Hashimoto’s & Thyroid Health with Dr. Heather Stone

Welcome to the Dr. Haley Show podcast. Today’s guest is Dr. Heather Stone. One of the top functional medicine practitioners in the world. She has over 20 years of clinical experience in private practice. During that time, she has successfully helped thousands of women overcome the symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroid dietis. She is the author of thyroid transformation blueprint. Her mission is to change the face of healthcare through her private practice, books, master classes, webinars, education programs, including this podcast, and retreats on her ranch in Texas.

Dr. Sun, thank you so much for being on my show. This is our first chance to actually meet and speak, but I’ve done a little research on you. And the coolest thing I saw one of your videos, it looked like you were in a soccer goal, or something like that, and I think I heard some chickens in the background.

Probably.

And I love that. I’m a little bit jealous. I used to have my own chickens. Were those your chickens?

Yep. Those are my chickens. I live on a ranch where we do regenerative farming. So it’s a new project for us about, um, we’ve been there for about a year and a half. So it’s really fun.

Oh no. We tend to regenerative farming. What’s that?

So regenerative farming is really making sure that we take care of the soil so that, um, you know, you can grow great amazing healthy vegetables, but you also want to use animals to do the proper regenerative farming. So like the cows eat the grass and then, you know, they start to regenerate the soil so that we, um, can really, it’s essentially a way to give back and help with, you know, uh, you know, climate change or whatever they’re saying, but I think that cows get a really bad rat but I think we really need room in it animals to start healing. Um, the earth into start are healing us and to, um, really produce great food. Um, that has super high, it’s nutrient dense and without all the hormones, antibiotics and chemicals, um, in it.

I love that because, you know, we’re not going to be talking much about this. We’re going to be talking about hormones and thyroid and stuff, but this kind of sets the tone for who you are and I absolutely love that. A lot of people think, you know, well, we grow things in, uh, farm lands and, and it grows from the soil, but it really doesn’t. It things that are growing are growing in this dead soil. And the only reason they’re able to grow is because farmers are dumping all kinds of nutrients into the soil because the soil’s dead. It should have its own nutrients in there. And the funny thing is is what is soil? It’s species. It’s species from microorganisms and worms and, you know, everything is kind of consumed and excreted and turned over. And that is nutritious.

Yeah, because I’m the functional medicine practitioner as we’re probably going to get into. And it’s almost like you take functional medicine and you apply it to animals in your food source and the soil. We look at the soil exactly like we look at the gut. And it’s so cool.

When I’ll just have one little story here. So our cows and our sheep, we have this mineral box. And it’s all individual minerals. And they get to go and they smell exactly what mineral it is that they need. And they’ll dip their nose in it and they’ll lick it off. And what’s cool is the minerals that they need or the minerals that they’re lacking is what’s lacking in the soil. So they will take up whatever mineral it is that they need. And then they poop it out back onto the land and they’d re-deposit the mineral back into the soil. And so that’s what helps us have a good natural balance of minerals in the soil without spinning tons of money and dumping tons of fertilizers and things on the soil. It’s pretty cool.

You know you make me think of a conversation I had with Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride. I’m sure you know who that is from the author of the game.

I don’t know. Well, she talked about uh soil not only in the farmlands but also in our bodies because essentially the animals and the microorganisms and everything is excreeting all of these nutrients into the soil and the coolest connection was you know the plants are reaching into that soil. The roots of the trees are very much like the roots of our intestines sinking into the soil that we make internally with you know the trees have primary roots and secondary roots and tertiary roots and she kind of equated that to like the intestines with the folds being like the primary roots and you know getting down to the microvili and the hairs on them being like secondary and tertiary roots sinking into our own soil to absorb the nutrients that are excreted from our microbiome you know you know when we start making these comparisons and realizing the farmlands are dead because of anti-biotic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, things that are against life and our soil we’re killing because of you know pesticides, herbicides, fungicides in the food, anti-biotics, chlorinated water, preserve it as in the food and we’re killing off our own soil internally.

So I think it’s neat to make this connection and understand as a functional medical, well medicine practitioner, functional medicine. You can’t just say what’s the diagnosis, but you got a dig deep and say no, something causes us. There’s a there’s a cause for everything.

And now the other thing I notice is we have similar initials after our names for, you know, our healthcare license is D.C. Where’d you go to school?

I went to Parker.

Okay. Where’d you go?

I went to life in, uh, Marietta.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And something that you said made me think of, um, well, things that Sid Williams had said in your book, you drive home, uh, the point that you’re looking for the cause, not just treating symptoms. And you said something to the effect that what you explained the relationship between the doctor and the patient. And it was kind of like saying, you have everything you need, you know, um, yeah. Talk a little bit about that when it comes to getting well, whose responsibility is it? How much responsibility is on you, the healthcare practitioner, and what is the patient’s responsibility?

Yeah. And I think, um, the traditional western medical model at this point has taken all of the power away from the patient. And I think we really need to reconnect, too, you were born to heal. And that’s kind of a tagline that I always say, because I think, innately, we know that, but we forget that. And every person has everything that they need to heal, healing comes from inside out, health comes from inside out. And sometimes we just need to remove interference or we need to remove toxins or we need to change the environment so that the body can actually heal. And I think we have to take that power back, because that’s the only way that it happens.

So for my patients, I just try to be the leader. I try to give guidance. I try to do the appropriate testing and digging and figuring out where the underlying issues are, where’s the underlying imbalance. And then how do we need to work together? What information can I give you that you can maybe implement to facilitate your body’s healing? But the body’s healing can only come from the person, right? You can only heal from the inside out. Health is not overwriting the body’s physiology with a bunch of medications. That’s not actually healing the body.

Yeah, you know, and when you talk about medications, I think of Dr. Sid Williams, but when is a potato uphill? Because a lot of us have, you know, uh, grown and we’re not looking necessarily to things that are on the shelf at Walgreens, or, you know, CBS, but sometimes we use food like medicine and when is a potato uphill? You know, if you’re thinking you can just take this to reverse that symptom, now all of a sudden we’ve made our food, medicine in the wrong way, because we forget everything else.

I think a lot of, I really like, I use the term, um, allopathic nutrition, right? So that means that you are taking a nutritional supplement, or you’re using a food to override the body’s physiology for a symptom. Instead of looking deeper to say, “Okay, well, why do I have the symptom?” You know, in my opinion, is it better to use something natural than it is to use a pharmaceutical? Yes, but if we could really dig deeper to figure out the root cause of why you have that symptom and address it at that level, then the symptoms go away. And it can be frustrating for a lot of people, especially when they’re used to like instant gratification of the symptom going away.

But if you can be patient and you actually find the true root cause of the symptom, you’re not going to end up with a lot of pharmaceuticals, but you’re also not going to end up with a ton of nutritional supplements.

So I always know a thyroid patient I joke because I’m a thyroid patient as well. But I joke, I always knew when a thyroid patient was walking into my office because they would have loads of supplements, like bags and bags of supplements, I’m like, oh! So what happens is they go to Whole Foods or Natural Grocers or Sprout, whatever, whatever health foods or they go to and they’re looking and they say, oh, this is for constipation, I’m going to have bad and oh, this is for adrenal function I think my adrenals must be a mess. And oh, you know, I read this article and I think I can’t sleep. So I need to load up on magnesium. But when we do their labs, I’m like, that’s not the problem at all.

Like we need to look at the liver because liver’s huge for detoxification and bowel movements and all of the stuff. But you start ending up with practicing allopathic nutrition or applying medication or a supplement or a food to suppress a symptom without understanding and addressing that root cause. And it can get frustrating because it’s only going to work if you get lucky. Right? So it’s only if you get lucky and you address the actual cause of the problem where that symptom goes away. But that’s not usually the case. And that’s why people end up with loads of supplements.

Yeah, you know, it’s like, oh, you have cancer. What do I need to take to get better? No, it’s not what do I need to take? It’s a lifestyle, everything. And yes, there’s things that can help you. And you got to get rid of the cause. Number one.

Yes, that’s right. I think it’s interesting with cancer. It’s kind of a deep topic. And with my patients, I always support them whatever, you know, traditional therapy they need to do. And then I’m like, okay, now we have to change the environment. Because if you don’t change the environment, then it’s going to come back somewhere else. And it’s going to be looked at as a separate thing, but it’s not a separate thing. It’s the same thing. Unless you change your environment, like change the inside. You have to make an environment so that cancer can’t grow. Like it’s not hospitable for cancer to grow and thrive. And so I think we need to really consider that because the cool thing is that we can change gene aggression based on environment.

And we know with the study of epigenetics is that we express gene based on the environment that they’re exposed to. So you can imagine someone who eats fast food and has a standard American diet, you can imagine their environment versus somebody who exercises daily, who you know eats a very clean diet, who really works on organic foods and has the right proper nutrition. The environment is going to be completely different. And you know certain organisms and cancer and viruses and bacteria they grow. And when the when the environment or the conditions are right for them.

Yeah, if we were to simplify that, would you say that genetics may play a role in a predisposition but it’s not a sentence for that.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of people in my patient population is mostly women. So I tend to say you know most of the women that I see many of them have given up because it’s like it’s in my gene line whether they’re talking about auto immunity or they’re talking about cancer or they’re talking about diabetes is a huge one. It’s like it doesn’t matter what I do because it’s in my gene line. My sisters, my mom, my dad, everybody had it. Oh, and now we’re really seeing a huge uptick in Alzheimer’s and cognitive time. And what we need to realize is that, you know, if you most of the time these genes turn on because they’re more familial than it is genetic. Meaning like you keep the same environment that grew up in.

You guys eat the same food, about, you know, you have the same activity level, you have the same mindset. All of those things are continued through life. And so then you’re more likely to turn on those genes. But if you change the environment, if you change your habit, then you can turn genes on or turn gene awe, you know, based on how they how they thrive. So it’s absolutely not a sentence. You have so much control over your gene expression. And again, we just need to put the power back in the patient, you know, so that they realize that they, they have a lot more control than than ever known before.

Yeah, you know, we inherited our genes but we also inherited rates such as for my family. It was pizza every Friday night and, you know, certain things such as that, you know, other people, it’s taco Tuesday. You know, there’s things that we grew up and our parents did them. So we do them and we just need to change some of those that aren’t doing us aren’t serving us.

Yeah, and I think that those start to add comforts, right? Like, taco Tuesday. It’s fun. It’s comforting. It kind of makes you, it reminds you of your childhood. But the other thing, too, is there’s ways that you can keep those habits in, but just make them healthy. Right? So, on taco Tuesday, amazing. Just have a lettuce wrap and just have the actual corn tortilla, or there’s other, you know, tortillas that aren’t so offending. So, you know, you can always make changes, but still keep those traditions in, and that’s what I really encourage people to do, so that you can still enjoy life, how you enjoy life.

But, um, you’re either going to give some things up now, um, for a great reward later, or you’re going to enjoy things now, and then you’re going to deal with chronic degenerate disease that, you know, later. So, it’s a choice that you’re actually making, and most of the time, it’s an unconscious choice.

Yeah, you know, um, I love looking for replacements and the things that we enjoy in life, in my for instance, if it was a, it’s not eliminating everything, that’s, you know, um, not perfect in health, uh, but, you know, if you’re addicted to soda, uh, possibly having a carbonated water with tea and it that gives you a, maybe a green tea, a little boost and maybe it’s flavored with a little fruit juice or stevia to sweeten it or whatever the case or a squeeze element and you start making a soda which is considered, it’s a recreational food, the carbonation, the high acidity, it’s not great for you, but it’s way better than having a sugary soda or something with corn syrup.

I mean, yeah, I do the same thing with wine, so, um, you know, if I’m out with a group of friends and I don’t want to feel like I’m missing out, I just ask the server, can you please bring me sparkling water bit, it has to be in a wine glass. And please put in, you know, a slice of lime, please. And so, I feel like I have the same habit, like I, I’m in a spanish glass, I’m drinking with my friends, but I’m not putting in the toxins and the poison. Now, it doesn’t mean I don’t ever have a glass of wine, but, um, certainly on a limited basis. So, I like to use that, so I’m still socializing, I still am participating, and, um, none of my friend here.

Yeah, oh, you can make your own wine with raw grape juice, but, you know, okay, let’s let’s zero in a little bit now on, um, on thyroid and, and why thyroid, and also, your practice, you said mostly women, do you have men that come to you as well?

I do have men, most of, I’m really focusing on thyroid, and I think with that particular, um, condition, it is mostly women, though males do have, um, low thyroid, but just in a much smaller, um, percentage of the population is man, men. Um, so I do take some men, mostly it bounces of the women that I take in because they like to do it together and be on a team, which is awesome. Um, but I just mostly focus on, um, women with thyroid.

And why is that that women have more thyroid issues than men?

You know, I don’t know if we know that, um, exactly, but I certainly have my own theories. Um, first of all, the number one cause of low thyroid is Hashimoto, and Hashimoto’s is an underlying autoimmune condition where the immune system is attacking and killing the thyroid. It’s about, um, 90, upwards of the research is showing 98% of women who have low thyroid actually have this underlying autoimmune condition. So if you look at that, and you say, okay, well, when does this typically turn on? It usually turns on with a hormonal fluctuate, right? So it’ll turn on at puberty. It’ll, it mostly turns on after the birth of a child, and then you’ll see the symptoms get worse as we go through menopause when we have these bigger hormonal shifts as well.

So, you know, my theory’s about it is because we have such big hormonal shifts that it can be a trigger for Hashimoto’s and men don’t typically have those big triggers.

The other thing that turns on Hashimoto’s or any autoimmune disease for that matter is trauma or major stressful event. And so any male that I’ve ever talked to, who has Hashimoto’s, if we can usually trace it back to some kind of big, stressful event that they’ve had in their life. Because men just don’t have big hormonal shifts like we do. And I think that’s probably the main cause for why women, if you’re in this more than men.

Okay, well that makes sense. And the other thing that I noticed in the past, you know, 20 or 30 years is thyroid conditions seem to be increasing. More people are having them now than in the past.

You know, I don’t know necessarily the cause of this, but there was a study that was done. And I still don’t know why it more women than men, but other than my theory that I have, but thyroid condition is on the rise. It’s crazy how many women have low thyroid. There was a study done in China. And when they iodinize this all, Hashimoto’s increased by like 80%. And so, you know, there is a lot of controversy about that, you know, iodine. If you give a patient iodine, who has Hashimoto’s, it actually speeds up the immune attack on the thyroid. So, they feel better temporarily and it makes you think that they’re doing better. But there’s a lot of studies that show that that be the actual attack on thyroid.

So, could it be because we’re eye-denizing our salt, could it be that we’re more toxic, right? Our air, our water, our food is all more toxic. And if you look at the triggers for autoimmunity, excuse me, toxins that play a huge role. Although, you know, blood sugar, um, insulin surges play a huge role when you have an autoimmune condition when you have an insulin surge or an insulin bite. It’ll cause the immune system to attack the thyroid. And I think the latest histic that I heard was 80% of Americans are overweight. And I would be challenged to find someone who is overweight that didn’t have an insulin resistant issue. On some level, insulin resistance doesn’t mean you have pre-diabetes. It’s on a spectrum, right?

And so most people don’t know that they have insulin resistance before it becomes diagnosed with diabetes. Like, “Oh, all of a sudden I got diabetes.” But in reality, that happened many, many years before you ever got the diagnosis.

Well, yeah, and as we’re saying, as we’re having this discussion and thinking about, you know, some of the changes that have happened in the past handful of decades, more sugar than ever before in the foods and a change from real sugar to the high-fructose corn serums that became popular with a genetically modified corn that we had to do something with, let’s turn it into sugar. Rise in the use of medicines and antibiotics and more chemicals in general that are affecting our microflora, which could be a trigger to autoimmune condition. And I also think about, you know, the difference between men and women in puberty, men never get put on hormones in puberty.

Right, that’s interesting.

Yeah, and that is a huge one because not only do women start to get put on birth control when we go through puberty, right? When, now when we go through parry, men pause, we start to get all these hormones as well. And insulin, surges, and testosterone, surges will cause the immune system to attack a thyroid, or the body if you’re dealing with other autoimmune issues. And I think it, um, kind of like the wild wild west out there right now with hormone, I see, I mean, you know, I see some women who absolutely need it on some level, right? And not necessarily in big surges or spikes, but maybe slow, um, you know, administration of some of these hormones, but a lot of them are getting huge spikes.

And I’m seeing like testosterone level, um, you know, higher than a teenage boy that can barely be measured and estrogen levels through the roof, also. And it’s like, since when do we need hormones this high? Like, that doesn’t even, these are higher than a menstruating female. Like, why do we have to have so many hormones? And they’re just not being measured. And I think it’s trendy. I think it, um, there’s not a lot of regulation. I think there’s not a lot of understanding true physiology of hormones, um, out there. And so it’s kind of like the wildlife.

I completely agree. And I see that, you know, right now, there’s a, you know, dangling testosterone in front of every man after age 40 and, uh, and, and the temptation is there. And, but why? Because, well, we, because we want to be strong and energetic and useful. But do we really need it? How do we know? Are you having an actual, uh, lack of that particular hormone? Have you tested for it? You know?

Yeah. Tell me about the things like why, right? Like, do you, are the precursors? Um, are you lacking the precursors? Are you turning all of that testosterone into estrogen? So your body’s protecting you? So I always go back to body’s protecting you. So it always works in your best interests. So if you understand physiology and you understand feedback loops and you understand like precursors like how that whole microbiome, that micro uh, sorry, that biochemical pathway is working. I’m the answer, but usually hormone replacement should be a last resort in my opinion because you’re essentially making the body do something that it’s not doing right now and you have to really understand why. And you have to have a true respect for the body because it’s amazing.

When you really can dig in and figure out where the issue is, um, it’s pretty spectacular what the body does.

When you say, “Oh, you have low testosterone, but your estrogen is through the roof.” And your body’s trying to protect you. And, you know, for, for men when you go through, um, and your paws, a lot of times you’ll turn your estrogen, um, testosterone into estrogen. And you are at risk for prostate and colon cancer and even breast cancer. And so you have a hormone clearance problem. You don’t have a testosterone problem. And so you got to really work with the body to clear that excess hormone out. And you also have to realize that it’s insulin resistance that makes you turn a testosterone into estrogen. So you have to have a blood sugar problem. Right? So what appears to be a hormonal problem usually isn’t. It’s usually something even deeper than that.

And instead of just pumping you full of testosterone because that’s what’s low when you’re looking and that’s the only thing you’re looking at. But if you’ll dig deeper and understand physiology, you can usually resolve the issue by digging deeper and working higher up the chain.

Yeah, well, let’s start and tear it away on the symptoms and diagnosis. What are the most common symptoms you see in people that are having thyroid insufficiencies?

Yeah, so classically it low-energy inability to lose weight, hard to sleep at night, whether it’s falling asleep or staying asleep, they’ll get anxiety and depression, brain fog, their hair falls out, dry skin, brittle nails. That’s typically the classic symptoms of low thyroid.

And those are very common symptoms when people come in with them and you do the proper testing, what percentage of them are showing thyroid issues?

Well, I’ll say this. It’s never just a thyroid issue, right? Never. And there are many women who, you know, they look on Dr. Google and Dr. Google says these are the symptoms of a little thyroid and they’re like, I have every symptom of low thyroid, I must have low thyroid. So they go talk to their doctor and they check a TSH. That’s basically all they check for the most part. NTSH comes back normal and they’re like, well, you don’t have a thyroid problem, but here’s an anti-depressant and here’s an anti-inside medication. And you just need to go reduce your calories and increase your exercise. And so they go through this cycle for many years until they make it to me.

And I’m like, okay, well, let’s just test. But we’re not testing just the thyroid. We’re going to test. We’re going to do actual, you know, very thorough testing. And it could be anything. It can be liver dysfunction, adrenal gland dysfunction. It can be an underlying infection. It can be boots and sensitivities. It can be so many different things that have the exact same, you know, group of symptoms. But we’ve just been kind of trained that that’s what low thyroid is. And so we have to dig a little bit deeper to find the answer, because your body is giving you a symptom for a reason. So the way that the body communicates with you to let you know that something is not right is to give you a symptom. So it’s just a way to communicate.

And so when you find the actual issue, when you find the actual root cause of the symptom, and you resolve that, then the symptom has no perfect, right? So the symptom goes away. It’s been resolved.

This is what I would say, too, is if you look for low thyroid and you don’t have low thyroid, well, there’s something. There is something going on, because otherwise you wouldn’t have symptoms.

Okay, and when we zero in on the problem, what does treatment typically look like?

Yeah, so treatment, like for someone with low thyroid. So like I said earlier, most patients have an underlying autoimmune condition. And so I’ve created a thyroid blueprint. So I can kind of walk you through the blueprint really quickly, so that that kind of lays out the path that somebody goes through when they’ve been diagnosed. Right?

So the first part of the blueprint is you have to have gold. Right? You have to know, like, what is it that you’re trying to accomplish? What direction are you going? So everybody is working on the same thing. And then number two, you have to have very thorough testing. You have to have very comprehensive testing. Number three is you have to have a comprehensive diagnosis and analysis of that testing. So it’s not just, oh, you have low thyroid. But why do you have low thyroid? Or if you don’t have low thyroid where else is this coming from? Do you also have insulin resistance, a liver issue? Like, what is the big, sure, here?

And then you, that only then can you start customizing care. And I think that’s really important because, you know, because each one of us are individuals and will have different imbalances, we as practitioners need to take that into account. So just because someone’s been diagnosed with thyroid doesn’t mean I have a certain treatment plan for them because of the diagnosis. But if we dig deep in and we figure out what are all the underlying imbalances, then we can start to create a customized care plan.

And for us, that looks like dietary recommendations basically for that individual person and what they’re dealing with and how their body respawn. We do nutritional therapy so we do nutritional supplementation based on what that person is dealing with.

And then of course lifestyle changes as well. Like what is exercise looked like for them because it’s different for every person and what every person can tolerate. What is their stress level in their life? How can we minimize stress or not even minimize necessarily? But how do we deal with stress? How do we how do we start to reduce stress? Not by, you know, ex-communicating or or getting rid of a family member. But how do we deal with it? Right? And and I think a lot of women in particular, we worry about things that we don’t have any can go over. And so trying to really rewire, you know, we’re what that’s going on in our minds all day long.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And this is outlined in your book, a Thyroid Transformation Blueprint.

Yes, that people can get on Amazon or probably from your website, mate.

Yep, they can get it on Amazon or if they go to ThyroidTransformationBook.com, they can find it there. We also gave listeners the first two chapters for free, and they can download it there as well. So the ThyroidTransformationBook.com.

Did COVID make it possible where people can see you without being in your in Texas?

I am in Texas. I do have a practice in Colorado as well. So COVID was crazy and it was scary, but there were blessings and silver linings that came out of that. And for me it allowed us to go more in a virtual setting. And so now we are focused mostly people in Arizona, Texas in Colorado, that the regions that we’re in right now. But it’s just been an amazing to allow access to people who didn’t have this type of healthcare in their local towns. So it’s pretty awesome. I have so many people in these small towns, all over Colorado, Arizona, and Texas that they would have to drive hours and hours. I used to have people drive four hours to see me one way and they would have to stay the night.

And this is just become so much more efficient and given this opportunity to patients that didn’t have a before.

Okay, and are any of your visits virtual visits? Kind of like we’re doing a virtual visit right now through Zoom.

Yeah, all of the visits are virtual.

Okay, all right, very, very cool. All right. And I think that’s great to our audiences spread out throughout the United States. And if they were interested in having your work, whether it be through yourself or someone that works with you, where would they go to schedule an appointment?

Well, first they would go to my thyroid group on Facebook. So it’s happy, healthy, and lean. So happy, healthy, and lean on Facebook is really where they get to connect with other women. I have about 17,000 women in there and growing right now. And I do tons of information there. So I do thyroid Thursday, every Thursday night. I do some topic. I talk for about 30 minutes. I do master classes. And my schedule’s not always open, but when I do a master class or some special event, I usually open my schedule to accept new patients. But they can get tons of information there pretty continuously. So the happy, healthy, and lean women overcoming low thyroid on Facebook.

Oh, that’s great. And I saw somewhere that you have retreats sometimes in Texas.

Yeah. So we do have retreats on the ranch. Right now, um, they’re only for patients who have been through about six months worth of hair because it is, um, an advanced retreat. But in 2024, I am opening this up to patient or to women who have never been a patient before. And so I’m really excited for that. Um, but I’d make all of those announcements and all of all of the dates will be announced in my Facebook group. So that’s where they go.

What does a retreat look like?

Um, so every retreat is so much fun because, you know, with COVID and is being more of a virtual setting, um, we do miss that human interaction and like being in the presence of other people. But it’s really awesome because you get to be together with other women who are like-minded and are on the same journey, um, with their health. And so we do advance testing and we go overall of those test results and figure out a plan to move forward.

We do yoga, we do a lot of, um, mindset stuff. We get to pet and spend some time with the animals. So, uh, I have, um, Highland cattle, so it kind of the fluffy cows and they’re super sweet. They like to be pet and brushed and I’ve got pigs and sheep and all kinds of animals that are super friendly. It’s been a little time there. Um, we do exercise and time for rest and relaxation and just time to kind of get away.

I’m so jealous hearing of the animals on the farm and I miss my chickens. I’m, you know, well, I’m kind of in the city and, you know, the neighbors are right there. You have events separating your properties and you can get away with chickens. They don’t, you know, the neighbors don’t actually love them and you, you hope you only have hands.

But yeah, I gotta say I’m not a bird person. Um, so I was like, okay, well, you can’t have a farm without having chickens and the eggs are amazing. So we’re gonna get chicken. Oh my gosh. They’re like my best friends. They follow me everywhere. They’re always on me. They will sit on my shoulder and do chores with me. So they are just so awesome.

Yeah, I want to get a goat and sell my lawnmower.

There you go. I think that’s a good idea. But I think your neighbors might have more of a problem with that than the chickens.

Well, um, it sounds like fun and, you know, I am jealous, but I love where it comes from, too, because understanding where your food comes from, you know, it doesn’t come from publics or croaker or, you know, safeware, whatever your local grocery store is. And you start realizing, you know, it depends. Uh, the quality depends on how the animals are raised and how the food is grown and you really figure this out when you’re raising your own and growing your own. How much of your food is coming from your own man?

Um, I would say, um, probably, like on a day-to-day basis, I’d probably say 50%, but at the reread, we really work to be 100% far from the table. So, I have a garden that is really huge. I’m figuring, so I move from Colorado to Texas and the climate is completely different. And I have like four growing seasons in Texas, which is kind of crazy. Versus Colorado, the growing season with very short, and you kind of got one crop in hope that hailed in the district didn’t destroy it. But I’m figuring out what things work best and how the um do companion planting and what you know plants help you know get rid of the bugs for another plant or what is a trap plant so that you can let the bugs eat that and stay away from the other one.

So I’m really learning about all of this, which is I mean I’m really passionate about it because if you’ll think about it this way, most people say you are what you eat. But we got to go a little deeper than that because um I really think you are what you eat eat. And so we got to go a little another step deeper because the quality of your food is what really matters and what your food is eating or the nutrients in the um in the soil that they’re grown in really really battered. So we are shooting for um 100% farm to table so that’s the old mingle.

You know it’s interesting because I just heard that definitely for the first time, you know I used to think of what Jordan ribbon said when he said uh you know you’ve heard it well said that you are what you eat but when it comes to animal foods I tell you you are what they ate. Wait a second the plants eat too so the way you put it makes you think wait that’s right because they’re rooted into the soil and whatever they’re absorbing and you eat them as well so whatever they ate wow that’s great you are what you eat yeah um

what are what’s one of your favorite testimonials um whether it be from seeing a patient or the retreat setting but related to what you do what’s a wonderful transformation that you got this witness as a result of your work.

Yeah there’s so many um but one that’s just kind of coming to mind right now um is a lovely lady she’s in her 40 and she has like I think five or six kids right now and her husband is every chair or a pattern and she was doing so terribly like she was in bed most of the day she wasn’t really able to um take care of her kids and interact the way that she wanted to and she want another child and so um unlike you really want them she’s like yes like that is her you know that’s one of her big purposes on her on this earth for her is to have as many children as she possibly can and so I said all right well let’s dig in and let the year it out and I think um following the blueprint within about six months she um I think have lost about 45 pounds.

She was actually helping and directing um at the church and she was running the youth group. She um is a very musical so she plays all these instruments and created this um like Christmas musical that she led and and had all these children go through and um she started a summer camp all I mean completely turned her life around and um she actually was able to conceive.

So um that’s one of my favorite stories because I think ultimately every being wants to be able to fulfill whatever it is their purposes um on this earth and to feel like they’re contributing and making a big difference. Whatever that may be. And I think most of us when we’re when we aren’t functioning well when we have so many imbalances we’re just surviving, right? So it has been amazing to me to see how many women are just making it through the day. Like okay what do I have to do today to get through to sleep again tonight because I’m so exhausted. And when when we are in that space you’re creative sinners in your brain completely shut down.

And so you’re in a survival mode and you’re not able to create you if you’re an artist you’re not able to do art or a writer you’re not able to write you can’t fully be present with your children and your family. And it’s pretty amazing when you get out of that survival mode and then your body starts to move into thriving where you can really tap into that again. And I think that’s probably the story of most of my patient.

And you know the truly awesome thing is on my Facebook page, Happy Healthy and Lean. Ladies are talking about their testimonial, you know, every day they just would up there before and afters without even asking. Because that group is such a great group and they want to see other women really being successful and they want to be an inspiration. So that’s typically the story that we hear and I just never get tired of reconnecting people with their bodies ability to heal. Most people think that their body is broken. Like they’ve actually come to me and said, “Dr. Heather, my thyroid’s broken.” I’m like, “That’s not possible.” It’s not broken. It’s not functioning as well as it should, but it’s not broken.

And so reconnecting them with knowing that they’re not broken and that they are born to heal and we just have to remove the interference and get down to the root cause.

Yeah, I love the fact that in that story the measuring stick was not, you know, what happened to her thyroid levels or her blood pressure or sugar levels, but her ability to do in life the things that she desires to do and wants to do so.

Yeah, the other thing I think is important if I may. Other stories that really give inspiration is the ladies that I have in their 70s and 80s because I think a lot of times society has given up as we move into what would be considered older age.

But these ladies are doing great. I have one, she’s 80 years old. And she came to me with type 2 diabetes and low thyroid. And in about a year, she was no longer diabetic. She was not on any of her diabetic medication. And for her, yes, she lost about 50 pounds. But she was able to hike up Chipmunk Mountain. I don’t know where that is. And we’re in Colorado, but her and her family did that, you know, every single year. But she didn’t. She said, stood at the bottom of the mountain and watched them hike up. And then they what she would meet them when they came down. But she was able to hike all the way up and down. And now she’s doing it once a month. And she’s 80.

And I think that most people feel like, oh, you know, once you reach that age, your body doesn’t heal. But it absolutely does. I have another 74 year old who, hi, um, Manitou springs the incline. So the incline goes up one mile, um, in it, the, the elevation is huge. And it is hard, like Olympic athletes train, um, on, uh, the incline of Manitou springs. And she did it. And I think she was 74. And she took all these pictures when she was at the top. And she’s like, I’ve never would have been able to do this, um, without changing my life and, and, and, and really getting her health together.

But it is about, you know, reconnecting with your why. Right. When I said earlier, like goal setting, um, you have to connect those goals with why. And that, that’s why I think I probably focus on when you say a transformation. I’m not focusing necessarily on the numbers. But I’m focusing on volatility of life. What is it that they wanted and to do, that they weren’t able to do, that would make their life even better?

And so really focusing on that, help people tick with it, and keep going, because health is not like just a straight shot. I think what we get frustrated when we may hit a plateau, or maybe we feel like we’re sliding backwards, um, and we give up, and we go right back to where we were when we started. But if you have a deep motivation for why you want to be healthy, um, and you give the body permission to heal over time, then you start to realize the goals and, and you start to actually live the life that you want to create.

Wow, that’s right. You know, um, obviously when I ask questions, I, I don’t have a list in front of me, and it’s just a conversation, and I, I’m being selfish in the things I want to know, but you probably know things that I should have asked you. Is there anything that you think we should have talked about that you want to make sure our audience has before.

I don’t know, I think this conversation has been really good, and I think just to reiterate that your body is born to heal, and you just have to, you know, figure out what are the underlying causes to the symptoms that you have, because it’s just a way that your body needs to communicate, and I think some people feel like they’re broken, or that they just don’t work, or that they’re something wrong with them, and I think that that if I could just reiterate that that is not the case, that you have the power, your body will heal from the inside out, you just have to dig, or you have to find the right practitioner, that knows where to dig, so that the road isn’t so long.

I love that, and I’m going to give it right from your book where you said, “It’s time to take that, your power, and heal your body once and for all. You have everything you need, you just need to put it all together.”

They need to be the hero of their own story, right? Your doctor should just be a guide, because they are the hero.

Yeah, that’s wonderful. Okay great, and let’s wrap up. I know we already talked about this. The Facebook group is where?

Go to Facebook and it’s happy, healthy, and lean. If they type in happy, healthy, and lean, they’ll see my picture come up so they’ll know they’re in the right space. And that’s where they can get pretty consistent, constant information, and I’ll do master classes and things like that. That’s where they find me on Facebook.

Great, and the website is thyroidtransformationbook.com.

And if they want to schedule an appointment, they’ll have to go to the Facebook page and on theirs whenever, like my schedule is closed right now. But I am impossibly doing another master class in November, so they can pop onto the Facebook page and then don’t get all of the announcement.

Great, great. Dr. Heather Stone, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Dr. Haley. It was a pleasure to be here.