How To Manipulate Your Hormones For Fitness and Health

By Travis Wade

I hate to say it but your doctor isn’t going to take good care of you. They will do their job to keep you alive and pain free and some of them will put in the extra effort to do a good job. That’s all free health care will get you and do not expect any more. They will not keep you at optimum health. It’s not a concern to our health care system if you are overweight. Your doctor isn’t going to tell you what I’m about to tell you here.

Personal Training 101

I love fitness and I love seeing people achieving their goals in the gym. Here’s a stat for you; 20% of people in the gym are getting their goal. Over 90% of the people getting their goal in the gym have training.

Lots of people will plateau at some point. It’s very common and there are ways to get around that. Some methods are undulating your program, changing your program once a month, periodizing your program, and working on the weak link or sticking points of your lifts with your accessory exercises.

This is personal training 101. Not every trainer knows how to do all this effectively because 79% of trainers will quit within one year. The industry is saturated with beginners. Learning a lot of these skills takes experience.

The thing I really want to talk about is how a holistic personal trainer can manipulate hormones to achieve goals. Most personal trainers may not know it but it’s one of the main things we do. Heavy lifting with compound movements will boost testosterone and human growth hormone; proper nutrition avoids insulin spikes and gets the nutrients your body needs to function well.

Your Allostatic Load

This is where most good personal trainers stop. If they don’t get you past your plateau with diet and exercise, they will likely be stumped. There is much more that can be done. What I want to talk about is called your allostatic load. This means the total stress on your body.

Oxidative stress from the types of foods you eat, the mental stress (from your job, family and life in general), your toxic load, and dysbiosis which is the imbalance of good and bad bacteria of the gut. These are the main components of your allostatic load.

Your allostatic load has a major impact on your adrenal glands. A high allostatic load increases cortisol. Cortisol is a really good antiinflammatory. The side effects are weight gain around the belly, lack of sleep, frustration, reduced performance, and increased health problems. This can lead to depression, adrenal fatigue, and Addison’s Disease.

Another thing is when cortisol is high, thyroid hormone is low and so is melatonin. High cortisol and low melatonin will make sleeping difficult which in turn increases your stress. Low thyroid hormone will cause low metabolism creating weight gain.

One last thing is, a high allostatic load fills your bucket. There is no room for added stress like working out or getting a project done. If you do workout, it will take much longer for recovery and you won’t fully recover before your working out again. If you have low allostatic load then there is plenty of room for added stress and recovery from that stress.

Meditation

The first component of allostatic load I want to talk about is mental stress. It’s the one that most people are familiar with. One thing I try to get my clients to do is meditation. I don’t mean once a day for a half hour; I mean for 5 minutes about 5 times a day. We get distracted in our minds too easy. The more times a day you practise the better you’ll get at it. One of the things over achievers have in common is meditation. They say they can over achieve because they take the time to do their daily meditation.

Another thing I’d like to talk about is telomeres; they depict your age. They are the ends of your DNA strands and the older you get physically the shorter your telomeres get. Scientists have only discovered one thing that makes telomeres longer; meditation. If you don’t do meditation you will likely have a high allostatic load, age faster, never be able to overachieve, and live a stressed life.

Sleep well!!

Your Toxic Load

Your doctor will tell you that your liver takes care of toxins and that’s what they are told in med school. The truth is your liver can’t keep up anymore. There are 3000 toxins being created every year, you’re exposed to over 200 before you are born, you have approximately 700 in your body at any given time. It’s called your toxic load and it has an extremely profound effect on us. If your liver was taking care of it you wouldn’t have 700 toxins in you at any given time. Maybe your liver was keeping up a hundred years ago but not anymore.

Your toxic load increases your chances of disease and inflammation. It causes chronic fatigue and brain fog. It needs to be excreted. The heavy metals bind to mineral receptor sites and need to be unbound from places like our brain and mitochondria which are the energy factories in our cells. For more on heavy metal detox read my article on it here.

The Microbiome

We have 10 times more bacteria cells in and on us than we do human body cells, we have 10 times more viruses than we do bacteria cells, we have fungus, yeast, and all kinds of other tiny creatures. They are on our skin, in our mouths and noses, in our lungs, and mostly in our guts. This ecosystem is called our microbiome. It is involved in virtually every aspect of our physiology.

The microbiome is complicated but one thing I will mention is candida is a very common yeast overgrowth and SIBO is small intestine bacteria overgrowth. These are very common and need to be eliminated along with any other type of bad gut infection.

One other thing I should mention is firmicutes is fat person bacteria and bacteroidetes is skinny person bacteria. You can manipulate these with probiotics, antioxidants, fermented foods, and when the timing is right, resistant starch.

Oxidative stress can be caused from processes in the body like metabolism, exercise, phagocytosis, and inflammation. Sugar metabolism has 16x more oxidative stress than fat metabolism.

People are convinced they need to eat carbohydrates for energy. I hope to change that belief in people and you can read my many articles written on fat and how it should be used for your energy source. Of course, that’s not an easy diet to follow but there are many tricks to make it easier and it gets easier with practise.

All of the above have huge impacts on your hormones. When you have an imbalance, it is very likely that one of the above is the cause or most likely all of them. If these concerns are not addressed there may be a plateau in your future along with other health concerns down the line.

When one hormone is out it affects the other hormones. One will be high the other will be low. Then there will be compensation in another area. A lot of times thyroid hormone will be reduced which depicts your metabolism. Lots of weight gain starts to happen. There is a symphony going on. Manipulating your hormones is not a simple thing to do and a lot of times a specialist may be required.

What To Do

#1. Hire me.

Other Things You Can Do

True Balance is a place in Sherwood Park that offers hormone replacement therapy which is a quick fix but I like them because they educate their clients and offer solutions to the cause of the imbalance and they use bio-identical hormones as opposed to the synthetic crap your doctor will prescribe. They do a full panel and find out your nutrient deficiencies, blood cell counts, hormone levels; it’s a very in depth panel. They do get people fast results while they address their causes.

The causes will still need to be addressed. Eat well to get the nutrients your body needs and avoid oxidative stress. Meditate 5 times a day for 5 minutes at a time. You will never get really good at it but that’s why they call it practise. You will get better at it though; I promise. Detox by getting rid of as many sources as possible and get infrared rays; consider Biosil and Pectasol C. Have your microbiome tested and address major issues then feed your good bacteria.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.

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Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – Got A Slow Metabolism?

60% of people that have this don’t know it!

By Travis Wade

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Signs and Symptoms

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is the most common thyroid problem and it’s very commonly undiagnosed. As your personal trainer, why is that important to me? Your thyroid is the primary regulator of your metabolism. Hashimoto’s causes less production of thyroid hormone with transient bursts of way too much. The hypothyroid (not enough thyroid hormone), slows your metabolism causing weight gain and the transient surge of hyperthyroid (too much thyroid hormone), causes the anxiety symptoms.

Here’s some of the functions of the thyroid. It regulates:

Breathing

Heart rate

Central and peripheral nervous systems

Body weight

Muscle strength

Menstrual cycles

Body temperature

Cholesterol levels

Symptoms of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Looking at the above functions may make it easier to understand some of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Fatigue is the most common symptom followed by weight gain or inability to lose weight. Some other common symptoms are anxiety, palpitations, hair loss (eye brows), feeling colder than others around you, gut issues, IBS, brain fog, and memory loss. I’m afraid it’s much more common in women.

If you have any of these symptoms, then maybe you have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Here’s the cause, what to do about it, and how to test for it. Again, we have to talk about the microbiome and Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Autoimmune Disease

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are relatively new. The cause of most autoimmune diseases is Leaky Gut Syndrome which is also relatively new. Some of the causes of Leaky Gut Syndrome are GMOs, pesticides, plastic, pollution, preservatives and all the other toxins in our food which are relatively new as well. For the full list of culprits see my article on Leaky Gut Syndrome.

An autoimmune disease is when your body attacks itself. What happens is large molecules aren’t supposed to leak through the gut. Small molecules like amino acids, vitamins and minerals are supposed to leak through, your body absorbs these nutrients and uses them.

Peptides and proteins are big molecules that aren’t supposed to leak through but if your gut gets broken down or damaged these big molecules will leak through. That’s called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

At this point these large molecules get in the blood and your body doesn’t recognize them so you will produce antigens against them. These antigens don’t know the difference between the proteins that aren’t supposed to be in the blood and the proteins of your body. The result is the antigens will attack your own body. If there is enough of the antigens, this is an auto-immune disease.

In Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis the big protein that leaks through is gluten and when your body produces antigens against gluten those antigens don’t know the difference between the gluten and the proteins in your thyroid so the antigens will also attack your thyroid.

You might be producing antibodies attacking your thyroid for up to 10 years before any symptoms kick in. When your body produces antibodies against your thyroid, it can cause fibrosis (scar tissue), which can be painful and cause the thyroid to swell up. In this process you will eventually produce less and less thyroid hormone.

The test for Hashimoto’s is to test your blood for the antigens against your thyroid. Conventional testing tests for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), or T4 and T3 in some cases. However, the T3 and T4 will likely be normal as well in Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. That partially has to do with the adrenal glands. If you have chronic stress you will produce a substance called reverse T3. Reverse T3 attaches to the receptor sites of T3, but reverse T3 doesn’t activate the receptors for T3.

The Symphony of Hormones

Another problem with being constantly over stressed is you will burn out your adrenal glands causing Addison’s disease. A less severe condition is called adrenal fatigue, which conventional doctors say doesn’t exist, but you can get a saliva test done with a functional medicine doctor. In Addison’s or adrenal fatigue you won’t be producing enough cortisol or DHEA. The symptoms are the same as hypothyroidism.

Cortisol is an amazing anti-inflammatory. With not enough of this anti-inflammatory there will obviously be more inflammation in the body which causes all kinds of problems; one being Leaky Gut Syndrome and another being weight gain.

There is a symphony of hormones in your body. To treat the thyroid without looking at the adrenals may cause more problems. Dr. Axe actually categorizes Leaky Gut Syndrome. “Stress Gut” is when you have certain stress issues due to leaky gut. One of those problems could be thyroid problems. He talked about cortisol levels, and again, there is a balance going on; the more cortisol, the less thyroid hormone being produced.

There are different levels of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis starting with non-symptomatic progressing to full hypothyroidism and other autoimmune diseases present. Again, this is another disease caused by a crappy diet and all the toxins in our food/environment which can be helped with a proper diet and exercise plan.

How To Fix Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Proper Nutrition

The first thing you want to do to fix an unhealthy thyroid is to eliminate the toxins and get the nutrition your body needs. This alone can turn symptoms around. I recommend the 10 Day Detox Diet Cookbook by Dr. Mark Hyman. It’s a great resource and it is where I try to get all my clients to start because it teaches proper eating habits and what proper nutrition really looks like as opposed to what you’ve probably been taught by popular media.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

The next step is to fix your leaky gut. I am talking about the GAPS diet. It starts with soup for breakfast soup for lunch, soup for dinner, and soup in-between. Lucky for us there is no end to the variety of soups that can be made. You start by boiling bones and organ meats for a day. The bones and meat goes into the pot and just enough water to cover the meat and bones. Simmer that for at least 12 hours minimum. Separate the bones and other undesirables out of the pot, then add what you want.

Having said that, squashes are a great food for the spleen which is the immune system organ and in many cases helps with the problems that cause Leaky Gut Syndrome. Garlic boosts the immune system, ginger does as well, turmeric is really great for the leaky gut as well. Salt, pepper. Mmmm. Sea salt or Himalayan of course.

If you have a thyroid problem you might have a lack of iodine; or too much. T3 (active thyroid hormone), triiodothyronine has 3 iodine molecules, T4 is tetraiodothyronine, which has 4 iodine molecules. Some of the other nutrients that are necessary for a healthy thyroid are Vitamin D and B12, selenium, and iron. You need to be tested for everything. If you have too much of something, it can be just as detrimental in some cases as having not enough. Do you need iodized salt or is it killing you? Talk to your doctor and get a full blood panel done.

Then there is the absorption of nutrients. Do you have low stomach acid? Having low stomach acid can mimic high stomach acid and is sometimes treated as high stomach acid and this happens very regularly.

A side note: Iatrogenic damage [damage caused by medical practises], may be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Our neighbours that pay for doctors who might want to do a good job for more business… our doctors are free… Just so you know this happens and I’ll stop there… for now. Of course that exasperates the issue.

Low stomach acid and dysbiosis (improper balance of bacteria in the gut), prevents proper absorption of a lot of nutrients creating a lack of nutrients no matter how much nutrients you eat. With dysbiosis you might have pathogens using up iron causing the iron deficiency. Low stomach acid prevents iron from being absorbed. A fix for the low stomach acid is lemon water or apple cider vinegar water to produce more stomach acid. A doctor can put you on medications for better absorption as well.

The Microbiome

The last part of fixing Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is fixing your microbiome (the bacteria in the gut), which is an art. A conventional doctor will likely not help you with this. Conventional medicine can help you with some of the above tasks, but our free health care will not cover a lot of needs. You have to learn to take care of yourself these days. True Balance will test your microbiome to see what you have in your gut and they are extremely thorough.

SIBO is small intestine bacterial overgrowth. 50% of hypothyroid patients have SIBO which is one of the causes of leaky gut syndrome. Remove the source. This might be a herbal protocol, antibiotics, or elemental diet.

It’s a different day and age in medicine my friends. You need to do research on your own and let your doctor know what you want. I know people that are dying, and you probably do too, because you have to take responsibility for your health these days instead of asking a doctor or anyone else to take care of you.