5 Things to Consider When You Have Hashimoto's

After a diagnosis of Hashimoto's, it’s important to distinguish the difference between hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's.

Hashimoto's and Your Thyroid

Hypothyroidism is an issue with your thyroid gland or a problem with production or conversion of thyroid hormones. Hashimoto's is an immune issue where thyroid antibodies raised. So when treating Hashimoto's treat as you would other autoimmune conditions.Hashimoto's is a condition where one or both antibodies elevate. These antibodies are Thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO) Thyroglobulin antibody (TGAb).When first starting out with treating Hashimoto's here are five things you need to consider to help with your healing journey.

Inflammation

Inflammation is critical when addressing Hashimoto's. Understanding sources of inflammation, and how you can rectify is the first thing to address.

Here are some things you need to ask yourself:

1. Are chemicals and toxins in your diet causing inflammation?

2. Am I exposed to heavy metals in my place of work?

3. Have I got any amalgam filling? Tooth reconstructions, braces, teeth realignment materials?

4. You need to be a detective here are find any sources of inflammation.

5. Do you have damp or mould in your house?

Infection

Any infections even very little underlying will cause an immune response.

First, start by doing a body check.
Mouth: do you have any swollen bleeding gums, bad breath or recurrent throat infections?
Stomach: do you suffer heartburn, reflux, bloating, constipation. Digestive problems could mean you have bacteria, yeast or even a parasite which is causing an immune response.
Skin: do you have any boils, infected skin conditions, psoriasis or any other inflammatory or infectious skin condition.

Nutrient Deficiency

Check in with your nutrient status. Do you get enough of these in your diet:

1. Vitamin A from liver and eggs

2. Vitamin D from the sun

3. Zinc from meat, oysters, pumpkin seeds

4. Selenium from brazil nuts white button mushrooms

5. Iodine from organic vegetables and sea vegetables

If you don’t get enough good quality foods and organic veg in your diet. You’ll need to add in supplements or extra high nutrient dense foods.Remember here is Australia our soil quality is poor. Growing your vegetables is the best thing you can do. Or buying local and organic.

Diet

Your diet is essential. Not only to ensure you are getting the right amount of nutrients. But also to remove foods causing inflammation and an immune reaction.

The top foods which you maybe intolerant to and can exacerbate leaky gut are:
Wheat
Soy
Eggs
Dairy

Removing these foods and healing your gut is paramount to a Hashimoto's healing plan.

Other foods to consider with and to remove if your healing has plateaued are:

Beans and legumes
Nightshades
Sugars
All grains
Nuts and seeds

Stress

Yep, here I go again. But you see this is a huge problem for your health especially if you have Hashimoto's. Stress will stop healing in its tracks. Elevated cortisol causes inflammation, initiate an immune response but it also hinders the conversion of thyroid hormone.Stress not only comes from external sources. Other triggers can put your body. Such as eating the wrong foods, chemicals.Identify where hidden triggers of stress might be and get to work on reducing those triggers.And of course, meditation is one of the best things for patients can do to uplevel their healing plan.The aim of this blog is not to scare you but to help you identify other areas you can focus on, particularly if you feel your healing is in crisis. If you want to find out more about your thyroid and how to nourish it you can check out my Master Your Metabolism Blog

Look out for my next blog when I will be going through the steps you can take to start healing your Hashimoto's.