Hashimoto's - has anyone here cured it? page

[YogaBare]

Hey everyone,

This is a question about my Mum, who I am pretty worried about.

To cut a loong story short - she has Hasimoto's, and all the complications that go with it. (Most seriously, she's been hospitalised twice because of tachycardia, during which they had to stop her heart to get it to calm down. Not nice).

In all the time she's been going to doctor's for tests (10+ years), they have never mentioned the connection between gluten and Hashimoto's (grrr....). I stumbled upon it last year when I began researching health, and then it popped up again when I discovered Primal. I've sent her tonnes of info about it and I've convinced her to give up bread (which she's procrastinating on.... but it's a start!)

Today she told me that she has really bad pains in her legs - in the bones. She thinks it's related to Hashimotos. Does anyone know what it could be? She told the doctor and, quelle surprise, they told her that it must be muscular pain as it's impossible to have pain in your bones. Where the rolling-eye emoticon??

[kkratz57]

Hi there -- I haven't cured my Hashi's, but I have it under control.

These are a good places to start:

New Book on Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's by Datis Kharrazian, DHSc, DC, MS
Thyroid Mistreatment, Hypothyroidism Scandals, and Thyroid Treatment Problems | Stop The Thyroid Madness

Gluten, dairy and some other cross-reactive foods over time can cause an autoimmune response. Hashi's is just one of them. Other autoimmune diseases include fibromyalgia, alzheimers, MS, lupus, etc. These run rampant in one side of my family.

First thing is first -- get off the gluten and dairy and go primal/paleo. Next, include lots of fermented foods, probiotics and bone broths to start healing the gut as this is where this all stems from (look up Leaky Guy Syndrome). May want to consider removing other potential allergenic foods such as eggs and nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, white potatoes and eggplant) at least temporarily in order to see if she has any issue with them.

Beyond that, I had worked with a natural practitioner who follows Dr. K's protocols (see thyroidbook.com above). This does make use of supplementation -- some people here eschew supplements, but for me, it was the right decision to accelerate healing and get things under control. I'm no longer on any of the supplements, but they helped me tremendously.

Some people here will automatically jump on the "she needs iodine" bandwagon. In her case, I would have her doc run blood tests for iodine and selenium before attempting that sort of supplementation.

One other test I had done through my NP was a gluten cross-reactivity test through Cyrex labs. There are other substances besides gluten that act like gluten in the body -- meaning they perforate the stomach lining causing leaky gut/autoimmune responses. It cost me $150, but it was money well spent IMHO. The biggest non-traditional food that I reacted to was tapioca, which is in nearly all gluten-free packaged foods.

BTW, I also take Armour Thyroid as opposed to Synthroid. I would have your mum insist on the former as opposed to the latter for her hormone drug of choice. It will be necessary for a while. I have a blood test and an ultrasound (for nodules) coming up soon and I may see if we can reduce my dose and eventually get me off of the stuff.

Hope this helps. And good luck!

[Omni]

I've also read some studies which have shown the incidence of Hashis in Coeliacs & Coeliacs in Hashis is consistantly something like 3 or 4 times the rate in the normal population, so these two diseases seem to have a definate link.
My partner has Graves Disease (Hyperthyroid) and we took the multipronged health approach, diet (low alergenic & now Paleo), major supplement program with Naturopath, stress management (meditation, yoga etc.), remove environmental toxins, basically we evaluated everything that may help her and tried to bring it into our lives and everything that may harm her and removed it from our lives, that included household chemicals, cleaners, make up, shampoos, soaps etc, etc.
She is now in normal range and we are looking forward to weaning her off the medication over next 12 months and aim for remission, this has been a 5 year process so far though.
Your mother has to be serious about taking charge of her health & it requires effort and input, if she isn't prepared to put the effort in to regain her health, then it certainly won't happen in the brief 15 min consultations with her doctors, they forget her the minute she walks out the door.

Definately push the Paleo ideas, cutting out grains & dairy as said above, I've done a lot of reading into various autoimmune diseases and my feeling is that gut health plays a significant role in all of them.

[YogaBare]

kkratz57, thanks so much for your long, informative post. My mum had food allergy tests done before and turned out she was allergic to pretty much everything...! She gave up everything (from what I remember Halva was the only thing she sould eat), lost a tonne of weight (which she didn't have to lose), and went right back on everything after three months. This was about 15 years ago (before she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's). I can't remember if it helped her for that period of time, and I know she didn't do the "reintroducing" right, but by that stage she looked so thin and just couldnt bear the diet any more. The experience has poisoned her against eliminating foodstuffs, but I think with a bit of gentle persuasion I can get her to drop the more toxic foodstuffs... except wine...

Speaking of which, did you have to give this up to help your thyroid heal?

Omni, thanks for the input. Definitely part of my mother's problem is an over-dependence on CW (her dad was a doctor), and unwillingness to get well. She's been sick for so long I think she'e gotten attached to the illness! But I hope with my support (and new knowledge) she'll find the strength to let go.

[kkratz57]

kkratz57, thanks so much for your long, informative post. My mum had food allergy tests done before and turned out she was allergic to pretty much everything...! She gave up everything (from what I remember Halva was the only thing she sould eat), lost a tonne of weight (which she didn't have to lose), and went right back on everything after three months. This was about 15 years ago (before she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's). I can't remember if it helped her for that period of time, and I know she didn't do the "reintroducing" right, but by that stage she looked so thin and just couldnt bear the diet any more. The experience has poisoned her against eliminating foodstuffs, but I think with a bit of gentle persuasion I can get her to drop the more toxic foodstuffs... except wine...

Speaking of which, did you have to give this up to help your thyroid heal?

Omni, thanks for the input. Definitely part of my mother's problem is an over-dependence on CW (her dad was a doctor), and unwillingness to get well. She's been sick for so long I think she'e gotten attached to the illness! But I hope with my support (and new knowledge) she'll find the strength to let go.

Wine is a tricky thing. I tried doing this with keeping my non-gluten free beer, but that didn't work. So I went to wine, but part of the Dr. K protocol is determining which side of your immune system is more dominant -- certain foods/compounds make people feel worse. For me, I'm TH-2 dominant, which means things like chocolate, caffeine, red wine (resveratrol, more specifically) make me feel worse. For others with TH-1 dominance (which is a little more common for Hashi's), things like mushrooms, echinachea, etc make them feel worse.

I just recently went through a spell of what your mum went through -- threw all caution to the wind and ate gluten, dairy, chocolate and drank coffee, beer and red wine. I'm still in recovery mode from that, but very close to re-healing. It is difficult, but from personal experience, I feel WORLDS better. It's that feeling that keeps me from slipping backwards -- hopefully I won't go through this again!

Your mum sounds like she's the type that needs to decide for herself whether or not she wants to get better. In the meantime, if you can chip away at her eating and keep gathering and providing her information, she'll be armed when she's ready.