Root Cause Solutions For You

The Thyroid Conversation Your Doctor Isn’t Having with Dr. Amie Hornaman

• Fabiola Reyes, BCHHP - Root Cause Expert, Cert. AK, CellCore & Nutrition Response Testing® and Quantum Nutrition Testing Practitioner • Season 3 • Episode 7

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Have you ever been told “your labs look normal” while your body is screaming the opposite? You’re tired, gaining weight for no reason, or just know something isn’t right. In this episode of Root Cause Solutions for You, I’m sitting down with the incredible Dr. Amie Hornaman, known as The Thyroid Fixer, to unravel the hidden truths about thyroid health that most doctors aren’t talking about.

Dr. Amie shares her personal journey of being dismissed by six different doctors before finally finding answers, a story that so many of us can relate to. We talk about the forgotten thyroid hormone T2, how it impacts metabolism and fat burning, and why understanding it could be a game-changer in your health journey. You’ll also hear us unpack why standard thyroid labs often miss the bigger picture, the difference between being “normal” and being optimal, and what it really takes to get your energy, mood, and body back on track.

This episode is a blend of science, lived experience, and practical wisdom. Whether you’re struggling with Hashimoto’s, have questions about thyroid medication versus natural approaches, or just want to finally understand why your efforts with diet and lifestyle aren’t giving you results, this conversation will open your eyes.

You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of your thyroid, hope that healing is possible, and steps you can start exploring right away!

Ready to support your thyroid with Thyroid Fixxr: https://betterlifedoctor.com/collections/supplements/products/thyroid-fixxr?bg_ref=Qwrbu0LNLS

Ready to support your Metabolism with Metabolism Fixxr: https://betterlifedoctor.com/en-mx/products/metabolism-fixxr?bg_ref=Qwrbu0LNLS

Check out Dr. Amie's website https://dramie.com/


Disclaimer: The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. This podcast is not a medical service; the information provided is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. The Root Cause Solutions For You, its practitioners, and employees make no warranties, express or implied, concerning the contents. The information shared in this episode is the opinion of the speaker and should not be considered medical advice. You should never disregard medical advice or delay seeking it because of the contents of this episode.

Fabiola :

All right. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Root Cause Solutions for you. My name is Fabiola and I am your host, and today I am honored and over the moon to have a very special guest, dr Amy Horniman, also known as the thyroid fixer. We're going to be talking about all things thyroid Like why is my thyroid not functioning? The forgotten thyroid hormone T2. I think it'll be a great conversation. I've learned so much from her podcast and her education, her free Facebook group, her website, so I'm just super, super thrilled to have Dr Amy with us today. Thank you so much, dr Amy. Welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Thank you, fabiola, and thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here. Well, you know, like so many of us in this health space, we normally go through our own pain to purpose journey to bring us here. So mine was no different. Mine started over 20 years ago and I was competing in figure competitions, fitness and figure competitions kind of like bodybuilding, but a little bit more feminine, I like to say. Little bit more feminine, I like to say, and I was doing fitness modeling at the time. So basically I had, I had taken my body into a space where it was very lean, very low body fat percent. You know you're stepping on a stage or in front of a camera. It sounds a little bit crazy when you talk about it, but it was always a challenge for me. I love that, that physical challenge of where can I, where can I take my body to that that I just haven't yet, you know. So it was building muscle, losing body fat, and I had done this plenty of times. I knew how it worked. I knew how my body responded. I always worked with a trainer that would guide me, because I'm I fully believe that you need guidance and anything that you do for your health.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And this one show I was getting ready for, the scale starts going up instead of down and I'm like wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. And you start questioning. You're like all right, maybe I'm eating too much, maybe I'm not working out hard enough, maybe it's me. What's going on? I'm doing check-ins with my trainer. He's like what are you doing? You cheating on your diet, eating donuts? I'm like no, I'm doing everything I need to be doing. I'm doing it the right way. I'm following what you gave me. So every single week I go a little bit harder, get a little stricter, a little tougher, workout harder. Scale goes up, and I'm not talking like a couple pounds, I mean five and then 10, and then 15, all the way up to 25 extra pounds. My body was rebelling against me. This did not make sense at all. I don't care whether you believe in calories, in calories out or not. Biologically, when you're restricting like that, the scale should not be going up. I should not be packing on that much weight in a short amount of time.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

So I did what we all do go to my doctor. I went to my doctor and said, hey, this is what's happening. I don't get it. Something's wrong. Something is wrong inside of me. And the first response, of course, was well, you know, we're on a couple tests. Look at the results. You're normal, everything is fine, okay, well, didn't feel normal, didn't feel fine. So second opinion time. Let's do this. I go to doctor number two and I hear well, you know, I really think this is all in your head because your labs are totally normal, everything looks good here. Now let me back up.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

I, at that point of time, had no idea what labs to ask for. We didn't have the internet and Facebook groups and all of these podcasts where you could get this kind of information. I mean, I was Dr Googling on my gateway computer. There just wasn't the information out there. So I didn't know. I didn't know what to ask for testing wise, but I knew that what I was hearing was not correct. I knew that I was not okay. I knew that I was not normal.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

So I kept going and I went to a total of six different doctors who all misdiagnosed me. Now it turns out, when we actually look at the stats today, we see that the majority of, well, hypothyroid cases let's take 60 million hypothyroid cases Of that, almost half are walking around with symptoms and they are undiagnosed or mistreated. They're not being properly treated to get them feeling better. So I was one of the misdiagnosed ones. Six different doctors told me I was normal, everything was fine. The seventh doctor actually touches my throat and says swallow. She says you have a goiter, you have a little nodule on your thyroid. We're going to biopsy that just to make sure. But per your labs, it looks like you have Hashimoto's. Here's a pill. So I left her office. I'm all pumped up, right. I have a pill now and I have a name for what's going on with me and I was so excited I'm like it's going to work and I gave it five months and I didn't lose a single pound.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

So I went back to her after doing more doctor Googling and I said you know, this pill that you gave me is T4. That's the inactive thyroid hormone. It turns out there's another thyroid hormone called T3 that's active, and there's T2 and that's active. Like why can't we add those active thyroid hormones in? It makes sense to me. She goes I don't do that, it's not standard of care. And I said well then I'm going to find somebody who does.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And I kept hearing the name of this functional medicine doctor over and over and over again. And I totally believe that when you start hearing a name over and over again, it's the universe or God or whatever you believe in telling you for God's sake, call this person. This is why I'm bringing them into your life. For God's sake, call this person. This is why I'm bringing them into your life. So I call, I make an appointment. He sits down with me for 90 minutes and before this I got a five to seven minute visit with each doctor that I saw All of the seven previously. Five to seven minutes. And then I'm kicked out the door. He sits down with me for 90 minutes. He orders so many labs. It looks like a book. He's going through everything. He's asking me about my sleep, my digestion. He wants to know everything about me. This is amazing. And he actually asked me those four most important words that any practitioner should ask how do you feel?

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And that's when I knew I would be taken care of and we changed up my thyroid regimen. We got beyond T3. We started beyond T2. Yes, even way back then. That's when I started studying it and my life changed. And then, at that point, my career changed because I knew that if I had just gone through. It was a major medical system. It was UPMC medical. If you're in Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, you know that UPMC basically owns the town, just like Mayo Clinic, just like Cleveland Clinic, these huge hospital systems that are supposed to give you the best of the best care. And if I was in a huge city in a major medical system and I got bounced around to seven different doctors without an answer, how many other people out there even in like what about small towns that don't have the major medical systems? You know how many out there are getting the same treatment or mistreatment like I did. So that's what made me change careers and that's why I'm doing what I do now.

Fabiola :

Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that. Sometimes I do believe that we go through different experiences in life that led us to our final purpose and our destination. So and I love your stuff I think, as a holistic practitioner, we read labs and we know that there is more than the medical system and that when people come to us and say my labs are normal and we hear their symptoms, that we obviously know, logically that's not normal and your doctor should think the same way. Right, but, like you said, five minute appointments are just not enough. But also, like you know, the care, the center of care, you know, like you mentioned, like just prescribing that T4 because it's easier to manage from a dosing perspective. But that's just laziness, really get to the bottom of it. So that's why I was so struck by your information and all the disruptions that you're making with your truth and just really following the body's physiology. Nothing you know, you're not making it up.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

It's like right there, right, well, thank you, thank you, but so many women go through the same thing. I see this every day in my practice and I mean just I see it on social media. If I post who's been medically gaslit, tell me what you've been told and the comments have the oh my gosh, the comments from women that I just saw this the other day. They're being told that there's a thyroid clinic out there. It's a major medical system, it's like Boston something or other thyroid clinic. They actually have the word thyroid in the title and I kid you not, they told a patient of mine that they no longer treat Hashimoto's. Now we can get into this conversation a little more, but just for the listeners knowledge base, right now 95% of all hypothyroidism is Hashimoto's. So they just reduced their practice by 95% by making that statement and it literally makes no sense whatsoever. And this is what's going on in conventional medicine today.

Fabiola :

Yeah, and no wonder, right, we feel the way we feel, and then almost like we have no access to what we really need. We really have to find, like you said. You know, your seventh doctor finally said, okay, this is what you need. Yeah, like I knew something was wrong with my thyroid when I was doing fasting. I used to do a lot of intermittent fasting and I was like, how come I did a 36 hour fast and I lost no weight? Yeah, and like, that makes no sense. Like I used to be able to do 24 twice a week and lose five pounds. And that's where I was like, and just come to find out after doing labs and stuff, oh yeah, I have Hashimoto's. Like my antibodies are in like the hundreds and I'm like, okay, there's something to here. And that's where I found you and I'm like, oh, let me dig into this because it does make sense. You know why? Try to do something over and over. That's not work. It was just think differently, exactly. So can you tell us about T2?

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Oh, t2. So, like I mentioned, I started studying T2 easily 20 years ago because it fascinated me when I was looking at the thyroid hormone. So we already mentioned T4. That was the little pill I was given. T4 is inactive. It literally does nothing in the body. You do not have a single cell in your body with a receptor site on it for t4. It has to convert. It has to literally become t3, which is another active thyroid hormone. That's what attaches to your cell and does the job.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Well, there's two other thyroid hormones that your thyroid makes. It makes t1 and t2, and we don't talk about that that much. Well, t1 is inactive. We can set that aside. There's no medication for it. It really doesn't do much. Let's just set it over here. But T2 is fascinating and in the obesity crisis epidemic that we are in right now, in right now with the GLPs and just all the different weight loss programs, we need an answer. And we know the GLPs work. But wow, they're really expensive and a lot of people are scared of some of the side effects that have been coming out. So we need another answer that is affordable and doable, that will produce a result.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Enter T2. So T2 is a thyroid hormone and it is active, but it's really fascinating when you look at how it works in the body. It doesn't actually work on the thyroid gland itself. So what I mean by that is, if you take T4 or T3, it's going to produce a feedback loop to your brain and to your thyroid. So essentially, yeah, you're going to get a signal that says, hey, thyroid gland, you don't need to make thyroid hormone anymore, you can just sit there and relax. So you're going to get that negative feedback loop. Now, when we're treating a patient with hypothyroidism, we don't really care about that negative feedback loop because their thyroid gland isn't producing enough thyroid hormone anyways, so we have to replace it with the thyroid hormone treatment that we're using.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

But what if someone doesn't have a thyroid problem? Or what if someone is on T4 only? That doesn't work, or they're not on the right thyroid treatment regimen and they're really struggling with weight and they're putting on weight like I did. Or they're doing everything possible, like all the right things. I hear this all the time too. I'm doing all the things and the weight is not coming off. I can't get this weight off, no matter what I do. And what if they're in that position and they're really trying and they want to be a healthier weight, they want to be healthy overall. Well, they need an answer of something that they can implement and add in that will help with their metabolism but that won't shut down their own thyroid production.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

T2 does that. So it actually works at the mitochondria level instead of at the thyroid level. And it works at the mitochondria level to increase ATP production, so that is energy production at the cell, and it increases our basal metabolic rate. So that are it's sometimes called BMR, sometimes it's called RMR resting metabolic rate but it's essentially the amount of fat that you are burning at rest no activity, nothing else, no stimulants just the amount of fat that you were burning at rest. Well, it increases that. So what we see is a constant increase in thermogenesis, or the burning of stored body fat, throughout the day when we add in T2.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Now the caveat is can we be eating McDonald's and pizza and drinking beer and take T2? No, no, you have to have a cleaned up diet. You can't be putting garbage in and expect T2 to do this magic and burn your body fat. But it does work. I mean, it is absolutely amazing when you look at the studies and then, of course, my anecdotal evidence of using it with patients. It absolutely works. So the studies, the studies show that T2, yes, increases basal metabolic rate.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

It actually browns white adipose tissue. So it takes that white squishy fat that we grab. We're like, ah, I don't want this on my body or that surrounds our organs, which is not healthy whatsoever. And it browns it and we want brown adipose tissue. We want that brown fat because it is metabolically active. It helps us with insulin resistance, it helps our cholesterol, our lipid panel. So we want more of that brown fat. So T2 will brown white adipose tissue, increase thermogenesis, increase fat burning, and it does all of this while preserving your muscle.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Just a really kind of side note. Cool story is back when I was competing there, like I said, we all use trainers, right. So there was a trainer to the top athletes, to the pros, and he said and side note for your audience, bodybuilders are the OGs of biohacking. We absolutely will experiment on ourselves. So, like it or not, yes, we use T3 to burn extra body fat, right, that's just what we did. So he says I don't let my female athletes use T3 because, number one, it's going to burn their muscle that they work so hard for, yeah, it's going to burn body fat too, but it's going to burn their muscle and it could cause an actual thyroid problem because of that negative feedback loop. And now they have a thyroid issue after the show.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

He says I use T2 for my athletes because it leaves their muscle alone. T2 will only burn body fat. It will not burn muscle. In fact, it acts like an exercise mimetic, meaning when we look at what does exercise do improves our insulin resistance, improves our cholesterol panel, improves our body composition. We put on muscle, we lose body fat. T2 does all of that. So he's like I use T2 with my athletes just because of that reason.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And at the time when I heard that interview, I'd already been using T2 with my patients, but that just drove the point home. I'm like that's exactly it. So when you use T3, you absolutely can burn muscle and we need to protect I don't care whether you're a competitor or not, we need to protect our precious muscle. That's the organ of longevity. That was it for me.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

So then I knew when it came time. I knew I wanted to bring this to market because what I was using. I need to formulate a supplement that will absolutely rock everyone's world in the fat loss department and the energy department. So that was the birth of Thyroid Fixer. Now, of course, named it after me, named it after the brand. Then I got the questions Can we use it if we don't have a thyroid problem? Like, oh yeah, you can use it if you don't have a thyroid problem. So here is metabolism fixer, which I also created, and that's in a powder form, super yummy, tastes like Tang. So I put in my drink all day long and it contains T2 as well. And we added something to Metabolism Fixer called Suppressa, just to help with suppressing the appetite. So when we say hey, better than Ozempic, we mean it because it's going to burn body fat and it's going to help with those cravings as well.

Fabiola :

Yeah, balancing your hormones right In a sense, because you have all the players in action as metabolic function needs to occur, versus just thinking one single hormone is not an island. You need a balance of all of them, exactly, exactly. So, when it comes to labs, what is like the biggest? Like misconception, that like we, that we experience when we see, oh, everything is normal coming from a thyroid perspective.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

First we have to start with. What are they even testing? Because chances are you're only going to get a TSH and a free T4. And I guarantee you that's all I got. Yeah, the first question is what are they actually looking at when they test your thyroid using air quotes here. So that's where you, as the patient, have to go in and you have to say no, we're not just going to test these two markers. I want free T3, reverse T3. I want both antibodies, the TPO and the TGA antibodies. I want to test all of it. I want to. I want the full picture of my thyroid function. So that's number one. You have to get the whole picture.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Number two is how you look at and interpret those results. So your doctor is looking at the standard lab value range that's off to the side of your labs. So you get the lab and then your value and then the range. And that standard lab value range is actually taken from sick people. So it's taken from groups of sick people, basically in the hospital, and that's how we get the standard lab value ranges for every single lab that you see.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Functional medicine comes in and goes wait timeout, instead of testing all the obese dying heart disease, diabetics in the hospital. Let's test the fit people. Let's test the people that are healthy, that don't have heart disease and that are skiing down the side of a mountain at the age of 75 and are working out in the gym and throwing around weights at the age of 65. Let's test all of them. And then let's get a more narrow range, which we call the optimal range, and that's where it's much more narrow, much smaller, but that's where you are going to feel your best. So then, after you get all the tests, you have to look at those results in the context of what is optimal and are you optimal? So I always say we don't want to be normal. Normal is a setting on the dryer. We want to be optimal.

Fabiola :

Yeah, that's for sure. One thing that you've mentioned before either a podcast or training that you know you could be on the perfect diet, the perfect supplements, the perfect lifestyle, do all this biohacking but if your thyroid is not functioning, almost like none of that really takes place or really like you benefit from all of that. So you're spending time and money on all these different tools, and that really struck to me, because it's true. Like how many people I've here, or myself, I eat clean, I need this and no this and that, and then thyroid is not optimized. Boom, you don't get the benefit of everything you're doing.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Exactly. Oh, that's so true and that's so frustrating for people, and most of them move into what I jokingly call the screw it mode. Screw it. I might as well just eat the pizza, because all of this clean eating and buying organic and getting in movement and meditation and sunlight and grounding and all the things I'm, to your point, spending my money on and my time on, it's not working. So screw it, just bring on the pizza and beer. What am I doing? And we know that's not the healthy way to go.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

It's obviously better to be taking care of yourself, even though it feels like you're spinning your wheels. But then when you add on that thyroid optimization piece and hormones and sex hormones we do both. When you add on that piece, now you get rewarded for your efforts. Now you start to see the results compound together and your body does respond. But the thyroid is the master gland. You can't override it. You just can't. It doesn't matter how many gut healing protocols you do, how much adrenal fairy dust you sprinkle on, the thyroid comes first. The thyroid is the master gland. You have to start there and then you can fix everything else below that.

Fabiola :

Yeah, and also, like I think of liver. You know how important liver is to maximize the mode, those thyroid hormone conversions, and it's almost fascinating Like every time I talk to someone about the thyroid and trying to explain how really it works, people are just so overwhelmed oh my gosh, all these different feedback loops and conversions and stuff. And I say, yeah, think of liver, think of thyroid liver. Those like best friends forever and they both need to be optimized. Yeah, yeah, think of liver, think of thyroid liver. Those are like best friends forever. They both need to be optimized.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Fabiola :

So you have a wonderful team of practitioners that help clients. So tell us a little about your program, okay.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Going back to my story, I knew that it was the thyroid hormone, the prescription for thyroid hormone replacement, not a supplement the prescription for thyroid hormone replacement that really made a difference for me. Now, obviously, t2 comes in supplemental form, so I was adding that at the time, but I still needed to replace the thyroid hormone and I was low in progesterone. I had polycystic ovarian syndrome, so we added on bioidentical progesterone. I had polycystic ovarian syndrome, so we added on bioidentical progesterone. So I knew that was a key component.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

I never felt comfortable building a program that heal your Hashimoto's naturally and all that. And I get this question all the time Can I heal it naturally If you're at the beginning? But I don't see people at the beginning. I see people who have been through the medical system for 10, 20 years, who have been medically gaslit for 10 and 20 years and they are so deep into their hypothyroidism and so mistreated. No, we're probably not going to heal your Hashimoto's naturally by going gluten-free and taking some supplements. It's just not going to happen at this point.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

So I built a team where we could prescribe to all 50 states. That was important to me. I wanted to be able to treat I say women because women get hit the hardest. But we treatment men and women to be able to treat people in every single state. So, yes, my team consists of nurse practitioners, functional diagnostic nutritionists, mds, dos, and it's a full practice where we can do it all. We obviously test, not guess. So we test you properly first and then, yes, thyroid hormone replacement, bioidentical hormone replacement. And yes, we do use peptides as well, the whole peptide spectrum from BPC-157, tb-500 to the GLPs. But we use the GLPs the right way and we make sure that it fits into someone's budget, and if it doesn't, that's okay. Let's optimize your thyroid, let's optimize your hormones, let's bring in some T2. And that's fantastic as well. You're still going to get the results.

Fabiola :

Yeah, and something you said earlier, like how many people are undiagnosed. They don't know if they're only checking TSH and thinking they're okay, especially as we're early ages 20s, 30s. By the time that you get to your 40s, your 50s, it's like it's too late. And so, yes, how many people are going to catch it before it's too late to be able to address it in a more natural way? One of the things that I had an aha moment was the approach of thyroid hormones. I try not to call it a medication anymore because it's not fixing anything. Oh, I love you.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

That's what I do too. Yeah, thyroid hormone replacement.

Fabiola :

And I was just like, really I said holistic practitioner the last thing I want someone is to go on a medication. However, medicine does have its place. But then I have, through your training. I'm like, oh my God, it's a hormone. If a diabetic type one would refuse to have insulin because it's synthetic, they would die.

Fabiola :

And I'm like, why is this different? I have a history of mold toxicity. Yeah, my body needs to detox mold blah, blah, blah, hashimoto's but I need my thyroid in order to address my mold toxicity. If my thyroid is 40% gone, why am I refusing to look at this? So that was like such an aha moment for me as a practitioner because, truth to be told and sadly, we only have like glandulars anyway. But yeah, that was like so aha for me and I just love that. And I feel like you were like the perfect fit for thyroid health because it's you have the holistic and natural concepts as well as the medical concept, and you're like we need to do what's right for you. People are like what's the best supplement? What works for you? No, what worked for me or someone else, what works for you. So I just love that.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Oh, my God, I love that you actually listened to me, because you're everything that you're saying. Yeah, I know and I love hearing it from another practitioner too that agrees, because I think that just drives home the point. And that's the thing we both agree. You and I both agree that, no, we don't want people on antidepressants, sleeping pills, we don't want them on the Band-Aid medications that are given out like candy by doctors to just mask what the real problem is. So you know the two categories of medication. We have the medication, the Band-Aid medication, and then we have the hormone replacement medication and yeah, it might come in a little orange bottle that you have to pick up from Walgreens, but that's okay, because we're replacing hormones that are no longer being properly made.

Fabiola :

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. So that was like a huge thing for me, like even a change of practice, and be like, okay, how do we now maximize liver as you work with, hopefully, your doctor, who will listen and help you through this journey, because that's the thing. You could know what you need, but you still have to find a practitioner that is going to be willing to work with you and which that's why I think your, what you offer is just, you know, why have you ever done something where you buy something is cheap and it breaks and then you buy it again, something else different, but it's still cheap, and then you buy, finally, the thing that was more expensive yes, more money on the cheap stuff, instead of just going to the thing that you needed to spend money on? We've all done it. We have all done that. Yeah, you have a Facebook group and I think it's a wealth of information. You're in there talking to people, yeah, it's the Just Victor Thired Facebook group.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Anybody can join. It's public, but it's a very active, loving, supportive group. I love it in there. I'm sorry if you've been in other Facebook groups for whatever condition. It can sometimes be like a multi-level marketing sales fast or just a bitch fest. It's just people complaining left and right with no real answers given. But oh my gosh, our Just Fix your Thyroid Facebook group is just so beautiful and so supportive and people really get the answers and the help that they need in there. I'm in there, my MPs are in there. I have patients that have been with me for five, six years and they know what I say and they are literally in there answering and I'm going yeah, so what Lisa said, I would say the same thing. She just answered like I would yeah, there you go.

Fabiola :

Yeah, cause I do try to educate people like education I can. I don't want my clients to be dependent on me. I want them to know how to use their supplements, how to use whatever tools we're giving them because, truth to be told, I don't. I want them to be their own doctor, their own client advocate, their own practitioner. I just I love the group and it's very inviting community Anytime I've posted a question. Yeah, the wealth of information is there. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, is there like a book or anything that you know, like someone's listening to this and you're like yo, my left's probably been misdiagnosed. No one's listening. Where would someone start? There's a quite overwhelming process for some people.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

No book yet, working on it, good, but we do have a bunch of downloads, so we have them. We have that. So if you join the Facebook group, you'll see it pinned at the top. It's the labs to get and the optimal ranges. So we have thyroid in there, but we also have hormones in there too which are just as important A1C insulin. So it's a whole download that you can just keep and always refer back to every time you get your labs done, and it's also going to tell you what labs that you need to get, so that you can just grab right from the Facebook group.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

I also have a really cool. It's an interactive platform that I built because one of the big questions and you probably see it in the Facebook group what do my labs mean? What do my labs mean? What does this mean? So if you go to draimeecom, forward slash labs, it's an interactive platform where you can literally put in your lab results and it will give you a response, based on that result, of what that result means. So, even if you don't have all of them, if you're like, well, I don't have free T3 yet, I don't have reverse T3 yet, that's okay, put in what you have. You can go back and use it as often as you want. So when you do get the full set of labs, you'll have that full picture. It's basically like doing like a quickie lab read with me, you're going to get my answers to. What does it mean if I have a free T3 of a 2.5. So that's a really cool interactive platform that people can use as well.

Fabiola :

Yeah, that's awesome, as people are getting labs. They're just entering them and get the information. That's really cool. I know we've covered a lot, but I don't want to leave this conversation without talking about reverse T3. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that magical hormone.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Because you know that's the one that's mostly left off of labs. In the Facebook group you'll see people post here are my labs, what does it mean? And they'll have all of them except reverse T3. And then at least five comments that you need reverse T3. You need reverse T3 to tell anything. You need reverse T3. Here's why it's important Because reverse T3 is like the antithyroid hormone, the antithyroid hormone, and when it goes up it puts your body into a survival mode.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

We actually call it human dormancy syndrome. And the only thing that can convert to reverse T3 is T4. So we said earlier that T4 has to go through this conversion process. I always describe it as T4 has two paths to choose. It can choose the path of going down route 3T3, become that active thyroid hormone. Yay, that's awesome, that's what we want it to do, so it can get to your cell to do its job. If it doesn't go down that path, it will go down the path and become reverse T3.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And reverse T3, I love analogies. It's like the bouncer of the club. So reverse T3 is literally sitting outside of your cell door telling T3 that it can't get in, because when reverse T3 is high it's blocking T3 from getting to the cell like a lock and key getting to the cell, to insert in the cell, turn it on to give you that metabolism and that energy and that brain function and motivation. It lets you poop every day. So we need to know how well are you converting? And that conversion process is actually not easy. Now your doctor will say here you go, here's the T4. Don't worry, your body will convert it just fine to T3. I equate it to running 10 Tough Mudders.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

All the different things that can get in the way and increase reverse T3, low iodine, low magnesium, low vitamin D, low selenium, genetic SNP, high cortisol, high insulin, high glucose, high A1C estrogen dominance, low testosterone. It goes on and on. There are so many things that get in the way of proper conversion of T4 to T3 that we need to see that reverse T3 tested every single time you have labs done and this goes whether you're on thyroid medication or not. A dear friend of mine, natalie Jill, we had her tested. I looked at her labs. Number one, she had Hashimoto's and number two, she had not on any thyroid medication. She had this crazy elevated reverse T3. So then that tells us right off the bat you need T3 only for a while. So we started her on thyroid hormone replacement, but we started her on T3 only because she was already not even converting her own thyroid hormone properly. So it's important to know right from the start of what your reverse T3 is.

Fabiola :

Oh, thank you so much for going over that. I want to make sure we covered that. And it's funny like when you do finally get your doctor to check reverse T3, there is something from the FDA. This is not a recognized something blood marker, blah, blah, blah. Like cute.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

And I'm like okay. Yeah, I need to do a post on that and take a picture of it, because that cracks me up every time.

Fabiola :

It is crazy. I'm like, anyway, but no wonder why we're like high cholesterol, high glucose and A1C and you're spinning your wheels and you're like what the heck? And then, okay, hello, your reverse T3 is so high and you're not converting and producing Anyway. So, yeah, the list goes on. For sure, yeah, wow, yeah, no doubt. Wow, what a fun conversation. Dr Amy, I've continued to learn from your wealth of information and I'm sure that, as you continue to work with clients and do your own research, you're just continue, we'll continue, to offer what you're learning?

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Oh yeah, definitely, and thank you for having me on. We need to. We just need to spread the message as much as we can.

Fabiola :

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Thank you so much and I have your website. If you could just mention your website.

Dr. Amie Hornaman:

Yeah, it's draimeecom. From there you can book a call. If you're interested in working with us, you can jump over to our store, the Fixer Formula Supplement Store that can also be found at betterlifedoctorcom. That's where you can grab Thyroid Fixer and Metabolism Fixer if you're intrigued by T2 and you want to try that out in your weight loss and energy efforts. And then you can join the Just Fix your Thyroid Facebook group. Just bounce over to Facebook. If you're on Facebook, put in a request to join and just get your questions answered in there. Get support.

Fabiola :

Yeah, love it Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day and hopefully we'll meet again. Thank you you too. Bye now.