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Hey, mama. Welcome back to another episode of The Well Nourished Mama Podcast. I'm so excited you're here and we are talking about something that has been blowing up my DMs recently. Oh my goodness. If I had a dollar for every time a mom said this, I probably wouldn't have to see one-on-one clients anymore. but I do because I want you to heal and I want you to get help. And I'm tired of you being dismissed and being told that what you have is normal. So, what we are talking about today is how most postpartum symptoms are actually thyroid dysfunction. And I hope that the dots connect for you and the light bulbs go off and everything starts to come together because, oh my gosh, I hear so many moms say, "Well, I don't really know what's a symptom and what's just postpartum. And just postpartum is in quotation marks, right? I am here to show you that just postpartum is actually thyroid dysfunction and it's just been normalized for so long that, doctors can't even tell the difference anymore. And it's, ugh, it's so frustrating. Okay, so that's what we're talking about today. Buckle up. I'm gonna bust some myths. hope that I'm gonna be able to connect the dots for you. And if you are listening to this episode and you get to the end of it and you're like, oh shoot. this is me. What's going on? Please reach out to me. Okay? Please. This is what I'm here for. Not only do I want to educate you, but I want to help you. So if you're listening and you're like, " This is literally me, " in a nutshell. She doesn't even know who I am and she's describing me perfectly. Please reach out. Please let me know. I would love to work with you. I would love to help you. I would love to get you to a point where you no longer feel like you're surviving and you don't feel like you're being dismissed. And most importantly, you are not being told, "Sorry, I can't help you, you're postpartum." Or, "Sorry I can't help you, you're breastfeeding." Or, "Sorry, that's just what it's like to be a mom." No, that's not what we do around here. Can you tell I'm feisty today? I'm not trying to be formal by any means. Okay. Let's dive in before I do something stupid. Hey mama, my name is Brooke, and just like you, I wanna show up for my kids in the best way possible. But you and I both know that that means our cup needs to be filled first. Here on the Well Nourished Mama Podcast, we learn about all the different ways we can nourish our bodies, minds, and souls in every stage of motherhood, including pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. As a mama of three and certified perinatal nutritionist and women's health coach, I'm here to educate, empower, and inspire you as you navigate your unique motherhood journey and raise your family. Tune in each week for episodes about nutrition, exercise, wellness, lactation, marriage, and so much more, and walk away with simple but actionable tips to help you be a well-nourished mama. 📍 Hey mama, does breastfeeding feel overwhelming to you? Are you constantly stressed about your milk supply? Are you tired of eating oatmeal and protein balls every day? This was exactly how I felt at the beginning of my first breastfeeding journey, and it's a hard place to be. Not only are you trying to bond with your new baby and learn how to take care of them, but you're also learning how to breastfeed successfully with what little time and energy you have left. I wish someone had told me everything I know now, so that's why I created the Milk Mama Lactation Cookbook. This incredible resource is filled with over 50 healthy lactation recipes and 13 pages of breastfeeding science to help you stay nourished all day long and troubleshoot common milk supply problems like returning to exercise, getting your period back, fighting illness, and so much more. One mama said, "My breastfeeding journey was very difficult, but these recipes were very effective and delicious. I loved all of the educational information provided 📍 so that I had a deeper understanding of what my body needed in order to produce for my girl. I highly recommend. My bestselling cookbook is available in both digital and print copies, so head to the wellnourishedmama.com and use the code Podcast to grab the Milk Mama Cookbook bundle for 15% off. Let's talk about what the thyroid is because if you don't understand the thyroid, well, of course it's not gonna make sense why your symptoms are actually thyroid dysfunction. So your thyroid is a little butterfly shaped gland, kind of like behind your throat, sort of. and it is in charge of your metabolism, your energy production, and it is very, very sensitive. It has a very, very tight negative feedback loop to keep all of the hormones and all of the things in range so that it just has that perfect Goldilocks functioning and if it starts to even go outside that Goldilocks range just a little bit, oh boy, is your body gonna feel it. and the crazy part is that your thyroid actually is one of the most stressed parts of your body during pregnancy. your HCG, which is the hormone that you test to see if you're pregnant, right? you know, you pee on a stick, dip it in the pea cup, whatever. What you're measuring is HCG. And if you successfully get pregnant, you're supposed to have HCG levels that continue to rise and stay elevated throughout all of pregnancy so that you stay pregnant. And then when you give birth, those levels fall, right? Well, HCG binds to thyroid receptors as soon as you get pregnant and it basically stimulates your thyroid into overdrive because hello, you're creating human life from scratch at the cellular level. And that takes a lot of metabolic energy. And I could go into how this perpetuates the morning sickness and the nausea and the brain fog and the fatigue and all those other things. But just know that a lot of your pregnancy symptoms actually come back to your thyroid and most of your postpartum symptoms come back to your thyroid too. So if you're not familiar with thyroid, welcome, let's familiarize ourselves with it because in my opinion, this is one of the most important things you need to understand if you are of childbearing years and you plan on having children. So anyway, during pregnancy, your thyroid is overstimulated in the first trimester for good reason. It's supposed to be that way. And then it's supposed to kind of level out and go back to doing its own thing, during the second trimester. Third trimester, we are gonna see a little bit of a rise again, as we prepare for labor and delivery. We don't have to worry about the mechanics behind that. And then after you give birth, your thyroid, whoa, there's no more HCG bound to it, and so now it's extremely underactive, okay? And it's gonna be that way for a couple days, but in theory, if you know how to nourish your body in postpartum, my new mama cookbook is perfect for that. If you know how to nourish your body in early postpartum and actually help yourself transition from pregnancy to childbirth to postpartum without adding more stress on your body, then your thyroid should start to normalize about a week later. Like it really is that fast. and in theory, everything goes back to pre-pregnancy function. Now here's the problem, society does not support postpartum like it should, neither doctors. unless you follow me, you've probably never been taught how to take care of your body postpartum. a lot of the myths out there about, oh, you can't exercise at all until six weeks postpartum, or, you know, you need to follow the 555 rule and stay in bed for like two weeks straight. Those are all myths, and I'm happy to discuss those another time. But basically, nobody knows the best way to support your body in early postpartum. And so of course we're going to see all these symptoms come up because your body is going through this major transition period with little to no support. So yeah, your body's gonna start to break down a little bit and you're not gonna feel so good. And we are so quick to say, "Oh, of course I feel this way. I'm not sleeping through the night. Oh, of course I feel this way. I just had a baby. Oh, of course I feel this way. I have two other toddlers at home. Wow, I'm caring for a newborn." Okay, yeah. That's a part of the story, but it's not the reason your body is running on empty. Your body is running on empty because it's not being taken care of. And this isn't to like throw shade and say that you're terrible, horrible, and you don't care about your body. That's not what I'm saying. The clients that come to work with me are the mamas who care about their body more than anybody else. They are putting in the work and they just haven't figured out how to optimize it. So anyway, we go into postpartum, we're not supported the way that we want, and our thyroid takes the hit. Now, here's another myth that I have to dispel in almost every single DM that I get, and that is that a thyroid diagnosis is not a thyroid problem. I'm gonna say that one more time. A thyroid diagnosis is not a thyroid problem. So if you've been diagnosed with Hashimoto's, Graves' hyperthyroid or hypothyroid or postpartum thyroiditis, that is not a thyroid problem. Your thyroid is the victim. That is where you're seeing your body start to fall apart, but that's not why. That's not the root cause. And so when we see thyroid diagnosis, when we see thyroid symptoms, we need to take a step back and say, "Oh my gosh, what's causing that? " It's not your thyroid, spoiler alert. So there's some context for our conversation. Now let's talk about why your postpartum symptoms that have been so normalized for so long actually are thyroid dysfunction in disguise. And if you don't catch it soon enough and you don't speak up for yourself, you very well could end up with a thyroid diagnosis. 15% of postpartum moms develop a chronic thyroid condition in the first 12 months postpartum, and 80% of all Hashimoto's patients are women. So the odds are not in your favor. However, you're following me, you're listening to me, I'm here to make sure that you do not become a statistic. So let's talk about it. I have a post on Instagram and I can link it in the show notes so you can see the little, Venn diagram that I put together. It's actually really cute and I spent a long time on it, so you should go look at it. but it's this Venn diagram where one side is quote just postpartum and the other side is thyroid dysfunction. And in the middle, right, that's where the two things have commonalities. There's only five symptoms that they actually share. Other than that, everything else is totally separated. So let me give you a good idea. On the postpartum side, we have sleep deprived. On the thyroid side, we have severe fatigue. There is a difference between being sleep deprived, not getting a full night's sleep, and being severely fatigued, to the point where it doesn't matter how much you rest, you still feel exhausted, and no matter how much caffeine, or energy drinks, or coffee, or stimulants you take, you are still exhausted. it doesn't matter how much you cut back on exercise, it doesn't matter how good you're eating, you are still severely fatigued. That is thyroid dysfunction, and unfortunately, almost all of postpartum moms feel severely fatigued. That's not normal. I don't know if you can hear me whispering, but it's not normal. Dear Mama, I know you know this feeling. Your baby reaches for you when they're tired, overwhelmed, or just need comfort. And without even thinking, you scoop them up, hold them close, and help them feel safe again. We do that all day, every day, holding, comforting, and supporting everyone around us. But here's something I realized, just like our little ones need to be held, so do we. And for me, that moment comes at the end of the day when I finally get into bed and snuggle into my cozier sheets. They're made from viscous from bamboo, and they're incredibly soft, breathable, and temperature regulating. So when I crawl into bed, it genuinely feels like exhaling, like I'm being taken care of for once. And the best part is, you can try them completely risk free. Cozier offers a hundred night sleep trial so you can experience that level of comfort for yourself. And they're backed by a 10-year warranty because this is the kind of comfort that's meant to last. With Mother's Day coming up, this is your reminder that you deserve to feel held to. Or honestly, send this to omeone who needs a hint. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code WellMama. That's W-E-L-L-M-A-M-A for 20% off your order. And if you see a post-purchase survey, let them know you heard about Cozy Earth right here on the Well-Nourished Mama Podcast. Because you spend all day every day holding everyone else, it's time to have something that holds you back. So, I want you to see this contrast. Just postpartum is sleep deprived. It's a part of postpartum. We can't get around it. Even if you choose to formula feed your baby, you will still be sleep deprived because they have to be woken up and fed and they're gonna have blowouts in their sleep, right? So even if you're not breastfeeding, you're still sleep deprived, okay? So sleep deprived versus severe fatigue. Another great one. just postpartum, upregulated nervous system. Biologically, this is how you are supposed to be in those first eight to 12 weeks postpartum, where your nervous system is on high alert most of the time, because, hello, you have this tiny human that you just ejected out of your body one way or another, and they're a potato. They can't do anything. They need you for 100% of everything that goes on in their life. And your primal instinct is to keep them safe, right? So of course you're gonna have an upregulated nervous system. It's meant to protect and provide. Now, contrast that with thyroid dysfunction, we have anxiety. How many moms describe what they are feeling as anxiety? I have these intrusive thoughts. I have these thoughts about, you know, using my chef's knife to prepare my food, and then all of a sudden, somehow my chef's knife flies out of my hand and hurts my baby, right? These crazy intrusive thoughts, this anxiety that never seems to go away that is, like, debilitating, and you can feel it in your whole body. Even if you were having the most beautiful moment with your family, you still feel your shoulders raised. You still feel the sweat on your hands. You, you know, get the jitters or you maybe you have a racing heart. That is not just postpartum. Just postpartum is an upregulated nervous system. Anxiety is a symptom of thyroid dysfunction. Let's talk about some more. just postpartum, we have broken sleep, right? Baby's waking up every three or four hours, and so it's really hard to get a long stretch of sleep. That's a part of postpartum. That's normal. Insomnia is not normal. You should be able to fall asleep with little to no effort when it's bedtime. You should wake up feeling restored for the most part, even if you had some interruptions in the middle of the night, and you should have enough energy to get throughout your day. If you have insomnia, that is not postpartum. That is thyroid dysfunction. another one, just postpartum, totally normal, increased hunger cues. Hello, it takes energy to heal your body. Your caloric intake is actually higher in early postpartum than it is in the third trimester of pregnancy. So yeah, you're gonna have increased hunger cues. You're gonna feel ... Some moms describe it as ravenous, right? But you're gonna feel hungrier. You're gonna want to eat more food. you're gonna have those increased hunger cues, those increased caloric needs. If you're breastfeeding, it's even higher, right? That is postpartum. That is normal. Contrast that with cravings. That is thyroid dysfunction. If you are craving sweets, if you are craving salt, if you are craving carbs, that is thyroid dysfunction. That is not just postpartum. And I am being generalized here. There could be a lot of other reasons you have cravings, but in this specific example, contrasting increased hunger cues with cravings is what I'm trying to get at, okay? Don't come at me. Just postpartum. Breastfeeding or not, you should see gradual weight loss without really having to try, right? Our blood volume goes down, and, you know, our uterus is shrinking and there's no longer a baby in our body. So yeah, we are gonna see gradual weight loss. A lot of the fluid retention, right? And that extra body fat that we needed, some of it will go away on its own. That's what it's supposed to be like in postpartum. Now, if you want to truly, like, get back in shape, that requires effort. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about if all you did was sit on the couch all day long and take care of your baby in early postpartum, you should still be able to gradually lose weight over time. Contrast that with thyroid dysfunction. This is where we're seeing weight loss resistance and/or weight gain. A lot of moms are like, "Well, I'm breastfeeding. Like, of course I'm not losing weight." No. You should still be able to lose weight if you're breastfeeding. And if you can't, you either don't understand how to fuel your body properly, or you have an underlying condition like thyroid dysfunction. And this could be hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. So again, are we seeing the picture where a lot of the things that we've been taught are normal for postpartum are actually extreme and they're actually symptoms of thyroid dysfunction, okay? Another one, would be like night sweats where you're feeling hot or warm most of the time, and then you might have some night sweats at night. That is normal for postpartum. And if you know me, I am very intentional about when I say normal versus common. It is normal to run a little bit hot in early postpartum, and night sweats are part of that journey, okay? With thyroid dysfunction, we have poor temperature regulations. So you are oscillating between cold and hot, and you air more on the side of cold where it's 74 degrees in the house, and you need a sweater and socks, or you go outside and it's 80 degrees, but there's a breeze and you need a jacket, right? That is poor temperature regulation. That is a sign of thyroid dysfunction. Some of the other ones on the list are, brain fog, low motivation, non-restorative sleep, and afternoon crash. So if you can't make it past that two, three o'clock slump without some sort of stimulant or a nap, that's not normal. That could be a sign of thyroid dysfunction. Are you seeing the picture here? Okay. So let's talk about some of the things that these two conditions share, postpartum and thyroid dysfunction. You're gonna see night sweats with both. You're gonna see mood swings with both. You're gonna see hair loss with both. However, hair loss would be more chronic with thyroid dysfunction, whereas postpartum it would be acute. So it would be like a short two to three month phase. If it's anything outside of three to six months postpartum, like those specific months, then I would err on the side of thyroid dysfunction. constipation, there's a lot of hormonal changes that happen in early postpartum. and so that is also shared with thyroid dysfunction, so you can say, "Oh yeah, well, it could be either," right? and then joint pain and aches. This one's a little bit tricky. There's a lot of acute inflammation in early postpartum, and if it's not being managed, it can become chronic. So I like to say if you're still having joint pain or muscle aches or achy joints anywhere after four weeks postpartum, then I would start investigating thyroid dysfunction, and inflammation rather than just saying, "Oh, well, of course I feel that way. It's postpartum." So again, if you're having a hard time kind of getting the picture of what I was just talking about, go read my Instagram post. I created a graphic that's a Venn diagram and I'll link it in the show notes. and hopefully that will make more sense. But what I want to really highlight here is the nuance of the discussion. We are talking about a difference in severity, okay? So both sides talk about fatigue. Both sides talk about metabolic changes. Both sides talk about mental health challenges. However, the severity is quite different between the two, right? Think about, upright, upregulated nervous system versus anxiety. Anxiety is more chronic, it's more severe, it's more debilitating, and it's more, felt throughout the whole body, okay? all this to say, if you are postpartum and you're like, "Hmm, yeah, I have some of those more severe symptoms and I was just told that it was part of postpartum or it was part of being a mom, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to your provider and I want you to ask for a full thyroid panel. Your provider's gonna be tempted to only check TSH, that's your thyroid stimulating hormone." And I want you to look them in the eyes and say, "I would like a full thyroid panel. Here's what that means. I want TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3, TPO antibodies." Those five markers are what I would consider a full thyroid panel. You could also include, T3 uptake and TG antibodies. Those are really only for very specific circumstances. So technically there are other thyroid markers, but I wouldn't bother with those unless you're working with a practitioner like myself who understands the special cases for those. So again, ask for a full thyroid panel. And even if you aren't having any symptoms yet, let's say you just had your baby two weeks ago. I want you to show up to your six week postpartum appointment and ask for this full thyroid panel that I just mentioned because without early screening, even if you don't necessarily have any symptoms yet, you are more likely to be a statistic because providers are gonna say, "Well, you're too early postpartum, your hormones are out of whack, like there's no point in checking." Yes, there is because we need somewhere to start. Maybe you don't have any symptoms yet, but you check your labs at six weeks and then you check them at 12. If they're worse, well, it's a darn good thing that we checked because now you can see that you're trending in the wrong direction, right? I wouldn't panic at six weeks postpartum if your labs come back and you're like, "Mm." Okay. Like you can obviously still like talk to someone like me and see if there needs to be immediate action or if we should wait a little bit. But my point is, you need early screening. You need to have your doctor on board with this and you also need to be aware of how your nutrition and your lifestyle, your circadian rhythm and your nervous system all play into this. And if you don't take action soon, things are going to get worse. Most of my clients have had chronic thyroid problems for years. Like one of my moms has had three kids. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto's seven years ago after her first baby, and she's just now getting the help that she needs. She has been chronically ill, severely debilitated, absolutely not okay for seven years because nobody took her seriously, nobody took her seriously after she had her baby. And even after she had her diagnosis, nobody took her seriously. And she is now paying the price for it where her healing journey is way harder, way longer and way slower because of it. Now, she is still healing like we are making a lot of progress because she finally has someone who is taking her seriously, a. K.a. Me. but my point is she didn't have to suffer for eight years. She could have avoided this if she had a doctor who understood and she had the knowledge and information to say, "I want to have these labs run at six weeks no matter how I feel." So all of that to say, I want to make sure that you do not become a statistic. I want to make sure that you get the help that you need. I also want you to know that most thyroid disease is entirely preventable. There are so many ways that we can see early warning signs of thyroid dysfunction before getting a chronic diagnosis. and like I mentioned, we looked at the postpartum symptoms versus thyroid dysfunction. If you check at least three of those boxes that I mentioned, I want you to go get labs tomorrow. And then I want you to reach out to me and say, "Oh my gosh, I listened to your podcast episode. I'm ordering labs from my provider. What do I do? This is how I'm feeling." Okay? I want you to reach out for help. if you already have a diagnosis, a. K.a. Hashimoto's or hyperthyroidism or postpartum thyroiditis, and you're on medication, you have to figure out the root cause, ASAP, because otherwise you will be chronically ill for the rest of your life and you will be on medication for the rest of your life. You need to find a root cause. That's what I specialize in, is finding the root cause of thyroid dysfunction. Like I mentioned, your thyroid is not the problem, your thyroid is the victim. So if you have a thyroid diagnosis and you were never told what was causing it, we need to change that because otherwise you're gonna be sick for the rest of your life. So again, reach out to me. I would love to chat. I hope this was insightful and helps you see, okay, I shouldn't brush off these symptoms. And heck, if you're four years postpartum or 15 years postpartum and you're experiencing these symptoms, fricking go get some blood work done and then message me. One of my clients, she just signed up to work with me last month, she is nearing perimenopause. I think she's in her early 40s or her mid- 40s. I think she's in her mid- 40s. She has, teenagers and college kids. Like her kids are all grown up and she came to me with Hashimoto's and she's like, " I have been this way for 15 years and I need help." It is never too late to get help. So most of the time I am talking to early postpartum, i.e. Like the first 12 months postpartum, but if you're outside of that range and you're still experiencing these symptoms or you've had this diagnosis, it is not too late to get help. It is not too late to heal your body. It is not too late to feel better. So please reach out to me if you have any questions about what you've listened to today or if you're like, "Oh my gosh, like I need to work with someone who actually knows what they're talking about and understands what the heck is going on with my body and actually wants to help me, I would love to help you. I will put the link to, apply for a discovery call with me in the show notes as well. So if you want to skip the DMs and just go straight to booking a discovery call with me, go ahead and do that. if you would rather chat with me first, send me a DM, told me you l- tell me that you listen to the episode and I'd be happy to chat with you and see, kind of what's going on if you're a good fit for my program, all that kind of stuff. I do currently have openings for clients right now and I just added a practitioner to my team actually. So there's now two of us that are available to help you and I am so passionate about this. I discovered that almost all the clients that were coming to me had chronic thyroid issues and so now I'm kind of niching down for a bit and focusing on thyroid. but at the end of the day, I just, I'm here to support moms. So if you need help, please reach out. If this episode made some light bulbs go off, please reach out. I would love to help. All right, mama, that's it for this week. I will see you in the next episode. And that's the end of another episode. I hope you love today's topic as much as I did. You can find all of today's show notes and details at the wellnourshedwama.com/podcast, as well as all of my recipes and resources on the blog. If you found this episode hopeful, inspirational, or motivational, please leave a five-star rating and review so other mamas can discover the podcast too. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any new episodes. As always, your amazing lama, don't forget it. I'll see you in the next episode. Love you.
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