About Esther Yunkin, RN

Esther Yunkin, RN holding a cup of tea.

Health with Hashimoto’s

About Esther

Hi, I’m Esther Yunkin. I’m the voice you hear when you listen to the Health with Hashimoto’s podcast.

I’m the nurse who sorts your Hashimoto’s into thyroid or immune.

I’ve wanted to help people get healthy since I was a little girl.

I started working in healthcare as a CNA while I was a teenager. After high school I went straight to college for nursing. I graduated from Saint Scholastica in Minnesota in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts. It has always been my desire to help others become healthier.

That was 25 years ago.

Since then I’ve worked in just about every setting a nurse can work in. A small hospital med/surg unit. A remote clinic in Alaska where two of us covered an area the size of Ohio, running the clinic by day and the emergency department around the clock. Then years in one of the busiest emergency departments in Minnesota, a place that sees 67,000 patients a year.

The same gap, over and over

After many years in healthcare, I was fed up and disillusioned. Not with the people. Most of the nurses and doctors I worked alongside were good at their jobs and cared about their patients. I was fed up with a model that never helped people truly get well, and instead slapped short term bandaids on chronic problems.

That’s what they do with Hashimoto’s, you know.

Women came in tired, cold, foggy, gaining weight for no reason they could name. Sometimes their thyroid got checked. Sometimes they got a prescription. Almost none of them were ever tested for the antibodies that would have told them their immune system was involved.

I watched women get treated for their thyroid and never told about their immune system. Over and over, in every setting I worked in.

Your medication does an important job. It replaces hormone your thyroid can’t make enough of anymore. It does nothing about the immune side. Nobody was telling them that.

Esther, Registered Nurse & Holistic Hashimoto's Educator, holding stethoscope looking irritated
Esther Yunkin, RN, stands barefoot and smiling on a rocky outcrop amid green forest and shrubs under a cloudy sky. She wears glasses, a blue t-shirt, and black shorts, holding a shoe in one hand while gesturing welcomingly with the other.

So I went back to school

When my fourth son was a baby (and I was unknowingly developing Hashimoto’s myself) I went back to school to learn holistic health. In September 2016 I finished the Whole Health Educator program through the National Institute of Whole Health.

I didn’t know yet that I was studying my own condition.

Then it was my turn

In April of 2021 I got my own diagnosis. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

I was scared, confused, and quite overwhelmed.

So I did what I do. I immersed myself in a ton of Hashimoto’s information, determined not only to understand my own condition but to figure out how anyone could address the root causes of this autoimmune disease.

Esther Yunkin, RN, sits barefoot on dark volcanic sand on a rocky beach, knees drawn up, holding a phone, looking thoughtfully to the side. She wears glasses, a blue t-shirt, black shorts, and a black crossbody bag; large gray rocks and evergreen trees form the background.

That is when everything clicked. I very clearly felt God telling me: Esther, if you—with all of your education and all of your experience—still struggle to understand thyroid stuff, what do you think the average person experiences? You need to teach this.

So I stopped trying to help everybody. I got specific about one person. A woman with a Hashimoto’s diagnosis, a prescription, no explanation, and years of dismissed symptoms behind her.

That might be you.

What I finally figured out

I’ve recorded over 200 episodes of the Health with Hashimoto’s podcast, most of them about root causes, and I stand behind every one of them. And here’s what I finally realized. Every root cause I have ever taught lives in one of two places. Thyroid or immune.

The two sides were always there. I just hadn’t named them.

You don’t have an information problem. You have a sorting problem.

Thyroid function

Your medication

The hormone your thyroid can’t make enough of

How your thyroid is working right now

Immune function

The attack on your thyroid

The antibodies nobody tested

Why the attack started

Everything you’ve collected about Hashimoto’s falls into one of two buckets. Thyroid function, or immune function. Your medication lives in one. The attack on your thyroid lives in the other. Once you know which one something belongs in, you know what it’s for and where it fits.

Your research wasn’t wasted. It just never got sorted.

What I do now

I teach women with Hashimoto’s how to think about their condition instead of handing them more to think about.

No overwhelming protocols. No shame. No urgency. In partnership with your doctors, not instead of them.

This is how I teach it:

I teach and educate. I don’t diagnose or treat, and I don’t replace your doctor.

You already know enough to begin.

Where you can hear me

I’ve been a guest on podcasts about Hashimoto’s, thyroid health, fatigue, stress, faith, and homeschooling. You can see them on my media page.

You can also find me on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

Off the microphone

I’m a wife (Jon is a nurse too), a half homeschooling mom of four boys, and a volunteer at my church. I understand busy.

I know your roles look different than mine, and I know you’re just as busy. That’s exactly why anything I teach has to be simple enough to keep doing on a normal week, not a perfect one.

Esther Yunkin, RN, stands barefoot and smiling on a rock ledge in front of a cascading multi-tiered waterfall flowing over reddish-brown cliffs. She wears a dark gray tank top and black shorts, one hand on her hip, with large rocks in the foreground.

What I believe

I believe you are a whole person. Each parts impacts the whole. You cannot “treat” just one part.

The whole you includes body, mind, spirit, diet, and environment.

I am a Jesus-loving Christian. I believe every person is made in the image of God and is valuable.

Because I am a whole person, my faith impacts what I do. My clients do not need to believe as I do. I will treat you with respect no matter what.

I don’t do “woo.” No New Age practices. No New Thought teaching.

Esther Yunkin, RN, stands smiling with hands on her hips amid a field of tall purple fireweed, wearing glasses and a dark tank top, with evergreen trees in the background.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Esther Yunkin, RN

Work with Esther Yunkin, RN. Start here

Hashimoto’s Decoded: Thyroid or Immune

Finally understand what’s actually happening in your body. Seven short chapters and a workbook. Under an hour, start to finish. No protocol, no supplement stack, just the framework that makes everything else make sense.

Get started for $27.

Esther at a glance

  • Registered nurse for 25 years (since 2001)
  • Bachelor of Arts, Saint Scholastica (2001)
  • Whole Health Educator, National Institute of Whole Health (September 2016)
  • Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in April 2021
  • Host of the Health with Hashimoto’s podcast (weekly since 2022, over 200 episodes)
  • Founder of Health with Hashimoto’s, a business of The Whole You, LLC
  • Based in Minnesota

This page is educational and informational. It is not medical advice. Discuss your care with your healthcare professional. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.