Episode 164: Dr. Heather Stone ON The Seven Pillars of Thyroid Transformation

In this episode of Ketones and Coffee podcast, join us as we dig into the world of functional medicine with Dr. Heather Stone. With her extensive clinical experience and personal journey of struggling with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's, Dr. Stone brings crucial insights into redefining healthcare. Learn about her revolutionary book, 'The Thyroid Transformation Blueprint,' and how it has helped women reclaim their health around the globe. 

Dive deep into the discussion on issues of misdiagnosis, the importance of comprehensive testing, and why the root causes of symptoms should be addressed. Moreover, grasp the importance of mindset, hope, and scaling the roadblocks of subconscious thinking that deter us from prioritizing our health. Dr. Stone emphasizes that our body is designed to heal, and with the correct approach, it's possible!

00:00 Introduction and Overview of the Episode

00:03 Introduction to Dr. Heather Stone and Her Work

00:38 Beginning of the Interview with Dr. Heather Stone

02:09 Dr. Stone's Personal Journey and Struggles

10:36 The Importance of Understanding Your Body and Symptoms

20:32 The Challenges of Diagnosing Hashimoto's and Hypothyroidism

25:40 Understanding the Symptoms and Identifying Hashimoto's

29:29 The Role of Diet and Metabolism in Hashimoto's

33:29 Understanding the Body's Metabolic Processes

34:10 The Importance of Note-Taking and Review

34:34 The Seven Pillars of Thyroid Transformation

36:27 The Role of Comprehensive Testing in Health

39:40 The Importance of Customized Treatment Plans

41:07 The Need for a Coach in Health Transformation

42:37 The Importance of Continued Testing

44:06 The Power of Mindset in Health Transformation

44:25 The Role of the Subconscious Mind in Health

49:56 The Importance of Prioritizing Health

55:37 The Power of Community in Health Transformation

Dr. Heather Stone's Website: http://reversemycondition.com/

Special Audience Giveaway:  

• TITLE: Thyroid Transformation Quick-Start
• URL: http://thyroidtransformationblueprint.com/

Social Media:           

Instagram - @drheatherstone

Youtube -  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRA4XSwUnTMZvUtRIITDrw - 

Dr. Heather Stone, DC

• https://linktr.ee/drheatherstone

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Transcript

0:49

Hey guys, this episode is such a huge learning experience for me. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Heather Stone. She is a functional medicine doctor with over 20 years of experience. We discussed the issues around hypothyroidism and Hasimoto's and we focus on the issues of misdiagnosis and the portions of comprehensive testings. We also discussed her book, that thyroid transformation blueprint, where we discussed the purpose behind writing it and how it has helped women who suffers from these issues get better. This is one empowering episode, guys, not just for women, but everyone who suffers from these affirmation issues. Very exciting stuff guys. And without further ado, here's my interview with Dr. Heather Stone.

Lorenz: 1:31

I'm so excited for this guys. We have an honor of hosting a distinguished guest who stands at the forefront of functional medicine. We have Dr. Heather Stone on the show today. She is a visionary practitioner with over Two decades of clinical experience, Dr. Stone has dedicated her career to transforming lives of women struggling with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's. She is also the author of a revolutionary book, The Thyroid Transformation Blueprint, which has been embraced by hundreds of doctors, resulting in a restoration of happiness, health, and leanness for numerous women across the world. She is on a mission to redefine healthcare. Driven by the belief that the body was born to heal, reminding us that the power to heal always comes from within. I love that. Dr. Heather Stone, welcome to the ketones and coffee podcast.

Dr. Heather Stone: 2:26

for having me.

Lorenz: 2:28

You know, it's such a great satisfaction for me to say that the last part there that I'm such a believer of, you know, our body can heal from within, right? So it's an honor to have you and grateful for your time that you're taking, your time with us today to just share your story. We got a lot of questions for you today and mine. My intention for this interview is to, you know, empower people with the knowledge coming from exceptional individuals and even better if they themselves has a lived experience. So from what I understand, Dr. Stone, you have. struggled with these issues yourself and came to a point where you became really frustrated, mainly from the lack of progress going through, you know, conventional treatments. Can you take us back to, you know, the early days that you were struggling and talk about any takeaways from that experience that led you to starting your own, Healthcare practice? Mm. Mm.

Dr. Heather Stone: 3:25

Yes, so many years ago, about 20 something years ago, probably 25 by now I was really struggling with my weight. I was struggling with energy. I had a lot of hormonal imbalances and my menstrual cycles were all off. And, you know, I tried every diet out there. I mean, I've been on them all, and fat free, and, you know, carb free, and low, you know, the cabbage soup diet, and SlimFast, and all the diets that you could think of. I've tried them all. And, you know, I was successful losing weight on those diets, but those diets are fad diets. And you can't live on cabbage soup forever, right? Or grapefruit forever. And so, when you get off of those, then the weight all comes back, plus a few pounds. And so, you know, I just kept going on this rollercoaster and rollercoaster. And I was so tired. Not only physically tired, but I was tired of this whole roller coaster. And I just knew that my life could be more than what it was turning out to be. So that's what really set me on this mission to figure out like what's going on. Why is my body not functioning? And at the time I was going to school, I was pre med. And I thought, well, I'll just go to, you know, an OB GYN and figure out what in the world is going on. And at the time, my roommate's dad was a doctor and he got me into the best OB GYN in Texas. And so I went in and I was really excited to figure out what was going on and let's get to the bottom of this so that I can stop dealing with it and move on my way and, and continue to pursue medicine. And I went in and I told them all of my symptoms and I said, You know, I think it could be low thyroid. Now that was back in the day that was before Dr. Google. So the only thing I had to go on was like textbooks that you read and, you know, research that you would have to do like physically in the library. And so he said, all right, let's check your thyroid. Now, at the time, I didn't really know to ask for my test results, so I'm assuming that all he ran was a TSH. And I go back in like a couple weeks later, and he's like, you know, it's not your thyroid. And you know, there's, there's nothing wrong with your thyroid. And by the way, I think that, you know, the reason that you don't have a menstrual cycle is because you exercise too much. And I was like, What is he talking about? So, I knew, I had the knowledge to know that when women overtrain and overexercise and our body fat gets below like 10%, then we stop menstruation. Okay, I was 50 pounds heavier than I am today. So, I knew that that was not the reason why I had an issue with my menstrual cycles. And then on his way out, he said, by the way, you probably are not going to be able to have children naturally. You're going to need fertility treatments. And that's it. There was no other solution. There was no, like, let's dig deeper to figure out what all is going on. Like, why you're struggling with this. And I, I'm grateful for that moment because I knew enough to not believe what he was saying, right? If I didn't know and I just believed what he said at face value, like, you know, it was over exercising and I would never get pregnant naturally, then I could imagine that that would be setting myself up for that type of life, or that's what my expectation would be. But when I had that experience, This is not how my life is going to be. I am going to figure this out. So that's what put me on this path to figuring out what exactly, what kind of doctor I wanted to be and what kind of doctor I did not want to be,

Lorenz: 7:14

Yeah.

Dr. Heather Stone: 7:15

also figuring out like what is really causing these issues. And so intuitively for me, I'm, always and always have been looking for the root cause of why I had a symptom or a disease process and that's really what has carried me through in helping tens of thousands of women is looking for that root cause that's creating all of these symptoms. And, you know, once I figured it out, I figured out how I was supposed to be eating, I figured out how I was supposed to be exercising, I got my nutrition and my health right and in the optimal ranges, and I was able to lose, you know, 50 pounds in, you know, that was like 25 years ago and I've been able to keep it off and I had two healthy babies. Who are now my oldest is 20 and my youngest is 17. So it was quite a while ago that this transformation really happened, but that's what's really fueled my passion and my purpose for really helping other women who are struggling with low thyroid, and eventually I did figure out that yes, I did have low thyroid, I did have Hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune condition, which we can get into later but I figured all of those things out, plus some other underlying issues that were creating the symptom, and then once you start to resolve that, then the body heals.

Lorenz: 8:38

Mm. You know, when you said that you are somebody who always wanted to look for the root cause of the problem you know, people who are usually like that are always very curious and ask the right questions. More often than not, if you're proactive with questioning everything that, that, you know, maybe somebody said something to you, maybe your doctor said something, and you're always curious if that's true or not, more like, more likely that you will, you know, find a good outcome at the end of that you know, also such a horrible experience with your doctor. I am, you know, very curious why doctors would be so sure of. You know, something that you know, that you're not going to be able to carry a baby. And that is, that really boggles my mind that they're just throwing this information that so easily.

Dr. Heather Stone: 9:37

Yeah, I do think it's their experience. Yeah. I

Lorenz: 9:40

going by experience.

Dr. Heather Stone: 9:43

I don't think necessarily that most doctors are trying to give that information in a harmful or hurtful way, but it is their experience. And why is it their experience? Because in traditional medicine, which there is a time and place for traditional medicine, but when we're dealing with these chronic degenerative diseases or even autoimmune conditions you know, In this disease drug therapy model, like they diagnose a disease, they match the drug with the disease, and then usually, the outcomes are pretty crappy, right, especially for chronic degenerative diseases. And that's just what they see. Now, why he had to kind of throw that in there and maybe get me prepared for that experience, I don't know. But I just am I'm so grateful that I knew intuitively that that, that did not make any sense to me and I was going to overcome that because I truly believed in the, in the power that the, body is really an amazing, miraculous organism that, that does things that we don't even know and understand how it does.

Lorenz: 10:50

You seem like a great fit for what you're doing today because you have that such great, you know, intuition, right? I can, I can sense that in you. We'll talk about misdiagnosis here in a second, which, you know, it's clearly what happened to you. I'm curious to know, is there a key takeaway or a piece of advice that you could consistently share with women, you know, dealing with these issues? Like Hashimoto's or low, low thyroid, anything that you can pull from, from your experience, that number one thing that you can take, you can take away.

Dr. Heather Stone: 11:25

Yeah, I think that one of the most important things to understand is that your body communicates with you when there's an imbalance or something is not right by giving you symptoms. And so symptoms are your clue that there is some kind of underlying imbalance. And so if we continue to try to cover up the symptoms or ignore the symptoms, they're going to get worse over time or they're going to show up. In another symptom, right? In another way. So it's really important to understand that if you have a symptom, it's your body trying to communicate with you that something is not right. So we shouldn't give up when a practitioner, a health care practitioner of any discipline, tells you that there's nothing wrong, but you have symptoms. They've just run out of education. So you need to find another one that is willing to dig and who has seen someone who has a symptom to really try to figure out where the underlying issue is that needs resolution and then the symptoms go away. But know that Your body is always trying to protect you. Your body is always working towards survival. It's never working against you. What we may perceive that it's working against us because we can't lose weight or we're tired and we have all of these symptoms, if we would just shift our understanding and say, okay, I have these symptoms because my body is trying to tell me that something is not right, So, we have to dig to figure out where the underlying root cause is to that symptom. Then you can apply a solution, and then you get resolution. But just trying to cover up the symptom and getting angry because our, it, what feels like our body is not communicating or, or, or working properly is, is not really going to be a good solution. And I think that most women have tried that. Most people are really stuck there when they have a thyroid problem, but about 90 percent upwards of 98 percent of women who have low thyroid. actually have the autoimmune condition Hashimoto's. And it's not being looked at, it's not being treated, it's not being addressed when that is actually the root cause of why they have a thyroid problem in the first place and why they have all of those symptoms. And in traditional medicine They usually just say it doesn't matter if you have this autoimmune condition. It doesn't matter if you have Hashimoto's You just need to take this thyroid medication and off you go In January, it was thyroid awareness month and I saw all of these thyroid magazines It's in the health care, in the health food store and in the airport and I bought it. Just bought some of them so I could see like, okay, what is the information that these people are getting mainstream? Is there anything different than what their doctors are telling them? And there isn't. Like one of the things in there, one of the pages says the solution is more thyroid medication and when you're on the right medication. You should start to feel better within a couple of weeks. And that is just not the case because most women are dealing with an underlying autoimmune condition. It's not really that they just have low thyroid. They have all of these other issues that are complicating the situation. And if it really was. That easy to just get on thyroid medication and your symptoms are going to go away. We would not have a problem. There would be nobody talking about low thyroid. There would not any. We would not have an audience right here today. And I will tell you there are millions of women who are still suffering from all of these symptoms, even though they're on their thyroid medication and maybe their thyroid markers look normal.

Lorenz: 16:22

like you're talking about, they go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. And then some doctors, not, not all certainly. You know, they can get trigger happy with prescribing medications, which oftentimes, you know, makes the situation a lot worse. So I want, I want to define low thyroid and Hashimoto's because this topic, you know, very much misunderstood. And as somebody with a lived experience like yourself and actually turn this around, For our listeners who may be seeking, seeking clarity right now, could you provide just a clear definition of this condition?

Dr. Heather Stone: 17:00

Yes, so primary hypothyroid means that when your TSH goes up, right, when it's outside of the lab range, it means that your thyroid is not producing enough thyroid hormone. So that's the basic definition. of low thyroid, right? Like a five year old could probably diagnose that. You could teach them if this nut marker is out, that means they have low thyroid and they need T4 hormone. So that's basically how you get diagnosed is that you have low thyroid hormones because your TSH is high. It's opposite, right? And most of the time you just get stuck on thyroid medication, whether it's Synthroid, Levothyroxine, Armour, whatever thyroid medication and they adjust it and they switch it and try to get these numbers balanced. It's very difficult to get these numbers balanced if you have an underlying autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's. Now Hashimoto's, again, like I said previously, about 90, upwards of 98 percent of women who have low thyroid actually have this underlying autoimmune condition. So if you're out there and you've been diagnosed with low thyroid, Odds are you've got Hashimoto's, and most traditional doctors just assume that you have Hashimoto's, but it doesn't change their treatment. Now, Hashimoto's means that the immune system is attacking and killing the thyroid. Right? So when enough thyroid tissue gets destroyed, it can no longer produce enough thyroid hormones. That's when you get diagnosed with low thyroid. For the most part, most people have Hashimoto's. Long before they ever get diagnosed with low thyroid. And that was my case. I go into the doctor and he looks at my thyroid hormones and he's like, they're normal. But he didn't check the antibodies to see if I had Hashimoto's. And so I had all of the symptoms of low thyroid but my labs weren't showing. technically low thyroid as a diagnosis where I needed thyroid medication, but you can have Hashimoto's for many years before you actually become diagnosed with hypothyroid. Now, many people have Hashimoto's many, many, it is more prevalent in women than it is men. And mostly because it'll get triggered when you have big hormonal fluctuations. So I typically see Hashimoto's turn on at puberty. Right? So some women get diagnosed with Hashimoto's or this turns on as they go through puberty and their hormones start to change. The most common time that we see Hashimoto's turn on is after the birth of a child. Your immune system has to flip flop when you're pregnant so that your immune system recognizes the baby as part of you and doesn't try to get rid of it. So your immune system has to flip flop. And a lot of times that's when Hashimoto's actually turns on. And it gets missed a lot because a lot of the symptoms of low thyroid and Hashimoto's look like, Oh, you just had a baby. Like, of course you're tired. You just had a baby. Of course you're struggling with weight loss. You just had a baby. Of course you have anxiety, depression, whatever. You just had a baby. And so it gets kind of brushed under the rug there. And then I see a lot of women who are going through menopause or who are post menopausal and again, their hormones are shifting and they either turn on Hashimoto's, but more likely they've already turned it on, but the symptoms just get worse because they have a lot of hormonal fluctuations. So basically Hashimoto's means your immune system is attacking and killing the thyroid. Now, it's extremely important to understand that if you have one autoimmune condition, you're at risk for developing multiple autoimmune conditions and even thyroid cancer, right? Especially with Hashimoto's. So instead of, you know, just throwing medication at it, And, and then, so what happens is they give you thyroid hormones and you don't, you still don't feel amazing and you can't sleep, so they give you sleeping meds and then you still have anxiety and depression and they give you all the psychotropic drugs. So then it's like one drug after another. Meanwhile, your immune system is just destroying your thyroid. It just leads us into this major vicious cycle as we move through life, but it it does not have to be that way, and I think that's the, the biggest takeaway is that if you have Hashimoto's and if you have underlying hypothyroid, there is resolution and there is life without symptoms.

Lorenz: 21:47

You know, thank you for breaking that down. You know, it could really start a domino effect when you are on the First, medication, it can lead to another, that lead to another. Which

Dr. Heather Stone: 22:01

I mean, It's

Lorenz: 22:08

if you identify within yourself and obviously, you know, I want to, I want to actually step back here. What is the challenge for doctors with diagnosing these conditions? Like, what do you think is the challenge?

Dr. Heather Stone: 22:25

Well, I think the biggest challenge is that their solutions are very limited, right? So like when they, in traditional medicine, when they look at their, their toolbox, like what are they going to do to help this person? All they have in here is thyroid medication. That's it, right? So, they're not really trained. It's not the thought process in traditional medicine to get down to the root cause. To look at biochemical pathways and really understand what's going on in the body. How do we optimize function? That, that is not the way that they're trained and that's not the way the system is set up. And so, traditionally doctors, in order for them to even do extensive testing they will get pushback from insurance companies from their network and because they're running unnecessary labs because it doesn't change the treatment so like they can run Hashima, they can run thyroid antibodies but it doesn't change what they're doing and so to an insurance company that's a waste of money Right? So in a traditional, in a full thyroid panel, there's 12 different markers that make up a full thyroid panel and almost always only one of those markers gets run. Why? Because they look in their toolbox and they've got T3 and T4 hormones. Sometimes, a full, like a thyroid panel with TSH, which is only four markers, will get run. But essentially, they're just looking at T4. And the reason that they're only doing that is because their solutions are very limited in what they can do in this model. And we have to remember that in traditional medicine, it is diagnosed the d d d disease. Match it with the medication and the prescription or the surgery. And then that, that is that model. And when you try to use that model but you want a different result, that's when we get really frustrated. When we expect that model to go outside of the model it's, that it's, it's not set up for that. And so you have to go and you have to do something different. And I'm not saying that these thyroid medications aren't necessary because they absolutely are. Thyroid hormone, it is the only hormone in the body. where there's a receptor site on every single cell in the body. So it literally will affect you from head to toe. And thyroid medication is a piece of the puzzle, right? When we're looking at handling underlying autoimmune conditions, you have to get the immune system balanced. So you have to look for all the different triggers. that would cause the immune system to attack the thyroid, right? And low thyroid hormones is one trigger. So it's necessary to make sure that you have enough thyroid hormones. So the goal, at least in my practice, is not necessarily to get off those thyroid hormones, but to make sure they're balanced and then dig deeper to figure out, you know, what are the other triggers. that someone might be dealing with that's causing all of these symptoms and the immune attack on the body. Now, some of those triggers might be insulin resistance, right? We have blood sugar problems. It could be adrenal gland dysfunction. It could be mold toxicity. It could be heavy metal toxins. It can be underlying infections. It can be environmental toxins. It can be food sensitivities. It can be leaky gut. So all of these things are and so, there's a lot of techniques and there's a lot of triggers that will impact your immune system. And most of the time, if you're just going to diagnose a disease and give the medication for low thyroid, you're missing all of these underlying imbalances, which are actually causing the symptoms that most women are struggling with.

Lorenz: 26:18

Mm. You know, I totally agree that medication has its place, but if there is a way to let our body heal itself. And my goal for this is to help women detect symptoms of these issues so they can make informed decisions going forward. Because a lot of times we put it in the hands of our doctors, right? But your doctor may not understand what what you have unless you are, you know, your own symptoms, right? And again, I don't know if The traditional medicine can truly help somebody heal from within. I don't think that's possible. I think what women have to do is to really take control of their health and really be curious of what they have. So that, again, the path to healing and Be proactive. Proactive, it usually results to a better outcome. What are the steps or signs should individuals be attentive to so they can identify if they have Hashimoto's, if if they have these conditions?

Dr. Heather Stone: 27:22

Yeah, so some of the symptoms would be fatigue, right? Like, you, you just have low energy. It doesn't even mean that you have to have low energy throughout the day, but like if you have low energy you know, at any time during the day, or you're not sleeping well at night. Many women have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. Many women also have anxiety. anxiety and depression, which it seems, it seems hard to have both of those, but they do have anxiety and, and depression. They'll have heart palpitations they'll have digestive issues like constipation or diarrhea or maybe they have them both alternating. Those are the main symptoms of someone who might have Hashimoto's and it. You might in hot flashes. I mean, it's hard. It's like every symptom in the book could be categorized as low thyroid because like I said, thyroid hormones affect every single cell in the body. And it's really important. I want to kind of dovetail off of something that you said. I think gone are the times. where we just walk into a doctor's office and completely entrust them with our health. I think that we have to trust them on some level, especially maybe when we're in emergency. But when you're trying to optimize health, that is not the goal of our health care system. We have a sick care system. So we go to the doctor When we are in an emergency or our body cannot overcome something, maybe to get us over the hump. But if you want to optimize your health. If you want to feel amazing, and you want to live a great quality of life as long as you can, you have to educate yourself, take your, take control of your health care, and you have to direct the decisions. I think it's It's a mistake to give your health something that is so precious, something that you, that is only given to us, you know, it's almost like the most valuable thing that we're ever given and to give it to someone else. I, I think that that's one of the biggest mistakes we make, especially now that we have so much information. We have so much information at our fingertips. Like, you know, a hundred years ago, we didn't have Google. You would have to literally go to medical school to figure all of this stuff out. Now we can just look things up and we can look it up like 500 sources if we wanted to. So now we have no excuse and we need to be taking our health into our own hands and really drive our health care and not feel like we are at the disposal of our sick care system.

Lorenz: 30:10

I wanted to ask you what's a surefire symptom that you have Hashimoto's, but it feels like it is a collection of these symptoms, right? If you have all of these symptoms at once, it is time to get tested, right?

Dr. Heather Stone: 30:26

Yeah,

Lorenz: 30:27

there a purifier one?

Dr. Heather Stone: 30:28

say, which is really. Yeah, one thing I didn't say that was important. It's important to know that the thyroid is responsible for regulating your metabolic rate. So if you feel like your metabolism is slowed down, what does that mean? It means you have low energy. It means that you can't lose weight. It means that you're probably putting on weight. It means that you're tired. So everything is slowed down. It means that your gut motility is slowed down, so constipation. So if you can think of it in terms of the thyroid is regulating your metabolic rate. And if you feel like your metabolism is slowed down, that's usually when we start to look at the thyroid.

Lorenz: 31:11

Hmm. Okay. Okay. So, cause I know people who has been on a low carb diet that can't lose weight. Still. That's, that's, that's a surefire

Dr. Heather Stone: 31:23

like, yeah, I mean, if you want to, we can talk about that, like, cause so many women are on a low carb diet, they've tried to go into ketosis, they're in paleo, right? They're doing paleo, they may lose weight initially, but then they can't lose weight after like the first, I don't know, month or so, the 30 days and they get stuck in this big plateau. And if we go even deeper as to what's happening. When your when you eat food, right? When you eat food and it turns into sugar, it's in your bloodstream, right? You have glucose in your bloodstream. And your cells take that glucose and they turn it into energy or ATP. Right? So we use, every single metabolic process in the body requires ATP or energy, alright? So, as a result of your body making ATP or energy, there comes a, a byproduct, right? Like a waste product or garbage. Kind of like when we cook something in the kitchen and we come up with this amazing meal, we may have the onion peels and the garlic peels and the, you know, the seeds of the bell pepper or whatever. We have like waste products that we have to get rid of, garbage. If we are not good. at getting rid of the garbage. And the garbage starts to pile up. This is what we call reactive oxygen species. This is what we would, you might have heard as oxidative stress. This advances the aging process. So the body's like, hey, we have all of this garbage that I can't get rid of and my cells are gonna start dying because the garbage is so high and toxic. We need to slow down the metabolic rate. We, we cannot keep up with this garbage right now, so we were going to dial everything back. So what happens? Your cells become insulin resistant right? So you start to have higher blood sugar, your your body starts to take that T4 that your thyroid's making and it converts it into reverse T3. So now you're under converting T4 to T3. So everything is slowing down. Your gut motility is slowing down. So a lot of times if we just think through, well, why if someone was on low carbs and they're not eating sugar, are they having, are they struggling with weight loss? A lot of times we also will see, okay, they've got a blood sugar problem and their blood sugar problem doesn't necessarily make sense with what they're eating, but what are all of their detoxification pathways looking like? What is this health of the cell look like? And as you start to clear out that garbage and you open up all of those detoxification pathways, they start to reverse the insulin resistance patterns, right? They start to be able to convert T4 to T3 and it starts increasing their metabolic rate again. Their energy starts to change. They start to lose weight. And it's really important for women to know that you have to think differently, because we've been programmed so much that the cause of all of our issues is because we have a weight problem. But we have to realize that our weight problem is because we have underlying imbalances, right? We have an underlying Function, likely at the cellular level, that's causing us to have this extra weight gain so we can try to force our body to lose weight, but if you don't fix the underlying issues, it's gonna be very difficult. So fixing those underlying issues. And working with your body to increase the metabolic rate and reverse the insulin resistance and then the body can start to convert your thyroid hormones properly. That is what allows you to lose weight and keep it off. It is not going to be a fad diet. It is not going to be a surgery. It's not going to be semi glutide, which is, you know, all the craze right now. But if you will look and understand the metabolic processes and how the body works, it's always trying to protect you. So if you can think about that, you're not clearing out toxins and your body is becoming a toxic soup and your cells are dying off faster and you're advancing Your advanced aging so you go and you try to make the body do lose weight you try to make the body you know work the way that you want it to work and it just continues down that path and it creates so much frustration

Lorenz: 35:53

That makes it so clear. I hope you guys are taking notes because I am learning myself. This is so exciting for me. Put, put your notes up or re or re review this later on, but hope you guys are taking notes. So, so interesting stuff that we have here today. This thing around? You know, you got the blueprint. It's a whole book, right? But let's, let's summarize this and quickly for our listeners. Let's lay out the seven pillars that you have on their book. For thyroid transformation and highlight any one or two you feel are most important on their journey.

Dr. Heather Stone: 36:28

Yes, so, the first pillar. Just kind of what you said you have decided that you want to go down this journey and take control of your health So the first pillar is that you have to have goals and they have to be clearly defined goals And you have to have true motivations for why you want to achieve these goals, right? It can't be that I just want to lose 30 pounds or 50 pounds or 100 pounds It has to be that I want to live a long life. I want to see my grandkids grow up and get married I'm For me, my motivation, and I have a mission to change the face of health care and help as many women as possible through this journey. So I have a really big mission, which drives my goals, right? So whenever I feel like maybe I can't do it, or it's a weak moment, or I want to give up, I just think about no, I have a huge mission and a huge drive. So that's what's going to keep you moving forward with your goals. That number two. Which is absolutely huge and it's really important to understand and realize that this blueprint, the pillars, have to be done in order. We can't skip from one pillar to the other because the pillars build upon each other. So if you don't have goals and motivations, You're gonna be dead in the water. You're gonna give up in two weeks, which is why most of us, you know, you know our New Year's resolutions. Like, I think the third Friday in January is National Quit Day. Like, most people literally quit with their New Year's resolutions three weeks into the year. I'm like,

Lorenz: 38:02

yeah, I heard that.

Dr. Heather Stone: 38:03

better. But yeah, it's just because we don't have motivations behind the goals and they're not specific and measurable. But let me move on to Pillar 2 because Pillar 2 is that you have to have comprehensive testing and when we're dealing with thyroid, now that you guys that are listening know that it's not just a thyroid problem. The thyroid affects everything in the body. To be myopic and only look at the thyroid is not comprehensive testing. I don't care if you did the 12 thyroid markers that make up a full panel. You have to do Absolutely comprehensive testing throughout the whole body, right? I think our blood work is over 319 different markers that we do just on the blood work. And then we look at hormones and adrenal function. We look at mold toxicity and, and the testing is extremely comprehensive so that we know what path you're going to get, go down so that you can go from A to B in mostly a linear fashion. Now health is never linear, but in the, in the most concise way as possible. So really making sure that you're testing because what happens, especially with women and those ladies who are listening, know what I'm talking about. We go to the health food store and we're like, Oh, somebody said it was my adrenals and that helps with, you know, energy. So you have a couple of supplements for that and maybe it's B12 and Oh, I need melatonin for sleeping and maybe it's this. And so, you know, I, I used to giggle to myself when I would see a patient in the office. That would come in with two bags of supplements. I'm like, oh, that's a thyroid patient because we're we are Glomming on to all of these different things that we think could be the next the next answer, right? Or we're buying every magic pill and magic supplement or magic workout program on Instagram and Facebook Hoping that this is going to be the answer So we're just guessing because we don't know what's going on and, and what's going on at a root cause. It's not enough just to know you have low thyroid. The question is why? It's not enough even to know that you have a blood

Lorenz: 40:15

Mm.

Dr. Heather Stone: 40:16

The question becomes, well, why do you have a blood sugar problem? So it's almost like becoming that three year old again and getting curious about Why? If you have to keep asking why until you get to pretty much the dead end where there is actually a resolution and a solution to help the body through this process. So pillar two is comprehensive testing. Pillar three is a comprehensive diagnosis and analysis. Not just you have low thyroid, not just you have insulin resistance, prediabetes, diabetes. It's like, you know, where are the underlying imbalances? It's not really even about the ICD 10 code, right? Like, that they're going to submit to insurance. It's like where are the underlying imbalances? Where are the vitamin mineral deficiencies? Where are these things that the body is needing to help facilitate healing? So it's not just a label. It's, it's really about understanding physiology and where are the imbalances. And then pillar number four is that you have to have customized treatment plan. So, you know, we are used to traditional medicine giving you a treatment plan based on the diagnosis, right? And this is a very broad diagnosis. You've got low thyroid. You've got low hormones. Here's your thyroid hormones. and you go out the door. You know, you have diabetes, well here's the diabetic cocktail, you get metformin, you get a blood pressure med, and you get a statin drug, and off you go. And then you're wearing this label across your head every time you go into the doctor's office, and they kind of pigeonhole you into that diagnosis, and that's what they're looking at. But if we looked at all of the labs, and we saw all of the underlying imbalances, not just the label of the diseases, then you create a treatment plan based on those labs then that would lead you to everybody has to have their own treatment plan. It is not a protocol. thing for you if you have Hashimoto's or if you have thyroid like you go into this treatment plan. It's okay, you have Hashimoto's and low thyroid. Let's get down to why. What are the triggers? What are you dealing with? And then let's create a customized treatment plan based on that. And then pillar number five. is that you do need a coach. Like I said earlier, now we are living in a sea of information. And used to, many years ago, we had a lack of information. Now we have an overabundance of information and it's really hard to sift through all of that information and figure out what to believe. Because there's a lot of things that I'm like, Oh my gosh, I hope nobody reads it. And then there's some things I'm like, Oh, this is really good information. And others, I'm like, that's like horrible. So, it's like, well, what do you believe and what's going to work for you? So if you had somebody who has been down that road. who's worked with thousands of patients, who has a lot of experience, then you can, and somebody that you trust to guide you on this journey, that is going to get you from A to B in the fastest possible way. Right? I mean, I've been working on this for 22 years and thank goodness because it's not going to take my patients 22 years to figure this out. Right? So, you have to have a coach, but there's another part to that. is that you do have to be coachable, because we have to trust the people that have come before us and had great results, and we have to be able to implement, and we have to be able to follow through. Otherwise, the results are going to be minimal, and you're going to be stuck in that, in that process.

Lorenz: 44:19

mm-Hmm.

Dr. Heather Stone: 44:21

you need to do continued testing. It's not good enough just to test once. You have to continue to test throughout. You know, like for me, we do labs probably every 45 to 60 days. You know, if we're looking at hormones, maybe every 90 days, so that we can make sure that we are moving in the right direction and we're re customizing as we go. But if you were to focus on the pillars, the top five. are probably the most important, and then I think six and seven is just the continued testing and the continued customization throughout the treatment plan until you reach your end goals. But it's important because most people say, okay, I have a goal, and then they try to apply a solution, so they're skipping pillar two and three, and that's when they get really frustrated because they don't get the results that they're expecting because they're guessing at what the root cause could be. And if they ever If they guess right, it's just luck. And I don't like to, I don't like to treat my health with luck, nor any of my patients.

Lorenz: 45:25

Mm. Yeah. Like you said this is a complete transformation and you got to be coachable at the end of the day. This is a change in lifestyle. And I always tell people, Hey, what are you willing to give up to heal and get yourself back? Right? I imagine that it has to be, the patient has to be 100 percent committed to themselves to getting better.

Dr. Heather Stone: 45:48

Yeah.

Lorenz: 45:49

In your experience though. What is the right mindset to be in, like, do you think,

Dr. Heather Stone: 45:57

it's interesting. Yeah. I talk a lot about mindset and I talk a lot about the subconscious mind and how the subconscious mind works, right? There's three rules. that your subconscious mind lives by. Now, if you're not familiar with what the subconscious is, you have kind of two parts of your brain or consciousness. You have, you know, the conscious mind, which you're sitting here listening to us talking. I'm using my conscious brain to carry on a conversation. It's what allows me to go from here to here and treat patients and pay bills and all that stuff. The thing that we're thinking about during the day. The subconscious mind is what's always running in the background. It's, it's almost like your robot it's what's still running in the background even when you're sleeping and it kind of guides you and helps you make decisions and helps you steer you away from danger, but it lives by three rules. It lives by to keep you safe, to keep you away from pain and to keep you alive. Alright, so to keep you alive, to keep you safe, and to keep you away from pain. And it's like a robot. It doesn't reason. It takes your past experiences, even when you were like, mostly it lives by past experiences that you've had when you were like six and seven. And it still keeps these programs and these belief systems in. And it's like, is that painful? Is that gonna make her die? Is that gonna keep, you know, is that gonna keep her safe? That's all it's thinking about. It's painful. And so, you have to work with your subconscious mind to help you keep moving through this journey. For example, like if I told a patient that they needed to get off of gluten. Right? Gluten is extremely inflammatory. The research shows if you have Hashimoto's, every time you eat gluten, it causes the immune system to attack your thyroid, and now they're finding the bottom part of your brain, the cerebellum. So every time you eat gluten, it causes an immune attack on the body. So, like if in your mind, Like let's take gluten is, is like in wheat. All right, and then let's say okay. Oh my gosh You can't have doughnuts anymore because doughnuts have wheat. Now doughnuts have all kinds of other things that we shouldn't be eating But let's just call it gluten. Okay, so In your subconscious mind if you looked at that doughnut like rat poison If you saw that donut, like, oh my gosh, every time I eat that, my, my immune system is gonna kill my brain and thyroid. Your subconscious mind is like, oh, okay, we need to keep you alive and I need to keep you away from pain, so it's gonna be super easy for you to stay off of that donut. Like, literally, you could put a dozen donuts on my desk and I would never touch it. But If in your mind you were like, Oh my God, how am I ever going to stay away from donuts? They're my most favorite thing on the planet. I can't believe Dr. Heather is gonna like make me stay away from donuts. Your subconscious mind says that is extremely painful. It is more painful for you to stay away from donuts than it is for you to eat the donut. So your subconscious mind is going to go to work to say, Hey, Only one doesn't hurt. Just have one little bite. It's going to be less painful if you eat a little bit of it. And so, you're going to constantly be sabotaging yourself if you don't realize that your subconscious mind is trying to keep you away from pain. And it responds to the pictures that we see and the words that we say to ourself. We have a lot of control over it, but most people don't even realize that it's running their lives. And so, we feel like we are out of control. We're kind of just walking around like a pinball. But if you start to change the way that you think, and you start to change your belief systems around the foods that we can and can't eat, around the way that we see exercise, around the way that our body is working to protect us and it's not fighting us, if we start to change our mindset in that way, The subconscious mind works with you and it makes this journey much more enjoyable than it is painful.

Lorenz: 50:05

Work with your subconscious. This is science. This is not woo woo stuff. This is science.

Dr. Heather Stone: 50:11

That's right.

Lorenz: 50:11

mind.

Dr. Heather Stone: 50:12

You know, it's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's really crazy how much research there is behind this, but there's, it's also just as crazy how little we know as a society to actually work with this part of our brain to help us build the life that we really want. And it's, it is pretty amazing that most of us are walking around without that knowledge.

Lorenz: 50:33

Yeah. No, absolutely. It's it's, You know, these concepts are very new to me, you know, working with your subconscious. I don't think anybody has talked about that before. Now you can actually work with your subconscious. And, you know, I always tell people just, you know, from your mindset, got to shift from, I can't have that to, I don't want that. Right. The shift that we were talking about so simple, but you can

Dr. Heather Stone: 50:59

Or even, or even something better, instead of I don't want that, it's I'm choosing not to have that. Right? Like if it's your choice, and no one's forcing it upon you, and it's your choice, then your subconscious mind is going to work with you. But if it's something that is done to you, or you see it as a punishment like I can't have that then you're going to self sabotage every time.

Lorenz: 51:24

I totally agree. Totally agree. That's where people gets, you know, held back, right. What's hold back people from completely transforming the life, right. It's just that simple thing that is stopping us and you could do the practices today and, you know, switch that mindset. I know you're very particular with about who you work with in your practice, what are the basic criteria? You use to make sure someone is a good fit in your practice.

Dr. Heather Stone: 51:52

Yeah, so, yep, I typically look at two things. Number one is, are they a good clinical fit? So we do extensive lab testing so that I can see where are the underlying imbalances, you know, can I see imbalances that we can attribute to the symptoms and the disease processes they have and is the path forward clear to me from a clinical perspective. Right? As long as we have that met, then I move to the next criteria, which is do I think that they're going to be a good fit personally? So, number one is do they have hope that they can get better? And that means do they believe that they can achieve the goals that they set? Or is this where they don't believe it at all and they're just going to use this to prove again to themselves that they are stuck in the place that they're stuck in. So I don't want that patient because we're never going to get anywhere. Number two, their health has to be their number one priority. And I think a lot of women struggle with this because we are used to putting everybody's needs before ours. We are used to, and, and, Probably it's genetically ingrained to us to make sure that we take care of everybody else and then if there's time We will take care of ourselves and then we also think well it's selfish if I take care of myself and I'm not taking care of my spouse or my kids or my mom and dad and Everybody else on the planet, but I will Tell you that taking care of your health is one of the most selfless things that you can do Because I can guarantee you if you do not feel well, and you have all of these symptoms You are not showing up for those people a hundred percent Your life is gonna be short because you're not putting your health as your number one priority And so we have to shift that in our minds and sometimes it takes a little practice because we've been you know Putting ourselves last for decades And I also will challenge these ladies who have a hard time putting themselves first or making their health a number one priority. Sometimes we use it as an excuse to stay right where we're at because in society it's okay. It's kind of socially accepted. Like, I haven't been taking care of myself because, you know, I have young kids. Or, I haven't been taking care of myself because I've had to take care of my ailing parents or something like that. And so, we, you know, are always like, oh, okay, well, it's, you know, you know, that's totally fine. I'm here to tell you it's not time, it's not fine. And it's time to start putting yourself first and making your health your number one priority. When you do that and you make that shift, that's gonna exponentially improve the results that you're getting with Whatever it is that you're doing. And then, you know, the last criteria for me is can they implement, you know, are they willing to, and can they implement the things that will be required in their treatment plan? But the number one thing is, do they have hope that they can get better? And is their health their number one priority? Because if their health is their number one priority, then they're going to be able to implement some way or another, whatever it is that I'm going to ask them to do.

Lorenz: 55:13

Yeah, they gotta believe that they can get healthy. And they gotta believe the protocols that the, you know, you know, what also helps is when you know that The person who is going to help you has that lived experience who actually reverse the condition. And that's why that's the path. That's the correct path is because just find the people who reverse the condition, find the people has that lived experience, and that's the easier path to, to take yeah, believe that you can get healthy and sometimes, yeah, you can get really, you You can feel really selfish when you're taking care of yourself, but you're so right when you said, you know, the most unselfish thing is you taking care of yourself because you can't show up a hundred percent at the time, you know, you can't help other people without helping yourself first. Right? So, and for some of us, we really don't know. That we're not a hundred percent because we're so used to not being a hundred percent for so many years. And I feel that that's one of the reasons why too, that people don't really know how to

Dr. Heather Stone: 56:17

well, I think it's, yeah, I think it's important because we start to reset our normal, right? Especially a lot of us women who have a lot to do, and we're working or taking care of our house and taking care of our kids or whatever, we don't have time to sit around and complain and, and not feel good. So we just reset our normal and try to push through until we're literally falling over. So, resetting our normal and we. Really forgot what it feels like to feel amazing and so many of these ladies have been feeling so bad for decades they they have no idea that they could actually feel like completely different

Lorenz: 56:58

Yes. Yes. You can feel much better. You can feel much better. There's hope. There's hope. There's a lot of hope. Look for those people who have transformed their lives. If you are looking to heal, look for those people who has reversed the condition, put their condition in remission. That's when you know you're on the right path. I know you have a Facebook group that you and your team runs. It's a pretty big Facebook group, which is called Happy, Healthy, and Lean. I love it. What has surprised you the most about this group?

Dr. Heather Stone: 57:33

you know, the most surprising thing about this group is how encouraging and uplifting they are to each other. We are very careful about making sure that this group doesn't turn into a bunch of complaining and griping and pulling people down, but helping people. Even when they might be down, like, what can they do to keep moving forward? The other thing that I think is so awesome, we're at, like, 23, 000 members in this group, and I, I do master classes. And this year I'm doing a masterclass every month. I just finished with a Losing Weight with Low Thyroid Masterclass. I have a 5 Day Thyroid Transformation Masterclass. And the thing that has surprised me the most is that I try to give as much value to these ladies as possible. possible. And these masterclasses are free. The Facebook group is free and the ladies, I have never seen them before. Some of these and they're posting pre and post pictures and testimonials of losing 50 pounds and feeling better just by implementing the things and the tools that they learn in these different masterclasses. And in you know, I also do Thyroid Thursday, which I come on for about 30 minutes to an hour every single Thursday in that group. Try to giving them as much information as possible. So ladies that I have never even actually met are starting to transform their lives just by being in this group. They're getting information, they're getting education, they're starting to take action, and they're surrounding themselves with like minds. And that is very, very, very, important.

Lorenz: 59:14

That's an amazing way to, you know, I, I believe in the power of proximity, you know, surround yourself with people that has the same goals and eventually you'll get there. And if you have, if you talk to people who has the same goals every single day, It's only a matter of time until you actually manifest that for yourself. So I love that for, you know, if you guys have if you guys want to join that, it's going to be all linked in the description box below. So you guys can check that out and join this group. So, well, thank you so much for sharing all of that. I learned a lot from you today, Dr. Heather. I appreciate you coming on and just sharing your story and just being so genuine with us today. So thank you so much.

Dr. Heather Stone: 59:55

You're so welcome and I had a great time and I hope it was very helpful for those ladies listening.

Lorenz: 1:00:01

Definitely it is. I learned a lot from you. So thank you so much. So yeah if, if there's anything else that you want to talk about feel free, but everything will be linked in the description box below. Dr. Heather's new book is also linked down in the description box below. So you guys can grab a copy for yourself. Yeah. So Dr. Heather, is there anything else that we missed today?

Dr. Heather Stone: 1:00:19

I don't think so. I think, you know, the, the parting comment that I would have here is that I just want all of those ladies to know, and men who might be listening, that you are born to heal. And so if you have been struggling with symptoms or disease processes and just not feeling well, just know that you haven't gotten down to the root cause of the problem yet. But your body is born to heal, and it will do that, it just needs a little bit of help.

Lorenz: 1:00:48

That's beautiful. Thank you so much for that, Dr. Heather. And yeah, thank you so much for you guys. Yeah. Everything will be linked in the down in the description box below guys. Check out the book, check out the group connect with Dr. Heather. Everything's down in the description box below. All right. Dr. Heather, thank you so much.

Dr. Heather Stone: 1:01:05

Thank you.

Lorenz: 1:01:06

All right. Bye bye.

1:01:07

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the ketones and coffee podcast with Dr. Heather Stone. As we discussed understanding the role of thyroid and metabolism and understanding the body's metabolic processes. I have provided the links to Dr. Heather Stone's work and her socials, BC the show in the captions below. If you're learning from or enjoying the podcast, please subscribe to wherever you're listening to your podcast. Which is a great zero cost way to support the podcast. And you can also leave us up to five star reviews on both Spotify and apple. If you have questions, please reach out to me on Instagram or our new website at lawrence.com.