How to Test for Root Causes

Thyroid trouble often starts as a whisper—tiredness, stubborn weight, dry skin—until a closer look shows the tiny neck gland that sets the body’s “speed” is out of tune. Basic tests can miss the real issue, so checking active hormones and thyroid antibodies—and hunting for triggers like stress, gluten sensitivity, toxins, nutrient gaps, and gut imbalances—can reveal what’s really going on. When understood this way, thyroid health is no longer just about numbers on a lab report—it’s about restoring balance in the whole system. With the right testing, nutrition, and support, energy, mood, and metabolism can all return to their natural rhythm.

In this episode, I discuss, along with Dr. Elizabeth Boham and Dr. George Papanicolaou, thyroid conditions such as hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, thyroid autoimmunity and how Functional Medicine practitioners take a different approach to find the root cause of the imbalance.

Dr. Elizabeth Boham is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Albany Medical School, and she is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and the Medical Director of The UltraWellness Center. Dr. Boham lectures on a variety of topics, including Women’s Health and Breast Cancer Prevention, insulin resistance, heart health, weight control and allergies. She is on the faculty for the Institute for Functional Medicine.

Dr. George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Abington Memorial Hospital. Over time as the healthcare system made it harder for patients to receive personal care, Dr. Papanicolaou decided a change was needed. He began training in Functional Medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. In 2015, he established Cornerstone Personal Health—a practice dedicated entirely to Functional Medicine. In August 2017, I invited Dr. Papanicolaou to join The UltraWellness Center and we’ve been successfully helping people together ever since.

This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers.

Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%.

Full-length episodes can be found here:
How To Treat The Root Cause Of Thyroid Problems

Is An Underactive Thyroid To Blame For Your Mysterious Symptoms?

A Root Cause Approach to Hyperthyroidism and Graves’ Disease