Rusty Humphries: Hey, welcome. It is The Nisha Jackson Show. She's Nisha Jackson. I am not. I am Rusty Humphries. I am here just your humble ... I don't know why I'm here.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: I know why you're here because you make the show super fun.

Rusty Humphries: Oh, well thank you.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: And very enjoyable for me.

Rusty Humphries: Does it make it easier for you?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Besides, I love you.

Rusty Humphries: Aw, she's my friend. All right, so I have a friend. You and I did one show where I came into the office and did my thing. We kind of went over things, but it wasn't ... I was going to say it wasn't fair. It was fair. But you and I have known each other for a long time. And I thought it would be interesting to do a show where you met a patient for the first time, but I want somebody messed up — somebody who’s got problems. I have a friend, and her name is Janille. And Janille ... Nisha, I've known her since elementary school. Okay?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: And I just met her.

Rusty Humphries: You just met her. I've known her since —

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Like two seconds ago, I just met her.

Rusty Humphries: Right. And I've known her not to be a sick person. I've known her my whole ... She is tough, and she's strong. And she's funny, and she's a do-it-herselfer and all kinds of stuff. However, over the past two years, I don't know what the hell happened. But she's gone from being able to do everything to you go out to dinner, and she has a list of 50 things she can't eat. And the restaurant guys are like, "We don't know what to do." Does this happen very often?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes.

Rusty Humphries: Where all of a sudden, it's just different?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes. This was not my idea for this show. This was Rusty's idea. But the more I think about it, the more I think this could be very powerful for people to listen to because, Rusty, there are so many men and women out there, and definitely more women than men, that have this exact situation. They're going along, everything's fine, and then they just get ramrodded with something, and they go from doctor to doctor and practitioner to practitioner trying to figure out what the problem is. Like, why am I so sensitive to everything including air? And they're sick. They don't feel well, and they cannot get answers. And they cannot get on the other side of it.

Rusty Humphries: And the other thing that's frustrating is you go to your family, "Okay, listen I'm allergic." "Okay, she's just ... It's really not that bad." Right? And then people go, "It can't be that bad."

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Right.

Rusty Humphries: And you've seen this before?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes.

Rusty Humphries: She's not the only one?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes. And so, this is good because — I have this bright thing on my forehead. I'm not really oily; I think it's just the sun.

Rusty Humphries: The sun keeps moving.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: The sun is really ... Can you see that?

Rusty Humphries: Yeah, me too.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: If I go down here, it's better. Anyway.

Rusty Humphries: If we both do the show this way.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Anyway, this will be powerful, I think. So Janille ... Where's Janille?

Rusty Humphries: We're going to bring her in. I'm going to get out of here, and Janille's her name. She’s very nice. Be nice to her. You [points to audience], be nice to her.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: I'll ask all the right questions. But at least people will be able to see, what is it that we do that maybe is different than what they're getting somewhere else.

Rusty Humphries: From a regular doctor, right?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yeah. So, let's bring her in.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: All right, so we have Janille here. I just met Janille, and this was Rusty's idea to do a show for me to evaluate her to just investigate her health issues to see if there's something else that maybe could be done to help her feel better. So Janille, I want you to tell me, what are your top four issues that you're concerned about with your health? What are the top four things?

Janille D.: Today, just not some big history, but just today?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Right now.

Janille D.: Energy, so wanting to sleep all day long. I would say food and trying to work through, what can I eat? How do I reincorporate things?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Are you sleeping at night?

Janille D.: It depends on where I am, I think.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So, you would say your energy's poor. You're really oversensitive to most things that you're eating.

Janille D.: Yes.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: But you've been diagnosed with ...

Janille D.: Hashimoto's.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Hashimoto's. We talked about that in one of our shows, Hashimoto's, which is the autoimmune response of your body that attacks the thyroid. So if you've been diagnosed with autoimmune disorder Hashimoto's, are you on thyroid medicine?

Janille D.: I am.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Okay, so what other medications or supplements are you taking?

I just started taking a compounded one because lo and behold, when we looked up what was in it, it had everything that was affecting me.

Janille D.: I am taking the levothyroxine. I just started the LDN, thank you. I suggested that to my naturopath, and she was on board with it. Estrogen, lots of different supplements that change all the time. And the levothyroxine, I just started taking a compounded one because lo and behold, when we looked up what was in it, it had everything that was affecting me. I've had this long-term suppression, feeling like no matter what I do, I just can't seem to get on top of things. I don't feel like I'm getting better. And so, it's maybe the little things that are in supplements. I don't know, I've just recently started to really look at every nuance of what is in anything, even what the capsule's made of and things like that.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Here's the problem. When the medical community sees somebody like this that has intense fatigue, she's probably got body pain. Do you have body pain?

Janille D.: Yes, it's a lot of joint pain.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So, she's probably got some form of fibromyalgia I'm guessing also, which is another autoimmune disorder. We continue to look for what is the cause of this because we want to treat the cause, right? Because that's what we do in medicine is we find the cause, we treat the cause, we get somebody on medication, and that's it.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: But this is like an invasion of the body, what she's talking about, because any time you're dealing with an autoimmune disorder, in my opinion, you have to go look at the whole person. So, you want to look at their — the diet's important, but you really want to look at the adrenals, the stress glands, and how they're functioning. And then you want to look at the thyroid — all the thyroid hormones, not just the one she's taking, which is T4, which is a storage thyroid. And you want to look at another type of thyroid level, which is called reverse T3, which means it's reversing out the good parts of the thyroid. We won't get into that today. And then you also want to look at the brain chemicals, and you really want to look at the gut.

This is like an invasion of the body, what she's talking about, because any time you're dealing with an autoimmune disorder, in my opinion, you have to go look at the whole person.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So, you can spend your whole life like Janille's talking about, you can spend your whole life trying to look at what's in this? And what's in that? What I shouldn't eat and what I can eat. But you're only as good as your gut is healthy. So getting onto supplementation, and getting your gut back into balance and all of your vitamin levels up at the same time that you're optimizing all your female hormones, all your thyroid hormones, and all of your adrenal hormones, your adrenal support hormones … all of these things have to happen at the same time. She's doing the best she can because she's trusting the advice of her naturopath and her medical physician or practitioner that she's seeing. But we're skimming the surface.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: She's taking one thyroid, and she's taking one female hormone. Well, there are like 10 others. And she just started on what we talked about in the Hashimoto's show, which was the low-dose naltrexone. That helps to support the autoimmune disorder that she has, the Hashimoto's. It helps to give her better control over her symptoms and suppress the autoimmune response. That's what the LDN does. She just started that.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: If you were coming in to me, and I was seeing you, which is why we're doing this show, to give you an idea of what we're trying to accomplish in a visit, we would want to look at the adrenal hormones and do a test on you, a blood test. We'd want to look at all the thyroid hormones, all the female hormones because our bodies are not meant to just take estrogen. Estrogen's a growth hormone, and if you only take estrogen and you're not balanced with the other female hormones, which you're not, right? You're just taking estrogen?

Janille D.: Correct.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So, that puts her in an estrogen-dominant state, which is actually making her symptoms worse. We'd want to look at all of those levels including her nutrient levels, her blood levels of vitamin blood levels, and then we'd want to look at the brain chemicals. Once we have all of those things laid out in front of us, we literally would start fixing one thing after the next, probably starting with your gut.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Are you doing things with your naturopath that are fixing your gut absorption?

Janille D.: I am doing butyrin, just lots of lower gut issues. Yeah, the other thing that maybe you noticed is I have a hard time with little things that I might eat. Lots of rashes everywhere, so I don't know if that has to do with the gut, what goes in the gut.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: This requires a much deeper conversation, so I'm going to just kind of skim over it a little bit just for the purpose of this show. She has an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto's. And an autoimmune disorder, we feel — there's a theory. There's actually research to show that when you have an autoimmune disorder, the reason why you have it is that your adrenals, your stress system, at some point in your life have become overstressed. When the body becomes overstressed, after a while, it doesn't make enough cortisol, and cortisol is like an anti-inflammatory. If you don't make enough cortisol, and you have too much inflammation, your body is going to react to everything. And it's going to come out in your skin.

When you have an autoimmune disorder, the reason why you have it is that your adrenals, your stress system, at some point in your life have become overstressed.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: That's why we want to go to work at the whole endocrine system and bring all those levels up together, and your gut being healthy so that your body has a better defense against something that would normally put you over the edge, something like a steak that has a flavor on it besides salt and pepper would put you right —

Janille D.: A fleck of paprika, inflammation for three weeks.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yeah, so I just can't even tell you how important it is that fixing the gut ... We'd probably look for too much yeast in your gut, which I'm guessing you have. We would probably want to fix that pretty aggressively.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Your body is in overdrive. I'm guessing, if I teased out your history of stress in your life, that you would tell me that this problem started two to three years — I don't know what your history is — after “I had this thing happen in my life” or a run of being “really crazy with my career or business." If it's not true, just say it's true. No, I'm kidding. "Oh, she's so right!"

Janille D.: I feel like in my mind I'm like, "Why, why, why?" I'm always spinning my mind. What caused this? And sometimes I think, "Gosh, it went way back to college." Things that we used to tease about. I'm from the Pacific Northwest, but I went to Pepperdine. And then I came back after my freshman year, and I was just freezing all the time and things like that. So, I don't know how far back it went.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: If you got divorced five years ago, obviously that's very stressful.

Janille D.: Yeah.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: And would you say that the majority of your symptoms have been isolated to the last three to four years?

I don't think anyone even checked my thyroid until I was nearly 40.

Janille D.: I actually think it's been much longer. There was a time in my 30s when I was just dragging all the time. I was depressed and all these other symptoms. And I don't think anyone even checked my thyroid until I was nearly 40.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Wow. So, this is why I'm so passionate about what I do because this is a very vibrant, successful woman that has not had somebody look at the whole picture for her. And you can't fix someone unless you look at the whole picture. You can't just say, "Oh you have Hashimoto's. Let's get you on some thyroid that maybe won't irritate your stomach or cause you to have hives." We have to treat the whole body. And with these kinds of patients, we have to go low and slow. We have to use very minimal dosages over a longer period of time and introduce one thing at a time. Many times, we can't go through the gut. We have to go through the skin using topical preparations rather than oral medications just to avoid the gut, to try to get the gut to repair.

With these kinds of patients, we have to go low and slow. We have to use very minimal dosages over a longer period of time and introduce one thing at a time.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So again, we're really skimming the surface. This is not really how a full visit would go. But I wanted to give you an idea of what we would be looking at because what you're doing isn't enough to get better. It's not enough.

Janille D.: That really kind of feels like it. Working so hard, so hard for a very long time and just feeling like there's this suppression.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Uh-huh (affirmative), yep. So, all I would say is that doing a blood test so that we could see the whole picture and then really going to work at repairing your gut would be the two things that I would want to do. And you're doing a couple of those things that will help, but it's not enough.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Many people will say, "Well, I've already done hormones." Or, "I've already been on thyroid." But you're not on the right plan. You're not on the right balance. And so that's what we would look at and get you on the right track.

Janille D.: Awesome.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: She needs a blood test.

Rusty Humphries: Would the lab in a box work?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes, so for many patients that don't live in Oregon where most of our clinics are, we can send a blood kit to them, or we can call in an order for them to a local lab. And then I can interpret the labs for them and give them an idea of exactly what they should be doing, and then they can follow up with their local healthcare providers. Many providers now are really open to taking the suggestions of somebody that specializes in this field because they don't want to do it. And I write it all out for the patient, and it's kind of like a prescription plan, not only for their supplements but also what they should be taking prescription-wise to get balanced. The lab in the box or the interpretation of the labs is really helpful. That's what you should do.

Janille D.: Sounds good.

Rusty Humphries: Have you done anything with the DNA, the 23andMe and those kinds of DNA things? Do you like those? Do you do anything with those?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yeah, but many times ... That's a good question, Rusty. Many times, the 23andMe and looking at the metabolization of different medications and all of that, that's something we can add.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: But I will tell you, instead of getting really down a couple of rabbit trails, we really fix the most obvious things first, which to us they're obvious. But to other healthcare professionals, it's not obvious at all given the fact that she's had this problem for a long time. She's only using one out of the four hormones. She's only using one type of thyroid. She's not using the active thyroid; she's only using the T4. She was not diagnosed for years; she should have been diagnosed much earlier. Nobody has really treated the autoimmune disorder, and the only way you can treat that is to get the system back up from an adrenal standpoint. Get the adrenals powered back up again so she's not reacting to everything. She needs cortisol.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: All of these things can happen, but you need somebody that specializes in this field so that you're not just taking a bunch of drugs, either because you're going to react to those too. We have to tease your body back into balance because your body's been operating out of balance for so long that it's gotten used to that. And that's why you can't get to the bottom of it.

You spend a lifetime being energetic and go, go, go, and happy. And then you kind of get into this mode where you don't know how to be well or you don't trust, "Gosh, well maybe I won't ever have that kind of energy again. I don't even know how to do it."

Janille D.: I feel like that. I feel like sometimes I don't know how to be well.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: I bet.

Janille D.: You spend a lifetime being energetic and go, go, go, and happy. And then you kind of get into this mode where you don't know how to be well or you don't trust, "Gosh, well maybe I won't ever have that kind of energy again. I don't even know how to do it."

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Right, well then it becomes almost like a mental thing where everything … you're just expecting, "It was bad last time. It's going to be bad again. This meal's going to be bad."

Janille D.: I feel great today, but I don't know if I will tomorrow.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Right, this is more common than you think, unfortunately, but there is a way to get you back into balance. I know it doesn't seem possible after what you've been through, but there is a way.

Janille D.: Hope and trust. Faith.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yes, and seeing someone who's done a lot, I think, is helpful.

Janille D.: It is.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So, this was great. I'm glad that we did this.

Janille D.: Thank you.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: I'm looking forward to ... Maybe once we get your labs done, we can do another show and talk to everybody about how we're going to treat this and then maybe do a show even a month or two later and see how you're doing.

Janille D.: Okay.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: I like it.

Janille D.: Thanks.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Real, live patients. It's awesome.

Rusty Humphries: Nisha, first of all, thank you very much. That's a very good friend of mine and somebody very important. But again, what's important about this is I think that she's not the only one, but everybody feels like they're the only one.

And I'm telling you, the mental aspect of this is huge because you start feeling like you can't believe anyone. You're never going to get better. You're always going to react to something that you're eating or getting on your body that it does feel a little defeating and scary. But we can fix that. We fix it all the time.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Right, I know. It's so frustrating. And I'm telling you, the mental aspect of this is huge because you start feeling like you can't believe anyone. You're never going to get better. You're always going to react to something that you're eating or getting on your body that it does feel a little defeating and scary. But we can fix that. We fix it all the time.

Rusty Humphries: How long does something like that take? I mean, she said that she's been like this since her 30s. And I'm looking at her, she's probably 32, 33. But it's been going for a while, she says. How long does it take?

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So there is no ... A lot of people often want to know, "Okay, I do this, and then when am I going to feel better? When am I going to feel great?" Everybody's path is completely different. It's very individual, and that's what I love about this treatment. It's a very individualized treatment, but that means that the outcomes are very individualized, too.

Rusty Humphries: Although, when I had my hormone optimization, you said 72 hours I'd feel something, and it was like on the nose.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Yeah, that was the hormones, the blood levels coming up in 72 hours. Typically, we would give somebody that has a chronic illness, especially autoimmune, at least 90 days to get back on track. But I'm telling you, I've had people with chronic hives with serious, big blisters on their body, and they don't know what it's coming from. People who have multiple autoimmune disorders that haven't been treated appropriately, and they get better quickly. I mean, 60 days, 90 days … If you think about 90 days, what are 90 days when you've been suffering 20 years?

Rusty Humphries: Absolutely.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: So there's hope for people, and that's why I'm passionate about what we do. We can take people who are really frustrated and they're all the way down the road with these issues, and they're not getting the right answers, and we can help them.

Rusty Humphries: Well, three months ago I was really bad, and now I'm planning a trip to Mount Everest. So you're doing a great job. Anyway, if you're having any of these kinds of issues, and man, you want some help, you don't know what to do, you've tried everything, you went to your doctor and your family practitioner — and they're nice people. You love them, but maybe they don't have that expertise in what you need. And believe me, I've seen how many times Janille had to go to doctors, and they just didn't know. You see how quickly Nisha knew exactly what to do.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Go to NishaJackson.com. Go to OnePeak Medical clinics. Find out what they can do for you. This is your life. It's your health. Your health is everything. We worry about money and jobs and things, but when you're sick, none of that matters. None of it.

This is your life. It's your health. Your health is everything. We worry about money and jobs and things, but when you're sick, none of that matters. None of it.

Rusty Humphries: So please, NishaJackson.com. Find out more. See what Nisha and her great team can do for you. I know that you will thank the good lord that you did that. Nisha, great job today.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Thank you.

Rusty Humphries: Thank you. I look forward to seeing you again next time. I'm Rusty Humphries. Go to NishaJackson.com. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Share this show. How many people do you know are sick and they don't know what's wrong. Share this show and let them see it.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: He's very passionate.

Rusty Humphries: I am very passionate because it's so important what you're doing. So please, NishaJackson.com. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Share. I'm Rusty Humphries. She's Nisha Jackson, and we'll see you next time.

Dr. Nisha Jackson: Send me an email. We'll get you fixed up.

Rusty Humphries: There you go. NishaJackson.com. We'll see you next time here on The Nisha Jackson show.