Found out I have Hashimoto's disease

[systematic_chaos]

I've been struggling with extreme fatigue for the 18 months. It has not been an easy journey but with treatment and a slightly restricted diet I am much better and back to full energy. I want to share my story so people who may be in a similar position can get help because it was a long drawn out process for me and it didn't need to be.

This is my timeline:

April 2019:

- Burnt out after working overtime at a failed Startup, stress levels at an all time high

June 2019:

- Feel exhausted all the time, some days I can't get out of bed for more than a few hours per day

- Routine blood-work for fatigue comes back normal

- Doctor offers me SSRIs, I don't take them

- Use Modafinil off label so I don't loose my (new) Job, need to cycle it because it damages my sleep but I can scrape by on it

October 2019:

- Symptoms worsen but I'm still managing by using Modafinil

February 2020:

- Symptoms worsen further sometimes struggle to focus even on Modafinil

- Try high vegetable diet but it makes my symptoms worse.

- Start getting insomnia, waking up multiple times during the night for hours at a time this happens even in the absence of Modafinil and Caffeine.

May 2020:

- Try Keto diet and resistance training, it helps at first but then my fatigue gets worse

- Insomnia persists but is slightly improved by Keto diet

August 2020:

- Discover Bioenergetic diet:

- Switch to Bioenergetic Diet / Ray Peat inspired diet and symptoms improve

- No longer require Modafinil to work

- Still have some bad days but not as bad as before managing a solid 6-8 hours of energy per day on average

September 2020:

- Relapse for two days after going to vegetarian restaurant and eating a large amount of vegetables in one sitting

- Struck by fear of a full relapse I clear out my gut with Liquid Camphoric Acid, Charcoal and Coconut Oil.

- Back to normal and gut is happy again

October 2020:

- Decide to get full thyroid panel after learning about how the Bioenergetic Diet improves thyroid function

- Blood work comes back with High elevated Thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb)

- Diagnosed with Hashimoto's

- Start taking Desiccated Thyroid to treat symptoms

- Energy levels I didn't even know where possible, feel like I now understand how normal people feel. 

- Have not relapsed since

The moral of the story is if you feel fatigued request a full Thyroid panel. For general fatigue they just test TSH and Free T4 but that can produce false negatives. Here in the UK they do blood-work incrementally so you have to keep going back and requesting more blood-work, this is not good for people with fatigue, get it all done in one go privately.

Also if you do turn out to be hypothyroid it's worth trying desiccated thyroid rather than the standard medication. The normal medication Levothyroxine contains only T4 which some people struggle to convert into T3, desiccated thyroid contains both and can kickstart the conversion of T4 to T3.

Some symptoms I had that the Doctor didn't connect to thyroid because he trusted the basic blood panel:

- Peeing a lot, especially during the night

- Extreme fatigue

- Cold sensitivity

- Cold hands and feet

- Low temperature (96 degrees Fahrenheit)

- Low pulse (50 bpm resting)

 

Some resources on the Bioenergetic diet:

- Basic Intro: 

- Ray Peat's website: http://raypeat.com/articles/

- Ray Peat Wiki: https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges

 

@Leo Gura You might find this interesting since I know you also have Hashimoto's.

Edited October 21, 2020 by systematic_chaos

[integral]

Waiting for master @Leo Gura to make an appearance,

Looking into this, very interesting, i like his perspective on metabolism, a funny detail he recommends drinking coke with all his meals. LOL 

Its very humbling learning coke is healthy. 

https://youtu.be/eUp0FmFlAhY

 

Edited October 21, 2020 by integral

[Leo Gura]

There are so many different factors when it comes to thyroid. My case is not fixed with any medication or diet.

And in the long-term, taking that hormone is not addressing the root cause of your thyroid autoimmune attack. As long as you have those anitbodies, your body is attacking and destroying your thyroid gland.

You should look into stuff like heavy metal toxicity and liver detox to really get at the root cause.

[KaRzual]

@Leo Gura How do you know that heavy metals are the cause in autoimmune diseases?

[UDT]

20 hours ago, systematic_chaos said:

Some symptoms I had that the Doctor didn't connect to thyroid because he trusted the basic blood panel:

- Peeing a lot, especially during the night

- Extreme fatigue

- Cold sensitivity

- Cold hands and feet

- Low temperature (96 degrees Fahrenheit)

- Low pulse (50 bpm resting)

 

First of all GLAD you made it and huge CONGRATS!

I talk a lot about how a low thyroid causes a low metabolism and thus METABOLIC SYNDROME (Channel in my bio)

EXTREME FATIGUE
LOW ENERGY
NO MOTIVATION

Your thyroid hormones are incredibly impportant signals to your bodies energy metabolism.

Your cold hands, feet, low body temperature etc. all stem from this issue that your metabolism is low. 
Very glad thyroid supps could help you but there is sooo much you can do!

Especially be aware of of unsaturated oils (vegetable oils), avoid it!

Did you check your testosterone and Cholesterol as well?
You probably have a lack in steroid hormones, taking Vitamin A + Butter + Coffee in the morning can be a real booster in that regard, because 

the body uses Vit A + Cholesterol to convert to progesterone and testosterone. 

 

[systematic_chaos]

11 hours ago, integral said:

Waiting for master @Leo Gura to make an appearance,

Looking into this, very interesting, i like his perspective on metabolism, a funny detail he recommends drinking coke with all his meals. LOL 

Its very humbling learning coke is healthy. 

https://youtu.be/eUp0FmFlAhY

 

Yes it is humbling because you need to drop a lot of programming and beliefs to accept it. That or you need to be a natural contrarian and it already aligns with your beliefs by virtue of being against the mainstream. 

I would add that I don't think coke is healthy in an absolute sense but rather relative to other processed foods. Part of the Bioenergetic / Ray Peat perspective is that the food supply in most industrialised nations is severely compromised and so you are making the best of a bad lot.

[systematic_chaos]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

There are so many different factors when it comes to thyroid. My case is not fixed with any medication or diet.

And in the long-term, taking that hormone is not addressing the root cause of your thyroid autoimmune attack. As long as you have those anitbodies, your body is attacking and destroying your thyroid gland.

You should look into stuff like heavy metal toxicity and liver detox to really get at the root cause.

Thanks for the tips. I had slightly raised liver enzymes in my last blood test so that could be a contributing factor.

I think you would be interested in the Bioenergetic perspective because it is a systems level theory, I would put it and its progenitor (Ray Peat) at stage yellow. In addition Ray Peat himself is Hypothyroid so a lot of the work focuses on thyroid.

The Bioenergetic perspective on autoimmunity is that the antibodies are there to clear up the debris of a decaying organ but are not the cause of the decay. They would put environmental factors as the cause for decay, namely high stress, ionising radiation (where relevant) and a diet that suppresses metabolism. The theory is if an organ is not used it will decay and when the body gets stuck in a persistent state of high stress and high cortisol thyroid is suppressed and eventually the organ begins to decay and when this happens beyond a tipping point it has a cascading and self reinforcing effect.

[systematic_chaos]

1 hour ago, UDT said:

First of all GLAD you made it and huge CONGRATS!

I talk a lot about how a low thyroid causes a low metabolism and thus METABOLIC SYNDROME (Channel in my bio)

EXTREME FATIGUE
LOW ENERGY
NO MOTIVATION

Your thyroid hormones are incredibly impportant signals to your bodies energy metabolism.

Your cold hands, feet, low body temperature etc. all stem from this issue that your metabolism is low. 
Very glad thyroid supps could help you but there is sooo much you can do!

Especially be aware of of unsaturated oils (vegetable oils), avoid it!

Did you check your testosterone and Cholesterol as well?
You probably have a lack in steroid hormones, taking Vitamin A + Butter + Coffee in the morning can be a real booster in that regard, because 

the body uses Vit A + Cholesterol to convert to progesterone and testosterone. 

 

Thank you!

Yes I avoid PUFAs as much as possible, sunflower oil, soy bean oil etc. If I have them I need to lie down for an hour so it's a no brainer for me in addition to them having such dangerous systemic and long term effects on the body. I also can't handle starch so I avoid that too, I think that may be a bacterial overgrowth so I'm trying regular raw carrots and well cooked mushrooms to see if that will clear it out.

My testosterone levels are normal but I haven't checked cholesterol, will get that checked  

I eat liver once a week to get vitamin A and two eggs every day for cholesterol so I should be fine. That said I found that a little pregnenolone helps my symptoms so perhaps I do have some kind of steroid deficiency, will get a full panel on that in the near future.

Glad to see you are sharing information about metabolic health on your youtube channel! Will check out some of your videos.

[ItsNick]

15 hours ago, integral said:

Its very humbling learning coke is healthy. 

???

The ingredients of coke are: sugar, carbonated water, caffeine, and some E-number. And sugar.

[systematic_chaos]

1 hour ago, ItsNick said:

???

The ingredients of coke are: sugar, carbonated water, caffeine, and some E-number. And sugar.

From the Bioenergetic perspective sugar and caffeine are both good because they stimulate the metabolism. Sugar is preferable to starch because it gets absorbed more quickly and so is less likely to lead to bacterial overgrowth in the intestine and colon. The hot take is that PUFAs cause diabetes, not sugar.

Fruit juice is better because it has more vitamins and minerals and also because natural foods are less likely to contain chemical adulterants and additives. For some reason Danny Roddy who has the most popular Bioenergetics youtube channel has a penchant for coke, specifically Mexican coke which is still made with cane sugar and has less additives than American coke.

[systematic_chaos]

1 hour ago, ItsNick said:

???

The ingredients of coke are: sugar, carbonated water, caffeine, and some E-number. And sugar.

Here is an interesting study of the changes in the American diet over the 20th century tracking PUFAs (e.g soy bean oil, sunflower oil etc) and sugar in an effort to explain the obesity epidemic.

 

[Michael569]

How's your digestion? Most autoimmune conditions start in the gut. 

[systematic_chaos]

2 hours ago, Michael569 said:

How's your digestion? Most autoimmune conditions start in the gut. 

Not so good, starchy food and vegetables make me extremely tired and I get acid reflux from eating bread. I can manage it by eating fruit instead of vegetables and taking antacids (mostly just calcium carbonate) but I'm looking for a more long term solution for the root problem.

[Rajneeshpuram]

Why do you mean by relapsing? 

Where do you buy the Desiccated Thyroid? Bucause I've been looking for and its very hard to find.

 

[integral]

@Rajneeshpuram NO, do not mess around with thyroid hormone, this stuff is nuclear. Unless you absolutely know you need it. If you went to a doctor and did a general test and he told you your thyroid hormone is low that does not mean to jump on medication. It means solve the root cause. 

99% of Hashimoto's cases are curable, medicating is the last resort. 

[Leo Gura]

16 hours ago, KaRzual said:

@Leo Gura How do you know that heavy metals are the cause in autoimmune diseases?

A hunch

It's not the only factor. There are many factors.

[systematic_chaos]

9 hours ago, Rajneeshpuram said:

Why do you mean by relapsing? 

Where do you buy the Desiccated Thyroid? Bucause I've been looking for and its very hard to find.

 

By relapsing I mean the symptoms recurring.  You can get NDT on the grey market you just need to shop around. I would not take it unless you have symptoms of hypothyroid though because it will suppress your natural hormone production.

[systematic_chaos]

9 hours ago, integral said:

@Rajneeshpuram NO, do not mess around with thyroid hormone, this stuff is nuclear. Unless you absolutely know you need it. If you went to a doctor and did a general test and he told you your thyroid hormone is low that does not mean to jump on medication. It means solve the root cause. 

99% of Hashimoto's cases are curable, medicating is the last resort. 

My doctor told me the opposite: there is no cure for Hashimoto's and the only option is medicating with thyroid hormone for the symptoms. 

I'm intrigued, what is your source on these cures?

[integral]

@systematic_chaos The only doctors worth listening to are does that opening talk about how they relearned everything they where thought in school. They are fully aware of the ignorance and corruption in the health care industry. 

Some videos of these kind of doctors. 

The first videa repeats alot of what you said in this thread. 

The average doctor repeats what they where told in school blindly. There just the average guy doing a job they dont like, waiting for the day to end to go home. Avoid these people. 

 

There is an epidemic of over prescribing medication, within that epidemic there is a epidemic of over prescribing thyroid hormone to anyone that tests low. In most cases If thyroid hormone is low it means the body has adapted to something. The hormone needs to be low, thats what the body decided to keep you alive. The doctor then prescribes hormones to reverse that adaptation. A foolish method coming from 0 understanding of the human body, that causes major issues short and long term.  For the case of hashimotes the issue is indirect and not part of direct adaptation. Systemic issues... The root cause needs to be found and corrected, for most cases its resolved when the gut is resolved. if the underling issue it not resolved fast enough it can become permanent, like in leos case, or maybe there is some insight leo has not had yet unraveling the mystery. 

Its the same foolishness with every medication, for example cholesterol and blood pressure medication are the leading cause of stroke. The doctor and the patient have no idea it was the doctors ignorance that caused the stroke. Then doctor sais "i told you so! you should of taken care of your health, heres 30 medications now that you should take for the rest of your life". Doctors do this kind of stuff all day, with various issues. The next realization after this is learning that a doctor spends there entire career destroying the lives of most of the people they treat, while being praised doing it. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by integral

[systematic_chaos]

@integral Thanks for the info. Yeah I know many doctors are just talking heads without much going on inside, I'm on the lookout for a good Doctor who loves what they do and can dedicate some brain power. I know I definitely have a digestive problem I wonder if Artemisinin could help with that. I was previously on an antibiotic for acne and I noticed my symptoms mostly started after I came off it, I may try and get back on it again.