The Thyroid Solution

NEW HOPE for

Thyroid Problems and Hashimoto’s Disease

Note: This is taken from Dr Conners’ Lecture on Thyroid

issues so please excuse some grammatical inconsistencies.

Hi, I’m Dr. Conners

In the next few minutes I’m going to reveal to you how millions of men and women just like you
with Thyroid problems are being misdiagnosed and mis-managed.

I know that’s a bold statement but lets face it….

You’re here today for one of 3 reasons…

1. You think you have a thyroid problem…you have thyroid-like symptoms, but your lab tests are
“normal” and your doctor doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with you—not physically anyway.

2. You’ve been diagnosed with a thyroid problem, such as a low thyroid –also called hypo-thyroid
—and you’re taking Armour or Synthyroid or Cytomel or Thyrolar or something similar…BUT
you still have thyroid symptoms! Maybe you continue to lose hair, gain weight, can’t lose weight,
etc. Even worse, you’ve been told that your lab numbers look “NORMAL” ---there’s that word
again.
 3. Or the third reason you’re here…you’ve already been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s –an
autoimmune thyroid condition…and you’re being “treated” for it, but your current treatment isn’t
working—you still don’t feel right—and you may have been told that your lab numbers look
‘normal’ now—but you don’t feel normal.

What’s going to shock you and probably make you mad is this….your thyroid can malfunction in
over 30 different ways….and only ONE of those ways will respond well to taking thyroid
hormones, at least in the long run.

And the icing on the cake is this…over 70% of people (some more recent studies show upwards of
90+%) diagnosed with low thyroid actually have an Autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s
Thyroid—since this is so common, I’m definitely going to spend some time on this.

That means over 80% of you are not going to get better by doing nothing and 80% of you are not
going to better even by taking the medications that your well-meaning, but uninformed doctor
gave you.

You’re still going to have some degree of:

*Being Tired, Sluggish

* Can't lose weight even with exercise

* Feel cold in hands, feet, or all over

* Require excessive amounts of sleep to function properly

* Increase in weight gain even with low-calorie diet

* Gain weight easily

* Difficult, infrequent bowel movements

* Depression, lack of motivation

* Morning headaches that wear off as the day progresses

* Outer third of the eyebrow thins

 * Thinning of the hair on scalp, face or genitals or excessive falling hair

* Dryness of skin and/or scalp

* Mental sluggishness

* Nervous and emotional

* Insomnia

* Night sweats

But here’s the good news

I’m going to show you how your thyroid problem can be helped; how your symptoms may
disappear to the point that some of you may not even need your medication.

What makes my approach different?

To begin, what makes me different from every other endocrinologist, Internist and GP you’ve see
to try to feel good again is my treatment philosophy…

Treat the person, not their diagnosis.

Why would I say that? Well people are mis-diagnosed every day with everything from cancer to
strep throat. And remember, thyroid problems are HUGELY mis-diagnosed.

The second reason I say that is that a “diagnosis” is just a label. It’s generic—really generic, as
you’ll see in just a second.
A traditional diagnosis of “hypothyroid” or “low thyroid” just isn’t good enough. The question
needing to be addressed is: “Why is your thyroid acting that way?”

It’s just like if you came to me and said, “I’ve been diagnosed with Migraine headaches. Help me.”
Ok, great. There are about 50 reasons why you could have migraine headaches. The diagnosis gives
us a place to start, but we need to find the reason WHY.

And you can’t just turn to the “thyroid” chapter of a book and see the 3 things to do for every
thyroid case. That sounds ridiculous but that is EXACTLY how you’ve been treated, isn’t it?
Blood work shows high TSH, low T4  Merck Manual (or the last drug rep lecture) recommends
Synthyroid.

Instead, in my office I look at a functional diagnosis. How is your thyroid functioning? What are
all the different factors that can affect your thyroid?

So, I may find out that you have:

Thyroid Hormone Resistance

Or

Underconversion of your Thyroid Hormones

OR

A TH1 autoimmune attack against your thyroid

Now that tells me what to do about it---not just “low thyroid.” You need to understand this point:
Having “low thyroid” is a SYMPTOM of a CAUSE; it is an EFFECT, not the problem itself.

Treating “low thyroid” with medication without correcting the

CAUSE is like mopping up the Gulf oil spoil without ever ‘capping’
the hole.
And the good thing is, if I find that you have Thyroid resistance, or Underconversion or even the
Autoimmune Attack—there’s natural things I can do to help you….really help you!

My first passion is Applied Kinesiology and Neurology. Applied Kinesiology and Neurology is a
specialized approach to looking at the brain and nervous system, functionally. Science has shown
us in the last twenty years that the brain can change, re-mold, and create new connections; based on
the stimulation you give it. It has been proven, over and over again, that it is possible to
systematically diagnose specific areas of the brain that are weak, and change those weak areas
through non-invasive rehabilitation.

I began my work by exclusively treating chronically ill patients with chronic pain and fatigue. By
using our Brain-Based Therapy approach, we were helping people turn their lives around, giving
them a chance to live well again, after countless doctors and specialists had given up.

It didn't take me long to realize (and you may have come to this conclusion because of your own
circumstance) that when a person has a health condition that is not considered life threatening, and
there is no easy fix, our medical system is completely inadequate. I would see the desperation on
the faces and in the eyes of the patients I treated. They were yearning to have someone listen to
them, to spend the time necessary to get to the bottom of their problem, and most importantly, to
help them break the chains their illness had put on their lives.

I understood them, and I knew I had to engineer my practice to allow me to function as the doctor I
needed to be for them. I couldn't rush people in and out in 10 minutes like commonly happens in
the insurance medical model. I couldn't squabble with insurance companies, trying to get them to
pay for testing that they considered unnecessary, because we were stepping outside of the box. I not
only stepped outside the box, I RAN out of the box. Inside that box was a system that never could
help the people in the way they needed to be helped.

Although I get great results with our Brain Based approach, I realize it’s not the complete picture
for every case. The brain and its function is the base of what I refer to as the ‘triangle of health’.
Neurology is what everything rests on but the ‘triangle’ is an equilateral triangle with all three sides
of equal importance. The three sides are: 1. Your Brain and its neuro-connections. 2. Body
chemistry and cellular function. 3. Your spirit and its connection to the Creator.
This philosophy of healthcare leads me on different journeys of discovery to find what is missing in
each case, every individual who walks in my office. If I look at you like every other doctor has, I
will come to the same erroneous conclusions. Other doctors look at the human body as if it was
compartmentalized. They focus on brain and nervous system function, without looking at the
hormone system, immune system, and gastrointestinal function in harmonious conjunction. I knew
I would have to understand and look at all these systems, at the same time, if I wanted greater and
more consistent results. These three sides of the ‘triangle of health’ are interdependent,
interrelated, and homogonously connected.

So I became heavily trained (and continue constantly) in Functional Endocrinology, Functional

Immunology and Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis as well as studying for my Diplomate in
Neurology and Certification in Whole Food Nutrition, and Naturopathy. In short, being a
chiropractor just wasn’t ‘cutting it’!

It was this intense study of physiology, neurology, and immunology that led to my greatest
discovery...everything in the body effects everything else. In order to properly treat and manage
any chronically sick or ill patient you must look at EVERYTHING, all at once.

So my approach is to ask the questions:

What is the mechanism?

Why is this happening?

To help you understand how much more complex this is than just looking at a TSH level… , and
why your other doctors haven’t been able to help you…let’s talk a little bit about your how your
thyroid NORMALLY works, so you can understand what happens when it’s UNDER functioning
and OVER functioning.
First of all, a part of your brain called the hypothalamus sends a chemical message (TRH thyroid
releasing hormone) to your pituitary gland, also in your brain, telling it that more thyroid hormone
is needed in the body. Giving a patient synthetic thyroid hormone in the form of a drug, further
suppresses the pituitary output and you end up worse in the long run. (The hormonal system
operates on a negative feedback system)

Next, your pituitary gland releases TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which signals the thyroid to
get to work. This is by far the step that gets most analyzed in a traditional medical setting.
Certainly problems arise at this step. Just because this step is normal does not mean that
thyroid function is occurring normally as you will see.

Your thyroid then releases T4 (Thyroxine) and T3 (Triiodothyronine)-- by far producing much
more T4 than T3. The important part here to understand is that T4 is inactive.
When your thyroid releases the thyroid hormones they then must be bound to a protein carrier. Sort
of like a taxi cab for the hormone. The protein molecule takes the hormone for a ride in the body to
where it must then get out of the taxi cab or what is otherwise known as cleaving itself from its
protein carrier.

Once it is free of its protein carrier it can then do its work, which is vital to every single cell in the
body.

Many women have a problem at this step. They can’t cleave the hormone from its protein carrier.
Therefore even if they are producing enough thyroid hormones they don’t have enough free
hormones in circulation to do work. This is called a binding protein problem. This will create
symptoms of hypothyroidism despite normal thyroid levels on lab testing.

Many women, especially those on replacement estrogen suffer from this binding protein problem.

Your body must then convert inactive T4 to active T3. It accomplishes this through an enzyme
known as 5 Diodinase. Many women, for a lot of reasons, have a huge problem with this step.
This is called Underconversion.

The active thyroid hormones in circulation then must signal back to the brain (hypothalamus and
pituitary) that enough hormones are now in circulation to shut off the production. This is known
as a negative feedback loop. For sure, this is one of the most mis-diagnosed problems for women
with thyroid symptoms.
But here’s the most common cause of thyroid problems in America an autoimmune attack on
the thyroid.

Your immune system is mistakenly attacking and destroying your thyroid gland.
The immune system, and all the things that effect the immune system like blood sugar problems,
insulin problems, cortisol problems--(remember everything, effects everything else), is a huge
missing factor. For the vast majority of you, your immune system will NEVER be looked at,
"dissected", or measured.

Instead, you will be considered to be “managed’ and treated properly when your TSH normalizes
with the replacement hormones. This is how other doctors measure success.

In a sense, you’re having your TSH managed, but not the underlying mechanism for the thyroid
issue (their autoimmune attack).
In most cases, since the actual autoimmune response is ignored, over time you will continue to lose
more thyroid cells, and the requirements for your thyroid replacement hormone continue to rise.
Even more importantly, despite the fact that "TSH is considered managed" with replacement
thyroid hormones, Autoimmune Thyroid patients will continue to have all the symptoms of low
thyroid function.

Uncorrected, ‘low thyroid’ symptoms are the least of your concerns:

1. FIRST - Your thyroid is being DESTROYED

2. Then the Auto-Immune attack moves on to OTHER organs!!!
3. It PROGRESSES throughout the body and destroys your life!

So in a nutshell, you are guaranteed to fail with replacement hormones alone, because 90% of the
time the primary mechanism is an autoimmune attack against the thyroid gland, and the
replacement hormone does nothing to stop, slow down, or modulate this immune attack.
Treating Hashimoto’s patients with thyroid hormones alone is like giving someone antibiotics for
the common cold—which is a virus. Antibiotics won’t do anything for a virus. And Thyroid
hormones won’t do anything for Hashimoto’s.

Since the autoimmune mechanism is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the United
States, you would think that it is commonly screened for. In reality, rarely is it ever checked. This is
mostly because the medical treatment would still be thyroid replacement hormones. (They don’t
have any other ‘fix’)

Why run extra tests if you are not going to alter the treatment based off the test results? This is
considered "waste" in the insurance model that has become so prevalent in this country.
Allow me to give you a list of all the different thyroid markers available and critical to making an
accurate and comprehensive diagnosis.

1. TSH (usually done by your MD)

2. Total Thyroxine (usually done by your MD)

3. Free Thyroxine (occasionally done by your MD)

4. Free Thyroxine Index (rarely done by your MD)

5. Resin T3 Uptake (rarely done by your MD)

6. Free T3 (occasionally done by your MD)

7. Reverse T3 (rarely done by your MD)

8. T3S (rarely done by your MD)

9. T3AC (rarely done by your MD)

10. TPO Antibodies (rarely done by your MD)

11. TBG Antibodies (rarely done by your MD)

12. Cytokine Testing for Auto-Immune Panels (rarely done by your MD)

Now do you think for one minute your doctor or doctors have run all of these markers (or
even half of them)? And even if they had the knowledge and foresight to run them could they even
analyze them correctly?

So What Can Be Done To Halt the Autoimmune Attack

Against the Thyroid?
In Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroid, your ONLY chance at ever feeling normal again is to
modulate the immune attack against the gland. Supporting the thyroid nutritionally or giving
synthetic hormones completely ignores the underlying cause. Your body is literally "chewing up"
your thyroid tissue and the longer you go without modulating and calming the immune attack, the
more thyroid cells you lose.

Before I tell you about our unique approach to modulating the immune system, let's talk about the
traditional treatment used in most autoimmune conditions. Whether a person is diagnosed with
Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, or Multiple Sclerosis, the basic medical treatment is cortisone,
other immune suppressing drugs, or thymectomy. In other words complete immune suppression.

The approach is to suppress the immune system as an attempt to dampen the attack against the
thyroid gland or other organ. Unfortunately, this model creates many obvious side effects and is not
clinically effective because it ignores the cause. To be totally honest, this rarely is done in
Hashimoto's. In Hashimoto's, usually the immune treatment is…NO treatment at all. They just
completely ignore the immune issue, because, as I have stated, it is rarely diagnosed correctly.

If you want to save yourself a laundry list of side effects (oh my gosh, I could go on forever here)
from the immune suppressing drugs, and you want to avoid completely shutting down your
immune system (do we even need to discuss what this would do to your body), you need an
approach that is centered on specific immune evaluation.

You need someone who is going to "dissect" your immune system with lab panels, and make
changes based on the specifics of YOUR immune physiology.

Before we can begin to modulate the immune system, a very specific evaluation must be done. It is
terribly dangerous to suppress your entire immune system. The immune system does more than just
protect us from foreign invaders like bacteria, parasites, or viruses. It is involved with destroying
our own cells to help us eliminate dead or senile (old) cells. This process is called cellular apoptosis
and if this system fails, cancer develops.

Let's Talk A Little Bit about Your Immune System

The immune system has two sides like a teeter-totter. The first side, called our "T"-Helper 1 System
(TH-1 System), is our immediate immune system. It is responsible for an immediate attack against
foreign invaders like bacteria or parasites. The cells involved in the TH-1 system are called
macrophages, natural killer cells, and cytotoxic T Cells. It is our front line defense.

The other side of our immune teeter-totter is our T-Helper 2 (TH-2) system. It involves the
production of antibodies to "tag" onto invaders so our TH-1 system can more easily destroy the
invaders. It is our B cells that are responsible for producing the antibodies.

Most of the time our TH-1 system will successfully destroy invaders, before antibodies are ever
produced. If the invader is not destroyed by the TH-1 system immediately, the TH-2 antibody
system gets involved and produces antibodies. These antibodies are like attaching strobe lights to
the foreign invaders. It makes it extremely easy for the TH-1 cells to find and kill the foreign
invaders. .

In order for the various immune cells of the TH-1 and TH-2 system to communicate and coordinate
their function they produce little messenger proteins called cytokines. In an autoimmune condition,
like Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroid, the two sides of the immune teeter-totter get terribly
imbalanced. It is almost like there is a person on only one side, which if you've ever seen a teeter-
totter, you know that this does not work. It is this dysregulation in the immune system, the
imbalance between the two systems, which tricks your body into attacking its own tissue.

This "dominance" on one side of the immune system is also why the hormone replacement model
doesn't work, even though lab markers may look normal for a time. (Remember I told you I would
get to this)

The messengers that are produced in the autoimmune attack actually block the thyroid receptor
sites from producing normal responses. This means even if you have an adequate amount of thyroid
hormone in the blood stream, the hormones cannot bind to your cells and create a normal metabolic
response. Which means...you still have thyroid symptoms even with normal levels of hormones
circulating in your blood stream.

Normally when a thyroid hormone binds to a cell it causes the cell to increase its metabolism and
this increases the production of certain proteins inside the cell. In Hashimoto's this response is
diminished by the inflammatory messengers. So even when the thyroid hormones bind to cell
receptors there isn't a very strong response. This is exactly why the replacement model of thyroid
treatment is such a failing model, especially in Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroid.

If you do NOT Detox the Antigen (the original CAUSE of the Auto-Immune attack), the
DESTRUCTION continues!

Most doctors don't understand this concept. They will try to make your lab panels look "normal"
with replacement hormones and when you tell them you still have the same symptoms they are
going to assume that you are depressed, or that it is "all in your head." Or if you are continually
gaining weight, without ANY change in diet, they will assume you are just overeating...that you
need to exercise.

So How Did You Get An Autoimmune Thyroid? What

Caused Your Body To Attack Your Own Thyroid?

All Auto-immune thyroid sufferers start with some sort of genetic susceptibility that predisposes
them to the disorder. At some point the genes for the disease "turn on" and the destructive immune
attack against thyroid tissue begins. Possible triggers that are known to "turn on" autoimmune
attacks in general are:

1. Environmental Compounds - things like heavy metals, pesticides, etc.

2. Endocrine Imbalances

3. Chemical Exposures

4. Stress Responses
 5. Antigen Responses

Any number or combination of these factors combined with some genetic susceptibility can "turn
on" the autoimmune response and lead to the slow gradual destruction of your thyroid cells by your
own body.

Most importantly we must understand that once these genes turn on we have no way of completely
turning it off. Think of these genes as a light switch that when turned on, the light switch breaks.
You can no longer turn the light switch off but we can modulate the immune system like a dimmer
switch. With the right protocols we can essentially turn down the dimmer switch until the
autoimmune attack is virtually imperceptible.

Because of our understanding of functional immunology and functional endocrinology we take a

very detailed look at someone who has a thyroid problem.

So, in my office, we start with a comprehensive thyroid panel, including antibodies, to see exactly
what the source of the thyroid problem is.

We then run laboratory panels such as the Adrenal Stress Index to look at the health of your adrenal
glands, and blood sugar, insulin and cortisol regulation because surges in insulin really promote the
Autoimmune Attack on the thyroid. The insulin surge actually stimulates the immune messengers
responsible for your autoimmune attack.

Now here’s an important point—you don’t have to be diabetic to have surges in insulin! And you
may be thinking, “My blood sugar tests were normal.” And so were your thyroid tests weren’t
they? (Sarcasm, sorry). The reference ranges on your lab tests are garbage. They’re just a bell curve
analysis of a bunch of sick people who got their blood drawn. They throw out the really high and
really low and everything left is “normal.” That’s why we use Functional Blood Chemistry
Analysis-we use a different set of ranges and we pick up a lot of things that are causing problems
and need to be addressed.
We will also do Dietary Sensitivity & Gene Panel testing (a stool sample and tissue swab test).
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Many people have a GENETIC problem with
gluten. And it’s like putting gasoline on a fire. The person eats gluten. Their immune system fires
up and attacks their nerve tissues. The worse kind of genetic problem with gluten is called celiac
disease. There is a STRONG connection between thyroid problems and Gluten Sensitivity.

We run labs to look at your hormone regulation because surges in estrogen are like fan the flames
and increase the autoimmune attack. This is why pregnancy and childbirth are common triggers of
the Auto-immune attack. (This is why many women in peri-menopause who have hot flashes,
insomnia, and irritability –actually have a thyroid problem, and why some women first experience
thyroid symptoms in pregnancy)

We do labs to look for Gastrointestinal Infections (GI) - there are a number of GI infections that
promote the autoimmune response. Your gut has a huge number of healthy bacteria that live and
actually produce positive benefits for normal functioning. When the balance between good and bad
bacteria is skewed, called dysbiosis, it is known to promote autoimmune inflammatory responses.
We do lab testing to assess the health of the GI system. If we ignore this, our chance of fixing your
the autoimmune thyroid condition is greatly compromised.

When we are dealing with Autoimmune Thyroid we may need to go even further in our assessment.
We may run a cytokine panel to determine what side of your TH-1 and TH-2 teeter-totter is
dominant. Next we may run a panel that is going to look at all of your lymphocytes (your T Cells)
called a Lymphocyte Subpopulation analysis and Natural Killer Cell Activity.

These tests breakdown and dissect what your immune system is doing. They tell me if your
immune system is unbalanced and if it is unbalanced—why. Is it because your immune system is
trying to kill something? This is called an active antigen pattern.

Is your immune system NOT trying to kill something, but is simply dys-regulated? This is called an
immune dysregulation pattern.
We have to find out which one you have because they are treated in COMPLETELY different
ways.

That probably sounds very complicated and like a lot of tests, doesn't it?

Well it is. And I know you may have already had a laundry list of tests, but I will guarantee you
haven’t had these. Even if you had been lucky enough to get some of these tests done, the doctor
who ordered them didn’t know how to interpret them, or what to do with the results. (No slam on
your previous doctors. It’s just the awful truth of the state of health care).

What a terrible joke! The system is broken and it’s no wonder people suffering with immune
imbalances and autoimmune conditions literally have NO chance in that system.

I commonly get asked…”Dr. X, my doctor has ran lab tests in the past and the insurance paid for
them”. I hate to tell you but they run the bare minimum or just run the completely wrong tests. In
the past I persuaded some patient’s medical doctors to run some of the tests and try to get the
insurance to pay for them...and guess what? The insurance company said they were medically
unnecessary and the patient ended up with a lab bill that was 5 times more than if we had ordered
them directly from our office.

I no longer do that. We are going to determine what needs to be run and we are going to order it.
We are going to work together to solve your thyroid problem…or not.

I like to get this in the open up front because it always tends to be a question. These tests are not
covered by insurance but they are necessary if you want to EVER feel good again.

We get results because we are thorough and look for the right things.
We don’t cut corners to save costs. This is your health on the line.

Believe me, after you’ve seen some truly desperate people suffering with thyroid problems-- AND
you’ve seen, with your own eyes, and heard them tell you how much better they are; how much
happier they are now…that they can go through a day without crying from the fatigue, constant
weight gain, hair loss, depression and frustration—AND thank you for finally doing what needed to
be done to find out how to help them…well then you understand how “necessary” this kind of
approach really is. No matter what any insurance company, Drug Company, or out-of-touch doctor
thinks to the contrary.

Now once we’ve done all that, what the assessment tells us is what your thyroid problem is,
whether your have immune system dysfunction, or blood sugar, or estrogen surges… what your
immune dominance is, and what triggers and lifestyle factors are contributing to your problem.
Then we can design a powerful, all-natural, program to normalize your physiology.

We will most likely have many things we have to work on. We will systematically create a program
that is going to change the abnormal physiological shifts we measured with our testing. Most times
we have to normalize one dysfunction before we can effectively normalize the others.

Have you ever put together a piece of furniture, or a kid’s toy, without reading the
instructions...because you thought you could figure it out on your own? Then you get to the very
end, realized you missed a step, and have to go back and take everything apart, because you missed
that one little piece? Fixing these functional immune, hormone, and metabolic imbalances have to
be done in the proper sequence. We look at everything up front so we know what sequence we have
to take with you.

How Am I Going To Know I Am Getting Better? Will This Even Work

For Me?

We are going to know we are making the changes we are after, because we are going to be doing
re-testing of the labs we used to determine our specific plan of action. This is absolutely necessary.
We can't just spend time and effort finding out what is wrong and then just hope we made the
changes. We have to measure, make alterations in treatment protocol, and measure again. Not that
you won't be feeling better as we make these changes, but we have to measure our change so we get
to our goal.

Based off of your specific case we are going to have a schedule of our re-tests so we can make
corrections, and know when we need to move on to the next thing. Sometimes we can't normalize
or fix a particular problem until we normalize another thing first.
No other doctor is going to do this for you. Like I said most natural medicine is based off of NO
testing, minimal testing, or the wrong testing. Mainstream medicine is going to shove hormones
and antidepressants at your no matter what the labs say so there isn't a lot of testing done on that
end either.

It usually takes time to make the functional changes we need. Remember our job is not to give you
a pill and hope a symptom goes away. Our job is to take a step back, look at the big picture, and
systematically support your physiology. The reason no one has helped you yet is because no one
dug deeper, was willing to listen, understand your problem, and take the time necessary to make
changes.

Honestly I could teach a six year old to give you the current treatment you are getting. "I'd
tell him to look at the thyroid labs, and if the TSH is greater than "X" give Synthyroid. When
the TSH drops down to "Y" and the patient still has symptoms, give the patient anti-
depressants, because the remaining symptoms are in their head."

Of course I am being sarcastic but that is exactly what I hear and see from patients every day.

You deserve better than that.

I really hope I’ll be able to accept your case.

Dr. Kevin Conners

651-739-1248