Hashimoto’s, Autoimmunity, and the Triggers Behind It.
Oct 21, 2026
Most women diagnosed with low thyroid are treated for a thyroid problem.
Dr. Heather Stone says many of them actually have an immune problem. In Hashimoto’s, as she puts it, “the thyroid is the victim.” Dr. Terri sits down with Dr. Heather Stone, DC, a functional medicine practitioner who has spent more than twenty years helping women with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s. She is the author of The Thyroid Transformation Blueprint. Her path started with her own symptoms and a doctor who told her nothing was wrong. She joins from Italy to talk about what’s driving the immune system to attack the thyroid, and what changes when care looks past the thyroid numbers.
They start with the TSH: what it measures, where it comes from, and what a fuller thyroid panel adds, including the antibody tests that point to Hashimoto’s. Then they work through the triggers Dr. Stone looks for in every autoimmune patient: blood sugar, stress, gut health, and toxic load. Along the way, she explains why having one autoimmune condition raises the risk of developing others. She also describes a diabetes pattern she catches by looking for autoimmunity, which she calls type 1.5. What you’ll discover ----
- What TSH actually measures, and why it comes from the pituitary instead of the thyroid
- The markers in a fuller thyroid panel, including the two antibody tests for Hashimoto’s
- Why Dr. Stone sees Hashimoto’s as an immune condition first and a thyroid condition secondHow blood sugar swings can keep the immune system in attack mode
- The role stress plays, even for people who say they aren’t stressedHow the gut connects to autoimmunity, and why gluten matters for some Hashimoto’s patients
- How toxic load adds to the burden, and her phased approach to detoxWhat type 1.5 diabetes is, and the clue that makes her look for it