gain more weight and so you have more stores and your body is storing things a bit more, storing fat a bit more.
But I just, when I read that, I was like, oh my word, there's an upside to thyroid disease. Thyroid disorders actually could be advantageous in the time of famine, which is funny because I've spent so much of my time and energy trying to make sure that I am not in a state of, um, hypothyroidism. So during a famine, it becomes crucial for us to conserve resources and the best way to conserve resources, slow down the metabolism, that way a person can still survive while eating fewer calories. And how do you slow down the metabolism? You slow down thyroid function, which is directly, directly connected to what's happening in your metabolism. How do you slow down the thyroid function? Well, if you send some inflammatory cells to the thyroid to attack it, then it's not gonna produce as much hormone. This is what Isabella Wentz calls the Isabella once Safety theory.
So she's developed her own theory as to why women develop thyroid disease at a higher rate of men. And I really do think she's onto something and she calls it the safety theory. And this is all about the how autoimmune disease develops and maybe why. And so based on, on her work with thousands of people with Hashimoto's, the con this this concept of what's known as adaptive physiology, and there's some pretty, pretty interesting research on what's called adaptive physiology and some really cool theories or interesting theories that are connected to autoimmune disease. The adaptive physiology idea is a concept that just basically suggests that our bodies develop chronic illness to adjust to our environments. And that chronic illness is actually serving a protective role. We view it as a negative, but in, in, there's some evidence that demonstrates that our bodies are actually protecting us by using chronic illness as a tool to do so.
So our, our bodies are brilliantly designed to achieve two main goals, number one, to help us personally survive. And number two, to reproduce and perpetuate the species. Now those are, you know, very bare bones, two main goals of, uh, how our bodies were designed. But those are the basics and those are what, like a physiological level, our bodies are gonna work real hard to make sure that those two things happen. And so our bodies are constantly adapting to our environment in a way that just ensures that we as individuals are going to survive and that we are going to, our species is going to have a future <laugh>, that there will be more little humans running around. So even if the method that our body uses is chronic disease, it's going to do what it needs to do to try and achieve those ends. So when you think about women specifically, obviously women carry the primary responsibility of bringing new life into the world.
Obviously men are contributors, but women, we bear the brunt of that load, right? And so that means that women are really particularly tuned into what's happening in the environment and making sure that the time is is right, the conditions are right for reproduction. Pregnancy is a massive stress on the body. Anyone who's ever been pregnant knows that your body's just never quite the same after that. It's beautiful, it's miraculous, it's wonderful, but it changes you. That is for sure. And that's because it's a huge stress on the body and it requires greater resources like different foods, more food, more energy, all of the things that are happening in our bodies, everything kind of pulls together to create this little being in us. And it, it's a big, it's a big stress on the body. And if you are someone who has dealt with infertility, it's very, very common to have people who are dealing with thyroid issues and imbalance and imbalances in their thyroid levels and deal with infertility.
Very common symptoms, and this is potentially according to this theory from Dr. Wence, is this is potentially actually the body protecting us and helping us to focus on that first goal of surviving and not necessarily on the secondary goal of reproduction. And so if that is something that you have dealt with, first of all, let me just say my heart goes out to you. That is a heavy load to carry there. And at the same time, it, the, the theory suggests that if we start sending signals to our body that things are safe, that we are good, that it is, that the time is right for reproduction, then oftentimes we can start to see those things shifts. But basically what our body is hearing from our immune system is that we're not, that it's not safe, it's not a good time to reproduce. Your body's saying, uh, I'm gonna help you through by slowing down your metabolism and then you're gonna be able to hold onto more weight when food is scarce.
Cuz clearly food is scarce right now based on the signals I'm getting. Your body might be saying, I'm, you know, I'm also gonna make sure that you're cold, tired so that you don't <laugh> venture out of your cave to keep you safe and protected because that's the body's primary goal is to keep us safe. And so way back when our ancestors were roaming the earth, some of the main sources of stress would've been lack of food. You had to work real hard to feed yourself <laugh> way back when. And it's not as easy as just running to the grocery store as it is today, but that would've been a main stressor. When we, when we eat things that are not, that were not adapted to digest, that is also a real stressor. And so, uh, many times when you think back to our ancestors, there were nutritional deficiencies, um, maybe cuz there was a food shortage, all of those things.
And so our body can respond to those things by conserving resources and reducing calorie burning again, making us more tired, making us gain a little bit, uh, more weight, hang on to the hang on to fat so that we have those stores and we can see those same signals that maybe our ancestors were receiving in the form of a famine or a food shortage or a bad day hunting. The things, the signals that we can send to our body today look more like maybe eating things that are considered food today but would not have been recognized as food by ancient people. And that can actually cause some digestive problems or maybe eating a processed diet that's lacking in nutrients, which can actually lead to nutrient deficiency. Even if we are not calorie deficient, it's a common problem in our modern society or perhaps being on a calorie restricted diet, choosing to be to eat fewer calories to try and lose weight.
Then what that can result in sometimes is that our body may actually start to burn fewer calories and store fat because it feels, it's getting the sense that maybe there's a famine or food is scarce, that we may not, we may not have food consistently. Those could be signals that we're sending to our body or eating foods that we're not. I'm saying air quotes, again, with my air quotes, I always do air quotes, forgetting, you can't see that I'm doing air quotes. Another example could be eating foods, air quotes that were not historically edible substances. And so this can be any number of things, but it can send a signal that we are having to eat things that aren't really food. And so this could be even something simple like, like wheat. So grasses wheat grass was something that was not traditionally really edible and nourishing, but over time we figured out how to make grasses like wheat be able to be edible and honestly pretty tasty. I'm a bread fan, <laugh> for, for human consumption.
Another example is just the, the food shortage thing, I think is just such an obvious example. So in addition to food short shortages, the safety theory kind of goes beyond that though. It's not just about food, food sending signals to our body either in ancient times or now, but the safety theory also kind of takes into consideration the idea that there are situations where women are less safe than men and therefore experience higher rates than thy of thyroid conditions. So one reason is it's simply bottom line. It's safer to be a man in this world than it is to be a woman. Um, the statistics bear that out in terms of rates of abuse, rates of just threats, things like that. It is, and if you're, if you're a woman, you have probably experienced that unfortunately in some way, shape, or form.
But the most, there's, there's actually, this is a highly researched area that the, uh, rate of thyroid disease in people who have experienced abuse is much higher in people who have not. And the most prominent examples are have to deal with women who have dealt with either physical, emotional or sexual abuse compared to men. And basically when you are experiencing some sort of abuse or assault or anything like that, which is more likely to occur if you're a woman, the statistics show that you are then after the fact more likely to have thyroid disease. Multiple studies have confirmed these like thyroid hormone imbalances, alterations in that are present in people who have suffered abuse. Just a couple examples, there's a long list and I'll just mention a few. So there's one, there's a study from 2000 where they found that there were higher rates of, of thyroid disease in people who have experienced past sexual assault.
There was actually an increase in the, uh, rate of not only thyroid disease, but also breast cancer and arthritis, interestingly enough. And so that's an important reminder that what's happening in our bodies, like our mental health is connected to our physical health. And there are long-term consequences to dealing with some kind of trauma like that. There's higher rates of thyroid disease shown in, um, victims of any sort of childhood abuse. There's multiple studies about that. If, if you are someone who's dealt with childhood abuse, there's, there are physiological impacts to your hormone levels because your body is trying to keep you safe. There's also some studies that have been done in the military with people who have, have dealt with P T S D and even people, there was an interesting study where in, um, like a military survival setting just, um, in enduring 12 hours of captivity, they measured hormone levels before and after 12 hours of captivity, like in like, sort of like a simulated p o w sort of situation, but it showed reduced levels of T3 just after 12 hours of captivity.
And so a high stress military situation, and that is the same, the same has been demonstrated in a couple other studies in military situations like undergoing combat stress. People who have undergone combat stress demonstrate shifts in their T3 and T4 levels, and that changes what's happening in your thyroid. Your body is reading signals and then responding with physiological physi physiological effects. So that is interesting, right? And I don't say that to be discouraging, I just say that to help create a bigger picture. I always think it's so important to get help from a mental health professional to work through really anything because honestly, there's also research, research that shows that literally any situation that feels unsafe, like from the serious ones, like, you know, sexual or physical abuse type of situations to even like social situations where a person feels unsafe in their environment, like even being picked on by mean girls <laugh>, um, or just feeling insecure about your, I know your financial situation that can communicate lots of stress and even those situations that instability there can create issues in your hormones because of the way that the body responds physiologically.
You know, for example, if going back to the, the ancient people times, if you were a mean girl situation, if you're getting picked on and kind of excluded from a group in that that's like a life or death situation by ancient people standards. If you were rejected by your society, your chances of survival not good, there's, you know, real, real risk there. And so if your body gets that message, then it starts to change things. I wanna just talk briefly about the <laugh>. I don't ever want someone to think, you know, oh, she's saying that hypothyroidism is a desirable condition. I do believe that it has sort of developed to help us as, as a mechanism to help us survive as a species. I think that Dr. Wence makes a really good argument here. And I think that there are interest. I've, I've had my moments when dealing with thyroid disease where I've wondered like, what the heck body come on, get it together.
Well what if instead of that being the case, what if my body's developing, uh, you know, development of Hashimoto's thyroiditis was meant to protect me instead. And so Hashimoto's does things like makes us wanna sleep and withdrawal. It also lowers fertility rates, helps us carry more weight, which increases our chances of survival, honestly, because our body's using resources for those basic survival functions. Hypothyroidism also makes us less fertile. It lowers our libido. Um, maybe makes us less attractive to potential partners, which in the case, um, of threatening situations potentially helpful. Um, the anxiety that we often experience when we're dealing with hypothyroidism because of the thyroid cell breakdown there, it actually can make a person more hypervigilant to potential dangers. And so that could be a protective thing, being feeling depressed or apathetic or withdrawn, it means we're more likely to stay inside and sleep and conserve energy, which our, our body has received a signal that we may not have access to things that give us energy like food than it keeps us.
It's we're certainly safer hiding out, hiding out in a cave, uh, than we are being out in the world where we could be exposed to any number of threats. Additionally, in postpartum, in our postpartum season, when prolactin is elevated in addition to thyroid antibodies are likelihood of becoming pregnant during that time is lower. And that ensures that we are one, having enough resources for ourselves and two, having enough resources for our newborns. And so if you, if you have thyroid disease, maybe you could have a moment where you actually thank your body for this genius design that helps you survive. And the good news is there are many things that you can do to help your body feel safe again and remind it that it is okay for you to come out of your cave, uh, and feel better. And if we can send signals to our body that we're not safe, then we can definitely do the opposite.
We can send signals to our body that we are safe. So wouldn't it be great if we could just tell our immune systems that it can stop attacking our thyroid glands and bodies and that we're actually pretty safe in this not very safe world. Rather than just kind of like telling yourself, you know, repeating mantras like, oh, okay, body, you're safe, you're safe, you're safe. Which you know, I guess has its place. But there's some key communicators, some key things that you can do to help remind your body and communicate to your body that it's safe. In simple terms, you need to eliminate things that are making your immune system believe that you need to conserve your body's resources and that you're not safe. And instead communicate that it is as I always like to do. I wanna give you a few things today that you can start doing to move the needle in how you feel.
And again, these aren't gonna be all you need to do or have like massive impacts, but that's the deal with approaching thyroid and any health issues from holistic perspective, our wins come as a culmination of small steps combined together to create, create a massive impact. So here are some things that you can do to make your body feel safe today. First things first, treat your body like the cherished temple that it is. Be kind to it. Do things to help it. Remember that you're on the same team as your body. The second thing is send your body safe signals through food. Feed it nutritious foods When you're hungry, don't skip meals. Don't your stomach in anac acids when it's trying to tell you that the food you're eating is not working for you by having some digestive issues. Okay? So send your body safe signals through food.
Number three, send your body safe signals by managing stress. Don't subject it to unnecessary stresses like working all day, never taking breaks. Um, having, being on your phone all the time and getting those constant inputs instead of playing or resting or de-stressing. Set healthy boundaries around relationships. Make time for relaxing each day. Send your body safe signals by managing the stress in your life. Number four, you can send your body safe signals through rest, sleep when you're tired, don't like silence. Its subtle signals and don't force it to drink another cup of coffee when you're actually sleepy. Let it rest rather than pushing through. And I know that is so much easier said than done because life, right? <laugh>, uh, number five, send your body safe signals by avoiding chemicals. Don't constantly be cleaning with harsh chemicals. Um, don't cover your body with harsh makeup or skin creams.
Don't make your liver work harder than it needs to do. Even those like small low level exposures to chemicals send signals to our body that we are being exposed to something that is not helping us and is potentially harmful. And so just don't give your liver a break. Okay, so there we have it. So I wanna encourage you to go and check out those quizzes. I think they're super helpful tools. You can find them at bit.ly/thyroid-tools to take any number of quizzes that I've created to help you assess the subjective symptoms that you may have going on. I hope that you're able to apply some of these things and make some small shifts to feeling healthy and good and helping to communicate to your body that you're safe, you're good, can chill out. No famine, there's no danger here. Because I believe when you start making shifts, when you, when you do it that way, when you focus on doable lifestyle shifts, then living a symptom free life is totally possible. And I want that for you.
Real quick before you go, if this show has helped you in some way, then I know that it'll help others too. So please head over to iTunes, subscribe, and then leave a review so that more women can find health and healing too. And you know that you can have an incredible impact on the women who deal with thyroid issues in your circle. Yep, that's right. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this podcast, tag me at Natural Thyroid Fix and post it in your stories. Let's light a path for all the other hypo, hypothyroid, mamas looking for hope and healing and to just feel like themselves again. I'll look forward to connecting with you over on Instagram until next time on The Natural Thyroid Fix.