On today’s episode, I’m chatting with Dr. Becky Campbell about her new book, the 30-Day Thyroid Reset Plan.
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Episode 161 Links
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Episode 161 Transcription
Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. My name is Cassy Joy Garcia and I am your host. Today I am joined by a lovely guest. Today Iโm introducing you to Dr. Becky Campbell, who can be found over at DrBeckyCampbell.com. I bet you can remember that one pretty easily.
She is the author of a book that is hitting shelves tomorrow. Itโs called The 30-Day Thyroid Reset Plan. Subtitle is Disarming The 7 Hidden Triggers That Are Keeping You Sick. Iโm so excited to chat with her today and learn all about this book. Welcome to the show Dr. Campbell.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Hi Cassy! Thank you so much for having me. Iโm so excited.
Cassy Joy: Yeah, me too! Thank you for joining us. Well, I gave the tiniest introduction possible, so I would love it if you could tell folks more about yourself, your background, your work, and what led you to write this book.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Sure. Probably about 15-ish years ago, I started to just not feel like myself. And I think thatโs what I hear from most of my patients now; they donโt feel like themselves anymore. I was gaining weight, and I had never had a weight issue. I felt like I gained 30 pounds overnight. And I was just extremely tired. More tired than I had ever been before. Really making it hard to function. My hair was falling out in clumps, and I didnโt know what was wrong.
I started seeing different doctors, and really nobody had any answers for me. And eventually the last thing I probably heard was, โTake this depression medication.โ Pretty much telling me it was all in my head. But I knew that it wasnโt. I knew that there was something wrong.
I finally met someone who did functional medicine, which I had never heard of before. Which is pretty much a more natural approach to looking at whatโs going wrong in the body. Doing thorough testing, and really figuring things out that way rather than listening to symptoms and prescribing medications.
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Dr. Becky Campbell: So they actually found out that I had a thyroid issue, which other doctors had missed. Just because they werenโt doing very thorough thyroid panels. And itโs really common, actually, for that to happen. I hear that from so many people. And probably a lot of people listening now can relate to that.
So they did thorough testing to figure out what was causing the thyroid issue, which was really important to me. And we figured it out. We healed certain parts of my body that werenโt function properly. And I got back to normal. And I honestly didnโt ever think that I would get back to normal. And it was such an amazing feeling when I did that I knew that I had to do this. I had to learn this, and I had to help other people in the same way. So thatโs when it all started for me.
So I just dug in and learned as much as I could over a few years. And I’m still learning. Functional medicine is so deep. Thereโs so much to know. But itโs amazing. I just ended up where the people that were coming to me, most people had thyroid issues. And I do a lot of different things when someone has a thyroid issue.
But the part I did in the very beginning, the first four weeks, or the first 30 days, was what I saw the most improvement in these patients. So I just decided to put it in a book. Because not everybody knows who I am. Not everyone can afford to go to functional medicine practitioners. So I wanted to do something where everyone could afford it. Everyone could do it, and really start to change their lives and feel like themselves again. So thatโs where the idea of the book came in.
Cassy Joy: Thatโs wonderful. What a great story, an encouraging story. Itโs got to feel so wonderful to have something that you can put out there. Because you get to a point where you just canโt make an appointment with every single person.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Itโs so true, yeah. Definitely. It feels great.
Cassy Joy: Thatโs great. Well congratulations. Itโs no small feat. Books are no joke.
Dr. Becky Campbell: I know. It took me about 6 months. But it was definitely worth it. It was fun so I had a good time.
Cassy Joy: Thatโs wonderful. Well, itโs beautiful and very thorough. So I know folks are going to be in good hands.
Can you just very briefly; for people who are listening that maybe some of your story resonates with them but they want to know a little bit more. Can you walk people through; what exactly is thyroid disease? Because weโre familiar with all of these sorts of metabolic conditions becoming a little more common place and conversational, but where does thyroid disease fit in?
Dr. Becky Campbell: The thyroid is a little gland that sits in the front of your throat. And itโs really responsible either directly or indirectly for just about every function in the body. So itโs so important. We use thyroid hormone in all of our cells. It controls things like heart rate, breathing, our weight, our menstrual cycles, our body temperatures. So many different things.
And thereโs a lot of people suffering with thyroid disease. There are about 20 million people with thyroid disease. And a lot of people who have it donโt even know they have it. So, this is something I actually see a lot of comments on my blog posts and stuff. People havenโt been diagnosed, but they know something is wrong and theyโre resonating with these symptoms.
Itโs just something that is so important to have a properly functioning thyroid. And the right amount of thyroid hormones. Or else you’re going to have issues in a lot of different parts of the body. And thatโs why you see people who have hypothyroid specifically have symptoms all over the body. There are random symptoms all over the body. So itโs just so important to have a healthy thyroid function.
Cassy Joy: It makes a lot of sense. Itโs foundational to our health. Ok, so you mentioned; in the subtitle of the book and then you also very quickly mentioned underlying triggers. What are these triggers that we could be looking out for?
Dr. Becky Campbell: There are different things that this is where functional medicine comes in to play very differently from when you go to see a conventional medicine doctor. Typically, when you go to a conventional medicine doctor, if you do get diagnosed, theyโre going to put you on medication and pretty much tell you that thatโs your fate. Medication and hopefully you feel ok and if not they donโt really know what to do at that point.
But then functional medicine, we really like to see what could be driving disease. And this goes for any issue that someone comes to us for. But specifically for the thyroid; one of the biggest things I see a problem with is the gut. So, everyone is talking about the gut now. Gut health is so important.
But specifically, for the thyroid, we have two very important thyroid hormones; T4 and T3. And T4 is the inactive form of thyroid hormone, and T3 is the active form. T4 has to be converted to T3 to be used. So one of those places that happens is the gut. So if you have any type of gut infections; and I go over all the specs of this in the book. But things like candida, and parasites, and small intestine bacterial overgrowth; SIBO. Then thatโs going to disrupt that conversion from T4 to T3. So thatโs one of the biggest triggers I see.
Leaky gut is also another gut issue. But leaky gut specifically can cause autoimmune disease. And about 97% of people who have a thyroid issue have Hashimotoโs disease. Which is an autoimmune disease. So we really want to make sure you donโt have leaky gut, or food sensitivities, which can lead to leaky gut.
And then another really important thing that I like to look at is the vitamin deficiencies. Specifically vitamin D. Itโs so important for the immune system function. And when you have thyroid disease, and you have these gut infections, youโre usually not absorbing your nutrients very well. So a lot of people will have nutrient deficiencies.
And then another trigger is mercury. I actually; this is one of my biggest triggers. I had amalgams fillings, and I had them unsafely removed. When you put the fillings in and when you take them out, itsโ the worst time because thatโs when you get the most exposure to the mercury. And I had them taken out with no; thereโs a specific procedure to do it safely, and they didnโt do that. So right after I had that done, and I also lived in an apartment in college that had lead paint. So between those two, thatโs really when I started to notice the most symptoms. And mercury can actually build up in the thyroid gland. So that can be a big issue for people with thyroid issues.
And then sex hormone dysfunction is really common with thyroid issues. A lot of women have estrogen dominance, and this again can interfere with that T4 to T3 conversion. And then chronic infections. Epstein Barr is kind of a hot topic right now. A lot of people talk about Epstein Barr being a big driving force for thyroid issues, and it really is. Itโs crazy when I do the history, when I talk to patients on a first visit and I take their history; so many have had Epstein Barr. And itโs not the only cause, but itโs definitely a common cause. So these are the different things I talk about in the book that can be triggers. And things you really need to look at and address. And once you can, you really start to see a change in how your thyroid number looks and how you feel. A lot of people get rid of their symptoms just from healing these issues.
Cassy Joy: Itโs so interesting. So if someone is listening; they might be thinking, โOh goodness. This feels a little overwhelming. There are a lot of angles. And I donโt know really where to start or where to tackle this.โ As from, of course, grabbing your resource and looking more into your work, can you kind of give folks an idea of what they could do with this information and looking out for these triggers.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Yeah. I wanted this book to be very informative, but also very easy to understand, and very easy to take and do something with. It really isnโt a complicated read; itโs actually a very easy read. And I discuss these triggers, and I tell you what to do with each one. But first and foremost, itโs really going to be your diet change. Changing the diet and doing these specific foods that I talk about in the book are going to give you the most beneficial effects by far. And itโs really where I start everybody.
In addition to the food, itโs also about the liver. The liver plays such a huge role in hormone function, and the amount of hormones that we have in the body and how theyโre being used. I would say the first thing to focus on is going to be the diet and following this 30-day plan the way I have it laid out, and doing liver support. Which I talk about in the book and I give you some resources for that.
And then you can start to do some of these tests if you feel like you need to keep it moving forward and start to dig into these triggers a little bit more. But everyone is different, so itโs hard to say who is going to have what trigger. But a lot of people will feel such a difference with the diet alone. I really think thatโs the best place to start. Which is why I built the foundation of this book around that.
Cassy Joy: It makes a lot of sense. And thatโs definitely my work, as a nutrition consultant. We start with food. But Iโm also curious; do you address any other lifestyle habits or dig into that in your work, whether in the book or online? Everything from what weโre putting on our skin, or cleaning products, things like that that could have an impact?
Dr. Becky Campbell: Yes. Actually talk a lot about that in the book, and I give you different types of exercise depending on where you are in all of this. Because some people do really well with yoga, and some people do really well with high intensity interval training. So it all depends on where you are. So I really lay that out in the book; what you need to be doing as far as exercise.
And then so much of this is driven by what weโre putting on our skin. Which is why I think you are into Beautycounter, right?
Cassy Joy: Yes, I am.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Yeah, me too. Itโs great. And I talk about them specifically in the book. But I also give you recipes for things you can do yourself. Because itโs so important just to change those little habits of putting chemicals on our skin, and how we go about trying to get more sleep, and the conditions in which weโre sleeping in. There is so much that goes into how our bodies function and how we feel. So I really tried to lay all of that out so that you can really get the most benefit yourself without even having to reach out to someone else. Because not everybody can do that. Thereโs a lot of that stuff in here.
Cassy Joy: Thatโs wonderful. So what if somebody is listening and theyโre thinking; I thought I needed to treat; Iโm springing some of these questions on Becky. But what if theyโre thinking; โI thought I needed to look at my gut. I thought that was the problem I needed to look at. I thought I needed to do something with low-FODMAPs, or I needed to chose more hormonal support protocols.โ Iโm blanking on all the different protocols out there, but it seems like thereโs an endless amount of them, and in endless different directions.
Is there any one thing you can tell somebody that might really point them towards considering thyroid health as kind of their champion theme in trying to really heal? Is that a clear question?
Dr. Becky Campbell: Are you wanting to know what someone can do if theyโre trying to get better? I really am a little confused on what you’re asking. What I thought you were asking is what they should follow, whether itโs low-FODMAPs, or what can they do to heal their gut and all that stuff. But then I wasnโt sure what you meant at the end.
Cassy Joy: I guess my question is, someone can sit down and look up on the internet a gut healing protocol. And they can look up an autoimmune protocol. And they can look up; goodness, Iโm blanking. A low-FODMAP type protocol, right? What, of all the options. Thereโs also a thyroid protocol. So of all of these ones that are out there, what is something that you think would point someone directly toward thyroid health specifically?
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Dr. Becky Campbell: Ok, I think the problem is that there are a lot of protocols on the internet that are great. But people are doing them not knowing if they have the issue. And theyโre wasting a lot of time and money, and theyโre getting very frustrated. And this is when a lot of people will come to me or other practitioners. Because theyโre trying to do it themselves, and theyโre not sure if what theyโre doing is going to work for them. Or theyโre not getting results.
One thing I really stress is that you should test. A lot of people say test donโt guess. Because you’re going to waste a lot of time and money if you donโt know you have the issue. So if you are specifically having a thyroid issue, you should be doing a diet thatโs going to support the thyroid health. Because you know you have that issue. Which is exactly what I talk about in the book. I go over foods that best support the thyroid. And if you know you have Hashimotoโs specifically, then yeah, the gut is where you’re going to want to look and you’re going to want to support the gut the most.
I wouldnโt recommend doing a candida protocol or a SIBO protocol if you donโt know you have those. Because those symptoms can be from a lot of different things. And people really drive themselves crazy trying to do all these different protocols without knowing for sure. So I would say eating foods for conditions you know for sure you have is going to be the best bet.
Cassy Joy: Awesome, thank you. Yes, that was what I was hoping for. Because thatโs a question I get a lot. Folks are essentially trying to test the smoke of the fire to determine what kind of wood is burning, versus just taking a sample of the wood. Which is the difference between going based off kind of fuzzy, very difficult to interpret symptoms, to finding a root cause versus getting tested.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Right.
Cassy Joy: Wonderful. That was very helpful. Anything else youโd like to tell folks about the book thatโs hitting shelves tomorrow?
Dr. Becky Campbell: I just think youโll love it. I tried to make this book from a readerโs perspective. So many of us have 10 books sitting next to our nightstand that are great, but theyโre really long and sometimes we donโt have time for that. So I tried to make it really reader friendly. Lots of pictures, lots of infographics, telling you what test to ask your doctors for. Telling you what supplements to take. Telling you exactly what foods you need to eat. Giving you shopping lists. Giving you a weekly menu plan.
And then telling you what to do after that. There are actually two other options depending on how you respond the first 30 days. I really, really think you’re going to love it. This is where I get to see the most results in practice with my patients.
Cassy Joy: Thatโs wonderful. Well how exciting! Iโm thrilled itโs going to be out there. Thank you for reaching out and for sharing your work with us.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Well thank you so much for having me, Cassy. Youโre so sweet. And I have to tell you; I was talking with Jennifer Robbins today. Sheโs one of my good friends, and sheโs so sweet. And I told her I was having the podcast with you. And she was like; โOh my gosh, sheโs one of the nicest people in world.โ
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Oh, thatโs sweet. I adore Jen. If yโall donโt know Jennifer Robbins of Predominantly Paleo. Sheโs also the brains behind the Legit Bread Company. Sheโs written; I joke 27 books, but I think sheโs four and counting.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Five. Yeah.
Cassy Joy: Five and counting! Man sheโs just wonderful. Thatโs so sweet. I really adore her. Well, Becky. Dr. Campbell. {laughs}
Dr. Becky Campbell: Oh, thatโs ok. Beckyโs fine.
Cassy Joy: Thank you so much for coming on the show today. For those of you, just in case you’re driving and you want to hear it one more time, the book is called The 30-Day Thyroid Reset Plan. Author Campbell; Dr. Campbell. You can find it on Amazon. You can also find it on Barnes and Noble. So wherever you prefer to shop. And you can learn more about Dr. Campbell over at www.DrBeckyCampbell.com. Pretty easy to remember.
Thank you so much for joining us. And Iโll include links to everything in the show notes, as well as a full transcript. But it was a pleasure talking with you.
Dr. Becky Campbell: Thank you so much, Cassy. You as well.
Cassy Joy: Wonderful. Everybody else, thanks so much for dialing in. Weโll be back again next week.