One thing that I keep going back to as I make this journey through Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is that this disease is not much different than any other disease in that there undoubtedly is a root cause. Not many admit to that, but as I research natural remedies, one thing keeps coming up: diet is key.

Okay, that is no surprise to most of us. But one thing which is making a popular comeback is the idea that we might just be preparing our foods wrong. Huh? Many people I talk to cannot figure out what I could be suggesting. It is still a “foreign subject” to many Americans. Everyone knows that white flour is inferior to whole wheat but why would preparation be an issue? Isn’t it just that whole wheat is “better” for you. But why can’t we digest it properly? Just 100 years ago, it was common to do such things as soaking your oatmeal the night before in preparation for breakfast in the morning. And sourdough was much more the norm for our bread, using a “starter” which was nothing more than soaked grain that pulled in beneficial bacteria from it’s environment and fermented while sitting on the counter of the kitchen while waiting for it’s daily use. Gone are the days we toiled for our food.…. well, maybe not! We just might be coming “full circle”, especially for those of us who want to avoid traditional medicine for the rest of our lives.

With all the disease prevalent in our modern culture, one thing remains constant; our food preparations have become faster and faster. We have faster everything and food is on the top of that list.

So although this post is short today, I want to direct you to some exciting ideas by Sallon Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

In this book, you will find the fascinating reasons and benefits behind traditional food preparation and how foods prepared in our rush lifestyle are stealing the nutrients from our body. One example is that as a Hashimoto’s sufferer, I was made aware early on that most (if not all) of us with Hashimoto’s Disease can claim a B Vitamin deficiency. Okay, and we usually have some form of gluten/wheat sensitivity. This is where it gets interesting to me. Guess what vitamin is bound up in wheat? You guessed it; B vitamins! Okay, now we can’t have the food that we need because we react, in some cases, violently to it. Does anyone else find this strange? Well, until I began to understand why we weren’t able to get those wonderful vitamins in the wheat, I was so frustrated! Now I understand that by soaking this same wheat, it releases the enzyme inhibitors which in turn, releases these precious vitamins into our body! Finally an answer!

Now, is it easy to eat this way in modern society? Not really. But let me ask you a more important question. Is it easy to have this disease? I’ll take the diet over the disease any day and I’m sure you are agreeing with me right about now. So, I am taking an online course teaching me how to better incorporate this food preparation into my lifestyle. After about 5 months, I will report to you on how that goes (it’s a 5 month eCourse) and at that point, I will advertise the next session so you will have the chance to take the eCourse yourself. Classes are closed for this session but I will be sure to alert you when they come back around so stay tuned.

I hope this blog helps you to find the right road to good health for you as continue on this journey.

Mo

Although Hashimotos Thyroiditis can be a difficult disease to treat and understand the root issues, I think many of us are getting closer to finding natural ways to answer these questions. For example, later in this post, I will provide a link to a case where Hashi’s was possibly reversed by using EFT! Before I go into that, I thought I’d update you on a couple other areas I’ve posted about on this blog.

First, as you may have read in a previous post from a couple years ago, I had a pretty bad gluten sensitivity, not necessarily the type a Celiac sufferer would have but it was enough to keep me from eating any food with gluten for quite a few months. My hope was that I would see a change in my Hashi antibodies at the same time. During this time, my antibodies tripled in number! For me, abstaining from gluten did not return much benefit, whether in weight loss or reversal of Hashi’s. I can’t say I didn’t have some benefit; it’s always good to cut down on carbs, but my hopes for healing were not realized through that experiment.

As far as NAET goes, I am still enjoying the benefits of going through these treatments, although I am still uncertain as to how it might have affected my Hashimoto’s disease. I have kept up with my TSH but not with my antibodies - yet. I am waiting for a few more weeks before I take that expensive test. However, the food sensitivities have been almost fully resolved through NAET! I am so happy to be able to eat almost anything without serious side effects! I still have no bad reactions to peppers (which caused cramping and a fast heart rate as well as asthma for up to 3 hours), gluten (used to cause my stomach to blow up like a balloon), tomato sauce (which would cause me all the symptoms of MSG) and more! I used to be extremely cautious of any food that contained vinegar which would immediately cause me symptoms of fast heart rate and sometimes asthma. I have no problems with any of these foods any more. However, I do still have some bloatedness from super heated oils and really dense white flour products which I don’t feel are good for a person anyway. I was never treated fully for the super heated oils but that is because they are so bad for a person anyway, so why not just avoid them? So that is my update on NAET for now. I will add more later once I get my antibody test back - hopefully before Christmas vacation.

Now, as far as the emotional side of things. I was intrigued by an article on the EFT website this morning. I have been moving towards energy therapy for emotions for many months now. I find the variety of practitioners especially exciting since we all have different journeys and mindsets. Finding someone that compliments your belief system or personality is not that difficult these days. Most practitioners will work over the phone and the treatment is mostly as productive that way. This makes this type of treatment extremely accessible to all of us. Even cost can be minimal if you do your homework and prepare yourself for treatment emotionally ahead of time. Here’s the article I’m referring to:

Reversing Hashimoto’s through EFT - from www.emofree.com

It is my mission to test this out for myself. I’ll let you know how it goes. I have had a lot of good experiences with EFT - especially on physical symptoms. If you haven’t had experience yet with this ground breaking technique, it can be researched and accessed for free via the EFT website and many, many Youtube videos for tap along use.  Don’t miss this faster way to tap! He’s got an amazing amount of free videos to tap along with and explanations of how to correct many of our emotional issues!

I’ve really put off an update to this blog for a while now because my Hashimotos Thyroiditis has not been assessed much differently since I’ve begun my NAET treatments. However, many other wonderful “side effects” have been noted. Although not a direct change in my disease has been noted, I have come to realize that enough changes have happened to record those in this post.

Let me explain. I began NAET treatments about a year ago. My scheduled visits were about 2 per week and I, as recommended by the protocol, started with the basics (Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids, etc.). The first few treatments were not very life changing because these are only components to the combinations of foods I eat on a daily basis. In order for me to feel significant changes, I had to begin the whole food treatments like wheat, milk, etc. It was then that I began to see remarkable changes. Here’s a simple explanation of what NAET is:

I kept a journal of all my treatments and any reactions or notable aspects to the treatment that came up. In a later post, I will write these important treatments and notes specifically but for now, I will just say that the response to some of these treatments were incredible! The most notable food treatments to date was the pepper treatment. I used to be severely sensitive to eating black pepper and even worse to jalapenos. I would get a fast heart rate, bloatedness, and frequent trips to the restroom to “let nature take it’s course”. This would be so disruptive to my life if I were to have this reaction while dining at someone’s home or in a restaurant. After the treatment, all those terrible reactions were gone and have been gone for over 9 months! They have never come back! There are other treatments which have been as effective and there are others that have been slow to respond or have only responded partly. Something to realize about NAET that I think others miss is that it can sometime take food combination treatments to clear symptoms after the initial individual treatments. In other words, if you have an allergy to wheat and you expect your reaction to spaghetti to be cleared by that treatment, you may have to have a combination treatment of wheat and tomato sauce in order to clear the spaghetti.

What bothers me the most about NAET criticizers is that “it doesn’t work” but they haven’t even done combination treatments or they haven’t done the amount of treatments their body needs to begin the healing process. They believe that NAET should be some kind of “magic pill” treatment or it “doesn’t work”. First of all, we never ask traditional medicine to cure our ailments - we ask them to “disquise the symptoms” - the root problem still being there and leaving us addicted to the medications given! This is NOT healing. For healing to take place, we need to give our bodies the chance to begin a healing cycle. Allergens and toxins must be eliminated to a great extent for this process to begin. It is not a magic pill and although NAET is amazing and can have significant effect on individual allergies, the whole body must be worked on to experience real, long-term, healing.

This is what I am in the process of attempting. I realize it’s taken 45 years to become sick with this disease and I realize it could take up to a year or two to reverse the damage and begin to heal. This is my journal of the journey.

On another note, it is imperative that we not only find the root cause physically, but also what may have triggered this physical reaction. This brings me to the emotional side of things. I want to extend on this in my next post but I will at least mention here that our emotions can do some pretty significant things to our body - both bad and good - depending on the emotion. I would like to explore energy therapies a bit in the next post. Here is what I believe to be the root problem of most disease - stress and emotional trauma. I am being careful not to blame anyone here, including myself because there have been traumas in my life that I could never have controlled. However, now that I understand some of the ways energy therapies work, I realize I may have been able to deal with these traumas in a way that may have not set up disease in my body. I want to remind you that I am not a doctor - I am a patient. Many believe this is a significant benefit to understanding your particular disease. After all, it is your body, not your doctors, and many times I think doctors forget this “small fact” when working with their patients.

May you continue to find answers for your healing.

Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t go with the technical approach to Hashimotos Thyroiditis but really, this is amazing! I’d rather see this in somebody else’s thyroid for educational purposes so I thought I’d share this with you! Thank you to the maker’s of this video:

Hashimotos Thyroiditis and Herbal Remedies

The question is burning in me; can an herbal treatment go a long way in helping someone with Hashimotos Thyroiditis? I have to confess, I’ve never been one to trust herbal remedies for something as complicated as this disease, but recently my research has been promising. I may consider, for the first time, delving into the thought a bit more. read more…

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Hashimotos Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its own thyroid gland. This guide is intended to help you take the first steps towards reclaiming your health. I have this disease myself and have found many helps throughout my journey. I am now sharing these with you.

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If you are new to this disease, I hope you will feel more support than I did when I was first diagnosed with Hashimotos Thyroiditis about 14 years ago or so. I say this because I had no internet access, the disease was relatively unfamiliar and because of this, difficult to research. To top it all off, my doctor basically slapped the diagnosis on my lap and said, “it’s no big deal. You just take a pill every morning and it’ll take care of it. You will live just as long a life, it’s just that your thyroid will eventually die.” This was said in a short, 5 minute phone conversation as he noted that I had a prescription waiting for me at the pharmacy! He never mentioned that my life would never be the same! Okay, I don’t know about you but when someone tells me a part of my body is on its way to death (and I was only in my early 30’s) with such casual delivery too, it can really be confusing. I’m thinking to myself, I guess it’s fine, as long as it is my health and not his!

The reason I am writing this little entry is hopefully to ease your mind a bit. You see, there is no immediate danger in this diagnoses (for most of us). There is time to learn, and more importantly, time to choose your course of action! I have a lot of “if onlys” in my journey. Perhaps it would benefit you to hear some of them? Okay, here it goes:

1. If only I was aware of natural treatments, I could have avoided the “hook” of synthetic drugs which in many ways, kept me from realizing my true potential in healing early on. (not to mention that I was unaware that they weren’t helping me at all for 10 years!) Now I must try to heal while fighting with dosages of natural supplements and trying to figure out how much improvement is truly being made having the supplemental thyroid going in every day. I feel I was denied education and the choice to deal with it more naturally.
2. If only I had considered a natural doctor (for a second opinion) for the initial course of treatment or healing. My HMO never gave me any indication there were any options other than theirs which was immediately taking Synthroid. I can’t believe I never questioned this!
3. Natural dessicated thyroid supplements! If only I had known about them. I suffered for 10 years taking Synthroid.
4. If only I understood the benefits of tracking my own health. Taking my body temperature daily, using a food journal to identify food allergies and sensitivities, and tracking the effects of exercise and stress management. This would have saved me many years of unnecessary symptoms due to diet and prescription drugs.

These are just a few of the “what ifs” and “if onlys” at the top of my head. I will likely talk about this more in future entries. But all of the things above would have given me a better foundation for dealing with this disease. I have heard many times since, that seeking the best natural treatments from the point of diagnoses can greatly improve your success in fighting this disease.

I recommend that you consider joining a *forum where others are that maintain a positive attitude in overcoming this challenge in your health. I have had a message board for four years now and sometimes I really don’t know where I’d be without the support of other Hashi sufferers. (we all tend to call Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Hashi for short.)

I hope that I have helped you to empower yourself with choices. In the end, it’s your body, not your doctor’s. Please take the time to choose your course well. Your body will thank you for it!

Maureen

*The forum I used to provide was public and had spamming and advertising issues. It is now necessary to register at the new forum. This is a safety measure and a way to keep your e-mail address safe from spam. We’re just “moving over” and would love to have you join us! The more of us coming together for answers, the faster we will find them.

None of the information or personal testimonies on this blog are designed to take the place of being under the care of a qualified medical doctor. Please make sure you find a caring doctor to treat you for all your health concerns.

For many years I’ve wondered if I could somehow reverse my Hashimotos Thyroiditis by finding the “root” problem. I began to entertain the thinking that there was a connection between autoimmune thyroid disease and gluten sensitivity. After some research, I found articles that seemed to point me further in that direction like the following one from Mary Shomon:

According to research recently reported on in the medical journal Digestive Diseases and Sciences, a significant number of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease also have celiac disease. Celiac disease is a disorder that causes the intestines to react abnormally to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt,kamut, and other related grains.

“…researchers found that…organ-specific autoantibodies (i.e., thyroid antibodies) — will disappear after 3 to 6 months of a gluten-free diet.”

Celiac disease, which is sometimes referred to as celiac sprue, sprue, or gluten intolerance, makes it difficult for the body to properly absorb nutrients from foods.

You can read the full article here.

Now, the reason I brought this up is that I tried a gluten free diet for 6 months to prove to the world that the connection was there! Prior to this I was already enjoying success in eating according to the wonderful book, Nourishing Traditions, written by Sally Fallon, and my medication had dropped by one third so I thought I was on the “right road”. So I added to that a gluten free diet in 2006 just knowing I was going to find the “answer” to this disease. Okay, well… I tried. I not only went gluten free, but sugar, and preservative (which I do anyway) free, too! I also consumed live raw milk based Kefir to help re-supply the gut with probiotics. My antibody count went from somewhere around 1,800 to like 3,400 in the six months! As you can imagine, I was horrified. I expected the opposite. I was ready to celebrate but you can imagine the crash I experienced when I heard the numbers. My TSH improved but my dose of medication was slightly increased during this time also so that didn’t really mean anything to me.

Am I saying that a gluten free diet can’t improve this disease? No. But I am saying that it didn’t work for me. Reflecting back on all of this brought up some interesting points.

1. I did not eliminate corn during this time. I have a hunch that corn could be a culprit. Don’t ask me why. I will continue my research on this one. I have heard many discouraging studyies on the dangers of corn in our diet so I will just leave it at that until I have a better grasp on the possible concerns with consuming it in our diet.
2. I continued to eat raw honey (which I don’t believe is a culprit but I will confess to it’s usage in moderation).
3. I was not exercising to the capacity I believe would aid in the healing process.
4. I was not taking any supplements at that time which could indicate a “missing component” to the process.

I would love to get feedback from others that have tried a similar journey. I truly believe we can work together to find the natural cure!

Maureen

I thought it would be appropriate to share a video I found a few years ago describing the techinical side of Hashimotos Thyroiditis. All the mumbo jumbo in the professional arena was really getting to me! Anyone with this disease will attest that some days, you really just don’t feel you can understand things let alone technical jargon about your disease! So view this little video when your brain fog is not too bad.

Here’s the video:

Click here to download (requires Real Player)

Hi, I’m Maureen. The reason I am starting this blog is to share my journey, tips and support to those who are either new to Hashimotos Thyroiditis or are just looking for others to share with. I have always seen this road as a “lonely” one. I haven’t met anyone in person that has this disease yet, and I’ve been diagnosed for about 14 years! The best support I’ve had has been online. I have a great set of friends that have been helping each other for years now. I tend to keep my focus simple - not making an issue of the test numbers and other technical stuff. There’s a place for that but to focus on it is very frustrating for me. I choose to “listen to my body” more than the tests. There have been great rewards as I’ve left the “system” of the HMO and begun my own research toward a more natural approach. The book that started it all for me was “Solved: The Riddle of Illness” by Stephen Langer and tipped me off to the more natural path I am now on. I followed this up with my diet “bible” called “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon.

Please consider joining me as we work together to manage thyroiditis and hopefully gain new strategies of coping with the symptoms (which are very real). I say that because many of us have been labeled “hypochondriacs”. (See “my story” on my web page.) It seems that Hashimotos Disease has a way of appearing differently in people. In all the years I’ve communicated with others, it seems like there are no two sufferers exactly alike. What one person is dealing with and finding answers for, can really help another down the road.

I look forward to sharing my journey with you. I plan on posting a really great video on the “technical side” of Hashimoto’s Disease just “for the record” but I prefer to stick with the “whole body” approach regardless of what the symptoms are. My main purpose here is to lend support. I hope to have others involved too! On any given post, I will be asking for your experience, your thoughts, and your comments to help us all as we search for answers.