Welcome to Episode 40!

I hope you are well! Thanks for listening, I appreciate that you are here! 

I’ve been having a lot of breakfast soup lately and protein shakes with chopped up frozen zucchini, pea protein and beef protein from Designs For Health with coconut milk. Quick and easy breakfast. I have something going on with my digestion so I am taking it easy with more healing foods during the day like bone broth and soup. 

I had been eating some sour dough bread from a company called Bread Srsly but my body is letting me know that no grains seem to be okay right now. I’ve been getting itchy skin. I’m going on vacation soon so when I get back I am going to dial my diet in tight and do a lot of bone broth to see if I can get my digestion back on track. 

Ever since I did that little experiment of going off my medication I have had horrible digestion. So- I’ve started making sure I am taking stomach acid with every meal to help break down my protein better. 

I have also been doing a lot of green juice in my Vitamix. A couple sticks of celery, about ⅓ to half a cucumber. I just cut some up and put them in the freezer so I don’t have to worry about them going bad. I add a whole peeled and seeded lemon and a palmful of parsley with water and ice and blend. I do add a pinch of sea salt too. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this drink before on here but there you have it again. 

I got to thinking about my green juice and the celery in it. Celery juice seems to be all the rage right now and so it begs the question: 

Can Celery Juice Heal My Thyroid?

Anthony William, The Medical Medium, says that fresh celery juice every day will help you heal your thyroid. 

I’ve never been a huge fan of celery but recently my body really seems to enjoy it. I still prefer it to be covered in nut butter if I’m going to eat it raw but sometimes I crave plain old celery. 

I always use it as a base for my soup recipes but other than that celery has not usually been real high on my list of delicious veggies. 

This study says celery has many medicinal properties.  It appears to be antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, can help lower blood sugar and levels of fat in the blood. 

It grows well in cold and mild environments and is widely used in traditional medicine. It is said that it can prevent cardiovascular disease, jaundice, joint pain, lower blood pressure and is anti-fungal. It can also help protect the lining of our gut. 

Pretty crazy that Mother Nature provides us will all this good stuff to take care of our body. 

Celery has antioxidants in it which will help neutralize free radicals. Free radicals damage our tissues and cells. 

What is the best way to eat celery?

Fresh raw celery is best consumed within a week in order to get the antioxidant benefit and chopping it as needed rather than making celery sticks and storing them for the week means losing less nutrients. But if you need to chop it and store it in order to save time or make eating it easier then go for it. You won’t lose all the nutrients. 

Steaming it can protect some of its nutrients too.  So I guess this means eating it in a variety of ways can be the most beneficial. 

Be sure to choose celery that is crisp and will snap when you pull it apart and try to always buy it organically if you can. It is usually on the Environmental Working Groups list of the dirty dozen. 

What nutrients are in celery?

One cup of celery has 33% the daily value of vitamin K, 11% molybdenum (if you have multiple chemical sensitivities you could be deficient in this), 9% folate, 6% potassium and so much more. You can go to whfoods.org for a full nutrient profile. 

Vitamin K: It is a fat soluble vitamin found in foods and made in our body. It helps blood clotting- this is K1. K2 is made by the bacteria in our gut so good gut health is important. 

K is absorbed from the upper part of your small intestine with the help of bile which is made in the liver and secreted from the gallbladder and from pancreatic juices. Taking too much vitamin E or Calcium can reduce absorption of K. It is stored in small amounts. Rancid oils (like canola and soybean oil) and fats, x-rays, radiation, aspirin, air pollution and freezing of foods all destroy vitamin K. It is not a good idea to supplement with K1 unless you can have your clotting abilities monitored. 

Molybdenum is an essential trace mineral that we get mostly from food. It is deficient in the soil which can cause a deficiency in mammals including humans.  It helps in fixing nitrogen in the soil so decreased molybdenum leads to poor plant growth. 

Our body only contains about 9mg of this mineral and it is found mostly in the liver and the kidneys, adrenal glands, bones and skin. One function that relates to thyroid problems is that it helps to mobilize iron from the liver so the body can use it. This means that it can help prevent anemia. A common and important issue in thyroid health. 

It is well absorbed from the small intestine but competes with copper where absorption happens. It is thought to help prevent some cancers as well. 

This is not something you should supplement with in large amounts. You will find it in a multi mineral supplement in just the right amount with other needed minerals. Check with a practitioner before supplementing with anything. 

Deficiency is thought to lead to visual problems, rapid heart rate and breathing problems. 

Folate is also known as B9. It is a water soluble vitamin and is prevalent in dark leafy green veggies. Do not confuse folate with synthetic folic acid which is in most processed foods. The synthetic form can lead to unmetabolized folic acid and will be a problem for you if your methylation pathways are not working right. 

Our body can store enough of this in the liver for 6-9 months before we will notice a deficiency. It helps us make red blood cells and helps us break down and use protein, divide cells and is important in brain function. 

Folate is used to treat stress, fatigue and adrenal gland dysfunction. Taking high amounts of vitamin C can cause you to need more folate. The adrenals also like vitamin C but again- supplementing willy nilly because someone said something helped them can be bad for you. 

If you are taking birth control pills you can need to supplement with folate. It also helps with menstrual issues. It can help restless leg syndrome and with pernicious anemia (a B12 problem). 

And finally potassium. It is a pretty significant mineral in the body. We need it for cells to function and for the electrical connections in our body. It is part of electrolytes which help our cells get water. It actually means that it has a little electrical charge to it. 98% of our potassium is found in our cells. Those tiny little things sure do have a lot of things in them. 

Alcohol, caffeine, sugar, diuretic drugs all cause potassium losses and can contribute to lowering the blood potassium. We also lose potassium from diarrhea and throwing up. 

It helps regulate our blood pressure and deficiency is common in chronic illness and as we get older. 

Fatigue is the most common symptom of deficiency and early symptoms of deficiency also include things like muscle weakness, slow reflexes, dry skin, acne and can progress in to nervous disorders, insomnia, slow or irregular heartbeat. 

Low potassium can cause irregular heartbeat and cause blood sugar issues making our blood sugar higher. 

What is so great about celery juice?

It sounds pretty good to me based on all the nutrients in it and what they do for us! How about you?

Well, studies show that the juice has been shown to lower inflammation and if you have Hashimoto’s you likely have some inflammation in the body. 

Anthony William says that juicing celery and drinking 16 ounces  (or up to 32 ounces) of it a day will improve many chronic conditions including thyroid conditions.  You will need to have once bunch of celery to juice per day to get 16 ounces out of it. That is a lot of celery. 

He says you need to drink it in the morning on an empty stomach. I would agree with this if you were going to do it. Drinking it on an empty stomach will ensure that nothing will interfere with it doing its job. 

In his book he says that celery will help you maintain stomach acid and it helps the liver produce bile which you need to emulsify fats. His whole thing in his thyroid book is that EBV is the cause of thyroid problems, which for many people, can be a trigger and celery juice is supposed to “anti-EBV”. He says it also helps support the central nervous system and helps with adrenal health. 

He says celery juice will increase production of T3 which for many of us would be great. 

I’ve tried once to make celery juice in my Vitamix and I had a really hard time getting it down. I don’t have a juicer and don’t plan to buy one so for now, I’m holding off on drinking the green stuff all by itself. 

I have heard a lot of good stories about celery juice helping people have great bowel movements, more energy and get rid of hot flashes. 

There do not seem to be any downsides to drinking it. If you want to give it a try, go for it. You will get some great anti-oxidants, vitamin C and other good for you nutrients. There is nothing wrong with that. 

Okay. That is it for today. Thanks for listening! 

If you have a question about your health you would like me to answer, send it to me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or go to my website and fill out the contact form. 

Please leave me a rating and review on iTunes and share this podcast with anyone you think could use the help from it. I would really appreciate it. 

You can also get my ebook Five Things Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Hypothyroidism by heading over to HelpForHashimotos.com. 

You can join my facebook group Help For Hashmoto’s and while I am on a social media break I do check daily to see if anyone has asked to join. 

I’m currently taking new clients. If you need help figuring out just how to feel better with Hashimotos, thyroid problems or other chronic illness, I’m your girl! 

Until next week! 

Nadkarni KM. Indian Materia Medica. 2nd ed Mumbai, India: Popular Prakashan; 2010. 

Kooti W, Ghasemiboroon M, Asadi-Samani M, et al. The effects of hydro-alcoholic extract of celery on lipid profile of rats fed a high fat diet. Adv Environ Biol. 2014;8:325–330

An extract of Apium graveolens var. dulce leaves: structure of the major constituent, apiin, and its anti-inflammatory properties. Mencherini T, Cau A, Bianco G, Della Loggia R, Aquino RP, Autore G J Pharm Pharmacol. 2007 Jun; 59(6):891-7.

Kooti W, Ali-Akbari S, Asadi-Samani M, Ghadery H, Ashtary-Larky D. A review on medicinal plant of Apium graveolens . Adv Herb Med. 2014;1:48–59.