Activated charcoal (AC) is an incredible tool.

It binds to toxins in the gut, preventing them from entering the bloodstream and causing inflammation. That alone makes it a game-changer for:

✅ Brain fog
✅ Poor recovery
✅ Low dopamine
✅ Low testosterone
✅ Poor sleep
✅ Even ED

If you ever wake up feeling inflamed, puffy, foggy, or just off, especially after sleep — there’s a good chance it’s coming from gut-derived toxins.

That’s where AC shines. It grabs onto those toxins and neutralizes the fire before it spreads.

But… there’s a catch most people don’t talk about.

AC doesn’t just bind toxins — it also binds bile and cholesterol.

That’s not always a bad thing — in fact, for some it’s incredibly useful.

Take David from TestoTribe for example.

He used activated charcoal to drop his cholesterol from the 400s to the 200s in just two weeks — despite having familial hypercholesterolemia. That’s insane.

But here’s where things get tricky:

Bile helps convert T4 to T3 — the active thyroid hormone.

Which means: bile is pro-metabolic.

So if you're already on a low-fat diet and not producing much bile to begin with…

…and then you throw in activated charcoal, which binds up the little bile you do produce…

You might be heading straight into hypothyroid territory.

Let me share what happened to me:

I was in a calorie deficit (fat intake around 40g/day).
One night I had a burger — and took AC to bind some of the fat to reduce the calorie load.

The next day?

❄️ Cold hands and feet
⚠️ Erectile dysfunction
😵 Brain fog

Symptoms I haven’t experienced in over 7 years, since fixing my testosterone, thyroid, and vascular function.

By day two things were improving.
By day three I was back to normal.

The only logical explanation?

AC bound to the fat and bile → lowered intracellular T3 → reduced vasodilation → hypothyroid symptoms

And this goes deeper…

You don’t just need more fat to produce good bile.

You need the right microbiome to produce healthy bile acids in the right ratios.

Too much of the wrong bile acids = inflammation
Too little of the right ones = poor T3 conversion and sluggish metabolism

So yes — optimizing bile is a thyroid issue, a gut issue, a hormone issue, and a metabolic issue all in one.

If you're experiencing symptoms like:

Cold hands and feet
Brain fog or lack of mental clarity
Low libido or poor erection quality
Fatigue, low motivation, or slow recovery
Hair thinning or shedding
Poor sleep
Sluggish metabolism

...then your thyroid needs attention.

And not just the labs — but how your body is actually using the thyroid hormones.

I walk you through everything you need to fix this in my Thyroid Optimization Course:

How to increase intracellular T3
How to restore mitochondrial function
How to support the gut and microbiome for proper bile metabolism
How to bring inflammation down and recover full thyroid function
Plus: how to interpret your thyroid labs properly and identify what’s really going wrong

👉 Check it out here

Fixing your thyroid might be the single most powerful upgrade you can make to your hormones, metabolism, and quality of life.

Talk soon,
Hans

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