Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Stages of Denial?

As I look back over my 20 plus years of my Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis diagnoses, I see a blur of wasted time. For me, the time wasn’t wasted because I ignored the evidence of lifestyle interventions that can significantly help people with Hashimoto’s (see Izabella’s Wentz’ book Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause or for immediate access, the eBook is here). No, I am innocent on this one because these discoveries were not understood well at that time. Nor was Dr. Kharrazian’s book out then either!

In fact, I started my own forum over 10 years ago because few out there would talk about lifestyle interventions when I would participate in forum discussions. It’s like they refused to believe they could have anything to do with how they were feeling and how their condition was worsening! I was so saddened by this and the few people who wanted to talk about diet and other options (outside of the traditional model) followed me over to my new forum geared towards natural healing. Okay, granted, we had little to go on at that time. But, we instinctively KNEW there was something missing in the current treatment protocol because few of us were feeling better. Many of us were being prescribed medications like heart medications for palpitations, anti-depressants for anxiety and depression, antacids for stomach problems and the list goes on!

We knew it seemed strange that although we all had Hashimoto’s, we also had similar “secondary” symptoms. Now we know that these symptoms can be greatly brought on by digestive issues, namely leaky gut, AND leaky gut can have some common triggers. The most commonly understood when it comes to Hashimoto’s and the most important one to acknowledge is gluten sensitivity.

So what am I guilty of? Well, in my post about traditional food preparation back in 2010, you would have thought I had beat the system! I was convinced gluten could not be such a big problem and that we just weren’t preparing it right. In fact, although I know now that it was wishful thinking, I wanted to believe this so bad, I had to tell the world about this possibility. Despite the growing evidence through scientific studies and other resources telling us about how gluten may be connected to organ specific antibodies, I begged to differ. My little Hashi mind would not believe such nonsense.

So, the story went that I learned how to bake 72 hour naturally fermented sourdough bread made from organic, freshly ground (my own wheat grinder) and figured that would be the only gluten I consumed for 4-6 months. Fail! My antibodies just grew and grew in numbers. During this time I also soaked my nuts, grains and oats. I was eating very healthy. But there was something missing. I wasn’t getting better.

I decided to research the reasons wheat was given such a bad rap. Gluten experts like Dr. Thomas O’Bryan explained it well. His website can be found here.  This is the video that really hit me during that time:

Dr. Peter Osborne also delivers great information that can’t be ignored:

And then there was my Functional Medicine doctor who suggested I get a gluten sensitivity test. I didn’t want to know. Really! But I was so sick by then and I had tried everything to that point. Well, I mean I had tried all the healthy foods and traditional preparation methods. I must be missing something big!

After this test came back positive, and I went gluten free, found out my gluten cross-reactive foods, and began a serious gluten free diet, my antibodies plummeted to levels I hadn’t seen well…never before. My antibodies went from the 9,000’s to around the mid-100’s in just a few short weeks. Once I moved into the GAPS Diet, my healing accelerated leaps and bounds.

So for those in denial, I plead with you. Don’t let too much time go by while your thyroid is being destroyed. Make yourself look at the evidence and get the help you need to get the testing and move forward with the lifestyle interventions that will turn your life around. You won’t regret it. Take it from me – denial almost ruined me completely. I can’t even tell you how sick I was. In fact, I was so sick, I didn’t blog during the harder times. I find it hard to describe how sick I was. It was terrifying.

Once you admit you should find out if gluten is a problem for you, find a good doctor who does the right testing as seen here compliments of Sean Croxton:

Then head over to my “Let’s Go Gluten Free Series” and make sure you take the steps that are necessary to safeguard that no gluten is sabotaging your efforts like what happened to me. I wrote the series so people could make the most progress in the shortest amount of time. It is my gift to you so you don’t have to suffer like I did. I hope it helps someone out there. For those it has helped, I would love to hear from you!

Here’s to our healing journey!