Hashimoto’s Digestive Problems Fatigue Swelling Pain All Drastically Improved
Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Is No Big Deal – All Low Thyroid Patients Have It
Dr. Chris Heimlich, DC, DACNB Comments:
Now before I start getting the hate mail, hear me out. I just had another patient come in and tell me that her doctor had said that to her.
If you are suffering with any of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s, you know that it is a BIG DEAL.
Some of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s include:
- hair loss
- hair thinning
- constipation
- fatigue
- cold hands and feet
- sleep excessively to function
- brain fog, slow thinking
- dry skin, flaky skin
- occasional HYPERthyroid symptoms
In America the number one cause for low thyroid is an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.
This means that the number one cause for low thyroid n America is an autoimmune attack. Here are some examples of other autoimmune conditions: MS, rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus.
Meaning—your immune system has turned on you and is targeting your thyroid…and is killing it…. and that’s what’s causing you to be low thyroid.
And taking thyroid hormones will NOT do anything for this attack. You will continue to lose more and more of your thyroid.
But the standard of care for that is giving you thyroid hormones. I think you probably understand now that this not a thyroid hormone problem. That’s not the battle. The battle is an immune system battle; an autoimmune battle.
Here is a good way to think about the autoimmune attack on the body. It would be like coming into my office in shorts. You bring along your dog or cat. And it is just starts biting and scratching your legs, just really attacking you. I look at you and say “Gee, you have a leg problem. Here are some band-aids. Take these and put them on your legs. Here is a script of band-aids for the rest of your life for that leg problem. You may need more or less of them as you go through life. We will check on them every 3 to 6 months.
If I told you this, you would probably look at me like I had two heads. It wouldn’t make any sense. The animal attacking your legs is the problem, not the legs. It is the same thing with Hashimoto’s. The immune system attacking the thyroid is the problem, not the thyroid.
What most doctors are going to do for Hashimoto’s is monitor your TSH–thyroid stimulating hormone –level. They’re going to try to make it stay within a certain numerical range,—but that’s going to fluctuate all over the place and it’s not really getting to the problem.
The immune system will NOT only attack the thyroid, but it will start attacking the cells in the lining of your stomach that help you to be able to absorb B-12. When this happens you’ll end up getting pernicious anemia. Since 80% of neurotransmitters are created in the stomach, you can also get brain fog, memory loss, and other neurological symptoms.
The brain is also targeted by the immune system. It likes to attack the cerebellum. You can end up having vertigo, dizziness, and balance problems.
The immune system also attacks your pancreas and can make you start having diabetic symptoms, insulin problems, and adrenal issues.
Since every cell in the body has a thyroid receptor site, any part of your body can be attacked when the immune system no longer can tell what is friend and what it foe.
When most patients suffering from low thyroid symptoms learn about the autoimmune attack on the body, it makes perfect sense to them. It makes sense because that is how they feel. Like their body is being attacked.
Focusing the clinical management on slowing and modulating the autoimmune attack is crucial in Hashimoto’s Disease. How can you have a properly functioning thyroid if the body is continually attacking and killing it?
A functional approach to naturally supporting and modulating the immune system in autoimmune cases is the best way to help the body slow down or stop the attack on itself. Natural management of autoimmune conditions is complex. Support that is specific to the individual immune system is essential if you truly want to help Hashimoto’s Disease.
You have to find out how their immune system has shifted. Our immune systems have two parts: TH-1 and a TH-2. They are supposed to be balanced. If they are not, then we have a problem.
You have to find out which one of those has become abnormally dominant and why.
Is it because of an antigen? –something that the immune system has been trying to kill for so long that it’s increased its immune attack on this antigen and then it flipped the scales and now we have an autoimmune condition.
Or has the immune system become imbalanced because of disregulation. Hormonal surges can do this. Stress can do this. Blood sugar problems. Inflammation can do this.
So if you know someone that’s suffering with Hashimoto’s, or with low thyroid, and they don’t feel any better – even with thyroid medication – it is time to get them some help.
It’s time to find someone who can investigate this further.
There are millions of you out there right now that have this problem and you don’t know it.
It’s why you still have thyroid symptoms even though you’re taking medication–you have an autoimmune condition (whether diagnosed correctly or not).
And yes, it is A VERY BIG DEAL.
The Devastating Effect of Stress on Low Thyroid Patients
Dr. Chris Heimlich, DC, DACNB Comments
We all know stress is bad for us. There are thousands of books on the subject. But how does it relate to the way you are feeling when you have low thyroid symptoms?
First of all, when you are stressed, you release interleukin 17, or IL 17 for short. They are pro-inflammatory cytokines. That means they are highly inflammatory in nature. More inflammation means more symptoms and suffering.
As I have talked about in many other posts, the majority of people suffering with low thyroid symptoms in the United States have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. It is a condition where your thyroid tissue is attacked and destroyed by your own body. As you can imagine, when the body attacks itself, there is a large amount of inflammation produced. So when you release these other chemicals in the body that cause more inflammation, it only makes your symptoms worse.
Symptoms that are commonly associated with low thyroid or high TSH are:
- Often feeling cold
- Cold hands and feet
- High or rising cholesterol
- Constipation
- No eyebrows or thinning outer eyebrows
- Exhaustion in every dimension–physical, mental, spiritual, emotional
- Dry Hair
- Sore feet
- colitis
- irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- painful bladder
- Heart disease
- Hair Loss
- Requires naps in the afternoon
- Depression
- Raised temperature
- Headaches and migraines
- Joint pain
- Major anxiety/worry
- Acne on face and in hair
- Breakout on chest and arms
- Hives
- Bizarre and Debilitating reaction to exercise
- Hard stools
- Less stamina than others
- Less energy than others
- Long recovery period after any activity
- Chronic Low Grade Depression
- Palpitations
- Hard stools
- Dry cracking skin
- Insomnia
- Brain Fog
- Decreased sex drive
- Nausea
- Aching muscles
- Lack of motivation
- Swollen ankle
- Inability to lose weight (even with exercise and low calorie diet)
- Sleep Apnea
- Inability to get pregnant; miscarriages
So when you have any of these symptoms, and you get stressed out, it is like throwing gasoline on the fire.
Another reason that stress is bad for low thyroid sufferers is because the pituitary gland gets suppressed secondary to elevation of cortisol. Cortisol is produce by your adrenal glands and is released when you have stress. The adrenal glands are part of you autonomic nervous system. It is the system that has to do with fight or flight and with all the organs in the body, including the heart, lungs, stomach, GI system, pancreas, etc. What controls the autonomic nervous system? Your brain controls the autonomic nervous system, and the brain doesn’t like large fluctuations in the cortisol either.
Chronic stress can cause elevation in the cortisol which causes suppression of the pituitary and reduces the amount of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) released. I won’t get into all the pathways associated with the brain, thyroid, and adrenal glands because you don’t have to know them. But your doctor does.
Don’t go run out and buy supplements to support your adrenals. That mentality could just rob Peter to pay Paul. You have to look at how all of the body is functioning before you ever start thinking about supporting the adrenals.
The easy answer is to not get stressed out. ….but that is unrealistic.
The key to stress is finding a way to deal with it in an appropriate manner.
Find something that you enjoy and that relaxes you, and then do it on a daily basis. Some of you reading this are probably saying that you love to exercise, but can’t due to fatigue, pain, etc. I understand. There is another key to stress.
The other key to stress is finding out why you are not feeling the way you should. It is not normal to have symptoms.
You need to find a doctor that understands what we have talked about and who can look over your lab results, sit down and listen to your symptoms, examine you, and come up with a way to get your body to heal itself back up, the way it was designed to do. You need a doctor that will look at everything happening in your body- not just your thyroid or adrenals.
Low Thyroid Hormone and Dietary Fish Oil
Dr. Chris Heimlich, DC, DACNB Comments:
I just read an article on dietary fish oils and thyroid hormones from The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. They discussed the effects of fish oil on thyroid hormone signaling in the liver.
From my other blogs you may recall that 60% of inactive thyroid hormone (T4) is converted to the active form (T3) by the liver. So it is paramount for your thyroid health, as well as the rest of your body’s health to have a properly functioning liver. I will discuss this in greater length in a future post.
Of course cost of fish oils fan fair comes from the benefits it has on the heart. Consumption of dietary fish oils can lower triglycerides and increase “good” cholesterol. It can also slow hardening of arteries and slightly lower blood pressure.
Omega-3 fatty acids are not only good for the heart; they also help to reduce inflammation. This is perhaps one of the most valuable benefits of the Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, as inflammation is associated with many serious diseases. Heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, psoriasis, and Alzheimer’s, for example, are characterized by increased levels of pro-inflammatory markers. Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil reduce inflammation by preventing production of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules. This may help to prevent serious illness associated with inflammation.
Did you catch the part about autoimmune disease? That is what most people in the United States with low thyroid symptoms have. They have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. If this is new news to you, check out my other blogs. I talk about this extensively on my blogs.
As if the benefits of fish oil on heart health and arthritis were not enough, it is believed that fish oil also helps with anti-aging as well. Omega-3 fatty acids slow the rate at which protective caps on the end of chromosomes shorten, thus increasing the lifespan of cells.
Fish oils have also been shown to help prevent Alzheimer’s, depression, and other mental illnesses. Omega-3 fatty acids may help to regulate hormones in the brain to help with mental clarity.
Prolonging the life of cells is not the only anti-aging benefit of fish oil. Fish oil has also been shown to significantly reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.
Fish oil has also been shown to be beneficial to pregnant women and the unborn child. The benefits to the unborn child are numerous and include: a healthier brain with increased intelligence; good nervous system development; better eyesight from retina formation; fewer behavioral problems after birth; and better sleeping patterns as a new born. The mother also receives benefits from her consumption of fish oil. These benefits include: a lower chance of developing preeclampsia; a decreased chance of preterm labor; and a greatly reduced incidence of breast cancer. The reason fish oil is so beneficial to the unborn child is because 70% of a newborn’s brain, retina and nervous system are made up of the Omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA. Therefore, increasing the amount of these fatty acids present in the mother’s diet, and therefore being given to her unborn child, aides in the child’s development of the brain, retina and nervous system.
With all that said, that is why I recommend fish oils or essential fatty acids for most everyone in our office. I know that is a bit of a blanket statement, and you should consult your health care practitioner before starting any supplementation, especially if you are suffering with low thyroid symptoms.
Skin Problems, Energy, Weight Symptoms Better After Years of Hashimoto’s Low Thyroid
The #1 Cause of Hypothyroidism or Low Thyroid is Autoimmune
Dr. Chris Heimlich, DC, DACNB, Arizona Thyroid Doctor Comments:
If you suffer from low thyroid symptoms, there is a very high chance you have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. We have talked about it on other posts. Hashimoto’s is a condition where the body attacks the thyroid. Unfortunately, it tends to attack other parts of the body as well. These parts include the brain, pancreas, GI system, and others.
It is common knowledge that most endocrinologists and researchers consider low thyroid symptoms or hypothyroidism synonymous with Hashimoto’s. One thing you have to realize is that if you do have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, you are more likely to have other types of autoimmune conditions because they tend to run in packs.
There are over 100 autoimmune conditions and this number is growing.
We are going to take a look at some of the factors on why these numbers are growing. Now, normally the immune system recognizes what is self and what is not self. And anything, which isn’t self, is not tolerated and it is attacked. The key word here is identified. So we have to see why is the body not identifying itself as normal? That is the million-dollar question.
A big reason is genetics. If mom has thyroid problems, the daughter is probably going to have thyroid problems and the granddaughter is probably going to have thyroid problems. I see three generations of women in here sometimes from all over the place that have thyroid issues. So that is one of the reasons.
Some of the other reasons that cause this blurriness of the line between self-tolerance and non self-tolerance, well, it could be infections. So now I’m referring to chronic types of things: bacterial, viral, or parasitic. You could have bacteria or yeast infections causing these different radicals in the body, causing a whole different cascade of inflammation to go on.
Other factors include old age, stress, and lack of sleep, hydrogenated oils, junk food diet, physical trauma, and systemic acid in your body.
Researchers are also discussing that pesticides could also play a big role on this too. Plastics and food allergies can also contribute to the rise in auto immune. There are some suggestions as far as vaccines and low vitamin D causing these types of problems.
Auto immune conditions can cause poor digestion. Why is that? Because about fifty-seventy percent of our immune system by weight is in our gut, it’s in our gastrointestinal system. You may be able to relate to this if you have constipation, upset stomach, diarrhea, taking medications for heart burn or other digestive problems. These can accompany other thyroid symptoms like your hair falling out, fatigued, lethargy, cold hands and feet, and depression.
You know what, there are things we can do to test to see if you have any of these things going on in your gut. There are tests that you can do. There are stool tests and there are – some of them out there are really great. Others of them out there, you might as well just save your pennies. They are really lacking.
I’m going to be going over that in another post. I have a new post coming out that will talk about the differences the tests. Some doctors will just do a little testing or they’ll do a different type of test that maybe antiquated – why? Well, they probably just don’t know any better. They probably haven’t done any of the recent research in the past five, ten, twenty years – maybe they haven’t really done anything. They may just be doing what everyone else is doing and that is the problem.
You have to constantly educate yourself as a healthcare provider because there is more and more information out there. You’ve got to find someone who understands about the autoimmune conditions.
If you’re suffering with low thyroid symptoms, you’ve got to get tested.
Then once you get tested, you have to find someone who knows how to help you and how to manage that.
Just taking thyroid medication is just a small piece of the puzzle. Is it important? Yeah. But is it going to make you feel optimal? No. If it did, you’d be out there enjoying life right now, you wouldn’t be watching this video. You’d feel as though you had control over your life. So get out there and find a doctor who understands what we’ve talked about and take control of your health.
If You Suffer From Low Thyroid Symptoms, Never Do This
Never Order Thyroid Medication On Your Own
Here is how bad it is for some women suffering with low thyroid symptoms. One of my long time patients brought her daughter in to see me this morning. Actually, her daughter brought her in. Betty is 87 years young. It had been years since I saw her daughter and she just wanted checked out for some musculoskeletal complaints. As I was doing a consultation and examination with her, I noticed she was presenting with symptoms and neurological signs that were consistent with hypothyroidism. I was able to uncover complaints of being tired all the time, fatigue, cold all the time, some weight gain, tingling in the hands, and joint pain. As I dug a little deeper I told her she needed to get her thyroid checked out because it sounded like she had low thyroid or Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.
She told me she thought she had thyroid problems for years and was checked out for it last summer. She had asked her doctor for years and he finally did a blood test and told her she was fine. She was told not to worry about the symptoms she was having and that they were not related to her thyroid and she should just learn to live with them.
She didn’t like his response. She had done some reading in the net and knew she had almost all the signs of hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. She had also read that your TSH could be in the “normal” limits and you could still feel cruddy.
Unfortunately she had not told me anything that I don’t already hear on a daily basis. But what she said next nearly floored me. She said:
“I ordered some thyroid medication from Canada and I am going to try them out to see if I feel better.”
Of course I told her that under no circumstance should she do that. I don’t make blanket statements often, but I don’t think anyone should order any medication, let alone thyroid medication without a prescription from a doctor.
Now this lady is a smart, educated woman. I would have never expected her to do such a thing. It just shows how desperate she is to be able to feel normal again. How frustrated she is with the type of care that she had received. She feels jaded and doesn’t know what to do. The place that she trusts with her health has told her to just live with it.
Her statement made me realize that more women must be out there feeling the same way. So if this has happened to you, don’t take matters into your own hand and order up thyroid medication off of the net or anywhere else. This is something that has to be monitored by your physician.
Part of the problem for this woman was that she only had her TSH tested. I have talked in other posts how important it is to get not only the TSH tested, but also the rest of a thyroid panel. And you can’t just stop there if you want to find out what is contributing to the thyroid not working properly. You have to look at what the rest of the non-thyroid blood markers are, like blood sugar, adrenals, liver, etc. You have to look at the thyroid antibodies. You also have to look and see what other factors can be contributing to inflammation in your system and how the immune system is working. So in essence you have to look at the health of the patient, not just their thyroid.
Why? For starters, every cell in the body has a thyroid receptor site. That means that you can have all type of symptoms from thyroid dysfunction. Also, almost every system in the body has a direct or indirect feedback loop with the thyroid. That means a problem with the adrenals, for example, can cause the thyroid to look bad, even if the thyroid isn’t the problem. It can get pretty complicated when you look at all the factors that contribute to the thyroid functioning properly.
You should not have to scour the net to try to learn all of this information. You doctor should know this.
It boils down to finding a doctor that knows what we just talked about and understands that you can still feel crummy, even though you don’t have a high TSH on your labs. Find a doctor that knows there are many other factors that play into the health of your thyroid. One who is willing to examine you, look at all your health factors, and help you get your body to heal itself back up the way it was designed too.
Can Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroiditis Be Cured?
Dr. Chris Heimlich DC, Director of the Arizona Thyroid Institute in Scottsdale, AZ Answers a Common Question Asked By Women Suffering With Low Thyroid:
Here is a question I get asked a lot. Can you cure Hashimoto’s? When I get asked this question, I always tell the patient about Dr. Hawkinson. He was one of my instructors in school and he would always drill into our heads that-
“You only cure two things: bacon and ham. The power that created the body will heal the body. Your job as a doctor is to figure out why the body isn’t healing itself, remove any road blocks that are stopping it, help support it when necessary, and let it do what it was intended to do. “
So the answer is “no”. You cannot cure Hashimoto’s.
But…Can the symptoms of Hashimoto’s be reversed? YES!
Now Hashimoto’s is a genetic condition. That means you get it from your parents. It usually happens at three different times in a woman’s life: puberty, pregnancy, and perimenopause. And at these times your epigenetic factor can get turned on and your body has an auto immune response to your thyroid.
That means that your body starts to attack your thyroid and starts destroying it.
Now I know there are a few doctors out there saying that they can cure Hashimoto’s. That is not the case. Many times what they will do is look at the TSH level and when it goes back into the normal level they will say that the Hashimoto’s is cured. That is not the case. You can look at a woman’s TSH level throughout the year without treatment and it can bounce up and down. The same is true for antibody levels. They can fluctuate as well. That is why we are lucky when we test antibodies and they show positive. An estimated 15% of woman that have Hashimoto’s will not even show the antibodies on the blood test. That means they don’t make the antibodies.
So what do you have to do to help these ladies with Hashimoto’s? Well you have to help with reversing the symptoms; the constipation, fatigue, dry skin, cold hands and feet, brittle hair or hair falling out. You can reverse those symptoms. That can be done without question. So how do you reverse the symptoms? How do you do that? Well, the first thing you have to do is find a doctor that understands that Hashimoto’s is an auto immune condition. You have to look at gut toxicity, T cells, B cells, vitamin D and food sensitivities, blood sugar, adrenals, and all the stuff that plays a role in the immune function.
If your doctor is not trained in that and is not schooled in those ways, they are not going to be able to offer much help in reversing those symptoms.
So don’t get caught up in the idea of having to cure your Hashimoto’s. That is not possible. But it is possible to reverse the symptoms. You can be better. You can feel better.
What if you could to feel 70%, 80% or 90% better and your Hashimoto’s had not been cured?
Would that be worth it? Of course it would. So can you reverse the symptoms of Hashimoto’s? Yes you can, as long as your doctor knows how to help you.