HouseCall: Normalizing Thyroid, IBD & Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome, Cholesterol Levels, Multiple Symptoms, Brown Age Spots

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows!

This is where we answer our community’s wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track!

Check out today’s questions:

Kim: Hi Dr. Cabral – I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism at the age of 47, and have been taking Armour Thyroid medication for approximately 10 years. My levels go up and down and are checked every 6 months. My latest blood work showed: T4=1,0, T3=2.6, TSH =2.45. I have recently started listening to your podcasts (thankfully a friend told me about you)! I’m wondering what your opinion is about Hypothyroidism? It seems that every female I know around my age is diagnosed with it and put on medication! My hair has become so thin…it is scary! If my thyroid levels are “normal” while taking the Armour Thyroid medication, I’m wondering if the hair loss could be caused from the medication itself? I would love to be able to stop taking the medication, but do not know where to go from here and I”m hoping you can help point me in the right direction. My husband and I are using your Daily Nutritional Support powder , greens powder and Probiotic and love it! Thank you so much!!!

Joan: My daughter has been very unwell for over 2 years with IBD and a strange symptom of an inability to warm herself, and consequently goes through a nightly routine of freezing and overheating. Blood tests are normal. I thought it could be Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome but it can’t be tested. Is this something you are familiar with? Do you think you could help her with this?

Cara: Hi Dr. Cabral, As always, thank you for providing this House Call service. I share it with everyone! This question is for my husband. -At his annual physical/blood work his cholesterol went up 30 points. -His LDL is 130! His HDL is 73, Total is 276 and his Homocysteine level is 9.6 Note: we are having his blood work re-ran to make sure there wasn’t an error because the lab didn’t run his Thyroid panel or a couple of other panels the doctor had ordered. -We eat super clean – organic/farmers markets/lots of vegetables/pastured meats/maybe 6 beers a year/no processed sugars/low sugar in general -The only thing that has changed is that we switched out smoothies in the morning after having eggs every morning for probably a year. -We do saute our veggies in ghee or coconut oil which I always thought was healthy until you mentioned you prefer cooking in water and adding olive oil after. -My husband is 45 and does have the MTHFR gene mutation, I think it’s homozygous. He has not been tested for COMT. -Doctor thinks this is genetic and provided a food list (although those foods are exactly what we eat). He recommended RYR Synergy to lower LDL – a red rice yeast and COQ10 mixture as well as Berberine Synergy. -My husband has never been one for cardio or weights, but he does go to an hour-long yoga class 3 times a week. Some weeks only 1 time a week. I’m wondering if he needs to be incorporating weights and cardio. -He also did your 2 week detox before this blood work I’m thankful the doctor is functional medicine minded and did not recommend a statin, because no way would we go that route. SO, Dr. Cabral, what do we need to do here? In gratitude for your work every day!

Tina: Dear Dr. Cabral: Thanks for your podcast! My friend and I love to listen and then get together to talk about your advice. You recently answered her question and we were so thrilled!!! I’d love to give you a little run down of my symptoms/ health history and see if you have any advice about which tests/ supplements you might recommend. I’m not sure how successful I will be in making this a “little” run down. I am a 30 year old female, 5’8”, 150 lbs, athletic build. I have weighed about the same for the past 10 years, though I have had varying degrees of fitness. When I was young, I had a history of stomach aches and stomach cramping that would come and go. I ate a poor diet high in refined sugars and processed foods. I was a very nervous, incredibly shy, excessively perfectionist, high strung kid. Starting in 7th grade, I experienced the beginnings of hyperhidrosis. I had extremely sweaty underarms…. I could easily sweat through two shirts and a sweatshirt, and nerves and social anxiety made this cycle worse. Also starting in 7th grade, I was highly active with swimming, dance, and tumbling. In high school, these continued, but as school got more difficult, I was perpetually sleep-deprived…. going to bed around 11 and getting up around 5:00 to go to morning practices. In 7th grade, I experienced my first bout of extreme stomach flu…. which included vomiting over 100 times and ending up in the hospital for fluids and anti-vomiting medication. This extreme-stomach response was repeated in high school and in college. To this day, if I get a stomach flu or food poisoning, I vomit far more than the average person, though not as much as I used to. Toward the end of high school, my body sort of shut down on me and I experienced fatigue and incredibly poor performance in my sport. I didn’t really do anything about it because I did not have any adults who were particularly aware of my condition, and health wasn’t foremost on my mind. In college, the sleep deprivation and over-exerting continued as I was a D1 college swimmer. I was running my body into the ground and it wasn’t until junior year that I had the courage to quit my sport and focus on health and things I loved. By this point, I had developed quite a bit of joint pain… in my low back and shoulders, which was continuously diagnosed as “tendonitis”, but my body couldn’t seem to heal itself properly, even with adequate rest. In college, I transitioned to healthier eating habits until after college when I went gluten-free and learned each year how to cook and eat better real foods. Post-college, I had surgery for endometriosis and I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (for which I have a sleep appliance). To this day, when get sick, I tend to get sicker than those around me, particularly in regard to stomach illnesses. Injuries – especially joint injuries – tend to not heal properly. For example, I fell off my bike three years ago and my thumb has never been the same. I have knee pain from 6 years ago. My injuries all tend to be rather “vague” joint injuries which do not seem to be helped much by physical therapy or anti-inflammatories. My biggest concern is my constant fatigue and brain fog issues. Last week I was just officially diagnosed with estrogen dominance after doing a dutch hormone test. I don’t know what the treatment plan is yet for estrogen dominance. My progesterone and testosterone levels are good, but my estrogen levels are high. I experience so many PMS symptoms, including but certainly not limited to bloating (up to 10 lbs a month), bad body odor – even immediately following a shower, brain fog, anxiety, mood swings, etc. I have a left lazy -eye (strabismus) which contributes to fatigue and focus difficulties. For the past 5 years I have eaten a very clean diet – paleo style, I exercise regularly with mild-moderate effort/moderate length workouts (walking, running, intervals, body strength exercises). These workouts are nothing like the grueling workouts of my past. I have a low tolerance for high-fiber foods like oatmeal and broccoli and quinoa. These create excessive bloating and gas. For the past 5 years I regularly get ~7 hrs of a sleep a night and for the past 6 months I get about 8 hours of sleep a night. I no longer have a stressful job. I have a good prayer life and I am have decreased so many stressors in my life. It seems as though my energy levels and immune system are just not quite balanced. I am a highly sensitive type – and I tend to be very aware of my body and I react strongly to medicines/stimulants/caffeine/etc. I still experience sweaty underarms, clammy hands, and social anxiety. I would love to simply get to my “core” health issue, assuming there is a single issue. I am SO determined to regain my health. I am motivated and I would follow instructions to do whatever it takes to help my body find homeostasis again. It can be so overwhelming to even know where to go next. My body just doesn’t “feel” right, my energy doesn’t “feel” right, my mind doesn’t “feel” right, but I don’t know how to go about pinpointing the issue. Maybe it really just is the estrogen levels, but shouldn’t there be something that made the estrogen levels too high in the first place? As an interesting side note, I did a 7 day bone broth and coconut water fast last year, and during that time I had no pain in my body, I slept well, and I had insanely high energy levels. This is largely how I know for sure that my not “Feeling” right is a true assessment and there is a better , healthier, happier way to live! Once I started eating again, all the typical symptoms came back. Another side note, I’ve had bags under my eyes for as long as I can remember! Pictures show they’ve been there at least since 7th grade. Alas, I have failed to make this question short for you! I apologize! And I thank you for everything you do to educate your listeners on healing! God bless you! Tina

Donna: Thank You Dr. Cabral for sharing your knowledge & research with everyone! I have a brown looking age spot/liver spot/ sun spot just a bit smaller than a dime on my cheek-bone and a few smaller ones on my face. I eat free range chicken/eggs, grassfed beef, ground turkey,occasional good sourced pork, organic fruit/vegetables, kerry gold butter, xtra virgin unrefined coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, nuts (NO peanuts) and seeds and lots of greens. I’m 5’6″, weighing 128#’s, I work out, and am 51. This year I have done your 7 day detox, the 90 day candida gut cleanse, a liver cleanse, and anionic foot cleanse. What else can I do? I also have puffiness/bags under my eyes and dry hard skin at both corners of all my fingernails, the skin at the outside of pinky toes, and skin in front of all toes. I take pharmaceutical grade fish oil, vit. D, calm magnesium, your B complex, probiotic, your ascorbic acid, Great Lakes Gelatin/collagen, Dream Protein, drink at least 64 0z. of water daily with Bragg vinegar, or essential oils in it and one-two small cups of organic coffee. Looking forward to new ideas to try! Thank You!!! Donna

Thank you for tuning into today’s Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community’s questions!