Laurie4b Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Anyone had the experience of being found to have thyroid antibodies and a rising TSH, but zero symptoms? Has anyone here been able to reverse an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto's with functional medicine protocols? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 ladybugs Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Look at the book "The Paleo Approach" by Sarah Balentine. Spelling could be off on last name. She also has a forum and blog and, and and. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Well, I am seeing a functional medicine dr and even he makes no promises as to healing Hashimotos. I am on the auto-immune paleo diet of the aforementioned Paleo Approach mentioned above, it did/has done nothing for my anti-body levels(they were still at 300+ last checked). From being on AIP boards some will see a lowering of their antibodies and some will not, without rhyme or reason and anti-body levels in and of themselves aren't indicative of how a person is feeling- you can feel great with high levels or vice versa. The whole process itself is naturally one of ups and downs, despite what you do or don't do. As far as I know there is a lot of talk about Hashi individuals having issues with digestion/gut health and such and reducing symptoms and inflammation via the diet but there is no scientific proof that following it or any other protocol will have an effect on the actual anti-body or thyroid levels. The thing is with the thyroid that there isn't some natural thing that is going to make your body produce hormones if you are not producing the level you need and having higher TSH and lower thyroid hormones than needed increases your risk of heart disease. Organics or Weston Price or AIP or any other diet/supplement etc doesn't make your body produce hormones. I see supposed success stories about how this person did xyz and now their thyroid issues are gone, in every one I've read they don't have the actual numbers and tests to back this up and their testimonials are worthless without them. Besides the fact that as I said Hashi's patients naturally have ups and downs, it is how the disease works. Recently I went off my hormones as I was having heart palps and couldn't get my stupid dr to listen to me and I stupidly thought, hey lots of people get by without them, my tsh shot up to a 39 and I was so tired and weak I thought my heart would stop- it is hard to even muster the energy to eat, which I made myself do, as I knew that lack of calories would only compound the issue. All the while I was on the auto-immune diet as I have been for right at a year now, it hasn't stopped me from being Hashi. It helps with my quality of life but it didn't cure me, same with the various supplements. Now of course I can hope that perhaps that my diet and lifestyle will slow down the effects but there is no scientific proof that it will. This is probably a Debbie Downer post but I'm just being honest, there isn't scientific proof of any healing of Hashi's. Various things may improve your quality of life. However, if your thyroid numbers are out of whack please medicate, the scientific research is compelling that not medicating and getting numbers into a good range is detrimental to health. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Anyone had the experience of being found to have thyroid antibodies and a rising TSH, but zero symptoms? Has anyone here been able to reverse an autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto's with functional medicine protocols? My mom has antibodies but normal TSH, free T3, and free T4. This means that we caught Hashimoto's early and probably years before symptoms would show up. She has gone gluten-free, which has eliminated the arthritis in her hands. She has trouble avoiding dairy, though. She'll get retested soon and see if being GF was enough. If the antibodies are still high, she'll ditch the dairy, too. I'm glad she got tested and is seing a functional medicine doctor. It is likely, in my opinion, that she'll be able to avoid symptoms. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrulySusan Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's many years before I developed symptoms. I think I was fine for 4 years or so. Then I began to get really tired all the time. I saw an endocrinologist, started Synthroid, and was amazed at how much energy I had just a few days in. I still think I have less energy than the average person but my hypothyroid is well managed on meds. I personally don't believe I have a curable disease, but I feel very lucky that the symptoms are easily treatable. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 However, if your thyroid numbers are out of whack please medicate, the scientific research is compelling that not medicating and getting numbers into a good range is detrimental to health. Do that many people outside the Weston A. Price crowd say not to medicate? The functional health books and podcasts I'm familiar with generally take the approach of diet and lifestyle changes in hopes of reducing doseages or preventing the need for higher doses, not avoiding medication when thyroid hormone levels are really low. The hope is that with enough healing, maybe the hormones eventually won't be needed as much or at all, not to avoid them at all costs. Of course, if you are mostly familiar with the WAP types, I can totally see how you'd feel like a failure if diet and lifestyle changes weren't enough. I had a friend who felt like a failure as a mom because her WAPF diet toddler developed food allergies, something she thought the diet was guaranteed to avoid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Do that many people outside the Weston A. Price crowd say not to medicate? The functional health books and podcasts I'm familiar with generally take the approach of diet and lifestyle changes in hopes of reducing doseages or preventing the need for higher doses, not avoiding medication when thyroid hormone levels are really low. The hope is that with enough healing, maybe the hormones eventually won't be needed as much or at all, not to avoid them at all costs. Of course, if you are mostly familiar with the WAP types, I can totally see how you'd feel like a failure if diet and lifestyle changes weren't enough. I had a friend who felt like a failure as a mom because her WAPF diet toddler developed food allergies, something she thought the diet was guaranteed to avoid. I know a lot of people who aren't specificually WAPers that seem very anti- any meds. There is this undercurrent in the natural community if you do the "right" things than meds aren't needed, you can do all the right things and it won't help. I started the AIP diet last year with great gusto and hope that my antibodies would go away, they haven't. So, I'm really a bit annoyed with it after reading a few too many success stories about the ones that just happened to have the right diet and bam all their thyroid issues went away and if you follow them the same will happen. I'm been gf for 6+yrs, following a generally Paleo diet, dairy/soy free for most of that, home-made yada yada. My body still crashed with my last pregnancy. I've got Hashi's my blood sugar doesn't regulate without dietary and exercise control. There just isn't any scientific proof that diet effects antibody levels, I agree it seems there is some research suggesting that those with Hashi's could function better on a limited diet but as to the effect on antibody and thyroid numbers there just isn't proof, at least not yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Well, I am seeing a functional medicine dr and even he makes no promises as to healing Hashimotos. I am on the auto-immune paleo diet of the aforementioned Paleo Approach mentioned above, it did/has done nothing for my anti-body levels(they were still at 300+ last checked). From being on AIP boards some will see a lowering of their antibodies and some will not, without rhyme or reason and anti-body levels in and of themselves aren't indicative of how a person is feeling- you can feel great with high levels or vice versa. The whole process itself is naturally one of ups and downs, despite what you do or don't do. As far as I know there is a lot of talk about Hashi individuals having issues with digestion/gut health and such and reducing symptoms and inflammation via the diet but there is no scientific proof that following it or any other protocol will have an effect on the actual anti-body or thyroid levels. The thing is with the thyroid that there isn't some natural thing that is going to make your body produce hormones if you are not producing the level you need and having higher TSH and lower thyroid hormones than needed increases your risk of heart disease. Organics or Weston Price or AIP or any other diet/supplement etc doesn't make your body produce hormones. I see supposed success stories about how this person did xyz and now their thyroid issues are gone, in every one I've read they don't have the actual numbers and tests to back this up and their testimonials are worthless without them. Besides the fact that as I said Hashi's patients naturally have ups and downs, it is how the disease works. Recently I went off my hormones as I was having heart palps and couldn't get my stupid dr to listen to me and I stupidly thought, hey lots of people get by without them, my tsh shot up to a 39 and I was so tired and weak I thought my heart would stop- it is hard to even muster the energy to eat, which I made myself do, as I knew that lack of calories would only compound the issue. All the while I was on the auto-immune diet as I have been for right at a year now, it hasn't stopped me from being Hashi. It helps with my quality of life but it didn't cure me, same with the various supplements. Now of course I can hope that perhaps that my diet and lifestyle will slow down the effects but there is no scientific proof that it will. This is probably a Debbie Downer post but I'm just being honest, there isn't scientific proof of any healing of Hashi's. Various things may improve your quality of life. However, if your thyroid numbers are out of whack please medicate, the scientific research is compelling that not medicating and getting numbers into a good range is detrimental to health. Not at all. I aprpeciate you sharing. I tend to have a skeptical approach to stuff outside mainstream medicine, but try to be open to other possibilities since sometimes those approaches turn out to be right. (ie I remember when low-carb diets were poo-pooed in the 1980s and even later. Now they are mainstream and have the medical evidence to back them up. So I try not to dismiss other possibilities out of hand.) Your point about people sharing success stories without numbers is an important one. Also, I wonder if some of the tests done by functional medical providers are "woo-woo" in themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I have had hashimotos thyroid disease for almost 9 years. Last year, I tried to eat organically, take supplements, "cure" myself through diet and other things. All that happened was that I gained tons of weight, my tsh went really high, and I felt so sick. I wish there was a way to cure this disease without taking the synthroid. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Women Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I think this is one of those issues where your body sets the top of the ladder, but you may be able to affect how far up or down the ladder you personally are, based on how you eat/deal with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 I have had hashimotos thyroid disease for almost 9 years. Last year, I tried to eat organically, take supplements, "cure" myself through diet and other things. All that happened was that I gained tons of weight, my tsh went really high, and I felt so sick. I wish there was a way to cure this disease without taking the synthroid. :( Thank you for sharing. I didn't want to click "like" . Sympathizing. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 ManagerMom, my antibodies are recently *down* to 900 :) haha! That's a 50% decrease from 1.5 years ago unfortunately. Anyway, if your doctor uses natural desiccated thyroid you're already on the right track for sure. My endocrinologist prescribed Synthroid and then when we didn't see as much improvement as we'd hoped for he switched me to Armour at my request. Armour sits much better with my system, doesn't make me nauseous, and works better. Just being on Armour and one short 2 week burst of steroids (prednisone?) is what has brought my antibodies down from over 1800. So I think medicating is a good move even if you don't have symptoms yet because if you can decrease the antibodies early (and levels of 900 definitely is pretty far gone!) then you can hopefully slow the damage to your thyroid. I do think it can't hurt to try gluten free or dairy free or an anti-inflammatory diet on top of the medication, but I wouldn't substitute diet in place of medication. With high antibodies really your best bet is to try and get the immune system to calm the heck down asap ;) I'm actually about to try gluten free to see if I can't knock my antibodies down a bit lower because I'm having issues with my nerves that I suspect may be related to thyroid. There are also supplements you can take to boost overall health and there are general diet/exercise guidelines you'll want to take into account with Hashimoto's. Many people with thyroid problems will also find they have vitamin D and B12 deficiency and/or autoimmune anemia so b12, D, and iron supplements are sometimes good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 I was diagnosed almost 7 years ago. It's been an up-and-down ride. A few times I've tried lifestyle changes, but they are so hard to maintain. I did see some weightloss when I was no sugar/no dairy/no grain, but so much of my day revolved around food. That wasn't healthy for me mentally and it wasn't practical, either. My last pregnancy (number six) really messed with my hormones. I've gained 30 pounds since giving birth. No rhyme or reason to it. My energy levels got worse and worse. Last fall we added Cytomel (pure T3) to my Synthroid (pure T4). My energy levels improved drastically. Vit D3 and ferritin stores are really important for thyroid patients. My doctor checks those levels with my thyroid panel. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.