The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It · Dr. Amie Hornaman

613. IBS, Hashimoto’s, and the Thyroid–Gut Connection with Izabella Wentz

March 17, 2026·56 min·3 clips

Izabella Wentz says her IBS diagnosis came six years before Hashimoto’s.

IBS is not treated as minor. The guest says she wishes she had known it could raise autoimmune risk later in life. That regret sets the tone. Her point is direct: women with IBS should deal with the gut before other health problems pile on for years. Hashimoto's sits right in the middle of that conversation. For women already living with autoimmune thyroid disease, she sees gut healing as part of the roadmap, not a side quest. The host keeps pulling the discussion back to testing. That matters because gut testing can turn up infections and gluten reactions instead of leaving everything in the vague wellness fog. Then parasites come in. The guest says they can increase gut permeability, which ties the discussion back to autoimmunity. Blastocystis hominis is her main example. She found this protozoa during her own Hashimoto's work, while she was also dealing with chronic hives. The numbers catch the ear. She says it appears in about 70% of people with IBS and, in her experience, about 29% of people with Hashimoto's. Her practical take is simple: if an infection is there, she would rather treat it than shrug. After addressing the protozoa, she reports seeing TSH, thyroid antibodies, and symptoms improve. Food reactions changed too. Some people on restrictive autoimmune paleo-style diets stopped reacting to grains and many other foods. The episode keeps circling the same idea: bloat, reflux, hives, IBS, and Hashimoto's may all belong in a gut-focused story where permeability and infections matter.

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