Ancient Health Podcast

Tired, losing hair, and told your labs are “normal”? Endocrinologist Dr. Cassie Smith explains the new 2026 American Society of Hematology ferritin thresholds, why your thyroid needs iron, the pregnancy thyroid rule every woman on thyroid medication should know, the gut signs you may be ignoring, and her honest take on GLP-1 drugs. With Dr. Chris Motley.

00:00 Dr. Cassie Smith is back

01:08 Graves' disease in med school, at 130 beats a minute

02:38 "Normal" labs, and the fertility questions you sent in

03:33 Why fertility starts in the gut, and PCOS gets a new name

04:30 What birth control does to your gut bacteria

06:21 Thyroid, nutrients, and early miscarriage

07:07 Why your TSH drops when you get pregnant

08:13 On thyroid medicine? The nine-dose rule

09:07 Which probiotic? The Akkermansia gap

10:58 After a miscarriage: the labs to ask for

13:02 Thinning hair and the new ferritin guidelines

14:58 A tongue and pulse read, and a ferritin result

17:24 Gut warning signs: bloating, reflux, gas

18:38 Acne, rashes, and swollen joints

19:57 Depression and anxiety after a baby

20:39 Can you inherit a bad gut?

21:56 Glutamine, butyrate, and the scab rule

24:42 Fiber, and the free fixes nobody can sell you

26:34 Gluten, Roundup, and your thyroid

28:53 GLP-1s: an endocrinologist's honest take

30:42 Insulin as traffic cop

32:27 Why kids stop eating when they're full

33:15 Using GLP-1s right: protein, water, weights, then stop

34:32 Where to find Dr. Smith

35:11 An endocrinologist who wants to learn acupuncture

37:50 Teeth, meridians, and infertility

39:38 Closing thoughts

41:28 Disclaimer

Sources are included in the show notes. Educational only - not medical advice.

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https://www.instagram.com/modernendocrine_/

Buy her book Fix Your Gut, Fix Your Hormones: https://a.co/d/0gbCrVD6

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*Do you have a ton more in-depth questions for Doctor Motley? Check out his course on emotions and the body in his membership. You’ll find other courses full of his expertise and clinical wisdom, plus bring all your questions to his weekly lives! To try risk-free for 15 days click here https://www.doctormotley.com/15

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The viral fungus numbers are real: about 7,300 deaths and 130,000 hospitalizations a year, per the CDC. But those figures count fungal infections, not the mold behind your shower. Dr. Chris Motley explains what damp buildings probably do to health (asthma, wheeze, cough, respiratory infections), why a urine mycotoxin test can't tell you if your home is making you sick, how Chinese Medicine describes "dampness," and the step that matters most: find the water.

Sources below. Educational only, not medical advice.

Supplements Dr. Motley recommends:

SPLEEN

Spleeno-Lyph by Nutri-West

Spleen PMG by Standard Process: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/doctormotley/signup

Albizia Supreme by Supreme Nutrition: https://shop.supremenutritionproducts.com/?aff=28

KIDNEY

Uva Ursi by Supreme Nutrition: https://shop.supremenutritionproducts.com/?aff=28

Body Guard by Supreme Nutrition: https://shop.supremenutritionproducts.com/?aff=28

Cranberry

UT Vibrance

Mold Testing

ImmunoLytics: https://immunolytics.com/?wpam_id=474

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*Do you have a ton more in-depth questions for Doctor Motley? Check out his course on emotions and the body in his membership. You’ll find other courses full of his expertise and clinical wisdom, plus bring all your questions to his weekly lives! To try risk-free for 15 days click here https://www.doctormotley.com/15
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Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD, of Amen Clinics and ILADS, returns for a third conversation, live in Nashville. She and Dr. Chris Motley talk about Lyme and other tick-borne infections in the brain: anxiety and depression, kids labeled ADHD, puberty flares, mold and memory, and why she calms the brain before treating anything. Plus her best question: when did your symptoms start, and where were you? Sources in the show notes. Educational only, not medical advice.

00:00 Depression, anxiety, and a Lyme test

00:39 Welcome: Dr. Eboni Cornish, live in Nashville

02:20 From bored family doctor to Lyme practice

04:13 How Lyme gets into the brain

06:12 What a Lyme brain looks like on a SPECT scan

08:02 The limbic loop: calm the brain

10:21 Is neurology catching up?

12:30 Floaters, light sensitivity, and trouble reading

14:05 Tinnitus and sound sensitivity

15:08 Can kids have Lyme? Pregnancy and newborns

17:48 Why puberty can trigger a flare

20:12 ADHD, PANS, and a gentler approach for kids

23:32 Food, kids, and the one-food trade

25:56 Sudden anger in children

27:23 Joint pain and injuries that won't heal

28:57 Teeth, gums, and cavitations

31:09 Babesia and your red blood cells

32:34 MTHFR, explained

35:11 Swollen lymph nodes and lymphatic drainage

36:47 Memory loss, mold, and dementia risk

39:42 Where were you when your symptoms started?

41:31 Gratitude and the brain

43:59 How your gut shapes your mood

46:09 Her morning routine

48:19 Saunas, baths, and cold water

50:38 Belly breathing for kids

51:11 Her fall speaking tour

54:14 Where to find Dr. Cornish

55:34 Wrap-up

57:01 Disclaimer

Key Takeaways:

Tick-borne illness can show up in the brain. Lyme can reach the nervous system. If you have neurological symptoms and you are not getting better, Dr. Cornish says to put tick-borne disease on the list (5:16).

Calm the brain before you push treatment. Her patients who react to everything are often stuck in fight or flight, a "limbic loop" (9:37). She starts by calming the nervous system.

Kids get labeled. Many of her pediatric patients arrive diagnosed with ADHD or "being bad" (20:50). A sudden change in a child, over days rather than months, is worth asking your pediatrician about by name: PANS.

Trade one food, not the whole diet. She asks a reluctant kid for one food that "doesn't love your brain," and trades a supplement off the list in return (25:04). Then she asks AI for realistic swaps a family will actually eat.

Babesia lives in red blood cells. If you have tested positive, don't donate blood. Federal blood-safety rules agree.

Want more of The Ancient Health Podcast? Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

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Follow Dr. Eboni Cornish

https://www.instagram.com/dr.ebonicornish/

https://www.drebonicornish.com/

For more on her work:

https://www.amenclinics.com/

https://www.ilads.org/

*Join Doctor Motley’s newsletter for TCM insights and regular podcast updates https://www.doctormotley.com/

*Do you have a ton more in-depth questions for Doctor Motley? Check out his course on emotions and the body in his membership. You’ll find other courses full of his expertise and clinical wisdom, plus bring all your questions to his weekly lives! To try risk-free for 15 days click here https://www.doctormotley.com/15
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At 34, Dr. Stephen Hussey had a zero calcium score and a heart attack six months later. Dr. Chris Motley talks with him about what his tests missed, infrared light, structured water, and his case that the heart is more than a pump. Sources in the show notes. Remember: chest pain means call 911. Educational only, not medical advice.

00:00 Zero calcium score, heart attack at 34

00:24 Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast

00:33 Meet Dr. Stephen Hussey 01:38 Hives, asthma, and type 1 diabetes at nine

03:04 Fit, healthy, perfect labs, then a heart attack

04:42 Alone in the hospital with 11 prescriptions

06:34 A blocked leg artery after the heart cath

08:55 Why he bought an infrared sauna

11:18 Half of sunlight is infrared, and we live indoors

14:09 Structured water, explained and disputed

18:42 What makes blood clot: Virchow's three conditions

22:43 Stop the heart and the blood keeps moving?

25:43 Red light panels, and how much is too much

30:08 Is the heart really a pump?

30:39 A quick word on LDL

31:51 Three roles of the heart, starting with the pump question

35:14 A heart that twists

37:40 Sponsor: Timeline

39:05 Role two: the heart as a brake

41:08 Role three: the heart as a sensor

46:06 Heart rate variability and the ability to adapt

48:54 Chinese medicine: the heart governs the blood

50:15 Grounding: how much is enough

53:36 Three books

55:48 Why he stopped practicing to teach full time

57:34 Wrap-up 58:18 Disclaimer

Key Takeaways

A zero calcium score is good news, not a guarantee. It measures calcified plaque only. Dr. Hussey says so himself (3:40): it does not see soft plaque, and it cannot see a clot that forms on a clean artery wall.

Heart attacks are not all plumbing. Stress cardiomyopathy and coronary artery spasm are real, recognized events that do not start with a blocked artery.

Get outside. About half of sunlight is infrared, and Americans spend about 93 percent of their time indoors or in vehicles (NHAPS, 2001).

Light has a dose. Red and infrared light help up to a point, then stop helping. Dr. Hussey calls it a "bell curve" (26:52), and the research agrees.

The heart twists as it contracts, and heart rate variability matters. Both are well measured. Low heart rate variability tracks with heart failure and depression.

Chinese medicine says the heart governs the blood and houses the spirit. Dr. Motley connects that classical idea to Dr. Hussey's argument that the heart is more than a mechanical pump (48:54 to 50:11).

Remember: Don't stop or change heart medications without your cardiologist.

Chest pain, pressure, or shortness of breath: call 911, whatever your last scan said.

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Follow Dr. Stephen Hussey

https://resourceyourhealth.com/

https://www.instagram.com/drstephenhussey/

Buy the book Understanding the Heart: https://a.co/d/0ib1tvZH

*Take Timeline’s Longevity Quiz and you’ll get a FREE sample of Mitopure gummies (if you’re not on the Mitopure train yet, this is the perfect opportunity to try them out! https://tinyurl.com/ujbj4r57

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*Do you have a ton more in-depth questions for Doctor Motley? Check out his course on emotions and the body in his membership. You’ll find other courses full of his expertise and clinical wisdom, plus bring all your questions to his weekly lives! To try risk-free for 15 days click here https://www.doctormotley.com/15
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Normal TSH, still exhausted? Dr. Chris Motley explains the thyroid antibodies most people never get tested for, why a stomach infection called H. pylori keeps showing up alongside Hashimoto's, what a 2026 study found when it was treated, and what Chinese medicine has long said about digestion and a cold, tired body.

(00:00) Your antibodies are five times normal, and "nothing to treat yet"

(00:53) Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast

(01:02) The most common thyroid disease, and the least recognized

(02:15) How your immune system attacks your thyroid: anti-TPO and anti-thyroglobulin

(02:55) What your thyroid does, and how TPO builds T3 and T4

(05:38) Why the antibodies start: Epstein-Barr, and one more pathogen

(06:13) H. pylori is not just a heartburn bug

(07:17) The stomach infection you forgot you had

(08:41) How people actually catch H. pylori

(10:16) A hidden infection and an over-alert immune system

(11:30) Mistaken identity: the molecular mimicry idea

(14:16) The Egypt study: treat H. pylori, watch TSH fall

(15:45) Why H. pylori belongs in every Hashimoto's workup

(16:47) A patient story: lifelong anxiety and a folder of labs

(23:16) Chinese medicine: Spleen and Kidney Yang deficiency

(24:56) The herbs Dr. Motley uses, and what the research shows

(27:40) That old infection could still be hanging around

(28:01) Normal labs, still feel crummy? What to ask for

(29:26) Share this with someone who needs it

(30:02) Disclaimer

TSH alone can miss Hashimoto's. Over 90 percent of people with Hashimoto's carry TPO antibodies, and 50 to 80 percent carry thyroglobulin antibodies (StatPearls). Most standard panels check TSH only. Ask for both antibodies.

The H. pylori and Hashimoto's link is real in pooled data, not in every study. A 15-study meta-analysis found about twice the odds of Hashimoto's with H. pylori infection (OR 2.16). One Italian study found the link only in Graves' disease. Molecular mimicry is a proposed explanation, not a proven one. 5. Treating H. pylori lowered TSH in levothyroxine-resistant women. TSH fell from 11.87 to 2.56 over four months in a 2026 Egyptian study. Antibodies moved much less. Levothyroxine needs stomach acid to absorb, so better absorption is the likeliest reason.

What Doctor Motley Likes to Use:

Golden Thread: https://tinyurl.com/mvf6rftr

Scutellaria Supreme (Chinese Scullcap): https://tinyurl.com/4murtnuk

Want more of The Ancient Health Podcast? Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Follow Doctor Motley!

Instagram

Facebook

Website

*Do you have a ton more in-depth questions for Doctor Motley? Check out his course on emotions and the body in his membership. You’ll find other courses full of his expertise and clinical wisdom, plus bring all your questions to his weekly lives! To try risk-free for 15 days click here https://www.doctormotley.com/15
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