If there’s one thing that we just don’t accept in this country, it’s getting old. We fight wrinkles and gray hair, we have mid-life crises and go ride motorcycles or do something else to prove we’ve still got it, men take Viagra and testosterone enhancers, and we resist the question “how old are you?” While we grudgingly accept that we can’t stop the clock, we also do everything we can to appear to turn it back a bit.
Covering up the ravages of time changes nothing for our longevity. The way to really turn back the effects of aging is to build our health. Health projects youth more than cosmetics, and it is attractive to others at any age much more than any artificial trappings. Not only do you feel better, but others will notice that you seem more youthful.
The second thing we don’t accept, and maybe shouldn’t accept, is feeling old. Yet again we often turn to artificial ways to feel younger, We notice some decline, so we turn to medicine to rev up our metabolism, improve our memory, and enhance concentration. We figure that age is going to have symptoms, and we know how to treat symptoms with medicine.
We do age. That is inevitable. And there are some aspects of metabolism which tend to decline with age. We often get confused between legitimate age-caused changes and environmentally-caused diseases as we age. It’s also fair to note that our resistance to environmental assaults on our bodies lowers with age, adding to the confusion. But it is easy to blame age for symptoms that are really the result of poor lifestyle. Age becomes the scapegoat, a convenient excuse for our decline. And medicine is the hero, appearing to ride in on a white horse to make us seem more youthful for a little while.
Adding dye to graying hair is a benign approach to looking younger, but using drugs to change our body metabolism could cause harm, because drugs are generally toxic and have side effects. Messing around with the way our bodies function is saying that the intricate design we all have inside is flawed, and medicine can fix it. But medicine comes at a cost, usually throwing off one aspect of our health while dealing with another.
The best goal is to age gracefully while increasing longevity. If we aren’t careful, we could decrease longevity by insisting upon masking the symptoms which we associate with age.
We’re tired of this
Fatigue is a top complaint of patients coming in for doctor’s appointments. Many will drink coffee in the morning just to get going, and then need a sedative at night to get sleep. The expectation of society is enormous, considering that most jobs require little physical energy while demanding high mental energy. Many health conditions manifest in tiredness, especially conditions which tend to afflict older adults.
So you are not happy with your level of energy. You go to the doctor, who runs some tests. You don’t have heart disease or diabetes, but your thyroid appears a bit low. How was that determined? Your TSH level appears high — TSH is “thyroid-stimulating hormone” — meaning that your pituitary gland is calling for more thyroid activity. You may get a follow-up test that says that your thyroid hormone T-4 is low. So the doctor puts you on thyroid medication, which is supposed to deal with your fatigue.
Active thyroid prescriptions have doubled in the United States since 1997. Somewhere between 7% to 8% of the population is taking them currently, and the American Thyroid Association states that over 12% of the population will experience a “thyroid condition” at some point in their lives. When patients complain of being tired, physicians start testing for thyroid. Levothyroxine (LT4) is the primary drug for treating hypothyroidism (low thyroid and high TSH). In a review article published in Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers reviewed trends in LT4 prescription. Reasons that they found for the increased LT4 prescription levels included more treatment of minor cases of elevated TSH levels and increased use of LT4 for older patients. “In other words, the threshold TSH that precipitates LT4 prescription has decreased over the years.” Essentially, treating thyroid conditions when a hint of low thyroid function occurs has become popular, so more physicians are prescribing LT4. (1)
This says that even doctors can be swept into fads and popular thinking. They get more complaints of fatigue, and treating with LT4 is an easy answer. Treatment of the symptom rather than the root cause is easier and the patient often feels better knowing that some action is being taken. We have to consider both the doctor’s role and the patient’s in making a treatment protocol popular. Patients want action, and a prescription feels like action is being taken. Patients are the doctors’ responsibility, and doctors like to keep their patients happy. That leads to quick, easy solutions rather than working through the often slower natural process.
Well, if your thyroid is sluggish, shouldn’t you do something to correct it? Is there a natural process you can follow? Diet is a factor: iodine, zinc, and selenium can support thyroid function. Many seeds provides these elements, and garlic and spinach are good iodine sources. Diet impacts your gut flora, which then impact how well these and other nutrients are absorbed.
Thyroid function is just a part of the complex mechanism which is your body. What affects your overall health can impact thyroid. What doctors are often seeing that appears to be a thyroid condition is instead a normal reaction of the patient to stress, hydration, nutrition, exercise, and sleep. You might be amazed at how many blood test readings go “out of range” when your body gets generally out of balance. Trying to treat multiple symptoms then becomes a game of “whack a mole”, where a new problem (or multiple problems) pop up after treating one issue. With the popularity of thyroid treatments, it certainly appears that thyroid function has become one of the moles in this game.
One for the ages
Perhaps we are simply on the wrong track with modern medicine when it comes to fatigue and appropriate treatments for it. Tiredness has many causes, and the biggest is mental stress. Bad thoughts, whether conscious or subconscious, will wear down your energy faster than most anything else. That makes thyroid treatment a perfect target for a doctor, being much easier to address. As we get older, we are more likely to complain about issues which also cause tiredness and lethargy. That would also explain the rise in LT4 prescriptions for older adults.
One study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests a novel approach to treating mental symptoms, such as depression, which often lead doctors to pursue thyroid treatment. Depression definitely leads to fatigue. The researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, CA found a surprising link between body temperature and depression. They studied 20,000 participants in 106 countries to see if the body temperature of the participants was a predictor of depression. They found that increased levels of depression corresponded to higher body temperatures. Apparently depression caused the body, presumably due to brain signaling, to increase metabolism and the resulting body temperature. (2) They presumed that treatments to lower body temperature would reduce depression. We do know that lower body temperature generally means lower metabolism, so they appear to be implying that a lower metabolism means lower depression.
Now we have to wonder: if lower body temperature and lower metabolism also reduce depression, should we be trying to raise both artificially? Since thyroid adjusts metabolism, if we read slightly low on the thyroid function tests, is that such a bad thing? If it isn’t, then prescribing drugs to push thyroid function could actually cause harm, and the metabolism push should increase depression. Well, that’s been studied too. Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers performed a case-control study of LT4 treated women versus normal thyroid women. Those under thyroid treatment had a 13% level of depression compared to less than 5% with normal thyroid levels. This certainly suggests that the LT4 drug is also promoting depression to some degree. (3) That could be to some toxic effects of the drug, but in light of the previous study, it seems likely that the drug is increasing metabolism, which in turn is increasing depression.
No cutting in line
This is why getting to the root cause of an ailment, treating that cause, and letting the body reset all the downstream effects is better than the blunt drug approach. The body is just too complex to expect shortcut solutions to work very well. Trying to jump to the head of the line just messes up the whole line. Treating a hormone level due to a lab test is trying to second-guess the natural design.
This may be an example of how our rejection of apparent age is actually harming our ability to age gracefully. By trying to augment metabolism, we are doing harm: directly by promoting depression, and over the long term by shortening longevity. The correlation between longevity and metabolism rate has been well studied. Published in Discovery Medicine, researchers reviewed other studies to examine this very issue. While explanations of why this is true vary, something about sustained higher metabolism throughout life tends to shorten life. It could be the sustained accumulation of oxidative stress over a lifetime, or the higher cell turnover rate could be a factor — whatever it is, the researchers clearly show that there is a correlation. Higher overall metabolism isn’t the way to age gracefully or live long.
What about exercise? Clearly that raises metabolism, but we know that the resting heart rate is lower for those who are physically fit; in fact, resting heart rate is one of the measures of such fitness. Those who exercise gain a milder resting metabolism, and they more than make up for the high metabolism during exercise. Plus they reduce stress which would otherwise harm their longevity.
As we age, things change. Our bodies adjust to each phase of life in predictable and intentional ways. They aren’t accidents to be corrected — unless environment is considered — and that’s where the trouble comes from. Age is something to be embraced. It’s going to happen anyway, but we can delay its effects. Trying to cheat and thwart age is a great way to promote aging. If you are tired, what’s the real reason? Chances are you didn’t get cursed with a defective thyroid. Age well, live a good lifestyle, and enjoy each phase of life. We only live this physical life once, so make the best of it!
Dr. Nemec’s Review
Let’s extrapolate the International journal of Environmental Research article that stated those under thyroid treatment had a 13% level of depression compared to less than 5% with normal thyroid levels. Now let’s take it to the next step: those that would have low thyroid function, but living the natural life they were meant to live — they would have zero depression. They would have quite the opposite: they would have peace, joy and love in a way they have not had it before. When you balance the brain and balance the hundred trillion cells in the body naturally, you have the most amazing benefit: not simply just getting rid of depression — you have the opposite. You’re now living life to the full. You’re experiencing joy and peace and love like you’ve never experienced before because you’re balanced in your brain and in every single cell in your body: all are working together in harmony, all are one.
The simple message is this: your body knows what to do. It does this innately. Your body knows how to age for longevity if you take care of it. You were designed to live to 100 and beyond with normal function, both mentally and physically, while not dependent on medication. This was the natural design from the beginning, but to manifest this natural outcome you must live the life that you were naturally meant to live, THIS IS THE PROBLEM: most people are not living the natural life they were meant to live. That way was dropped long ago with modern society and technological advances. These advances often interfere with their allowing their bodies to live the way they were originally programmed to live — the natural way.
So what’s the take-home message about longevity and the thyroid? LESS IS MORE!
We will say it again: less is more!
Less stimulated metabolism equals a higher quality life mentally, emotionally, and physically, and more quantity of life.
BUT — and this is a big but: to achieve this, you must go back to basics. Return to the basics of health that you were designed to live and that most everyone has strayed from with our modern society and technology.
At Revolution New Medicine, we have addressed these basics for over 40 years. We called them the Seven Basic Steps to Total Health. They could also be named the seven basic steps to optimized aging and longevity. These seven basic steps are just bringing us back to the original plan, the original design for every man, woman, and child on the planet.
Now we know what you’re thinking, especially if you’re on thyroid medication. We have been treating patients with thyroid conditions for over 40 years, treating them with our protocol addressing the mind, brain, emotions, and body the correct way — not trying to do a patch job for an energy fix. The reason we tell you this in confidence is: with thousands of patients these results are reproducible. We’ve had almost all patients get off their thyroid medication and usually very quickly. We’ve even had patients who didn’t have a thyroid gland stop their thyroid medication and still have normal thyroid hormones upon lab testing. Seems impossible? A balanced mind, brain, emotion and body can produce hormone from non-hormonal cells that under normal circumstances do not produce that hormone.
How can this be?
The original design was and IS truly amazing. We don’t even comprehend how powerful this original design was and IS. Instead, we have grabbed quick fixes all along the way, and now we’re living a life of quick fixes. This is like building your house on sinking sand. This is not very wise. It’s not a good investment, so most people in this world are not investing very well in their lives, in their aging and in their longevity. And because of this, they end up age and longevity bankrupt.
So let me close with a simple analogy: if you have a beautiful red rose that you purchased for the love of your life, what is the best way to preserve it the longest? Let it sit on the counter, set it outside in 98° sun, or put it in the refrigerator?
Yes, it lasts longer in a lower temperature. You have a much slower breakdown at a lower temperature. Studies on centenarians — people that live to be 100 — show that most all of them are low in thyroid hormone. Could this be the body’s natural mechanism to slow down cellular growth and oxidation at the cellular level that causes free radical formation?
When you balance the brain, you balance the body — this is the basis of our protocol at Revolution New Medicine. We bring the brain and the body into balance naturally. When you do this, you have the ultimate health, life and longevity, and it’s done naturally, the way it was meant in the beginning.
Do not try to reinvent the wheel. There already is a perfect design. We just must get back to basics, back to the beginning, and align to that design.
Here are the ways we can help you in your health journey:
- Outpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-has the most benefit of teaching, treatment, live classes and personalized coaching. This program has the most contact with Dr. Nemec with 3- 6 month programs that can be turned into a regular checking and support program for life. This is our core program that has helped so many restore their health and maintain that restoration for years.
- Inpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-is our four-week intensive inpatient program for those that are not in driving distance, usually over 4 hour drive. This is the program that is an intensive jumpstart with treatment, teaching, live classes and coaching designed for all our international patients along with those in the US that do not live in Illinois. This program is very effective especially when combined with our new membership program support.
- Stay at Home Program-is offered to continental US patients who cannot come to Revolution New Medicine but still want a more personal, customized plan to restore their health. This program also includes our Learn Membership Program.
- Membership Program is our newest program offered for those that want to work on their health at a high level and want access to the teaching at Revolution New Medicine along with the Forums: both Dr. Nemec’s posts and other members posting. And also, to have the chance to get personalized questions answered on the conference calls which are all archived in case you miss the call. The Membership Program has 3 levels to choose from: Learn, Overcome and Master. The difference is at the Overcome and Master levels you received one on one calls with Dr. Nemec personalizing your program for your areas of focus.
(1) Jonklaas, Jacqueline, and Sameer DeSale. “Levothyroxine prescriptions trends may indicate a downtrend in prescribing.” Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism vol. 11 2042018820920551. 19 May. 2020, doi:10.1177/2042018820920551,
(2) Ashley E. Mason, Patrick Kasl, Severine Soltani, Abigail Green, Wendy Hartogensis, Stephan Dilchert, Anoushka Chowdhary, Leena S. Pandya, Chelsea J. Siwik, Simmie L. Foster, Maren Nyer, Christopher A. Lowry, Charles L. Raison, Frederick M. Hecht, Benjamin L. Smarr. Elevated body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms: results from the TemPredict Study. Scientific Reports, 2024; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51567-w
(3) Romero-Gómez, Benjamín et al. “Mood Disorders in Levothyroxine-Treated Hypothyroid Women.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 16,23 4776. 28 Nov. 2019, doi:10.3390/ijerph16234776, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6926863
(4) Olshansky SJ, Rattan SI. What determines longevity: Metabolic rate or stability? Discov Med. 2005 Aug;5(28):359-62. PMID: 20704872., https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20704872/
