Thyroid Answers Podcast

Many people start T3 medication hoping for more energy and mental clarity—only to end up feeling wired, anxious, or unable to sleep. In this episode of Thyroid Shorts, Dr. Eric Balcavage explains why too much or too little T3 can both amplify anxiety and insomnia, and how to restore calm by shifting from defense mode to recovery mode. You'll learn how the brain's fear center (the amygdala) interprets stress, how local T3 activity inside the brain differs from global thyroid output, and why "state before hormone" is the key to lasting recovery. Featuring insights from two pivotal papers: Psychoneuroendocrinology (2024): Evidence for thyroid hormone regulation of amygdala-dependent fear relevant memory and plasticity PLoS ONE (2011): Adult-Onset Hypothyroidism Enhances Fear Memory and Up-regulates Mineralocorticoid and Glucocorticoid Receptors in the Amygdala Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro – Is T3 causing your anxiety and insomnia? 02:00 – Input → Interpretation → Response: how the brain reads threat 05:00 – The amygdala as the body's alarm system 08:00 – The Threat Perception Loop and defense physiology 11:00 – Local vs global thyroid adaptation: T3 in the amygdala 13:00 – The T3 Paradox: too little vs too much T3 17:00 – Shifting from defense to recovery mode 19:00 – Key takeaways & how to calm the system before adjusting hormone Key Takeaway: Your thyroid follows your brain's perception of safety. Calming the nervous system restores efficient T3 conversion—without overstimulation.

Rewiring the Brain for Thyroid Recovery with Dr. Patrick Porter What if you could train your brain to help your thyroid recover? In this episode, Dr. Eric Balcavage sits down with Dr. Patrick Porter, creator of BrainTap®, to explore how brainwave training, stress regulation, and nervous-system balance can unlock your body's natural healing potential. In this conversation: How chronic stress keeps the brain stuck in "danger mode" and blocks thyroid recovery Why the amygdala, HPA axis, and thyroid are part of one continuous feedback loop The role of neuroplasticity and brainwave entrainment in calming the body's stress response Practical tools to shift from survival to safety mode—naturally How BrainTap supports sleep, energy, focus, and overall metabolic balance 🎧 Listen now to understand how "rewiring the brain" can help your thyroid finally respond the way it should. 👉 Learn more or schedule a Discovery Call with Dr. Balcavage at www.drericbalcavage.com 🎥 Watch more episodes on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@askdreric Dr. Patrick K. Porter is a pioneer in brainwave entrainment and the creator of BrainTap®, a technology used by over 120,000 people and 3,000+ clinics worldwide to restore balance and optimize brain performance. For more than three decades, he's explored how visualization, neuroplasticity, and sound/light stimulation can help people rewire their brains for better sleep, focus, and healing—without pills or guesswork. Featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The Joe Rogan Experience, Dr. Porter continues to lead a global movement to help people unlock their brain's innate ability to heal, perform, and thrive. Dr Porter's contact info: https://www.youtube.com/@drpatrickporter https://braintap.com/ https://instagram.com/braintaptech

Every winter, TSH rises—but that doesn't mean thyroid failure. Dr Eric Balcavage explains how photoperiod, melatonin, and circannual rhythms alter TRH → TSH → T3 and why seasonal adaptation is often misdiagnosed as hypothyroidism. In this episode, you'll learn: ✅ How shorter days and colder temperatures reset the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis ✅ Why macro-TSH raises lab TSH without true hypothyroidism ✅ How both conventional and functional models misread winter physiology ✅ Five ways to align with your seasonal thyroid rhythm (light, rest, minerals, movement, patience)

Stress and Holiday Hypothyroidism | How Stress Lowers T3 and Raises rT3 | Dr. Eric Balcavage – Thyroid Shorts Ep. 19 The holidays are supposed to be joyful — but for many with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's, they trigger fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, and anxiety. In this episode, Dr. Eric Balcavage, creator of the Adaptive Thyroid Model™, explains how stress physiology, poor sleep, and inflammation can turn down your thyroid hormone activity — even when your blood tests look "normal." Learn why holiday stress, late nights, sugar spikes, alcohol, and over-training push your body into a reverse T3 (rT3) dominant state — what Dr. Balcavage calls Holiday Hypothyroidism — and how to fix it naturally. In this episode, you'll learn: ✅ What reverse T3 is — and how it shuts down active T3 inside your cells ✅ How cortisol, IL-6, and TNF-α change deiodinase enzyme activity (DIO1/2 ↓, DIO3 ↑) ✅ Why your thyroid "slows down" under stress — it's protection, not failure ✅ The 5-Day rT3 Reset — a practical plan for restoring thyroid balance ✅ How to lower inflammation, improve sleep, and support bile flow during the holidays

Most people are told: "If you have thyroid antibodies, you have Hashimoto's. If you don't, you don't." In this episode, Dr. Eric Balcavage, creator of the Adaptive Thyroid Model™, revisits that idea and shows why antibodies are only one piece of a much bigger picture. Discover how: ✅ Th1 and Th17 T-cells, CD8 T-cells, and low T-regs drive thyroid inflammation and tissue damage ✅ PAMPs (pathogen signals) and DAMPs (cell-danger signals) can bind to pattern-recognition receptors [PRRs] on thyroid cells, triggering cytokines and interferon activity ✅ Antibodies may confirm Hashimoto's, but their absence doesn't rule it out (seronegative Hashimoto's is real) ✅ Addressing the drivers of immune imbalance — gut permeability, sleep debt, oxidative stress, nutrient deficiencies — can help restore tolerance and thyroid function Dr. Balcavage breaks down the latest research on how inflammation starts inside the thyroid, why the body isn't "attacking" itself, and what a true recovery plan looks like. 🎯 Key Takeaway: Antibodies show the aftermath — not the origin — of thyroid autoimmunity. To heal, identify and remove the stressors that keep the immune system in defense mode. www.drericbalcavage.com