Cholesterol, Thyroid & Low T: The Real Root Cause
The Medicine Cabinet You Already Own: What This Doctor Wants You to Know Before Your Next Prescription
Every time you feel off, you make a choice — reach for something that mutes the symptom, or something that fixes what's underneath it. Most of us were never taught the difference.
Wellness Wednesday
By Brett G Waddell ~TheMorningMotivator.com
WAKE UP! Awareness Brings Answers!
Somewhere right now, you're one bad lab result away from a prescription you didn't ask questions about.
Maybe it's cholesterol. Maybe it's your thyroid.
Maybe it's just that you're exhausted, foggy, and gaining weight, and every doctor's visit ends the same way — "your labs are normal," followed by a script for something that treats the symptom and never touches the cause.
Most of us grew up this way. Something hurt, something felt off, and the answer was always the same pill, the same protocol, no questions asked. Nobody ever taught us there was a second option worth understanding first.
To break this down properly, I want to bring in someone whose entire career has been built on finding what's actually underneath the diagnosis. Dr. Dave Jockers has run a functional medicine practice for 20 years and has walked thousands of patients through exactly this — cholesterol, thyroid, testosterone, blood sugar — back to the root.
Here's the framework, and the one shift inside it that applies no matter which condition you're dealing with.
"High cholesterol doesn't always mean disease. Sometimes it means your body is trying to heal itself." — The Root-Cause Reframe
Before you keep reading, hit play. Nothing I write captures this conversation as clearly as watching it done. For our convenience I broke out the videos important points below.
That reframe is the same one that changes everything once you actually see it. Keep reading — here's exactly how it works.
🔴 High Cholesterol & Heart Disease
The Problem with Statins: Statins are heavily overprescribed based on the idea that high cholesterol automatically equals heart disease. But cholesterol (like LDL) is actually a "bus" carrying vital nutrients to your cells so they can heal and repair.
Statins poison the mitochondria—the energy factories of your cells—leading to side effects like muscle pain and cognitive decline. In fact, statins increase all-cause mortality. Simply lowering cholesterol doesn't fix the root cause, which is usually blood sugar instability, inflammation, and lack of nitric oxide.
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Blood Sugar-Stabilizing Diet: Prioritize 30-50 grams of protein per meal, add healthy fats (grass-fed steak, wild-caught fish, olive oil), and colorful fruits/veggies. Save starchy carbs and sweeter fruits for the end of the meal to keep blood sugar flat.
Movement & Muscle Building: Muscle is the organ of longevity. It acts as a glucose sponge, pulling sugar out of the bloodstream. Walk 10,000 steps daily (getting up every 30 minutes is ideal) and do resistance training 3+ days a week.
Garlic: Instead of artificially lowering cholesterol, use garlic to lower platelet aggregation. It acts as a natural blood thinner, keeping your bloodstream flowing like a river rather than stagnating like a pond.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
High-Dose Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Eat wild-caught fatty fish (sardines, salmon, black cod) or supplement with high-quality fish oil, cod liver oil, or algae oil (focusing on high EPA).
Increase Fiber Intake: Fiber acts as a mild binder to LDL cholesterol, helping flush it out of your system naturally.
Magnesium: This essential mineral helps relax blood vessels, preventing the stiffening that leads to cardiovascular events.
🟠 Hashimoto’s & Thyroiditis
The Root Cause: Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition where the body attacks its own thyroid tissue. From a cellular standpoint, the mitochondria are damaged and in "cell danger response." From an organ standpoint, it’s rarely just the thyroid—it’s usually an issue with the liver, gut, and adrenal glands. The thyroid is just the innocent bystander.
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Sunlight & Red Light Therapy: Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in autoimmune conditions. Get midday sun on your body. In winter months or northern climates, use a red/infrared light device directly on the thyroid for 10 minutes a day (studies show this helps a vast majority of women reduce thyroid medication by downregulating inflammation and boosting mitochondrial melatonin).
Selenium: 200-400 micrograms of selenium daily has been shown to significantly reduce thyroid antibodies.
Zinc: Toxins, heavy metals, and infections deplete zinc. Zinc is critical for balancing the immune system (TH1 and TH2) and producing steroid hormones.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
Adaptogenic Herbs: Ashwagandha and Rhodiola help lower cortisol and support melatonin production. Drink Tulsi tea to manage stress.
A Warming Diet: Avoid cold salads, cold drinks, and raw foods. Focus on warm, immune-friendly foods like chicken vegetable soup, ginger herbal tea, well-cooked organic meats, and healthy fats to generate internal heat.
Liver Support: Use milk thistle and steamed cruciferous vegetables to help the liver process excess estrogen, which heavily disrupts thyroid hormones.
🟡 Common Cold & Flu
The Problem with Antibiotics: Up to 98% of antibiotics prescribed for common illnesses are unnecessary because they target bacteria, not viruses. They wipe out the gut microbiome and weaken natural immunity. The body can heal itself if it is well-rested and nutritionally supported.
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Antiviral Nutrients (Quercetin, Zinc, Vitamin C/D):mRemove all processed sugar. Use elderberry (a natural source of quercetin) and supplement with zinc. Quercetin acts as an ionophore, getting zinc into the cell to stop viral replication. Add liposomal Vitamin C and Vitamin D3/K2.
Garlic & Ginger Foot Pads: Fresh chop garlic and ginger, rub extra virgin olive oil on the soles of the feet, apply the garlic/ginger, tape it down, put socks on, and sleep overnight. (Olive oil contains oleocanthal—"nature's ibuprofen"—and helps extract the sulfur compounds from the garlic). Change every 12 hours.
PEMF and Infrared: Use a PEMF mat combined with infrared heat to reduce systemic inflammation while resting.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
Immune-Boosting Chicken Soup: Make a broth with chicken, celery, carrots, loaded with garlic, onion, ginger, mushrooms (Cordyceps, Maitake, Shiitake), and a tablespoon of miso.
Echinacea: A fantastic traditional immune booster.
Match Remedies to Symptoms (TCM approach): If you have a fever and feel hot (hot wind), use cooling, bitter herbs like Andrographis and Echinacea. If you have chills (cold wind), use warming remedies like ginger, cinnamon, and infrared saunas. Listen to your body's cravings.
🔵 Low Testosterone
The Root Cause: Men's testosterone has dropped by 33% over the last 50 years. This is driven by microplastics, medications (like statins and metformin), lack of sleep, and lack of muscle mass. Light and darkness (cortisol and melatonin rhythms) are the master regulators of all sex hormones.
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Strength Training: Lift weights at least 3 days a week, focusing on compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges) that use large amounts of muscle mass.
High-Protein Diet & Key Nutrients: Eat grass-fed beef and wild-caught salmon. Ensure you are getting adequate Zinc and Vitamin D—without these two, the body cannot produce testosterone.
Herbal Cycling: Take Tongkat Ali (the most powerful herb for testosterone) and Cordyceps. Cycle them: two weeks on, one week off, to maintain their efficacy.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
Prioritize Sleep: If you aren't getting 8 hours of quality sleep, your testosterone will tank. You must work hard, play hard, and rest well.
Creatine: Add 5 grams of creatine to your workouts for massive mitochondrial and muscle benefits.
Red Light Therapy: Use red light beds or direct red/infrared light to the genital region to naturally boost testosterone production via vitamin D pathways.
🟣 Perimenopause & Menopause
The Root Cause: Women naturally experience a drop in estrogen and progesterone, but chronic stress makes this drop extreme rather than gentle. The body will always prioritize stress hormones (survival) over sex hormones (reproduction). Furthermore, lack of emotional connection and self-nourishment creates a "Yin deficiency" (a lack of cooling, moistening, and anabolic energy in the body).
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Stress Control & Emotional Connection: Lower cortisol through prayer, gratitude, and deep connection. For women, talking and feeling heard releases oxytocin, which buffers the negative effects of cortisol.
Light & Dark Rhythms: Get morning, midday, and evening sunlight. Prioritize darkness at night (dim lights, blue-light blockers) to release melatonin, which boosts growth hormone and stabilizes sex hormones.
Yin-Boosting Foods: Add foods with gentle estrogenic/progesterone effects like organic soy, flax, yams, avocado, egg yolks, and steamed vegetables to help cool and moisten the body.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
Herbal Support: Black cohosh is the number one herb for menopausal symptoms. Also consider Red Clover and Shatavari.
Self-Nourishment: Address past trauma and people-pleasing tendencies. Women often hit a ceiling in their physical healing because they are emotionally drained and lack stillness and peace in their lives.
Personalized Medicine: Remember that food is medicine for different people at different times. Soy might be bad for a 20-year-old estrogen-dominant woman, but highly beneficial for a 50-year-old going through menopause.
🔴 Type 2 Diabetes & PCOS
The Root Cause: Both conditions are rooted in severe insulin resistance. Cells become overwhelmed by constant glucose, downregulate insulin receptors, and get stuck in "sugar-burning mode." This creates massive oxidative stress, damages mitochondria, and prevents fat burning. In PCOS, high insulin triggers excess testosterone production in some women, causing ovarian cysts, acne, and skin tags.
Dr. Jockers’ Top 3 Natural Remedies:
Chromium: Known as "glucose tolerance factor," chromium activates the insulin receptor. 250-500 micrograms a day can make a massive difference.
Berberine: Regulates the gut microbiome, improves lipids, reduces fatty liver, and stabilizes blood sugar effectively.
Apple Cider Vinegar: 1 tablespoon in 4-8 oz of water before a meal reduces the glycemic impact of that meal by 30-40%. The acetic acid feeds mitochondria in the gut lining.
Dr. Axe’s Top 3 Additions:
Cinnamon: 1-2 teaspoons of Ceylon cinnamon daily (add to protein shakes or food) is a highly effective, inexpensive insulin sensitizer.
Intermittent Fasting: Drop from 3 meals to 2 meals a day (e.g., eating between 12pm and 6pm), or eat 3 meals in an 8-hour window. A 16-hour overnight fast is crucial for bringing insulin levels down.
Hydration Between Meals: Drink plenty of water between meals to ensure natural satiation and make fasting windows easier to maintain.
🚀 Solution: 5-Minute Audit — Run One Full Root-Cause Check
Here's how to apply that in the next five minutes, today:
Minute 1 - Name Your Number: Pick the thing you'd ask your doctor about if you were being honest — energy, weight, a lab result. Rate how much it's bothering you, 0-10.
Minute 2 - Check Your Protein: Did your first meal today have real protein in it — 30 to 50 grams — or did you start on carbs and caffeine alone? Blood sugar stability starts here.
Minute 3 - Check Your Sunlight: Have you gotten real sunlight in your eyes and on your skin yet today, ideally within the first hour of waking?
Minute 4 - Check Your Movement: Have you moved your body in the last 30 minutes, even just standing up and walking to another room?
Minute 5 - Reclaim the Moment: Look at your number from Minute 1 again. You haven't fixed the whole thing in five minutes — but you've just proven you can act on the cause instead of waiting for a prescription to manage the symptom.
This isn't about rejecting medicine. It's about asking "why" before you ask "what pill" — every single time.
🌀 If this shifted something for you, there's more where it came from! Get a daily upgrade like this dropped in your inbox every morning. Subscribe Free →
❓ FAQ
Q: Does this mean I should stop taking my prescribed medication?
A: No. This post is educational, not medical advice. Never stop or change a prescribed medication without talking to your doctor first. The goal is awareness of root-cause options to bring into that conversation — not a self-directed medical decision.
Q: What's the single easiest thing to start with from this episode?
A: Morning sunlight in your eyes within the first hour of waking, and dimming your lights at night. It was the most repeated recommendation across nearly every condition Dr. Jockers covered.
Q: Are supplements like zinc, selenium, or berberine safe for everyone?
A: Not automatically. Dosing, interactions with medications, and your individual history all matter. Talk to a knowledgeable practitioner before adding anything new, especially if you're already on a prescription.
🌞 REAP Practical Application: The Root-Cause Reframe
This is how we think. This is how we move. This is how we show up!
R — Recognize & Run Out: Notice the old pattern: "the doctor gave me a pill, so the problem must be solved." Pause. Ask: does this actually touch the root, or just the number?
E — Exchange + Envision + Emotion: Replace it with: "I can investigate the cause before I accept the label." Feel that land — not defiance, ownership.
A — Activate with Action: Run today's 5-Minute Audit. Protein first meal, sunlight in your eyes, movement every 30 minutes. Pick one and start today.
P — Program & Prosper: Stack this daily until it's not a "health kick," it's just who you are. Root-cause thinking compounds — in your energy, your labs, and your longevity.
"Neurons that fire together, wire together." — Donald Hebb
🚨 Critical Window: Your 5-Minute Theta Mornings
The first 5-10 minutes after you wake up is neurological gold. Your brain is still in a more receptive theta state — the exact window to feed your body and mind what you actually want wired in, before the day makes the decision for you.
That's why I built the 5-Minute Theta Mornings Routine. It's the same window Dr. Jockers keeps pointing back to — sunlight, stillness, intention — before the noise of the day takes over. Program your morning, or the morning programs you.
🌟 Synchronicity Check: If a symptom or a lab result has been quietly nagging at you this week, that's not random. Something in you already knows it's time to ask "why," not just "what pill." Honor that. Start today.
💪🏼 Subscribe Free and get your Theta Mornings PDF → Program... don't be programmed.
🏖️ The Bigger Vision
Perfect health isn't a diagnosis you avoid. It's a series of small, root-cause decisions, repeated until your body simply doesn't need to escalate to crisis.
You don't need a rare condition to justify asking better questions. You need five minutes, one meal, and the willingness to ask "why" before "what pill."
😎 Dr. Jockers also referenced a French study of roughly 19,000 people that found even severe depression showed dramatic improvement after just five weeks of Nordic walking, twice a week, one hour at a time — proof that movement and sunlight aren't side notes, they're primary tools.
That's not a wellness trend. That's a Wednesday-morning decision, repeated until it becomes who you are.
This is the mission: Awareness → REAP → Repetition → Identity → Reality.
🥳 Your Next Step
✅ If this shifted something for you, there is more where it came from — every single day at 4:44 AM. Subscribe Free and get your Theta Mornings PDF →
✅ Share this with someone who's been managing a symptom instead of asking what's actually causing it.
Five minutes. One shift. One upgrade. Stay focused. Keep asking better questions.
P.S. — This is how we reach the perfect day. Not all at once. One deposit at a time. One honest question at a time. One upgraded morning at a time. See you tomorrow at 4:44 AM.
🌱 Start Here: The Foundation
🔸 Your Genes Are the Blueprint, Your Beliefs Are the Builder: Rewiring Reality Through Epigenetics — "Give me a child until it is seven and I will show you the man." — Jesuit Proverb (Validated by Modern Neuroscience) (May 2, 2026) →
🔸 What If the Answer Isn't Ahead of You… But Is the One Asking the Question? Where Consciousness Research Meets Direct Experience — The Illusion of Reality. (April 11, 2026) →
💖This post exists because I believe the best thing I can do for you is bring you the truth — Scientific, Soulful, and Actionable. YOU are why I'm here—so my mistakes and research become your shortcuts!
Pay It Forward!🚀
~Brett
TheMorningMotivator.com
We're Upgrading 1%+ Every Day! (+34% Monthly, +38% Annually!)
Medical & Training Disclaimer: Hey, I'm just your science-backed, soul-led, unapologetically human mindset & performance trainer. The content provided in this blog post is for educational and informational purposes only. I am not a licensed physician, physical therapist, or medical professional, and this blog is NOT intended as a substitute for qualified medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider or certified coach before making major life decisions or life changes. Got it? Good. I'll catch you tomorrow. Peace out!
Scientific Claims Disclosure: Some claims referenced in this interview are the guest's own statements and have not been independently verified.
