MY EXPERIENCE WITH HASHIMOTOES -HOW TO FEEL WELL AGAIN
Disclaimer:
I should add a disclaimer.
I am not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training. I’m just a mom that was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s. I would recommend speaking with your medical provider to make a well-informed decision for your care.
As you can tell by the title of this blog post, that I am going to talk about my experience with low thyroid issues.
I want to thank everyone for stopping by and reading my post this week.
I had planned to eventually do a blog post on this subject. However, since I had been feeling under the weather and had just recently got over covid. I decided that now might be a good time to talk on this subject. I know there are a lot of folks out there that may benefit from my experience with Hashimoto’s.
Now I was in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy when my midwife told me that I had low thyroid.
I had put on a lot of weight, and I felt more exhausted than I thought I should have felt. Though, I figured it was just because I was pregnant, in my 30’s after all, and expecting my 6th baby.
Even though I was just being officially diagnosed, I think I had already developed hypothyroidism. Sometimes it’s hard to detect because it doesn’t always show up in bloodwork right away.
I started having heart palpitations and feeling kind of strange. I felt at times like a shaky feeling internally.
After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I ask could I treat it naturally. My midwife told me that perhaps after I gave birth, I would have other options.
If my body didn’t make enough thyroid hormone, it would eventually take it from my baby.
So, there I was, going on thyroid medication to increase my thyroid levels.
In theory, it was supposed to make me feel better. However, to be honest I don’t really remember feeling any different.
All I knew was that I wasn’t feeling my best and was given this script to fix me.
I knew that my grandmother had thyroid issues and took a thyroid pill for it. Other than that experience with my grandmother, I didn’t know anything about hypothyroidism or low thyroid.
The Drs. will tell you that all you need to do is take this pill and it is supposed to balance your thyroid hormone levels and help you feel your old self again.
For the longest time, I didn’t feel my best. In fact, I felt bad a lot of the time.
There is a lot of things I could talk about on this topic, as it has been a long road for me, searching for answers to questions on how to feel better while living with this condition.
Though I will not go into everything in this blog post, I hope to let you know my experience over other blog posts, so I don’t overwhelm or bore you on this topic.
Well, the first thing you may be asking is, what in the world is hypothyroidism ( known as low thyroid or under active thyroid ) and hyperthyroidism ( an overactive thyroid).
First, you need to know what the thyroid is.
What is your Thyroid
Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland, that sits at the lower front of your neck.
The thyroid is small but is responsible for many important functions in the body.
When it is not working properly, it can cause many adverse symptoms that affect your health and how you feel.
The thyroid gland controls your metabolism by using hormones, Triiodothyronine (T3) and Thyroxine (T4)
We need to have T3 and T4 levels balanced for optimum health. It’s imperative for your hormone levels to not be too high or low for your thyroid to function normally.
See article below
What is Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism
Hypothyroidism is a common condition where your body does not produce enough thyroid hormone in your blood. Therefore, slowing down your metabolism.
Hyperthyroidism is just the opposite. In that, it creates too much of the hormone and creates very unpleasant symptoms in the body, which speeds up your metabolism.
What is Hashimoto’s
Hashimoto’s disease or another name is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid gland. Autoimmune disorders are conditions where your immune system sees healthy tissue as the foreign invader in your body and attacks it. In this case, it damages your thyroid causing your body to become hypothyroid or have an (underactive thyroid).
I put both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in this blog post because Hashimoto’s can make you swing back and forth between the two conditions of being too high or too low of thyroid hormone.
Who usually gets Hashimoto’s and What Triggers it?
According to womenshealth.gov, Hashimoto’s disease has a greater effect on women than men. Also, Hashimoto’s tends to run in families.
The age that many people develop Hashimoto’s is between the ages of 40-60.
Though, it has been seen to develop in younger people and ladies who are pregnant.
Which just happen to be the case for me.
If you have another autoimmune disease, such as celiac, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis- it can increase the risk of developing Hashimoto’s.
If you have taken in excessive amounts of iodine in your diet, it can trigger Hashimoto’s.
Environmental triggers, such as stress, infection, and environments with high levels of radiation can increase the chances of triggering an autoimmune response to Hashimoto’s.
What are the symptoms of Hashimoto’s?
When I was on my quest to find my way back to living well and feeling good. I had to do a lot of research. I feel that, not less you have experienced any of these issues for yourself, some of the providers that I have been to don’t seem to understand what I was going through.
Also, when you get online and start hunting for answers, there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Websites will tell you when you begin taking the standard synthetic thyroid hormone, pushed by Drs. today, that you’ll likely start feeling better soon after you start taking it.
If you do feel better that is great. However, I didn’t feel well.
They would check my TSH levels, and after about 2 weeks I would start to feel some better. Then, shortly after I would either swing to high levels or low levels of thyroid hormone. Depending on where my hormone levels were when I started, I would start to develop weird symptoms and not feel well again.
There again you aren’t told necessarily about these symptoms. I would have to research other people’s experiences of how they felt, to find out why I felt so bad.
Today, instead of telling you that you may have unexplained weight gain, your fingernails may become brittle, and you may feel cold. I want you to know that if you are reading this and you have unexplained weird symptoms. It might be hypothyroidism and or Hashimoto’s.
Your provider can to blood test and check your TSH levels.
Also, the tests can be purchased online.
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it gives you a good start into the signs of Hashimoto’s.
Here is a blogpost that I think is a good read for other symptoms.
- Weight gain-Sometimes harder to lose weight
- Brittle nails
- Thinning hair
- Thinning outer edges of eyebrows
- Stomach bloating
- Constipation
- Sensitivity to the cold
- Sensitivity to the heat
- Muscle and joint pain
- Tingling or numbing feeling in your toes
- Heart palpitations
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Fatigue-The kind that isn’t just tired but weak feeling
- Lower energy levels
- Sex drive- Sometimes lack of it
- Brain fog or having trouble remembering things
- Swollen legs and face
- Puffy eyes
- Need naps
- Wake up feeling tired after a good night’s rest
- Lower body temperature
- Slow movements
- Internal shivering
- Dry skin
- Rough souls of your feet- pain in your feet. Especially first thing in the morning
- Dizziness/Lite headed feeling-that can come on without any warning
As you can see there are a lot of things in the body that are controlled by that little butterfly shaped thyroid. When it’s out of wack, it can really mess you up.
How do you get diagnosed for Hashimoto’s?
This topic can be a little harder for some people. Sometimes Dr’s can diagnose an underactive thyroid and sometimes it takes years for them to find the problem with the patient.
As I said earlier, I believe I was developing the condition before they found it.
First, we need to look at what kind of Dr’s are best.
While of course, you can go to your primary physician but having a specialist when dealing with Hashimoto’s is sometimes needed.
- What kind of practitioner do I need?
Your primary care doctor may be able to test and treat you for an under active thyroid or Hashimoto’s.
However, sometimes a specialist such as an endocrinologist or functional medicine may be needed if you are having trouble getting balanced thyroid levels.
- Tests to have for Hashimoto’s
Recommendation for thyroid tests
Here is a good article about labs and medication.
- TSH(Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) – TSH is a pituitary hormone that responds to low or high amounts of circulating thyroid hormone. People with Hashimoto’s and central hypothyroidism (a rare type of hypothyroidism) may have a normal reading on this test. In advanced cases of Hashimoto’s and primary hypothyroidism, this lab test will be elevated, as the body will signal the production of more TSH to cope with the lack of thyroid hormone. (Read this post about interpreting the TSH test for more information.) In Graves’ disease and hyperthyroidism, TSH levels will be low.
- Optimal reference range: between 0.5-2 μIU/mL
- Free T3and Free T4 – Triiodothyronine (T3) is our primary biologically active thyroid hormone. About 20 percent of our T3 hormone comes from thyroid secretion directly, while the remaining 80 percent is produced when the thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4) is naturally converted to T3 within our bodies. While T4 is 300 percent less biologically active than T3, it is critical to our body’s ability to produce adequate and healthy levels of the needed T3. T3 is sometimes called our “go” hormone because it tells our body to boost metabolism, grow hair, and create more energy. Free T3 and T4 tests measure the levels of active thyroid hormone circulating in the body. When T3 and T4 levels are low, but TSH tests are in the normal range, this may lead your physician to suspect central hypothyroidism.
- Optimal T4 reference range: 15-23 pmol/L
- Optimal T3 reference range: 5-7 pmol/L
If your doctor does not order these tests for you, you can pay out of pocket and order them yourself through a company like Ulta Labs.
I got this information from throidpharmacist.com
See full article below.
How is Hashimoto’s treated
Most of the time you will be treated with Levothyroxine. This is the conventional standard treatment for people who do not produce enough thyroid hormone.
Some people do well on this medication. If you are not one of them, you may need a more natural approach to treating hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s.
- Supplements for thyroid
A high-quality Multivitamin
Vitamin D
Magnesium
Selenium
Zinc
Vitamin B-12
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but these are the big ones that are recommended to help with your thyroid.
- Daily exercise
Along with treatment, diet, and supplements. Adding exercise can help you improve with thyroid conditions.
Exercise can not only help with weight loss that can be contributed partly to a sluggish thyroid but can also help you to feel better and have more energy.
- Check for food allergies or food sensitivity
These are foods most associated with food allergies or sensitivity that may affect Hashimoto’s
- Gluten- a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye
- Dairy is another food that can sometimes affect negatively to people with Hashimoto’s.
- Soy is another big one. While some people have no problem with soy. There are others that must watch for soy and avoid it. Watch gluten-free foods. These foods may contain soy.
Now while these are the 3 foods that are commonly recommended to avoid, I must add the other culprit and that is SUGAR.
Yea yea, I know no one wants to hear it. I enjoy some nice ice cream and before a gluten-free diet. I sure loved some yummy donuts.
Since beginning my quest to feel better and feel myself again. I left the donuts behind, along with wheat, barley, and rye.
- When should I take my thyroid medication?
It’s important that you take thyroid medication around the same time daily. In the beginning, I never realized how important this was.
Also, always make sure to take on an empty stomach. You need to wait about 30 mins to 1 hour before eating. Check with your doctor or pharmacist for the best times with your medication.
It’s best if you have an alarm that goes off daily or I use an app called Mr. Pillster.
When I wasn’t using this app. I tried to keep track and I would get busy and take it at all kinds of different times.
Also, make sure you don’t take your thyroid medication with any other meds, especially calcium. It can affect how the medication gets absorbed.
In Conclusion
This is my journey to being tested, diagnosed, and treated for Hashimoto’s.
There are many pieces of the puzzle to getting back on track with Hashimoto’s. Each part of the puzzle must be examined individually to know which treatments work best for each person.
I can tell you what worked best for me.
I was put on a desiccated thyroid medication.
I have been on a gluten-free diet for over 7 years. Before going completely gluten-free (no cheating) it will help you, doctors could never get my thyroid medication balanced out.
Also, my provider told me it could be about 6 months before I would notice a difference after stopping all gluten.
However, for me, it was about 9 months or so.
I drink almond milk; however, I don’t seem to be affected by dairy like some are.
When I eat sugar in small amounts. I feel better. When I eat lots of sugar, it seems to bother me.
I did a lot of prayers. I know God led me to the things my body needed to help me feel well. I am thankful to him.
The supplements I take:
Vitamin D-very common to be low vitamin D if you have hypothyroidism
Magnesium
A quality Multi-Vitamin
Omega 3
Vitamin C
DHEA- this is for low testosterone
An adrenal- supplement for adrenal fatigue, which some people have issues with if they have low thyroid.
I know this was a lot of information, but I hope that it was something that might help you get on your journey to better health.
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Leave a comment if you have any questions or tell us other things you have done to regain your health.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
KJV PSALMS 103:3