We often hear terms like blood sugar, insulin resistance, diabetes but what has this got to do with thyroid health? In this episode Dr Ben Galyardt helps to unravel the connection to your health - more than just thyroid health.
We cover a wide range of topics connected to blood sugar regulation - much more than just thyroid related!
Here are some of the topics we cover:
Links referred to in the show:
Dr Galyardt's FREE book: Blood Sugar doesn't lie!
Australia CGM links: https://www.freestylelibre.com.au
https://www.vively.com.au/
⭐️ Join the WAITLIST for Annabel's new program: The KISS Thyroid Coaching Program: Keeping It Super Simple for the thyroid patient ready for lasting change.
https://letstalkthyroid.com/kiss
---------
Dr Ben Galyardt, D.C. is the Founder and CEO of F8 Well Centers, and The Galyardt Method. He is also a world recognized speaker in Neurofeedback and Brain Regeneration. After successfully treating thousands of patients in his Colorado office he decided to bring his Galyardt Method to other parts of the country by opening satellite offices. He now leads and teaches his Galyardt Method to all of our new doctors across the country while also working one on with patients.
Dr. Galyardt’s Board Certifications, Degrees and Training include:
https://f8wellcenters.com
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@drbengalyardt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/f8wellcentersfc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbenf8/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@f8wellcenters
--------
⭐️ NEW Become a monthly supporter from $3/month
If you get value from the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast, I'd love to invite you to become a monthly supporter from US$3/month. This will help me enormously to cover the costs of producing the podcast and making the content available freely.
We often hear terms like blood sugar, insulin resistance, diabetes but what has this got to do with thyroid health? In this episode Dr Ben Galyardt helps to unravel the connection to your health - more than just thyroid health.
We cover a wide range of topics connected to blood sugar regulation - much more than just thyroid related!
Here are some of the topics we cover:
Links referred to in the show:
Dr Galyardt's FREE book: Blood Sugar doesn't lie!
Australia CGM links: https://www.freestylelibre.com.au
https://www.vively.com.au/
⭐️ Join the WAITLIST for Annabel's new program: The KISS Thyroid Coaching Program: Keeping It Super Simple for the thyroid patient ready for lasting change.
https://letstalkthyroid.com/kiss
---------
Dr Ben Galyardt, D.C. is the Founder and CEO of F8 Well Centers, and The Galyardt Method. He is also a world recognized speaker in Neurofeedback and Brain Regeneration. After successfully treating thousands of patients in his Colorado office he decided to bring his Galyardt Method to other parts of the country by opening satellite offices. He now leads and teaches his Galyardt Method to all of our new doctors across the country while also working one on with patients.
Dr. Galyardt’s Board Certifications, Degrees and Training include:
https://f8wellcenters.com
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@drbengalyardt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/f8wellcentersfc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbenf8/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@f8wellcenters
--------
⭐️ NEW Become a monthly supporter from $3/month
If you get value from the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast, I'd love to invite you to become a monthly supporter from US$3/month. This will help me enormously to cover the costs of producing the podcast and making the content available freely.
This is episode 101 of the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast. We're on to our next century. Mum commented on a Facebook post and she said imagine something about Waitill, episode 200. And I thought, oh gosh, i haven't even thought about 200 yet. But we celebrated 100, had a beautiful morning tea with some lovely local ladies celebrating World Thyroid Day and celebrating 100 episodes of the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast. I got balloons and confetti and cake. So I decided to throw the podcast a bit of a 100th birthday party. So who knows what we'll do for 200. But for now we're up to 101.
Speaker 1:We're talking with Dr Ben Galiad all about blood sugar, which is the topic that I've actually wanted to cover on the podcast for quite a while, just been finding the right person to talk about it, and I think this is going to be a really great introduction to why blood sugar health and regulation is just so important for someone with a thyroid condition Probably you, because you're listening to this podcast And even if you don't have a thyroid condition and you're listening, it's. Blood sugar is just so important to our underlying health. I think you're going to enjoy just the conversation that I have with Dr Ben. He's a bit of a TikTok sensation, actually, which I'm not on TikTok. I don't know if you're on TikTok, but if you are, go follow him. He's got something like 300,000 subscribers on TikTok. He shares his videos on Instagram and Facebook too, and I've been watching them recently and really enjoying, really enjoying them. He is the founder and CEO of F8 Wellness Centers in America, although they work with people all over the world, so make sure you give him a follow. He mentions a free download of a book He's written all about blood sugar, so I'll make sure I put the link to that in the description. So take note of that and stick around for the end for a couple of kiss thyroid coaching questions.
Speaker 1:The other thing I just want to mention before we dive into the episode is you can now go on a waiting list for my brand new program, which I am going to launch. I still haven't pinned myself down to a date, but I'm thinking the end of June, beginning of July. I've just got to put a few you know, put a few more pieces of it together, so it is called the Kiss Thyroid Coaching Program. It will go for eight weeks. It's going to be very interactive. It's going to work through the four pillars that I talk about in my book, which is all about mindset, unwinding, food and low-tox living, and it is for the person who is ready for lasting change.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep it, really keep it super simple, which is the kiss part. Keep it super simple for the thyroid patient, ready for lasting change. So if that sounds like you, just head on over to letstalkthyroidcom. Forward, slash, kiss And you can, you know, just join the wait list. So as soon as the information becomes available and you can register, find out more information, see if it's for you, then you'll get notified of that and not miss it. It's somehow in this you know social media it's easy to miss those sorts of things, so you'll just make sure you don't miss out. There's no commitment at this stage to sign up for the wait list. It's just an indication that you want to know more And I want to get more information to you. That is my priority for next week. Well, actually it'll be the week that you are listening to this, to actually nut all that out so that I can put it to you and you can start to plan and get your head around. You're starting to really make some lasting change.
Speaker 1:But without further ado, here is Dr Ben Galiart and I talking all about blood sugar and thyroid health. Welcome to Let's Talk Thyroid. I'm your host, annabel Bateman. This podcast is here to offer you hope and strategies for your own thyroid health. I'm a thyroid coach, author and patient. I've had Hashimoto's for well over 25 years and I'm very much on this thyroid friendly lifestyle journey with you. For more information, go to Let'sTalkThyroidcom. So welcome, dr Ben Galiart, to the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast. Very, yeah, it's great to have you here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much. I'm so excited. I love talking thyroid. really, of all conditions out there, Thyroid is probably one of my top one or two to talk about because it's so misunderstood. People just don't quite get why they're taking that thyroid medication. What is actually causing the thyroid to be out of balance and that you have to not just go? oh, I'm going to just try to fix my thyroid too. I'm going to fix all these other things that are causing that thyroid issue. So I just love this topic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, well, i do too. Hence the Let's Talk Thyroid podcast, and I think I catch myself sometimes too, because I talk a lot about thyroid health and I say, look, it's not just the health of the thyroid gland When we're talking thyroid health on this show, we're talking whole body health. We're talking every system, every cell, every complexity. It's not just the health of the actual thyroid gland. So I think that was a good point that you made too. So, ben, we're going to talk all about blood sugar today, and that is a topic that I have wanted to cover for a while on the podcast. So I love that you are willing to dive into that with us and how it relates to people with thyroid conditions. But before we dive in, really get stuck into the guts of that, you said you love talking about thyroid. Is there something? have you got a thyroid condition or any particular connection, or you just love it because it's interesting and complex?
Speaker 2:So it's really the autoimmune side and the Hashimoto's that really intrigues me and that it's just so lost in the traditional medical model. I go back for me personally, i love autoimmune not having autoimmune, but helping people with autoimmune. Way back when I was in high school my mom got diagnosed with MS multiple sclerosis And back in the 90s she was put on the drugs, ended up getting a cane, a wheelchair, went on disability and was in this downward spiral And my dad ended up retiring and they moved down to this little town about 10,000 people, in the middle of nowhere in Missouri and Arkansas Hill Country and got to the point where she's like, oh man, this is probably going to be it, she's probably not going to make it another five or 10 years and that's probably going to be it. And fortunately they found a doctor in this small town that was doing functional medicine even before it was called functional medicine, and he started just going through working on blood sugar, working on brain and gut and all these things to the point where she got off all the MS drugs gave away her wheelchair gave away her cane.
Speaker 2:Her LAMRI, probably 20 years ago, showed no more placking and her neurologist said, hey, i don't know what it is, but you healed your MS and she's now 80 years old and she does granny boot camp, literally today. she took my 11 and 13 year old fishing. They've got these inflatable tubes, called float tubing, and they were out fishing in the middle of the lake paddling around with these flippers on And, yeah, she doesn't have MS anymore.
Speaker 2:So I saw what it did to my family, to us. It shook us to the core. And yet if somebody can heal from MS, I mean, why can't we heal from this little autoimmune that's causing our body to attack the thyroid? So for me, I love educating on that thought process that over 80% of women in the United States at least, and I'm assuming it's the same in Australia and all over the world, 80% of women that have hypothyroid it's coming from, at least in part, Hashimoto's autoimmune state, and in the US Hashimoto's is the number one most common autoimmune disease. And so it's so misunderstood, though, when you think about and I always do this. I go live videos all the time on social media and I'll ask people put down below what medication you're taking for your Hashimoto's and what do they put down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Levothoroxin.
Speaker 2:Levothoroxin the number one most prescribed drug in the United States. I'm assuming it's similar in Australia. And so is that not coincidence? You've got the number one most prescribed drug and the number one most common autoimmune disease, and so that almost everybody thinks they're taking Levothoroxin or Synthroid or Armor or MP Thyroid. They're taking those for Hashimoto's, but we know that those do nothing.
Speaker 2:They did not give my mom Levothoroxin for her MS, right, you'd walk out of an raw just like that guy's crazy. Why did they give me a thyroid hormone replacement? And so I love that thought of hey, let's figure out the why. And here's the other problem is that so many of your listeners right now that have Hashimoto's also have other autoimmune diseases going on, and most of them don't even realize it.
Speaker 2:And so if we can fix the why to the Hashimoto's, we're going to fix the why to their lupus, to their MS, to their rheumatoid arthritis, whatever it is, and they're not going to have to experience what my mom experienced, you know, going down that path of being in a wheelchair and we had to think about widening the hallways in the house and all kinds of stuff. So that's what drives me every day, especially with this, is hey, you know, let's start with the education piece. Let's get it to understand that no one has ever treated, especially with Hashimoto's. No doctor has ever treated your Hashimoto's. And once people get that thought, it's like, oh my gosh, what do I need to do? How do I fix this?
Speaker 1:I know and I love that. Actually, I was just before this interview. I was talking to my husband and he rang me and he said there's a lady at work who's been listening to your podcast and she said she thinks you should be an autoimmune coach And I said well, i kind of really am. And he said no, no, like not thyroid, just all autoimmune. I said well, yeah, well, that's.
Speaker 1:the thing is that all of what I did, you know, the diet and lifestyle really applies to all autoimmune diseases, and so I, like you know what you say. if you're treating the Hashimoto's, learning how to manage that holistic perspective, you're kind of dealing with so many of the other autoimmune diseases that we, you know, like to collect. Like, interestingly, with the MS, if you've listened, if people have been listening for a little while, they might know this. but about 10 years ago I was diagnosed with a demyelinating lesion And I've only ever had one. So it was never formally diagnosed as MS. But, you know, every year or two when I go back to the neurologist he's like, Oh my gosh, you're like this. You know, i still don't understand. You never went on the medication, you never.
Speaker 1:you know I said Yeah, but you have to understand. I haven't sat around for 10 years doing nothing, just waiting for more lesions.
Speaker 2:Like you know, i said doing the second thing that got you to that first one. You know, you said Okay, we're going to go this way instead of that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly So. So I know that the things that I you know was doing for my Hashimoto's, then I kind of ramped up and took really much more seriously, i suppose, when that happened. And I think, yeah, i don't, one of the reasons I follow all the diet and lifestyle stuff that we, you know, talk about on this show is I don't want to accumulate any more autoimmune diseases. I know I have the gene for celiac disease. I don't want to get celiac disease. I don't want lupus, i don't want more lesions, i don't want rheumatoid arthritis, i don't want any of that. So if I figure I can be proactive, then you know that I'm doing the best that I can. And so I think if you listen, yeah, what?
Speaker 1:we talk about here really applies across the board.
Speaker 2:Well, and here's what I do know We run our blood work on every patient. I've been practicing functional medicine for over 20 years And my on my F-18, we have over 100 years experience through all of us. And what I know is that we run A&A and rheumatoid factor on everybody, whether you're seven years old or 77 years old. And we see so many people at least 25% of our patients come back with an A&A or a rheumatoid factor positive And most of them don't even know it Because their doctor's not testing that unless they've got some kind of major symptom of auto immune. And so we're catching pre-autoimmune in so many people And a lot of these.
Speaker 2:If somebody has Hashimoto's, i'm not surprised at all if that A&A is high And they don't have any symptoms yet to say, oh, you have lupus or chogrens or whatever. But it's like, hey, what if we could have caught your Hashimoto's five years before you had your first symptom? What if we could have caught my mom's MS five years before she had to go on disability? And that's what you're able to do. And here's my thought process. With autoimmune, there's over 190 named autoimmune conditions out there The third leading cause of death. When you lump them all together and we lump them together Because, again, it is the same thing.
Speaker 2:The things that are causing Hashimoto's in that one person that also has lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or whatever alopecia or whatever it is are the same things that are causing all of these. So the person that has Hashimoto's and has a thyroid issue like that to the point, or even Graves disease, and they irradiate the thyroid or remove it or whatever. I get this question all the time Do I still have Hashimoto's? And I don't know if you have antibodies? We could test, because that's what Hashimoto's is right, it's the antibody. So we could test for those antibodies, even after you've had your thyroid removed And we do on everybody, and so I know that they're still there in a lot of people, even if you don't have that.
Speaker 2:But here's the deal is, the reasons why somebody had Hashimoto's are still there. They're blood sugar, they're leaky gut, they're vitamin D's out of balance, they've got chronic infection, the environmental toxins are driving it. Whatever it is, those things are still there. So even if you don't have your thyroid working anymore, you still have autoimmune activity going on your body if you did not change anything else.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, such a good point. And look, i love that that it's being proactive, isn't it? And doing those tests. And I said to someone in a message last night. She said oh, my mom's just been tested, she's got antibodies, but her thyroid function's good And I'm like that is great, that is so good It's. Now she can work on all the factors to kind of dampen that response so that she may never end up hypothyroid. I said that is a great position to be in. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's so rare, but it's so like. Yeah, i mean, i guess better if it wasn't, but that is such a good thing And that's why getting the antibodies is just so important. To get tested for thyroid health, yep. So you mentioned blood sugar. Let's dive into blood sugar.
Speaker 1:It's something that I don't think gets talked a lot about in thyroid circles, but I'm hearing a lot just in the broader health space about blood sugar and insulin resistance and type two diabetes obviously gets talked about a lot. But maybe can we start at the beginning and like, when we're talking about blood sugar, what does that really mean? What are we looking for? Can you just go over the basics first and then maybe we'll touch on how it really relates to? All right Patience.
Speaker 2:So let's just get down to what it is. When you eat certain foods they get broken down. Your saliva, your stomach acid, your enzymes, all these things. It starts breaking it down And especially if it's like a rice, a fruit, a vegetable, things like that, they're going to get broken down into glucose, into sugar. So then that is going to get into your bloodstream, go through the digestive tract, get into your bloodstream and then turn into glucose And so we can measure if it's too high or too low or right on. We'll be able to check blood sugar day in, day out, whatever it is. When you go in and get your blood draw, you can check it. You can poke your finger and do a glucose test And you'll see okay, is my blood sugar at? I think you guys have the same numbers as we do.
Speaker 1:I think sorry, I'm not social, but I think.
Speaker 2:Sorry, 85 to 110 is our range that we like. So you might be at 77 and you're a little hypoglycemic. You might be at 140 and you ate too much rice or ice cream or whatever it is or things that we'll get into some things that you didn't even know could be contributing to that blood sugar going up. So glucose is going to vary depending on what you're putting in your mouth, whether that's food or drink. So if you go to the I don't know if you have Starbucks over there, but we've got these coffee shops and there'll be 80 grams of sugar in a little coffee latte thing And you're like holy cow, that's like double a Coca-Cola. So a lot of people are not even thinking about what's making that blood sugar go up.
Speaker 2:But when we're talking about thyroid and especially Hashimoto's and the autoimmune component, it's not just the high blood sugar that's the problem. So so many people have been trained. High blood sugar is bad. You've got diabetes and pre-diabetes and insulin resistance and all of these bad things from high blood sugar and you get neuropathy and you can't feel your feet and it starts damaging your eyes all types of things. But for thyroid and Hashimoto's the lows are just as bad. So the hypoglycemia, the hangry, the tired, spacey, any of those things are just as bad as the highs. And again, because we know that upwards of 80% of women that have hypothyroid have Hashimoto's. This is such an important part of it And it's why I'll do a video on social media every month or two and I'll call it it's probably not your thyroid.
Speaker 2:So remember, hashimoto's is not a thyroid disease, right? Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease. Under conversion of T4 to T3 hormone is not a thyroid problem, it's a gut and liver problem that's not allowing that T4 to T3 conversion, not getting enough TSH out of the, out of the pituitary, to stimulate the thyroid enough. And we'll see that a low TSH along with a low T3, t4 is a hypopituitary state is not actually a thyroid problem. It's a pituitary problem using secondary to adrenals, which we know the number one stressor to the adrenals is blood sugar swings, especially drops. So it's all interconnected. So blood sugar is crucial. But when we're talking about Hashimoto's and autoimmune, when that blood sugar spikes up and when it crashes down, both of those rev up this immune system attack and you destroy more tissue. Dr Detease Karazian I'm sure you guys have talked about his book. He's the godfather of Hashimoto's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Pretty much anybody that talks Hashimoto's has trained with Dr Karazian. Yeah, 15 years ago I was taking his first thyroid seminar he ever did And I remember him saying every time your blood sugar spikes up, every time your blood sugar crashes down, you're revving up your immune response and you're destroying more thyroid tissue. So, how important is it to stay positive?
Speaker 1:Do you want to just say that again, so it sinks in for people Yeah.
Speaker 2:So listen, guys, every time, and the range I like is 85 to 110, all day, every day, and we use a continuous glucose monitor, the patch on the back of your arm, on your abdomen, and we get to see 24 seven before meal, after meal, middle of the night, first thing in the morning, doesn't matter 85 to 110. If that blood sugar is going up too high and too fast or if it's going down too low and too fast, you are revving up the immune system, you're revving up that autoimmune activity and you're destroying more thyroid tissue.
Speaker 1:So it is pretty important.
Speaker 2:And we know you know for you your demyelinating issue that you had. Hopefully you know you're calmed it all down, it's not an issue anymore. But for people that had that or have lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, it's the same thing. Every time somebody's blood sugar spikes or crashes they rev up their immune system and they destroy more tissue. It doesn't matter if it's Hashimoto's or Graves or any other type of immune issue. So that's why Dr McCola, Joe McCola I don't know if you've seen his stuff He got shadow banned pretty bad a few years ago by Google.
Speaker 1:It's probably hot to font these guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a bummer. I was at a seminar a bunch of years ago with him and he pulled up his shirt and he had the continuous glucose monitor on his abdomen And this is what we were already using finger prick a little bit with patients. But when we saw that and he's like, oh my gosh, i can tell exactly what my blood sugar is doing all day, every day, and I'm like this makes total sense. For years I've been trying to get people that had autoimmune to stabilize their blood sugar. But I was just guessing that, okay, well, let's do an AIP diet, let's do a Paleo diet, let's do a Keto diet, let's do a low glycemic index diet. And yet we were all just making assumptions that their blood sugar was staying steady, and so what we ended up doing was every one of our patients. We started having them do finger prick glucose monitoring. So, no matter where you are in the world, listening, you can get a finger prick glucose monitor and probably at your pharmacy and anything like that. In the US they're like 20, 30, $40.
Speaker 2:Very reasonable, you can get them easily here too, and so that's what we did for years and years and years. And finally we've been able to get a continuous glucose monitor. So you slap the patch on there And this is what type one diabetics use. It's the gold standard for getting that blood sugar to figure out where it's supposed to be and see it 24 seven. And so now we're able to see continuously where that blood sugar is. And it's so, so important because I just ran blood work on a 15 year old boy and he's having brain issues They think he might have some mild Asperger or some things like that And his glucose was 55 in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2:So I prefer running blood work non-fasting. Most people like to see it fasting, but I like to see it non-fasting because I want to see it real world. If he had fasted 12 hours I almost guarantee his blood sugar would have been in the right range. So get this his glucose was 55, but his insulin you were talking about insulin resistance earlier. His insulin, i don't like it. Over 15, non-fasting maybe 12, it was at 45. So insulin's job is to pull glucose out of the bloodstream. So his glucose was already super low and insulin was really high. So by the time he ate again, he was probably down in the 30s or 40s, super, super low, revving up this inflammatory process.
Speaker 2:What happens when that blood sugar goes low is the adrenal glands. Everybody's familiar with the adrenals. There are stress glands, cortisol, dhea, those different hormones. The adrenals tell the liver to release glucose. So this is why I always say the number one stressor to the adrenal glands is blood sugar swings, especially dips. Every time you go hypoglycemic, you're not just getting hangry and your spouse is giving you a little Snickers bar or whatever, but you're actually stressing out your adrenals really badly. And so every time it goes, adrenals, adrenals, adrenals tells the liver to release glucose And this is why people get random anxiety.
Speaker 2:So if you're getting random anxiety, if you're waking up in the middle of the night and sweating and it's not like, oh, i'm in menopause or anything, but if you wake up sweating, you wake up with your mind racing, those are low blood sugar times And you've got not just glucose floating around coming out of the liver, you also have adrenaline floating around. So if you are experiencing random anxiety, stabilize that blood sugar and that's going to be such a crucial, crucial part for it. So you've got to get that low blood sugar figured out. It's just as bad. Every time that adrenaline kicks in, the cortisol, all of that kicks in, you're revving up your immune response. That stimulates the immune system. Every time it goes up.
Speaker 2:Just like he had that really high insulin, his blood sugar must have spiked. Insulin pulled it down and the body said how low do you want to go? And he said I don't know, just get it down. Okay, well, we're going to get it down and then we'll worry about it later. So it pulls it down dramatically. So the spikes insulin and glucose are very inflammatory, stimulates immune system. The lows inflammatory, stimulates the immune system. So those swings are crucial to stabilize and balance out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think generally, we think more about the highs than the lows, don't we?
Speaker 2:So, that's.
Speaker 1:But it's the fluctuation, it's the dipping, it's the spikes. That's the problem, absolutely. And so we'll come in in a minute to what do we do about that. But you mentioned before the CGM is a continuous glucose monitor, no-transcript. Do you recommend, like everyone does, that, and if so, for how long? and I mean it might vary where you're listening as to how easy that's to get if you're not type one diabetic or type two diabetic. But I've looked into it in the past, haven't quite given it a go, but yeah, how you obviously do recommend it to all your patients.
Speaker 2:So yes, so every every one of our new patients gets a continuous glucose monitor. It's prescription only but we're using them off label and meaning that it's not for type one diabetics in the US. They're reserved and insurance will cover it only if you're insulin dependent, which is usually a type one diabetic, or if you're type two diabetes, like really, really bad, and you've had it for so long your bank risk has kind of given up. So that's who insurance will cover for this And that's doctors won't prescribe it unless, unless someone's insulin dependent. So we've we've got a process set up with with our patients in the US and in Canada where we can use that continuous glucose monitor with with anybody and everybody. And I think it just in the US during covid we sent out like a free mass and free covid tests and things like that, and at the time I was like we should be sending out free continuous glucose monitor.
Speaker 2:We would have saved how many lives millions of lives if we would have done that, because you know, if you look, even even going down that rabbit hole, you know, if you look at who was dying at that time. It was people with diabetes, with with high blood pressure, that were overweight, that you had all these metabolic syndrome diseases And their immune systems weren't working as well, and that that's who was dying in the United States at that time was was those people. You'd always hear the story of the random 30 year old that just you know, but you know the vast majority were metabolic syndrome people And and if, if you know, if you get a C and we, we do a three month supply of continuous glucose monitor with our patients. If you see for three months straight exactly what your blood sugar is doing, you have to change. We put it on. He was 17,.
Speaker 2:My oldest, he's 18. Now we put it on him last year at 17 and just were like, hey, pay attention to this. I didn't coach him, i didn't do, and you know the first few days he went from 39 to 215 in one day.
Speaker 2:And we looked back a couple of months ago at some of his first numbers. I'm like, what did that feel like? And he said well, at the 39, he about fell asleep on the couch. And at the two 15, he had a migraine and was like, couldn't really see, and it was just like and so he's learned, i didn't coach him, i didn't sit down and go eat this, don't eat that. He's a smart kid. And he saw oh, rice, i hit 200. I probably shouldn't have rice noodles anymore, but they're gluten free. So you know, you got Hashimoto's, we have gluten, so it's all good. But no, here's the problem is that so many people Hashimoto's, we know, and you guys, i'm sure, have talked about that and the gluten connection there, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so you know I love on social media. I'll say if you're still eating gluten, put yes gluten if you have Hashimoto's. And people, so many still say yes And I'm like I've got, even if I change one of your mind, it's going to be worth it today. And so a lot of people. Well, there goes my gluten. So you know, even if you're eating gluten free, some of that stuff is actually worse for your blood sugar than eating whole wheat. And you know you've got tapioca starch and potato starch and rice flour And even like the cassava chips. Do you guys have?
Speaker 1:cassava? Yeah, not, they're not. In some not too popular Find that they're not too, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we've got I mean, there's tons of different cassava chips and tortillas and all these things, And I'll see people spike, you know, but it says paleo on the front of that package, And so you know it really comes down to knowing your body and knowing what you need to do. And so you know, just by having that on, he literally lost 30 pounds in about six months, just by paying attention to what he was doing and not doing. And it's pretty phenomenal, just to stabilize that blood sugar.
Speaker 1:So people have access to a CGM Then, about three months, is that what you would recommend, like give it a good go, just see and track. You know it's not something you have to do for the rest of your life, but just do for a period of time to really learn how your body responds to different foods. I'm imagining it will probably respond differently in, you know, periods of stress as well, would it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so two big things that I see. Last year I helped coach my son's soccer team. You guys football, so the soccer team.
Speaker 1:We call it by Yes.
Speaker 2:OK, yeah, and in it was August, which in Colorado, we get pretty hot and we're at 5,000 foot elevation And so the sun is pretty intense, and so it was like 95 degree days And within 15 minutes I had my CGM on and I saw it was a 20, 30 point blood sugar spike very, very quickly. I know if I go into the sauna, my blood sugar the infrared sauna it'll go up a good 30 points, even 40 points sometimes, i've seen. And really what's happening? this is, i think, why the sauna can actually be beneficial for some people, because it's mobilizing excess glucose, so it's going to be pulling it out of the liver, pulling it out of out of any stores or reserves, thinking that, oh my gosh, we've got some big activity coming up, we're going to need fuel. So you know, there is value in doing those type of activities any of the sauna or steam rooms, things like that too to be able to use and burn off some of that excess glucose, but also realizing that you know if you are going to be really hot, don't be eating a bunch of extra ice cream That's even going to make it go up higher.
Speaker 2:So that's one thing, and then stress, like you said, is the second one that we see all the time with our patients. We've gone through thousands and thousands of patients and monitored their blood sugar way before This was even. You know, most people never even thought about it when we first did it And that's why I wrote my book Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie. And so, with that stress, you could eat one meal for dinner and then the next lunch hour and lunch have leftovers and have had a stressful morning and had to give a big presentation or got yelled at by your boss or whatever it is, and your blood sugar could be up 20 points higher after that stressful event with the exact same meal. But what do people do when they're stressed?
Speaker 1:They eat sugary food. Usually That's the ice cream, the chocolate, the glass of wine, yeah.
Speaker 2:You mean they're not eating chicken and broccoli when they're?
Speaker 1:Somehow just doesn't have that same kind of vibe, does it?
Speaker 2:Just get out a big stick of butter and just chew on that. So yeah, when you're stressed, it's even more important to eat constructively and to balance out your blood sugar that way, because whatever you're putting in is even going to go up higher than it should.
Speaker 1:So what do you then recommend people eat to keep a good, healthy, balanced, you know, blood sugar?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sparking, if there's. I had my book sitting here. You can see how thin my book is. It could have been a whole lot thicker if I would have put diets and menus and meal plans And here's the perfect blood sugar diet. But I'd be lying because I've never given out a diet. You know, if every single one of you guys listening if you would go and hunt your own wild wild game and catch your own wild wild seafood or fish of different kinds and then eat a bunch of vegetables and cruciferous and different things and good quality fats and grass-fed butter and coconut oil and all, and if that's all you ate every single meal three times a day for the rest of your life, that'd be pretty great And your blood sugar would probably be very stable. Doesn't sound very exciting.
Speaker 1:Well, not too many people can hunt for their own wild animals, can they? Yeah?
Speaker 2:But even just eating chicken and broccoli and avocado for every meal for the rest of your life you know, because we're not out hunting chickens, but that's not realistic.
Speaker 2:You know I've been doing this a long time and you know most of the time that's what I'm doing. You know it'll be eggs, it'll be protein, it'll be vegetables, and yet most people are like hey, what kind of fruit can I have? Can I have a little bit of grain? Can I have a little treat? Can I? What about sweet potato? Here's the deal. I'll give you some unique things that we've seen. Sweet potato is worse than white potato for most people, for their blood sugar.
Speaker 1:That's very sad. Yeah, i mean like, like that, like that. I love sweet potato, my favorite vegetable. But no, i totally understand, i think really cutting the carbs out the last few months And yeah, I think it's fairly helped actually I haven't been monitoring much about really helped And sweet potato has been one of those sad things that I, you know I haven't had for a while.
Speaker 2:Everybody's paleo, you know, and they're on this paleo, but I can have sweet potatoes And you're like all the time, every meal. Don't eat that sweet potato. You eat that sweet potato.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I've definitely been a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, but some people you know they could eat a white potato and be totally fine. You know, again, i'll go back to my son, you know he can eat a little bit of potato and be okay. Yeah, one of the other that is just crazy is there's like probably, i'm going to guess, four billion, five billion people every single day in the world that eat rice and like a lot of rice. And I've seen maybe this many people ever that can eat a big old plate of rice and not spiked through the roof And we're talking like 180, 200 on rice for a lot of people, even people from like, traditional you know Japan or you know South America, things like that, where they, you know that's just kind of what they do and how they roll.
Speaker 2:So you know, here's the deal is if you can figure out what is going on and what's going on with that blood sugar, you're going to be able to decrease your inflammation. You're going to be able to lose some weight. If you can't lose weight, you know we see it weight peel off of people all the time because a lot of your weight, like if you're puffy, if you're just like if I do this on you and it's just kind of like squishy. It's not even body fat, it's just fluid. The body solution to pollution is dilution. So if you're holding on to extra toxins, you're going to be holding on to extra fluid, okay. So you've got to get that, that detoxification pathway going like it needs to. You got to make sure your liver is working like it needs to.
Speaker 2:You know, with that blood sugar, if you want to preserve your brain they call Alzheimer's type three diabetes Should we balance out our blood sugar? if we, if we have family history of Alzheimer's or dementia, things like that? Absolutely. If you have PCOS or any type of female hormonal issues going on, i guess you can do that. If you have a cancer or a cancer or a disease going on, i guarantee you there is a blood sugar component to it. Insulin resistance You've got to get your blood sugar stabilized. If you're not getting pregnant, if you've got hormone issues, i guarantee you there's a blood sugar component to it. If you're a guy or if your husband has low testosterone, which so many guys do nowadays, we have 50% less than the United States Less testosterone in the average male than we did 50 years ago.
Speaker 2:So, we're literally half the men that we used to be. Wow, and I'll say 200s and 300s on guys all the time, and you know we should really be 600s plus. But here's what happens If you've got blood sugar imbalances, the guy converts that testosterone over into any guesses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, insulin.
Speaker 2:Estrogen.
Speaker 2:Oh right And so they start getting man boobs. They start, you know, like guys can get hot flashes because they're converting so much, and then they go get a testosterone pellet and it goes up through the roof, but so does their estrogen because that beaver dam is broken and it's just flowing that over so much. And so you know it's that blood sugar can cause so many imbalances and so many different health systems. And that's the approach that you really need to look at when you're thinking about thyroid, because never, ever, is it. Just my thyroid is dysfunctional and I don't produce enough T4 hormone, that I mean that maybe there's one person ever that that and they're the rest of their body worked perfectly. I I've never seen that person.
Speaker 1:Maybe they're out there.
Speaker 2:Yes. So there's always got to be some underlying imbalances and we know that blood sugar is going to be one of the number one drivers to To the autoimmune Diseases in in this world. And we also know that blood sugar is going to be the number one stressor to the adrenals and people that have a Low thyroid, secondary to hypopatuitary. So if your TSH is low, like an under, let's say 1.8. So it's like 1.2, but your T3 and T4 are too low, are low also, and It's not, you're not on medication. That's because that pituitary is not whipping the horse to go fast enough and that's usually because the pituitary also tells the Adrenals what to do and so then the, the jockey, gets tired and So then the, the horse isn't finishing the race, and so number one stressor to those adrenals is those blood sugar swings, especially the dips, so it just weaves into everything you've got going on.
Speaker 2:You know you, you hear this all the time. I'm sure women say I'm on thyroid medication, my numbers are, you know, even high. You know you can get your T4 where it's like too high and your heart's racing and stuff, but they still can't lose weight. You know there's there's still the hair falling out, they're still tired, all these things and it's like, well, maybe it's not just a Low thyroid state, maybe there's other systems that still need to be addressed. And just because you, your doctor, put you on that Thyroid hormone replacement which is really the key word that all all level thorax and or synthroid or armor is is a hormone, it's not.
Speaker 2:I don't even like calling it a thyroid medication, because that implies that it's helping the thyroid, that it's doing something for the thyroid. That'd be like calling here, let me give you this estrogen cream and I'm calling it ovary medication Because the ovaries make, make estrogen. So we're calling it thyroid medication because the thyroid makes his hormone. So you know, really, what we're looking at is its hormone replacement. That we're doing, but not at all addressing that why. And blood sugar is one of those crucial parts to the wise and the and the things where You can get your hormones up as high as you possibly can, but if your blood sugar is not stabilized, you're still not gonna feel good, you're still gonna have all these other symptoms that you know really aren't thyroid at all.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so really Yeah, getting that blood sugar sort of critical, probably one of the core root causes. Is that what you're saying? And so, if you, can deal with that, that's going to really help a plethora of Problems that you've got. So I'm just, i'm thinking so we've everyone's got to work out their own. What foods they're eating is spiking, you know, for them, so that, so there's no one. Yeah, like you said, no one diet, but probably one that's not full of highly processed carbs is, yeah, probably avoid that.
Speaker 2:That's a good place to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so start with that reduce the highly processed carbs, eat more protein and fit more fat. And What about things like metformin, berberine, some of these sort of things that get talked a lot about, about helping to. Monjaro and Oh, now you've got all the you know the ozempic and all of that And all those things, yeah, so Yeah, you know all of those things.
Speaker 2:Their job is to pull glucose down. Yeah, and, and the new drugs that are out, the injectables and all the stuff the celebrities are taking, those are there to to push More insulin release into the bloodstream. So in theory, it could actually even create more Inflammation, because insulin is great, but insulin in excess is inflammatory and the majority of people, especially with Hashimoto's, especially with thyroid issues, are not just a high glucose person. The majority are high and low, high and low and they're swinging all day long. So if you're true type 2 diabetic, if you have obesity, just like those drugs are Ultimately designed for, then great, you might need to take that short term while you fix some other things. But for the average person, the average Hashimoto's person, has blood sugar swings. You know that they are not consistently high. So if you're already going low and you start taking a drug that lowers your blood sugar I'm not a big fan of that. You know it can drive it even lower and instead of You know getting that education process of, hey, this is what drives it up, this is, if I don't eat enough protein, like you were saying, or don't eat enough fat, that's when we see it crash down. So if, if, we can educate ourselves and Take that money in the states here.
Speaker 2:These drugs are like that. People are spending four or five, seven hundred dollars a month on these Weight loss drugs and and I'm like, hey, go get a continuous glucose monitor And you're gonna do, you're actually gonna learn something. Because the problem is is that people, when they go off those drugs, the research shows That weight comes right back then they. There's no long-term benefit And even and we don't even know if there's a long-term negative side effect from taking that metformin. A lot of people have digestive disturbance with metformin. A lot of people have weird, weird Nerve and muscle muscle issues with it. It's not a benign just everybody. You know a lot of people in the. You know if in Australia they do a lot of biohacking and you know.
Speaker 1:A little bit, but you're into it.
Speaker 2:you're into it here, Yeah yeah, metformin is one of those drugs that a lot of people are just like. You know what? I'm gonna drive my my glucose low Because that that's the intention and the research shows if you have lower glucose you're gonna live longer and I'm like well, hypoglycemia is not healthy. You know that. That's where. Think, think about this. You know you probably have to get get.
Speaker 2:The question a lot of times is should I be intermittent fasting? I've read about intermittent fasting and maybe I should do that to lose weight. Well, guess what? For a lot of people that already have adrenal fatigue, intermittent fasting can be one of the worst things for them. And sure, maybe you lose a little bit of weight, but you're also stressing out and Getting those hypoglycemia Keep preventing it from happening. The adrenals are kicking, kicking, kicking the whole time, and so if somebody's already Adrenaline fatigued and they start intermittent fasting, it can actually stress their body out even more so and Maybe they lose a little bit of weight short-term, but long-term it is very detrimental. It can be helpful for some people if you've got excess glucose floating around your body. So, again, type 2 diabetic if you're, you've got Overweight, obesity, things like that, and you got too much glucose floating around intermittent fasting can be great, but for a Hashimoto's person that their blood sugar is already swinging up and down and they can't regulate it, it's probably not the first place to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and would it? does berberine fit into that same category with as many?
Speaker 2:Yeah, berberine, you know that. Yeah, that's, it's the same thought process. It's gonna help pull down that, that blood sugar. So, again, if you're type 2 diabetic, if your blood sugar is averaging high a lot of the time, if if your glucose, every time you check it, you're in the 120s, 130s, 140s, sure, a little berberine is probably gonna be helpful, but none of that is going to be a fix or it's gonna Overcome a poor diet. No amount of metformin is gonna overcome a poor diet. No amount of of Monjaro is gonna overcome a Snickers bar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think I could. Yeah, it's just, i think human nature isn't it to want that quick fix. There's one thing, surely there's one thing that's you know? yeah, so I do know that cinnamon can be quite good for balancing out blood sugar. Is that to you?
Speaker 2:It's the same idea. You know some people. They say if they take some cinnamon pills, maybe it won't spike up as much, and so here's where some of that stuff could come into play. You know it's your birthday and you're going out to eat and it's your favorite restaurant. You know you're going to get some of those. Yummy. That's the one time of year you're going to have some gluten-filled rolls and you're going to have a little dessert and a couple glasses of wine and you're like okay, well, maybe I'll take a pill, take some berberine, take some metformin something and keep it from going up, and that can happen.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the best things you can do is to actually go for a walk afterwards or even do like air squats or do some. If you can do it, actually do some two-legged jumps, like 20 of them in a row. And what happens after you've eaten? because what happens is the muscles, that muscle contraction can actually pull glucose out of the bloodstream without insulin. So even if you have insulin resistance, that exercise can pull it out, and especially right after that meal. But what's amazing?
Speaker 2:there was a study done a while back where they put two kind of pre-diabetic groups two groups of pre-diabetics and one did three cardiovascular exercises a week. They went for hour-long walks and did their thing and they tracked their blood sugar, just like we do with our patients. And then the other group did one seven-minute bicycle sprint as fast and hard as they can for seven minutes. That's it for the entire week And they tracked their blood sugar and the group that did the seven-minute bicycle sprint had more stable blood sugar and lower blood sugar levels than the one that was doing the cardiovascular activity. So what does that tell us? You know, if you've got especially high blood sugar and that is what you're dealing with you need to have some high intensity activity in your routine, and even more than once a week But even once a week would be enough Get on that stationary bike and just sprint.
Speaker 2:Obviously, if you have heart condition or anything like that, i'm not telling you to go do sprints without checking on things first, but for the average person that's pretty easy. Get on the rebounder. You guys have those little mini trampolines. Yeah, get on the low mini trampoline. Get on the rebounder and do that for two, three, four minutes. Get on the stationary bike, get on the treadmill I love our treadmill goes up to 40% incline and do that at one and a half miles per hour And I'm like, oh, my heart's going and it's a really good workout. So there's a lot of things that you can do that aren't like going out and doing sprints in the grass, but that exercise and that activity there is huge for stabilizing your blood sugar and keeping the body in a very good state that way.
Speaker 1:What about lifting weights? Does that help with the blood sugar piece?
Speaker 2:Yeah, So same thought process there. If you would go and do like a seven minute HIIT workout where you're doing pushups against the wall and then do some dips on the chair on the bench and then do some air squats, some things like that, that's going to be great. That's going to pull that glucose out So your muscles can use glucose without insulin. So even with insulin resistance, you still are able to pull that out. So, man, it's got to be 60,. 70% of the US are insulin resistant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry. So like lifting weights, like lifting heavy weights, that's the same thing. Sure, yeah, same thing Yeah.
Speaker 2:And a lot of your listeners aren't going to go to the gym and max out on bench press. But there's things you can do at home and have your dumbbells, have your bands do those type of things And you're right, Heavy is going to be good. So getting into the six to eight rep range is really beneficial for the body, for actually brain regeneration That was my first book. Rebuild your brain And so you produce something called BDNF, brain to ride neurotrophic factor. So anytime you do a HIIT exercise or a heavier weight, you actually are stimulating the brain to regenerate and rebuild.
Speaker 2:And so many people that are dealing with thyroid issues have brain fog and anxiety. Oh, yeah, Yeah, They've had, you know, and a lot have had head injuries and concussions, because Dr Karazi and he's got a really neat chart as well where if somebody gets a brain injury, a concussion hits their head, anything like that, it can lead to leaky gut, And I'm sure you guys have talked about leaky gut and how that affects thyroid and autoimmune And so you know it just drives this whole whole pathway. So if you've had a concussion, if you've had a brain injury of any kind, then you have leaky gut. If you've got Hashimoto's, you've got leaky gut. If you've got another autoimmune disease, you've got leaky gut. Whether you test for it or not, it doesn't matter. You've got to deal with that and work on that on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Yeah. So so, Ben, I think we could probably talk for a long a long time. I can just keep asking questions, but I'm just, i'm just thinking to, to. To wrap it up like it sounds like everyone really needs to know what their blood sugar is doing, whether that's CGM or if you can't get a CGM regular, you know, get the the finger prick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, finger prick.
Speaker 1:Do that so that you actually know what you're dealing with. Like test and don't test So, and then you can start playing with foods and seeing what that does. Yeah, You know, because the the ultimate goal is for a balanced blood sugar, not the spikes. You don't want it too high or not about too high or too low. It's the flicking between. It's the true.
Speaker 2:Good Consistent Nice and nice and steady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so is there anything I've asked you or haven't asked you that you think the audience would need to know in this whole blood sugar thyroid space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, i think it just really comes down to. it's an individual thing, and people always ask what's the best diet? What kind of food should I? you know, should I go vegan or is there any any any problem with going vegetarian? And I'm like, yeah, check your blood sugar and tell me if you can go vegan. And I pretty much guarantee that that person either will never reach out to me again or or they'll change their mind, because it's almost impossible.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, here, here's the diet and here's the things that you need to be eating. They should not stimulate autoimmune inflammation. They shouldn't make you fluctuate weight. You know, if you're going up three to five pounds in the morning after you ate something, you know that's not good for you. You should be having regular bowel movements, one to three per day. Look like a peeled banana. that same consistency, no gas and bloating and indigestion or all those things. So you know, if foods are contributing to any of that bad stuff, then then that's not what you should be eating. It should allow for optimal body weight. So if you're holding on to excess fluid there's probably some things or excess body fat, there's probably some things that you should not be eating. So you know it really comes down to that individualized approach. It has to be that way. I wish it was as easy, as I'd sell them on the New York Times bestseller.
Speaker 1:Here's my latest diet.
Speaker 2:And you know, eat this way and you're going to be fixed. Sure, I already told you what to eat. You know what wild game, wild caught seafood. You know good vegetables, good quality fats. And do that three times a day for the rest of your life and you'll be fine. We would reverse 90% of chronic diseases out there. You know if that was the case, but people aren't going to do that and aren't able to do that. So you know, it really comes down to individualization. But you've got to know. Like you said, you don't guess, you test, and that's where it comes down to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think that's a good starting point is actually go out and work out what is going on with your blood sugar. Absolutely So, ben, tell us now we were talking before we hit record that you know you're like a TikTok sensation and I'm not on TikTok at all. So I know obviously people can follow you on TikTok and on Facebook and on I think you just mentioned Instagram but where can people connect with you? Can people work with you? Tell? us a bit of and give your books a good plug.
Speaker 2:Absolutely So, and I'm actually going to give away my book for free. So if you guys want my book on my link tree on TikTok, instagram, facebook, all those you can click there and download. Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie And this explains in detail everything we talked about hormones and thyroid and adrenals and all these inflammatory conditions that we have out there. You can download that one for free. On TikTok, Dr Ben Galiert, and then on Instagram, dr Ben F8, and then Facebook, f8 Well Centers. And then we've got over 800 videos on YouTube all types of different topics, tons on thyroid and autoimmune and Hashimoto's all types of things. And then F8WellCenterscom and yeah, we've got offices in Colorado as well as Tennessee, but then we work remotely with patients all over the world. So it's pretty fun. We get to help a lot of people.
Speaker 2:So, no matter what health condition is because it's the same thought process, just like we were saying, whether it's lupus or Hashimoto's or you've got psoriasis or just general inflammatory process going on the body, it's the same thing Fix your blood sugar, help the adrenals, fix the leaky gut, get the vitamin D balance, get rid of infections, balance out your hormones and your estrogens, get off all your food allergens. It's these same basic things that we've got to look at in each and every condition. So Hashimoto's is no different than MS, is no different than any other autoimmune out there. You fix what you find, and that's what I love about functional medicine and about what we get to do every day is we throw the net out whatever comes in. That's what you're working on. You don't have to go by a protocol of what worked for somebody else. Maybe that will work for you, but why not go off of your protocol? And that's what I love doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fabulous. Well, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to. I've actually started following you on Facebook and watching some of your videos and again, they're really good, really helpful, really practical, exactly how we've just been talking now. So if you're listening and you're not yet following Dr Ben, please do that. I'll make sure I put all the links in the description below anyway, so make it easier. Thank you, that's very generous to give away your book for free, so thank you in advance for that. I'm going to download that and have a good read. Maybe I'll have to dig back into that CGM investigation I started a few months ago. So thank you so much. It has been really enjoyable talking to you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, i hope you enjoyed that conversation. I found it really interesting. I hadn't realized just how much damage can be done to the thyroid gland with volatile blood sugar, so that was probably my big takeaway. I want to get into a couple of kiss thyroid coaching questions to help you to reflect back on what you've just heard and maybe take some action if you need to, if this is something that you need to take action on. But before I get to those questions, since I spoke with Dr Galliat, i did a little bit of research into whether I could get a continuous glucose monitor here in Australia without lying and saying that I have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, which I don't. I haven't spoken to my doctor about it, so this is just my own personal research. So please do your own research.
Speaker 1:I have found a website called freestylelibracomau, which I will put the link to this, and the next website I'm about to tell you in the comments That is the one that I can't work out how to get around saying I have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. So I can't kind of get past that step And I don't and I'm not prepared to lie about that. So, but if you do have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, then I think you can buy them through freestyle libra. Just have a look at their website and see if you kind of meet the criteria. Maybe that is a conversation to have with your doctor if you're wanting to try a continuous glucose monitor. I did find a company that I haven't committed to giving a go yet, but I'm kind of thinking about it, and they are called Vively, or Vively V for very, or Victor I-V-E-L-E-Ycomau, and they have a program looks like they've got an annual program and a quarterly program where they send you a sensor every quarter and you wear it for two weeks but you can buy extra sensors And it's a bit of a looks like a bit of a coaching program. So you're kind of paying for the program more than you're paying for the sensors. So I'm just not entirely sure about that, but I would consider that There doesn't seem to have any requirements that you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It seems to be more genuinely exactly what we were talking about in this podcast, about just monitoring your blood sugar levels for your own proactive health management. So definitely have a look at them. They're the only two I've found, if you find any others or know how to legitimately get a continuous glucose monitor here in Australia or around the world. Perhaps we can share that in the Let's Talk Thyroid community on Facebook, just so that can help point us all in that direction if we're wanting to give that type of monitoring and testing a go.
Speaker 1:So that probably leads me into the Kiss Thyroid coaching questions, which really I suppose the question one would be is do you want to test your blood sugar levels over a period of time? So certainly you can get the pin prick glucose monitor tests from your chemist. They're pretty affordable. I found them when I was looking at monitoring my ketones, so they're definitely accessible. You just buy them off the shelf in the pharmacy. They're not that expensive, i can't remember, but they're really quite affordable. You just do have to be able to prick your finger and get enough blood out to get the test, which is what I found a bit tricky with the ketone measurement.
Speaker 1:Or do you want to look into continuous glucose monitor?
Speaker 1:But I guess that's my first question is do you want to? is testing your blood sugar something you think would add value to your health journey? And I guess the second question is well, is there something that stood out from the episode that you want to go and pursue. So you need to have a bit of a think about that. And the third is do you need to make any dietary changes, even without knowing what your blood sugar is doing? But if you know that you're eating a lot of processed carbs, lots of sugar and chocolate and ice cream and even a lot of the gluten-free treats and the paleo treats definitely I have gone through stages of eating lots of those.
Speaker 1:So, just in light of this conversation, and perhaps the one with ptarrothorn on protein, is reducing the processed carbs and perhaps increasing your protein? Is that something that you would want to have a look at and consider? So they are my questions for you for this fortnight To have a bit of a think about. I will look forward to speaking with you again in a fortnight. Come join my Let's Talk Tharad group on Facebook. If you're not there already, i would love to have you there and having some interaction, sharing your experiences and learning together. Have a great day, everyone Bye. This podcast, whether you're listening or watching, is intended to be positive and practical coaching style information, but it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, including any thyroid disease, and it should not be used as a substitute for proper advice from a qualified professional.