Jun 10, 2026 · 47 min · 9 segments
For years, thyroid expert Dr. Izabella Wentz focused on the biochemical root causes of Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism—but over time, she uncovered a deeper pattern. In this fascinating conversation…
Jody CohenHost
Well, and what I love is that it, it is so gentle, and it's so easy, and it's so research-backed.
Um, our bodies develop chronic illness as an adaptation to our environments, you know? And when we're in a stressed environment, other things go a little haywire.
Can you speak a little bit to the safety theory and kind of your, uh, 14 steps to address it?
So I think, you know, it's interesting when we look at why our bodies do the things that they do, and some people are like, "Okay, well, I am flawed," or, "There's something wrong with me," or, "My genes are just bad," um, or we're, we're taught these things, right? But I don't think that's actually what's happening.
There's a theory known as adaptive physiology that talks about like, okay, how is our body adapting to the environment to help us survive? For example, um, they know that people who went through the Irish potato famine where there was a scarcity of food, many of them ended up being hypothyroid.
And so developing hypothyroidism when our metabolism is slow, we don't need as many calories to survive per day.
Um, giant pandas who eat a diet of like bamboo, which is like not... apparently not the ideal food to eat if you're a bear.
They're actually hypothyroid, and this allows them to survive on this like very, you know, um, low calorie, like inflammatory food, right, that they're eating.
Bears, hibernating bears actually have low levels of thyroid hormone during hibernation.
This allows them to store that, you know, beautiful [laughs] belly fat that can get them through the wi- long winters when they're not able to, to, you know, hunt for their salmon or pick their blueberries, right? And so the human body does that to some degree as well.
You know, I don't know that humans actually hibernate, but when you think about if we're constantly exposed to stress, if we're constantly exposed to threats or a famine or a lack of resources, the body just tries to help us out and it's like...
It was like, "Oh, you know, I'm trying to diet and exercise, but my old Irish genes are saying, 'Hey, lassie, don't worry.
We're gonna hold on to that weight for you [laughs] because the, the English are chasing you," and blah, blah, blah.
You know, like, um, and really that is what I've noticed and witnessed in a lot of women that I've worked with is some kind of stress in their lives is driving their body to start adapting.
So whether that makes them less fertile, it lowers their libido, it causes them to gain weight, be more sluggish, be more brain fog, be more fatigued, right? It's sort of a protective mechanism of like, "Hey, it's not safe out there.
Why don't we like just go back into our caves and maybe sleep a little bit," right? And so my theory and my approach over the last decade has been like how do we let our bodies know that we're safe, right? So I can't just be like, "No, you know, you're safe.
Well, and what I love is that it, it is so gentle, and it's so easy, and it's so research-backed.
Um, our bodies develop chronic illness as an adaptation to our environments, you know? And when we're in a stressed environment, other things go a little haywire.
Can you speak a little bit to the safety theory and kind of your, uh, 14 steps to address it?
So I think, you know, it's interesting when we look at why our bodies do the things that they do, and some people are like, "Okay, well, I am flawed," or, "There's something wrong with me," or, "My genes are just bad," um, or we're, we're taught these things, right? But I don't think that's actually what's happening.
There's a theory known as adaptive physiology that talks about like, okay, how is our body adapting to the environment to help us survive? For example, um, they know that people who went through the Irish potato famine where there was a scarcity of food, many of them ended up being hypothyroid.
And so developing hypothyroidism when our metabolism is slow, we don't need as many calories to survive per day.
Um, giant pandas who eat a diet of like bamboo, which is like not... apparently not the ideal food to eat if you're a bear.
They're actually hypothyroid, and this allows them to survive on this like very, you know, um, low calorie, like inflammatory food, right, that they're eating.
Bears, hibernating bears actually have low levels of thyroid hormone during hibernation.
This allows them to store that, you know, beautiful [laughs] belly fat that can get them through the wi- long winters when they're not able to, to, you know, hunt for their salmon or pick their blueberries, right? And so the human body does that to some degree as well.
You know, I don't know that humans actually hibernate, but when you think about if we're constantly exposed to stress, if we're constantly exposed to threats or a famine or a lack of resources, the body just tries to help us out and it's like...
It was like, "Oh, you know, I'm trying to diet and exercise, but my old Irish genes are saying, 'Hey, lassie, don't worry.
We're gonna hold on to that weight for you [laughs] because the, the English are chasing you," and blah, blah, blah.
You know, like, um, and really that is what I've noticed and witnessed in a lot of women that I've worked with is some kind of stress in their lives is driving their body to start adapting.
So whether that makes them less fertile, it lowers their libido, it causes them to gain weight, be more sluggish, be more brain fog, be more fatigued, right? It's sort of a protective mechanism of like, "Hey, it's not safe out there.
Why don't we like just go back into our caves and maybe sleep a little bit," right? And so my theory and my approach over the last decade has been like how do we let our bodies know that we're safe, right? So I can't just be like, "No, you know, you're safe.
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