- Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the most common cause
of low thyroid in the United States
and probably in the world.
It's also a very common cause of a woman's inability
to conceive or get pregnant.
It's very often misunderstood by doctors
and other healthcare providers
and many patients often don't know what it is,
what the symptoms are or what tests to ask for.
In this video, I'm gonna tell you the seven secret symptoms
that you should know,
so that you can ask your doctors for the proper testing.
I'm Dr. Ken Berry,
a family physician with 20 years of clinical experience.
And I'm speaking from personal experience here
because for the first few years of my medical practice,
I was very inadequately trained
on what Hashimoto's thyroiditis was,
what symptoms to look for
and what tests to even order to diagnose it properly.
And therefore obviously I couldn't treat it
if I couldn't even understand it or diagnose it.
I'm afraid that many doctors fall into this category.
Talking to other doctors in doctor's lounges,
it was very obvious that they didn't understand this either.
The thyroid gland is the master gland in the human body
as described by most people
and it affects literally every part of your function,
both physical and mental.
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Now let's talk about the seven secret symptoms
of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
And then at the end of this video,
I'm gonna give you a list of the lab tests.
If you have more than three of these symptoms,
you need to go see your doctor as soon as you can
and ask for the proper testing.
So symptom number one is brain fog.
You're smart.
You're articulate,
but somehow you just can't think straight.
Your thinking feels cloudy, foggy.
You're easily confused.
You lose your train of thought.
That can be Hashimoto's.
Number two is fatigue, and I don't mean you're just tired.
I'm talking about you're so tired
that you can't even recognize that you're tired.
You get up from the bed and go straight to the couch.
It's an effort to get up and go to the restroom
or to get up and prepare a proper meal.
That kind of fatigue.
And I hear women describe this in my practice as
I want to want to, but I don't even really want to.
That can be Hashimoto's.
Number three is a greatly decreased sex drive.
And so not compared to other people,
but compared to how you used to be
five or 10 years ago.
If your sex drive is just gone now,
then it could be Hashimoto's.
And keep in mind, any of these symptoms
could be a symptom of another condition as well.
So if your doctor wants to add other testing
to the tests I talk about at the end of this video,
happily let your doctor do that
because other things can cause these,
but they are very common in Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Number four is a change in mental health
and this is key.
A lot of patients,
and it's usually women who suffer
from Hashimoto's thyroiditis,
but it also definitely can be men who have this.
They'll have a change in their mental health.
They'll either be depressed for no reason.
They'll be more anxious than they used to be.
But the most concerning symptoms,
I've actually had women tell me
that they felt like they were borderline psychotic.
They were having thoughts that made no sense at all,
and they were unlike thoughts they'd ever had in their life.
I've had patients tell me that it seemed like
their personality had just changed.
They were not even the same person that they used to be.
These could all be symptoms of Hashimoto's.
Number five is weight gain or trouble losing weight.
And so I mean if you're eating a junk crap diet,
yeah you're probably not gonna lose any weight.
But if you're eating a good low carb keto or carnivore diet,
but you're just not having the fat loss
that you think you should be having,
you should see your doctor and get the tests I talk about
at the end of this video for Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Number six is irregular menstrual periods
and trouble conceiving.
These are all linked together.
When your thyroid hormones are not functioning properly,
neither can your reproductive hormones,
your gender hormones, your estrogen,
your progesterone, your testosterone and others.
You might have very irregular menstrual periods
where you didn't used to have that.
Could be Hashimoto's.
Number seven is cold intolerance.
So if you're in a room with 20 people
and you're the one who's freezing to death
even though everybody else appears to be comfortable,
that could be Hashimoto's.
This can manifest as cold hands, cold fingers, cold feet.
Always my feet are cold.
My wife has Hashimoto's thyroiditis
and when she would get out of bed in the morning
before we had diagnosed her,
the cold hardwood floor actually caused
where it was painful to her feet her feet were so cold.
Number eight is dry skin, nails and hair.
So if you've got thin, brittle, dry hair,
if your nails are thin and dry and they break very easily,
or if you always have dry, patchy skin,
this could absolutely be
undiagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Now let's talk about the testing and if you know anyone
who has any of these symptoms I just talked about,
please share this video with them
and say hey you've got a lot of these symptoms
and maybe you should get these tests.
Cause the problem is a lot of doctors
won't check all the tests.
That you'll go with multiple of these symptoms,
and they'll check just a TSH
for a thyroid stimulating hormone.
And they'll say nope, that's normal.
It's not your thyroid.
That is completely inadequate and borders on malpractice.
Many other doctors will do twice as good,
which is still terribly bad.
They'll check a TSH and a T4.
Still completely inadequate testing for even hypothyroidism,
much less Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
So these are the tests that you need to get ordered
and if you miss one, you can just watch this part again
and copy these down and go see your doctors.
Like I said earlier,
if you had more than three of these symptoms,
you need this lab work checked.
So the first is a thyroid stimulating hormone,
which is actually a pituitary gland hormone,
but it talks to your thyroid.
So it is important.
You need a free T4,
not a total T4.
A free T4.
You need a free T3.
Not a total, but a free.
You need a reverse T3.
This is a very important lab marker
if you're having more than two or three of these symptoms.
You absolutely need to know what your reverse T3 is.
Now the two that are specific for thyroiditis
are a T.P.O antibody
and a T.G. antibody.
Without these two, you can have raging,
severe, crippling thyroiditis
and your doctor have no idea.
Your other labs could be completely normal
and these are the two labs that are gonna tease that out.
So you've gotta ask for this full panel
in order to take a good global look
at not only your thyroid function,
but if you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
So again please,
if you know someone with any of these symptoms,
share this on your Facebook, on your Twitter,
on your Instagram.
You can send it in an email or a Whatsapp.
These people are suffering.
People who have undiagnosed Hashimoto's are rampant.
They're everywhere.
There's probably over 100,000 people
in the United States alone
with undiagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Your share could literally change their life.
I'm Dr. Berry.
I'll see ya next time.