How To Get Rid of Fatigue, Reduce Brain Fog with Dr Anshul Gupta, MD on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

the these doctors and you know, you are a doctor, but it doesn’t mean you you are, you are God, you have all solutions, you know, it’s, it’s a type of training, right? And, and, you know, and and sometimes we need other ways of looking at the body and UTHealth all together, you know, so I was just curious. When you went, it looks like you You ended up going at first in your journey for different specialists. So you had the gastroenterologist that then who which are all the separate body parts? This is a bit how it was looked at, right? Like it isn’t problem with this part, or this part is that your experience of

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  06:25

that is correct, yeah, it is a very fragmented care or fragmented way of looking at things, you know, we have divided a body of different body parts. And we feel that they all just work separately, not in tandem. But through functional medicine, what I realized was that, you know, each and every body part is connected with each other. We are complete as a whole, not just kind of, you know, one body part or anything, I call her body as a symphony, that in like, each and every instrument is, is a body part. But if one instrument is not working, the whole symphony doesn’t sound good. That’s healing you like it is very important for each and every body part to work together with each other, to actually make us feel better.

 

Manon Bolliger  07:06

Yeah, it’s funny when you say symphony, in my TEDx talk, this year, I said exactly that the body is like a symphony. Really is like that, right? And we need all the instruments, they they work together, there’s a rhythm, there’s a beauty in how it works together, that when you use the, you know, Cartesian separate model of every single thing is separate. It doesn’t really work, right? It’s not it doesn’t make sense like that. So well, let’s dive into well, what would you like to cover? First? I think it’s, you’re the one with the knowledge on this subject. What would help people the most? What do they like? I think your story is great, because you might not think, oh, thyroid, oh, it starts with a stomach problem. Maybe there’s maybe there’s an absorption is sure, maybe there’s a you know, people don’t usually think that way. So what would you like to share on that subject, but to make it easier that people think, Oh, my, maybe I have to look somewhere a little bit differently.

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  08:19

Right. So actually, I want to start off with kind of having a little bit of understanding for the for the people about like how, like, you know, the title disorders are misunderstood. So typically, the conventional medicine feels that the thyroid disorder and Hashimotos are exactly the same, or what we call as hypothyroidism. They feel that the problem is that the thyroid gland is not able to produce enough thyroid hormone, and that’s the reason people are feeling the way they are. But new and new research studies suggest that even supplementing people with thyroid hormone, they still feel miserable, their symptoms do not get better. So there is more to this thyroid disorder than just the deficiency of thyroid hormone. So in Hashimotos, what happens is that it’s an autoimmune disease, where the thyroid gland actually is being destroyed by these antibodies which are being produced by the body. So the underlying problem is inflammation. This autoimmunity the underlying problem is not a deficiency of thyroid hormone. So it doesn’t matter how much you know, like thyroid hormone, we supplement, you’re not taking care of the actual problem, and that’s the reason people do not feel better. Now, the next question, which happens is that why do people develop autoimmune diseases? And then you know, like, is it suddenly one day? Why do does our body decide that okay, well, I’m going to produce antibodies and destroy myself, you know, like, on my head. So, then what happens is that you know, there are certain triggers, you know, which are present in our environment. So now what we know is that Hashimoto disease is an interplay between your genetic makeup and the environment around you. So well, we cannot change the genetic makeup but the environment around is a trigger, which causes people to develop Hashimotos so these are the these triggers can be various different things can be toxins can be infections can be food sensitivities, can be stress, you know, can we, you know, all different kinds of, you know, stressors that we go through. So these five categories can trigger Hashimotos, and which can be, we can be exposed to all different pathways, like, you know, as you express from the gut. So, leaky gut, you know, is an important cause concept that we now know that research proves can lead to autoimmune conditions. So, just imagine that, you know, eating a bad food, like a processed food, you know, or a for which your body is sensitive to, if you consume that, then it destroys your gut, and that signal from the gut reaches your body, and that body is prompted to produce antibodies, and that ultimately leads to destruction of this thyroid gland. So, they say, nobody can even think about, Okay, is there a connection between gut destruction or your food, and your thyroid gland? How are this all connected? So that’s the good part about the modern research is that we are trying to put all of these pieces together and understand this complex phenomenon of thyroid destruction by all different pathways that we are learning about now.

 

Manon Bolliger  11:11

Yeah, cuz I know, you know, we look at T three, then T four and then think, okay, but we’re always looking at the result, in a sense, as if, like you said, In the beginning, as if the only way to modulate modulator is with, with iodine, whether it’s natural or not, but there’s more to it. That’s basically what you’re saying. And knowing that it is an autoimmune disease, we have to look at why that’s triggered, which then brings all the possibilities, stress and food and the environment and, and all of that, so, so So how do you how do you then approach people now when they they come in? Because the thing is, if the gut is off, maybe you’re only symptom is not having enough energy. Right? And so you go where do you go for not enough energy?

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  12:13

Exactly, and that’s you know, like, unfortunately, the symptoms of Hashimotos or thyroid are so common and you know, like so interrelated with other diseases, that unless we do the right testing, we will often miss that. So the most common symptoms is people know, as you mentioned, low energy or feeling tired brain foggy, you know, weight issues, mood changes, feeling depressed, anxious, infertility, gut problems, IBS. All of these are a big collection of symptoms, you know, which can be present or can be determining that you know, you have a thyroid issues going on. Now, the first thing that I always recommend everybody do is that make sure that you are getting a complete thyroid test, because most of the convention, doctors will only ordered a TSH, which will absolutely Miss, you know, like the diagnosis of Hashimotos, or other thyroid disorders. So make sure we are checking a TSH, then you’re checking the free T three and the free T four. That gives us a good functioning about the thyroid, but it doesn’t again, give us information what Hashimotos so for Hashimotos, it is very important to get the antibody levels checked. So the two antibodies are the TPO, which is a thyroid peroxidase antibody. And the second one is a thairo global antibody. So these are the antibody levels, which needs to be checked to know whether you have Hashimotos or not. So this is the basic tire testing that everybody should get. The good part is that each and every lab is capable enough of doing these testing. And then regular doctors can easily order it, you just need to ask them to do these testing. And they will do it for you. So by this testing, we will know where you are dealing with and what’s going on with your body. And then once we know what we’re dealing with now, the other problem which happens sometimes is that, you know the symptoms precede the lab changes very often. So you a lot of females come to me see me that you know, I had symptoms for like several years before the lab actually caught up with me. So so that is exactly the time that we should be actually working on you. So that you know it’s easy to reverse those symptoms at the time, you know, while waiting for like, you know, body to crumble up.

 

Manon Bolliger  14:23

Yeah, it’s, I made a joke in my practice, you know, I just I just t treat people that are lab negative, full of symptoms, but the body hasn’t gotten to the point of not no return. But once it really goes into the body, whether it’s kidney issues, you have really loss of function in many cases, right? It’s, it’s too late, not too late. Like I don’t want to say that because it can be done but you really want to pay attention to your symptoms. I don’t know how many people I’ve seen where they say, Well, ah, or they’ve been told, you know, well, it’s all in your head clearly, this point, you know,

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  15:11

exactly I was that same person, you know, like, you know, obviously, being a physician, nobody kind of set it straight, you know, on my face, but behind the back in, like everybody was saying, it’s like, it’s all in your head. So I could actually relate to my thyroid patients, then in there that, you know, like, how they have been ridiculed for years, you know, like, by their physicians that, oh, you know, this is like, Mom brains, you’re going through, oh, you know, this is all in your head, just take a break. You just need to take a vacation. And that keyboard telling me that no, no, no, no, something is wrong with me can please help me, and unfortunately, you know, like, nobody listens to them. And they kind of think that they’re doing the right thing by approaching all different physicians, but unfortunately, their training, you know, like, like eyes have been trained conventionally to their training tells them okay, well, just to check the lab, if the lab is normal, that means a person is normal. And now we know that the lab has limitations to it. You know, the I always tell my clients are my patients is that I’m not treating a lab, I’m treating a person so I’m listening to you, I’m not going to listen to a lab.

 

Commercial Break  16:23

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Manon Bolliger  17:25

Yeah, very good point. So what about this peptide therapy? How, yeah, how does that work? How did you come to realize that it’s so helpful?

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  17:40

Yeah, so, peptide therapy actually is like a revolutionary thing, which has been introduced you know, to us in the last few years. Well, we have used peptides for several ages, you know, insulin is a peptide. And now that was a first external peptide that we were able to develop and has been using. The other problems with the other peptide was that we were not able to harvest them you know, from our human body to be utilized as in the form of medicines, but in modern technology, now, we can combine them, you know, certain chemicals to make them more stable, and we can use them as part of medicines. So, that has kind of prompted us to reuse these peptides in different diseases and thyroid is one of those. So, peptides are natural compounds, which are made by your own body. So, peptide is a collection of amino acids like how proteins are a collection of amino acids. Same way peptides are also a collection of a very small number of amino acids, which are produced by a body. Now, we have been researching different kinds of peptides for a long time to see what how we can use them, you know, for different diseases. So, in thyroid as, as, as I was looking, there have been several supplements, dietary changes and everything that a lot of people do, but still there are some people who do not get better. So, I was looking for other avenues to kind of give a complete package to kind of my thyroid patients to do each and everything I can do to get them better. So, that’s where I came across certain peptides you know, which have shown to be you know, like beneficial for thyroid patients. Certain peptides in which we have which I use in our practice which can be useful is one is called thymosin alpha one. So, thymosin Alpha One is basically a peptide which is produced by our thymus gland, which is an important regulator for immunity as well as offer immune function. So, as explained to you majority of the thyroid patients now, these days have Hashimotos or autoimmune conditions. So, what happens is that, you know, their immune immune function is basically trying to destroy their own thyroid gland, right. So, this time was an alpha one actually retrains the immune system and tells them it’s okay, don’t destroy the thyroid gland, you know, it is your friend, not your enemy. So that’s one retraining that it does. Then a lot of times what happens in the thyroid patients that there is too much inflammation going on in their body and there is a vicious cycle of inflammation which keeps on ongoing and ongoing, it all it not only destroys the thyroid gland it also destroys the mitochondria, the gut, the adrenals the brain all of those things. So this time was in alpha when again is a very potent anti inflammatory peptide reduces inflammation and safeguards all the different organs which you know are destroyed your thyroid gland. So this is a very good peptide that helps a lot of folks you know, with you know, thyroid disorders, especially this time was in alpha one. The second peptide which is very useful is the BPC 157. Now, this peptide, again, is naturally produced by our gut, you know, which kind of layers a guard and helps them to protect, you know, from all the external things that our body that our gut get exposed to, whether that is viruses, pathogens, infections or bad food, there’s BPC actually has a very nice property of healing leaky gut. So again, as we were talking, you know, initially that leaky gut actually can be that initial insult that happens in the gut which leads to the side or dysfunction. So healing the leaky gut, you know, this VPC is very, very useful. Now, most of the people with thyroid disorders do have gut dysfunction, whether that is constipation, or diarrhea or bloating or IBS, all of those things so BPC, again, helps you know, like to improve the gut immunity, as well as helps with improving the gut dysfunction. Other thing BPC is very helpful is for acid reflux. So again, BPC because of the function in the stomach, it basically protects the stomach lining. So a lot of people who are suffering from acid reflux, this is an alternative to using the regular PPI medication, which does have a lot of side effects, right, and the BPC, the other actually benefit is a healing. So it helps the body to heal, whether that is tissue injury, ligament injury, muscle injury, or even like you know, joint pains and muscle pains, you know, it again, a lot of thyroid patients go through that. So, this VPC could be useful for that. So, these are two peptides, which have been refined phenomenal results with you know, like in my thyroid patients, these are foundational that you know, they can get started on this. Now, there are certain other peptides based on what we find is wrong, the thyroid patients, like there is again, time was in beta, you know, which again, can be used as people is lot of inflammation, there are sort of the peptides, which could be important, you know, for mold toxins or for fighting the Lyme infections. So those can be an additional thing on top of these things. But I think these are these two are Foundation, peptides, the good part about these two peptides is that there is no side effects, you know, they are natural remedies were body very well tolerated. No issues like the there is we have good amount of literature now that they are really safe for majority of the patients. So I think, you know, like, as we come across more and more peptides, you know, as the new research is coming up, you know, like new protocols will be developed. And this will be a very new way. And one more additional way of treating diode patients.

 

Manon Bolliger  23:08

Yeah, no, fascinating. Yeah, I have not been active in my practice, for lots of reasons. In the last, you know, I guess a year now. But, so I have not been up to date with this. So that’s fascinating. And it makes me think of all these other possibilities that it can be used for as well. One thing that I personally curious about his I’ve seen many patients that are diagnosed with a thyroid issue, and they usually say it’s hyper or hypo. And when you actually treat their adrenals it, they no longer have the thyroid issue. Have you had this experience? Or can you? Yeah, does that is that something that you have seen? And if so, what is your, your your reason that you see this? Or I mean, what do you what are you saying about that? That’s not right.

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  24:14

Right. Now, a very important question. And again, you know, like, so for me, you know, like, whenever somebody comes to me say that you have a thyroid disorder, or like my bloodwork is showing this situation, I said, this is just one red flag that your body is showing to you. Like if you drive a car and the check engine light is on, you don’t kind of you know, ignore or put a sticker on the check engine light and you keep driving the car, you know, because your car is ultimately going to stop. So that’s the reason you like whenever somebody tires is not functioning, there has to be other reasons or other things which are causing the tire to not function properly. And there is a strong connection between the adrenal glands and the thyroid. So this is very important that happens. So adrenal glands, you know, secretes this cortisol hormone, the cortisol hormone Whether it is very high or very low, regulates the thyroid gland. So when the cortisol levels are too high, it kind of shuts off or send the signals to, you know, again, stop producing the thyroid hormone. That’s one thing. The second thing is that the thyroid hormone, which is produced, the thyroid gland, is made in the form of T four, which is what we call is an inactive thyroid hormone, it needs to be converted to the active thyroid hormone, which is the T three. Again, the cortisol interferes with the conversion of T four to T three. So that’s another problem that it causes. The third thing which cortisol does is that there is something called reverse p3, no T three or more is basically the gas pedal, which lets your thyroid function, reverse T three z x, z opposite, which is the brake pedal doesn’t let your thyroid function. So whenever the cortisol levels are high in our body, it’s actually promotes more d3, reverse d3 production. So again, it is the opposite. So all of these things are all of the reasons you know, are the are what causes actually, you know, like if you have an adrenal dysfunction to lead to actually causing a thyroid dysfunction. So let me gonna share the story of my client, you know, she came to see me 35 year old female, you know, like, a woman, you know, with having one kid, you know, first pregnancy was two years ago, after the pregnancy, she was diagnosed with like, you know, postpartum with a thyroid disorder. She was obviously feeling tired or fatigued, not feeling great, was put on the thyroid medicine, no changes, she was still feeling the same. So she came to see me at the time. And I said, Okay, well, you know, Dr. Gupta, you know, like, I’m feeling so tired, I don’t know what to do. I’m taking them right medicine, they told me that my lab work looks great. But I feel miserable. I don’t have energy to take care of my kid, I just feel that I am a horrible mom. And I was like, No, you are not a horrible mom, you know, it’s not your fault. If your body’s not functioning, we need to figure out why is that not functioning. And then that’s where in the very first visit, we started, kind of, you know, peeling the layers of her history of what was going on in her life. So what he figured out was that since at a very young age, you know, she was exposed to chronic amount of stress, during teenage years, you know, she went through like, okay, she was like, I want to accomplish everything in my life, then work stress, and the final blow to her body, or the stress was actually the pregnancy. So more, a lot of people, a lot of females do not know that pregnancy can actually be a very stressful situation, because it is very physically demanding to their body. It does, you know, kind of put pressure on what nutritional, like, you know, things that you know, body needs and other things too. And we commonly see that postpartum Lee, because of all that stress, you know, their adrenals gave gives up and that actually leads to thyroid dysfunction. So that was the situation with her. So then we started working on a renal glands by putting on a stress management techniques by putting on some supplements or support or adrenal glands, and boom, within four months, you know, like her thyroid was so much better, she did not feel the need of the thyroid medicines, slowly, you were able to get her off to thyroid medicines. And she would like, I had no idea that I thought that was my problem was my thyroid gland. But actually, her problem was the adrenal glands which were causing that issue.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:22

Right? Yeah. And what you’re bringing up reminds me in my work, I do a lot of trauma care, and trauma and stress. It’s like a chronic level of stress. And, and people say, Oh, it’s just in your mind, just change your circumstances. What people don’t realize is it actually impacts the physiology of your body. You know, and then we start seeing problems. And it could have been from long time ago, but it’s, it’s the fact that it’s, it’s also perpetual, you know, that and people don’t realize that they think, Oh, I can deal with this. It’s fine. I’m, you know, I’m strong enough and, and slowly, it’s impacting them in a very profound, negative way, for sure.

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  29:14

Exactly. Now, you know, we have this research studies, right, you know, the adverse childhood events, you know, like, you know, people who have been exposed to trauma as a child, 1020 years, 30 years down the lane, they have more chances of having actual physical medical diagnosis of heart disease, you know, like autoimmune diseases, cancers, all of that stuff, just being exposed to trauma 20 years ago, right. So there is no refuting that, you know, once you get exposed to trauma, it can live in your body for a long time. So it’s not just about being tough. You know, I think it’s not a mental issue. It’s more about like, you know, your body reacting to trauma in a negative fashion. So unless we address that, you know, our body’s not good. To get better, so definitely like, you know, I feel like you know, people like you who have been working with, you know, people who have been inflicted with trauma, that is very important work, and everybody should consider doing that. Because it’s just not about being weak, it’s about actually using these techniques to actually fight off, you know, certain things we know, which circumstances lead us to kind of get exposed to.

 

Manon Bolliger  30:24

Yeah, and it’s really, ultimately the integrative approach. It really is the whole person. And whatever happens in a person’s life has an impact. And some of it you can, with your mind and your heart, see it differently do that type of work. But we also must realize that our body is a reservoir for the impact of this, you know, and so many of these symptoms that don’t make direct sense, in the sense of, you know, it could be just bad sleep, it could be weight gain, for no reason, like all the ones you’ve mentioned, can lead to conditions that, that are harder to diagnose as just the diagnostics of it, it may not, you have to look at what else is going on and and treat the whole person, you know. So anyway, we’re, we’re almost at our time of this been so interesting. Is there anything else that you would like to add? And also, where do we get your, your book? I’ll put the link after our talk for sure.

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  31:32

Yeah, great. So the book is available on Amazon. So you know, like people can order it directly from Amazon from wherever they are in the world. They can order it, they know it, it will be delivered to them. They can find me on a website. So I do have a website called unsure Gupta md.com that has tons of information about folks, you know, research based blogs, where they can learn about their condition how to get it better. Right now, we are running a promotion where you know, if people if you’re interested in working with us, we are offering them free evaluation calls with me, so that they know that you know how to work with me and how working with me can actually improve the situation. So again, they can go on a website called Anshul Gupta md.com. And you know that there is a link over there to click to get a free valuation call. So they can certainly avail that. Okay, in the end, I want to tell each and every patient or every person who is suffering from Hashimotos, or thyroid disorders, is that do not lose hope. Okay. Your life should not be limited by Hashimotos. You deserve a life, which is filled with hope, happiness, mental clarity, and lots of energy. So don’t let anybody tell you that there is no hope for you. There is ample hope. You just need to do the right things, and you will get better.

 

Manon Bolliger  32:55

I’m going to leave it on those words. Thank you so much for being part of this conversation.

 

Dr. Anshul Gupta, MD  33:00

Thank you so much for having me over here. My pleasure.

 

Ending  33:08

Thank you for joining us at the Healers Café with Manon Bolliger, for more information go to:  www.DrManonBolliger.com

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