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I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights
If you're looking for information on women's hormone health, PCOS, perimenopause, estrogen excess, hormonal acne, gut support, and overall how to feel your best--look no further. I'm Hormonal host, Bridget Walton, provides you with the information you need to get your hormones in balance so you can feel your best. Long-form episodes come out on Tuesdays and you'll get a mini episode on Thursdays.
I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights
Taking Care of Your Thyroid Health with Nicole Sivba | Ep. 60
Unlock the secrets to nurturing your thyroid and hormonal health with me, Bridget Walton, as I sit down with Nicole Sivba, a certified functional nutrition consultant and the founder of True Potential Wellness. Together, Nicole and I explore the profound impact of thyroid function on women's health, including menstrual cycles and fertility. We promise you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of the common symptoms of thyroid imbalances, such as irregular periods and infertility, and why comprehensive testing beyond TSH levels is crucial. Stress management, quality sleep, and blood sugar regulation are key focus areas that can support your thyroid for the long run.
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Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hey there and welcome to this week's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and on this week's episode, I'm excited to bring you a conversation that I had with Nicole Sivpa. She is a certified functional nutrition consultant and the founder of True Potential Wellness. She really focuses on supporting women and parents who are struggling with their hormone and thyroid imbalances through gut health. So we're going to be talking about all things thyroid today. If this is your first time kind of thinking about, talking about learning about thyroid health, then this will be a good place for you to start, because we'll paint the picture of why is it important? What impacts our thyroid health? Is a genetic predisposition to thyroid weirdness. Is that your destiny or what can you do to support your body, support your thyroid for the long run. We'll get into that in just a second.
Speaker 1:First, I want to say welcome back to those of you who have listened to the podcast before. I'm so glad that you are back here with us. And for those of you who are just listening for the first time today, then welcome, welcome, welcome Again. My name is Bridget. If you want to connect with me more and see more of what I'm all about, you can find me on Instagram at Bridget Walton.
Speaker 1:One quick reminder as always, the information that I share with you or we, nicole and I that we share with you, is for educational purposes only, should not be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis, medical advice or other sort of one-on-one support Right now. That being said, if you are in the market for some one-on-one support, you can check out the link in the show notes or check me out on Instagram, like I'd mentioned, because I work one-on-one with gals maybe gals just like you, who are trying to balance their hormones and get their cycles in line. So I will stop my blabbering there because it's time to listen to this conversation with Nicole. I hope you enjoy and I will see you on the other side.
Speaker 1:So for somebody, though, who's listening and like they haven't put much thought to what's going on with their thyroid, how they can help it, what it might, what might be a sign that there is some imbalance, would you just give us a quick intro to the thyroid. What should people know? What are the most important things that our thyroid does for us and our body?
Speaker 2:The thyroid is a small butterfly-shaped hormone that sits at the base of your throat, in front of your trachea. It's in charge of producing and releasing specific endocrine hormones into the bloodstream. Thyroid dysfunction occurs when this hormone production is disrupted can have many different symptoms In terms of women's reproductive and cyclical health. Thyroid problems can cause menstrual irregularities, so too much or too little thyroid can make your periods very light, heavier, irregular Thyroid disease also causes your periods or can cause them to stop for several months or longer. A lack of thyroid hormone can prevent ovulation, so having thyroid problems can make it difficult to get pregnant in some cases for people, so it's been associated with infertility as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the thyroid is like doing all of the things, all of the symptoms. Check on your thyroid, see how she's doing is what it sounds like. I know that well. Actually, is that true that most people, when you go get your annual lab work done with your doctor, they'll include a thyroid panel? And I'm curious about what you would recommend that people start focusing on earlier. Right, our doctors might say, okay, cool, yeah, all of your thyroid labs look like they're in good shape, but what are some things that we can start looking at now, while we're younger, like before we have some of these symptoms, or maybe, if we do, just to start investigating? Okay, what's in balance or what should we focus on?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I wouldn't say that thyroid testing is done for everyone. When you go in for your annual checkup, if you have a history of thyroid disorder, as I do, so it's very strong in my family, on both sides of my family. Um, they will, that's when they'll. They'll check it right off the bat. They're just going to do it for you. When they'll check it right off the bat, they're just going to do it for you. If you experience symptoms, I I honestly recommend that every female get their thyroid levels checked.
Speaker 2:The problem, the problem there, is that when you go into a conventional medicine setting, they're primarily testing for TSH and that's kind of it. That's all they're going to test. That doesn't really give you a whole picture of what's going on in your body, though. So we have the thyroid. The circulating hormones that the thyroid produces are T3 and T4. Those numbers are associated with the iodine molecules attached to them. T4 is what, primarily, is released from the thyroid when it's triggered to, but it's not really an active form of the hormone. It has to be converted to T3. So if you are getting lab work from your doctor, unless you're getting that full panel, unless you're getting not only TSH but free T4 and T4, free T3, t3, you're not going to be able to really compare and see if there is dysfunction and many of the time, much of the time, it's disregarded.
Speaker 2:So my clientele tends to be thirties and older. So the generation like after, after, after your um, the age group after yours, at this point we're seeing a breakdown, so there is dysfunctioning happening. It doesn't mean that it wasn't before, so their symptoms kind of were passed off for, oh, you know, you're just getting older or maybe your hormones are out of whack, but it's not concerning. So what they were experiencing when they were younger, in their 20s and 30s, was part of the tapestry. But because those labs, those conventional labs, were seen as within a conventional, appropriate range, nothing was done to prevent them. So my clients are seeing now it can lead to autoimmune condition, but it's also like they have they. They feel it's brain fog, it's chronic, chronic fatigue, it's they're having a hard time with their perimenopausal symptoms. So even if you get those labs, they're not going to give you a complete picture. Naturopaths can give you that, but most doctors won't test for the full range of thyroid hormones, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, you said a lot of good stuff. Let me try to recap a little bit of it. So you mentioned that TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone, is what will normally be tested, but maybe if somebody out there listening wants to ask for more right, you could ask for T3 and T4, maybe get crazy, ask for free T3 and free T4, which are a little bit different, and so that could be like a good kind of easy baseline place for somebody to start. Is that? Did I get that right?
Speaker 2:You did. There it was. It was a even though I have a history of thyroid disorder in my family and myself. The most they would do in a conventional setting is to test for T4. That's as far as they would go because unfortunately they see further testing as experimental. So to get further testing done, you can outsource, you know you can. You can get the lab work done elsewhere. You're just going to have to pay out of pocket is all that it'll mean.
Speaker 1:Totally Okay, and the benefit of getting more of these markers tested is because you're really being able to dial in like zoom in and see where the dysfunction is and what the specific problem is. Right, that's the too long don't read kind of version of it, right?
Speaker 2:Correct. It'll just give you, it'll give you the bigger picture. So when it comes to hormones, as you know, dysfunction can happen anywhere from top to bottom right. So hormone production starts in the brain, specifically with thyroid. We're talking about the hypothalamus and the pituitary releasing those hormones, stimulating them to be produced and circulated throughout the body.
Speaker 2:If your body isn't converting them properly into its active form, nothing can be done. We're not utilizing those hormones the way that they're meant to and we need these for every cell in our body, the thyroid hormones, to function properly. So it gives you, it gives you a place to start. But I mean, even if you can't get those labs done because, say, your doctor says, hey, you're within a normal range, you're fine. If you're still experiencing symptoms, something's wrong. So there's a lot that you can be done to advocate for yourself and back it up and kind of see, okay, when we, when we talk about hormones and thyroid health, it's a lot of stressors, right? These are environmental stressors, emotional stressors. All these things are triggering for our, for our system and for our hormone production. So what can I be doing personally with not only my diet and what I'm putting in my body, but how can I reduce the stress in my life and how can I build my resilience to adapt better and support my thyroid?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's dig into that a little bit more. So how does stress impact our thyroids? Does it presumably slow it down? It's not cranking it up, but how does that work? What's going on in our bodies? And is this, like I would assume, chronic stress is the issue? Right, our bodies are designed to navigate acute, shorter stresses. But, yeah, tell us more about how stress impacts our thyroid health and, again, kind of correlating that with what symptoms might we be seeing because of it?
Speaker 2:we be seeing because of it, a big one. So, talking on a very physiological level, stress especially, as you mentioned, chronic stress, which is what we see all over the place today it causes the iodine to be removed from the wrong side of the ring. So when we talk about T3 and T4, again those numbers are core they respond. They're associated with the iodine molecules attached to the amino acid. When we have high levels of chronic stress, what happens is, instead of the extra iodine molecule being removed from the outside of the ring, it's being removed from the inside of the ring and what that does is it produces too much reverse T3. So this is another lab marker that you will get in your conventional labs. But you would get it if you, you know, you went somewhere else to get your lab work done, get a functional panel done. Reverse T3 is not functional either, so it may as well be T4. It's removed from the wrong side of the ring so it's not able to insert the cells.
Speaker 1:Okay, interesting so that chronic stress is basically just negatively impacting how our body creates T3, which is the kind of thyroid hormone that we need to feel energized and like perform all these other functions in our body. So when that is impaired by stress, then that's when you're more likely to see the fatigue brain fog that you mentioned. Impact to menstrual cycle, which I also just think it's so interesting, which there are a zillion ways that our bodies can be a little bit goofy, but whether your thyroid levels are really high or really low, that can impact your cycle in similar ways. So a good tool to look at. That makes me think too. So is it worth clarifying. When we say, okay, my thyroid levels are really low, my thyroid levels are really high, is that talking about all of them or is that talking about one of those markers in particular?
Speaker 2:It's, it's it's more the active form, right? So I mean, well, I mean, if you go to the conventional doctor, they'll look at your TSH and say, oh, your TSH is high and that could mean different things for different people. Your TSH is low, it means different things for different people. But if you have, so let's, let's start off with hypothyroidism, right? So that's low and underactive thyroid, low thyroid production. Like you said, you can have common symptoms that relate to both. Common hypothyroidism symptoms would be menstrual problems, but you get that with hyper as well. They included fertility, weight gain, constipation. So when we have low motility, when we have an underactive thyroid, things slow down. So we're talking about when you, when we're talking about chronic fatigue and brain fog, everything is slowing down. Our energy levels are low, Our motility is low.
Speaker 2:So many of my clients, the majority of them that have thyroid dysfunction, are hypothyroidism, they have an underactive thyroid and of those, many of them also have Hashimoto's. Um, they, almost every single one of them, struggles with constipation. So that's that low motility, right? So when we have an underactive thyroid, we're not supporting peristalsis. So that's that movement down through the digestive system, those muscle contractions that are supporting it. We need to be pooping every day. When people tell me that they're regular, they don't think that that's a sign or a symptom. When they say regular, they mean that they're pooping like four times a week. That is not enough, and we need to not only be able to produce and utilize those hormones, we need to be able to get rid of the extra ones as well.
Speaker 2:Extragen dominant is a problem with many people today as well. Another more symptoms of hypothyroidism would include that goiter, so that enlarged thyroid gland underneath where your neck is Joint, and muscle aches. Coldness, so not being able to tolerate cold, Cold hands and cold feet that's one that I struggled with as well. Depression, dry skin, bloating, puffy face those are. Hair loss is a big one as well. So with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroid symptoms, you can have the opposite when it comes to weight. So whereas people that have hypothyroidism, they tend to experience weight gain. It's very stubborn. Hyperthyroid clients might have weight loss as well as an uncontrollable appetites because things are moving too swiftly, and that also means that when it comes to digestive tract as well, they're eliminating way more frequently than they normally do. Or having, you know, struggling with some diarrhea. Nervousness, heart palpitations, insomnia those are all common with hyperthyroid symptoms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anxiety too right For hyper, or at least that's. Um. There's so many things, so many ways that thyroid impact. Thyroid can impact our overall wellbeing. What, in addition to stress, are some things that people should keep in mind as as main impacts?
Speaker 2:impacting thyroid health. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So sleep is a biggie. That's a non-negotiable Less. Sleep means decrease in thyroid hormone output. It also stimulates an increase in ghrelin production that's our hunger hormone and a decrease in human gorth hormone, which is our fat-burning hormone. So that's why we get that experience of very stubborn weight gain. You can start connecting some of the dots there. Another thing to focus on that I want people looking at and it's something easily done that they can do right away is blood sugar balance. So I know that you've probably spoken to this highly with your clients as well.
Speaker 2:That's. That's another, it's sleep, stress, blood sugar balancing. Those are non-negotiables, those are. They affect everything in a positive way if you get them under control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're speaking my language. I talk about those things a lot on the podcast here and in my one-on-one work with clients. Is it safe to assume then, that right the way that blood sugar imbalance negatively impacts your sex hormones is probably the same way that it's going to impact our thyroid, in that the excess inflammation and higher cortisol levels, that's what is the cause of all of our problems. It sounds like it's yes, and I mean it's all of our problems.
Speaker 2:It sounds like it's yes, and I mean it's all of our problems. So it's not just hormones but yes, 100%, and a lot of people. Honestly, when it comes to menstrual symptoms, if people struggle with PMS thyroid functioning as well, gluten's a big trigger. So looking at that one, for many people the majority of my clients that's a top. They remove gluten for at least two weeks and see what it does for their systems. That heavily impacts leaky gut as well. For many people.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting. Okay, and so this comes back, or at least in my mind. I normally correlate gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance, with Hashimoto's. Or rather, I guess to flip that around, if you have Hashimoto's, most people are better off to avoid gluten. So is that? Could you like add on to that a little bit, or do you agree with that? Is that how you, how you advise your clients?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So gluten is for many people, or can be inflammatory, like a lot of greens, can be sugar as well. So we're talking those refined carbs, those refined sugars, although whole grains as well. It just depends on the health of your gut and what it can tolerate and handle and at what point many of my clients get frustrated, right? So if we're there in their thirties, their forties, I'm like, well, I ate that stuff my whole life and I didn't have a problem with it. Well, how do you know? You know this is we're talking cumulative impact. So it's, this is not. This didn't happen overnight. Autoimmunity does not happen overnight, right, it's. It's been building and building and building. But our resiliency as we get older declines as well. So stuff you couldn't handle. And, and you know, when we talk about our processed food here and how we treat our crops, it's a little bit different than if you're in Europe. One of my clients, it was very interesting. They had a family member that once they returned to they married somebody from Europe and went to France and they could handle bread fine. So I thought that was very interesting. But gluten heavily impacts the gut interesting, but gluten heavily impacts the gut.
Speaker 2:Hashimoto's for sure, because Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition. So you can think of autoimmunity like a three-legged stool. That's how I like to describe it to my clients. So autoimmunity, whatever the condition, hashimoto's included is perched on that three-legged stool. Those three legs would be your intestinal permeability, or I would go so far as to say hyperpermeability. Right, those gaps in the lining of your intestines are being, for whatever reason, there are many triggers, they are leaky, they have gaps in them that are larger than we need for absorbing nutrients that we need. There needs to be a trigger in place. So that's another leg. And the third leg of the stool is your genetic makeup. So again, those three legs are genes, intestinal hyperpermeability and a trigger which. The trigger normally impacts the um, the composition of our microbiome.
Speaker 1:Okay, Quick question here on the genetic component, because, while we all can do a better job of handling our stress, sleep and blood sugar, is there anything like else that somebody who has this genetic predisposition to thyroid wonkiness I'm pretty sure that's the technical term that they can do? Or is it really more of the same focusing on it and and like considering gluten or other irritants to their system?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, as of now at least, we can't change our genes. However, genes I like to describe them as switches. So, although you are born with a certain genetic makeup, you have the power to turn those genes on and off, which is so empowering and so amazing to me. And the way that you do that is through dietary and lifestyle modifications, environmental triggers. It's the things that you can control. Which is amazing get to switch those genes off as well.
Speaker 1:Such a good reminder that the decisions that we make every day, like the dozens and dozens of decisions about food, or moving our bodies, or overloading our day, or having a rest day or whatever it is, those are all really impactful on our genetics and we're not just like victims of our genes. Yeah, I think that's really important. Coming back to the gut, though, because I pulled us away from that for a second, say more about intestinal permeability. How does that? Does that exacerbate somebody's thyroid problem that they already had? Or can that be the origin of it? You know, not that we can really put our finger on an exact origin, or maybe we can actually tell me, but how does intestinal permeability really impact thyroids? I guess in addition to probably the inflammation component, right?
Speaker 2:Right. So whatever leaks through your intestines into your bloodstream that doesn't belong there is going to wreak havoc on your system, and normally so when we and it's the reason we talk about gluten our food, whatever we put into our body, is supposed to be digested properly. Unfortunately, I think like one of the main things that we can control to help out this, honestly, is chewing better these larger proteins. So proteins that we intake need to be broken down to their amino acids. But what happens and you can think of, I'm not sure if you remember like those little beads that children play with, they kind of connect together. So think of a chain right being the protein, and then you break that chain to maybe three of those circles and then maybe that's, you know, your peptide, which is the smaller version of the protein. What needs to get through into our system is one bead, and if we are digesting properly, what's getting into our bloodstream is just that one bead, that one amino acid, and our system recognizes that as fuel. If we are not digesting our food properly and we have those gaps in the lining of our intestine, we have now peptides leaking through into the system and those junctions, those gaps, can be aggravated again by stress. That's why stress is such such a big one. Right, they can. They can loosen those gaps further.
Speaker 2:Gluten does it Um, and it just. It affects everything in our body. Because what happens then is that our system, our immune system, now is going on overdrive. It starts overreacting to what's in our bloodstream. It doesn't recognize food as nourishment, it recognizes it as an invader. And when people experience autoimmunity, those peptides might have the same code on them as our glands do.
Speaker 2:So people that have Hashimoto's, if it's attacking that peptide that has the same code on it as a thyroid gland does on it, starts to recognize the thyroid as foreigner and begins to attack the thyroid as well. So it's a case of mistaken identity, unfortunately, and when it comes to these things, we're not thinking what's wrong with my body? That's not what we should be thinking. Our body is at all times trying to protect us at all times. So what we need to be thinking is we need to back it up, pan out, instead of zooming in and just looking at the symptom that we're experiencing. Back up and say, okay, well, why? Why is my thyroid overreacting to something? Why is my immune system out of whack? What can I be?
Speaker 1:shifting in my environment, in my diet. I love this perspective on it. I know you and I have the same view on this of not going to the bandaid approach and figuring out, or at least considering, yeah, what is the larger message that my body's trying to send me? Because it's not just acting crazy just for fun, because when people say that they hate their period which is fair to feel that way, but it's like your period or your hormones aren't actually trying to ruin your life they're just trying to send you a signal. Or your thyroid is just trying to send you the signal that it needs a little bit of extra love, maybe in the form of less stress, stable blood sugar levels better sleep that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, all of that. Like you saying, it's responding right. So that's what the thyroid gland. It responds to what's going on in our body. That's what hormones do. They're responding. Hormones are all about communication. So if at any point in that system, communication is breaking down, you're going to experience things that aren't comfortable and aren't what you want, but it's not because your body's broken. It's because it's responding to something that isn't right. So, we back it up and like, okay, well, what's not right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are some of the things that you wish you knew when you were younger? Or, like that, some of your clients you wish that they knew when they were younger in order to keep at bay any thyroid imbalances that might later on creep up? And I guess second part to that question is thyroid imbalance inevitable as we get older? Or through, probably, the recommendations you'll say now, can that really like, keep it at arm's length and just totally be out of the picture for us?
Speaker 2:So the first part of your question what I wish I knew it really it goes back to blood sugar regulation. If I, it's a lot of the same things, right. So it's it's managing blood sugar levels, it's increasing sleep. These are all the things that when we're younger, we just don't think about. We want all the sugar, we want to go out and party and drink a ton of alcohol, we want to stay up all night and not sleep. All that we just don't think about. We just don't think about it when we're young, because when we're young we're like we're superheroes. Man, we can deal with anything. Nothing can stop us. And we don't feel it until a couple of decades later, where it's like you want to go back and just smack yourself upside the head, Like what were you?
Speaker 2:doing. But the good thing with the good thing is our bodies are incredibly adaptable. Right, they adapt. We can cultivate them to be resilient as well. So, while I did all the wrong things when I was younger, I am now in a healthier state than I was two decades ago, which is a good, empowering thing. And now that I'm a mom, I get to pass on this knowledge to my kids and, like what you're doing, I so appreciate that you're trying to gift tools to your audience and your clients and help them to get off at a better and stronger foot than we did when we were younger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so much to be gained from just investing, like being curious about how you can support your best health and right. Reap those benefits for decades and decades and decades and decades to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think what was missing was the why. You know everybody. I think it's too broad of a term when everyone says, oh, you need to get more sleep, just that's it. You need to eat better. And when you say, oh, just for your health, I don't think that that's enough. I think, when we compare what people are struggling with today, so like all these chronic conditions are insane. They just didn't exist. When my parents were kids, they weren't there. So we ask why? We'll look, look at our environment, look how rapidly we've you know, I'm using air quotes here progressed. You know our exposure to, you know, devices and just everything in the world and all these hyper processed foods is it's everything. It's a cumulative effect, what's happened over the past few decades. So, like what you're doing with your clients, giving that information, not just do it because, but here's why and here's what it can lead to. Here's what you want to prevent from happening. You don't want your body breaking down when you're 40.
Speaker 1:You mentioned electronic devices and that's something I had on my list to ask you about, actually, because I've read that from a couple of sources right, that keeping those signals, those electromagnetic fields, I guess further away from your body can be good for, or I guess having them near you could be bad for your thyroid. So could you expand on that? Is that something like? What weight do you put on that, and how do you advise your clients when it comes to their cell phone or their wifi router or whatever else it might be?
Speaker 2:I, so my clients have to work through. We start where they are. Not everybody is willing to put down their devices right. So I, when we talk about thyroid and hormone health, there's a whole slew of things I want them to work towards getting rid of. So it's refined sugar, it's gluten, it's get more sleep, reduce your stress, and it's reducing your screen time. We figure out where they can start. What are you, what are you able realistically to do now, what are you willing to do now? And then we'll scale it from there. In terms of devices, of course, we know that blue light interferes with hormone production and keeps us awake. It keeps us stimulated, so we're not able to sleep. So, with my clients, I want them shutting off their devices at a minimum of one hour before bedtime. I don't want, I want. You need to rest, you need to sleep. I don't know so much about you know the wavelengths. I'm not really well versed there, although I don't doubt any of it, but I do want screens limited.
Speaker 1:But I do want screens limited. Yeah, I work on my clients. I work on that with my clients too, for sure. Also, just on a personal note, I recently decided to let my Duolingo streak die, and it's great, because that was my thing that I'd be like oh my God, I have to do my Duolingo before I fall asleep. That would have me on my screen, but I'm free now. I never knew I'd feel so good. I love that. What is one thing as we get ready to wrap up? But like what is one thing that you wish like everybody would just start doing tomorrow? Like if you could wave your magic wand and everybody had one good habit in place to support their thyroid health, what would that be?
Speaker 2:I keep coming back to blood sugar balance, but, honestly, when it comes to thyroid health, just like I said, pick one thing. Everybody is so different. Like I said, pick one thing, everybody is so different. I just want people to start where, wherever is feasible for you, so if it's more feasible for you to work on getting to bed an hour earlier, fine, let's start there. If you can't, do you know handle giving up the alcohol for two weeks? That, I think, though, is a great piece. To start is just give it five, even five days. If you can't do two weeks, five days. Commit five days to cutting the sugar. Try cutting gluten for five days. Alcohol, getting an extra hour of sleep and shutting off screens. Try just for five days, and see, see how you feel.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love it. Five days is digestible, that's easy. Well, it sounds easy. Hopefully sounds um doable for folks listening out there. I know I said that was my last question, but I actually have one more. I just wanted to come back to the genetic piece. So is that something that is certainly passed on? Is it a predisposition like? What does that really look like when it if if somebody listening their parent has a thyroid imbalance, like well, is it certainly the case that they will have something weird go on with their thyroid too? What do you normally see or kind of advise people to keep an eye out for?
Speaker 2:It's not, it's a part of them. So they have a genetic pre if your parents have it. So in my case, both of my parents do. My one parent is hyperthyroid, the other parent is hypothyroid and from there we have a family history going backwards. So it's in me, it's in my genetic code. However, again, we can affect that. So just because your parents have a thyroid dysfunction, you have the genetic code for it. However, you may never express it. It depends on how you're living your life.
Speaker 2:So are you doing the things that? Flip that switch on? Are you staying up all night? Are you under eating or overeating, because that's another thing too. Not eating enough right? That's a stressor on our body. That's not good and that's not helpful on our body. That's that's not good and that's not healthful. Are you yeah, are you overstressed? I like to say that genes predispose you to something, but they don't predetermine your health or your future. They absolutely don't. Not at all. You do the choices you make do, and gaining this knowledge from podcasts like yours and other healthcare providers, that's empowering. So you use that to flip the switch off and keep it off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that might be a really good way to wrap it up for today. I really appreciate you coming and hanging out with me to have this conversation. How can listeners connect with you from here?
Speaker 2:I'm on Instagram. I don't have a high presence there because I'm just not good at social media, but my Instagram handle is at True Potential Wellness. I also have a website that's truepotentialwellnesscom, and you can find me on LinkedIn as well. Nicole Sivpa.
Speaker 1:Nicole, thank you so much for joining me on I'm Hormonal this week, and thanks to you out there for listening to this episode. If you ever have requests or questions or anything that you want to hear me talk about on the podcast here, you can always connect with me on Instagram at Bridget Walton and send me a DM with whatever your request is, because I would love to focus on the topics that are most important to you, so don't be afraid to reach out to me if there's anything top of mind for you Now. That being said, we are all set here for the day. Thanks again for listening, especially if you made it all the way to the end here, and I will see you on the next one.