EPISODE 1
Welcome To The Save My Thyroid Podcast
Welcome to the very first episode of the Save My Thyroid podcast! If you have hyperthyroidism (Graves’ disease, toxic multinodular goiter, etc.), and are looking to do everything you can to preserve the health of your thyroid gland and regain your health, then you’re in the right place. Unfortunately many endocrinologists recommend radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery as a first option for their hyperthyroid patients, but these treatment methods usually should be the last resort.
As you’ll learn during this introductory episode, Dr. Eric Osansky personally was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, and has been in remission since 2009. And while many of Dr. Eric’s hyperthyroid patients take antithyroid medication, he was able to avoid taking medication while addressing the underlying cause of the condition.
During this episode you’ll learn:
- The reason this podcast was created
- Dr. Eric Osansky’s hyperthyroid story
- What you can expect from this podcast
- Upcoming podcast episode topics
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Here is the transcript for this episode:
Welcome to the Save My Thyroid podcast. My name is Dr. Eric Osansky, and I look forward to helping you avoid radioactive iodine and surgery and helping you to regain your health. This is the very first podcast episode. I will be sharing my hyperthyroid story, which will hopefully help with your hyperthyroid journey.
Why did I create this podcast? I work with both hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto’s, and I have been doing this since 2009. Probably around 80% of my patient base has hyperthyroidism. Most of these people have Graves’ Disease although I have also worked with a lot of people who have toxic multinodular goiter over the years. Many people with hyperthyroidism get pressure to receive radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery by their endocrinologist. So this podcast will focus mainly on hyperthyroidism.
However, if you do have Hashimoto’s, you also need to save your thyroid as your immune system is damaging your thyroid gland. Over time, we want to try to prevent that. Just like with Graves’ Disease, my goal is to help people restore the health of their immune systems. It’s really similar to Hashimoto’s. Most people who tune in will probably have hyperthyroidism, and many of these people have Graves’ Disease. But if you have Hashimoto’s, you can also benefit from some of the information I will be sharing in multiple episodes.
I’d now briefly like to discuss my hyperthyroid story. In 1999, I graduated from chiropractic school in Marietta, Georgia. I opened up my chiropractic practice in 2000 in Concord, North Carolina, which is outside of Charlotte. I focused on traditional chiropractic techniques until I was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease in 2008. First, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Then I saw an endocrinologist, and she is the one who officially diagnosed me with Graves’ Disease.
Before being diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, I sold my chiropractic practice in Concord. My wife and I moved to Charlotte. Prior to being diagnosed with Graves’, I attended a couple of functional endocrinology seminars. I did attend a lot of nutritional seminars. A few of them, two I remember, were specific on functional endocrinology. I knew I was going to take a natural approach after I was diagnosed with both hyperthyroidism and Graves’ Disease, but I had no idea if the natural approach would work.
Once again, in 2008, I was diagnosed with Graves’. At the time, I tried my best to remain optimistic. Honestly, I was scared as to the challenges I was going to face. I was skeptical as to whether a natural approach to treatment would work. The reason is because although I was of course open to the natural treatment approach, I didn’t know anybody else with Graves’ who had restored their health or any other type of hyperthyroid condition. I was definitely scared and skeptical.
That being said, I realized that conventional medical treatment didn’t provide along-term solution to my health condition. I knew there was an underlying cause. I was determined to do what was necessary to find and remove my triggers.
Like many people with chronic health conditions, I started eating better and improved other lifestyle factors as well, such as improving my stress management skills. Testing also played a big role in finding my triggers and underlying imbalances. I am talking in great detail about testing in a future episode.
Briefly I mentioned earlier that I chose not to take methimazole. When I dealt with hyperthyroidism and eventually Graves’, the endocrinologist did recommend methimazole, but instead, I took the herb bugleweed. I also took the herb motherwort. I will talk more about these herbs in future podcast episodes. It took approximately nine months before all my tests normalized, and I was off of the herbs.
Since 2009, I have had a practice that focuses on thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions. In addition to being a Doctor of Chiropractic, I have gone on to receive a Master’s degree in nutrition. I am a certified clinical nutritionist. I am also a certified functional medicine practitioner through the Institute for Functional Medicine.
In 2011, I wrote a book entitled Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves’ Disease. Now it’s in its second edition. I also wrote a book on Hashimoto’s called Hashimoto’s Triggers in 2018. I definitely plan on releasing more books, probably more specific to hyperthyroidism. I don’t know if I will write another book on hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s, in the future. I would definitely like to write more books on hyperthyroidism in the near future.
In the summer of 2018, I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. This really changed my perspective on the role of infections in thyroid autoimmunity. In my case, Lyme was not a trigger of my Graves’ condition, as I was diagnosed 10 years earlier with Graves’ although I was concerned about relapsing. Fortunately, I did not. For many people, Lyme and other types of infections can be a trigger. As a result, in future podcast episodes, I will talk more about different types of infections, not just Lyme, but infections such as Epstein-Barr, gut infections such as H. pylori, and parasites.
I’d like to briefly discuss what you can expect from future podcast episodes. There will be plenty of valuable information on how to save your thyroid and avoid radioactive iodine and surgery. Of course, that’s the main reason why I put together this podcast.
Many of these episodes will be solo episodes just like this one, where I discuss topics related to saving your thyroid and optimizing your health. There will also be some guest experts as well; I plan on having a lot in future episodes. Also, I plan on doing some mini podcast episodes where I just answer a question or two from someone, either a patient or someone who is maybe in my Facebook group and has a question I think a lot of people would benefit from.
If you are wondering about what topics I’ll be covering in the future, there are too many to list here. There will be an episode on conventional and natural symptom management options for hyperthyroidism because even though my goal is to try to restore the person’s health, while doing this, you want to be safe. Sometimes people will need to take medication such as methimazole or PTU or carbimazole if you live in a different country, like in Europe.
Natural symptom management, I mentioned bugleweed and motherwort. Those don’t do anything to address the cause of the condition, but it’s important to be safe while trying to address the cause.
There will be another episode on hyperthyroid diet tips. A future episode will discuss how to maintain a healthy weight when dealing with hyperthyroidism. A lot of people lose weight when dealing with hyperthyroidism, but some people gain weight. I’ll cover both scenarios.
I’m sure there will be multiple episodes on thyroid eye disease, but I definitely have one planned sooner than later on overcoming thyroid eye disease. I will also talk about toxic multinodular goiter, so it won’t all be on Graves’ Disease. There will be some episodes on toxic multinodular goiter. Also, a future episode on how to find your Graves’ Disease triggers. Too many to mention here.
But I am excited to have you not only listen in on this podcast, my very first podcast episode, but I look forward to serving you in the future. I think you will be thrilled with the information I’ll be sharing on hyperthyroidism, whether you have Graves’ Disease, toxic multinodular goiter, or even subacute thyroiditis or Hashitoxicosis. A lot of the information you will find to be valuable.
Thank you for tuning in. I look forward to serving you in the future, and I hope to catch you on the next episode.