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19:21 · Feb 23, 2025

Can Extra Iodine Improve Hashimoto's Thyroiditis?

Dr. Anthony Chaffee addresses thyroid health questions, specifically focusing on Hashimoto's thyroiditis and iodine supplementation. He explains that iodine deficiency depends on soil content and recommends seafood as the best natural source, while cautioning against aggressive iodine supplementation for Hashimoto's patients. The discussion reveals his theory that autoimmune conditions aren't truly autoimmune but rather immune responses to foreign substances like plant lectins and glyphosate.

Using celiac disease as an analogy, Dr. Anthony Chaffee explains how antibodies attack toxins bound to cells rather than the cells themselves, causing collateral damage. He emphasizes that TPO and TG antibodies can remain elevated for 1-3 years even after strict dietary intervention, sharing a case study where a patient's antibodies dropped significantly after 8 months on a strict lion diet. The episode also covers optimal TSH levels (below 2.0, ideally below 1.5) and the importance of T4 to T3 conversion.

Key Takeaways

  • Hashimoto's antibodies can take 1-3 years to normalize even with perfect adherence to carnivore diet, with one patient's TPO dropping from 650 to 50 after 8 months of strict red meat and water
  • TSH levels above 2.0 double thyroid cancer risk, making levels below 1.5 ideal rather than the standard reference range of 0.5-4.5
  • Zinc deficiency prevents T4 to T3 conversion, and beef provides the second-best zinc source after oysters for proper thyroid hormone function
  • Autoimmune conditions may result from immune responses to plant toxins like glyphosate and lectins rather than true autoimmunity, which is why ruminant-only diets work best for autoimmune patients
  • Hashimoto's and Iodine Deficiency - Do You Need Supplements to Lower Antibodies?
  • The Real Cause of Autoimmune Diseases - Celiac Disease and Gluten Theory
  • Why Lion Diet Works for Autoimmune Conditions - Plant Toxins and Antibody Response
  • Hypothyroidism Symptoms and TSH Levels - Optimal Thyroid Testing and Treatment

This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.

[Music] do any of your Hashimoto's patients require iodine uh to lower antibodies line diet for three months and an antibodies are still high TP TP TPO is over a th000 and TG is over 500 um so not not necessarily you know lower I they don't necessarily need iodine to lower their antibodies may need iodine if they're deficient and that just comes from the soil if it's not in the soil it's not going to get in the grass it's not going to get in the meat it's not going to if it's not in the soil it's not going to get in in the broccoli you know just not going to get in the food um so check your iodine and if you are deficient then you know eating richer iodine Foods I mean Seafood will typically have quite a quite a lot of iodine just because the ocean is quite replete with um with iodine so that's like sort of the ocean soil is just the water right so the water is is usually quite replete with with iodine and so Seafood typically has good is a good source of iodine and if you need to supplement with drops just do that gently you know um and you just you I don't think that that taking iodine is is dangerous for most people there there are um you know suggestions in the literature to say that you want to be careful with Hashimoto uh and supplementing iodine for some reason that can exacerbate Hashimoto I don't know why that would be I don't know if that applies to uh carnivores may or may not you know there's a lot of differences um between um these groups you know people that eat differently but at the end of the day you know you need iodine but you know just on just you know Playing devil's advocate and just being sa playing on the safe side just might as well just go slowly check your iodine again and just use uh the least amount that you need to get you in an optimal range for iodine as far as your antibodies are concerned that that shouldn't really um be required to lower your antibodies it can take um well over a year or two before you get your your antibodies down to nothing um think about celiac disease now I do I do a video on uh YouTube called um the real cause of autoimmune diseases and I talk about my theory on what autoimmunity is and how it's not really autoimmune I don't I don't think that it is um and and I look at it and one of the examples I use is celiac disease celiac disease is an autoimmune disease but it's called a gluten mediated autoimmune disease me and that's because you have to eat gluten in order to have this this so-called autoimmune condition so is that really an autoimmune condition if you need something else to kick it off I would I would argue that it's not and um and here's why so gluten is a lectin that's a plant toxin it's a protein with a carbohydrate substructure it combine to all sorts of different antigens on the surface of your cells and so it binds and damages your gut cells called ocytes and that can cause leaky gut that can cause all sorts of different um gut permability problems and issues as well so whenever your body is being attacked you mount an immune response to this right that's the norm that's a normal response and so in this case you're getting antibodies towards that gluten that is attacking your um is attacking your uh your anteras sites right so you get these antibodies now they're attacking the gluten that's on your anas sites but now this there's this gluten terasite complex or gluten antigen complex and those antibodies may be attacking those but you're the the cells are getting hit in the crossfire so this is like civilian casualties so the antibodies aren't attacking your body they're attacking the gluten that is attacking your body so it's mounting in a defense right but because that gluten is stuck to your cells your cells are getting hit in the crossfire right and so this damages your your V and your micro get flattening you get Mal absorption issues you get all all sorts of problems but then when you remove the gluten problem goes away and your body stops attacking the gluten and the tissue can heal and in a number of weeks even four to six weeks you get a complete uh revitalization of your anas sites and your Villi and your microvilli right even though the antibodies stay elevated for up to three years after your last exposure to gluten and that's important because those antibodies are not now attacking your body so that's not an autoimmune disease is it because those antibodies are not attacking your body they're attacking the gluten and I think that's what's going on with all autoimmune conditions including Hashimoto and so it can take a while for these things I gluten is just in your gut and then comes out and then you stop eating it goes away but these other lectins and other sorts of things glyphosate all these other sorts of things it can get in your body and potentially attack different tissues organs and things like that and and have your body mount um you know an immune response as a result of that that can stay in your system for a while it can take take a while for your body to clear that so you may have ongoing sort of symptoms and obviously if you keep ingesting these things that can keep reintroducing um these problems um these problem sort of chemicals into your body which is why like a lion dig just ruminant meat um like beef and lamb you know seems to work best for people with autoimmune conditions because I think that it's just eliminating out absolutely as much of these potential uh problems that that will attack your body and your body then responds to with antibodies um uh as possible hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck in work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys even then you know if you get rid of all these things you may still have these antibodies elevated but if this theory is true which you know it is Theory then those antibodies shouldn't be doing anything negative to your body just like in Celiac right and so as long but they're waiting there to pounce right and so the second you eat something you're not supposed to and those things hit onto your thyroid you've got all these antibodies that are just waiting to blow it up and so you can have a serious problem and of course of course then the antibodies will go up again because oh we have a problem so you know when you get exposed to some sort of pathogen and you make and you've and you make mount an immune response to them you you keep these antibodies around for a long time this is this is the premise behind uh vaccines right and um you know so then you're you're mounting this immune response but then you track your titers over time and you can see that they're actually still elevated for a while and they might go a bit lower and a bit lower and so to work in the hospitals you have to be um inoculated to Hepatitis B among other things and so you have to check your Hepatitis B Tighter and make sure that you have a high enough antibody level that if you get exposed with like a needle prick or you know get exposed to somebody's blood and they have Hepatitis B which is very contagious that you know it's not going to U that your your antibodies are high enough that you'll be able to just stomp these things down before they you know get in and start causing damage to your liver right and um so that can be the same thing with Hashimoto right so and with Celiac again three years these things can be elevated right so you have very elevated Hashimoto's antibodies and so it can take years before those things come down but they they do sort of steadily come down steadily come down steadily come down that's sort of what a normal thing a normal thing that we see with antibodies in general you know and but it could be that even though these things your elevator as long as you're eating properly they hopefully won't be attacking and damaging your thyroid so long story short no I don't think you need iodine in order to lower your antibodies because I think there's a different mechanism going on you need you need iodine for other reasons though so make sure you're getting enough iodine and then just keep track of your of your antibodies be very strict red meat and water because that's the thing with Hashimoto is you know if you if you have Crohn's disease and you eat something that you shouldn't you have bloody diarrhea for the next three days and you're just you're hating life and so you're like okay I'm never eating that again it's very very very uh self-motivating hash motiv it can take longer than that you you may just feel run down in in the next s week or two not even realize it was because you you had something you outside of plan I mean some people with autoimmune issues can't deal with um you know monogastric animals like pigs and chicken fish if they're farm raised and they're being fed a bunch of corn soy and garbage that they're not designed to eat you know they're not going to be able to to process those toxins properly and it's going to get into their meat and their fat and that can get into you and you can get these lectin and glyphosat-prozess it appears that ruminant animals can actually um break down glyphosate um which is really important because that's just everywhere now and it's in the bloody rainwater in some places now so you know it's um it's something to think about and so really really really want to just stick to just red me water and you know I I had um I'll give you a timeline here from what I've seen so I had a lady that had her TPO antibodies were 650 and her t antibodies were 50 and after eight months of a strict lion diet strict lion diet her TPO went from 650 down to 50 and her TG went from 50 to zero or you know non- detectable anyway so but that's in eight months of being perfect right if you're not perfect it's like you're getting exposed to that pathogen again and those that immune response is going to spike up weend right so if you go and you know travel somewhere and just say oh well I'm just going to let it go for a couple weeks because you know I'm on vacation or whatever you might feel pretty wretched for the next several weeks after that um and you you could check your antibodies they might have spiked up again so Spike up real quick and take a it take a very long time to slow to come down and then you eat something else spikes up again so you have to think about this in in that context you know anytime you eat you're exposing yourself to another pathogen your body's going to jack up your immune response so um keep that in mind hey everyone really happy to announce a new sponsor for the show for everybody down in Australia Stockman Stakes who are delivering highquality grass-fed and finished pasture raised beef and other meats flash frozen and vacuum sealed tood door something that I've been enjoying a lot of myself recently as well they also have a great range of specialty items such as high fat keto mints and carnivore beef and organs mints with li kidneys and beef heart as well so use code chaffy today for free order of beef mints or another specialty gift along with your order at Stockman stakes. comom and I'll see you over there thanks guys Matt says that he has all the symptoms of hypothyroidism um low tea and low in some minerals and vitamins I had three thyroid tests monthly TSH is 2.4 uh 2.2 1.8 and then 4.3 and um plus patient two I don't know what that is oh part two okay let's see if we can find part two that's a might be a bit of pain in the ass where is that where's part two um oh it's actually another Super Chat okay so here we go and Matt says part two um test the day uh prescribed came back 1.7 now confused uh free T3 and four generally okay free T3 was low once reverse T3 is high been carnivore for four months any ideas and there's a part three let's see I I put all these together in my head um got low levels of TPO antibodies which is Hashimoto's antibodies just under normal so that's the thing the these reference ranges for the for the antibodies are a bit are a bit weird because they're saying below this amount of antibodies is is normal if you have antibodies towards you know for for an autoimmune condition then you have that autoimmune condition by definition that's how you diagnose these things and it just means that you're not in a flare up and so you know and uh which you know if you've been carnivore for 3 months that can help bring those those levels down but if you have antibodies then you have that condition right so even though it's under the normal level you you I would say that you do you do have Hashimoto's disease right um he goes on to say that um no improvements and not sure whether to keep taking Leo thyroxine or weight it out a bit well as long as you're as well first of all you I can't give out you know any specific medical advice you know because you're you're not my patient but um uh we can't give that over over the internet but just generally speaking um you know you need to work with your doctor to to to try to get you on the right right levels of thyroid hormone to get your TSH really under two is ideal they you know reference range goes from like 0.5 to 4.5 is a pretty pretty normal reference range for for TSH but anything TSH above 2.0 actually doubles your risk for developing thyroid cancer so that's obviously not a good reference range so above two is is not acceptable in my mind so you want you need that below two really below 1.5 is ideal below two anyway and so you seem to be there that's great but then you also need to look at your T4 and your T3 you can have perfectly normal and uh even optimal levels of T4 and you may have pretty substandard T3 if you're not converting T4 into T3 T4 converts into T3 T3 does the work and uh so being low on zinc for example um can mean that you won't convert T4 into T3 there are other reasons as well but but zinc is a major one and so you know you make sure that you have enough zinc beef is uh an excellent source of zinc the best source of zinc or oysters and um second best is is uh beef and so you know the meat products that you're eating um you know should help with your zinc but you know that can take time to come up as well so you know if you have optimal levels of of T4 and optimal levels of TSH but you're not converting into T3 you can still feel pretty crummy you know so think about that and also your reverse T3 your reverse T3 basically counteracts your free T3 and makes it so it doesn't doesn't work properly right so it slows it down so you look at that ratio between those two and and if your reverse T3 is high you can actually um you know lower your your thyroid function so that's important to understand as well um I I would definitely keep it up um and I would get on to your doctor about getting on the proper dose of of either Leo thyroxine which is T4 um or if you're not if it's not getting into T3 properly even taking like a slow relase T3 or a desiccated um Pig thyroid is um it's called different things in different countries but it's prescription and um and uh and that can give you all the t's t0 T1 T2 T3 and T4 so it gives you all those t's and um [Music] um and uh so you know that's important to uh to look at as well it may be that you need uh something besides just T4 you know that's that's what's commonly prescribed for people and and some doctors be like no no no that's the only thing you need need but it's not really you know there's some people that um don't convert properly so that that's the other thing you need to to think about and um you know you need to get someone who understands about reverse T3 uh because you know you might need to get up to a slightly higher level um with your T3 in order to offset that reverse T3 and um yeah and that's just one of the ways your body actually slows down your metabolism when if if you're doing long-term fast or you're in a f or something like that one of the things that happens is your reverse T3 goes up to dampen the effects of your T3 that's the the idea anyway and so if that's elevated it may take some time before that can come down eating enough showing your body that you're not in a fam you don't need to slow down your metabolism encouraging your metabolism to go up instead of down and um and maybe that you need just more um Med medication support more thyroid support in the meantime until that sorts itself out so you know some things to look at anyway and so three is great and 2.9 is is a catastrophe like oh they're basically the same aren't they you know so if we're calling 2.9 bad we should probably be thinking about three as bad too so you want to be more into the middle of that range above four is where I'd like to see people as T3
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