Hidden Hormone Dynamics Sabotaging Your Patient Outcomes (It’s Not Always Hashimoto’s) | E19

Functional Medicine for Real-World Impact

Most thyroid labs look fine on paper, but your patient’s cells may be screaming for help you can’t see.

Tracy Harrison offers a wake-up call for healthcare practitioners: long-term healing can’t happen without addressing the hidden hormone dynamics that standard labs often miss. In this episode, she explores why persistent symptoms in chronically ill patients, especially post-pandemic, may be tied to unrecognized dysfunction in the adrenal-thyroid axis. These are the patients doing “everything right” yet still cycling through flare-ups, fatigue, and stalled progress. Tracy names what many clinicians sense but can’t always explain: a revolving door of disease driven by intracellular hypothyroid function, subclinical adrenal imbalances, and unresolved stress physiology.

At the core is one foundational principle – all healing is a parasympathetic activity. Tracy challenges practitioners to see beyond lab panels and protocols, reminding us that the nervous system listens to lived experience, not positive thinking. She connects the dots between sympathetic dominance, chronic inflammation, micronutrient deficiencies, estrogen excess, insulin resistance, and hormone conversion issues that derail recovery even when test results look perfect.

Through clear clinical insight, examples, and research-backed nuance, Tracy reframes how we evaluate thyroid and adrenal patterns in practice. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen more deeply, and upgrade your lens on what healing truly requires. If you’ve been trained to trust the labs first, this conversation will change how you see everything.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Revolving Door of Chronic Illness

03:45 Healing Requires Parasympathetic Dominance

07:15 Intracellular Hypothyroid Function Explained

14:10 Nutrient Deficiencies Driving Thyroid Dysfunction

21:05 How Chronic Stress Suppresses Thyroid Function

28:15 Inflammation, Reverse T3, and Long COVID

39:55 Insulin Resistance and Thyroid Hormone Resistance

47:05 Running a Complete Thyroid Panel

54:05 Rethinking Thyroid Hormone Replacement

1:00:55 Hidden Physiological Stressors That Disrupt Healing

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