September 21, 2022
Do you struggle with low energy, poor sleep, weight gain, thinning hair, heavy menstrual cycles, brain fog, fibromyalgia or other unexplained symptoms? Did your doctor tell you that your blood tests are all “normal,” but you don’t feel normal? That’s what happened to Sheri.
Watch as Dr. Hotze talks with Sheri about how the Hotze Health & Wellness Center helped her get her life back, and helped her family get healthy and well, too.
0:50: Well, I had preteen children, so of course I was exhausted from all the running around with sports and activities. I noticed that I didn’t have the energy that I used to have. I’d been gaining weight and my hair was thinning, just a lot of weird things.
1:51: I also have fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s syndrome. So I never knew, is it the thyroid or is it the autoimmune issues?
1:59: Just to speak of that, a lot of these symptoms and these syndromes aren’t a diagnosis. They’re simply a syndrome, a compilation of symptoms, and they give it a name. The question is, if you have Sjogren’s syndrome, why? What’s causing it?
2:42: I’d been going to them saying, “Are you sure I don’t have low thyroid because I seem to have all the symptoms?” All of them are like, “No, no, you’re good. You’re in the range. You’re always in the range.”
3:13: So 95% of the people fall within a high range or a low range or a midrange. 95% of the people. I can assure you, 95% of the people don’t feel well. You can have all the signs and symptoms of a low thyroid and still fall within this wide range of normal. That’s a range of what’s in your blood, that doesn’t tell us anything about what’s going on within your cells. Remember, the thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones, which are secreted into the blood, but they have to be assimilated into your cells.
4:18: We know that the main feature of energy production is getting enough thyroid into the cells. We use natural desiccated thyroid, and that enables your cells, that’s the act of thyroid hormone T3, that enables the cells to produce electricity.
6:15: We’re talking about Hashimoto’s, that’s autoimmune thyroiditis. That’s a condition where your immune system is making antibodies to your own thyroid gland and to the thyroid hormones.
8:35: When my daughter turned 11, we realized that she had all the same symptoms that we had been going through with the low thyroid. Jowls, weight up here in her upper body and always constipated. Didn’t want to get up in the morning.
9:09: Within six weeks of starting thyroid, all of that puffiness was gone and she was so slim and her jaw, everything was gone. Her own friends didn’t recognize her.
9:47: Two years later, the same thing happened with our son…same thing, puffiness and not so much weight gain, it was fluid retention everywhere. Cranky in the mornings for an 11 year old boy, even crankier than normal. Didn’t want to get up. Once we got him on thyroid, same thing. He shot up inches, as soon as we put him on the thyroid. All of a sudden he had a huge growth spurt.
11:01: The thyroid is so critical in growth, in development, the brain, the whole body. You have to have energy production for your body to grow normally and healthfully.
11:52: We’ve had this in numerous other families. We’ve treated young children as early as six months of age with thyroid.
12:41: We want to help people get on a path of health and wellness naturally, without any pharmaceutical drugs, so as you mature, you have energy, you have vitality and you’re enthusiastic about life.
13:03: I’ve done MS150 multiple times, I’ve hiked the Appalachian trail. I go snow skiing. I do all kinds of things that I would not have been able to do. I did not have the energy in my late 30s, early 40s that I had in my 50s after I started the treatments.
18:12: Well, you mentioned all your events. When you come to an event, it’s like, you’re going to your family’s. Everybody remembers you, they talk to you and I’ve got friends here…
18:55: One thing I love about it is…always on top of things. You guys from day one have always been ahead of the curve on vitamin D, on magnesium, on the Arterosil. All the different things that have come out.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Hello, I’m Dr. Steve Hotze. Welcome to the show today. I have a remarkable guest here at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center that I want to introduce to you. I want her to share her story with you about how she got her life back and how her family got their life back. Sheri Kennedy’s our guest. Sherry, welcome.
Sheri Kennedy: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Steven Hotze: So glad to have you here. Sheri, let’s just start from the beginning. You’ve been a guest here since 2008. That’s a long time. What was it that led you to come here to begin with? What kind of symptoms or problems were you having that you needed to have addressed?
Sheri Kennedy: Well, I had preteen children, so of course I was exhausted from all the running around with sports and activities. I noticed that I didn’t have the energy that I used to have. I’d been gaining weight and my hair was thinning, just a lot of weird things. One day my husband said, “I was listening to the radio today and I heard this doctor talking to a lady and it sounded just like you.” I was like, really? He said, “So we need to make you an appointment.” We made an appointment and it was phenomenal. The difference that getting on thyroid…
Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay, well, let’s talk about what symptom did you have? How was your energy level at that time?
Sheri Kennedy: Oh, it was terrible. Terrible.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You were having difficulty with weight.
Sheri Kennedy: Weight, everything. Sleeping.
Dr. Steven Hotze: How about your thought process? Your mental acuity at that time?
Sheri Kennedy: Sluggish, I guess would be the word.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Maybe like a fog.
Sheri Kennedy: Yes. Brain fog, yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Do you have any joint or muscle pains?
Sheri Kennedy: Some, but then I also have fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s syndrome. So I never knew, is it the thyroid or is it the autoimmune issues?
Dr. Steven Hotze: Just to speak of that, a lot of these symptoms and these syndromes, aren’t a diagnosis. They’re simply a syndrome, a compilation of symptoms and they give it a name. The question is, if you got Sjogren’s syndrome, why? What’s causing it?
Sheri Kennedy: Exactly.
Dr. Steven Hotze: It’s not a disease in itself, it’s just a compilation of various symptoms. Anyway, you came in and were you having any problems with your menstrual cycles?
Sheri Kennedy: Heavy, just heavy. Things like that.
Dr. Steven Hotze: When you came in, why did you? You came in because your husband had heard about us, right?
Sheri Kennedy: Yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You had seen your other physicians and what had they recommended?
Sheri Kennedy: Nothing. Not a thing I’d been going to them saying, “Are you sure I don’t have low thyroid because I seem to have all the symptoms?” All of them are like, “No, no, you’re good. You’re in the range. You’re always in the range.
Are you in the “Normal Range” for Hypothyroidism
Dr. Steven Hotze: This is important to notice when you go see your physician. You’re concerned you may have thyroid problems, when they do a blood level on thyroid, the normal range encompasses 95% of the population. That’s how they define what the range is. It’s the bell shaped curve. So 95% of the people fall within a high range or a low range or a mid range. 95% of the people. I can assure you, 95% of the people don’t feel well. You can have all the signs and symptoms of a low thyroid and still fall within this wide range of normal. That’s a range of what’s in your blood, that doesn’t tell us anything about what’s going on within your cells. Remember, the thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones, which are secreted into the blood, but they have to be assimilated into your cells. You have trillions of cells in your body.
Your cells need to produce energy. We have power plants called the mitochondria, which produce electrical energy. That electricity then runs all the biochemical processes in your body. If you’re not making enough electricity in your cells, you’re going to run low voltage. You were running low voltage.
Sheri Kennedy: Yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: The goal is with each one of our guests is to get you to be high voltage, a live wire. We want to help you produce energy. We know that the main features of energy production is getting enough thyroid into the cells. We use natural desiccated thyroid, and that enables your cells, that’s the act of thyroid hormone T3, that enables the cells to produce electricity. When you came in, you saw Dr. Ellsworth.
Sheri Kennedy: Dr. Ellsworth, yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Based upon your clinical symptoms, he said, “I think you have low thyroid” within your cells. That doesn’t mean you have low thyroid within your blood. It means you don’t have enough active thyroid, the active thyroid hormone within your cells. He recommended that we supplement that.
Think about it like this, if at any time you really felt great in your life and we measured you when you were young, your thyroid level could be way up here at an optimal level. Now, as you mature and age, have babies and all that, the hormones fluctuate and go down. Now, your thyroid hormones are still within the range, but it’s down at the low end of the range. If your thyroid hormone has dropped 50% from where it was when you feel good, then your energy level’s down 50%.
Sheri Kennedy: Right. Exactly.
Dr. Steven Hotze: So he gave you some thyroid and then did they put you on some natural female hormones?
Sheri Kennedy: Yes. Also, progesterone and a few other things. Of course, we did the yeast-free plan to get everything kicked off and that helped. Then supplements, there were quite a few supplements that I hadn’t been taking that have really helped through the years.
Dr. Steven Hotze: If you can recall back the 15 years, how long did it take you till you began to notice improvement?
Sheri Kennedy: I want to say really quickly – a month or two. We were talking with my daughter, the thyroid, those changes can happen so fast.
Sheri’s Husband
Dr. Steve Hotze: You had some significant changes and then your husband came in.
Sheri Kennedy: I told him that if I had to come then he had to come too. It turned out that he’s the one that had Hashimoto’s, I didn’t.
Dr. Steve Hotze: Okay. We’re talking about Hashimoto’s, that’s autoimmune thyroiditis. That’s a condition where your immune system is making antibodies to your own thyroid gland and to the thyroid hormones. That adversely affects your body’s ability to utilize thyroid hormones because they get glommed onto by these antibodies. They can’t get into the cells. Your husband had autoimmune thyroiditis.
Sheri Kennedy: Yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: He came in how much later after you?
Sheri Kennedy: A year and a half, maybe. Maybe a year later.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. Tell me about how did he do?
Sheri Kennedy: Phenomenal. Phenomenally well. We found out that he also had osteopenia, which he’s…
Dr. Steven Hotze: At his age, he shouldn’t have had that.
Sheri Kennedy: No. He’s a big football player. He played football. He’s huge. He’s a linebacker. We were like, “Osteopenia, how do you get that?” Well, it turns out it was the low thyroid and then a tumor on his parathyroid, which Dr. Ellsworth figured out. He always looks to see what the heck’s going on with this patient’s and figured it out. He had that removed in June.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Where did he have that done? Was that done at Norman?
Sheri Kennedy: It was done at Norman in Florida. It was phenomenal.
Dr. Steven Hotze: We recommend those individuals that have parathyroid, which the parathyroid is a gland. Inside it are glands that are attached to the thyroid gland, which regulates your calcium. You make too much parathyroid hormone, you leech out calcium. That’s what they discovered on Sherry’s husband. Got that treated, probably put him on testosterone, I’m sure didn’t they?
Sheri Kennedy: I think so. Yes, he’s on it.
Dr. Steven Hotze: How did he do?
Sheri Kennedy: Oh, it’s been phenomenal. The brain fog that he was getting, which we didn’t even know a parathyroid tumor would do that. I was starting to think brain injuries from football and all kinds of horrible things. It turned out, it was that little tumor that was actually this big, that was supposed to be the size of a grain of rice. He’s done phenomenally well, just in a couple of months.
Dr. Steven Hotze: He’s been on the program.
Sheri Kennedy: He’s been on the program for 13 years, at least.
Sheri’s Children
Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. Now you have two children. Tell us about your children. We’ve had great results with Sheri and your husband. What’s your husband’s first name?
Sheri Kennedy: Kevin.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Kevin. Sheri and Kevin are having great results and now their kids are starting to have some problems.
Sheri Kennedy: When my daughter turned 11, we realized that she had all the same symptoms that we had been going through with the low thyroid. Jowls, weight up here in her upper body and always constipated. Didn’t want to get up in the morning. A lot of people would say, “Well, she’s just 11.” I thought maybe there was something to that, since Kevin had the Hashimoto’s.
We had her checked and sure enough, she had the antibodies already. We brought her here and within, I have to get the pictures out because people don’t believe me. Within six weeks of starting thyroid, all of that puffiness was gone and she was so slim and her jaw, everything was gone. Her own friends didn’t recognize her. We went to the first day of school and people were passing her up and then going… Brianna? They didn’t even realize that was her. It was that much of a change. She’d been on Miralax for three years from constipation and the thyroid.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Those are classical features too, of low thyroid, constipation. The way you take care of you, get enough thyroid, guess what the energy level goes up and the bowels start working. Not rocket science, is it?
Sheri Kennedy: Yep. Two years later, the same thing happened with our son. We did the same thing.
Dr. Steven Hotze: What kept the symptoms was he having?
Sheri Kennedy: Same thing, puffiness and not so much weight gain, it was fluid retention everywhere. Cranky in the mornings for an 11 year old boy, even crankier than normal. Didn’t want to didn’t get up. Once we got him on thyroid, same thing. He shot up inches, as soon as we put him on the thyroid. All of a sudden he had a huge growth spurt.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Had you taken your children to see some conventional doctors before that?
Sheri Kennedy: Yes we had.
Dr. Steven Hotze: What had they told you?
Sheri Kennedy: My son’s pediatrician, who’d had him his whole life, actually called me at home and apologized to me because he told me, “I thought you were crazy when you insisted on a Hashimoto’s test.” He said, “But I have to apologize because he’s got the antibodies. My upline, which I won’t say, but it’s a major hospital in Houston that they’re affiliated with, refused to treat him until they saw damage.” I thought that’s just ridiculous. You don’t wait till you see that there’s an issue. You head it off at the path.
Dr. Steven Hotze: The thyroid is so critical in growth, in development, the brain, the whole body. You have to have energy production for your body to grow normally and healthfully. Tell me about any other relatives.
Sheri Kennedy: My father was here for years and then my mother-in-law is still a guest here.
Dr. Steven Hotze: This is really a remarkable family story of how certain conditions can run in families. You had enough wisdom to say, “Look, if it worked for me, I had these problems and it worked for my husband and they’re our offspring. It makes sense to give them an opportunity to get healthy and give them a trial of thyroid.” Dr. Ellsworth did. We’ve had this in numerous other families. We’ve treated young children as early as six months of age with thyroid.
Sheri Kennedy: I wish we had done it sooner.
Dr. Steven Hotze: It’s incredible. The kids that fail to thrive, and you all particularly, had the autoimmune thyroiditis, the Hashimoto’s. That’s the doctor’s name that discovered it back in the 20s and his name was Hashimoto. I wonder what he was? He was Japanese, but he was in Germany training there. He discovered the antibodies of the thyroid gland, it’s called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or inflammation of the thyroid. Those are great stories. Your care was good, but do you know why we exist here? Do you know what our purpose is?
Sheri Kennedy: To get people’s lives back.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Right, that’s exactly why we’re here. That’s why. We want to help people get on a path of health and wellness naturally, without any pharmaceutical drugs, so as you mature, you have energy, you have vitality and you’re enthusiastic about life. Can you imagine if you had not come in 15 years ago and just stayed on that same path? Where do you think you would be?
Sheri Kennedy: It would’ve been sad because in those years I’ve done MS150 multiple times, I’ve hiked the Appalachian trail. I go snow skiing. I do all kinds of things that I would not have been able to do. I did not have the energy in my late 30s, early 40s that I had in my 50s after I started the treatments.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You were healthier in your 50s than you were in your late 30s and 40s?
Sheri Kennedy: Yes.
Dr. Steven Hotze: I want to commend you for, at that point in your life, taking charge of your health and not going to down the conventional pathway. If you’d have stayed on that pathway, they would’ve said, “Oh honey, your thyroid’s just fine. You’re just a little depressed.”
Sheri Kennedy: Exactly.
Dr. Steven Hotze: “Why don’t we just give you some Prozac or give you some antianxiety and sleep medication?” Next thing you know, you’re on a pot full of medication and those drugs are all toxic. They make you sicker quicker and you’re addicted to them. They don’t want to get you well. Talking about pharmaceutical companies, they want you to be taking this medicine and sick all the time.
Sheri Kennedy: Which then leads to three more, which then leads to three more.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You made a great decision coming in and taking charge of your health. That’s why I wanted you all to meet Sheri today because I think she just has a remarkable story. You understand our why is to help people get healthy and well. What did you notice about the type of service that’s provided here? Did you notice any difference with our professional staff, our physicians, our pharmacy and environment? What do you notice? What’s the difference?
Sheri Kennedy: Everything is top of the line. Your treatment, your products, the care that you receive. One thing I had mentioned when I was talking to you earlier is all throughout your life it’s not like you’re you fix something and then you’re good forever. Different things have popped up in my health.
Dr. Ellsworth has always been able to look at it and figure out what I needed to do. I had a little downturn a couple years ago from an inherited disease, I didn’t realize I had. It’s been phenomenal the things that he’s put me on. It’s almost like I have my life back again for the second time. My energy level is coming back up again, I’m sleeping better. It’s important to have that relationship with a doctor and a clinic. No matter what happens, it’s a seamless transition to the next issue, if there is one.
Dr. Steven Hotze: We built into our enterprise a DNA, so to speak. This whole concept of creating a culture in which we could provide extraordinary hospitality and guest service.
Sheri Kennedy: Yes, you do.
Dr. Steven Hotze: We got that, strange as it may sound, from the Ritz Carlton and the Broadmoor Hotel.
Sheri Kennedy: Oh, really?
Dr. Steven Hotze: Years ago, back in 1996, we read about the Ritz Carlton in a book called, The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber. We read about it and we would go on leadership trips. We went and experienced the Ritz Carlton and saw the wonderful guest experience they gave us there. We went to the Broadmoor with our leadership team and we then said, “You know what? Let’s get out of medical practice and let’s get into the hospitality industry.” Within that context, provide medical care. Why don’t we be first class? We changed everything. We put in hardwood floors, nice furnishings, piped in music. We changed our dress, no white.
Sheri Kennedy: Little snack plates.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Snack plates, and a concierge in the front office sitting in the reception room. No waiting room or reception room. Becky’s…
Sheri Kennedy: Oh, Becky’s awesome. She knows everybody, she remembers everything.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Becky is the face of the Hotze Health & Wellness Center.
Sheri Kennedy: She is.
Dr. Steven Hotze: By building this culture where we want to cultivate in our guests, hope, instill a sense of well-being in them that we care, we understand, we’ve heard this before. We’re not going to discount what they say, and we’re going to dress appropriately. We have all our staff in lovely suits and everybody looks lovely and we train. We don’t really have to train for that. We recruit for people that love to take care of other people and serve.
That really have a Christian basis for their service. That’s what we have here. It’s a Christian organization, although we’re not a church, but the people that are attracted here, are people that are faithful believers in Christ and they love to serve. That’s what we have created, this culture here. We know that within that context, we can help people get well a whole lot easier than if we just wrote a prescription for you and said, “Good luck.” I tell our guests, and this may sound a little strange, the way we treat our guests, we call our patients guests. The way we treat our guests is as important, if not more important, than the treatment we prescribe.
Sheri Kennedy: Exactly.
Dr. Steven Hotze: If they feel confident and they’re encouraged and they’re hopeful, then our recommendations are going to be easily accepted. They know we care about them. It’s not just something like, “Well, here take this and good luck, call me and we’ll see you in a year.”
Sheri Kennedy: Well, you mentioned all your events. When you come to an event, it’s like, you’re going to your family’s. Everybody remembers you, they talk to you and I’ve got friends here and some of them are like, “I wish you lived closer because we could really get along well.” It’s like a home place.
Dr. Steven Hotze: That’s why we wanted it to be that way. We feel the experience here is just as important as the treatment we give you. We love doing it. We love our guests and we’re friends. We have our events every couple of months. We have an event here at the center and have events around town. We love to see our people and just enjoy the fellowship with them. It’s great.
Sheri Kennedy: One thing I love about it is…always on top of things. You guys from day one have always been ahead of the curve on vitamin D, on magnesium, on the Arterosil. All the different things that have come out.
Dr. Steven Hotze: Well, Sheri, this is just a remarkable story. I want to thank you for being such a wonderful advocate and ambassador for us here at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center.
Sheri Kennedy: I tell everybody.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You were wonderful. Now, if you ever are looking to go to work with us, we’d love to have you here full time. You’re such a great advocate of what we do and we thank you.
Sheri Kennedy: I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and y’all have saved my life. I’ve told many people that.
Dr. Steven Hotze: If you’re interested in getting on a path of health and wellness naturally, want to get your life back, want to have energy, vitality and enthusiasm for life again, please give us the opportunity to partner with you, to get you on that path of health and wellness. I’m Dr. Steve Hotze, great having you today. Join us for this really stimulating and encouraging conversation with Sheri Kennedy. Thank you, Sheri, for being here.
Sheri Kennedy: Thank you.
Dr. Steve Hotze: Okay.
Sheri Kennedy: Thanks for having me.
Dr. Steven Hotze: You bet.
Are you experiencing some of the same symptoms that Sheri did? Take our Symptom Checker quiz to find out. Call our Wellness Consultants for a complimentary consultation at 281-698-8698. It will be our privilege to serve you and help you get your life back!
Be sure to subscribe to Dr. Hotze’s podcasts at www.HotzePodcast.com.
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Since 1989, Hotze Health & Wellness Center has helped over 33,000 patients get their lives back using bioidentical hormones that restore hormones to optimal levels, strengthen immune systems, and increase energy levels. Our treatment regimen addresses the root cause of hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, menopause, perimenopause, low testosterone, allergies, and candida.
Led by best-selling author, radio host and leading natural health expert, Steven F. Hotze, M.D., our medical team has over 100 years’ combined medical experience backed by a staff of nearly 100 caring professionals who provide an environment of hope and extraordinary hospitality for each of our patients, who we call our guests. It is our deepest desire to help you obtain and maintain health and wellness naturally so that you may enjoy a better quality of life, pure and simple.
Do you want to live a healthy, happy, purpose-driven life? Do you want to restore your health so that your loss of energy, weight gain, joint pain, depression and lack of drive or motivation won’t hold you back from achieving your personal and professional goals?
Dr. Steven Hotze wants that for you, too. In fact, in his powerful and passionate video entitled, “What I Believe”, Dr. Hotze shares how his Christian worldview and pivotal experiences have ignited a deep desire to offer the message of hope and optimal health to all who need to hear it.
At Hotze Health & Wellness Center, our doctors are changing the way women and men are treated through the use of bioidentical hormones. Our natural treatments have helped over 33,000 individuals with hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, menopause, perimenopause, low testosterone, allergies, candida, detoxification and nutritional deficiencies.
Meet our doctors"After just 3 weeks into the program, my joint pain was gone, climbing stairs became easy, my energy level increased from 2 to a 9 (out of 10) and I lost almost 30 pounds! ”
Holistic, functional medicine doctors in Houston, Texas specializing in bioidentical hormones, hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, menopause, perimenopause, low testosterone, allergies and LDI treatment, candida, detoxification, nutritional deficiencies, longevity and aesthetics.
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