Welcome to Ancestral Health Today. Evolutionary insights into modern health. Welcome to Ancestral Health Today. I'm Todd Becker. We're talking today with El Rusts. El is a writer, podcaster, speaker, health and life coach, and a leading advocate for thyroid health. She's been a prominent voice within the Ancestral Health Movement for many years, including a log partnership with Mark Sisson and his popular Primal Blueprint blog and Primal Kitchen podcast. Her 2016 book, The Paleothyroid Solution, reached number one in Amazon's thyroid health category. She wrote the book starting with her own experience consulting with over two dozen specialists who failed to uncover or address her underlying thyroid disease and her success in researching and finding answers that restored her health through hormone replacement and diet. The book has inspired hundreds to better understand and address a number of misdiagnosed health issues. So we'll hear a lot about El's health journey and solutions in this episode. But before we do that, El, I'd like to start by getting a short primer on the role of the thyroid in our health. And one of the main takeaways in your best-selling book, Paleothyroid Solution, is that thyroid disease underlies a wide range of symptoms but is often missed or underdiagnosed. So can you tell us a little bit about how the thyroid connects to some of these conditions that might surprise people? Sure. What are some of the surprising conditions? Sure. Well, thank you for that intro. I do want to make one correction. I have helped thousands of people all over the world in 20-plus countries, not hundreds, but maybe you're reading something right as it came out. All right, so here's the story about the thyroid gland.  Why? What does the master gland mean? Well, it is in the control and the production and regulation of your sex hormones. So right there, your output as a man is testosterone, all of your sex hormones, it is in charge of the production and regulation of those. All right. So if your thyroid goes down, those are going to go out. It's also in control of your heart rate and your body temperature. Let's just talk about that. So as humans, we are like Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold. A lizard might have its own set of what temperature regulation it has on a rock in the desert. We as humans are usually 98.6 degrees in the afternoon. In the morning, there's a range of a basal temperature. It's an average, but we are like that story of Goldilocks because too hot is hyperthyroidism, is hypermetabolic, and it can give you a heart attack because it's in charge of your heart rate. So if you're hyperthyroid, you have too much. Oh my God, your heart rate is really, really high. You could wake up and have like 120 heart rate. And it's much rarer, but you could die. Okay, now let's go to the hypo low, slow, underactive. Well, in that case too, you've got low blood pressure, really low, super low pulse. Like, Oh my gosh, are you even alive kind of thing? And like, you're not an athlete, you know what I mean? Like, you're already exhausted. You have a million symptoms and your heart rates 40, like it just that shouldn't be the case. So it's in charge of the heart rate.  So a perfect example is this is very rare, but like one in a gazillion, I don't know the statistic, but it's very rare when a child is born without a thyroid gland. But when that happens, if they don't catch it almost immediately, mental disability will set in and all and or death. Now one time I was talking about this and someone did reach out to me and they're like, actually, I was one of the rare cases of a baby born and they caught it right away. And I said, it's good thing they did because you would not have enough mental wherewithal to even email me because you would literally have major mental issues. So given just those things, if you can't live without a thyroid gland, or the hormones that it produces, then what is life going to be like when you have low levels or high levels? I already told you, you can get a hard tag with high levels. Low levels is a slow death. It is accelerated aging, it's accelerated glycation. It affects you in other ways. So heart rate, blood pressure, and also now you are sort of headed towards insulin resistance. And here's why, because the thyroid produces the only hormone in the human body that like literally burns fat. It's called T3. And when you don't have any levels of it, you can burn fat. So not only do you do thyroid patients usually have a weight gain issue, but now you are going to become insulin resistant.  Next next problem. Oh, your cholesterol labs are terrible. We need to put you on a statin. Or do you just need to text the, check the thyroid?  Same with this. Oh, hey, here you need blood pressure medication. Do you?  Do you or are you all just trying to patch the symptoms not looking at the root? So you always have to check the master gland. For example, depression. Depression is a symptom of hypothyroidism, untreated hypothyroidism. Okay, once you fix hypothyroidism, all the symptoms go away. Okay, but it really is, it's brutal because we have more receptors in our brain for that biologically active hormone T3 than anywhere else. So now you're depressed and your uninformed doctor has no idea how to fix your hypothyroidism. So you keep going in, they give you Prozac or some SSRI and then it will maybe help for a few months and then it won't work. Right. So you've pointed out something really key, which is the thyroid is upstream of a lot of these issues.  But what you're saying is thyroid can be the master hormone that's driving all of this and it's often unchecked. So why is it that we pay attention to insulin resistance, leptin resistance, but so many people are uninformed about thyroid. Well, I'll tell you the reason why 99.9% of doctors and health practitioners are uninformed about the thyroid, they are steeped in 50 year old outdated protocols from 1973. The year I was born. Okay. So they were taught one thing. It's the same thing as everyone in the ancestral health space knows, which is the government food pyramid is absolutely a diabetes making diet. Okay, you take anyone and you give them six to 11 servings of grains every day plus two to four servings of fruit, plus canola oil and everything else they'd recommend, you're going to get diabetes. So you you and I all know this. But do doctors know it? No, if I went to my doctor today, I mean, my standard doctor, not like my functional doctor, but if I just went to my insurance doctor today, they're not going to ask me when I'm eating, they're not gonna, it's a pill or surgery. And that's what that care is for. So if you want to get more in depth with someone, you're going to have to go to someone who's really experienced. And so it is. It's a level of where healthcare is at functional medicine doctors or people that aren't taking under the umbrella of insurance are going to spend an hour and a half two hours with you. They're not worried about what insurance company is saying test this or don't test this. I'll give you a great example that happened recently. I have a friend who was suffering for two months with horrible gastrointestinal issues. IBS like symptoms, all sorts of stuff. They were they're they're pretty healthy to begin with. They don't need any gluten whatsoever. They went to their Kaiser doctor and they took every test imaginable from stool tests tested for all the things. And at the end of all of that, all they said was, well, we can give you a colonoscopy or a CT scan. No one said, hey, what are you eating until I came along and I said, what are you eating? And I said, this kind of sounds like a histamine issue. You should look at this list, adopt a no histamine diet immediately. They did their vertigo went away in three days. The stomach started to repair. They'd had leaky gut. No one at Kaiser because they don't care that they are not worried about this. Like, do we have a test or a surgery for that? So you have to understand when you're walking into these places, it's not that they're not valuable. If I fall off a cliff tomorrow, I'm going to want a hospital, right? But if you're looking for optimal anti aging and health, they only took an hour in medical school on nutrition. And that hour was all about how glucose should be the primary fuel for the human body. And you and I both know that that's not a good move. So that's kind of why they're just uninformed and steeped outdated protocols. No different than the doctor who's still worried about an LDL at 120 or 130 without looking at all of the other markers. But you and people in the ancestral health space, we knew how to evaluate those cholesterol labs before the rest of the world picked up on it. Now I see that my local insurance does the ratio. But that was a long time coming, wasn't it? We've been talking about that 10, 15 years ago. So people do diagnose thyroid disease. There's Hashimoto's, there's Grave disease. These are extreme cases, right? But there's all this under diagnosed thyroid. And so what you talked about with the thyroid being the master regulator, you talked about the extremes, the, you know, high accelerator and the high brakes, right? Those we can detect. But these more modest subtle forms go under diagnosed. So what are some examples of something that might be a thyroid condition that people might not suspect you. So you mentioned the testing incorrectly. The answer is they're testing incorrectly correctly. Okay. And or they're testing correctly, not assessing correctly, or they're testing correctly, they're assessing correctly, they're not treating correctly, or everything's wrong from their out. So the biggest problem is this, they're not testing correctly at all. So they're taking uninformed 1973 tests, they're treating people, and then they're hurting them, they're either making their situation worse, or the person is like, I don't feel better, I don't feel better. And the doctor goes must be in your head. Because your thyroid's fine, because they are not taking the correct tests. This is the biggest problem. Okay, talk about talk about the tests. Sure. By the way, I have an entire free thyroid masterclass with free thyroid guide, you can get all of these tests in there. But there's four main tests. Well, there's really six. But let's just talk about the six tests. TSH, free T3, free T4, and reverse T3. Okay, those are the four main must have. And if any doctor says, I don't test reverse T3, or we don't do that, then they are an uninformed doctor, hear me when I say this. Any doctor that does understand reverse T3, which is of the four, the one that most doctors do not understand, that's why I say that. But most doctors only test two of those four. Now we've also you mentioned Grave's disease and you mentioned Hashimoto's. Those are autoimmune forms of hypothyroid condition, or of thyroid conditions. And those have, well, at least Hashimoto's has two tests. Now most uninformed doctors only know about one of the tests, but you can be positive for one and not the other or both. So you have to get both tested. And those are called TPO antibody stands for thyroid proxidase antibody. And then there's another one called TG antibody. And that stands for thyroglobulin antibody. So do I or do I not have a thyroid issue? What's happening? You get TSH free T3, free T4, reverse T3. And then you rule out whether or not you have Hashimoto's, you must rule out there is a completely different protocol and options for that. So you must rule it out. And then, of course, there's peripheral tests and things like that. But that is the do I have a problem? And you always get tested within two to three hours after waking up, black coffee, water, tea, don't take thyroid hormone, don't take any medication, just go get the test. Those will be the most accurate thyroid tests. From there, we can go. That tells me everything. That tells me everything. All right. Now explain for our listeners. I mean, you know a lot about this, your book has got a great primer on it. Can you give us the basics of T4, T3, reverse T3, how the cascade here, how this gets, how these signals get into your body? So I'm going to describe the whole feedback loop of how these hormones work. I will say, though, that it's something that usually people are going to need to rehear. I also go way more into depth on this in my free thyroid masterclass if you want to like see an image and watch me do this, but I'll go through it briefly, which is here's how it works. It's a very elegant feedback loop. Let's say your body is low in thyroid hormones, which it might be because maybe you wake up, you fast and then went to the gym. Okay.  And it's sensing how much thyroid hormone you have. And when you're low, it shoots out a wake up call. It shoots out a signal to the thyroid gland to do its job. That signal is called the TSH. That stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. This is very important because if anyone listening out here is still suffering, go back and look at your labs. I'll bet you a million dollars. Your doctor only tested your TSH or they only tested your TSH and T4. And I'll explain that in a second. So the signal sent to the thyroid. Now, I'm what I'm describing to you is when it works perfectly. Okay. This is someone who's got no thyroid problems. Everything's great. This is like how it works for a Marxism. Okay. So, um, so they sense when his body's low in thyroid hormones, the signal is sent to the thyroid to wake up. The thyroid's job when it wakes up, it pumps out about 80% of something called T4 and about 20% of something called T3. Okay. I'm going to stop right there. The most important thing for anyone to grab is T4 and T3. What are they? They are the only two hormones really relevant. They are the only two thyroid hormones for dosing and some of the most important for testing. Our bodies pump out a lot of this thing called T4 and a little of this thing called T3. However, T3 is the only biologically active thyroid hormone, meaning that's the thing that corresponds with how you feel.  That's the thing we need is T3. T4 is just the precursor. Yeah, it converts to T3. That's what I'm getting into. So it pumps out a lot of this thing. Now why? Now people go, because people put so much importance on T4. I have had no T4 in my body for 10 years. It's useless unless it converts into the thing that matters. So here's what happens. Your body's low in thyroid hormones, the signal's sent to the thyroid. Thyroid does its job. 80% T4, 20% T3 throughout the day. As you need the T3, the T4 will kind of convert. Whatever excess has not been converted will just get fleshed out through a natural process called reverse T3. Why? Why, Todd? If all we need is T3, what is this T4 doing and like converting for us? T3 is fast acting. Might as well be throwing gasoline on a fire. Right? It's quick. It peaks and dissipates quickly. T4 has a much longer half-life and it's kind of like a slow release mechanism because this T3 is so powerful that your body wants to kind of dish it out and have a way to hold it back. Reverse T3 is the emergency break. Let me give you an example. Sally is out in the world.  Let's put that way and she's over exercising. Okay. And so the body, this primal body and I know I'm going to personify it but this is sort of how it works. When a situation like that, oh, she's starving. The feedback loop starts to go, no, no, no, we are not converting anymore. This T4 you pumped out. Sally's starving. We can't afford for her to burn any more fat.  This thyroid feedback loop, just as you know with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, when you get fat because you have eaten too much sugar, that's a good thing. Your body is trying to save your life by pushing you want that versus being skinny fat. Right. And so the same thing kind of goes here.  So the messages we send to our body, the thyroid is going to go, uh oh, here's another time it could happen. Let's just say Sally gets into a horrible accident. She's got limbs that are mangled. There's tons of inflammation. That might be another time she gets COVID.  We don't want to pour any more hyper metabolic gasoline on this fire. Let's dial it back. We're not sure if they're out of the woods yet. Are they okay? Okay. So that's what it's there for. So the T4 converts into the T3, whatever's you not used gets fleshed out. Let me tell you about the problems that can happen. I just told you how it worked. Here are the problems that can happen. Maybe the signals not sent. Okay. Well, that's a little less of a concern. It's very rare, but sometimes people have a pituitary tumor, but that's very rare. Um, but it happens. Okay. So that could happen, but let's say the signal is not being sent for whatever reason. Okay. But let's say the signal is being sent perfectly. Then it's sent to the thyroid. The thyroid, let's say doesn't do its job. So that's another problem. It's not pumping out the levels of hormones it needs to. But let's say it's working. The TSH signal is great. The thyroid does its job perfectly and pumps out the right amount of hormones. Now we got another potential problem, but the T4 must convert or you're going to be hypo. So what can happen here is not only can the T4 just, it doesn't convert into enough to get you the stuff you need, but then you can have what I had, which is a reverse T3 problem, which means it never converts into T3. It keeps over converting, assuming you're in danger. It keeps over converting into reverse T3. There are a lot of reasons as to why things won't convert and will. It could be a genetic enzyme thing. It can be selenium deficiency. That's like a conversation for another day. But what's most important is the following. If your doctor is not testing, free T3, they're not testing to see whether you get the package. I don't order something from Amazon, not get the package and keep ordering it. You keep testing the TSH and the T4. This is why people remain sick. Doctors can give patients a hyperfibrary problem happened with a client of mine the other day. So the big problem in this whole picture is that doctors are only testing TSH and T4. They're just testing the signal, which fluctuates all the time. And then they're just testing the prohormone. They're not testing. Did she get the package and then also let's double check reverse T3. And I'll tell you why it's so critical to test reverse T3 because you could completely hurt a patient if you don't. And here's why.  T4 is the only thing that converts into reverse T3. So if a patient has a reverse T3 problem and you give them the thyroid hormone T4, it just keeps driving the reverse T3. So I hope this makes sense to you, Todd. And if not, please let me clarify. I want everyone in this audience to understand how f up that is. Now that I've just described that you don't even need to know anything about the thyroid to get that they are not looking at this entire picture.  So just to make sure I understand. So your T4 can look normal. But your TSH can look normal. TSH that can look normal. But then not enough of it is converting to the T3 or it's going to reverse T3. And so just measuring the T4, you'll miss that. Now, before we get into a real good example of exactly that, my labs from 2005 when I was seriously hypothyroid. Now back then really nobody knew about reverse T3. So we didn't test that. But if you looked at my TSH, great. You look at my free T4. Great. My free T3 was below the range. That doctor who didn't test the free T3 kept hitting my gym shoes and telling me I just need to work out more. So you get you get shamed for like all the weight gain and all the symptoms must be in your head. It's not your thyroid. I'm looking at your T4 and TSH. It's fine. So we never I would never ever you never assess treat a patient at all unless you have checked these four. And I want to say one more thing about reverse T3. It's something my doctor checks all the time. And the perfect example of this is I had a client in Hawaii. I said you need to get your reverse T3 tested. They go to the doctor. The doctor said no. I said go back and push for it. The doctor came back and said, well, we only test that when you're like in the ICU. Okay, so Todd, like being in the ICU worst worst worst day of any human's life intensive care unit.  Right. So why would they test that thyroid test when people are in the ICU? Because reverse T3 is a measure and a marker of unwellness and wellness in any human body. And it says a lot, including headed towards potential heart failure. So how about we test it before we go to ICU? But isn't that interesting? That that's what she said. But it's interesting. She also didn't make the logical conclusion like what's weird and heavy that they're testing that in the ICU. Maybe I should look into this, but they don't. So L what could be some of the health reasons that would prevent T4 from adequately converting to T3 as an example? Sure. So lack of selenium. So selenium helps with conversion of T4 to T3 could just be lack of selenium, which is not as prevalent in our soil as it used to be, as you know. Often people think that they can just eat a couple brazil nuts to get that. And when you're in this kind of situation, you need to take two to 400 micrograms of selenium every day. You could have heavy metal toxicity. I mean, listen, that affects mitochondrial function. It also can cause a reverse T3 problem. There's certainly lots of underlying situations. Living in a house with black mold can give you Hashimoto's. I mean, you can get rid of it. But I'm just saying there are things in this world that can ignite this, right? Starving oneself and overexercising, we call that you thyroid six syndrome. That's where the TSH free T3 free T4 all going to be low. That was me. I was overexercising and I was eating a low fat, low carb paradigm because I didn't know any better, Todd. And I was doing the whole zone. I was doing all that stuff. I didn't know better. So I was a hangry, sugar burning nightmare. And I didn't know there was another way. So let's go into your story because I think it's interesting how you how you came to this realization. Well, what was your health story? What were you doing that led you down this path? I was completely fine doing well. I was in worked out every day and I thought I was on the right paradigm. Clearly, I wasn't. Were you eating a paleo diet yet? Did that I was not? No, no, no. This was right before I got my hypothyroid issue. I was probably somewhat starting myself without knowing it. Like I was just on the wrong paradigm. I thought this is what you had to do to be fit. And I did. I mean, I looked the part. I was struggling in here, though. I was obsessed with food and hangry a lot hypoglycemic and stuff. And then and then one day I just I like got my period early. I was 30 and I thought this is weird. I kept bleeding every two weeks. I went to the doctor. Instead of them going, that's where she's 30. She's never had a problem. Why is she bleeding? But he just tested the TSH. She said it's not your thyroid. So then they kept giving me the birth control pill, which by the way, Rob's you have your thyroid. Anyway, but they kept giving me the birth control pill. Again, let's patch the symptom, not ask why is this really f'd up thing happening that shouldn't happen to a 30 year olds, right? So I bled through like four birth control pills. Meanwhile, exploded, got nowhere. Everything got worse and worse. I went to over two dozen endocrinologists hormone experts in LA. I had the best insurance. I had a PPO. I spent money I didn't have at the time to try to find all these experts. They either hurt me. I was also misdiagnosed and I want to talk about this. I was before weekend. Were there any other symptoms besides the menstrual? Oh, yeah, I had 40. I have like 30 to 40 of them and they're all listed on my website in my book. I'll talk about it. So as examples, sure, sure, sure. So I'm five feet, two inches tall. I was 115 pounds. I went from 115 to 160 while working out two hours a day and trying to restrict calories. Okay, so the symptom of insidious weight gain, no matter what you do, what you try, you keep exploding. My hair was falling out by the handfuls. That's a very common one. I was freezing all the time. Told you it affects body temperature. So I live in California, Southern California. I was not I never got above 96 degrees even in the afternoon and summer. Okay, so we're supposed to be 98.6. I never got above 96 degrees freezing all the time constipated. No amount of colonics, no amount of laxatives, solve it. Dry cracked skin. There's something called migzodema. It's horrible. It's skin thickening.  When you have skin thickening, you can only grab like a huge amount and it's awful.  You get depression.  I'm an extremely coordinated athlete. You end up bumping things like why am I knocking over my water all like you're klutzy.  You can't express yourself properly, meaning you look I'm a fast talker. I'm bound to like jumble a word here and there. But this is the kind of thing where you are speaking almost like a dyslexic. The words are coming out backwards or your slurring words and you're not drinking or you can't find the words. You can't you read a paragraph and you have to read it five times like you can't retain it. So I bring this up because one of the scariest symptoms is that you feel you're getting done. You feel you're getting dumber and this is one that people don't express like they might the dry cracked skin or the hair falling out right. But when I talk about it, that's the one that hits home because it is technically affecting your brain. And so you it starts off with a general malaise where you start to kind of go that your passions things you cared about in life. You're like, I don't even carry more. You know, and then it kind of gets deeper. It becomes so lonely and sad and it's a weird thing where you know you need to motivate to help yourself.  I mean you become a party pooper. You often get adrenal fatigue when you have untreated hypothyroidism for a while. So now you're sensitive to light, to sound, to smells.   And this is where people will like try paleo in this state and they'll go I couldn't get fat adapted.  You also can't get into keto when you're hypo or hyper, by the way. So it's there's lots of what happens with people is they're searching for these modalities or they come to paleo or keto or carnivore because of the weight gain and nothing's working.  So you become like an insane person, Todd, because you you want to get ahead of this weight gain and in your mind you go, well, I got to work out because if I don't I'm gonna keep getting fatter. But yet when you do that you keep driving the adrenals into further disrepair and you've taken six steps backwards. So that's that's some of what happens. Yeah. So, El, I want to go back though before you understood that this was a thyroid issue. You were going to specialists. What were you hearing? What were they suggesting might be the problem before you came on to this answer? They thought I might have a hormonal issue. So I was bleeding all the time. Like I said that eventually I went in and they did an ultrasound and they diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome and they wanted to put me on metformin. Now, let me just be very clear here. If you and I and 15 doctors looked at my uterine ultrasound, we all would have concluded that it was textbook polycystic ovarian syndrome. But again, no one asked the question. Why? Why? So instead they're like, well, let's patch this thing. I never had polycystic ovarian syndrome. I've never had a problem of since I had hypothyroidism induced polycystic ovarian syndrome. Again, I'm saying, so you're going to get a disease you otherwise would not have gotten because of this domino effect. Perfect example of a guy. I had a 25 year old come to me, a male exhausted all the hypothyroid symptoms. But a lot of those symptoms are exhaustion where a male doctor who would look at a male patient would test the TSH. It was normal. So they discounted that. They tested his testosterone. It was low because of the thyroid problem. OK, but they go like me. Oh, well, we'll patch it. We'll just get here's the problem. Low testosterone. They didn't say, why does a 25 year old male have low testosterone? It should be at the top of the range. And they didn't know how to test the thyroid. So they ruled it out. So anyway, he comes to me. He had a horrible reverse T3 thyroid problem. So in this case and in most cases, what do you do? Well, they already gave him the testosterone.  Kavya. If you're 75, will that work? Maybe not. If you're female and you're 50, like me, no amount of thyroid hormone replacement is going to keep you bleeding forever and ever, right? It's going to end. You're going to need to replace some hormones.  These other things come back. So people are mistreated all the time because again, they're going in there for the symptom and the doctors testing the thyroid wrong. So they rule it out and then are patching it. But it never works because they eventually another thing pops up and now you're treating that. Oh, now you got blood pressure. Here's a statin. Here's an SSRI. Here's some Prozac. And you're just a mess. And it's, it's, it's so depressing because you're gaslit by doctors. You go to 100 people. I had a client go to the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. They spent 10 years. $200,000. They sent me the Mayo Clinic's lab results. They tested her for Hashimoto's full blown antibodies. They tested her free T3 and free T4 because I asked them to. And they were all at the bottom of the range and nobody said anything about it. Nobody, nobody. And I'm going, uh, she's at the Mayo Clinic complaining of symptoms because she has horribly high antibodies. She's positive for both and she's got no T4 and T3. She died not too long ago. She couldn't get fixed soon enough. She had was, I mean, literally it was, it was like 30 years of her life. And the only reason I found out about and she sort of became my client, it was my best friend from high school's mother. And I had no idea all these years until he goes, you know, I heard my mom's on thyroid hormone replacement and I remember her being sick and in and out of places forever. And I said, we need to get these results. So when people are suffering for 10, 20 years, and this is what I really want to say. And I say it all the time. And they go, I don't have hope. I talked to a woman the other day. I've been doing, I keep going to doctors. I don't have any hope. Like, is it really true? And I asked, I would just ask anyone this question. There's only two reasons why anyone is still suffering from thyroid problems. Literally two reasons. One, you have an uninformed doctor who doesn't know how to test you and assess you and treat you. Okay. Number two, you don't know anything enough to help your doctor help you. That was my problem, Todd, and I hate it.  So what did I do? I put my health into the hands of the doctor like everyone else did until they all screwed me. I lost seven years of my 30s and I said, no, no. Did my own research. I treated myself. So when people are out there and they're like, I don't know, is there any hope? I keep, I ask them, have you learned it? Because that's what I'm here for. I'm here to empower you to do that. So, Elle, you were getting no help. You were getting symptomatic kind of patches, as you said. What was the insight? What was the moment at which you were able to uncover this insight into thyroid? What led you down that path? There were no podcasts and no nothing at the time. I was online looking at forums and patient forums like Yahoo groups and I was able to get natural-desiccated thyroid and I dosed myself back to health and I would use doctors for their blood work and then not listen to them. And then the second time I was sort of alone, I had a reverse T3 problem. And I knew I was really gonna be left in the dust because definitely like 99, I mean, no one knows, like really rarely any doctor knows how to do this at least back then. And so I was on my own twice in 10 years solving my own thyroid issue. I had to literally doctor and dose myself back to health and I don't wish that upon anyone. It was scary. However, I trusted myself. I trusted my own abilities to understand information that I was reading, talking to fellow patients and the best-selling thyroid books are written by patients because we know how this feels. I've been hyper, I've been hypo, you know? I've had a reverse T3 problem. I've had different combinations of dosages over the years. So it was really just my deep dive into this. And then I accidentally came up with the paleo connection because after my second bout of hypothyroidism, I fixed myself with the thyroid hormones and my labs were good, but I couldn't burn the excess fat I had gained. And I was doing hot yoga two, three days a week and I was hauling up mountains and I was doing all the stuff. Then I started working for Mark Sisson. And I didn't even read his book at first before I started working for him. I'm like, whatever, he's some health author. Like I paged through it. I was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm not quitting grains. I literally, I just discounted it. But then as I started to hang out with them more, I was like, you know, Mark and Carrie look better than me and they're like 20-something years older and they don't seem very stressed about health. Like maybe I should read his book, right? So I finally was like, okay, I gotta get into this. And it was a two-hour seminar that Mark did on the Primal Blueprint. And it just all clicked for me. And I realized, and this was the unique contribution as the combination between the two. Paleo-thyroid solution is not ogopaleo and you'll lose the weight from being fat from hypothyroid. I mean, that is part of it. That will help you get there. But paleoprimal ancestral health is the ultimate in blood glucose management and the ultimate in adrenal management. And this is directly related to how the thyroid works and also how the thyroid hormones get metabolized get to where they need to go. Furthermore, Hashimoto's and Graves disease particularly Hashimoto's, but for sure we know, we know. Gluten ignites the antibodies because it starts a molecular mimicry process. So you can just see when someone has Hashimoto's antibodies and they quit gluten, antibodies go down. I mean, it's amazing. So that is another part of paleo because paleo is clearly gluten-free because it's grain-free. The other part of it is when you're hypothyrate and you've been hypo for a while and untreated, most people.  You have compromised digestion. You've got nutrient deficiencies. You've got to heal the gut. And as you know, the paleoprimal lifestyle is the ultimate for all of that. So before we get into solutions, I want to back up a little bit. What can somebody who suspects they might have a connection with thyroid do if their family doctor is not bringing up these ideas or even open to them? Can you find a practitioner or can you do your own tests through the mail? What's the approach? In the United States, there are certain states that allow you to test your blood without a doctor. California is one of them. New York is not. So it really depends on where you live. But actually I have a hormone panel that anyone can get in the United States without a doctor, without insurance. You just pay for it yourself and get it so that you have the answers and you don't have to fight with the doctor to get tests. And that's all on my website and all on my free masterclass. Anyone can just click on it and go get the test that I suggest. It's more than the six tests. There's a few other things that are involved in that. The first thing, go paleo. People have literally fixed this problem, just doing that. Classic examples would be especially women who have just had a baby. The hormones are fluctuating. You can go hyper or sometimes hypo. So after that, that's a good time. If you've noticed, like I'm feeling crappy, then I would ask you, have you been eating gluten? Like have you been eating? And so try paleo. Try a strict paleo diet for 30 days. At the very minimum, the very minimum removing all the crappy oils and at least all the gluten. But still I would do a strict paleo diet for 30 days and see what happens. And I guarantee there's gonna be some changes. Now it doesn't always work. But part of the paleo thyroid solution is, hey, try this natural approach. Optimize nutrients, right? Maybe get a good multi with selenium. Make sure you're vitamin D. Checking with your iron, is it subpar? Great, take some iron pills, eat some lip. Get all this stuff done. Okay, great. Did the labs change after eight to 12 weeks? No? Okay, but then at least you've primed your body to sort of receive thyroid hormones if that's what you have to do. And now you've set up the perfect primal, like sort of baseline for all of this stuff to work better. So between diet and thyroid hormone supplementation, you would try diet first. Is that what you're saying? Or do both at the same time? It depends on the situation. It really does. Like if someone's been suffering for four years, was hypothyroid symptoms and their labs were absolutely horrible. I wouldn't tell you exactly what that would be. It's horrible. I would tell them to run to go get thyroid hormone immediately, right? It just depends on the person's situation. It depends on how long they've suffered. How bad are their labs? Do they have a deficiency? Like, oh, do they just have a baby? So everybody's individual and what someone will require in terms of what kind of thyroid hormone replacement or what type or the dosage, all individual you can never guess. You can kind of take a, I think maybe, but you don't know because once someone takes thyroid hormones, we just don't know how they're going to affect that person and someone could have a minimum effective dose awesomeness and someone could be like, I have to take a shitload of thyroid hormones for them to work, right? Like some people need really high amounts and it's not bad or good. It's just what it is. So it sounds like this could be complex. Where can you find a doctor or a functional medicine practitioner who would understand these things? Good luck. My doctor on the book, Dr. Gary Forsman, I don't know any others other than the doctors who take my thyroid course. So I created the ultimate thyroid course. It's 30 hours. That's a semester in college. It's over 11 hours of tutorials with me, four hours of tutorials with my doctor, doctor on my book, Dr. Forsman, he's a functional integrative MD, an hour with Brad Kearns, New York Times bestselling author, co-author with Mark Sisson, success stories and all of that because I need to teach the patients how to understand this because you need to be out there in the world. Like I said, go find a doctor. Good luck. I haven't seen it happen. That's why thousands of people have come to me. So thankfully there's some doctors in my course and that's fantastic. Look, I look for, if you're going to look for someone who knows what they're talking about, I can't guarantee it, but I would be going to a functional medicine doctor or a DO, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, a true integrative physician or an anti-aging doctor. Maybe look up paleo doctors. That's what I did back in the day to find Dr. Forsman. He's a paleo doctor, meaning that's really primarily what he suggests to his patients and he believes and understands that that's a major baseline of health. Although of course he's got patients who are still eating bagels and whatever, that's fine, but he's a paleo doctor. Because you can find a good thyroid doctor but then they'll tell you to go vegan because that's their thing and then now you're going to have another problem. So the best advice is not to go find a doctor. It's to learn this yourself so you can help your doctor practice medicine with you and get fixed quickly because they're not going to fix you quickly if they're uninformed. But if you're informed and this is what I see when people get informed and they go to the doctor and they're like, hey, I'm reading this, I'm doing this, the doctor is more inclined to practice medicine with you when you are on it and you are persevering. They may not read the same book that you give them and suggest them to read but they are more inclined to go, okay, fine, we'll try it versus not. So let's say you find that you do the tests and you're low on T3 or you have too much reverse T3. How do you go about deciding how to supplement? Isn't it dangerous to try to do this on your own or do you think? Well, I did it on my own so I did it on my own twice in 10 years. Here's the thing, would I ever recommend that? Absolutely not, absolutely not. I would never recommend that anyone do what I did but I had no choice or I would have died. So I had to take care of my health anyway. Knowing what you know now, what could you advise to somebody who does find out these results? Learn all that you can so that you understand how to fix it either naturally and do that first sort of like push to go, okay, let's try to turn this all around naturally. I mean, that is the idea. Let's get this thing kicked back into gear, right? Diet, nutrient optimization, right? Look at the levels of your iron comprehensive panel. How is that? How's your B12, vitamin D? Okay, good, we're good. Great, and then go from there. If you are like, oh my God, I've been suffering for a while and I just got these tests and it's clear and you know you need to go on thyroid hormone replacement. What was your question? What do you do or? Well, okay, let's suppose you do need to go on thyroid hormone replacement. Talk about that. What are we talking about in terms of thyroid hormones, the different natural sources, what you recommend there? Yes. So this is a really long discussion. So I'll just gloss over it cause it's too in depth. But basically there are only three types. You either take T4 only, you take a T4, T3 combination or you take T3 only, the last resort choice. The best choice is usually T4, T3, Y. I just described to you. Our own thyroids never rely on the sole conversion of T4 to T3. Our thyroids pump out a bit of T3. And the T4, T3 combinations that we usually do with thyroid hormone replacement are often in those ratios, but they can be in very different ones. And depending on the person's blood work, they might need, for example, I take a very little bit of T4 and mostly T3. Most doctors would look at my blood work and jump off cliff. They would have no idea what to do with it. They would be like, oh my God, they literally their heads would explode, okay? So my treatment would be so wrong for someone else and it would completely hurt them. But based on my labs and my situation, that was my only choice. So it's just, I can't go through all the scenarios because you'd have to show me a bunch of blood work. But that's what I do in my course. I go through 25 plus examples of ages, genders, different stuff, all their blood work. So you start to know, what do you do with that person? How do you dose that?  The uninformed doctors are just gonna give you T4. And I've already told you why that's kind of a fail. And it often fails people because it's not endocrine mimicry. So a T4, T3 combo is best and there's no right or wrong. You could use natural desiccated thyroid, which comes from pigs, but what if you're a Jew or a Muslim or a vegan? Well, then in that case, you might not want to. And so then you would use synthetic T4 and T3, right? Again, I said the last resort choice is T3 only, but T4, T3 combinations are great. And it just really is what's cheaper. There's also compounded T4, T3. The only difference between that and synthetic is that it takes away all the fillers that they would put in regular prescriptions. So that's usually reserved for people who are highly sensitive and allergic to stuff.  The other advantage to compounded thyroid, which would not be used often would be if someone can tell the difference between like a microgram or two, the compounding pharmacist can co-chure it down to the microgram. You can't do that with a pill of T4 and T3 in it. You can't take a five microgram of T3 and try to pull out and be like impossible, right? So that's what compounding pharmacists do. So that's the quote, cleanest, but it's not necessarily the best. It would just be reserved for those people who really sensitive and allergic. And again, maybe because they're immune systems. But you can get natural desiccated thyroid without a prescription, right? No, you cannot. We cannot. Sorry, sorry. You can on the interwebs, okay, but you can't in real life out there.  So I do wanna make this caveat here. In our space, there are people who sell ancestral supplements, right?  When you're looking at people confused, natural desiccated thyroid with like a product you get off the shelf that's like desiccated beef thyroid gland, it has no thyroid hormones in it. And these companies say things like, oh, the five pills equals this much of, no, no, no. Those five pills do not equal this much of this prescription because this prescription has exactly this much T4, this much T3. And they do not sell thyroid hormones in that desiccated stuff. So one of the questions I get all the time is like, hey, how about this desiccated beef thyroid gland? And I'm like, that's not thyroid hormone replacement.  So people have this impression like they're getting hormones when they're not. So find a paleo doctor who can give you the prescription. That's the most certain way to go forward here, right? Any doctor who can give you the prescription. Any doctor, okay. But what you would need to know is what are you gonna tell them you'd like to try? Because if you leave the decision in their hands, it may not be the best decision and it could cost you months, if not years worth of problems. That is why you have to know the stuff, yeah. Great, so let's turn to diet. You found that a paleo diet was very helpful. Two questions, why? Why does a paleo diet help normalize thyroid? And two, paleo, primal, keto, carnivore, there's all these variations. Is there a specific kind of paleo diet that you would go for or is it just the general cut out grains, refined sugars and anti-nutrients? I would always suggest a strict paleo diet. However, for the people have autoimmune issues, it's twofold. One, they would want to look into something called the paleo AIP, paleo autoimmune protocol because that food list has more restrictions on it. Like foods high in histamines often affect people with autoimmune disorders, nightshades, things like that. So, eliminate eggs. So there's a little bit of a further process but if you don't have Hashimoto's, a standard paleo would be great. If you have Hashimoto's, you might wanna try paleo first and if not, you go to paleo AIP, just a little bit stricter. But I have clients who have to be carnivore.   It's rarer in my client base but I do have a couple of people where they have other autoimmune disorders even that affect this. And so, again, a lot of people when they're struggling with this because of the weight gain, they wanna go to the most extreme so they go keto or carnivore and it's not necessarily the move you have to make. I mean, you can but it's very restrictive so you don't necessarily have to. So with a paleo diet, we all know about two things you get. One is you improve insulin sensitivity, right? So the whole, all of the metabolic syndrome issues and it's non-inflammatory and also it's helpful in moderating autoimmune, those things. But why specifically does a paleo diet help with hypothyroidism? So what's the connection? Well, I'm sure like I mentioned with paleo primal is the ultimate in blood glucose management and adrenal management. And how much cortisol or how low cortisol you have has everything to do with thyroid getting into your cells and doing what you need to do. So if you wanna keep this whole system running chill. So I always talk about the difference when people say paleo primal, what is it? A lot of people look at a food list and they go, oh, that's paleo. I'll just eat this food list. And then they'll say it didn't work for me and I go, right, because paleo is not just a food list. It is a specific like kind of macro paradigm but it's also a lifestyle thing.   And what is that, right? You're fueled on glucose.  You're craving carbs, right?   You get hangry, all that kind of stuff. Paleo primal is about moving a human into fat burning, right? Getting rid of the crack that is glucose and having our body instead be more dependent on fat as that primary source. What does that do? It smooths out the adrenals. Why?  What happens? Adrenals respond, doesn't like it. So you're getting all these versus a nice, versus a nice steady versus with all of the stuff. So that's why it's the best primal sort of baseline for everything and also to receive thyroid hormones and the signal as well. Because if you're getting sunlight and rest and you're not running every day like your life depends on it, then the messages you're sending to the thyroid are ones that you're not in danger and it's good to go. So becoming a fat burner, keeping the adrenals even, will that tend to improve conversion of T4 to T3? Not necessarily, but it would improve T3 getting to where it needs to go. Where it needs to go, okay. You mentioned lifestyle. So the diet is very important here. You mentioned sunlight. What about things like intermittent fasting, cold exposure, some of these other practices within the paleosphere? Do they have any influence on thyroid? Negatively, no.  Hope that's beneficial too. But if you're going through hypothyroidism, you really can't be working out a lot. So no CrossFit. And then also, yeah, I would not be doing anything like cold exposure or hermetic stuff, sprinting, absolutely not.  Any energy you have is from the adrenals. When you overexhaust them, what happens?  You get a bit tire around your waist, okay, because it's excess cortical. And then you get adrenal fatigue.  Do you know what I mean? Kind of thing. And it's very frustrating, but that's really the truth because again, it's the signal because hypothyroidism is a state of inflammation. So your body is already inflamed and you mentioned the anti-inflammatory effects of paleo, wonderful. You need to help this thing out as much as possible. But when you work out in a hypothyroid state too, your body's not seeing it as a wonderful thing, right?  And it's kind of seeing it as inflammation. So you don't wanna do that. So moderate stress, things like yoga, breathing, these kinds of things. Not two, three level yoga because that's an adrenal igniter. By the way, I just wanna say this. I take thyroid hormones so that I'm unhypothyroid. I could work out 15 hours a day, it doesn't matter. I can go train for a marathon. I can go to two, three of the yoga right now and then do an hour sprint. It doesn't matter, because I am not hypothyroid and I have a normal metabolism. So it's normal. But until you are normal, until your T3 levels are good, that would not be the move to go try to like work out and do all these crazy things, yeah. All right, so we talked a lot about hypothyroidism. Let's talk just briefly about the opposite problem, hyperthyroidism. What would you advise in this situation that you... Hyperthyroidism is extremely rare, okay? But it happens. You could even get it from a tooth infection, all right? Just sort of like how Hashimoto's can be ignited by living in black mold. Graves disease is tough because first of all, the move is to go paleo for grapes period for all autoimmune conditions, that can help. But if that doesn't fix it, then what they do is they put you on a medication that sort of controls the thought, kind of tampers down the thyroid because again, your heart, you just put her out and it's very dangerous. When they can't really control it, what happens is the end sort of result of someone with graves who through diet or otherwise can't get it under control. They radioactive iodine your thyroid. So they're basically nuking your thyroid, thus making you hypo. So now you're going to need to be on thyroid hormone replacement, but it's safer to be hypo than it is to be hyper. And that's why they do that. So look, some people have had that radio RAI unnecessarily. And I'm not saying everyone has graves, goes and does it right off the bat. I'm telling you sort of the trajectory of what happens with people with graves, if they don't. So if you were diagnosed with graves, I mean, it's the ultimate to like chill, chill, chill, right? Chill, relax, you don't want that heart rate and as well, paleo, paleo, paleo, get rid of the gluten and the grains, get rid of the autoimmune igniters and see what happens. And then of course, if you have to go on the medication, but it's not a thyroid hormone and it's not a long-term solution, which is why they usually radioactive iodine the thyroid. Great. Elle, thanks so much for giving us all these insights. Your book, Paleo Thyroid Solution, I think is a must have for anybody who's interested in these issues. Where else can people look to get information that you're talking about on thyroid and more generally? I think the best resource is just go to freethyroidmasterclass.com. I have created a mini free course. It's got an hour and a half thyroid tutorial video with me. It has audio success stories of Hashimoto's thyroid cancer, reverse T3. It's got a free thyroid guide. It's got paleo recipes. It's got, you know, Eclipse from Brad Kearns. It's got so much there for you. I know what it was like to be broke and have nobody help me and not be able to have any information and I give it to you all for free. So freethyroidmasterclass.com. You can go to my website, Elle Russ. The deeper dive is to take my ultimate thyroid course. And of course I do private coaching where I work with people and we talk to their doctors, we work with them and we get them fixed. Great. A wealth of information. Again, thank you so much for talking with us today on Ancestral Health Today, Elle. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Ancestral Health Today. We hope you enjoyed our discussion on how evolutionary insights can inform modern health practices. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast to catch future episodes.


Let's look at this together chapter 4 2 Timothy. We're going to be looking at fighting the good fight And we'll see that when we conclude our our verses, but we'll look at verses 1 through 5 I'll give you an introduction as I normally do and then move on into our study. So today we're in 2 Timothy We're going to look at chapter 4. We'll begin by looking at the first five verses beginning at verse 1 2 Timothy chapter 4 Paul writes I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables but you be watchful in all things and all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry Paul has been instructing Timothy concerning last day's conditions and as we've been going through 2 Timothy especially chapters 3 and 4 we've seen that Paul has said to him a few things that relate to the conditions that would be prevailing in the days just prior to the return of Jesus Christ he had said in the last days that there would be dangerous and evil times that were existing he had said to him believers will be persecuted evil will flourish deception will be on the increase he had pointed out that the church itself would be infiltrated that there would be tears amongst the wheat instead of dying to self loving self would dominate the thoughts of those who profess to be Christians and the fruit of this kind of belief system would filter into the life of the church itself ultimately the genuine will be revealed the false will be exposed and that is because the truth of the gospel will have ultimate victory he had said in verse 9 speaking of false teachers that they will in chapter 3 they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was so they're going to go a certain distance they're going to progress assert to a certain place but ultimately what is going to happen is the gospel will have the ultimate victory so in light of this Timothy and all faithful believers either remain steadfast there to remain firm in the things that they've learned they're supposed to remain steadfast in the word of God he said in chapter 3 verse 14 you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them so he's pointing out that there to remain firm in the things they've learned they need to hold fast to the word of God so as a believer Timothy is to rely on scripture and he's to do so for all ministry he needs to remember that it's the holy scriptures that had made him wise for salvation the passages that were planted by his mother and grandmother prepared him for Jesus as he was raised his mother and grandmother had trusted in scripture and as an infant Timothy had been bathed in the word of God so when Paul communicated that Jesus was a promised Messiah Timothy had soil that had been prepared and therefore he readily believed you see before I came to know Christ my the soil my heart had been prepared Timothy's had been prepared I had a mother who was not a Christian but she was a God-fearer and she had a certain amount of religiosity about her one of the things though about my mom is that she believed that God's word truly was God's word now my dad didn't my father did not believe the Bible and didn't want it in the house as I grew up I saw a mother who was by and large very very submitted to her husband and my mom and my dad didn't get saved till they'd been married 25 years so when I grew up in in the home the first 25 years of my life as their child I never saw my father interested in things of faith my mom was but not my dad and my dad had told my mom that he did not want a Bible in the house because the only person my dad ever knew who read the Bible according to my father was crazy so he thought the Bible made you crazy I did pretty good without the Bible but my dad thought that the Bible reading the Bible and believing in the Bible was a waste of time and that it would actually contribute to you being imbalanced so that's the one thing I can tell you that I know my mom quote unquote disobeyed my father in my mom actually had a Bible that she hid in the house and on occasion I would see her reading it on occasion she'd have it pulled out my mom made sure that we went to what was called catechism my mom made sure that we had religious instruction my father was not real supportive of that he wasn't totally posed he just didn't support it he thought it was a waste of time not my mom my mom thought that our hearts needed to be receptive to God even though she didn't know Jesus until she was an older lady but when I got saved I started sharing with my mom and my dad I was 20 my mom and dad got saved and later on my mom spoke to me and she said that she had read in the Bible she said there's a phrase in the Bible it's in Isaiah she said there's a phrase in the Bible I read and it and it said and a little child shall lead them she says so I figured you must be that little child so I listened to what you had to say as interesting as that is to me to this day my mom believed that the word of God was God's word my heart was prepared by a mother who believed in such a thing as a God who could speak and preserve his word that she actually contributed that to the way I thought as a kid I figured if there is a God then surely he can communicate what what kind of God would be silent therefore he must communicate and I also believed that if he was God all things were possible with him because he's all powerful therefore if he can communicate he must be able to make sure that his words are preserved so it only made sense to me that if there is such a God and he is all powerful and he does communicate it only made sense to me that he could do so in a book called the Bible and so I already had the soil of my heart prepared so that when somebody got saved and began to share with me the gospel my heart readily accepted these things because I didn't have a built-in antagonism to God's word that's not the same today there are many today who don't believe God can speak don't believe God is powerful enough to preserve his word don't believe that he communicates to people there are a lot of people perhaps some in this room now who don't believe that well Timothy had a grandmother and a mother who did and they imparted to him a faith that God could speak and that's how he got saved it says in verse 15 in chapter 3 from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus the word of God was imparted to you you've known these things from the time you were a baby the word childhood is actually a word you can you can translate from infancy from the time he was an infant his mom and grandmother had given him scriptures so what happened with Timothy when the gospel was given there was already a readily prepared heart to receive that Jesus Christ is Messiah and so when Paul communicated that Jesus was a promised Messiah Timothy was prepared and therefore he believed and it's these scriptures that were planted in Timothy these scriptures that prepared him for salvation in Christ in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6 Paul said it like this Paul said I planted Apollo's watered but God gave the increase so scriptures are inspired by God and they're profitable in the life of the believer man's wisdom can be very practical and very deep and when moral is greatly appreciated before he was saved my dad was a very basic very wise man and he had some practical wisdom but the scriptures are inspired by God and are profitable because the bible goes deeper it doesn't speak only to a person's mind but the bible impacts their soul in John 6 verse 63 Jesus said it's the spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that I speak to you are spirit and their life so Paul wrote all scripture is inspired by God profitable for various things like doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness God's word equipped believers for service in contrast to the errors of false teachers you see the errors of the false teachers produce self-centered greedy arrogant disciples but God's word produces godly people who persevere through all trials you see self-centered people do not endure trials because they don't have genuine faith Jesus was speaking about that in Matthew 13 in chapter 13 of Matthew Jesus gives a series of parables and one of the parables he gives is a parable of the sower and the seed and he speaks concerning the power of the seed but the lack of receptivity of the soils and he speaks of how a sower went out and sowed some seed and he speaks concerning this particular soil that's referred to as stony ground or stony places and when he was speaking concerning that in Matthew 13 verses 20 and 21 Jesus said he who received the seed on stony places this is he who hears the word immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately stumbles so there are those who receive the scripture quickly they say oh yeah I believe that but in fact they're they're really not they're really not yielding completely to God his word the power of the Holy Spirit at all so when things occur that that caused them to question God and and their faith they they they stumble they're offended and they step away and so Timothy is to endure persecution and he's to trust God's word and and Paul uses himself as an an example of one who endures afflictions and he's saying to him Timothy you can use me as an example and that's what he's been saying up to this point so in this section he continues to exhort him and he begins in chapter 4 verse 1 by saying this he says I charge you therefore before God in the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom in light of all that I've said to you Paul is saying to Timothy I want you to do certain things so as we get into chapter 4 Paul is about to conclude his letter to this young pastor of the church in this mighty and very pagan city called Ephesus what would he be led to write seeing that this is the last letter that he will ever write second Timothy is the last letter we we have of the writings of the apostle Paul what is it that he would write as his last letter what will be his closing commands to this son in his faith if you had an opportunity to give some last words say you were given the opportunity to speak to those whom you love the most and you were giving your last having your last conversation or if you were writing a last letter what would it be we have an opportunity to see that here in the life of Paul and in the life of this young man by the name of Timothy as I was preparing this I couldn't help but think about king David king of Israel and how the how the Bible speaks concerning his last words to his son Solomon it's found in first kings chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 listen to what David said it says when David's time to die was near he told his son Solomon I'm going the way of all the earth so be strong show yourself to be a man do what the Lord your God tells you walk in his ways keep all his laws and his word by what is written in the law of moses then you will do well in all that you do and in every place that you go these are the things that a godly man would say to his son I want you to know God's word I want you to be obedient to the word of God I want you to walk in his ways I want you to to know him and and that's what a father would tell his son that's what David told Solomon so what is it that that Paul is going to tell his son in the faith what is it that he believes is most important he's closing his letter this is the last time he's going to communicate to him what is it that matters to him we see that in chapter 4 how he begins at verse 1 by saying I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ I most solemnly command you in front of these divine witnesses I I command you in front of God and Jesus they're with me right now in my prison cell and they are with you in your study in Ephesus and I am giving to you a command before them I'm giving you a charge that word charge is a military command it conveys urgency and obligation to respond and he's saying Timothy you are a soldier you are under military orders so carry them out and I'm judging you and I'm charging you before God Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom so this emphasizes the importance of what he's saying and this emphasizes the importance of what Timothy must do you see Timothy understood that he was in spiritual combat he knew that he needed to follow orders this is a military command everybody knows that in the military well you're not in a democracy when I served in the military I understood that I was I didn't have a vote I mean if the if the captain lieutenant even the sergeant gave an order I had to follow it it's not a democracy it's not something you voted on well he says get up at six but I don't want to get up at six I'm going to get up at 10 we didn't have a democracy I still remember a friend of mine who was in his bunk everybody was already up we'd already had breakfast and it was time to go to work and one of our sergeants walked into his room and my friend was laying in his bunk he didn't want to get up and the sergeant walks up to him and says what are you doing he said I just don't feel like getting up and so the sergeant took the blankets threw him off him grabbed him by his shirt and threw him on the ground you see there is no you have to get up it's not a democracy the guy says but I'm sleepy and the sergeant said I don't care where you are you need to get up and we learned that very quickly you don't have a vote and when a commander gives to you an order you are obligated to respond you have to obey as long as it's what is called unlawful order and so what we have here is Paul giving Timothy a lawful command he's saying I am in God's army the general you are a lesser officer I'm giving you a command you have an obligation to hear and to obey and this is what I'm commanding you to do and I'm telling you this because you're in a warfare right now you're in a spiritual battle and therefore I'm giving you commands that are are going to be kept because in doing so you'll be victorious in the war you see we're engaged in spiritual warfare and Timothy you need to use spiritual weapons it's like what it says in 2nd Corinthians 10 verses three through five how Paul says you know though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does the weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ you're in a war every person in this room is in a war if you're a believer even if you're an unbeliever there's a battle going on and as a believer we've been given commands by the Lord the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God through the pulling to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into subjection every thought into captivity of Jesus Christ that's what we've been called to that's what equips us and that's why Paul would be speaking to the Ephesians and he'd say that that we have weapons of warfare he would say that our waste is girded with truth that we wear the breastplate of righteousness our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace that we have the shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Holy Spirit these are the weapons of your warfare and the weapons of your warfare are not carnal they're not earthly they're not fabricated after the weapons of the military of the world but they're spiritual and thus you need to understand that you need to understand that spiritual war requires spiritual weapons and if we understand that the war we are in is spiritual then that will direct my approach to the battles that I that I find myself in and that's one of the reasons by the way that prayer is so important because when you read concerning the weapons of our warfare in Ephesians 6 especially after Paul outlines each item he says that we're to be praying constantly because the weapons of our warfare require us to know where we're supposed to use them and how to use them you see and that's one of the reasons why the annual national day of prayer is so important for us to observe we should be praying every day of course but I think it's a special time when churches throughout the nation gather to pray I was reading that approximately 35 000 prayer gatherings will be held this upcoming Thursday May 3rd if there's ever been a time when this nation needs prayer isn't it now and if there's ever been a time when this state needs prayer isn't it now we absolutely do need to pray and and God speaks and know this was a statement to the nation of Israel it is the scripture that is used to identify the national day of prayer we're in 2nd chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 God says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven will forgive their sin and heal their land so we're going to be hosting the prayer gathering in chino at the city hall around noon about 1145 and we'll hold the time of prayer that night here in our chapel at seven o'clock we need to pray and in light of the prevailing conditions of Ephesus Paul is issuing a command he's saying this timothy I have an order you must carry out preach the word the term preach the word is another way of saying preach the sayings of God why is it important to preach the sayings of God to preach the word what can we glean from this that might encourage the sharing of our own faith well notice what he says when he says in verse 2 preach the word be ready in season and out of season convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching why would I do that because he said in verse when I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead we preach because there's a coming judgment we preach because Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead we like to preach how that Jesus Christ is a savior of mankind God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son the whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life and there are so many scriptures that tell us if you believe then you can be born again but we also need to understand that he's not only the savior here's something that we need to remember he is also the judge Jesus Christ is the judge the bible tells us in John 5 27 that God has given Jesus authority to execute judgment in Hebrews in chapter 10 verse 42 Peter said that God commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God it was Jesus who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead people need to be told and reminded that eternity is before them we need to remember that a holy God is also a God there is grace offered but when rejected judgment comes in Hebrews 9 27 it is appointed unto men to die once and after this judgment in Hebrews 10 31 the writer says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and this knowledge compelled Paul to proclaim the opportunity for salvation and 2nd Corinthians 5 11 he said knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men if salvation from the inevitable day of judgment is possible what must Timothy do well he tells them in verse 2 preach the word the word preach means to proclaim loudly and openly it's a picture that we in our American history might remember being taught of what was called the town crier and his responsibility was to let everybody know with a very loud voice a variety of things that were occurring because judgment is coming we need to know and share his message because it's the gospel and not your own opinion or testimony that saves people there are many places that don't seem to understand that today but again we're living in the last days and perilous times are here and so you can go and you can hear the opinions of the pastor or you can hear the testimony over and over again every time you show up but he didn't say give your opinion he didn't say give your testimony he said preach preach the word let God's word be known it's the gospel that saves people not my opinion it's the gospel that saves people not my testimony when Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in 1st Thessalonians 2 13 he said for this reason we also thank God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which also effectively works in you who believe in James 1 21 we read therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent humbly accept the word planted in you which is able to save your soul you preach the word my opinions will not save your soul my testimony will not save your soul entertainment from a church stage will not change your soul it doesn't save you it's God's word that does and when because that's true on what you notice he says preach the word be ready in season and out of season you're not on the clock you don't punch in as a Christian at eight and then punch out at five Timothy you're on 24 seven and you're to take this gospel and share it when given opportunities be ready whenever the opportunity presents itself share when you can when you read the gospel of john and you get to chapter four there's a story of a woman that's at the well of sicker we call her psychar but it's more than likely a sicker she's had Jacobs well and at the beginning of that chapter we're introduced the idea that Jesus is going to go into Samaria and he says I need to go there I must needs go there I'm going there his apostles his men don't want to go in there they because Samaria is a place that that the Jews would avoid I mean if you look at the map you'll see you've got the southern central and northern section and the central section represents much to the east by the Jordan River represents a region called Samaria Samaria was a place that the Jews by and large would avoid so if I were in the south in the Jerusalem area we'll say and I was going to go to the north to the Galilee very often I would simply step across the Jordan and go north and then avoid Samaria and then come back in once I was past the region John says the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans and yet we have Jesus is over there in this well well his men are out trying to find some food for them and he had said I need to go through Samaria and there they are he's the way he's at the well called Jacobs well and as he's there by the well a woman of Samaria shows up we know the story and it's at noon and that tells us something if you know anything of the Jewish culture you would know that if water was to be drawn from a well it would normally be drawn from the well in the morning or in the early evening why because it's so hot we've only been to Israel one time during the summer I will never go again during the summer why because it was 112 to 116 degrees it is hot and so we don't go during the summer we've had teachers say can you go during the summer and I say no no no read your books and find out it's too hot no I will not do that it's we've done it and we will not do it again we've only gone once and so what happens is during that day it was the woman's duty to get the water for the family and that's why we call those the good old days anyway so she would go with she would go with the water pot and she would draw with a bucket from the well and she'd put it in the water pot and it was for their use but they would go in the in the morning when it's cool or in the afternoon when it was cool now when the woman would go to the well that was a place to socialize and so the other ladies who were in the city would also convene at the well and so it was a place for them to talk about you know the family and how things are going it was a social place for them and that's what the ladies would do as they were seated there drawing the water visit how's everything going and that's what they would do but that's what makes it interesting to note this the scripture says the woman went at noon noon is the hottest time of the day that tells you something about the woman the other women wanted nothing to do with her so to avoid the pressures and the things she was dealing with if she'd have gone in the morning or the afternoon she chose to go at noon so she goes at noon but there's a Jewish man seated at the place by the well and as she comes to draw water Jesus says woman give me something to drink and it startles her and she looks at him and she asks him the question how is it that thou being a man of Israel being a Jew asks a drink of water for me being a woman of Samaria and that's when John goes on to say for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. The Jews had an animosity towards them because the Samaritans were actually not fully Jewish because the Assyrians had brought in peoples from other lands and had populated Samaria and when they came in they created an ad mixture if you will they were not fully Jewish people plus they had brought in religious systems from other countries and it polluted the Jewish religious system and had built a temple for themselves in a little mountain that was there where they would do their offerings and there was a conflict between the Jews and the Samaritans that was very deep which gives you insight into why Jesus would use a parable and speak of a good Samaritan because it cut right across the barriers when he's spoken that way and it also gives you insight into Jesus' ministry to women in that she asks how is it that you being a man it's what she's really saying being a Jewish man speaks to me a woman of Samaria how is it that you because he's breaking barriers because Jewish men would not speak to women alone and Jewish men would never speak to a Samaritan woman because they have no dealings with and that's where that conversation takes its depth if you knew who I was you'd ask me to give you living water you don't have a vessel to draw water from the well is deep now the water I give you that'll spill out of you as a water of life give me some of that water because I hate coming in and getting this in the heat give me some of that water I'll go get your husband I have none hmm in this you've spoken truly you've had five and the one you're shacking up with that's not your husband interesting story let me add one little thought she had five men she had been married to she's now living with another man that's six men in her life six men you've had five plus one that you're living with that's not even a legitimate husband you've got six men in your life but guess what you came to the seventh seven in scripture is the number of perfection you've gone through six men till you finally came to the right one it's me and you will have the water if you ask I can give you water of life sir I perceive you're a prophet so from how is it that you being a Jew it's now sir it's now prophet because he's bringing her slowly and surely so when he says go get your husband she doesn't have one he continues speaking to her and what is the next thing she does she rushes off and speaks to the men of the city read your passages read chapter four you'll see this she runs to the men of the city why the men of the city because a Whitman had nothing to do with her he spoke she spoke to the men come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done and you can almost add to that the thought and he still loves me and he still accepted me can this be Messiah now remember at the beginning of the story Jesus said I need to go through Samaria why Jesus because there's a woman that I'm going to meet with at noon so I can give her water of life be ready in season and out of season to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ be ready that's what Paul is speaking about here when he says that you need to be instant in season and out of season be ready when it's safe and you can do so in a peaceful way but Timothy when the days ahead begin to be tough be ready to give God's word when conditions may be dangerous and difficult Paul in the book of Philippians speaks concerning how you can use him as an example because in Philippians 1 verses 12 and 13 Paul writing out of a jail cell said I want you to know brethren that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ my chains are in Christ I am in here for the preaching of the gospel and it may not be an easy place to be but I've been able to to evangelize the whole palace guard he had said in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9 I suffered trouble as an evil doer even to the point of chains but the word of God is not chained now be ready in season and out of season to preach the word and he says in verse 2 convince rebuke exhort with all long suffering and teaching convince the word convince speaks about exposing faults it's a word that can speak about reprimanding somebody or convicting somebody who is listening have you discovered that truth can be direct and sometimes it must be plainly said and when it's plainly said it convinces Jesus was speaking will say to the scribes and Pharisees it's recorded in Luke in chapter 11 verse 39 the Lord said now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean but your inward parts are full of greed and wickedness that's a pretty direct thing coming out of the lips of love himself in Luke 1143 what do you Pharisees you love the best seats in the synagogues greetings in the marketplaces Luke 1152 what do you lawyers you have taken away the key of knowledge you did not enter in yourselves and those who are entering in you hindered truth sometimes comes very plain and very convicting and that's how you preach sometimes sometimes he says it'll come as a rebuke convince and rebuke the word rebuke means to admonish Stephen is an example of of that kind of preaching when he was about to be martyred he was speaking to the Jewish authorities and this is what he said in Acts 7 51 and 52 he said you stiff-necked and uncircumcised and harden ears you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did so do you and then they killed him it's not always something that people respond well to sometimes you exhort the word exhort means to beg to entreat sometimes you speak with tears in your heart that comes out in your voice Ezekiel 33 11 say to them as I live says the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn turn from your evil ways for why should you die oh house of Israel you could almost hear the tear in the voice of the Lord in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17 therefore come out from among them be separate says the Lord do not touch with what is unclean and I will receive you in 1st Thessalonians 2 verses 11 and 12 as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory there are times that you speak like that my mom and my dad got saved I went into the army I was gone for a couple of years came back they'd been Christians for two years I came home I got out around Christmas I bought my dad some books Christian books that I wanted him to read because I noted some things I had noted that my father's walk with the Lord hadn't really grown and I still remember speaking to my dad after at Christmas had come I had given him those books my dad hadn't picked up one of them yet to read and I still remember we were in the patio at my parents house and I looked at my father and with tears I started to weep I looked at my dad I was 22 years old I looked at my dad and he started to cry and I said daddy you're not doing well with the Lord at all I said daddy you haven't grown a bit and I was weeping when I spoke to him it wasn't a an arrogant son it wasn't a proud full it was a broken heart daddy you're not growing you're not growing I gave you those books and you haven't opened one of them yet dad open those books and read you need to grow there are times that you speak like that you exhort you and treat you beg and there may be tears coming down your eyes as you do it because your heart is pierced with the things of the Lord those who go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing their sheaves with them there's a time when a tear reveals a heart and there are times when the minister will break and will weep you convict sometimes you just speak you exhort you do it with long suffering in all manner of teaching somebody says well you know why do we need long suffering why well some things take times take time did you did you when you got saved on we'll say a sunday did you the next day start teaching bible studies on monday with depth some things take time so one of the things that I've had to learn over the years is to be very patient I have to be patient about myself because I'm an impatient person in many ways but I also have had to learn to be patient I had a bible study we used to do just up the street not not a half mile or so from here just up the street there east end in philadelphia if you go on philadelphia from here and you're going to the west and you come to east end you go across and you go maybe a quarter mile or less off to the side there's a place called lube grain some of you may be familiar with that and there's a house a little house I think it's still there that's right there on the property if you drive by you'll see this house and they have placed these it looks like boulders that they have put on on the house we used to call it a rock house we don't do anymore but we used to call it that then because we didn't sell rock but anyway when you when you look at it I used to do bible studies there I used to do bible studies there I used to do bible studies there in 1975 I lived there I was one of four roommates that rented out that house we spent twenty five dollars a month rent that's those are the good old days twenty five dollars month rent and he used to have a bible study there and there was a young man there in the bible study who was younger than I and he was an alcoholic I think he was maybe 20 21 years old and he was a confirmed alcoholic at that age he used to come home with two cases of beer now that wasn't my house I wasn't renting it out to people the owner was renting it to us we started a bible study he started coming to the bible study when he came to the bible study I started sharing what Matthew had to say about salvation and he gave his heart to Christ and so about two or three weeks after he had prayed to receive the Lord I was talking to him and he asked me a question he said David let me ask you something why do you get so close to me when you're speaking to me he says I think it's because you're trying to see whether I have beer on my breath he was right that's exactly right because I used to see him carrying two cases at a time and he drank it by himself confirmed alcoholic and I said well well he says no admit it you're getting close to me to see if I have beer in my breath I said you're right you're right I am I said forgive me he said I want to tell you something I've never forgotten this I share this with you I want to tell you something I believe you loved me more as a sinner than you do now that I'm a Christian because I treated him with more grace and kindness before he knew Jesus then after he prayed with me he was right he was a hundred percent right that's exactly what I did I tried to explain it I tried to say I'm just concerned for you Steve and he said to me listen I gave my heart to Jesus he's with me now he has set me free and he doesn't need you monitoring my life he was right so I shot him no he was right that made me so mad and he went to heaven no he was right have you ever done anything like that you ever been treated like that somebody watching you with this holy spy glass to see whether or not you're doing right or wrong guess what it's not that I should ignore my brother and ignore his sin no I'm not saying that I'm not saying just give him permission to sin no of course not I should love him enough to tell him the truth but at the same time I should know that God is able to take care of those who are his he knows how to take care of his kids he knows how to chase in them he knows how to spank him he knows how to bring him back in line he really does and so we have to realize that some things take time and that's why you do this ministry with long suffering and teaching just hold on and watch what God will do because Steve eventually met a good Christian girl they got married served the Lord continued on as far as I know 40 years later they're still serving the Lord because God has a way of doing that that's what the Holy Spirit in the word of God does in somebody's life he transforms you by the grace of God so Timothy understand that understand that well why we better rush on I've got to get to verse 3 for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers will they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables why would we do that well because the time is coming when they will begin to select teachers who will tell them exactly what they want to hear according to their own desires because they have itching ears they're going to heap up unto themselves teachers that time by the way is now somebody said the thirst for novelties in doctrine the desire for a teaching that while offering peace to a troubled conscience would yet allow the old self-indulgent life to go on as before will increase and that's true it's a message that is devoid of a call to live for Christ the time will come the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine the time will come when they are going to to basically collect teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear their own lusts will separate them from the doctrine that purifies their souls they will think that the teaching is too strict and harsh so they'll reject the teaching as well as the teacher they will seek less convicting teachers who will flatter them and say what they want to hear they will want to hear something that they have not heard before that's what israel said in isaac 39 and 10 when god was speaking to the nation he said of them this is a rebellious people lying children children who will not hear the law of the lord who say to the seers do not see to the prophets do not prophesy to us right things speak to us smooth things prophesy deceits they're going to want to hear things they already believe and already agree with and because of that timothy do these four things be watchful endure affliction be an evangelist fulfill your ministry timothy verse five be watchful the word watchful means to abstain from wine be on the alert be attentive be discreet he had already told him to avoid foolish arguments to remain solid in simple truth he was to avoid discussions that led to strife to be patient and gentle with everybody he told him to avoid the influence of false teachers turn away from false believers so you need to be watchful second you need to endure affliction you need to be prepared to endure suffering for jesus christ don't be surprised when you go through hard or difficult times but hold fast to the end in second timothy in chapter two verse three he said you must endure hardship as a good soldier of jesus christ so endure affliction third do the work of evangelist do the work fulfill your commission in other words keep your eyes on the things that are eternal continue sharing the gospel give away your faith and fourth fulfill your ministry don't fall short don't hold back be committed to christ fully perform your ministry task it'll evidence the genuineness of your ministry and then paul says use me once again as an example because in verse six he said i'm already being poured out as a drink offering the time of my departure is at hand i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith and finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing so he says i'm already being poured out as a drink offering a drink offering a company at a sacrifice it was a picture of his impending death being poured out therefore speaks of his total dedication to christ a drink offering contained elements of sacrifice and service and because of this he said i'm ready to depart i'm i'm i'm weighing anchor i'm striking the tent i'm moving on and this is what i can say i have fought the good fight i finished the race i have kept the faith i have fought i have finished and i've been faithful i fought as a good soldier and i'm victorious in christ i'm finishing the race i ran the course that was set out for me successfully not only did i start i followed the rules i ran well i completed that course and i've been faithful i have kept the faith i guarded god's word remain faithful i did not compromise my life and i never watered down god's word and as a result verse eight finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness laid up for me it is safely stored and it's guarded by god himself i will receive the victor's reward and that's what motivated my service he's saying to god my faith filled expectation is to be given a victor's crown i i finished my race properly i followed the rules i did not cheat i finished the course i get the crown of righteousness i received the victor's accomplishment and that is a crown that is awarded he says to the righteous he hungered and he thirsted for righteousness and that was all that would ever satisfy him he lived a life battling the flesh the world and the devil but he was yet to be a finished product that was about to take place but guess what timothy this crown is not mine alone it belongs to you too keep that in mind this crown is given to all who love god and all who look forward to seeing jesus you can have it too hey we're not there yet are we we're just passing through we're moving on we're pilgrims we're sojourners we're aliens we're living in a in a hostile environment a christ rejecting world but we're just passing through there's a man by the name of henry morrison he served 40 years on the african mission field and finally when his service was was done and he was heading home he came home by boat on that same boat also rode theodore rusevelt morrison was quite dejected when he entered the new york harbor because president rusevelt received a great fanfare as he arrived home morrison thought he should get some recognition for 40 years in the lord's service then a small voice came to morrison and said henry you're not home yet and that's how we ought to think this world is not my home i'm just passing through and it doesn't matter if they have a great band that's playing for somebody else because when you enter into heaven you don't want to hear lots of voices you know what you want to hear i think you want to hear what i want to hear it's not the loud voices of others it's the loud voice of one who will say to you well done my good and my faithful servant that's the voice that i want to hear someday that's a voice that my ears have been attuned to when i hear the voice of jesus christ say well done welcome home i have fought the good fight i have finished the race that's what i mean that's it