Episode 158: Thyroid Answers with Dr. Eric Balcavage

HORMONES

Jun 15

Get ready to learn in this beefy interview covering next-level topics on the thyroid. If you’re a practitioner, you may want to break out your notepad for this! Today Erin sits down with Dr. Eric Balcavage to discuss all things thyroid health, considerations for specific markers on thyroid panels, and looking beyond labs to change the way medicine looks at hypothyroidism.

If you’ve been struggling with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s, this episode may provide some answers you haven’t gotten elsewhere. This episode is also beneficial for anyone with autoimmunity, not just hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s: pay attention to what Dr. Balcavage says about the immune system, what starts the process, and how we can unravel that.

Feel overwhelmed with this talk?

It’s ok, this is NOT a Thyroid 101 episode. We encourage you to go back to some earlier episodes we covered on thyroid topics. You can find them linked below!

In this episode:

If you’re just starting your thyroid research... [2:12]

Functional medicine and the rise of lab testing [6:18]

Finding root cause in thyroid physiology [7:26]

Chronic cellular stress and thyroiditis [13:19]

Stress, autoimmunity and the immune system’s job [17:01]

Looking beyond thyroid panels for hypothyroidism [22:43]

The most important piece of information a patient can provide [26:06]

When does it make sense to consider medication? [30:09]

The importance of context with elevated Reverse T3 [31:27]

Considering lab ranges with presented (or lack of) symptoms [35:20]

Suppressing TSH [38:30]

Conversion confusion with T4, T3 and Reverse T3 [45:52]

The cellular vs tissue issue with hypothyroidism [54:58]

Pinpointing specific stressors that compromise health [57:28]

The connection between insulin and T3 [59:37]

The Thyroid Debacle [1:03:41]

Dr. Eric Balcavage is the owner and founder of Rejuvagen, a functional medicine clinic in Chadds Ford, PA. He is nationally recognized speaker and educator on various health related topics including thyroid physiology, bile physiology, detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation and chronic illness.

Dr. Balcavage is a Certified Nutrition Specialist (C.N.S.), a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, Board Certified in Integrative Medicine, along with being a licensed Chiropractor in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Balcavage is the co-host of Thyroid Answers Podcast. The podcast focuses on answering the pressing questions those suffering with chronic hypothyroid symptoms can’t get answered elsewhere. You can find his educational Thyroid Thursday videos on Vimeo and Youtube.

Dr. Balcavage has made it his mission to change the way medicine looks at hypothyroidism. He is the co-author of the soon to be released book, Thyroid Debacle, The book co-written by Kelly Halderman MD, addresses the problems with current allopathic and functional medicine approaches to hypothyroidism as well as the solutions to restoring thyroid physiology.