As anyone who has worked with me in my clinical practice may know, I feel very strongly about monitoring thyroid function and trying to optimize it. Plus, I get questions ALL the time surrounding it. Because of that, I am so excited to have an expert on the thyroid, Dr. Eric Balcavage, on this episode to talk about this important topic. Dr. Eric Balcavage is a functional medicine practitioner, chiropractor, host of the Thyroid Answers Podcast, and the co-author of the book, The Thyroid Debacle. The book co-written by Kelly Halderman MD, addresses the problems with current allopathic and functional medicine approaches to hypothyroidism as well as the solutions to restoring thyroid physiology. Dr. Balcavage is also the owner and founder of Rejuvagen, a functional medicine clinic in Chadds Ford, PA. As a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner and being Board Certified in Integrative Medicine, he is a nationally recognized speaker and educator on various health related topics including thyroid physiology, bile physiology, detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation and chronic illness. He has made it his mission to change the way medicine looks at hypothyroidism. If you're suffering with a skin condition, have you checked into thyroid function? Were you surprised by it? Let me know in the comments below! In this episode: What does it mean for your thyroid to not be working the way that it should? What can cause a cell to perceive danger and affect its function? The difference between the body having dysfunction vs. creating an adaptive response Dr. Balcavage's opinion on having Hashimoto's- is it different than having any other thyroid problems? The elephant in the room- why should you even care about your thyroid if you're having skin issues?? FREE things to do to reduce stress responses in your body which affect the thyroid and skin health Finally...Which diet is best? (It's probably not what you think!) Quotes “If we have a population that's about 50% overweight or obese and if about 50% of the population has some type of blood sugar regulation issues going on, then the number of people that struggle with problems with thyroid signal physiology and tissue or cellular hypothyroidism is probably closer to 50 or 60%." [05:17] "What's the biggest organ to dump stuff out if you have a bad gut, bad liver, and bad gallbladder? Skin is one of the best places to dump it out. If you have an immune inflammatory issue, you're producing a bunch of inflammatory chemicals that are going to have an impact on the skin." [18:36] Links Find Dr. Eric online at his Rejuvagen clinic Follow Dr. Eric on Youtube | Facebook | Instagram Get Dr. Balcavage's book The Thyroid Debacle Healthy Skin Show ep. 101: Psoriasis-Thyroid Connection Healthy Skin Show ep. 023: How Low Thyroid Plays A Role In Skin Rashes w/ Dr. Izabella Wentz Thyroid Skin Rashes: The Hidden Connection No One Talks About