Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Is Conventional Medicine the Only Way?

While searching on the internet, trying to find answers, how many times have you seen these types of results?

• “Watch out for ‘biological dentistry’, it’s quackery!”
• “Stay away from Functional Medicine doctors! They are not ‘real’ doctors!”
• “Alternative medicine doctors are all quacks!”
• “NEVER, NEVER, diagnose or treat yourself” (it’s not really YOUR body anyway, right?)
• “Diet cannot reverse any condition, it can only be a helpful aid to conventional medicine.”

I used to believe most of the lies above. I used to be so scared to step out and research for myself due to the intimidation of conventional medicine or these Internet “warnings.” Before I found a way to get better, and as you will hear in my story during my podcast interview at GNOWFLINS recently, conventional medicine will not listen to you if you still have symptoms, yet your TSH is “in range.” To them, there is only ONE RIGHT way to deal with Hashimoto’s. But guess what? It is not the right way! It is only treating one symptom of the root problem. For the root, well, they could care less if your thyroid is being destroyed and not to mention, modern science is suggesting that this destruction can be minimized or even prevented! And do they tell us that we need the proper amount of thyroid hormone (not just TSH) for almost every function of the body which is why we have so many symptoms? No, let’s just keep doing what we’re doing, even though you are feeling worse. Does this make sense? Not to the ones suffering!

Let’s take a look at each of these untruths and how getting past these misconceptions helped me. Please also allow me to insert a disclaimer at the end of each section lest you think I am not also putting a “blanket statement” out there that the above statements have absolutely no truth to them.

Watch out for “biological dentists”, it’s quackery!

Let’s see. In my early 20’s I was given about 6 additional mercury amalgam fillings by my, then trusted, dentists. About 20 years, an autoimmune disease, high blood pressure, and severely high mercury levels later, I had them removed and many of my symptoms immediately were helped. Coincidence? I think not. Scientifically proven? Well, some say yes but I will leave that to your research. All I know is that they were removed and I felt better! My follow-up mercury test is incredible.  My symptoms are what matters to me. If you are the kind who wants to wait for conventional medicine to catch up with the science, you might have about a 17 year wait time until you get the treatment you need! I wasn’t willing to wait that long.

Disclaimer: Although I believe there are some absolutely life saving biological dentists out there, I also caution you to do your research before hiring anyone to work on your teeth and that also goes for the dentists that your insurance plan covers. Here’s a link to some possible leads for biological dentists in your area, however, as with all links I provide on this blog, I highly recommend you get references and check out the track record of anyone you hire.

Stay away from Functional Medicine doctors! They are not “real” doctors!

As seen here in this interview with Dr. Kharizzian by Mary Shomon, he says:

Dr. Kharrazian: The doctor of chiropractic (DC) degree is equal in hours to the doctor of medicine (MD) degree, with almost identical programs the first two years. The programs diverge, however, in the second half. During this time, the DC program focuses on diet, nutrition, and spinal manipulation, while the MD program emphasizes the study of pharmacology. (For full interview, compliments of About.com, see it here.)

If you don’t think this is enough education, that is your choice. If conventional medical school has less than one week of nutritional education, do you think we should trust them for that area of our lives? Not me. I think I would like to go to someone who has more thoroughly studied the effects of diet on the body. If I want medication (and sometimes this is necessary), I will go to conventional doctors since this is their specialty. But I want to have the choice, don’t you? I think both should be covered by insurance!

Disclaimer: I have heard my share of stories about either outrageously priced Functional Medicine doctors, or that their patients did not feel they were helped by their protocol. I truly believe, just like in conventional medicine, that you need to “shop” around for a doctor who fits your needs and respects you as an active partner in your own treatment. Anyone who doesn’t listen to your needs, conventional, functional, or otherwise, is not a good fit for a partner in your care (in my humble opinion).

Alternative medicine doctors are all quacks!

The very first glimmer of hope I had was from an Alternative Medicine doctor! After 10 years of suffering in the conventional model that would not listen to my symptoms and the relationship to my autoimmune condition that THEY diagnosed, I was forced to find help outside of the system. My story in-depth is in podcast form here. No one can tell me I was wrong to look elsewhere. I went through enough in conventional medicine to tell me I was not going to be heard. This needs to stop. I hope our voices will be heard.

Disclaimer: Not all the Alternative Medicine doctors I have tried have been the best fit for me. Some worked too similarly to conventional medicine which attempted to demean me as a partner in my own treatment protocol. Some depended too much on a certain protocol that they either pushed or partnered with, causing them to care more about the treatment they promoted, over my particular needs. If you are wise, you will strive to pick this out at a consultation before you hire them as your physician. As I said above, you should look for a doctor who respects your needs, desires, and vision, in order to get the best care for your individual situation.

NEVER, NEVER, diagnose or treat yourself (it’s not really YOUR body anyway, right?)

Pharmacist Izabella Wentz, the author of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause, and a Hashimoto’s patient herself, has a great video on how she found incredible healing through looking for answers herself with the help of modern medicine and lab testing.

My full review of her very helpful book is here in case you missed it. Her website is here for much more information and great articles on natural ways to help Hashimoto’s. One of the most important things we can do when addressing our symptoms is to look for the triggers. Each of us has a different set of circumstances both in body chemistry and history. We know our body better than the packaged conventional model suggests.

And how about Jeanette Elisha-Elliss who cured her debilitating symptoms, including paralysis, which was not understood by the doctors she went to, and turned the whole thing around? Read her incredible story here. If you want to know more about Jeanette’s journey, please see her website here.

Disclaimer: As you can see in the two examples above, plus my own, each person has individual needs. We need to be aware of all our treatment options if possible, because often we don’t fit into the cookie cutter approach of conventional medicine, diet regimens, exercise needs and other aspects of “getting healthy” through common standard advice. We all have extenuating circumstances that make our body unique, our needs unique and our choices unique. Why? Because we ARE unique. And I like that. It makes for a much more “hands on” approach to health care but it’s our body and no one knows it like we do. We are the only one who feels the symptoms and can help fine tune the right treatment. Once we start really listening to our own body, we are able to be the best help to a physician who can guide us with an individual treatment plan for our health needs. I think that is awesome!

Diet cannot treat any condition, it can only be a helpful aid to conventional medicine.

If you’ve heard my story, you will see that IF I had continued to believe this lie, I would have never gotten better, only worse! My plea to conventional medicine is to please listen to the voices of those who have used diet to control and/or eliminate major debilitating symptoms, AND reduced antibodies! Not to mention how this changes our overall quality of life! I cannot express enough how diet alone can cause so many health benefits. I don’t consider weight loss to be the main problem in thyroid disease, but for those who want to see (and haven’t) what a nutrient dense diet alone did for me, as the weight dropped off without trying, my before and after pictures are below. Others who struggled with being underweight have had similar results going the opposite way just by good nutrition. So you see, this was not done by conventional medicine, although for many, conventional medicine plays a role. It is not rocket science either to figure out that our body runs on minerals, vitamins, and many other chemical reactions that we get through good nutrition and sometimes supplements that can be recommended by alternative treatment doctors. If a conventional medicine doctor cannot use these methods for helping us due to their specialty being pharmaceutical drugs as a treatment for these ailments, why is it that we, as patients, can’t decide whether we want drugs and/or nutrition and be covered by insurance for either path? And I beg to point out that IF we, as patients, choose the nutritional path, doesn’t it make sense that we will also be causing less overall burden to the medical system down the road? Wouldn’t it also be understood that we will not likely be the ones coming in for heart surgery, and other emergency services later on? Would this not save millions of dollars of our government health care costs? Why is it that they don’t get this?

Disclaimer: There are conditions that are not candidates for diet alone! One can be Hypothyroidism! If your levels need to be monitored and controlled by a good doctor, you are doing the right thing with implementing this life saving thyroid supplement. You may also need other intervention based on severe symptoms that might be reduced by a good diet later, but may have to be treated in other ways while you implement better eating choices. I am not saying diet changes everything. My point is, it is hard to find a condition where diet cannot be a significant help and possibly replenish the body with the nutrient deficiencies that caused the condition to begin with. Sometimes, this deficiency is reversible as in many iron deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies, and mineral deficiencies, as well as others. These can all cause pretty severe symptoms but can be reversed by getting those nutrients back in the diet.

I hope I have helped you think a bit about some of the things you are hearing in these areas. It is a personal choice which path each of us take, but I would like to suggest that we should be able to explore both paths if one is not helping us alone AND use insurance for it. If we want a healthier population, how about giving these depleted body systems some good nutrition and help through nutritional counseling? This is where Alternative Medicine and Functional Medicine come in. Yes, there are quacks out there but have you not also had a few conventional medicine doctors who you would consider a “quack” too?–or at least a candidate for malpractice? Let’s be picky about who we trust with our body. It’s the only one we get in this life!

If you feel we need better thyroid treatment in conventional medicine after reading this post and watching the following video:

 Then PLEASE visit ThyroidChange.org to make our voice heard!

Happy 2014 and a have great year of healing!