Help (ing) someone with Hashimoto’s

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 94. I’m so happy you are here and have stuck it out with me. I’ve been on a break for about 6 weeks to spend some time with family out of state but I am back! It feels good to be back at it and into my routine again. I’m grateful to have you all to come back to! I’m grateful to you for listening and for writing to me to say you love the podcast and to keep doing it. It really means a lot to me to have your support and to know that what I am putting out there is helpful. For this episode, I thought I would take you through what it is like to work with me. I have a real person with Hashimoto’s who has taken my nutrition assessment. So we are going to dive into what her body is doing and what my suggestions will be to her. There are some visuals for this one so you may want to follow along on my website www.outofthewoodsnutrition.com  and search episode 94. There will be a blog type post or transcript for this, and most episodes actually. 

When someone works with me my current practice is to use my nutrition assessment questionnaire or NAQ. It is extensive and covers all the body systems showing me where you, the client, have imbalances. I also get a health history and like to see a minimum of three days of food journaling. I have no judgment. My job is to help you optimize your health so I need your reality, whatever that is. Normally I would also take the time to listen to my client when we meet via Zoom or in person. For this client, that is not the case because I am keeping their information private and we are not meeting. They were willing to allow me to use their information on the podcast as an example of what to expect. So please keep in mind that the information provided in this episode specifically is a bio-individual approach. What I recommend here is for this person, NOT for everyone because there is no one sized fits all approach to health. There is no specific diet that will help heal you. In fact, as a side note, research shows that the best diet for you is one you can follow. So how about that. If AIP is too hard, there are other ways to get there. 

Ok. Let’s get started on this client’s info. I’m going to start with their health history. 

I guess I have to give away some personal information in that this is a 28-year-old female. her top health concerns are blood sugar dips with a severe symptom of feeling light-headed. She is also dealing with anxiety and overthinking along with brain fog. Her goal is to become healthy again and feel like how a 28-year-old should feel. 

She states that she sleeps well, doesn’t wake up in the night, and gets a good amount of sleep but feels like she has been hit by a train when she wakes up, sometimes feels just a little better than that when she wakes. 

She drinks around 3 liters of water a day, no caffeine. 

Her childhood eating habits were pretty good with sugary treats being a rarity while consumption of meat and veggies was standard. 

99% of her food is home-cooked while she eats out about one time per week. She cooks with mostly olive oil. She has just started AIP but had contacted me because she wasn’t feeling any different on this diet. Her current three worst foods she eats are dark chocolate rice, cakes, gluten-free and dairy-free cookies, and fried rice. Keep in mind that this is subjective information. What you think is bad for your diet is not what someone else sees as bad for them. Her three healthiest foods she eats are coconut yogurt, fruit, meat, fish, veggies. 

She often feels tired, bloated, and/or gassy after a meal and has constipation which was 7 days a week until she began the AIP diet. She craves sugar but not salt. 

She has exposure to gas fumes at work and she loves doing farm work. She walks 1-2 days a week. She spends about an hour per day in front of a screen. She perceived her stress level to be between 8-9 on a scale of 1-10. 

She is currently taking T3, zinc, magnesium, B6, selenium, and vitamin D along with a couple of other things. 

Ok- that is the health history. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary here. A few things stand out - We will find out more about the gas and bloating in a few minutes.

She reports the following items as being severe or regular: 

• Bloating within one hour after eating

• Sweat has a strong odor

• Feel like skipping breakfast

• Sleepy after meals

These are all indications that your stomach is not breaking down the food you eat due to a variety of reasons. 

• Become sick if you were to drink wine

• Easily intoxicated if you were to drink wine

• Easily hung over if you were to drink wine

• Sensitive to chemicals (perfume, cleaning agents, etc.)

• Exposure to diesel fumes

These indicate issues with liver detoxification or an issue with gallbladder health and/or function. 

I’m going to just highlight a few things from other categories since this client has so many issues. 

Small intestine imbalance: hives, wheat or dairy sensitivity, bloating within 1 hour of eating

Large intestine imbalance: cramping in lower abdominal area, yeast symptoms increase with sugar, starch, alcohol such as fatigue, poor memory, feeling spacey, muscle aches, joint pain

Essential Fatty Acids are out of balance: headaches in the sun, sunburn easily, dry flaky skin

Blood sugar dysregulation: excessive appetite, crave coffee/sugar in afternoon, sleepy in afternoon, fatigue relieved by eating. 

Now let’s take a look  at her food journal: 

Day 1

• Breakfast: (I sometimes fast until 10am) coconut yoghurt with some fruit

• Morning tea - coconut wrap with leg ham (unprocessed) salad

• Lunch: meat and veggies including sweet potato plus more fruit (I get sugar cravings and migraines until I bring my blood sugar back)

• Dinner: coconut chicken and broccoli soup

Day 2:

• Breakfast: coconut yoghurt fruit and carrot/bacon fritters topped with avo

• Morning tea: same again

• Lunch: chicken, veggies and sweet potato

• Dinner: coconut chicken soup with broccoli 

Day 3:

• Breakfast: same as day 2 just no Avocado on fritters

• Morning tea: lamb chop with veggies

• Lunch: soup with chicken

• Snack: watermelon and mango

• Dinner: steak with veggies

“I get a bad slump at 2pm just after my lunch at 1pm and I get dizzy, light headed and bad anxiety. My thoughts lately have been all over the place as well since starting AIP. It’s like everything has been disrupted.”

This diet looks good at first glance. When you take in to consideration that she has a potential issue with digesting fat, the AIP diet may not be ideal since it is pretty high in fat. She is consuming quite a bit of fruit and since she is having blood sugar issues, those snacks of fruit would be better served by switching them to veggies and doing less fruit. That said, for the constipation- blackberries and kiwi can be very helpful in getting your bowels moving. If I were to discuss her food journal with her I would want more details about how much animal protein at each meal and how much veggies. The average healthy person should be consuming around 1 to 1.5g/kg/day in protein and ¾ of a plate of veggies at each meal. This person needs some help with digesting their food so a recommendation of some digestive enzymes and potentially  some stomach acid supplementation will be the first step. This might also help the constipation. If we are not digesting our food, we are not extracting the nutrients from it which can cause all kinds of imbalances. I might also recommend something to aid in fat digestion such as TUDCA which is a water based bile support. 

As far as the slump in the afternoon- after lunch- it could be due to waiting too long between the morning tea and lunch, it could be that the lunch meal is too heavy, it could be that it isn’t enough food, it could be a food sensitivity. These are all things we would normally  hash out on the phone. 

The sugar cravings could be a blood sugar issue or they could be a yeast overgrowth or a vitamin or mineral imbalance. 

Since you feel horrible on AIP, I would back off of the restrictions, keeping off gluten and making sure you are eating a ton of veggies, moderate protein and even less fat until you get your body back in to better balance. I would do this for 3 months and then revisit your progress on the NAQ and then make adjustments. 

As far as supplementation goes, I would have you take something to help with fat digestion such as bile salts or TUDCA. This will also help with sugar cravings. You may also need some kind of blood sugar regulation support and I will not give the specific product name here because it isn’t supposed to be sold on Amazon and it is being sold there. It is a practitioner only product. Next, you probably need some digestion support. Likely low dose Betaine HCl- look for 150mg betaine in a product. I would suggest electrolytes in your water or a pinch of salt and if you like fish, consume fatty fish 1-2 times per week. I don’t like to throw supplements at a problem so I won’t recommend anything more. You definitely need some help via supplementation but as I always say, you should be able to get what you need from food most of the time. There are exceptions to that of course, as there always are. 

So, this is a short version of my process. I have had people come to me for help and then not follow a single bit of my suggestions and then wonder why they don’t see any changes. You really have to be willing to trust the process, make yourself a little vulnerable, be willing to change a bit and know that healing your body takes time. It didn’t all the sudden break down and it won’t all the sudden be well again either. Give yourself some credit and compassion. You deserve it. 

Ok. That is it for today. I hope that was helpful for you guys. Please sign up for my newsletter at outofthewoodsnutrition.com and if you could leave me a rating and review on iTunes/apple podcasts I would be so grateful. It helps more people find the show! 

Until next time. Peace.

Are you your diagnosis? A little bit about selenium. Episode 14.

I was on this facebook group today for people with Hashimoto’s and autoimmune disease. Someone newly diagnosed was wondering about fatigue and being completely drained after workouts and wanting to nap even after 9 hours of sleep. I responded with take the exercise down a notch by trying to just walk for now and google the Autoimmune Protocol. Someone else responded with how they can eat what they want and exercise and that they get down sometimes and maybe a little tired but doesn’t everyone. She said she chooses to live her life, not her diagnosis.   

Article on green med info talking about using selenium and Myo-Inositol being used to put hashimotos in to remission and euthroidism which means your thyroid is working on its own. 

Selenium:

Before 1970 it was considered toxic but has since been classified as an essential nutrient needed in small amounts. It functions as an antioxidant. 

It is hard to get from foods because soil levels are varying so you never really know what you are getting especially if you are not eating local produce that is harvested in soil that is being managed properly. In the US the western part of the country may have higher levels than the eastern part with South Dakota having the highest levels and Ohio the lowest (According to Staying Healthy with Nutrition by Elson Haas.

We have less than 1mg of this mineral in our body and most of it is stored in the liver, kidneys and pancreas. Men need it more than women due to it being in their testes so it may have a function in sperm production. 

We lose selenium through eliminations and we should be able to absorb it through our intestinal tract at a rate of about 60%. This, of course will be dependent on your ability to digest your food well and also whether or not your gut is healed. We absorb it better when it is combined with amino acids- this means you have to be eating protein and breaking it down. 

Most selenium in foods is lost when they are processed like in white rice or flour. Food sources are liver, butter, fish and lamb, whole grains (out for most of us dealing with autoimmune disease), nuts- especially brazil nuts, shellfish, salmon, garlic, onions, mushroom, broccoli, tomatoes, radishes and Swiss chard can have good amounts of selenium if the soil is good where they are grown.  Many experts believe that Brazil nuts have such a varied content of selenium that we can’t necessarily rely on them. If you supplement, selenomethionine is your best bet at around 100-200 micrograms a day. Some suggest 200 mg for about a month and then a maintenance dose of 100 mg. Learn to listen to your body and if you are interested in knowing your levels, getting the plasma selenium test is ideal. Serum and whole blood will work too so if your doctor is able to test it, have them do it. 

Toxicity and deficiency symptoms are similar. Liver damage, hair loss, brittle nails with white spots and streaks. They can even fall out. These would be due to high soil levels.  If the supplement you are taking is formulated wrong, you can have muscle cramps, nausea, diarrhea, irritability, fatigue, loss of the hair and nails, pain, numbness or tingling of the hands and feet.  Deficiency will make you more vulnerable to infections, toxins, and other nutrient imbalances- again- this is where good digestion is key.  If you are taking anything to reduce stomach acid you will be deficient in selenium as well as many other vitamins and minerals. Most birth control pills will also deplete you of it as well. 

When you are NOT deficient you may tolerate cigarette smoke better as well as alcohol and poor quality fats. 

How does this relate to the thyroid? We need selenium to convert T4 to T3 which is the usable form of thyroid hormone that our cells need. Also, when TSH is produced and released, your body gets a message to make more hydrogen peroxide. This is needed to help make thyroid hormone in a round about way. It is needed to make some things happen in your body so the hormone gets made. We need antioxidants to neutralize the hydrogen peroxide after it does its job. Selenium is part of the process of helping glutathione neutralize the peroxide. 

In Isabella Wentz’s first book, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, she explains that if you are taking in too much iodine, more hydrogen peroxide needs to be produced which will mean you need more selenium to neutralize it. When you are already deficient in Selenium, you can end up with too much hydrogen peroxide which can cause inflammation around your thyroid tissue which creates an immune response, antibodies are produced and you have autoimmune disease. 

She recommends taking a selenium supplement on an empty stomach with vitamin E which helps our body absorb selenium better. 

Inositol 

Myo-insoitol is the same thing as inositol and is found in lots of fresh fruits and veggies so supplementing with it may not be necessary. High amounts are found in oranges, grapefruit and limes with blackberries, kiwi, cherries, peaches, apples being up there too. You can get it from brussels sprouts, beans, artichokes, cabbage, asparagus, dark greens, zucchini, bell peppers. As long as your digestion is working well you should have no problem getting enough from your diet as long as you are eating real whole foods. 

It was once considered B8 but since our body can make it, that distinction was taken away. Some still consider it to be part of the family of B vitamins though. It actually can help your body break down fats for digestion. It helps keep our cells firm so nutrients can get in and wastes can get out. It also helps brain cells work better. 

Caffeine can produce deficiency which can look like constipation, hair loss, high cholesterol and even eczema. Again, you can get enough from your diet so you don’t need to supplement. 

Link to Green Med Info article

Learn more about the nutrients our body needs here.