The Longevity Formula

Radioactive Iodine or Natural Healing? The Thyroid Dilemma with Dr. Eric Osansky

• Dr. Brandon Crawford • Season 2 • Episode 40

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Dr. Brandon Crawford and Dr. Eric Osansky discuss thyroid health, focusing on hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease. They stress the need for thorough testing and a holistic treatment approach that includes diet, stress management, and iodine supplementation. They also explore the links between thyroid health, halides, brain health, weight gain in hyperthyroid patients, and the effects of light exposure, providing tips for improving thyroid health.


What You’ll Learn

  • Thyroid disorders affect 12% of the U.S. population, with hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease often overlooked compared to hypothyroidism.
  • Comprehensive testing is crucial for accurate diagnosis, as many patients may have both Graves' and Hashimoto's antibodies.
  • Diet, lifestyle changes, and stress management play a significant role in maintaining thyroid health and managing autoimmune conditions.
  • Iodine supplementation is controversial and should be approached with caution, especially in individuals with thyroid disorders.
  • Thyroid hormones significantly influence brain health, mental well-being, and even contribute to unexpected issues like weight gain in hyperthyroid patients.
  • Light exposure and gut health are critical factors that regulate thyroid function, emphasizing the importance of a holistic, functional medicine approach.

Resources

Tests Mentioned

  • HAKALA labs testing (for halides testing)
  • GI Map Testing
  • Dutch Test (for hormones and cortisol)
  • Urinary iodine testing
  • Thyroid antibody testing (TSI, TPO, TG)

Referenced Books/Authors

  • “Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves’ Disease” (now in its third edition, 2023)
  • “Hashimoto’s Triggers” (2018)
  • “The Hyperthyroid Healing Diet” (2024)
  • Dr. David Brownstein’s book “Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It”
  • Dr. Alan Christensen’s “The Thyroid Reset Diet”

Products


Learn More
For more information, resources, and podcast episodes, visit https://tinyurl.com/3ppwdfpm

Voice Over: Welcome to the Longevity Formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of wellness. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Longevity Formula podcast, where we like to explore a new era of health and wellness through the pillars of faith, light, movement, mindset, nutrition, and science. I'm your host, Dr.

Brandon Crawford. Today, we're going to be exploring a topic. That is really personal to me, but also personal to my expert today, we're going to be talking about something that influences and affects about 12 percent of the US population. I'm going to argue that it's actually more than 12 percent of the US population.

That's roughly 20 million people in the United States. This situation influences one in eight women. I'm talking about thyroid problems. So, not just thyroid problems, but we're going to really hone into something that really is not discussed a lot about the thyroid. Most people focus on hypothyroid.

That's low functioning thyroid, but we're going to be focusing on hyperthyroid, which is a high functioning thyroid. We're going to talk about both. We're going to have to, right? We kind of have to do that. But I'm really excited about the guest today. This is Dr. Eric Ozanski. Okay, so Dr. Ozanski, he's a doctor of chiropractic.

He's a clinical nutritionist, a certified functional medicine practitioner specializing in thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions. He focuses on helping people manage hyperthyroid, Graves disease, hypothyroidism, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis through natural treatments. His interest in thyroid health began after being diagnosed with Graves disease in 2008.

Which he successfully managed using a natural approach, putting him into remission, which is a feat guys. I mean, this is not easy stuff. Dr. Ozanski promotes functional medicine and nutritional strategies seeking to address the root causes of thyroid imbalances rather than relying solely on conventional treatments like medication or surgery.

He's the author of books such as Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease in Hashimoto's Triggers. Additionally, he hosts the Save My Thyroid podcast, where he discusses natural approaches to thyroid health and shares insights. From his practice dr. Ozanski. Thank you so much for joining us today 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Thank you so much for dr.

Crawford really excited to have this conversation 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely, and like we were talking about Before we hit the record button Not a lot of people really talk about the hyperthyroid Situation, right? And this is something that has influenced you personally. Do you mind just kind of opening us up with some aspects from your story?

And what really set this in the motion for you? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Sure. So this happened back in 2008 and I was. Trying to lose weight, I was dieting, I was detoxifying, and I was successfully losing weight. Little did I realize that some of that weight loss eventually was attributed to the hyperthyroidism that I was eventually diagnosed with.

And I was also overtraining, I should mention that, I think that was a big factor in taxing my adrenals. No family history of hyperthyroidism graves, but Yeah, long story short, I was walking around in a Sam's Club retail store for those who are not familiar with Sam's Club and just they had one of those automated blood pressure machines and I took my blood pressure, which was fine, but my resting heart rate was elevated was 90 beats per minute and then the next few days.

I would measure it manually on my own, and it was anywhere between, like, 90 and 110. And so I decided to go to a primary care doctor, and was diagnosed diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, eventually went to an endocrinologist who tested the antibodies, and eventually was diagnosed with with Graves disease.

And then from that point on, I just, I mean, we could definitely talk about the conventional treatment, but I had it in my mind just what my background and I didn't know a lot about graves at the time. I was my 1st patient pretty much, but I knew I was going to at least attempt to take a natural treatment approach and.

Everything worked out great. Here we are 15 years later that I was, I've been a remission since 2009. So it's been 15 years and, you know, grateful that I've had the opportunity to help many others with hyperthyroidism graves as well. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. But I mean, honestly, it sounds like you kind of got down to this diagnosis relatively quickly compared to, you know, some stories that I've heard.

I mean, I've heard people, you know, walking around with these, what I wouldn't call good thyroid tests, but you know, maybe someone tested a TSH or something like that. Right. And they're just kind of going between different providers not really getting any solutions. And you mentioned, you know, you got your thyroid antibodies done.

And so I definitely want to explore a little bit and define what we're talking about. For the listeners that may not understand what Graves disease is so do you want to walk us through just a simple explanation? What is Graves disease and what are these antibody tests that you were just mentioning?

Dr. Eric Osansky: Sure. So Graves disease is actually an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid gland. So what happens is you have these, these antibodies. So the, there's a few different antibodies, as you know, you're, as you said, we Talked a little bit before press and record. So, well, we could talk a little bit about the difference between Hashimoto's and Graves, but, you know, so Graves, the antibodies associated with Graves are thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins or TSI, which is a type of TSH receptor antibody.

And so those were the ones that came back positive for me. I did test at that time, the thyroid peroxidase or TPO antibodies, which. are more associated with Hashimoto's, but are also very common in graves. And, and then there's a thyroid globulin antibodies, which years later I tested, but at that time I didn't have tested.

So just those TPO antibodies, which are negative, TSI was positive. And what happens, those TSA, the TSI, the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins actually bind to a stimulate those TSH receptors. And that causes the thyroid gland to produce an excess amount of thyroid hormone, thus hyperthyroidism. And on a blood test, that would typically present with elevated thyroid hormones, T4, T3.

And then TSH is a pituitary hormone. And since thyroid hormone levels are elevated, TSH wants to slow down or stop the production of thyroid hormones. So you'll see TSH not only low, but many times undetectable. And so again, low TSH, elevated T3, T4 elevated thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins. And then as far as symptoms go with Graves and hyperthyroidism.

I mean, again, I lost a lot of weight. I lost 42 pounds. I had heart palpitations, the resting heart rate I mentioned, I had tremors anxiety is pretty common, insomnia, loose stools so pretty much the opposite of hypo and hypothyroidism. You get that decreased metabolism with hyperthyroidism.

Everything is revved up. So you typically get again, the elevation and many of the symptoms I just mentioned. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I'm a, I'm a really visual person. So when I'm walking through different lab tests and how to address a situation, I always like to think through it from like a visual. Perspective. So just for the listeners that are similar to me, we're defining what Dr.

Rosansky is doing. He's defining a system and we need to understand that the hypothalamus, a part of the brain, okay, communicates to the anterior pituitary and that anterior pituitary is in spitting out this TSH. And that's kind of the thing that most everyone. Really looks at in conventional medicine.

They're really just looking at your TSH levels. I, I have seen a little bit of a shift in that. I think as more people are becoming more educated about this, I'm, I'm hoping that maybe you're seeing that too. But that interpituitary, it's talking to the thyroid via the TSH. And then the thyroid is spitting out really two different hormones, T3 and T4, but mainly T4.

It's the majority is producing T4 and the T4 hormone is not active. And so T4 needs to be converted into the T3 hormone, which is our active hormone. And I'm assuming your T3 levels were probably elevated. Is that true? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Correct. Yeah, both T4 and T3 were elevated. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: There you go. And so what then happens is T4 needs to be converted into into your T3, but oftentimes what will happen is your T4 will be converted into reverse T3 as well.

And these are done via enzymes called the iodinases. There's D1, D2 that converts into your proper D3. I'm sorry, your proper T3 hormone. And then D3 will convert T4 into your reverse T3. Just to kind of give like the, the overview there. And this is why it's so important, not just to test T3, I'm sorry, not just to test TSH, but to test everything in the system.

And then you also mentioned antibodies. There's TPO, there's TG, which is your thyroid globulin, there's TSI, there's TRAB, thyroid receptor antibodies, right? So there's so many different things that need to be looked at because, and I love what you already mentioned, like it's so common for someone with Graves, not only to have a TSI antibody, but also to have a TPO antibody.

And so what if that provider that's trying to manage that case only looked at TPO and they didn't even test the TSI, right? They would have totally missed another part of the story. How common are you finding that? How common do you see someone that's coming in with TSI and TPO? Is that something common?

Dr. Eric Osansky: You mean where they already had TSI and TPO antibodies tested? 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yes, I'm just curious because I don't, I don't see this as much as you do. I mean, I'm more of a brain guy. I mean, I'm looking at thyroid, but more so how it influences the brain. But I'm just curious, how often are we seeing, or how often do you notice TPO being elevated with TSI?

Dr. Eric Osansky: I mean, oh, it's very, very common. I mean, CPO antibodies, I mean, the literature says 60 to 80 percent in Graves. I think like 90 percent in Hashimoto's. So it's quite high. And I, I also see thioglobulin antibody. I mean, it's very common to have the antibodies for both Graves and Hashimoto's. I'd say like 20, 25%.

But yeah, I mean, you are right. Endocrinologist, I mean, many times we'll just test the TSI. Sometimes they'll just skip over the TSI. Sometimes they don't really have much knowledge when it comes to grave. Someone will come in with elevated thyroid hormone levels and they'll test the Hashimoto's antibodies, the thyroid globulin antibodies, and they'll also look at the TPO, but they won't test the TSI.

But I'd say most, most do end up testing the TSI. I'd say probably maybe like 10 percent of the time they'll, they won't test the TSI. As far as What percentage test the TPO? I'm not sure. I mean, I'd still say like a high percentage. You know, maybe like 70 percent will test TSI and TPO. That's just a guess, but it's I wouldn't say it's rare for them to.

In Hashimoto's, as you know, it's more uncut, like a lot of times, they'll just look at the TSH or they'll, maybe they'll do a thyroid panel, but won't test the antibodies. Because the treatment essentially is going to be the same. That's they're going to recommend thyroid hormone replacement regardless of whether someone has antibodies or not.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Exactly. Yeah. And where I was going with that line of questioning is I think it's actually really common to have this, this hyper thyroid autoimmune situation coupled with a hypothyroid autoimmunity where someone is flexing back and forth. And so you're getting symptoms, right, based on what's going on with your immune system, right?

So at one point, you can be getting this increased thyroid presentation, and then maybe a day, a week, a month later, you're getting this low thyroid presentation. Am I accurate in that? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, you are right. I mean, it's not uncommon to have those fluctuations where someone is fluctuating back and forth between hypo and hyper.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Which is a mess, man, which makes it, you know, this is why people like you need to be out there educating the public about like, Hey, there's, there's answers. We just have to figure out what's going on and then set in motion, you know, proper things for that. So, so there you were right, you got this diagnosis.

You had this mindset of, you know, I'm going to do this, right? So what were your next steps? What were your next steps in your journey to really lead you into remission? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah. So, I mean, the first thing was the first decision I had to make was whether or not to take the anti thyroid medication, just because typically there's three treatment options, anti thyroid medication, radioactive iodine, thyroid surgery.

The endocrinologist I was working with, thankfully, not that I would have chosen a surgery or radioactive item, but she didn't really mention those. It was just antithyramids, which typically is methimazole. But again, prior to being diagnosed, I definitely wasn't an expert when it came to hyperthyroidism graves but I attended some functional endocrinology seminars, and I knew about The herbs bugleweed and motherwort, just again, not from personal experience, but just from attending the seminars and I figured I would just give those a try.

See if they would help. If not, I was open to taking the medication, but so I took the bugleweed and then I actually start with the bugleweed and it helped. But a few weeks later, I was still experiencing palpitation. So I added the motherwort. And then of course, dietary changes were important. I mean, I definitely needed some improvement in that area.

I was eating, I think, better than the average person, but still not you would think with my background you know, being a chiropractor. That I would be eating, you know, like avoiding all refined foods and sugars. But again, I definitely wasn't. I was eating too much pizza, too, too much junk. And so I'll clean up my diet.

Stress was a huge factor. Not only the emotional stressors, but, you know, I mentioned how I was overtraining. And and at the time I didn't realize I should have realized so managing my stress, just easing off with the exercise, making sure I didn't overdo it, trying to get sufficient sleep. I mean, so, so diet and lifestyle definitely played a big role in this, again, adrenals, I also did adrenal testing because I was in denial that my adrenals were, I figured I was doing a good job of managing my stress and, and my dream, my cortisol was in the tank. My DHA was low. My secretary IGA was low. You know, so, yeah, I mean, pretty much diet, stress management taking certain supplements to support the adrenals, to support the gut and you know, I hit a little bit of a roadblock during my recovery a little bit which I think might've been diet related.

I was following a paleo diet, which is a. You know, a real good diet, but I think I was having some issues with the nuts. I was eating. So I took a break from the nuts and seeds. And the thing is, everybody's different. You know, there's no perfect diet that fits everyone. So, but that was just a personal roadblock.

But yeah, again, you know, some testing involved supplementation, but a big part. I mean, if someone is just going to Take supplements and not incorporate the diet and lifestyle factors. And obviously it's the same with Hashimoto's and any other health condition. You really do need to eat a whole healthy foods diet, manage your stress, get sufficient sleep, do things to reduce your toxic load.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I totally agree. It has to be a multifactorial approach because this is a multifactorial problem, right? And I often tell people your thyroid is like your spark plug for your brain. And again, I, I'm a brain guy. That's really what I focus on. It was very similar for me. You know, I, I was. I was running and gunning.

I had a high volume practice. I was still like really trying to, you know, get going. I was young. And my energy just completely tanked. I could barely wake up in the mornings. I didn't have energy to play with my kids. I mean, it was. It was bad. I mean, it really was bad. And finally, you know, I, I did this comprehensive metabolic panel.

My TSH was 25, which was crazy. My thyroid peroxidase antibodies were, were off the chart, immeasurable. My TG, my thyroid globulin antibodies, same, off the chart, immeasurable. And I remember because I, I was doing, trying to do all the right things. I was the protege of Dr. John D'Onofrio. I don't know if you remember him.

Yeah, really good friend of mine. Really took me in, you know, my first semester in Cairo school. I was doing all that work. I was doing all the nutrition. I was doing all the supplementation, all the things. And when they came back to me with the, the care team that I had put together, they came back to me and said, we need to test you for cancer.

At that point I said, no, I've done everything except for mitigate the stress. And so I sold everything, moved to Costa Rica. I didn't even take supplements there. I didn't do anything, literally everything normalized in Costa Rica. And we ran around naked in the sun on the beach every day, like me and my family.

That's what we did. We got sun. We absorbed the negative ions coming out of the earth. We just got back to nature and live life. And that literally put me into remission. And I understand that's not feasible for everyone. But for me, I had to, I had to do it. And so that stress management part. I think it's just so important.

But again, it's multifactorial because for some, maybe the foods are the biggest key. Maybe for some, the infections are the biggest key. Maybe some, you're right. So, so how do you start to work up this patient? Do you have like this whole set of labs that you run? Is it case history? Is it like, how do you start to work up that patient to try and identify For this person, these are the things we really need to attack.

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, I incorporate both. So, yeah, I have everybody fill out a comprehensive health history, including a toxin exposure questionnaire, and that plays a role in what testing I recommend. I mean, I commonly recommend adrenal testing, whether it's saliva testing or dried urine testing, like the Dutch, which also looks at the hormones and the metabolism of hormones.

Many people will get a comprehensive stool test to look at the dysbiosis, the imbalance in the gut flora, see if what gut infections they might have. And yeah, blood testing, definitely do comprehensive blood testing. As you mentioned, look at the, look at the CBC, look at the metabolic panel, lipid panel, CRP.

Homocysteine, vitamin D, complete iron panel. I even look at viruses like Epstein Barr which is, could be a factor when it comes to thyroid health, thyroid autoimmunity. You know, some people, organic acids tests, some people will do mycotoxins testing to look at mold, sometimes stealth infections, look at Lyme, Bartonella, other tick borne infections.

So it really, yeah, so the health history kind of guides me what type of testing the person will need. And then the testing further helps to find some of the triggers and underlying imbalances, which I think is important. And as we both know, you go to most medical doctors and they're trying to do the opposite.

I mean, I don't go crazy with the testing, but if you go to a medical doctor, they'll try to. Do the least amount of testing because it's based on insurance and, and yeah, it's but, and they won't do any of the functional medicine testing that, that I just mentioned, but yeah, that's, that's the approach I take.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And you have to, I mean, what I'm, what I want listeners to understand is. Like, you just heard Dr. Ozanski go through so many different levels of, of exam processes and everything. And a lot of that is deciphered based on your intake and your history and where do we go first and all these things, but there's so many factors when, when it comes to health in general, but specifically, you know, when we're talking about these thyroid issues.

This is not just a whole body situation, but a whole life situation. Like, we need to look at so many different angles and so many different viewpoints to really figure out what's going on. And if someone's not doing that for you, I mean, there could be some, some big things left on the table that could seriously change your life, because being subjected to a surgery.

Taking out a really important gland in your body. That's a big deal. Taking radioactive iodine. That's a big deal. I mean, these, these, these considerations, they deserve more than just a simple 10 minute office visit. They, they deserve someone that's going to be on your team. That's going to be an investigator for you and going to look at all the different aspects of life that we can possibly look at because like these considerations are just being thrown out there like, oh, hey, you have graves and we need to take out your thyroid.

Oh, hey, take this thing. That's going to kill your gland. You know, your thyroid gland. These are big deals. You mentioned cortisol. I wanted to touch on that a little bit. I'm glad you mentioned the Dutch test. Because I, I personally get a lot of people that will bring in a blood lab and it'll have cortisol on it.

And they'll say, look, my cortisol is fine. But I think people need to understand that cortisol is kind of tricky. We need to measure it. We can do it salivary or urinary. I personally prefer urinary. I like the Dutch testing because you're looking at bound and unbound cortisol, and so you can get a better idea of this total cortisol picture.

I don't know if you wanted to elaborate on that a little bit, but I know that that's kind of a misconception, not just with patients, but also with doctors about, you know, blood cortisol versus urinary salivary, but it's very different. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah. Well, I mean, the big thing, of course, is you can't look at the circadian rhythm in the blood.

I mean, I guess technically you can if you were to go to a lab four times, four or five times in the day, but even then you would only be able to go that when they're open. You wouldn't be able to take a cortisol level right first thing in the morning when you wake up. And then going to bed, if you go to bed like 10, 11 at night, you, the labs usually aren't open.

So yeah, this look at the circadian rhythm of cortisol. Extremely important. So cortisol should be at the highest in the morning, gradually decrease at during the day and be at the lowest point at the end of the day. And you're right. I mean, as far as you're just looking at, mostly what most hormones when you look in the blood, not just cortisol, but they're the balance hormone.

Even we didn't get into this with thyroid, but at least with thyroid, you have that option to look at the total T4, total T3 or look at the free T4, free T3. Most of the hormones in the blood are bound to a protein and only a small percentage are free. So, where it's different when looking at it in the, the urine as well as saliva.

And then also the Dutch test advantage, it looks at the metabolism of cortisol. And so typically with hyperthyroidism, you'll see increased cortisol metabolite, cortisol metabolites. And then hypothyroidism, oftentimes you'll see that opposite pattern. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right, exactly. So one debate, one topic I want to kind of put on the table here is this concept of taking iodine.

So everyone asks me, actually, I just had this question, I think last week. When should someone consider taking iodine? When should they not take iodine? Help us gain some clarity on this iodine discussion, please. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, I mean, there's definitely, like you said, there's a lot of controversy. My perspective has changed over the years.

I, I'm not against iodine. I'm just more cautious with iodine. You're probably familiar with Dr. David Brownstein's work and he has a well known book, iodine, why you need it, why you can't live without it. And so when I first was diagnosed with Graves I was taught that people would not, not both hyper and hypothyroidism, Graves and Hashimoto should be taking iodine like in large amounts.

And so that's one thing I was doing and recommending. And I mean, iodine is important for formation of thyroid hormones. So we, that again, you need healthy iodine levels, just like any other mineral. But too much iodine can cause a can cause problems. I mean, it's funny because also high dose iodine in some cases can help with hyperthyroidism.

It actually has the opposite effect where it could suppress thyroid hormones. But again, the risks I have seen like where it can potentially exacerbate the autoimmune response. A number of people have. With Graves thyroid eye disease and sometimes it'll exacerbate thyroid eye disease. So I'm not against iodine, but I would, if someone's going to supplement iodine, I would work with a practitioner, do some urinary testing.

But honestly, I, I don't take this and don't take the same approach again. Years ago, I would do it. I would do a urinary iodine test on everybody and if they were deficient, which a lot of people were, would put them on separate iodine supplementation. And like I said, I mean, a lot of people did fine, but.

Many people didn't do well, or a number of people didn't do well. And so now over the years, don't take that approach. And I mean, I'm not against iodine. Like some will say, avoid all iodine. They'll have the other, they'll take the other extreme, avoid even multivitamins with iodine and so, and, or food sources of iodine.

So I don't take that approach. I'm fine. I think again, we need iodine and most of the time iodine from a multivitamin or getting it from food. Usually it's not going to cause a problem, but yeah, I can't say that I recommend like to do testing for iodine or to take separate iodine supplements at least initially, maybe sometime, maybe as someone's health improves and we improve their immune system, the antioxidant status, then maybe that's something to look into.

But yeah, like I said, the approach is different. I talk a lot about it in my books. I have a few different books related to thyroid health and, and yeah, it's but you'll get the, like I said, you'll get different perspectives. If you speak even today with Dr. David Brownstein, he'll still recommend as far as I know, the high dose iodine.

And then you speak with someone else like Dr. Alan Christensen, who wrote the Thyroid Reset Diet. He'll take the opposite approach and say, you don't want to. You don't want to exceed 200 micrograms of iodine, so it would be kind of cool to see both of those, both those practitioners face to face in a debate.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That would be cool. What do you think about the skin patch test where you, you paint, you know, your, your wrist or part of some part of the body with legal solution, which is iodine. And you see how rapidly it's absorbed. Is this an accurate test? Do you use it at all? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: I used to use it. I. Yeah, I don't most people will have it fade rather quickly I mean it's supposed to if it fades in less than 24 hours and especially 12 less than 12 hours a person's iodine deficiency I mean as far as I know there's been no research that shows that now again and not everything's in the research, but Yeah, I I wouldn't rely on that.

I mean, if there's no perfect test for iodine, but if someone was thinking about supplementing with iodine, I would say do a urinary test and there's different types of urinary test. There's the iodine loading test, and then there's just an iodine spot test. Again, even that is debatable. But but I wouldn't rely on the patch test.

That's just my personal experience and opinion. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I've, so I've always thought of it and the way D'Onofrio taught me and how I've really kind of thought through this clinically is iodine is going to increase the metabolism of the thyroid and if there's this autoimmune attack where the immune system is attacking the thyroid we may not want to increase the metabolism of the thyroid initially.

And so we may keep that iodine in our back pocket until we get on top of immune triggers and balancing the immune system and balancing their neurology associated with these issues and whatnot. And then maybe bring in iodine, maybe mid to late game, right? Maybe, you know, a phase two or a phase three after we've worked through, you know, whatever immune triggers and neurological imbalances that we've found.

So. That's how I've typically done it. Now, me personally, because I travel a lot, if I'm flying a lot, if I'm doing that kind of thing, I'll take some iodine to help protect myself from radiation and that type of thing. And unfortunately, I think that is something that we need to be aware of these days.

I mean, I've had patients on, you know, the coast of California that were influenced from the nuclear reactor, I think it was in Japan, you know, and all of that, you know, coming all over the coast of California, I've seen, you know, people with excessive uranium and all this kind of stuff. And they were in this very localized region.

So unfortunately, we need to be aware that radiation exposure and non native EMF is a problem. And iodine can be a solution for that, but we have to fold it into the. The big overall story of everything going on, so, 

Dr. Eric Osansky: yeah, and also another thing to add is that, you know, some people when they feel bad with iodine, it's not the iodine itself, but it, as you know, it competes with the other halides, so bromide and fluoride and so they might actually be having a detox reaction and it's not actually the iodine that makes them feel worse, but just because they're excreting these other halides.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's a good point to bring up. Yeah, absolutely. Not one that I really. Thought through too much, but yeah, that's, that's really interesting. Is there a way to kind of decipher or do you just have to look through it? Clinically? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: You could actually test for the halides. I mean, if you just blindly take iodine, probably not, but if you if you do a urinary test, like Hakala labs, they actually will allow you to test not only for iodine, but for bromide and fluoride and chlorine, and you could see the levels.

And if those levels are. Hi. And then if you are supplemented with iodine, you still don't know 100%, but you could, at least, you know, you have high levels of other halides and chances are, at least some of those symptoms are probably attributed to those other halides being excreted. Interesting. Okay.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome. Can we talk a little bit about thyroid and brain? I mean, that's, I love the brain and, and I love how, you know, the thyroid has such a dramatic influence on the brain. Can you, so you, you walked through some symptomatology of. How graves can influence as you mentioned anxiety, you mentioned elevated blood pressure, heart rate, these types of things.

What are some other things that, how can thyroid influence brain function and not just. I guess high thyroid, but low thyroid to you heard me say, like, I like to think of it as kind of like the spark plug for our brain. What do you think about that? And what else are you seeing how thyroid impacts the brain?

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, well, you know, we both know thyroid affects every cell tissue in the body and the brain is no exception. So, yeah, I mean, we spoke about. Anxiety, pretty common with hyperthyroidism, with hypothyroidism, a lot of times we see the opposite, depression, and not, not to say that people with hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, can't experience Hashimoto's can't experience anxiety, and vice versa, those with hyperthyroidism can certainly experience depression brain fog is quite common, and I'm sure you see a lot of this I would say, More so in those with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, but we also see it with hyperthyroidism.

I mean, a, a lot of people with, I, I would say both are circling on the health history form, like problems with cognition, problems with memory just trouble concentrating. So I mean, a number of brain-based symptoms really with both hypo and hashimo with both hypo and hyper Hashimoto's and graves. But yeah, I mean, it's, and obviously we spoke about also the connection, which we won't get into again with the hypothalamus, but to enter the HPT access, that connection, but that, but then it goes the other way to where you need healthy levels of thyroid hormones, have healthy brain function.

And, but if you have too much thyroid hormone, it could also have a negative impact. And like I said, it's, there's no single. This is a little bit off topic, but even like the weight loss I mentioned, like the weight loss is not, not everybody experiences weight loss. Some people experience weight gain with hyperthyroidism.

So, you know, so you can't always go by the classic, classic symptoms. But yeah, without question, you need to have balanced thyroid hormone levels to have a balanced brain. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. It's an interesting topic. So I think people need to kind of hear that. A little more clearly. So you can have weight gain with a high functioning thyroid with hyperthyroid graves, that kind of thing.

I've seen that, but I mean, I think that the people don't fully understand that. And even practitioners don't fully understand that. Is there. Some type of mechanism going on there that would, you know, make someone gain weight in a hyperthyroid state. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: There could be a few reasons. I mean, obviously, if someone's taking antithyroid medication, that's going to suppress thyroid hormone and that could lead to weight gain.

But I mean, besides that, I mean, there could be numerous factors. I mean, the adrenals if someone has high cortisol or problems with estrogen metabolism, those could cause weight gain. Difficulty losing weight. I mean, just what inflammation by itself can make it difficult to lose weight. And so, you know, it's just I mean, even imbalances and gut microbiome could, could, right.

So, I mean, it's, it is hard to sometimes pinpoint. I mean, if someone is, if we do some blood testing and You know, we see someone with hyperthyroidism that has, let's say, insulin resistance, which again is more common in hyperthyroidism Hashimoto's, but we still will see people with blood sugar imbalances in those with Graves.

Again, that could be definitely be a factor. If we do an adrenal test and their cortisol is sky high, or again, we do a Dutch test and they have high 4 hydroxy metabolites and or 16 hydroxy metabolites. Again, so those are signs that that or at least potential factors, maybe the main factor may be contributing factor with the weight gains us, you know, so honestly, sometimes we don't know.

I can't say there's a single mechanism when someone is gaining weight when someone's gaining weight, you know, we just. That's where we look at the history. We look at the testing and we see what imbalances someone has and and just try to address them. And most of the time we'll be able to get the person to healthy weight every now and then it is a struggle trying to find out what that trigger underlying imbalances in the case of the weight gain.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Totally. In those, in the situations I've seen. There's typically been a molded or mycotoxin problem that that person that is gaining weight or struggling to lose weight. I find it very common. Are you seeing that too, that that person probably has some kind of molar mycotoxin issue?

Dr. Eric Osansky: I mean, I think it's common. I don't know if I really connected it to the week. Like I think it's again, one factor, obviously mold can cause, yeah. Inflammation, but I mean, I would say that a lot of people, I mean, mold is a big problem that a lot of people overlook and as we both know, also, you can't always see the molds.

It could be hidden, but yeah, I can't say I've seen that as far as in my graze patients as far as a. a relationship between the mycotoxins and the weight gain, like as far as it being like the primary cause. So I would agree as far as a factor, but yeah, it's definitely something I'll need to like pay more attention to as far as to see that relationship.

I mean, the gut, I mean, a lot of people have the weight gain. I mean, if you do a GI map. We'll see a lot of dysbiosis, a lot of imbalances, but you know, then again, those who lose weight will see that too. And the same thing with the mycotox test too. If we do a urinary mycotoxins test on someone who's losing 20, 30 pounds, it's not uncommon to see the moles.

So that's, I guess that's what I'm trying to say. There's no like set pattern, like where, you know, like moles would be high in someone who's gaining weight, but. Normal in someone who's losing weight. So I can't say I've seen that. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. One thing that I do see just consistent, but I'm trying to decipher, you know, a few different variables in my, my assumptions here.

But I definitely see this altered melanocortin, leptomelanocortin pathway, you know, how, how we're so blue lit all day long. Right. We have this high frequency blue and white light coming off of screens out of the ceiling. All these things, this is totally disrupting our, our, our brain function, our circadian rhythms, our inflammatory pathways, so many different things.

I mean, it definitely reaches into the thyroid. It definitely reaches into the gut. It definitely reaches into sex hormones. I mean, it's, it's influencing us on so many different levels. And I mean, I've got a pilot study that, that we're going to be launching here soon. Where we're, we're using red and infrared light through the retina.

So we're doing trans retinal laser applications. And we're looking at how does it influence the brain? How does it influence our hormones? How does it influence our thyroid? Like, we're going to look at You know, all the different variables that we can see. And so I'm literally telling people like, Hey, number one, we can't substitute the sun.

Like I can make the best laser in the world and I have made the best laser in the world. Just a little side note. But, but I can't, it doesn't replace the sun. So making sure that we're getting as much outdoor time. As the sun's coming up, I like to also get that, that peak sun exposure midday and then as the sun's going down and really use that light exposure to reset our brain, get our circadian rhythms in motion, et cetera, and to not be wearing sunglasses at those times.

Do you think that circadian biology, light exposure, like, does this have a big influence on thyroid physiology? Do you agree with me with that? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely agree that you want to try to get Regular sun exposure and I mean, some places you can't do that like every single day, but and then that's where the light therapy, other things that you mentioned might come into play, but.

Yeah, I do. I definitely agree that there's no substitute, and I do encourage people to go out, get some sun on a regular basis. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Have you seen the studies where they use photobiomodulation over the thyroid, and there's some really good results coming out. I mean, anything from reducing the need of thyroid medication to to having a reduction in antibody production.

I mean, it's pretty promising. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, I've had are you familiar with Dr. Kirk Gare? He's also a chiropractor and he does a lot of cold lasers. So, and we have opposing, but yeah, 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: well, there's, there's a discussion about the biophasic dose response curve. AKA hormesis I've taken a clinical practical approach with the discussion on hormesis.

I actually have intellectual property in that whole realm. I've developed my own line of lasers. I think my knowledge of laser physiology supersedes his, I'll say that publicly. Yet he continues to, to bark out, you know, old studies and, and all of these things that really corner his position in this low, low level laser debate that you cannot exceed a certain dose.

And I would say that that's fine. And those are good data points for those studies, but for this live human being in front of me that I can measure and monitor physiology real time. I think that's more accurate in determining my laser dosing parameters. So that's where we differ. But yes, I'm very aware of him and his discussions et cetera.

So, sorry, had to interject that. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Yeah, no, that's okay. We'll have to get you on my podcast to give you your perspective and to talk more about this. Yeah, for 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: sure. I'd be more than happy to. I mean, look, here's the thing. I mean, I've got. I used to be diagnosed with glaucoma. I'm no longer diagnosable of glaucoma.

And it was from a large part of that was from the use of laser therapy into my eyeball. So when it comes to dosing lasers, trust me, I'm very intimately aware of how to dose a laser. The same thing of myself into remission of you heard me talk about Hashimoto's and primary hypothyroidism. Same thing, I've put myself into remission actually a couple of times.

I know how to put myself into remission, but I damn well know how to bring myself out of remission. It's all the stress that I put myself into. But using lasers and like that's really what helps me mitigate my stress. I was using my lasers and actually laying under my LED panels last night just because I've been going hard for about a month.

I haven't even had a weekend off. I've had a trip to Dubai, I've had, you know, multiple things going, I've moved my office. If I didn't have the use of red, near infrared, I also use green, violet. If I didn't have these these types of technologies, I'd be, I'd be trashed. There's no way that I'd be able to do this.

So yeah, I'm more than happy to do that. But you know, and oddly enough. While we're on this topic, you know, it used to be thought that it was contraindicated to actually use lasers over thyroid tissue which is not true. And again, there's, there's studies now proving that that is totally safe and effective to use laser therapy over the thyroid.

So just wanted to throw that out there. Anyway, I could go on. Obviously, you see, 

Dr. Eric Osansky: here's the question. I'm going to ask you this when you're on my podcast as well, but I'll ask you now. So, because if someone's listening to this and have hyperthorism, would you hesitate? I agree with hypo. Low thyroid, but any problems with a hyperactive thyroid and you know, so, 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: so when we're looking at laser physiology What we have to understand is that the longer the wavelength the lower the energy per photon So I'm talking about the electron volts per photon.

So for that individual with hyperthyroid, I'm not gonna go straight to a shorter wavelength I'm not gonna go straight to a violet. I'm not gonna go to a blue. I'm not gonna go to a red I'm gonna start with a longer Near infrared wavelength. It's going to have a lower electron volt. Per photon. I do this for autoimmunity.

I do this for seizures. I do this for thyroid. I do this for you name it, right? I've got a whole protocol for this. So we're going to start to do that. Now, the good thing about laser and photobiomodulation, and you will see this riddled in Transcribed the literature. It regulates systems. So you see it regulates blood flow.

It regulates hormones. It regulates inflammatory markers. Like NF kappa B is a prime example that I always use. So NF kappa B can be excitatory. It can be excitotoxic, right? It can, it can be pro inflammatory if it's too excess, but you have to have NF kappa B to really achieve neuroplasticity. So you need it, but you just don't need too much of it.

Well, in some studies, you see NF kappa B. elevates with laser use. In other studies, it lowers with laser use. Same thing with calcium. You'll see that in some studies, calcium will influx into the cell, which you, you go, oh no, that can be inflammatory. But in other studies, you see it reduces the amount of calcium in the cells.

So what you consistently see in the studies is that laser and light therapy is regulatory. And so that's why I'm okay to use it. Now, again, there's protocols. There's ways that we want to use the different wavelengths of light, especially if there's autoimmunity involved, especially if there's seizures, all these things, I'm going to start with those longer wavelengths.

I love 1280. I love nine 75. I'm going to use those longer wavelengths, prime the individual, build them up to a red and then. Maybe use a green, maybe use a violet, maybe use a blue, you know, these types of things. But you're going to get different outcomes based on the type of laser and the color of wavelength that you use, right?

So I think that's where the discussion is, and it's, it's beyond this discussion of the primary effects. I think that's a big, a big concept, right? And if we just keep this ginormous topic of photobiomodulation restricted to the confines of this tiny little box where all these people want to play, I say screw that, I'm not playing in your tiny little box.

We need to understand that lasers and photobiomodulation, these are quantum discussions. These are photons interacting with atomic and subatomic particles, right? So we have to understand this. At different levels and just that primary effect focus, which is where most people unfortunately play. It might be a longer answer than you were looking for.

Sorry. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: No, thank you. Thanks for that response. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay, so let's, let's get back to this discussion on thyroid, Graves, all these things, right? So you have this person, they're, they're listening to this podcast and they're going, Oh my gosh, like I got to get tested. I got to figure these things out. My doctors only looked at these couple of hormones.

What are some next steps, some practical applications? What are some things that you would tell that person out there that they're sitting in the background going, man, I'm struggling, my doctor's not helping me. Where do they go from there? 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Well, I mean, there's a lot of things you could do on your own. I mean, there's diet, you could make dietary changes on your own.

You could incorporate more whole healthy foods, avoid the refined foods and sugars, at least try to minimize refined foods and sugars, the common allergens. like gluten, dairy, corn you could do things to improve your stress handling skills, try your best to reduce your stressors, work on getting more sleep, which sometimes is a work in progress, but definitely try to do as much from a diet and lifestyle perspective.

And I talk about this in, I mean, both my books on hyperthyroidism, but my more recent one, the hyperthyroid healing diet is Really focusing on that. So just that. But again, there's a lot of free information out there, including the podcast, my podcast, but elsewhere, too. But as far as the testing, if you're not, yeah, you're right.

You're absolutely right. If you go to your most primary care doctors, most endocrinologists are just going to do. The bare basics when it comes to testing, I mean, you could do testing on your own. I mean, you could go, there are walk in labs, Quest diagnostics. But, you know, of course, I'm going to be biased.

Dr. Koroffer is probably going to be a little bit biased. We're going to recommend ideally working with someone rather than navigating this on your own. Again, try to do everything you can, diet and lifestyle on your own is fine. But as far as getting certain tests, especially functional medicine tests, I think it is a good, good idea to work with someone, whether that's with me or another practitioner, there's, there's plenty of different functional medicine practitioners, again, Dr.

Crawford amazing practitioner, I mean, so just but yeah, I would say try not to do everything on your own other than a diet and lifestyle and you know, cause you want to find you want, I mean, I mean, again, Dr. Crawford mentioned earlier that, It takes time, many times, even though, in my case, it was discovered quickly.

For some people, these conditions go undiagnosed for many months or sometimes years, especially, more so Hashimoto's than Graves, but even sometimes Graves might go a while before being diagnosed. And then once you got the answer, it makes sense. Try to do everything you can, within reason, to find the triggers to heal yourself, rather than trying to take a year or two on your own.

Which again, it might, might even work with someone that it could take quite some time. So, but usually it is more challenging on your own to find, remove the trigger. So I should, I should backtrack. It's not like it's going to take three months, even with working with a functional medicine practitioner.

But I mean, everybody's different. Everyone's rate of healing is different. But if anything, just realize that there is hope. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. I'm glad that you ended on that because there is even the, the most dire situations. Sometimes it can be something so simple that can completely change a life and not just your life, but your family's life.

Cause like in my story, like I couldn't even play with my kids. I was so tired. I couldn't move. I, I mean, it was, it was miserable. So my entire family was suffering. So you're right, there is hope so working with someone like yourself is, is key. Can you give everyone the information? I'm sure there's people that are going to want to contact you.

Can you let everyone know, and we'll put it in the show notes, how to contact you if you don't mind reiterating the, the books that you've written. And your podcast and any other information that you'd like to give the listeners about how to connect with you. 

Dr. Eric Osansky: Sure. So, website, I actually have a few websites, my initial website, naturalendocrinesolutions.

com created in 2010. But then when I created the Save My Thou Art podcast in 2021, I was like, I got to have SaveMyThouArt. com. So SaveMyThouArt. com. You could you could visit the podcast. If you have, if you need to call the office, there's the contact information on there or email the office. You can find me on Facebook as well.

And on YouTube. Just searched my name and the books. So the, my first book, natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease, which now is in its third edition. Third edition came out in 2023. I do have a book, Hashimoto's Triggers, that was released in 2018, and then 2024, my more recent book, the Hyperthyroid Healing Diet.

You could learn more if you visit say, my thyroid.com, or you could just go on Amazon and and search for those books. And again, the Say My Thyroid podcast, if you don't wanna purchase the book and you just want free information, a lot of it focuses on hyperthyroidism in the podcast, but you have Hashimoto's especially like the guest have used.

A lot of the ants of views will benefit both people with hyper and hop and hypo. 

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Nice. Well, I think we covered a lot of ground today. I know that we could have done this for probably six hours to really go into, you know, thyroid physiology and all the different things that, that you mentioned. And I know that we had to cram it into this you know, relatively short segment here, but I hope that what people understand from this podcast is that thyroid is a big topic.

And you heard us jump around so many different things. I mean, all these different lab tests that Dr. Ozanski went through, they're each testing a different system. They're each testing for a different toxin. They're each testing for a different element of. Your life that could have this influence on your thyroid, but also multiple systems that are working together to create this thing we call life.

This is a life problem, right? As, as so many other things are. And that's why it's so important to understand that lifestyle and stress, these things are real. And we need to pay attention to them, but I love how he said at the end of what he was saying earlier, that there is hope, because that's true. I mean, there really is, and maybe some people have to have a surgery and some people have to have a medication.

I'm not going to knock that, but. I think there's so many people that could avoid a surgery that could avoid destroying their thyroid through medication and whatnot, right? So at least try to work with someone like Dr. Ozyanski that can help you walk this journey and try to avoid those really, really invasive procedures.

I mean, why not give it a shot? What is there to lose, right? So my friend, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed this. I hope that the listeners have enjoyed it. You know, if, if, if someone out there, I will say this, if someone out there is struggling from thyroid, cause there's a lot of people, you may have heard the numbers, 20 million people in the U S alone mostly women, et cetera.

Like there's a lot of people that need to hear this information. Please share this information. Please like it. Comment on it. I want to hear what you think, right? I want to hear what you, the listeners, have to think about the things that we talked about. Give us some comments. Share this information. This needs to get out there because so many people are suffering and that's why we're doing this is to help people.

So, Dr. Rosansky, again, thank you so much for your time today. I truly appreciate it. Thank you so much, Dr. Crawford. I appreciate you having me. Absolutely. All right, everyone. We will see you next time with another expert and we'll continue to explore this new era wellness and try and find some really good solutions for some complicated.

Situations out there. All right, guys, so I appreciate you and I'll talk to you next time.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step toward your best self. Remember, the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com

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Dr. Brandon Crawford

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Dr. Eric Osansky

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