Hello ladies and gentle welcome to my TED talk !! just kidding that’s for another day. Let’s talk about something very important. Stat shows that up to 60 million people in the US have thyroid disease and out of those majority are women if you didn’t know. Thanks to our pregnancy hormones, birth control (read why I never took it), menopause, and menstrual cycle.
However, men do have thyroid as well and my husband is one of them. When we met I knew he had some health issue going on but I wasn’t sure what so we did a comprehensive blood panel and his TSH was off the roof. The next thing I did got him an endocrinologist and those of you who went to the endocrinologist know that they’ll NEVER test you for HYPO or HYPER because their line of treatment doesn’t change. All they learned is to give you med, and Erol just Thyroxine I believe too, that’s it. I knew in my heart that was NOT the solution so after 3 months he stopped the medicine completely as he was having heart palpitations.
Then I took my old favorite natural route and start searching for a naturopath. We found one and did an initial meeting and he confirmed Erol has Hypothyroidism. He also had a C-reactive protein test which showed he had some inflammation which I knew is there. Inflammation means your immune system is constantly at work. From there forward I changed everything around his diet except his meats as loves meat and it’s good for him. First thing first I took away dairy, gluten, and carbs as much as we could. He’s doing much better but it’s a journey that continues until his hypothyroid goes into complete remission. His recent tests showed normal liver enzymes ALT and AST (ALT were elevated) which is a huge step forward.
Here are some of the things I did after so much research and using my own nutrition knowledge as well which you NEED to focus on if you want your thyroid to heal. I’m not a thyroid specialist but anyone can do simple things to heal themselves.
- Leave those PROCESSED CARBS AND SUGARS forever like there are no ifs and buts if you want to heal yourself from any kind of inflammation. Inflammation is the beginning of all diseases in our bodies. Recent research shows cancer, Alzheimer’s, tumors, etc all start from inflammation. Instead try these if you have sweet tooth. keto banana bread keto cream cheese bites
- EAT WHOLESOME FOOD. The one you find in nature, not in factories, is simple as that. Instead of protein powder eat the whole steak with full fat. Instead of sugary candy, eat a date, a fig, or an apple (not if you are diabetic)
- Get your BLODD SUGAR in control. First thing I got Erol checked on his HA1C levels. His were slightly elevated. Healthy adults shouldn’t have blood sugar above 5 (even 5 is not good) and he was in the prediabetic range. Research shows that up to 80 percent of Americans are metabolically sick. Let that sink in. It means the majority of our population has blood sugar imbalances which means your whole health is jeopardized. Your hormones, your mood, your mental health, and your chances of getting pregnant as well if you’re a woman and much more.
- DON’T CONSUME VEGETABLE/SEED OILS. Now guess which products have seed oils? any snack or sweets that you can put your hand on in your local grocery store I promise.
- LEARN TO READ INGREDIENTS. This is what we found out from our experience if we want to eat healthily we HAVE to know what we are eating.
- Eat HEALTHY FATS to balance out the hormones and nourish your brain and body. Healthy fats include your regular grass-fed animal fat, olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and ghee (these I use and I grew up on animal fat and ghee).
- Last but the MOST IMPORTANT, HEAL YOUR GUT. It’s simpler than you think. EAT WHOLE FOODS and avoid sugar like pague. If your guts bacteria are healthy (which is only possible from fresh whole foods) you are healthy. For example, rather than a corn dog (God knows what that is. All I know it’s some processed crap) make a ground beef or a lamb marinated in ghee with fresh ginger, parsley, lemon, and some spices (ha I made it today..so delicious) OR this takes only 15 min Mediterranean Tuna Salad
I decided to create rather series of these blog posts since it is an ongoing process and I am purely sharing my personal experience of me helping my husband with thyroid and meal plans etc, so I will continue to share what supplements he’s taking and what tests should you ask from your docs (no they won’t order, you have to ask).
Till then take care and feel free to ask any questions you might have!!!
Love,
Nimra
