Piggyback Post

Firstly, I feel okay. I have been taking 1 1/4 grains of NatureThroid and it's all right. I think that the does needs to be a smidge higher, but I get my blood drawn two weeks from now so I'm trying to wait until then to make any changes. The reason I think the does needs to be increased is because I still have a little bit of arthritis, which is annoying. It goes away completely sometimes during the day and then as the day wears on, it gets worse. :(

Enough about me. Today we went, as a family, to the Barbara Davis Center for Juvenile Diabetes. They are truly awesome there. DH had a regularly scheduled appointment. Our kids are in a study where they look for antibodies that are associated with Type 1 Diabetes, like antibodies against the pancreas.

To facilitate a blood draw with young-uns, they put some numbing cream on their arm and let them play in this awesome playroom for about half an hour. Then, when the blood is drawn, the hope is that they can't really feel too much.

Today when we went to the playroom, there were lots of other kiddos there. There was a three-year-old boy who had diabetes and a 12-year-old girl whose brother was just diagnosed with diabetes recently. The woman in charge of making the room fun (crafty things, movies, etc.) said her son was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 20 months old. Can you imagine? The three year old kiddo was rocking an insulin pump!

The older mom in the room, whose son was diagnosed at 20 months, was proud to report that her son is a healthy 26-year-old today. After years of testing his blood and dosing insulin for him, she handed over control to him when he was in Elementary School. She said she bawled. 

The 12-year-old was uncomfortable and unsure about her brother's diabetes. I guess her family is taking a class to help educate them about diabetes. They ran out of blood testing strips once and everyone freaked out because they didn't know what to do. (Strips are OTC, BTW. ;) She said his friends at school were weirded out that he had diabetes and didn't really hang out with him anymore. :( She seemed to think that he was lazy and that contributed to his disease. I suppose it would if her brother had Type 2 diabetes. It used to be that adolescents and children didn't get Type 2 diabetes, but I hear it's more common nowadays. 

The reason I'm posting about this is just because...this is life. It's not perfect and we're people and we break all the time. I keep seeing people (my husband, those moms, friends, acquaintances) who have met this sort of adversity by making the best of it and moving forward despite the circumstances. It would be so easy to give in and become permanently overwhelmed by the fact that your toddler could DIE without insulin (or fill-in-the-blank with any emotional hurdle), but we make do.

When it came time to draw the blood, DS went first. He was apprehensive but he likes to be aware of what's going on and see everything that's happening. (This, dear friends, could explain the Dentist Debacle.) He watched the needle go into his arm and calmly watched his blood pool in the little beaker. Proud Mama! My little DD wasn't so fortunate. She's a Little Bit and they had trouble getting the seemingly giant needles to fit into her teeny veins. After two pokes, some crying, and a lot of digging around in her arm (yeesh!), the study staff gave up and we decided to try again later.

Hopefully our kids don't develop any antibodies. I would be so saddened. DH with Diabetes, me with autoimmune thyroiditis...makes for a bad genetic recipe. I hope they are blessed with health. And hopefully if we do have another hurdle to leap over, we'll deal with it gracefully. After I dissolve into at least one mandatory fit of tears, that is. ;)

Praise & Purpose

The last few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I always talk to DH about how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, etc. etc.

It's come up over and over again how my autoimmune thyroiditis is very similar to DH's diabetes, which is also an autoimmune condition.

Now, I like to believe that God does have a purpose in everything we go through in life, even though we don't understand it or like it.

A fellow blogger who is going through a difficult time wrote the same sentiment like this: "In all this, we know that God is for us. We know He is up to more than we can see from our vantage point, that He is good and loving and worthy of all praise. We also know He desires us to know Him and follow as He leads, so please pray He would reveal Himself clearly, that we would be willing to follow and able to be changed by His Spirit. We are nothing but clay in the hands of our Potter. Let His will, be done."

Perhaps one of the purposes of having health issues is to teach me to understand what my husband is going through all the time and to have more compassion for him. Before I understood what it felt like to be 'sick', I was kind of hard on DH. I wanted him to have the energy and drive that I felt. Now I understand what it is to just feel so tired that all you can do is lay down and sleep. Now I understand that when you're faced with overwhelming fatigue or running errands and doing housework, you always choose to rest. Nothing else seems important when you feel crappy.

I remember when I was in labor with our first child. I wanted DH to stay with me the whole time. The whole time was roughly 18 hours. After about six or seven hours, DH was white-faced, hungry, and bound and determined not to make me angry. He took time out to check his blood and mentioned that he needed to go eat soon. I didn't have room, mentally, for him to leave. It took my friend the nurse worrying about his blood sugar for me to remember that if he didn't eat and keep his blood sugar at adequate levels he could die. So we compromised and I made him eat in the room with me. ;) My point is that I didn't get it then. I didn't understand that even during a major life event he had to keep thinking about his own health, that it had to come first. 

I also understand how difficult it is to manage medications or supplements and figure out exactly what your body needs and craves. Sometimes when DH's blood sugar is high, he is mean, cranky, tired, and just plain frustrated. When his blood sugar is low he is loopy, lightheaded, and still tired. One day when I was describing how frustrating it was to feel hypothyroid and how angry it made me to seesaw back and forth, he pointed out that his blood sugar was very similar.

Compared to all day every day insulin doses and constant blood sugar checking, I have it easy. Right now I have one big problem--thyroid hormone. Right now I am worrying about the dose of one little pill.

My husband doesn't ever let his diabetes hold him back from life (unless it's to take a nap). When he wanted to go on mission trips to Mexico, Nepal, Africa--he went. He figured out how to transport his insulin across the world, keep it cold, make sure it got through security, etc. etc. When I think about traveling somewhere far away and by chance not having the right medicine available, it scares me. Who is the man I married that he can be so fearless about the reality of his life?

 DH, goofing off in the hardware store. :)

All that is to say, I am more compassionate, patient, and understanding now. Not just with my husband, but hopefully with everyone. I understand now how he feels. And I have developed tremendous respect for him because he is joyful, faithful, and he perseveres even though he wishes he didn't have Damn Diabetes. He trusts that there is a reason. 

PSALM 42
For the director of music. A maskil^[c] of the Sons of Korah.

 ¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
   When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One^[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.
 ⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.
 ⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.
 ⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
   at night his song is with me—
   a prayer to the God of my life.
 ⁹ I say to God my Rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
 ¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

The Sun is Shining & Everything Feels All Right

So, I have been quite reluctant to post. Mostly this is because I'm still struggling with feelings of being a hippie failure. There is so much to think about and speculate about. Most of the time instead of researching so much like I did before, I'm just learning to be content with where I'm at. Good lessons, all. So, here's what has happened recently.

The first maybe two days of taking Tirosint, I was feeling good, then I started feeling badly again. After two weeks (so, that's last week sometime), I went to see my D.O., Miss Alexa, who is totally awesome.

I just told her that I feel horrible (again) and she said, quite simply, "Let's try something new." Options were to either up the dose of Tirosint or start taking some natural desiccated thyroid. I chose to try the pig thyroid because I realized that I had been taking a natural dessicated thyroid in the form of Thyroxal. Cow thyroid. I wonder if the additional thyroid hormones in the Thyroxal was something that my body liked.

D.O. also said that if a dose of 88 mcg of Tirosint isn't helping my body enough, then I might have developed a problem processing the synthetic T4 hormone. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. But right now that's just a maybe. Our bodies need things like B Vitamins, magnesium, etc. to properly process thyroid hormones so I am trying to be diligent about making sure I get all the vitamins I need.

Doctor Awesome told me that she had switched many patients over from Synthroid to natural thyroid and all but ONE loved it and felt lots better. All but one. I asked if she preferred natural desiccated thyroid and she honestly told me she did not have a preference, it was just patient preference.

I really respect her as a Doctor because she is truly interested in a patient as a whole. She mentioned that often times hypothyroid patients who came in had all the right 'numbers' but still felt horrid. Instead of ignoring their complaints, she was willing to switch things up and try a different med.

I mentioned that I was interested in having another baby and Doctor Awesome basically said, "Uh, lets get you figured out first." Which was sad but something that was helpful to hear at the same time.

I think today is Day Four of Piggie Thyroid medicine and I quite like it. I had been having a mid-morning crash every day but I think it was because I took all my vitamins straight away in the a.m. in a big bunch. I forgot to do that today and I actually am less fatigued. ? I have no idea why taking all your vitamins together would cause a body to be fatigued, but okay.

A few days ago I talked with my good friend and she said something that made me feel a little bit less like a failure. I said that after all this time it sure seems like my thyroid isn't kicking in to do it's own job, despite my diet changes and whatnot. I still have this magical hope that someday my thyroid will kick in, especially since my anti-body levels are 'normal'. Anyway, Nina basically said "Why not?" as in, why couldn't your thyroid someday still start working again? "Every three years all the cells in your body turn over, so why couldn't your thyroid come back?" And that was nice to hear. :)

So, here's to feeling better. May God bless my poor, tired frame!

Everything Looks Perfect From Far Away

I haven't written in a while because part of me no longer knows what to write. I feel like a little bit of a Hippie Failure right now, but I can't say I regret giving up on Thyroxal. I have been on Tirosint for two weeks. Those two weeks, while an improvement, haven't been perfect. Guess the ongoing lesson is still patience.

By comparison, four weeks ago, my hair had started falling out again, I was incredibly fatigued, headachy, you know...so, whatever was wrong with the Thyroxal wasn't good for me, bottom line. (Can you tell I'm trying to convince myself too?) Decisions to be made with health and medicine are never easy. There's always a scale, balancing the risks and benefits. Sigh. I still feel like I'm covering up sypmtoms in some way by taking a pill. But that's why I'm trying to take my nutrition more seriously and why I am still avoiding wheat & milk.

I haven't talked to CAG since not taking herbal thyroid stuff...I'm not due for an appointment anytime soon. For peace of mind, I think I will see him again eventually to discuss everything.

In cheerier news, peppermint oil is still my very bestest friend! I have been taking a pill (ha!) before every meal and I have been maintaining weight wonderfully. Praise God!

I talked with a friend recently who is also trying to figure out what is going on with her thyroid and adrenal glands. She had a very high TPO count, the thyroid antibody. She's also crazy like me (so nice to be with company) and goes to some holistic-kind of docs. They are currently trying to figure out what is going on with her immune system to cause such an imbalance.

I have read about this before but hadn't really spent any time trying to figure out what was going on with me. Partially I didn't spend time on it because CAG didn't mention it.

The theory is that one branch of your immune system (out of Th1 or Th2) is responsible for your immune craziness. One branch (humoral) is responsible for antibody production and attacks while the other (cell-mediated immunity) uses macrophages, cytokines, and something called cytotoxic T-lymphocytes to protect your body. I have no idea what I'm saying. Anyway, I looked some things up.

Here is an excerpt from a speech by a doctor: "Dr. Cheney explained that the immune system has two different modes of attack, based on the type of invader. One is Th1 (T Helper 1). It goes after organisms that get inside our cells ‚ intracellular pathogens. It is also known as cell-mediated immunity. The other is Th2 (T Helper 2). It attacks extracellular pathogens ‚ organisms that are found outside the cells in blood and other body fluids. Some call this humoral or antibody-mediated immunity. A healthy immune system is dynamic, able to switch back and forth as needed, quickly eradicating one threat and then resting before responding to the next."

And here is the discussion board I keep running across: "An autoimmune condition occurs when one branch of the immune system over dominates another branch. This is called an either a Th1 or Th2 dominance. A dominant TH1 response means that the natural killer cells and cytotoxic t cells are responsible for attacking the body, while a TH2 dominance indicates that your bcells and antibodies are mounting the attack."

Here's the really interesting part to me. This dude (a quoted Chiropracter) goes on to explain that "It is well documented in clinical research that Th1 stimulants are Echinacea, maitake mushrooms and golden seal to name a few. Th2 stimulators are caffeine, green tea, and grape seed extract. So in the example I gave in the previous slide, if a patient with an under functioning thyroid is TH1 dominant, then I would prescribe supplements containing caffeine, green tea, and grape seed extract to stimulate the TH2 side to regain balance. If they were TH2 dominant, then Echinacea, mushrooms, and golden seal would balance out their immune system. Since most people with autoimmune conditions have no idea which branch of their immune system is dominant, they can actually make their condition worse by taking over the counter immune boosters. Lets say for example you were Th1 dominant and you catch a cold. A friend tells you that Echinacea helped them so you take it yourself. Unknowingly you would be flaring up your already dominant Th1 response and cause even more destruction to your thyroid gland. Conversely, if you were Th2 dominant and you read on the internet that green tea, and grape seed extract could boost your immune system you would be flaring up your already dominant Th2 response and fire up an autoimmune attack to your thyroid. This can go on for years and years eventually shrinking your thyroid gland and slowing down your metabolism further. Meanwhile your medical doctor would interpret this as a need to increase the dosage of your thyroid hormones."

A comment on this posting and a suggestion I've heard from other folks is to try to see, based on how you feel, which branch of your immune system is dominant and try to re-balance things out. One day, you drink green tea and caffeine all day (no sugar!) and see if you feel better. The next day you drink echinacea tea all day and see if that makes you feel better or worse.

Well, I have now officially tried both. I'm a very willing tea drinker. :) The Green Tea day I was FULL of energy but I still didn't feel great, sometimes light-headed, sometimes dizzy. For the record, I didn't have coffee or energy drinks, just black tea. The echinacea day was about the same, minus some of the energy! I took a few echinacea pills that also had goldenseal, and cayenne. It was totally inconclusive.

I have read however that certain herbs help to balance both branches--turmeric and ginger to name two. Today instead of going overboard with green tea or echinacea, I had turmeric and a little green tea. Better. What is a Guinea Pig to make of that?!

Optometrist or Therapist?

You know what sucks?! When something as miniscule as peas gives you the Big D. You know what's totally awesome? When something as simple as eating soluble fiber (i.e. bananas, applesauce) and peppermint oil makes it completely better. :) That's all I have to say about that.

I'm also still taking Tirosint, feeling better than I felt those last two weeks on my faulty batch of Thyroxal. I haven't heard any information about what may have been wrong with it (though I'm very curious since it was working fine for me until...recently), but the pills I have, have been sent back to the store they came from for testing. Signed, sealed, delivered.

Today I went to the optometrist. I also brought my DS (my dear, dear son, sarcasm intended) with me because I think he's going to need his eyes checked so I want him to be familiar with the office and procedure.

My optometrist is a wonderful woman with two teenage sons. At first my DS sat quietly in the provided chair. Then, the good doctor started to test my eyes, he started freaking out. First he threw his hat. Then my purse. Then the chair itself was knocked to the floor. My optometrist? These are the things she said to me:

"Just ignore him. He's trying to get your attention. It's best if we don't react."

"It's a cheap chair...don't worry. I don't care!"

"Let me just take it away from him....but we won't feed into it!"

"Ooo, he's stubborn."

But through the whole appointment, she was so nice and calm. She didn't judge me for having a 3 1/2 year old who was basically having a temper tantrum.

When I finally held him and talked to him, he said he was scared of all the machinery. Fair enough.

In any case, in addition to providing an adept therapist, my optomestrist was full of useful information, such as:

*Inflammation has been linked to diabetes and other diseases, she just read an article about it.

*The only things that will help protect me from glaucoma and cataracts are wearing sunglasses religiously and eating right.

*Macular degeneration has been linked to smoking and being overweight.

*That "eye pill" we keep hearing about on TV and in the advertisements isn't all it's cracked up to me. She said at a recent conference the agreement was that taking massive amounts of the stuff in the pill, Zinc, Lutein, and something else that starts with "Z" I can't pronounce, isn't good for a regular ol' person. It might be warranted for someone who always has eye degeneration, but it might do more harm than good for someone who hasn't had problems.

*She recommended the contact cleanse (Clear Care? Is that the one?) stuff that is actually acidic if you don't let the contacts sit in it for more than six hours. Gotta keep that away from the kids...

Anyway, she was very wonderful. Just thought you should know I'm a fan of certain doctors, just not the general 'way' doctors treat these days. My eye doc also has hypothyroidism, so that made for some good conversation too.

Professional Opinion

So in a follow up to my post yesterday...I finally talked to my D.O.

Initially it was a confusing conversation because I told her I had quit taking the Thyoxal because there was something wrong with it and she said, "Well...I'm not sure you need to be on any thyroid medication."

Let's recap. I don't want to be on Thyroxal or any thyroid medicine! But on six pills of Thyroxal, my TSH was 3.1. On five pills, it was 3.88. Ideally, someone would be around 2.0 and you need to be at least under 2.5 when you're pregnant so your baby isn't brain damaged. You get the idea. Even more convincing was that I felt like crap. So, I didn't really understand what she was saying.

She continued on, "...your last blood draws, that's what I'm looking at, were all good."

To which I said, "3.88 is too high. I feel horrible."

"Yeah....I always want to be around two....oh, and you were on Thyroxal when that blood was drawn."

So it took us awhile to get on the same page. In the end she offered to write me a prescription for Armour thyroid (a dessicated thyroid medicine, most endocrinologists won't write a prescription because....well, honestly because I think they're close-minded, but whatever).


The strangest thing about the whole conversation was the fact that she listened and tried to accommodate what I wanted to do with the situation. It's kind of sad that I'm not used to that in doctors, but there you have it.

She let me know what she thought was a good idea or not, but she was ultimately very supportive and encouraging. Something I had been worrying about for days was suddenly reduced to some very simple steps:

1. Take the Tirosint I Have On Hand.
2. Call Her If I Need A New Script or Want to Switch to A Dessicated Med.
3. Call Her If I Start to Feel Hyperthyroid.
4. See Her in April for My Blood Draw.

So....that's that.

Otherwise, I'm still taking herbal stuff to strengthen my Qi from CAG, still avoiding wheat and milk and stuff on that list that screws me up. I'm still taking peppermint oil to calm my tummy down (amazing!) and still avoiding lots of insoluble fiber.

I am debating the switch to a pig dessicated thyroid med because as opposed to just getting one hormone that you're missing (T4) in a Levothyroxine med, a dessicated thyroid med gives you a range of hormones (T1, T2, T3, and T4). The reason that lots of women on long term Levo probably have issues with osteoporosis is because they don't get any T2, which is a bone protector. So you can see why it might be a good treatment option.

BLEGH. Ready to feel better already! From my lips to God's ears.

CSI: Thyroxal

I don't even know where to start. Here are the important things to know for this story:

1. The Thyroxal I had on hand (four bottles) seems to be....funky.
2. Rather than keep taking it, I have started taking Tirosint again.
3. I'm okay with that decision.

Last time I posted I mentioned that DH drove all the way into the city just to get me more Thyroxal. I had two bottles from a wonderful Internet company (who, if you're curious, I have ordered from before without a problem. Trustworthy!) that had funny black flecks everywhere and smelled funky to me. DH went to the CAG's office to get two more bottles that, unfortunately, were from the exact same lot as the ones I already had. In case you're keeping a tally, that's $120.

I called the company that makes Thyroxal directly and was basically told that I needed to talk to the folks who sold it to me and they themselves weren't liable. That's a crock of s***, but okay.

I emailed the Internet company and they promised to contact the company. I called CAG's office and they were incredibly sweet and accommodating. They even opened a bottle of Thyroxal to see what I was talking about. They informed me that herbs come in all shapes, colors, and sizes and that natural variation could account for the difference in the pill appearance.

Okay, check and check.

With this comforting information in hand, I took my Thyroxal as I normally would. Since I was at a TSH of 3.88 last time my blood was drawn and had some annoying symptoms of being hypothyroid, I was anticipating taking six pills again instead of five.

Well, after a few days of taking six pills, I felt worse. I took seven pills, then eight pills one day, just to see if it made a difference! Nothing. I just felt worse and worse.

Then I got some interesting communique back from the Internet folks. They had contacted the manufacturer and they wanted the bottles sent back. Right away I asked if they were aware of any contaminant or missing ingredient. I was told that they wouldn't be able to tell until the bottles were tested.

Fine, but I'd be an idiot if I kept taking something that was potentially, maybe, possibly contaminated with something or was otherwise unsafe.

At this point, Your Human Guinea Pig had a few choices:

1. Keep taking potentially unsafe herbal supplement.
2. Take nothing for a few days (until I could find some untainted Thyroxal) and become more and more hypothyroid and feel worse and worse.
3. Start taking Tirosint again, which I still have on hand, and resign myself to the fact that thus far it seems like my thyroid is not doing what it's supposed to.

Further complicating my decision-making process was the fact that my Doctor was not available to talk with immediately.

In the end, I decided my best option would be to just take Tirosint. I feel about 50% better not taking Thyroxal and taking Tirosint instead. I feel like it's important to point out that any prescription drug or supplement can be screwed up due to human error. My DH's insulin is sometimes defective. His blood sugar gets high, he feels horrible, and it takes him a few days to determine that it's the insulin. It's just life. I've also read that Synthroid (what most folks take for hypothyroidism) isn't as consistently made as it could be; the FDA only recently approved it and even so it seems like it was approved only due to popular demand.

Thyroxal was working really well until it wasn't.

And to bring home why someone who was so adamantly against taking the regular drug, I'm going to gleefully list my symptoms. Like I said, the worse I feel the easier it is to just do whatever it takes to feel normal again. :(

• Headaches
• Ear pressure
• Dizziness
• Lightheaded-ness
• Fatigue
• Muscle Aches & Pains
• Arthritis/Joint Pain
• Insomnia
• Trouble Concentrating
• Irritability (You know this one's not a joke when you get mad at an 18-month-old for distracting you from a cell phone game.)

I didn't feel well. I didn't know what to do. So I just had to make a choice.

Observations & Love Songs

Yesterday I was feeling pretty crappy (I'm starting to wonder if I have a sinus infection) and I wasted no time in telling my husband how frustrated I have been getting with this whole 'journey'. I got a batch of Thyroxal pills that looked different than before and I was wary about taking them.

 DH drove into the big city to get some more. Herbalist experts :) said that it just depended on what sort of herbs they had sourced, what color they were, etc. etc. All of this lead to more conversation about my health. Here are the highlights from our conversation:


**I admitted that, more than ever, I understand why Western doctors are wary of herbal medicines variability. I don't know how much thyroid hormone I'm getting in the pills and so...I don't really know what dose works, if it's less than before or more or...?

**He reminded me that even if I stopped taking Thyroxal and started taking Tirosint again, there would still be a lag time in which I had to figure out the correct dosage.

**He honestly told me he felt like we hadn't exhausted the 'herbal' option yet. When pressed with what this meant, he said giving my thyroid more time to 'recover', if possible. Also giving weaning a good try, as in, more than once.

**He told me to be patient.

Have I mentioned that I love my DH?

I'm discouraged because when I reduced my pill dose, my TSH went up instead of down. Maybe that means I have no hope of having a functioning thyroid. Maybe that means I am impatient, as I have previously posted. ;)

I re-read a study that really encouraged me. Mice were given Iodine-induced Hashimoto's disease over the course of eight weeks. After eight weeks the mice were supplemented with Selenium and it only took EIGHT more weeks for their thyroid (which previously looked dead) to look healthy and normal again. The study was cited in this article on Perfect Health.

The cells on the far left are normal thyroid cells, the middle are Hashimoto's cells, and the far right are the thyroid cells in the same mice AFTER Selenium supplementation.

Here is a bar graph of thyroid antibodies during the experiment:

It just shows that antibodies were higher with increased Iodine intake and no Selenium to balance it out. When mice were given Selenium again, their antibody levels went down to almost normal.

If this holds true for people too (which, let's be honest, no one knows), then I am in the stage where I am supplementing with Selenium and my antibody levels have fallen.

But if takes the same amount of time to 'recover' as it takes to develop Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, then I have another two years to go! That's a long time. That's a lot of Thyroxal. :/ Logic:: I started having arthritis a year before DS was born. That's about 3 1/2 years ago.

Anyway, to sum up, I'm frustrated with how I feel, I want to move past this, I want to grow our family, but I also want to give my thyroid a chance. God is totally teaching me patience (even if I eventually take Tirosint again, this holds true!) and it's kind of irksome. :)

The Juice Lady

I'm devoting this post to The Juice Lady because DH and I really have been juicing every day and we love it. Her blog is here at Juicing for Life. A friend gave me that book to look at initially and I really liked it.

Then I got this book from my Mommy:

Both GREAT books. Cherie starts off this book with stories from her life about how juicing helped her get healthy, REAL healthy.

Really, the dude in Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead got us started on juicing, but The Juice Lady is the one whose books I have read and loved.

I can't say I do a great job at following her recipes, but I like to know, for example, that cucumber is anti-inflammatory. So, if we are feeling gross and I suspect that my immune system is going haywire, then I can add cucumber to our juice! The book I have by her (The Juice Lady's Guide to Juicing for Health) is organized by ailment. So you can go to arthritis, diarrhea, flu, colds, etc. and find out which veggies and fruits would help relieve your symptoms. I might argue that any fruits and veggies would alleviate symptoms. ;)

There is NO evidence that juicing is any better than eating fresh fruits and vegetables whole. But it is definitely easier and more convenient to juice 2 cups of blueberries, a head of kale, three apples, 1 pear, 1 lime, 1/2 a cucumber, etc. than it is  to sit down and eat them. One article I read about juicing actually condemned it because you wouldn't be getting the insoluble fiber from the fruit, i.e. the apple peel, the orange peel, the blueberry skin...

I, however, LOVE juicing for just this reason. My husband could use a little insoluble fiber, but I...well, I really don't have much use for it right now, if you get my drift. :)

Ultimately, we should all be eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed things and juicing helps our family to do just that. I don't see a downside.

Choices, Choices

I'm a little behind on keeping the masses up to speed with what's going on with my health.

Last week I went to see my Doctor of O, Osteopathy. I still really love her because she is totally down with me also seeing a Chinese Herbalist. I debrief her of everything he says and vice versa, so it's nice that neither of them harbors overt resentment for the other. :) Dr. D.O. said that she thought it was the perfect meeting of Eastern and Western medicine.

I mainly went in to tell her that I had had some success treating myself as an IBS-D patient (recap--less insoluble fiber, more soluble fiber, peppermint oil, fennel seed sometimes) and to get my blood drawn to see how my body liked being on five Thyroxal pills instead of six.

Happily, last time I went to see her a few months ago I weighed about 108 pounds with jeans, a belt, and a sweater on. This time, in just yoga pants (and a shirt, come on people!), I weighed almost 115! So make fun of my skinniness if you will, I give you permission, but I think I've gained about ten pounds. That's reason to celebrate in my book.

I got my blood tests back a few days ago and I'm a little frustrated with the results. My T3 and T4 numbers are fine, those are the amounts of thyroid hormone actively running around in your bloodstream. My TPO (the antibodies that are around attacking my thyroid) are even lower than they were before, which is great news! The highest they have been was 85 after DD was born, then they dropped to 55, then to 22, and now they are at 15. It doesn't even show up on the lab as abnormal anymore.

The number that frustrates me is my TSH, my Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. This is a number that indicates how hard my pituitary has to work to get my thyroid to produce an adequate amount of thyroid hormone. Ideally, it should be under 2.5. Last time I had it checked it was at 3.1 and last week it was at 3.88. Obviously I had hoped it would be lower.

More TMI--I know I need more thyroid hormone around that 'time of the month' and that's when I got checked. I feel fine on five Thyroxal pills until 'that time' and then I start to feel symptoms of being hypothyroid.

I'm not sure what to do about that. Part of me desperately wants to keep taking Thyroxal and see if I can wean off successfully, but part of me also feels like Thyroxal is just becoming a more expensive stand-in for Levothyroxine or Synthroid.

Eventually, I feel like I am going to just want to get on with my life. There are 90 pills in a bottle, I think, so one bottle ($30) lasts 15 days. That's $60 a month, compared to $20 a month for the Tirosint I was taking prior to this whole experiment.

In any case, I'm still wheat and milk free, still juicing as much as possible (another expensive hobby), and I'm taking some other supplements and herbal crap and....we'll just see what happens. Hopefully no one will be too disappointed if I eventually decide we can't afford Thyroxal and go back to the 'Western' drug...hopefully CAG won't give me the silent treatment.

Mediator Release Test

I forgot to mention that CAG also recommends something called an MRT, Mediator Release Test. It's supposed to measure the reaction of your white blood cells to different substances. I'm pretty sure this sort of test falls under 'quackery' by modern medicine's standards, but I like to spend lots of time on discussion boards to see if it's actually helped people or not.

Before I dive in, I should mention that this test is a whopping $400. Now, I have been told that other places charge $900 for such a thing, so I should count myself lucky. But still, I have car repairs, loans to pay off, etc. etc. Doesn't seem like that much of a bargain to me.

One web site says that: "MRT is a patented blood test (US Patent numbers 6, 114, 174 & 6, 200, 815) that quantifies how strongly your immune cells react to the foods and food chemicals tested by measuring  intracellular mediator release indirectly.  When released from immune cells, chemical mediators such as histamine, cytokines, and prostaglandins produce damaging effects on body tissues, leading to the development of symptoms." 


The site Quackwatch, a site which probably supports nothing I've done, has a whole page devoted to crap allergy testing. They list the Mediator Release Test is inaccurate and that the "...correct way to assess a suspected food allergy or intolerance is to begin with a careful record of food intake and symptoms over a period of several weeks. Symptoms such as swollen lips or eyes, hives, or skin rash may be allergy-related, particularly if they occur within a few minutes (up to two hours) after eating. Diarrhea may be related to a food intolerance. Vague symptoms such as dizziness, weakness, or fatigue are unlikely to be food-related."

They go on to say that if you're not having luck this way, then maybe it's advisable to see an allergist and get a RAST test done. I really disagree with the statement that vague symptoms should basically be ignored and also that an allergist will be the ultimate help. I think some allergists are totally awesome (my DH would agree), but I went to see an allergist. After a negative skin-prick test for everything, she was as baffled as I was and told me to *surprise* keep a food diary.


This test seems popular with all the weirdos like me--chiropractors, people who are looking to treat fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, etc. I have found more than a few Registered Dieticians who administer this test, which makes me wonder if it has more credence than some think.


In any case, I don't know if I'll get it done. I'm as confused as anyone about these tests. CAG swears by it and I do trust the CAG. I did appreciate one thing he said--he mentioned that I postpone appointments with him and set aside the money for the test. Not many practitioners would do that! 

Patience, Young One

I know all my Facebook friends have just been dying (DYING!) to learn about how my appointment with Cool Acupuncture Guy went, right?! The short version is that it was good! The long version is as follows. :) 

Learning To Be Patient-I told CAG that I had reduced my Thyroxal dose by one pill, so I take five Thyroxal pills a day instead of six. It's only been two weeks since I started doing that. I feel mostly fine, but I have noticed that I have a tad bit more arthritis symptoms, but they usually go away.

For me, two weeks should be long enough for my thyroid to do it's dumb (or, awesomely important) job. But my DH and CAG tell me that these things can take a long time.

In telling me to get over myself and be more patient, CAG compared my body to Germany after World War II. He said it took 30 years for people to want to go there to visit again. So, the lesson for me is two-fold, be patient and racism is bad. 

Weaning Myself Off Of Thyroxal-CAG said to stick with five pills a day and then get my thyroid hormone levels checked again in two months. That's much longer than I would have waited on my own devices. It's nice to have a number to put on that, a deadline.

I asked whether he would ever give up and just tell me to take Levothyroxine. He basically said, "Hell no!" When pressed (I have been confused on this point), he said that he would rather I keep taking Thyroxal, with the herbal support, than the Western drug from the pharmacy.

I was assuming that if my thyroid didn't start working, I'd have to take Levo anyway sometime. Guess he sees it differently. The problem I see here is money. Thyroxal (all total) is about $70 a month. Levo is $4. Wish my insurance would cover herbal medicine.


Pregnancy-Here's where my mind was really blown today. I'm going to type up a not-at-all-accurate transcript.

Me: "Part of the reason I'm really impatient with all this is because I'd like to have another baby someday and I want to get my thyroid figured out first."

CAG: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Well, I want to get weaned off of Thyroxal, I'm not sure I want to take Thyroxal while I'm pregnant?"

CAG: "Why not?!"

Me: "...I just thought it wouldn't be safe."

CAG: "Nicky, people do crack and have babies."

Me: "----"

CAG: "I mean, people smoke, drink, do drugs and have babies. And you're worried about a thyroid supplement."

Now, I'm not going to say that I shouldn't worry about herbal supplements and pregnancy, but the man does have a good point. And, as my DH pointed out later, if my thyroid hasn't magically recovered I was totally planning on taking Levo during a pregnancy. If I am still on something (whether it be Thyroxal or Levo) and I do get pregnant, then I guess I'll stay on it or increase the dose, as is often needed during pregnancy.

In my Dream World, I will be totally successful in weaning myself off of Thyroxal and my thyroid will pick up the slack before we have another kiddo. From my lips to God's ears.


Maintaining My Current Diet-I didn't tell CAG that I had tried Imodium out of desperation. I did tell him that these are the things I have been doing that have helped me stay healthy for the past few weeks:

• Drinking Peppermint Tea & Sometimes Taking Fennel Seeds
• Avoiding Foods that Are "Trigger" Foods, like Milk & Wheat
• Juicing Veggies Every Day
• Taking Probiotics

I asked for some direction and he said that if it was working, keep doing it! Gotta love that. DH says he has known many doctors who just want to 'do something', even at the expense of the patient, so it's nice to have a relaxed perspective...


Gui Pi Wan Teapills-When I asked CAG if he wanted me to take some more herbal stuff, he said he was afraid to mess with a good thing. He checked my pulse, my tongue, and then asked lots of personal questions about my period. So after all that, he recommended some teeny little herbal pill that is supposed 'strengthen my blood'. Will let you know about that.

 Next week I go to the D.O. to have my blood drawn. Then, two month-ish from now, I go to see some more midwife-type-people (okay, okay, Nurse Midwives) to talk about thyroid stuff. More to come...

For good measure on how I am doing today, here's a photo of my viral rash. You heard me.

I don't think you can really see it, but bunches of tiny red dots are there that aren't normally there. DD and DS have a viral infection of some sort and they passed it to me and, though I'm getting better, it has manifested itself like this. Ugh.

Butt First Babies and Your Thyroid

I don't know how much credence there is to the idea that being hypothyroid during pregnancy can affect the baby's position, but it's important to me for obvious reasons. During some other Internet wanderings I saw it mentioned and so now I'm going to look into it a teeny bit more.

This Perfect Health Diet site has a well-written page about it. Apparently some Dutch study showed a correlation between breech babies and hypothyroidism. Here is their rundown:

• "Pregnant women with a TSH of 0.5 or less had NO breech births at all, and those between 0.51 and 0.71 had only a 1% chance of a breech birth.
• Pregnant women with a TSH between 0.71 and 2.49 had about a 5% chance of breech birth.
• Pregnant women with TSH of 2.50 to 2.89 had an 11% chance of breech birth, while those with TSH above 2.89 had a 14% chance of breech birth."

Here is more information about that Dutch study from Endocrine Today. Given the importance of thyroid health in pregnancy, it's odd to me that a thyroid panel isn't routine for pre-natal appointments! I never had my thyroid levels checked at my OB, and I desperately wish they would have checked. Maybe I could have avoided a c-section.

iVillage has an article about the SAME study, but a good quote from theirs follows: "The link between thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy and difficulties during labor is well established," the lead author of the new study, Victor Pop, a research professor at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands, said in a news release from the Society for Endocrinology. "However, to our knowledge, this is the first study to show an association between maternal thyroid hormone concentration during late gestation and fetal head position in healthy pregnant women with normal thyroid function." 

 Links to Related Studies:

Low Concentrations of Maternal Thyroxin During Early Gestation: A Risk Factor of Breech Presentation?

Maternal Thyroid Function at During Gestation Is Related to Breech Presentation At Term

Maternal Thyroid Function and the Outcome of External Cephalic Version
*I included this one because when we found out Lainey was still breech we tried this, which is basically the OB manhandling the baby THROUGH your tummy and trying to turn the baby. Apparently if your TSH is high (which I'm guessing mine was), the version is less successful. Interesting.

Which of These Things Is Not Like The Other?

I think I mentioned yesterday that I haven't had the Big D in about five days, which is record-breaking for me.

In this time of Intestinal Peace (later to be referred to as The Great Peace of 2012), I have realized that when I eat insoluble fiber things go South quickly. Forgive the pun. Now, I asked my DH what insoluble fiber is and it's basically fiber that our bodies can't digest very well that helps 'move things along'. It's what people with constipation are supposed to get more of.

For DH, eating things with lots of insoluble fiber is good. For me, it's bad.

What makes this all the more interesting to me is that in the past, things with lots of insoluble fiber (strawberries, popcorn, corn, beans, nuts...) have not fared well in my tummy and I thought it was because of an intolerance or allergy. Now I'm wondering if it's just too much insoluble fiber at one time. I would assume that eating popcorn and an apple together is healthy, and it is, but it still gives me Big D because it's just TOO MUCH FIBER.

This is hilarious. Really? Fiber? That's what's been aggravating my tummy issues?

Here is a list of foods from this wonderful site called Help for IBS. There is a page on this site all about how insoluble fiber can exacerbate IBS.

The author of this site says that "Insoluble fiber, like fat, is a very powerful GI tract stimulant, and for those of us with Irritable Bowel Syndrome this can spell big trouble."

Here is a list of foods high in insoluble fiber:

Whole wheat flour, whole wheat bread, whole wheat cereal
Wheat bran
Whole grains, whole grain breads, whole grain cereals
Granola
Meusli
Seeds
Nuts
Popcorn
Beans and lentils (mashed or pureed they're much safer)
Berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cranberries, etc.)
Grapes and raisins
Cherries
Pineapple
Peaches, nectarines, apricots, and pears with skins (peeled they're much safer)
Apples (peeled they're safe)
Rhubarb
Melons
Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes
Dates and prunes
Greens (spinach, lettuce, kale, mesclun, collards, arugala, watercress, etc.)
Whole peas, snow peas, snap peas, pea pods
Green beans
Kernel corn
Bell peppers (roasted and peeled they're safer)
Eggplant (peeled and seeded it's much safer)
Celery
Onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, garlic
Cabbage, bok choy, Brussels sprouts
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Tomatoes (peeled and seeded, especially raw, they're much safer)
Cucumbers (again, peel and seed them and they're much safer)
Sprouts (alfalfa, sunflower, radish, etc.)
Fresh herbs

The site also says not to eat any of these foods alone, which is a further revelation for me since I've had bad (sometimes horrible) reactions after eating nuts, strawberries, popcorn, etc. etc. all alone. Makes sense why that would upset my tummy now. More advice on insoluble fiber--eat it with something soluble (like a banana). I'm not clear on which other foods have lots of soluble fiber so I need to go read up on that. So far all that comes to mind are apples and bananas.

This is also the site that recommended trying peppermint oil to calm down the intestine and Boy-Howdee has that worked for me. :) Peppermint Tea is a daily staple now.

My DH asked me today if I buy into the IBS diagnosis after seeing some of the IBS Puzzle Pieces fall into place for me. I guess...a little more so. If the things that help IBS-D (that's Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Diarrhea, for the intestinal-acronym challenged) also help me, then that is freaking wonderful. I still think it's a vague diagnosis and a catch-all term for things that docs don't quite understand. I didn't have crazy sensitive bowels before abdominal surgery, but I do now, so it's IBS.

This site does provide some answers on this front as well (loving this web site!) on this page: Gastrocolic Reflex and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The page basically says that normally your intestine moves in a normal, regular pattern. In people with IBS, it can either be spastic (diarrhea) or hardly move at all (constipation). So, this normal reflex just plain isn't working as it should.

These are pics from the Help for IBS site:

HA! Anal verge. I don't know what that means, but it sounds a little like a rock band. Anyway, maybe there is something to this 'IBS' thing and maybe I will have to do more research. Sigh.

Plants & Good Ol' Pharmaceuticals, Part 2

My gross, personal update, part 529.

I haven't had the Big D in about five or six days. Since I took Imodium (sorry, all you queasy people) and since I've been avoiding every little thing on the IgG list that is remotely inflammatory. I have to say, it's been working. I am taking pro-biotics (Floratsor and something called 'medical food', VSL#3) and my Thyroxal, but other than Fish oil and Vitamin D that's it. Ooo, I have been drinking peppermint tea every day and some water with peppermint oil in it--supposed to calm the tummy down. I have even reduced my Thyroxal dose by one pill to see if my body can pick up the slack--jury is still out. I have some arthritis that bothers me, but otherwise...?

I can hardly believe that I haven't had any problems for almost a week. I am afraid writing about it will jinx whatever progress I've made. :/ I have noticed that insoluble fiber (like chia seeds, corn, nuts...) really makes things worse. This is interesting to me because it supports the theory that I just have IBS (which I still think is kind of a crap diagnosis) and because lots of things that are insoluble are things that have either made me sick in the past or are on the IgG list. Interesting.

Now for the plants part!

 

All I want to say in this post is that plants and herbs can be medicinal, and it seems to me that they don't screw up bodies as much as laboratory-created drugs, but that could just be because there's not as much research into them.

This link is from the American Society for Microbiology: Clinical Immunology and Traditional Herbal Medications. This article defines herbal medicines as "complex mixtures of minimally processed medicinal plants (e.g., plant parts that are boiled to make a tea). In conjunction with other components of traditional healing philosophies, such as acupuncture or massage, herbal medicines are used to treat a large range of symptoms and ailments, including liver disease, asthma, and other immune problems, menstrual problems, colds, headaches, and various cancers."

They go on to explain why there might be a resurgence in interest in herbal medicines: "Many herbal preparations alter immune function and have had an amazing array of immunomodulatory effects attributed to them...In both mouse and in vitro studies, herbal medicines reportedly affect cytokine secretion, histamine release, immunoglobulin secretion and class switching, cellular coreceptor expression, lymphocyte proliferation, and cytotoxic activity, to name but a few examples."

They go on further to cite examples where traditional Chinese herbs have slowed or stopped cancer growth and how Chinese herbs can help eliminate asthma symptoms.  

From the International Journal of Food Microbiology, we have The In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Dietary Spice and Medicinal Herb Extracts. This is a really long study where a bunch of herbs were put in with different bacteria to see what the effect would be. The idea is that plant phenols in herbs and spice extracts could help kill food borne pathogens. The article is interesting because it pinpoints which herbs were most anti-biotic and which bacteria (E.Coli) were the least sensitive to herbs. They list thyme, oregano, clove, and cinnamon as having antimicrobial compounds in them. Thyme (thymol) is what is in a lot of Method cleaning products because it kills lots of germies!

There is an excerpt of the book The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine online. It's a cool book because it is organized by ailments (i.e. Arthritis) and then what sorts of herbs help that particular condition. Then it goes into an explanation and expansion of why you'd use certain herbs for that particular ailment. For heart problems it lists taking garlic (and a full two pages on why), black cohosh, cayenne (which lowers cholesterol), and Valerian root. The reason this book is so wonderful is because it looks useful for lay-people but also useful as an academic argument FOR using herbs.

To sum up--plants are drugs. I like to think less processing and bastardization of God's green Earth is better, so I would prefer to take an herb over a drug if possible. 

This blogger has an interesting quote: "...in order to achieve the maximal benefit for the health of the public, we need to apply adequate and uniform standards of scientific evidence for safety of all pharmacologically active substances, and we should fairly regulate the health claims made for any such products. This means purging ourselves of the sloppy thinking represented by the false dichotomies between natural and synthetic (something which has no bearing on safety or efficacy) and of herbs vs drugs."

Where I disagree is natural vs. synthetic. I think it does have a bearing on the whole issue, I think our super amazing bodies can distinguish the difference. Our bodies natural thyroid hormone doesn't promote osteoporosis, but taking Levothyroxine long-term (which is what is recommended for all hypothyroid patients) DOES promote osteoporosis. Why? They don't know. They made a drug in a lab to fix a problem, and, oops, unintended side effects. Guess we humans don't know everything.

I understand that plants in their raw form are hard to 'standardize'. I still think they're better for our bodies. 

Plants & Good Ol' Pharmaceuticals, Part 1

First, before I I write more, I want to be perfectly clear that I think there is a time and place for pharmaceutical drugs, over-the-counter drugs, recreational drugs... ;) But seriously, I don't think we should never take drugs; there are times when their benefit far outweighs their risks. The obvious situation is in emergencies. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me explain why I think we could utilize herbs and nutrition instead of drugs sometimes.

I have been absolutely astounded by things I've read lately about how herbs and spices (um, plants) can act as medicines. Garlic, peppermint, lemon, sage, clove, thyme--lots of ordinary kitchen spices kill bacteria and are anti-viral.

I know that many of our current medicines are based on medicinal herbs. What I didn't realize is how effective or powerful herbs can be. (Everytime I write "herb" I think of marajuana, but that's not what I mean! I swear!)

In our society we find the 'active' chemical in such herbs and then manufacture similar chemical compounds in a lab, mix it with binders to make a pill, and then congratulate ourselves when we have a new drug in a fixed, identifiable amount. My DH is quick to point out to me that the medical world can't get excited about herbs because they can't figure out how much a dosage is and how powerful that dose is. That makes sense, since every plant will probably have a different concentration of this and that and the other.

Nonetheless, I haven't seen many herbs that come with the same list that I hear on so many drug commercials. Sure, if you take enough garlic, or enough turmeric, or enough cinnamon, it will be bad for you. Garlic can be bad for your thyroid. Turmeric can thin your blood. But you have to take A LOT.

Now here is a list of side effects for a -statin cholesterol drug. They are frequently prescribed and I very much doubt that doctors across America are doing due diligence and reciting the list of side effects and complications like the nice TV does:

• muscle problems (which can rarely lead to a very serious condition called rhabdomyolysis)
• muscle pain/tenderness/weakness (especially with fever or unusual tiredness)
• change in the amount of urine
• liver problems--yellowing eyes/skin, dark urine, severe stomach/abdominal pain, persistent nausea/vomiting

And: "This is not a complete list of possible side effects." Oh, and death. HA!

I heard a story on NPR about a Doctor who took a -statin and unfortunately he was one of the minority who suffered irreversible muscle damage. They always say it's safe and that hardly anyone has any problems. Most people probably won't have horrible reactions to -statins, but certainly everyone's liver objects to some degree. :) 

I have a great deal of trouble with this because there are plenty of stories about drugs that were 'safe' until they weren't. I have read about drugs that were 'safe' during pregnancy and then, "Oops, your baby is missing limbs." My good friend and I have a similar philosophy about drugs and when offered an anti-nausea drug during her last pregnancy she said "No" riiiiight away because of stories like this. Did you know in the 1940s doctors thought it was okay, even encouraged, to give pregnant ladies X-rays? My dear Grandma (born in 1937) remembers having her feet X-rayed "for fun" at the shoe store. 

My point is that we're all human, even the uber-educated doctors, pharmacists, health-care anyone. Some dude in a lab tests a drug for a certain amount of time on mice, then maybe trials it on some people, and then it's deemed safe for public use. There's never going to be a 100% safety seal on drugs. It's always mostly-safe until someone proves otherwise.

You know all those lawyer commercials on TV? I most recently heard one for an anti-acne drug called Acutane. Apparently, some people who took it have had colon problems to the point of having their colon removed. THEY HAVE NO LARGE INTESTINE. I know that's not the majority, but the fact that drugs can mess with our bodies like this cannot be understated.

Here's a recent story as an anecdote. Apparently a diabetes drug also gives people bladder cancer. Oops. And another drug out there, the breast cancer drug Avastin, was recalled in November (see story here), but the company that makes it is begging it to be FDA approved again. So, to recap, the drug does help slow cancer growth, but it also kills people via stroke and heart attack (oops), and the company wants people to use it because it's a big profit-maker. :)

So, instead of wasting all their resources in America, Avastin peeps have gone to Europe and convinced those guys to market their drug-see that story here. This article says that Avastin is great for treating ovarian cancer, but the FDA has enough evidence here to say that it doesn't significantly increase life expectancy so...what's the point? Anyway, money and politics and stuff. Not so much all about our health.

Read here about Type 2 diabetes drugs that are not FDA approved because similar drugs have been linked to heart attacks. In other news, the actual drug helps with high blood sugars by letting people pee off excess sugar. Now...my DH is a Type 1 diabetic and I can tell you that when he has a high blood sugar he tries to EXERCISE. But don't worry, now there will be a pill for that so you can sit on the couch, eat more carbs, and remain content while your body shuts itself down.

And if that weren't enough, all the drugs we're making and taking are hurting the environment, which in turn hurts us. This article, As Pharmaceutical Drug Use Soars, Drugs Taint Water & Wildlife, gives an example of how. Don't get me started on how the overuse of anti-biotics is hurting our overall health. (But here, have some reading material: Chinese Ministry, WHO, Warn of Antibiotic Overuse and New Drug Resistant TB Identified.

And reason Number Four is that I think there is such a thing as an immoral Big Pharma: Pharmaceutical Companies Can Go Too Far.

What? Reason Number Four you say? 1. Side Effects, 2. Drug Resistance, 3. Environmental Impact (um, who wants drugs in our water?), and 4. Ethical Reasons.

There are plenty of things one can do with herbs or diet instead of taking crazy drugs. My dad has taken fish oil with great success, lowering his bad cholesterol to the normal level. Safer than a -statin.

In any case, this thought process is the one that led me to start looking into herbs as medicines. I have ranted enough today, so I will save Part 2 for tomorrow!

Putting The Damn Puzzle Together

Putting this particular puzzle together is really baffling. I will try to sum up what I have read and written about, but summing up information is much easier than putting it into practice.

To sum up my posts:

*Gluten = Bad.
*Some Foods Are Inflammatory, For Everyone or Just For You. Avoid Them.
*Heal Your Gut. Probiotics, Whole Foods, Avoid Processed Foods.  
*Certain Vitamins, Minerals, & Nutrients are Necessary For Thyroid Health

Dr. Weil's site has an article about regulating Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. His advice is below:

• "Decrease protein intake toward 10 percent of daily calories; replace animal protein as much as possible with plant protein.
• Eliminate cow's milk and all cow's milk products, substituting other calcium sources.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables regularly and make sure that they are organically grown.
• Eliminate polyunsaturated vegetable oils, margarine, vegetable shortening, all partially hydrogenated oils, and all foods (such as deep-fried foods) that might contain trans-fatty acids. Use extra-virgin olive oil as your main fat.
• Increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
• Take ginger (start with one capsule twice a day) and turmeric supplements (follow the dosage directions on the package).
• Protect yourself from harmful effects of stress, start by learning and practicing the 4-7-8 breathing exercise I recommend."

Chris Kresser's site has additional information.

• Removing Autoimmune Triggers

  • Gluten, iodine, stress and a leaky gut trigger an autoimmune response.

  • "Other potential triggers include estrogens, infectious agents, and environmental toxins. Estrogen fluctuations can trigger the gene expression of Hashimoto’s in the presence of inflammation and genetic susceptibility. In addition to turning on the genes associated with Hashimoto’s, estrogen surges have been shown to exacerbate the autoimmune attack on the thyroid."

• "Autoimmune thyroid disease has also been associated with a variety of infectious agents, including Rubella, Rubeolla, Epstein-Barr Virus, Retrovirus, Influenza B virus, Coxsakie virus and Yersinia."

• Enhancing Immune Function-"These strategies are all designed to enhance the function of regulatory T cells (also referred to as the Th3 system). Regulatory T cells are used to balance the activity between T-helper cells (Th1 & Th2) and T-suppressor cells (which “turn off” the immune attack)."

• Vitamin D has been shown to influence regulatory T cells.

• "The gut flora play a significant role in both cell-mediated (Th1) and humoral (Th2) immunity. Studies show that this protective role can be maintained and modulated by taking probiotics."

• "Acupuncture has recently been shown to regulate the Th1 and Th2 immune response. In this study of patients with depression, both Prozac and acupuncture were shown to reduce inflammation. But only acupuncture restored the balance between the Th1 and Th2 systems."

• Reducing Inflammation

• "Essential fatty acids (EFAs) play an important role in preventing and reducing inflammation."

Takeaway? Eat well, live well. :) And also, eliminate stress and toxins from your life as much as one can.

Your Friendly Uterii: A Commercial Interruption

I'm going to get down off of my soapbox for a post entirely about this new doctor I saw today. The last 'annual' I had was way back in February 2010 and then I had a c-section, became really sad, and have since dealt with a shitload of health problems.

Today I decided it was time for another 'annual' (or in my case, every-three-years-appointment) and went to the Gyno.

I chose to go to the University of Colorado hospital because a) I need to establish care with them if I ever have another baby, b) they have a great reputation for VBACs and c) they have a Center for Midwifery where people might respect my hippiness instead of ridiculing it.

The Physician's Assistant I saw today spent a long time getting my history and talking with me about what vitamins and minerals I'm taking. She even wrote down the name of my 'Thyroxal' supplement with a promise to Google it later and get the full list of what's in it.

Here are the awesome takeaways from my appointment:

• My uterus seems to be great!
• So do my ovaries. (Can you believe they grab them? Weird.)
• I am an awesome candidate for VBAC.
• The Center for Midwifery will 'almost certainly' take me on.
• They do pre-conception appointments so that I can talk to someone and make sure that I'm healthy enough to have a baby.

It was really encouraging. She even told me that it was a smart idea to go see an herbalist because..."Why not?"

And she also seemed supportive of my decision to (thus far) not go back to my endocrinologist because I know he wouldn't support me taking an herbal thyroid supplement instead of his prescription. I made sure she knew that if I can't figure this out naturally, then I will do what needs to be done for my body to be 'stable' and that I don't want to have a baby until that happens.

If that's not enough, she also asked if I was taking anything for my sometimes arthritis. I explained that it disappears totally when I have a normal TSH level. She got the idea about all the doctors I've seen and said that 'And every single one has a pill to offer for separate things, right?" And I was so happy I almost kissed her.

The End. :)

Puzzle Piece #4, Nutrients Necessary for Thyroid Health

I have a fantastical announcement to make from yesterday: I had normal poo! Let the celebrating begin...

...and end. My announcement from today is that I was up all night with the Big D and currently feel totally worn out. I have no idea what happened and because I'm still in my PJs (and it's 4:30 PM), I am just going to be content with the fact that it appears to have gotten better. Plus, I took some 'real drug' to stop it, so we'll see how that goes.

This post is going to be about foods, vitamins, and minerals that are supposed to help or hurt thyroid hormone production. This is interesting because, depending on what you're getting and not getting, you might be setting yourself up for thyroid problems or exacerbating the ones you already have.

One of my favorite sites, Women to Women, has a page about thyroid health. They have this AWESOME chart for things you should be eating (though there is some debate about Iodine, as you'll see). I love that is a food chart, instead of a recommendation for what multi-vitamin to buy (or worse, that they could sell you). It's just normal food. Imagine that.

Women to Women has this list of vitamins and minerals we should be getting:

• Iodine
• Selenium
• Zinc
• Iron
• Copper
• Antioxidants and B Vitamins

Other sites/studies back up at least some of these recommendations.

Goodies:

Selenium--In any awesome study entitled "Selenium supplementation in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis decreases thyroid peroxidase antibodies concentrations", it's illustrated that in people with Hashimoto's Disease, Selenium can help! The conclusion? "We conclude that selenium substitution may improve the inflammatory activity in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, especially in those with high activity." Selenium helps your body to regulate the immune system; it helps keep your immune system in line and not over active.

The study states that "In areas with severe selenium deficiency there is a higher incidence of thyroiditis due to a decreased activity of selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase activity within thyroid cells. Selenium-dependent enzymes also have several modifying effects on the immune system. Therefore, even mild selenium deficiency may contribute to the development and maintenance of autoimmune thyroid diseases."

Some of the posters I have run into online find that taking Selenium has largely helped their Hashimoto's symptoms disappear. Also, I posted before on how taking Selenium supplements helps women who have had postpartum thyroiditis in the past avoid having it (and avoid having a permanent thyroid problem) after subsequent pregnancies. That's powerful stuff!

B Vitamins--Interestingly enough, apparently people with hypothyroidism might also be deficient in B Vitamins. Particularly, B12. Here's a study on that: Vitamin B12 deficiency common in primary hypothyroidism. 40% of they hypothyroid patients looked at were deficient.

Mary Shomon, the About.com Thyroid Guide, has some more information about this. She fleshes out the study and includes symptoms of a B12 deficiency, how a B12 deficiency can contribute to anemia, you get the idea...

Vitamin D--In the article Vitamin D Deficiency and Thyroid Disease , a doc talks about how important Vitamin D is for your thyroid. It says "several articles published over 20 years ago showed that patients with hypothyroidism have low levels of vitamin D. This may lead to some of the bone problems related to hypothyroidism."

More from Mary Shomon on Vitamin D: An M.D. she interviews has this to say: "This particular vitamin is so crucial to thyroid function that its status has now been elevated by researchers to co-hormone. We now know that the variability of thyroid to work or not work in your body is dependent upon the presence of Vitamin D, making it not just of benefit, but absolutely essential."

Fish Oil--Another popular nutrient right now, the study Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases is probably just one among many about how great fish oil can be fore you.
"Animal experiments and clinical intervention studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and, therefore, might be useful in the management of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases."

They go on to say that "...arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and lupus erythematosis are autoimmune diseases characterized by a high level of IL-1 and the proinflammatory leukotriene LTB₄ produced by omega-6 fatty acids. There have been a number of clinical trials assessing the benefits of dietary supplementation with fish oils in several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in humans, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis and migraine headaches. Many of the placebo-controlled trials of fish oil in chronic inflammatory diseases reveal significant benefit, including decreased disease activity and a lowered use of anti-inflammatory drugs."

I think it's an important side-note that inflammatory processes are helped along (in part, of course) by Omega 6 fatty acids, those that we get a lot of through things like peanut butter, avocado, palm oil, soybean oil, corn oil, blah blah. So, be wary.

Baddies:


Potentially Kale and Cruciferous Veggies--Women to Women has info here too: "...there are hundreds, if not thousands of other compounds found in edible plants that inhibit the TPO enzyme. The isothiocyanates found in the Brassica family of vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and so on — can reduce thyroid hormone in the same way. An enlarged thyroid is sometimes referred to as a goiter, and these compounds are sometimes categorized as goitrogens." The author does NOT recommend cutting out all these foods, just making sure that you have enough iodine to bind to TPO enzymes and that you maybe cook some of them to inactivate the isothiocyanates.

A dissenting opinion on this can be found here (which I included for good measure).


Dr. Weil has some good info on this. How I love what that man stands for. Here he answers whether eating broccoli is bad for someone with a thyroid problem. The good doctors says "It is true that cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower contain natural chemicals called goitrogens (goiter producers) that can interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis. Other foods...include corn, sweet potatoes, lima beans, turnips, peanuts, cassava (YUCA), canola oil and soybeans. Fortunately, the goitrogens in these foods are inactivated by cooking, even by light steaming, so there is no need to forego the valuable antioxidant and cancer- protective effects cruciferous vegetables afford." Emphasis mine!

It seems like if you eat a lot of this stuff raw then you'll be getting a lot of anti-thyroid isothiocyanates. (I can't pronounce that, I just copy and paste. Curiously, blogger tells me the one above is spelled correctly but the one I just copied is spelled wrong. :)

Soy--From Women to Women: "Some studies have shown that the isoflavones in soybeans inhibit the enzyme responsible for adding iodine to thyroid hormone, thyroid peroxidase (TPO). These and other studies also demonstrate, however, that soy’s effect on the thyroid involves the critical relationship between your iodine status and thyroid function. This means that if you have low iodine in your body, the soy isoflavone could bond to what iodine you do have, leaving you with an inadequate reserve for thyroid hormone production. Evidence suggests that if you have sufficient iodine in your body, eating soy will most likely not be a problem."

Everything I have read says not to eat lots of soy when you take thyroid medication. Apparently this is because soy can bind to that TPO enzyme (which is the enzyme that assists the chemical reaction that adds iodine to a protein called thyroglobulin, a step in generating thyroid hormone). 

Gluten-- See previous post, Thyroids & Gluten Don't Mix, on this one! But Women to Women has a final word on gluten: "A distinct connection between celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and autoimmune thyroid issues has been observed, and many of my patients find that when they remove gluten-containing foods, they feel much better and notice fewer problems with their thyroid."

Good & Bad:

Iodine--My understanding of iodine is that it's good for normal hypothyroidism (i.e. not autoimmune), but can sometimes be bad for people with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Iodine is necessary for your body to make thyroid hormone. Too much iodine (paired with a Selenium deficiency) can indeed trigger autoimmune thyroiditis. But after you get your Selenium levels back up, it seems like it might be a good idea to make sure you're getting enough iodine.

Looking at both sides of this issue, here I present to you my FAVORITE article on this topic. On Perfect Health a guest author has written up a series of articles on how iodine works with selenium. The reason I was so impressed? These folks chased down a bunch of studies in mice and compared the results and then went on to extrapolate how that might work in humans (again, citing a bunch of studies).

Their conclusion: "Excess iodine intake can cause an autoimmune thyroiditis that bears all the characteristics of Hashimoto’s. However, in animal studies this occurs only if selenium is deficient or in excess. Similarly, in animal studies very high iodine intake can exacerbate a pre-existing autoimmune thyroiditis, but only if selenium is deficient or in excess. With optimal selenium status, thyroid follicles are healthy, goiter is eliminated, and autoimmune markers like Th1/Th2 ratio and CD4+/CD8+ ratio are normalized over a wide range of iodine intake. It seems that optimizing selenium intake provides powerful protection against autoimmune thyroid disease, and provides tolerance of a wide range of iodine intakes."

This natural doc, Jeffrey Dach, also agrees that iodine isn't to be shunned. He says that although iodine alone has been shown to worsen Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, "selenium deficiency is the underlying prerequisite for iodine induced thyroid damage in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Selenium supplementation is protective and prevents thyroid damage from iodine. Iodine opponents such as Dr K and Chris Kresser as well as the studies they quote tend to ignore the role of selenium."

Here's an opinion from someone who is clearly anti-iodine for people with autoimmune thyroiditis. I have liked Dr. Chris Kessler for other opinions, but the more research I did the more I have to admit that maybe he's not presenting the whole picture.

This blog has a list of good sources of iodine, in case you were curious whether or not you are getting enough. I haven't had iodized table salt in the house in awhile and we haven't eaten fast food in awhile. So, from what I can tell I'm not getting much iodine now. Who knows what my intake was before this whole mess..

The point--Eat well, live well. There are a lot of tiny nutrients that can make a big impact on your health.