Dr. Eryn Stansfield and Vinny Russo invited me back on their podcast to talk about the thyroid. Check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. As y’all know, I love debunking alt med quackery when it comes to thyroid stuff. I think I managed to go the entire episode without cussing while discussing naturopaths and alt med, so in my mind, this was a win. In this episode, we talk about:
- Hypothyroidism symptoms and testing
- Why TSH and FT4 are helpful, but FT3 is not
- Why reverse T3 is useless
- How mainstream docs and alt med practitioners differ in their treatment of hypothyroidism
- Why thyroid “support” formulas can be dangerous
- Usage of pig thyroid
- T3 replacement and when it can be beneficial
- What vitamins, trace elements, and minerals are important for thyroid health
- And more!
You should definitely check out Dr. Eryn and Vinny further at their website, Balanced Bodies. Just reading their bios, you can tell that these are two super-interesting people who are passionate about what they do.
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Could you ever write a blog post talking about what to look for in a good endocrinologist to steer people away from going to functional medicine doctors? I understand the medical system is like a circus right now and was wondering if this would help people clear the air on who to choose.
Lucas, I could write a post about “what to look for in a good endocrinologist,” but I doubt it would steer people – who are inclined toward FM – away from it. But, to acknowledge part of your point, I have written a lot about functional/integrative medicine, naturopathy, and other forms of quackery. Perhaps I have not written as explicitly about what to look for in a good endo – or any good doctor. I think what it boils down to is: you need to feel heard by the doc, the doc needs to clearly communicate his/her thoughts to you, and other docs you see should generally agree that whatever the first doc is doing/recommending seems reasonable. With those three criteria being met, chances are fairly good that the doc is “good.”
As for how to screen for that in advance of a visit, I think the best way is to get a recommendation from another physician you trust. The second best way is to get a rec from another patient of that doc’s who you trust. Online reviews, Top Doc lists, and all that kind of stuff are a distant third.