Podcast
Stephanie Ewals
How can I put my Hashimoto's in to remission if ...

Welcome to episode 52. I can’t believe I made it a year. I’m grateful you are listening. I suppose I should have done something to celebrate a year of podcasting but I have a crap ton of work to do for school this week which is generating a fair amount of stress for me so one day I will get it together and do some kind of giveaway. 


I have been monitoring my blood sugar levels for the last few days because I have really been struggling with some symptoms of blood sugar dysregulation. It turns out that my body is not so much appreciating the morning protein shake, especially when it is made with raw cacao. The caffeine from that alone is causing me to get a jittery feeling. I did much better with a meal of chicken and cabbage for breakfast yesterday with more stable blood sugar all through out the day. 


I am hoping to get a handle on this so my adrenals can have a break and I can gain some muscle. I’m finally able to get some exercise in after my broken collarbone. 


Okay- on to a listener question


Hi Stephanie


I get confused with all the varying things I am reading about Hashi's, in particular how can my Hashi's be put into remission when  technically it has burnt out?  I am hoping you can shed some light on this for me, please.


Good luck with your studies - I know how much work goes into a Masters Degree.  


Many thanks

Kind Rgards

Dorothy W 


There are varying degrees of damage done to your thyroid when you have Hashimoto’s. The longer you go with inflammation in the body that creates higher antibodies you may have more damage done to your thyroid leaving it unable to produce hormone. 


When you are putting Hashimoto’s in to remission you are putting out the inflammatory fire that is causing your body to be out of balance. That inflammation will be different for everyone and it will cause your thyroid to be damaged but how long it takes to put your autoimmune disease in to remission depends on how much damage was done and how long you have gone before you started making changes to your health. 


It can often be diet changes that will bring antibodies down and put your disease in to remission. Often times though, you will need to do more than just a few simple diet changes. 


Food is information for our cells. What you put in your body matters. Processed foods are basically dead foods. They have no good information for our cells to take in to build healthy tissues which build healthy organs which build healthy systems which build a healthy person or organism. 


So food is important. What you eat is important and the quality of that food is equally important. It can be expensive to eat healthy, especially if you are buying any amount of convenience “health food” such as gluten free crackers or breads or lunch meat that is of higher quality. 


It is time consuming to cook healthy foods especially if you get caught up in all the fun stuff so many food bloggers are making. I don’t have time for complicated dishes so I don’t make them. I made venison steak bites seasoned with Redmond Real Seasoned Salt, and pepper cooked in coconut oil and I steamed broccoli and sauteed Brussels sprouts in olive oil and added minced garlic at the end with some lemon juice. I added a side of my homemade sauerkraut and that was it. The night before I had chicken breast cooked in a cast iron skillet and roasted cabbage. 


Real whole clean foods are a good place to start to put your disease in to remission. 


You also have to look at what your blood sugar is like. If you have blood sugar dysregulation you will likely still be dealing with inflammation and thyroid issues even if your diet is perfect. 


Do you wake up a few hours after falling asleep (or between 1-3am) and find it hard to get back to sleep?

Do you crave sweet things?

Do you have binge type eating  or uncontrolled eating?

Do you feel like your appetite is excessive?

Do you crave coffee or sugar in the afternoon?

Do you get sleepy in the afternoon or after a meal?

Does your fatigue get relieved by eating?

Do you get a headache or feel shaky if meals or skipped or delayed?

Do you get irritable or hangry before meals?


These are all signs you need to work on balancing your blood sugar which can be done with diet but also lifestyle changes because it isn’t only food that causes a rise in blood sugar. 


Lack of food, low blood sugar in the morning or not eating soon enough in the morning can cause your adrenals to have to get involved in raising blood sugar- a cortisol release and then you have an insulin surge and maybe you are insulin resistant and you are then storing fat because insulin is a fat storage hormone. 


Some therapeutic foods for blood sugar regulation include: 

asparagus

avocado

soaked and sprouted beans

brewers yeast

broccoli

brussels sprouts

butter

carrots

cauliflower

eggs

full fat dairy

kale

liver

onions

peas

pecans

salmon

seaweed

sweet potato

tomatoes


These foods and others have the very important B vitamins which are so important in blood sugar regulation as well as some amino acids and other compounds that help promote insulin to do its job as well as maintain hormone balance. 


You won’t be able to put Hashimoto’s in to remission if you have low iron stores- ferritin. So have a full iron panel done at the lab. the lab range for ferritin is ridiculous. It is like 17-80 or something. Most people with thyroid issues feel better with ferritin in the higher range. 


You also won’t put Hashimoto’s in to remission if you are dealing with adrenal insufficiency or hpa axis dysfunction. Your adrenal glands have many roles, one of which is to manage blood sugar. Another is to manage stress. So if you are having fights in your head with your parter or spouse, your mom or whoever, if you get really mad in traffic or have a lot going on and zero support you will likely be dealing with some kind of adrenal issue. 


If you tend to be a night person- you get a second wind later in the evening and have trouble falling asleep and then are slow to start in the morning. 

If you feel keyed up and can’t calm down. 

Higher or lower than normal blood pressure, get dizzy when standing up. 

Feel wired or jittery after drinking coffee. Caffeine is one of the worst things you can do for your adrenal health, especially if you are dealing with some kind of adrenal imbalance which most of us are. 

If you get a headache after exercising- I had a friend who this happened to and she never could figure out why this was. I wonder now if she wasn’t dealing with adrenal issues. My guess is yes based on knowing a bit about her life. 

Do you clench or grind your teeth? 

Do you crave salt or salt your food before you taste it?

Do you have chronic low back pain that gets worse with fatigue?

Have chronic fatigue or get drowsy or tired often or easily?

Do you get a headache in the afternoon or yawn a lot?


These are all signs you may be needing to do some work on your adrenal glands. 


Making sure you eat a meal with protein in the morning within an hour of waking will help your adrenals heal. Also make sure that you are getting plenty of rest and doing some gentle exercise along with a no sugar diet for a few weeks will help your adrenals reset. 


There may be some burn out in your thyroid or damage. You may need medication for the rest of your life but you are not resigned to a life of fatigue and general malaise. 


In my functional medicine training we are talking about making the whole person better- mind, body and spirit.  One cannot work great without the other two in balance as well. 


You can feel better and you deserve to feel better. This disease ruins so many lives but we don’t have to let it. 


You can take charge of your health. This is what I most passionate about. Take charge of how you perceive your illness. Do not let it be who you are. This is so important. 


I spent a lot of years hiding behind my disease and letting it define me. My kids got a sick mom. They also got a mom who for years let that sickness be her excuse until one day I woke up and wanted more. 


I wanted a better life. I took that to an extreme for awhile too and now I have finally found some balance. I am less dogmatic with myself and am okay with the choices I am making in food and in life. 

It is a process and takes some time to figure out- which can all depend on your life view and what kinds of baggage you took from your childhood and all that stuff. 


Getting well is a bit of a process but it can be done. Of course it is much easier when you have support from those around you and the energy to get started but it doesn’t have to all change over night. Baby steps can be just the right place to start. 


And one more thing about diet. The autoimmune protocol is a wonderful diet. Elimination diets in general are the best way to figure out which foods your body doesn’t really do well with. They are not the be all end all. You don’t have to stress about doing it. Start with what you are comfortable with but also know that healing may take longer if you are consuming things that inflame your body. The stress of trying to change your life can also cause inflammation so do it in a way that works for you and don’t compare your journey to any one else’s. We are bio individuals and so is our healing. 


Thanks for writing in. I thank you for that. If you have any questions about this episode please head over to helpforhashimotos.com and leave a comment on episode 52. 

I’m not loving how the social media outlets are banning some people these days because they don’t align with big pharma or big food companies.


 People are starting to notice that these big companies care much less about our health and more about profits no matter the expense of the people consuming or being forced to use their products. 


Nothing wrong with making a profit but there is a lot wrong with the integrity of some of these big companies and people are standing up for their health and changing the marketplace. 


Please continue to do that. Stand up for what you believe no matter what side you are on and have a conversation about your side rather than slinging mud at others. We can’t change the world with mud but we can agree to disagree. 


So anyway, I don’t have a big social media presence and not many of you would miss me if I disappeared off of social media. I encourage you to take a break from it as well. Spend time looking at the sunset instead of scrolling at pictures of one. Go for a hike or a walk with someone you love instead of texting them. Go to someone’s website instead of their facebook page. 


You have the power to change the way things are done in this world and because it is money that rules the world, choose wisely where you spend yours. 


Thanks for listening. 


Find me at helpforhashimotos.com or email me at helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on my website. 


Have a great week. 



A listener writes in asking about the possibility of remission from Hashimoto's. 

How can I put my Hashimoto's in to remission if my thyroid is burnt out? We discuss the ways we can start to put our disease back in to remission. We discuss blood sugar and adrenals and eating real food but not being dogmatic.

How can I put my Hashimoto's in to remission if my thyroid is burnt out?

why do i have hashimoto's

,

How to manage Hashimoto's when you are a workaholic.

,
How to manage Hashimoto's when you are a workaholic.

How to manage your Hashimoto’s when you are a workaholic.

 

Example: I have a full time job, Mon – Fri, 08:00 – 4:30

                            Part time job, Sat and/or Sun, 07:00a – 7:00p

                            Help husband with his job, about 10hrs week.

Plus all other items relating to running a home.

I don’t have kids but I do have 5 animals. I’m a fur mom. 😊

I usually only have 3, maybe 4 full days off a month.

And – no – scaling back on work is not an option at the moment.

 

All thyroid labs are good. Doctor says don’t worry about the Hashimoto’s. ☹

History of thyroid cancer, left side removed. Hashimoto’s, Chronic reactive Epstein Barr, risk for Rheumatoid arthritis, and…menopause, lol.

But still very tired, sore/achy, and weight gain after watching diet, trying to get exercise, and taking supplements.

Losing weight after menopause

Losing weight after menopause

This episode answers a listener question about the potential challenges of losing weight after menopause. Everything changes in this stage of life and some of those changes make it really hard to lose the weight gained because of the change in our hormones. Add in a thyroid problem too and it can be even more challenging. I discuss many of the things that need to be addressed in order to prevent fat gain and promote it's loss. 

Why Did I Get Hashimoto's?

Thanks for tuning in. It has been 7 months since I recorded an episode and I am grateful to every one of you who is still here or who has waited for me to finish school. I graduated in December with my masters in nutrition and FM and now I am mentoring with a nutritionist and 2 naturopathic doctors to get the hours I need for my certified nutrition specialist exam and subsequent licensure to become a nutritionist in my state.  Why does all of this matter to you? There are so many practitioners in the health space these days- the market is flooded and every one of these practitioners has the perfect program or protocol for you to feel your very best. I’ve seen many of these practitioners myself from medical doctors to naturopathic doctors to chiropractors to nutrition practitioners spending thousands upon thousands of dollars and being loaded up on supplement after supplement. The failure of any and all of these people to help me feel better lead to my own certification in nutritional therapy. The problem was from the very beginning I knew I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t like reading research and I didn’t really know how which is what led me to get my masters. I knew I needed more information to be able to help the population of people I wanted to help which is you. Wonderful humans with thyroid problems who are not being served well by their doctors or who just need a little something extra to get them feeling better. 


The doctors I am mentoring with (and I paid a pretty penny to do so) are amazing. They are a husband and wife team and one of them was my professor for two of my courses in my masters program and his teaching literally changed the way I think about health and wellness. He does not teach protocols. He taught me how to critically think about WHY someone’s body is not working well and all of this starts at the cells and your biochemistry. The word biochemistry used to scare me because I never ever thought I was smart enough to learn and know the science of the body. I have taken a deep dive into biochemistry and physiology- further than I needed to go for my degree because if I can really know the inner workings of the cells of the body then I have the tools to help anyone and my passion is helping you because I have been there. I have felt like crap for years- low energy, fatigue to the max, not just cold hands and feet but cold bones. 


The sea of health coaches and people with certificates in nutrition is full and like I said, each one tells you they have the answer to your problem. Generalized protocols for chronic conditions will work for some people but they will never work for everyone. Just like diets don’t work for everyone. You are a biochemical individual and that is why a general protocol isn’t the answer. You have all this conflicting and frustrating information on google but all you want is to live your best life or you would not have tuned in. If only you could get a clear set of instructions to follow so you knew just what to do to feel better. You can but you won’t find it in a book or a program because those things know nothing about who you are and what is exactly going on with you. 


My mentors have created a short questionnaire that is based in the scientific literature called The Cell Blueprint. It tells me what is going on with you and the best part is it doesn’t tell me what you need but it does tell me where I should go looking next. Add to that the ability to really interpret your blood chemistry from a simple complete blood count with differential and I can have a really good start in understanding exactly what is going on with your body and how to start you on the road to feeling better. You likely do need some supplements but they are individualized for you! Someone recently contacted me about wanting a supplement protocol to make her feel better and I need you to know I don’t work that way because you can’t supplement your way out of a bad diet or an unhappy life and an unhappy life can definitely affect your cellular health.


Aside from this, I found a study through Dr. Bryan Walsh that talks about the season you were born and how that may play a role in your getting Hashimoto’s or Graves disease so that is what I’m talking about today. 


This was a really interesting study done in Greece looking at this idea of birth month and autoimmune thyroid disease. It is well known that 21% of the cause of Grave’s is attributed to triggers from the environment such as infections and viruses with less research being able to pinpoint this to Hashimoto’s disease. There is also a confirmed connection in the research between a Rubella infection and hyperthyroidism. In addition, there is a clear connection between viral infections and T1D and MS. The association between T1D and both Grave’s and Hashi’s and possibly MS is also high meaning that having one of these leads to you being more susceptible to having the other which is a great reason to get your thyroid condition well maintained. It is nothing to mess around with - I certainly do not want MS or T1D. 


The thought behind this is that infections occurring in utero may play a role with the fall and winter months when infection rates are generally at their highest.  All Grave’s and Hashi’s patients in this study (around 1200 people) had their month of birth compared to disease development. Grave’s was more prevalent in men who were older at diagnosis and they had high FT4 and low TSH. Hashi’s was more prevalent in women, they were not as old at diagnosis compared to those with Graves, TSH levels were higher than 10, FT4 lower than 7.0 and TPOAb were greater than 50. An ultrasound of the thyroid diagnosed Hashimoto’s autoimmunity. 


Grave’s Disease diagnosis was based on diffuse goiter (which means the whole gland is involved rather than just a nodule), ophthalmopathy (eye balls stick out, or increased levels of thyroid receptor antibodies/TRAbs). In the general population, in both sexes, the highest incidence of births was in summer and more males with Graves were born in winter while women with Graves were more likely to be born in spring and fall. 


In Hashimoto’s, patterns between birth month for the general population and both men and women the birth month patterns were different between men and women as well. Men were born in summer months and winter months and women were more often born in winter months and the birth month correlated with how high the antibodies were. Researchers even checked to see if there was a significant difference in overall viral infections when these subjects were in utero and there appeared to be no change in general viral infection rates from the norm. 


The idea behind this study was to find a similarity or not between viral infection and T1D compared to viral infections and Hashi’s or Grave’s as the two are commonly held together and T1D is more commonly associated with infections in fall and winter when more people are getting sick. This supports the idea that a viral infection could be a trigger for any one of these conditions in those who are genetically susceptible. 


The high antibody connection between birth month and high antibody titers is similar to birth month and high antibodies against B cells in T1D. Being genetically predisposed to autoimmune disease combined with the trigger of infection could be all it takes to progress into a full blown autoimmune disease. 


One thing that allows this progression is unhealthy cells which don’t need curcumin or gogi berries to run well. Let me help you figure out where your core or root cause issues are stemming from by having a look at your Cell Blueprint. This is the best time to do this while I have my mentorship. They charge $500 for a one hour consult so you are getting three minds for the price of $153 which is what I currently charge for a one hour consult. Most people only need 3-4 visits total with the subsequent visits costing $79. I don’t have any packages right now but will be eventually. My sole concentration right now is seeing as many clients as I can while I have mentors so I can be the best at what I do. If you are interested, please reach out at outofthewoodsnutrition.com and fill out my contact form. If you haven’t already, you can sign up for my newsletter as well and get your copy of Five Things Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Hypothyroidism. I look forward to helping you get back to your old self. 

There will not be an episode next week but I do hope to be a bit more regular with getting episodes out now that I am out of school and done with my interpreting blood chemistry course. Thanks again for tuning in. I appreciate you!