How to deal with Hashimotos?

[Scholar]

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Sorry to hear this has been going on for you. I'm sure you've probably tried tons of things but maybe this could help a bit. This is an anonymous case study of someone I worked with. 

This lady was diagnosed with acute thyroiditis, probably of infectious origin. Not autoimmune, so slightly different to Hashimoto's. She had to go on a 2 months cycle of prenisone which wasn't great but it helped quench the inflammation although there were side effects. 

I recommended some blood tests to her doctor and after some examination, we found that her iron was critically low. Her vitamin D wasn't great either, and on top of that, she was recently made redundant and went through a lot of stress.

Even after that prednisone, she would often feel tingling in her thyroid as if the inflammation was trying to come back. Some things we did was@: replenish her iron with 200mg of iron bisglycinate per day for 3 months, got her vitamin D in the upper 80s (ng/mL),

Secondly, we made lots of adjustments to her diet. She increased her antioxidant intake from pomegranates, broccoli, purple cabbage etc. She's been regularly making lentil vegetable soups in an Instapot. She also introduced more fibre and probiotic foods in the diet.  She also reduced her consumption of sodium-rich processed food, sugar, saturated fat (especially from high fat dairy) and sweetened drinks. 

Thirdly,  we severely restricted her sodium (temporarily) intake because she lived in a country where salt might have been iodised and sodium in general can be inflammatory in excess. I encouraged her to seek out iodine free salt. In some countries this is not an issue but maybe worth checking. 

I think her Zinc was also low but we never measured it. She took a 30-day course of Zinc Citrate

And finally, she also started to exercise more, especially cardio and aquatic exercise. She found a gym that has a sauna and says it has been helping her. 

Retrospectively I think her issue was significantly weakened immune system that has trouble mounting up a proper  response. She was also quite sedentary so her lympatic system which houses tons of her B-Cells and T-Cells wasn't being moved. Her low iron was probably a major contributor and so was her stress. The antioxidant intake was to help mop up free radical storm around her body caused by the inflammation and help support cellular defences.  - as of now, the last I checked with her, her thyroid results were almost normal, with TSH being slightly above 2 but no antibodies detected. Her CRP has calmed down too. She says she hasn't felt that thyroid tingling since August which correlates to the time she started exercising more so maybe that was the last piece of a puzzle. - not sure if its gone or if it'll come back, it might. But those things seemed to have helped. 

Also, one more thing we added that I think helped was this. It is quite expensive and not sure if you can get it in your country but my client swore this made a difference. https://www.designsforhealth.uk/shop/inf120-pl-inflammatone-120-capsule-554#attr=1740,1011,1267,1332,1704,1918,61

I think we went up to 8 capsules a day in the beginning and than downwards from there. Thats significantly over the recommended intake so I'm not making any recommendation, just saying what we did. We obtained her doctor's approval first. 

One thing she herself added was drinking 1 litre of tea with ground ginger (about half the size of a thumb), 1 tablespoon of raw honey she bought from a countryside beekeeper in her country and 1/2 lemon.  Sometimes she added Cayenne pepper to it, it must have tested gross, but all those things have anti-inflammatory properties, so I was happy to encourage it. 

So I'd say on the top of everything you're already doing, you could investigate your blood work, ask for a full iron panel test , maybe add vitamin D into the list and see if anything comes up. Look into that salt iodisation too and ensure you're not using one that contains it. Ramping up your antioxidants is likely to be of benefit. And I'm sure you're already physically active but if not, that's of an importance too. If anything else in that report resonates, give it a shot too. 

With regards to Iodine supplementation, caution is advised as it can exacerbate the inflammation if you supplement during a flareup, but best ask professional guidance on this as it is a very tricky topic. Look up best dietary sources of  it if you're concerned. I believe you are vegan, correct? Still, there are options available such as seaweeds. 

hope that helps. 

 

This is very comprehensive! I basically did/am aware of most of the concepts here, but I might have to up my iron intake because I take 20-40mg bisglycinate at most. Thank you for this I definitely will take some of the things into account and implement them.

[Michael569]

@Scholar one thing I'd say is definitely test it first before supplementing high dose. 

Best do the full panel which includes: total iron, ferritin, transferin, TIBC and UIBC. That way you'll get the most holistic picture of transport, storage and acute need. Done alongside full blood count ideally. 

[Lise]

On 10/3/2024 at 7:37 PM, Scholar said:

The problem is that I only feel well when I do take iodine, but only for a period of time until the thyroid gets inflammed, which is most often a few days or a week until that occurs.

 

The thyroid does need iodine to function. Do you take no iodine at all? To me it seems like levothyroxine does not completely replace what the thyroid is doing. I read that there is a problem with the balance between T3 and T4, or whatever, and the one levothyroxine replaces is not as effective as the secondary type the thyroid produces.

 

And it seems to me like taking levothyroxine itself, especially at like 100mcg-1250mcg rate, has it's own side effects, like increased thirst and heat intolance, despite my blood not showing that I would have too much hormone.

I have Graves (the opposite of Hashimoto's kind of, too active thyroid) and I feel like the meds are not fixing everything for me either (temperaturewise++). I will say that meditation and healthy eating have helped me a lot with the more bothersome symptoms, which for me have been difficulty concentrating, and low energy - which would have helped without the disease too, but definitely something to consider when these functions are more fucked up. This is obvious, but many aren't doing it.

Also, I only do levothyroxine in the morning, and I feel like it helps compared to taking it in the evening (?) But I only do 50mcg every day. And I strangely feel really good with slightly too low thyroid values (around 10 on some metric I don't remember). Maybe you could experiment with your dosage to find a sweet spot where you feel better?

And bro, why are you taking iodine? It's not like the old days where it came from lack of iodine. It's autoimmune.

[Lise]

On 11/23/2024 at 10:19 AM, Clarence said:

It’s already destroying my life. I’m fighting back not to kill myself.

I’m seeing a psychiatrist, a neuropsychologist, and alternative healers, but nothing works. Sometimes I experience a few days of reduced symptoms after a session, but it never lasts longer than that.

It’s hard to believe that it could be caused by an autoimmune disorder because I’ve grown to see all these symptoms as part of "me" — as me failing to change my state of mind and get into a good mood.

That’s why I was hoping to work on it with the upcoming course on reprogramming the subconscious mind, thinking it was the only cause. It’s hard to accept that it could come from Hashimoto’s, because that would mean that my difficulties aren’t all directly caused by me failing, as I've come to believe, but also by a physical condition.

It feels wrong to place the cause, or part of the cause, outside of my mind, as if I’m not taking full responsibility for it. But it would be a relief to know that this is the case, as such a cause would reduce the guilt I live with. Even if curing the condition isn’t simple, accepting that it plays an important role would improve my self-image and ease the despair I’m in.

I feel like the mental symptoms of having a over/underactive thyroid are not very acknowledged. I had to fight to get the frickin doctor's notice, and my resting heart beat was at 115 per minute, my neck was like I'd swallowed a whole potato... But how could anything be wrong, you have only abnormal hormone values? My ass... The body is a system. And I was also treated in a way increasing my risk for another episode two times ): I have episodes of hyperthyroidism, and I have to work so much harder to get things done when I'm in an active episode. Life get's much harder. So I feel you.

[M A J I]

With illnesses that do no get better no matter what you do or take physically then it calls for a deeper approach. Its stemming from higher level, from a spiritual level that needs to be addressed, cleared, felt, integrated and healed. In many shamanic traditions they say every physical illness stems from a higher energetic / spiritual level first and foremost, and this does make sense. There have been some issues I had long term that nothing I did worked until I changed my lifestyle entirely and environment most importantly, rather than just diet.

This is why fasting can be very powerful because it is a total surrender rather than trying to fight it, you allow the divine intelligence within to take care of the issue on a higher level. However sometimes even fasting (without the spiritual / energetic work) can fail, because the energy-bodies are fragmented and energy is not flowing, so it calls for deep inner-work to unify aspects of oneself and create alignment again.

Look into sound and light therapy, deep forest retreats without the use of technology, supplements or anything not found in the wild, mostly fasting and meditating, hiking, long-term week to month retreats in solitude or with helpers for deeper illnesses. Invest in a shamanic drum, chant your voice out until your heart blows open. I have helped many with such techniques and playing didgeridoo, drum, flute and vocal harmonics to facilitate healing of fragmentation, this is usually the case with people who have abused a lot of substances in their life. This is the future of medicine.

You will often find when you create alignment within yourself in such ways, not only one but most illnesses will fade, as distortion occurs at a higher level as much as it does on a physical, and if you are shooting up with substances a lot, expect distortion of energies to occur. Most people abuse them more than they realize which leaves them worse than they began.

Be-aware of mental enlightenment. Back to the basics, meditation, fasting, chanting, being Sober in nature.

Edited December 20, 2024 by M A J I