Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 43 - Lacey Dunn: Dietetics, Thyroid Health and PCOS

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

In this episode, we sit down with Lacey Dunn, MS, RD, LD, CPT, to chat about the world of dietetics, thyroid health, and PCOS.You can find Lacey on Instagram HERE!---Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Follow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!-----TIMESTAMPS:Support the Show.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of the podcast. Today we're sitting down with Lacey Dunn. She is a dietician and really an expert on all things hormonal dysregulation, lifestyle, nutrition, anything that's going to help you improve your health, particularly in the realm of thyroid, insulin sensitivity and PCOS. We're talking about all of those things specifically today. So sit back, enjoy the episode with Lacey Dunn. Lacey, how are you doing? I'm doing fantastic today. How are you? Not bad. I'm out in California and it looks like we're slowly transitioning to a phase of the COVID reopening that will look a little bit more like pre-COVID life. What about you? Oh, that's so exciting. I know here in Houston, it already feels like COVID didn't

even exist. So it's crazy to see how things are in different parts of the world. Yeah, I had a feeling we would kind of be last just based on how California tends to lean, but it's nice to have a date on the horizon for normalcy. So for those of you who are listening and aren't familiar with Lacey's work, I actually found Lacey on Instagram and I was quite drawn to her content because she bridges the world of dietetics, endocrinology, body composition, all of these really, really interesting things and really blends them together nicely in her content. And I think it would be a great place to start to just introduce everybody to what is dietetics? Why did you choose dietetics as a career path? And what did that journey kind

of look like for you from wherever it was your interest was initially piqued by nutrition? Yeah. So first off, just thank you so much for having me on here. I'm honored to be able to chat with you and have your listeners learn from me. But essentially dietetics is the field of nutrition. Dietetics refers to dietitian training essentially. And when it comes down to dietetics, what people can do with dietetics, it's all about where can you apply nutrition and nutrition related concepts in the world. So that applies to not only clinical, so hospital work, but also to things like food service management or food science, the creation of different food products like Kellogg's. They have a dietitian, right?

So Kellogg's, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, they all have dieticians, right? It feels good to eat some good food, but that's all nutrition-related science, the taste, the textures, the things that you like, making food enjoyable. Also in regards to health management, whether that is cancer or diabetes or thyroid disorders, my favorite, cancer or diabetes or thyroid disorders, my favorite, all about what can nutrition do in somebody's life. And the limits do not exist. They really do not. So people go, they work with corporate, they work with hospitals, or they work one-on-one with patients. That's what I do, private practice work. And so the limits do not exist. I got into nutrition essentially I was in my undergrad I was about to get my degree and I was actually like two years in already into biomedical sciences

doing some lab work and was not enjoying being in the lab I really enjoyed being with people interacting with people and my grandma was diagnosed with colon cancer and I started diving into the literature on the power of nutrition and what I could do to best help her get past her colon cancer and get into remission and to stay in remission. And then I was just blown away throughout all the literature, all my research on the power of nutrition and how it can not only prevent disease, but cure disease. And so since then, I said, you know what? I'm not doing biomedical sciences. I transferred schools.

I decided I was going to UGA, University of Georgia. Got into undergrad for dietetics. Then once I finished that, I went and got my master's degree at Texas Women's University. Did my dietetic internship, which your listeners do not know. In order to be a dietitian, you have to do a dietetic internship, which your listeners do not know. In order to be a dietitian, you have to do a dietetic internship, which is at least 1,200 hours of supervised private practice, well, supervised experience in different scenarios, whether that's the food service, the clinical, private practice, research, you name it, but that's all unpaid. So you're paying

a lot to work for free. And essentially it just means a dietitian is not a nutritionist. A dietitian has a degree and a qualified amount of supervised private, private hours that they have put in, in order to get their credential and degree. And then they've done a comprehensive, really intense, thorough exam in order to become a dietitian. No, I love that. And there's a lot to unpack there. So somebody like myself who has just base level understanding of nutrition and maybe a certification, they might be able to call themselves a nutritionist, but somebody who has the degree in dietetics coupled with that arduous internship, that is a lot of hours for those of you who have not done an

internship. 1,200 hours, at least in the fitness and wellness space, is about as high as you'll ever see an internship requirement go. So there's a lot of in-practice training in conjunction with obviously that academic route. And that's what makes dietetics and dietitians completely different from somebody who's coined themselves a nutritionist. I love the story too, regarding how food can truly impact health, but also disease prevention and disease healing. That was something that to me drew me to nutrition as well, that there was just so much established literature in the space about how food could really impact our health positively. So I do appreciate that quite a bit. And I would love to, if we could, flow into how it is that you use dietetics in your practice one-to-one to manage some of the

more common endocrine issues you probably see with your patients. Of course. So for me, Of course. So for me, I look at the whole entire system, mind, body, soul. So when I go dive into nutrition, it's about what could, what they're eating and what they're intaking in their body with supplements as well and medications. How can that influence how they feel on a day-to-day basis and how can we change that nutrition to get them to feel like their very best self? Because there are foods that some people enjoy that may not be good for their bodies. We like sometimes what's not good for us. It's just the way it works. So helping people develop a healthy, sustainable diet, one that they can stick to, and one that's going to make them feel the very best and be good for their overall body is what I do on a day-to-day basis. Sadly, I do work with a lot of people who

struggle with things like PMS, PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, hypothyroidism, autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis. So I work with a lot of people who have a lot of health struggles. So the nutrition, it's finding not only what can they eat that's going to be good for their body, but how can we make that enjoyable and sustainable for them as well? Yeah, no, and I like that a lot. And just touching on it is valuable because I'm sure there's people listening who are dealing with and looking for treatment options for the conditions you just mentioned. And it can be a little frustrating.

And to hear that nutrition is an avenue that somebody can look to options for the conditions you just mentioned. And it can be a little frustrating into here that nutrition is an avenue that somebody can look to, to potentially manage the symptoms of everything you mentioned. It can be quite uplifting because not everybody wants to go the medication route. Some people want to be a little bit more proactive with their nutrition. So I really liked it. There's so many different avenues that you're able to work with people on. But in particular, I think that you're kind of renowned for being an expert with the thyroid. And for those who don't know, can you give us a little bit of information about what the thyroid gland is, what exactly it does,

what it produces for the body, and some of the more common issues we see? Of course. So your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland just below your larynx, and it is in charge of almost every single function in your body because it essentially works like a thermostat, telling your body to upregulate or downregulate things like your heart rate, your blood pressure, your metabolism, how everything is moving and grooving in your body. So when I'm looking at the thyroid, there are so many things that can essentially impact it. So let's first kind of like situate ourselves with what the thyroid does in our body. What do you currently know about the thyroid? Well, so I know that it's a butterfly

shaped gland in the throat area. I know that it primarily produces hormones that influence metabolism. I know that it appears that women have a slightly greater likelihood of having thyroid related pathologies, but that's kind of my base understanding of it. You know, I know that I know the primary issues that seem to pop up around the thyroid, but I have no understanding really of what it is somebody could do nutritionally, which I think is quite interesting because it's very prevalent. And I think that nutrition might be the first thing people should look to. Yeah. So just like the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, your thyroid is the powerhouse of your metabolism. So it plays

critical functions in regulating your metabolism, your body weight, your energy levels, things like I said, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, appetite, even things like blood cholesterol and lipid metabolism and your digestion, your growth and repair, your cognition, your reproduction, and it heavily influences your nervous system as well. So it's very, very powerful. And if you do not have adequate thyroid function in your body, if you don't have adequate thyroid hormone, then it can impact almost every single cell and tissue in your body. We want to be able to optimize our health, our energy and metabolism. Well, you need to optimize your thyroid in order to do that. And thyroid physiology can get really, really complex. So just let me know what you want me to dive into nitty gritty.

No, yeah, absolutely. Well, I think for most people we've covered and really like paved a nice foundation for what it is that the thyroid does, and maybe even some common pathologies, but what are some things that people are exposed to or do in their day-to-day lives that might negatively impact the health of that gland? negatively impact the health of that gland? Yeah. So there are so many things that can impact your thyroid. Undereating, overexercising, high stress, chronic stress, endocrine disruptors. Think of things that you wash your body with or your face with or your skincare, things you even clean with, things that incorporate things like parabens, sulfites, sulfates, phthalates, BPA, plastics, heavy metals that may be in, you might have

packaged fish all the time, or your water might not be a good filtered water source, stealth infections, things like lupus, Lyme disease, and Epstein-Barr virus, these all can trigger hypothyroidism. And then, of course, we have endocrine abnormalities, and it can be either because you have destruction to your thyroid itself or destruction to your pituitary, which interacts with your thyroid, or there is a communication error from your hypothalamus to your thyroid or pituitary, which interacts with your thyroid, or there is a communication error from your hypothalamus to your thyroid or pituitary to your thyroid, and then hormonal imbalances. So things like estrogen or testosterone or progesterone related issues that create stress,

and then that stress in turn creates havoc on your thyroid. So it does seem to me, at least in practice with the clients I work with, and just with my general understanding that women are disproportionately impacted by thyroid related pathologies. Would you say that's the case? And if so, do you have any insights as to why that might be? I know you mentioned activity and nutrition correlatives that definitely seem like they might be aligned with some of the stuff in the women's fitness space, but I'd love to hear you unpack that a little. Yeah. There's some interesting, um, kind of like concepts that people are talking about to why women are more susceptible to developing hypothyroidism. And honestly, I think it is a

hundred percent related to stress and sadly to the fact where us as women, our estrogen and our progesterone levels, they can be easily altered by having stress. And stress can be stress. Your body does not know what stress is. If you see stress as stress, whether that's a tiger running at you or Karen from work really annoying you, your body does not know. And men, you guys don't have those fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone. And women, we do. So being more susceptible to that stress, I think is a reason why women are more likely to develop hypothyroidism

and Hashimoto's as well. Yeah. And I would also imagine that if it's influenced by under eating and excessive exercise, those are right. We're well known for that, right? Yeah. Those are just things that unfortunately the industry has kind of really roped a lot of women into, particularly who are newer to health and fitness. It's, you know, eat as little as you can and burn as many calories as you can in an effort to get lean, which if that's negatively impacting your thyroid is probably not the best thing to do. And then again, with regards to men, men do have a much more consistent sex hormone profile. Our testosterone is just pretty much is what it is. Whereas women, their sex hormones tend to be all over the place throughout the entire month.

So with regards to nutrition, if somebody is dealing with hypothyroidism, what are some of the things you typically look to to help them buffer that or manage that? Yeah. So first I want to make sure people are aware of kind of some of the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism. So some of those are, they include, but are not limited to things like weight gain, hair loss, chronic fatigue, having a low heart rate, dry skin, digestive issues like chronic bloating or constipation, even diarrhea, having severe joint or muscle pains, irregular or loss of your menstrual cycle, cold intolerance, depression and anxiety, and brain fog. So those are just a couple of them. Also like a loss of your menstrual cycle, cold intolerance, depression and anxiety, and brain fog. So those

are just a couple of them. Also like a loss of your eyebrow hair, cold hands and feet, elevated cholesterol levels, a swollen thyroid. Those are things that can be signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, but they can also be signs and symptoms of other conditions. So in order to understand what you can do nutritionally, it's about figuring out why do you have hypothyroidism in the first place? Because there are very, there's a lot of things that I've discussed about what can cause thyroid issues. So in figuring out what your treatment plan is, what you can do nutritionally to best help you and get your thyroid optimized. It's about understanding and knowing why is your thyroid struggling in the first place? And I kid you not most for, and I

speak women because most women struggle with hypothyroidism. It comes from chronic stress, under eating, yo-yo dieting, and not taking care of yourself. That's just the way it is. Unfortunately, that also creates like a vicious cycle of women going to do these CrossFit or Orange Theory type of HIIT style workouts that just crash and plummet their cortisol, which then not only prevents you from being able to create your thyroid hormone and then convert your thyroid hormone, but also be able to absorb your thyroid hormone into the cell. So that's where it's called cellular hypothyroidism and your thyroid levels can look completely normal in the blood, which makes it confusing for a lot of doctors and a lot of people. But then you have all these

hypothyroid related, and it's because you're not able to actually absorb that thyroid hormone and utilize it in the cell. Serum level, it might, serum, aka blood, it might look normal, but it's not being able to be used. So I go based off of what is the root cause of your hypothyroidism and what do we need to address and do in order to get you feeling better so your thyroid the production of your thyroid requires certain nutrients like iron iodine tyrosine zinc selenium um different b vitamins vitamin c vitamin d uh all these nutrients are required to be able to make your thyroid hormone yeah so i'd like to think of it like each nutrient is

part of a recipe for your favorite cookie, which I hope is not oatmeal raisin, by the way, because those are trash. Each part of your recipe is critical to the final delicious product that needs to be made. So if you're low in any essential nutrient, just like if you're low in salt, sugar, butter, anything like that, it can screw up your cookies and it can screw up your thyroid. So making sure you have optimal micronutrients is the very first step. So I don't say like, don't be anal about like, oh, I got to track this amount of iron and this amount of iodine and I need this amount of zinc. No, focus on the overall variety in your diet. Lots of leafy greens, fruits and vegetables, color, variety.

Variety is your best friend for your thyroid, for micronutrients, and for your gut because your gut microbiome loves a variety of different plants, diversity. So I like to say focus on your micronutrients. And also one of the biggest things that I see for causing hypothyroidism is also digestive-related disorders, things like candida, SIBO, food intolerances, intestinal permeability, a.k.a. what some people call leaky gut. That's when you're looking at, well, what can I do nutritionally to optimize my thyroid? Well, first, figuring out, do you have an infection in your gut? Do you have an overgrowth? Well, first, figuring out do you have an infection in your gut? Do you have an overgrowth?

Do you have issues with the food intolerance? Because then you need to remove those foods. So things like dairy, soy, gluten, wheat, eggs, specific nuts, all these things for some people can cause issues with their thyroid. Hey, guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the

episode. Definitely. And I think you brought up a good point, which is that before we even begin to discuss what types of foods or what nutrient deficiencies might be worth working in, in an effort to improve the thyroid health, we have to look at digestion and assimilation and will we be able to absorb those things so we can give our body the raw ingredients or in the analogy you gave, give the baker enough of the ingredients they need to make the cookie they want to make. I think there's something really important here that's worth talking about and you actually posted about it recently. And I know a lot of women, I've worked with many who suspect that they have some type of thyroid dysregulation based on symptoms. They go to the doctor and they say, Hey, I think I have an issue with my thyroid.

The doctor tests for one, maybe two things and says, you're good, you're totally fine. And they head right on out the door. What would somebody need to do to get a comprehensive look at their thyroid if they were going to go to the doctor? What do they need to ask for? And what do they need to be on the lookout for? Oh, I'm so glad you asked this. So TSH is what all the doctors are taught to use for checking for hypothyroidism. So TSH stands for thyrotropin stimulating hormone, and it's actually a hormone produced by your pituitary gland that essentially stimulates your thyroid to produce T4 and T3. So that sounds like a great measure for checking your thyroid. However, it's only telling your body, it's only

telling the doctor essentially how your pituitary is responding to the amount of thyroid hormone. It doesn't actually tell you how much thyroid hormone is in your blood. And in fact, then it doesn't tell you how much of the thyroid hormone you're being able to actually utilize. So if you want a comprehensive thyroid panel, that's actually going to check for hypothyroidism. You want to check T4, free T4, because free means unbound. If it's bound, then we don't know what is actually being able to be utilized. So think of it like having a boot on the car. If there's a boot on your car, you can't move it. You can't use it. So having that free thyroid hormone, checking the free thyroid hormone, you can check what

is being able to be used. So free T4, free T3. So T4 is inactive form of your thyroid hormone that needs to convert over to either T3 or reverse T3. You want it going to T3. So T4 is inactive. T3 is active, the one that is responsible for doing the work and action in your body. So you check free T4, free T3, TSH, which is the pituitary marker. And then

you also want to check TPO antibodies and TGAB antibodies. These are what distinguish between hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's. So if you have those high antibodies, that's what's telling you that you have autoimmune attack on your thyroid. And Hashimoto's is a demon, but it is very important to make sure that you check those because if you do not, and you don't get them, check them early enough, then that destruction happens to your thyroid. And you sometimes you can slightly reverse it. But if it's, it's past the point of reversal, you're going to be stuck on medication your whole life in order to maintain optimal thyroid level. Yeah, no, I like that a lot. And I think for people who are listening, they may have already gone to their doctor, been cleared

and been like something is still not right. But when they worked up the panel, they only got perhaps checked for free thyroid or TSH, which I don't think paints the whole picture. So I love that you've broken that down. Um, and just really quick for those who are listening, is there a difference between Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism? Yes. So Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disorder. So hypothyroidism essentially just means that you have low thyroid hormone. Hashimoto's doesn't necessarily say that you have low thyroid hormone. It is autoimmune attack to your thyroid gland. Does that make sense? It makes perfect sense. It's in some ways almost like type one and type two diabetes in that they both affect insulin sensitivity, but one is related to the destruction of the gland itself, mediated by the immune system, and the other one is more of a

lifestyle nutrition-based version. Yeah, and there's essentially three main different types of hypothyroidism. You have primary hypothyroidism, which involves damage or malfunction to the thyroid itself. Then you have secondary hypothyroidism, which involves a disease or malfunction of other organs or tissues that can then affect thyroid hormone, such as maybe the pituitary or the hypothalamus or caused from infections or these nutrient deficiencies or stress. And then there's subclinical hypothyroidism, which is the one that is mostly going under diagnosed. It's actually estimated that about two to 7% of adults in the United States actually have subclinical hypothyroidism.

But this occurs when thyroid levels, they might be slightly low with a normal or a slightly elevated TSH. So like I said, the doctors tend to just check TSH. And so that's why the subclinical hypothyroidism goes undiagnosed because doctors will be like, oh, this TSH is at about three or four and they don't even look into antibodies or don't even diagnose hypothyroidism for the most part until you are at five or to 10. So they normally only check antibodies when you hit a 10 TSH. And then five TSH is where they say, oh, hey, it's hypothyroidism. Let's look deeper. It's completely crazy and wacko, but that's just the way they're taught. So you can't be angry at them because that's what they're taught in

medical school. But being able to understand like these are the different types of hypothyroidism this is why it matters being able to have that and be your own advocate for your own health is really really important no that's power in your hands i completely concur i think that when people start to educate themselves around some of the stuff that they're dealing with. It gives them the tools they need to more effectively communicate with doctors, which is to your point, which isn't to say that doctors don't know what they're doing, but they are a little bit hamstrung with how many patients they have to see and how quickly they need to get things done. And knowing what it is you're going in for puts the power back into the hands of the patient to get the level of treatment that they need. Exactly.

And so really quickly here, before we move on, because I would love to talk a little bit about PCOS because it was brought up. What are some lifestyle things that you recommend for people dealing with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's that they can do beyond nutrition to help manage some of the stressors and potentially help manage some of the symptoms. Yeah, I'm so glad you asked this. So some of the things that are very important for optimizing your thyroid would be to first make sure you are maximizing, of course, the micronutrients in your diet, reduce the overall toxic burden in your life can create inflammation. So make sure you're using filtered drinking water, potentially using an air filter, removing those endocrine disruptors that I talked about. So using less plastics, cleaner,

safer skincare or cleaning products, um, exercise in a way that feels good versus drains you. So don't do a crazy amount of high intensity cardio, orange theory, CrossFit, you name it. Make sure your workouts are not draining you and they make you feel good. And don't overexercise, don't undereat. Also focusing on that stress relief and that self-care is essential.

So making sure that you're filling up your cup and not just pouring out. That's so important because you can pour, pour, pour out and then your cup's empty and then your whole entire health honestly is going to go to crap. So making sure to focus on that self-care is really important. And I kid you not, it's the hardest thing for all of my clients really. It's the one thing I can't do, right? It's the, I can't control my hands. I tell my clients, my hands are tied behind my back until you're able to focus on your self-care. So that's honestly the hardest part. And it includes also being kind to yourself mentally and understanding

that when something's going wrong in your body, that fire line, these symptoms, that's not your body harming you. Don't hate the symptoms. Those symptoms are actually your body asking for help. So honor it, be kind to it. Don't yell at it for having all these issues. Understand that that's your body just trying to get some help. So stress management, huge. Prioritize your sleep. Aim for at least seven to eight hours a night. The more, the better. That's going to help with your immunity, the stress levels, insulin sensitivity, digestion, you name it, energy, get your sleep. Those are some critical changes that you can make. And then this is going to sound like, all right, Lacey, like this is the hardest thing to do, but removing the toxic relationships in your life and focusing on underlying trauma can also be things that can uproot and get rid of

hypothyroidism for some people. So you think about like maybe when they were growing up, maybe they unfortunately had some crazy scenario that was traumatic to them. Yeah. Or they have a toxic friend or a toxic boyfriend or girlfriend, you know, those things create stress and then can wreak havoc on your thyroid and your health and can be the underlying factors to finally actually getting control of it. No, those are all spot on. And I like that you brought up that last point at the end. It's something that I work on a lot with clients who I just coach, whether it's purely nutritional or even training related.

If you have traumas or you have things that have a tendency to create stress or make stress come up when you least need it to, working through those, removing toxic relationships, working through trauma can be a really powerful way to kind of regain control over how stress is impacting your life and how many avenues that stress can access you. through trauma can be a really powerful way to kind of regain control over how stress is impacting your life and how many avenues that stress can access you. And by closing off those avenues by working through it, you create, I think, better control of your health. So I love that you brought that up because that's one that I don't think many people even consider, but I think it has tremendous power to improve your health. It does. And it's honestly, it's the one

thing that can make or break healing. Absolutely. So we've brought up insulin sensitivity a few times, which reminded me of PCOS. And so for those of you who are not aware, PCOS stands for polycystic ovarian or ovary syndrome. However, this is probably a misnomer, if you you will given that there's ways of looking at pcos and diagnosing pcos that actually don't have to do with the ovarian cyst part at all um i'm sure you know all this and you could go into detail but this is one that's become unbelievably prevalent i'd say in the last like four to five years i remember five years ago nobody really talked about this much in the fitness space but now now it's become very, very popular. And a lot of people believe they have it or do have it. Can we outline PCOS really quick, what it is,

what people who have PCOS are dealing with, and maybe again, some nutrition and lifestyle things that they might consider? Yeah. So PCOS, like you said, polycystic ovarian syndrome is now very, very prevalent and misdiagnosed in a lot of women. So it's actually diagnosed based off of what's called the Rotterdam criteria. So you have to have two of the three following symptoms or items in order to get a diagnosis. Number one, abnormal menstrual cycle. should give a diagnosis. Number one, abnormal menstrual cycle. So that's pretty easy. But what they say is it's defined as long cycles or having fewer than nine cycles in a year. Two, having excess testosterone, hyperandrogenism. Three, presence of polycystic ovaries confirmed on ultrasound. So what is the problem? Well, first, women naturally have polycystic ovaries confirmed on ultrasound. So what is the problem? Well, first women naturally have

polycystic ovaries as follicles in your ovaries grow monthly. Secondly, abnormal menstrual cycles are quite common nowadays due to high stress, being a workaholic, environmental toxins, food intolerances, hypothyroidism, you name it under eating. So having the diagnosis of PCOS doesn't actually tell you why you're having trouble in the first place. And the whole issue is there are a lot of different like quote unquote PCOS diets and PCOS protocols that are being promoted all over like social media and the internet. And many of them are being tailored towards just the androgen-based symptoms and androgen type of PCOS. And then you have people that they might have what's called hypothalamic amonorrhea, which is a condition caused by suppression of the hypothalamic pituitary axis.

And basically it comes from overexercising, undereating, stress, or nutrition deficiencies, or a low body weight. But then you have those people seeing these diets and thinking that they need to eat less. They need to drop down their carbs, avoid fruit or specific types of foods. And then that's just making everything worse. So that is my struggle with PCOS is every single person has a reason why they're being diagnosed. There's actually a reason why you don't have a menstrual cycle. And it's not always because you have high androgen levels, your PCOS, it could be because you have insulin resistance, which that's a type. It could be because you came off birth control and you have post birth control PCOS in which you have not gotten your period back after being on birth control for quite a long time. It could be having adrenal PCOS, whether that is related to hypothalamic amonorrhea

or having adrenal imbalances, things like high cortisol or low cortisol. And then there's inflammatory PCOS in which it might be something like a food intolerance, or it might be heavy metals, mold, pollution in your day-to-day life, excess minerals, infections, viruses, or just low-grade systemic inflammation from the way that you're eating, unfortunately. So there's many different reasons why you can't have PCOS. And so it's addressing you as a single person who has her own bio-individuality and her own needs, your protocol and your diet and everything that you do should match for you, not based off of what somebody's quote unquote PCOS protocol is. Yeah, I think that's tremendous. And I think you really hit

on something that's important. And because PCOS has become very popular in our fitness space, it's something that a lot of people are talking about. While there is more information, there's also more misinformation. And to the point of, hey, say you have somebody who has hypothalamic amenorrhea, and they're overtraining, and they've lost their menstrual cycle because they're under eating and they're overtraining, and they get on the internet, they go, oh, it looks like I have PCOS. So I actually need to bring down my carbs because I'm insulin resistant. That's going to create an entirely different problem. So I think to your point, each person has to look at their own physiology, but understanding the landscape is the first part of that. Wouldn't you say? Yes, 100%. Testing, not guessing, and making sure you

are doing everything in your power to figure out why you are having issues and not just being given an umbrella diagnosis. You need to figure out. So a diagnosis just tells you, like, it gives you a name, basically. So you need to figure out, just like hypothyroidism. You want to figure out why you're given that diagnosis. And what do you see most commonly with the patients that you work with, with PCOS, with regards to lifestyle? Are there some commonalities there that people could be like, okay, these are aligned with what I'm experiencing. I need to do a little bit more work here and see if I can get to the bottom of this. In regards to symptoms? Yes. Symptoms and then maybe lifestyle things that may be related to it. Because I spoke with Lyle McDonald about this once and he actually said it seems to be rather prevalent in women

who have had eating disorders at one point as well. Yeah. And I mean, that's because it's really, it's hypothalamic amonorrhea it's not pcos so i get so angry when that gets misdiagnosed um but so sometimes weight gain or trouble losing weight irregular menstrual cycles or fertility issues blood sugar imbalances like getting shaky hangry uh throughout the day or not being able to work out having workout workout intolerance, quote-unquote exercise intolerance, ovarian cysts, oily skin, and acne. Now, notice all these symptoms as well. Not everybody has the same ones and can have different ones. Increased facial or body hair, which is called heritism,

hair loss from your head or the eyebrows because with your menstrual cycle issues, normally also you might have thyroid issues. You might have mid-cycle spotting with your menstrual cycle issues, normally also you might have thyroid issues. You might have mid-cycle spotting or no menstrual cycle or heavy bleeding or heavy menstrual cycle, low sex drive, and then chronic fatigue. So those are the type, the main symptoms that I see. And then the main issues that I see in regards to why people are struggling with this or are not, are not able to feel better is because they're under eating over exercising. They have a high inflammatory diet. They're not eating foods that actually provide their body with the

micronutrients they need in order to have a healthy menstrual cycle. Um, they might be insulin resistant, not all are right. Hypothalamic aminorrhea, you're most likely, you're not insulin resistant. You need more carbohydrates. Endocrine disruptors, hands down, are an issue and cause PCOS and hypothalamic aminorrhea as well, but cause a lot of fertility issues. So then you're looking again at your skincare, the products you wash your body, your hair, all that stuff. I see that a lot.

And then a lot of people are getting off of birth control now because it's like a trendy thing to do. Yeah, I know. It's like, Oh, well, awesome. Birth control is not, I mean, I don't believe it's good for you, but it's definitely a trend right now. So a lot of women are struggling with that now. Well, I think it's, it's a unique situation given that, yes, it is a trend, but if you've been manipulating your physiology for years and for many women, decades, it's not as easy as simply getting off. And you needn't look much further than if a man manipulates his sex hormones with something like anabolic steroids, there are debts to be paid when you come off of those hormones. Whenever you manipulate

your physiology, things have to recover for a certain period of time. So yes, there's certainly a trend there, but it's not like, hey, I get off and then I'm just this vibrant, perfect female physiology. It takes a little while to recover that. Right. And I'm so glad you mentioned that because for some women, they've been on birth control for like 11 plus years. And then they get off of it and they're like, oh, I haven't had my cycle in two months. Well, you were on birth control for 11 years. You can't expect to get your cycle back right off the bat. And all women are different with post birth control syndrome. Like some women, they get it back automatically. Others, it takes a while. So it depends on what's going in your body

individually. What happened in your body? Do you have gut issues? Do you have underlying cortisol issues? Like all these things play a role. Yeah. I think all these topics are fantastic and they certainly will always lead to another rabbit hole. Right. But we we've really covered some big ones here and I want to give the listeners a chance to find you and follow up with this stuff. So where is a good place for them to find you and see content aligned with the stuff we talked about today? Of course. So anybody can follow me on Instagram at faith and fit or Twitter at Lacey a done. And then my website is uplift fit.org. If anybody wants to download my free thyroid guide, which talks all about hypothyroidism,

Hashimoto's, what it is, diagnosis, lab tests to do supplements to take. So you can download that on my website. Or if you want to reach out to me for coaching for help, or just a phone consult, just feel free to hit me up contact page on my website. Lacey, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It was a great chat and lots of insights that I think people will be able to take with them and that will be actionable. No, thank you. It's been a pleasure to be on here and I hope your listeners took some little nuggets of wisdom. I'm sure they did. Thanks again. Thanks so much, everybody, for listening again. And thank you to Lacey for coming on for more resources regarding thyroid health. Please follow Lacey. If you want to learn more about PCOS, listen to the podcast episode I did with Lyle McDonald, but do give Lacey a follow.

Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you did enjoy the episode, feel free to share it. You never know who else might've needed that information and it might resonate with them as well. So do share, tag me so I can say thank you. I appreciate it so much for listening. Have a good one.