Wondering what knowledgeable people here think of this article........

[Firinne]

healthimpactnews.com/2013/g... I have been using coconut oil for about a month as I read it was good for bowel problems - I get occasional episodes of diverticulitis. I came across this article recently and was wondering what you think of it in relation to the thyroid.

[humanbean]

I don't believe in miracle cures. I use coconut oil myself - I have a big chunk of it in my porridge with breakfast instead of sugar - and I love it. I do feel more energetic when I include it in my diet and it hasn't caused any increase (or decrease for that matter) in my weight. However, I wouldn't say it was a substitute for my medication, and anyone who believed this might be in for a very unpleasant and rude awakening.

Perhaps if someone was really, really just on the cusp of needing thyroid meds then they might be able to stave it off with a change in diet - going gluten-free for instance. I wonder how many people ever catch thyroid problems at that stage though - probably very few given the reluctance of doctors to diagnose it.

For anyone with advanced destruction of the thyroid gland though this idea of substituting medication with coconut oil, in my opinion, is dangerous nonsense.

[gabkad in reply to humanbean]

Snake oil, coconut oil..........

There really is no such thing as 'virgin' coconut oil. Or 'extra virgin'. That's just a marketing term to increase sales of the product that has not been filtered and purified and deodorized to the same extent as the stuff that has no coconut smell whatsoever.

There's some blahblah about how in the Philipines the rate of hyperthyroidism is relatively high and it's coconut to blame. How about the fact that Philipinos eat the whole fish, whole chicken thyroid included? Eat enough fish thyroids every day and you'll get a dose for sure. All those little dried fish that people eat still retain their thyroid glands. One fish may not be much, but 20 fish may be plenty.

Using fish bones (head) to make soup broth also introduces lots of fluoride. So there's a competition between halides going on.

[Firinne in reply to gabkad]

Hyperthyroidism increased......that's interesting. Maybe there's a balance......I have no intention of going off my meds of course but wondering what my next blood tests results will be. Thanks for the replies and thoughts even though most are on the negative side

[Heloise]

I bought my first jar of coconut oil probably ten years ago after reading of its benefits. I think the article supports much of what I have come to believe from alternative areas of health. I've been posting short videos which go along with the other factors underlying thyroid disease also ring very true to me. Inflammatory cytokines (#20 in the list of #22) reasons for low thyroid.

youtube.com/watch?v=ljRWZ9g...(Not working as expected?)

[Firinne in reply to Heloise]

Wow! That's very much along the lines of the way I see this very complex subject. Makes so much sense, very well explained here. Many thanks, Heloise.

[Heloise in reply to Firinne]

If you click on the YouTube icon at bottom you can see what he says about the other 21 reasons for low thyroid. All very sharp.

I've also encountered a theory that auto immune problems may actually begin in the hypothalamus from an overload of stress. The theory is that back in the day, a night's sleep would relieve the stored stress but now we have stressed our bodies in too many ways....chemically and biologically with all the toxins that have developed in the modern era.

If you want to delve into it Dr. Herbert Benson wrote a book about it. His discovery of the "relaxation response" has been used to combat all sorts of ailments. This was back in the eighties and just recently has been catching on as stress reduction techniques attempt to capture this relaxation response with an aid to healing.

[Firinne in reply to Heloise]

I will look in to that, many thanks again, Heloise.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

If you read up on the autonomic nervous system, it seems that immune problems, allergies and others start there. That would also cover bad bacteria as the nervous system would also be trying to combat them. The articles by Dr L. Wilson and the ARL.com article are very informative.

I had a hair mineral analysis done in Germany which indicated that I was low on cobalt, boron, vanadium and molybdenum and they told me what foods contained those. I had second hair test I had done by Trace Elements in the US, because the German one did not test sodium, potassium or sulphur.

That test result was very indepth and they said I was Parasympathetic Dominant, which appears to be at or near the end of the road, and that I would be a slow metabolizer with a tendency toward decreased thyroid function and decreased adrenal function (reduced secretion of hormones. My sodium, potassium and phosphorus levels were very low.

Their dietary suggestions were very indepth, among which ere avoid all sugars and refined carbohydrates and high purine proteins and reduce fruit juice and fats and oils intake and reduce or avoid milk and milk products.

So you need to know exactly what your mineral ratios are to know what you need to eat.

After that test my herbalist recommended I take fossil shell flour (Diamataceous Earth) for cleansing. I had 1 tspn in water and got a horrific tooth ache. I retried another tspn 10 days later and got an even worse toothache and then I went into an out of control situation where I would feel okay and then eat and then I would feel faint. From there I went to where a had trouble swallowing high vitamin A foods.

I had another hair analysis done and it came back that I was a fast metabolizer and my sodium and potassium levels were way too high.

I am going through a similar thing at present after having antibiotics (Amoxycillan).

I am having another hair sample taken tomorrow to send to Trace Elements as I don't know whether the sodium and potassium levels are too high or too low this time.

I recently bought a jar of coconut oil from the health food shop. The cheap ones you can buy apparently have trans fats in them.

I read that Candida bacteria have very hard shells and that coconut oil is able to break down the shells and kill the Candida. Apparently it is vey hard to kill because of the hard shells.

I have used a little of the coconut oil but am going slowly with it as you have to be sure your gallbladder and liver are able to handle saturated fats. The biochemical tissue salt Kali Mur (potassium chloride) helps when you have problems after a fatty meal. Apparently hydrocholoric acid is made up of sodium chloride and potassium chloride so it points to low stomach acid.

I was going to try the GAPS diet but I made chicken broth with chick drumsticks so had all the fat and whatever from the bones but then had no bowel actions for 3 days. I am usually regular every day. I also tried brisket bones and had no bowel actions for 2 days.

I read that if there are not enough nutrients in the body the liver will squeeze every little things out of the food and that that causes the lack of bowel actions.

Unfortunately after I had the last 2 hair tests done I did not heed their advice and started eating too many refined carbohydrates and sugar.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Hi sicktoo, that was very interesting. I wonder how accurate these analyses are, especially when you have opposing views. Then there is the krebs cycle which I've tried to grasp but there are so many chain reactions and interfering with any one of them may skew everything.

The doctor's bulletin board I followed for ten years stuck with three main principles of which skilled relaxation was one of them (a whole foods diet and some form of aerobic exercise 3 times per week, the other two).

This way the body could come into a healing state and start regulating, for instance your minerals might correct. He didn't believe in a lot of supplements but magnesium was one of them because usually you need more under stress.

There was also the question of which metabolic type are you. There were two farmers, they were meat and potato eaters but one was healthy and the other sickly. The reason being that one was an agriculturalist and was eating against his type. Perhaps that's why the GAP diet didn't sit well with you.

He also believed in liver flushes and had many patients do them rather than gall bladder surgery. I used to find relief with lecithin tablets. But no longer have that problem.

Diatemacious earth is a good thing and also kills fleas. Nystatin will kill candida.

The doctor has since died but Dr. Mercola and Dr. Jonathan Barron have internet newsletters which bring out new research regarding integrative medicine.

Hope you are not sick for too much longer.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Hi Heloise. By opposing views do you mean different labs doing hair testing? The German lab test pointed me in the right direction but I started supplementing Molyzinc (molybdenum with zinc), also MSM sulphur compound which is recommended by the Scleroderma Foundation. I should have just had it every other day but took it daily for several months.

When I got the results for my first test from the US my molybdenum level was just going into the high range but my zinc was mid reference range and sulphur still low.

The test results (Dec. 2012) did indicate decreased thyroid and adrenal function and I have had a goitre since about 2000 so the test result was spot on. I have had Raynauds since 2003 and was diagnosed with Scleroderma in Jan 2010 although my GP at the time thought I had it before it actually showed up in my blood test.

I have read that your body heals from the top to the bottom, from the inside to the outside and works from the last health problem back to the initial problem. From that I would be expecting to see improvements in the Scleroderma and Raynauds first.

When I had the analaphylactic reaction to Amoxycillin I had been eating a lot of refined foods, biscuits, lollies. Two nights previous to the reaction I got very itchy legs at the bottom of the shin bone.

I had been eating double chock cookies and feel that is what caused the itchiness. I had the tablet and ate barbecue chicken and a double choc cookie and immediately had the reaction to the antibiotic. I bought the barbecue chicken not realising it was laced with flavour enhancers and all the other things I will not touch. I only found out when I went back to where I bought it and asked how they cooked their chickens.

I am not sure what upset me with the Diamataceous Earth but it supposed to be 98% silica but I found a lab analysis and it is always very high in magnesium and iron which could have thrown the other electrolytes out of balance. Also I might have been highly toxic and did not drink enough water or maybe my liver just could not handle it.

My herbalist could not understand it but I must be 1 in a million who just cannot have it.

At present my body cannot handle fruit. It apparently does not want the fructose. I was having stewed apple and my face was going red and forehead itchy and stopped having it. I tried some rockmelon (cantaloupe) last week and did not go as red in the face but my forehead went very itchy.

My body is supersentive and from the articles I suggested you read on the Autonomic Nervous System that answers the questions. My body is still able to repair itself as it is telling me without any iffs or butts what it does not want.

Since the antibiotic reaction I have had spider veins on my chest. I read that that indicates the liver has problems, although my finger nails and hair always grow quite fast.

Since I have been gluten, wheat, yeast, sugar and fructose free my bowel actions have been better than they used to be. My lips were very tight from the scleroderma and now my bottom lip is almost back to normal and my upper lip is improving also but at a slower rate. Also varicose veins on the inside of my inner upper left leg have decreased in size.

On and off I can see things without my glasses that I could not see before.

So little things are improving. The only thing is my skin is very dry. It could be low sodium, not enough water or again the liver over worked.

I can rest assured that my hair test result will tell me what my soduim level is at a cellular level and I can go from there.

I don't know if I mentioned that blood test results will be different from hair test results because one is the levels in the blood and the other is the level in the cells. This is where mainstream medicine is lacking in most cases. The Schuessler biochemical tissue salts also bridge the gap as the handbook gives hundreds of symptoms and tells you which particular cell salt you need.

My saliva is often frothy which indicates I need Nat Mur (sodium chloride) even though I am having plenty of celtic sea salt with my meals. If you have too much normal salt, the Nat Mur balances that out.

I hope all this info can help a lot of other people as I have delved into this, that and every other thing and know from hard experience that the mineral hair test and expertise along with biochemical cell salts will be the life saving line of attack for me.

The main thing is to take away all foods that are well known to cause allergies for a while and then adding one at a time and see if there is a response of any type by the body.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Yes, lab tests. I wonder how accurate or helpful they are. I'm not familiar with tissue salts and I haven't seen any links. And then the effectiveness of supplements for any given person. I've read the MSM works for about 50% of the people.

I'm glad you are finding improvement.

Have you thought about low dose naltrexone? It would be wonderful if your cell salts would work and if so, you'll have to report your progress.

Often starting with an elimination diet is a wise thing so you can see what you are sensitive to. I don't think they are true allergies for the most part but triggers for what ails you.

Were you talking about kinesiology?

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

The lab tests are very accurate if the hair sample is not washed by the lab before testing. Also hair that has been coloured cannot be used but pubic hair can be used in those cases.

I would thoroughly recommend Trace Elements in the US. I have my hair sample posted from Australia by my herbalist to InterClinical Laboratories Pty. Ltd. in Sydney, Australia.

For the German test a company in Sydney sent me the kit and I posted it back to them and they sent it to Germany.

My herbalist sent the US one for me but no doubt that could be sent to me by mail also.

If you google hair mineral analysis you can see what is available in UK? No doubt Trace Elements have a company there who act for them.

I don't know what naltrexone is but I cant even take paracetamol without getting a worse ache than I had initially. For that reason all I take is water or the tissue salts. If you google Schuessler Biochemical Tissue Salts there is quite a lot of info you can read.

I was using New Era brand from England because they are smaller and you take 4 instead of the 1 and I give them to my dogs if they have various symptoms and they just dissolve on the tongue.

The Schuessler ones are larger and you take one but but you either have to chew them or suck them for some time. For the dogs I crush them and give them a 1/4 tablet.

I have one dog who goes very stiff in his back especially in rainy weather and he improves within hours. I give him Mag Phos.

When I was first diagnosed with Raynauds, the GP I was seeing back then prescribed something. I don't remember what and I have lost the piece of paper from the box. I only took one tablet and I was basically on my back in bed for weeks. I remember all I had to eat during that time was jelly. I used to drink it before it set.

I went to a different doctor and told her about the tablet and she said that 1 tablet could not cause the problem I experienced.

As I said I am super super sensitive to things. At least I am apparently not lactose intolerant because the cell salts have a very small amount of lactose although there are sprays for anyone who is lactose intolerant.

I agree with you I am probably not allergic to anything as I don't get big red welts on my skin. Just a lot of itching and tiny lumps. Usually Nat Phos gets rid of the redness (balances acid) and Calc. Phos and or Kali Phos for the itch.

I showed my doctor some little red spots on my hands that appear where the itchiness occurred and he said he had no idea what it was.

At the moment the tops of my feet are itchy and I hav little red spots there. I think it is toxins coming out of the skin.

I read that when the liver is overloaded and cant get rid of toxins quickly enough that the body gets rid of them through the skin.

I am trying to drink a lot of water but if I go over about 4 or 5 glasses I get a really stiff neck, almost migraine. The stiff neck thing has been going on for years. I thought I finally worked out that too much Vitamin A was the culprit (orange foods sweet potatoes, apricots, etc plus sardines). All I can think is that my sodium is low and too much water is diluting it further. Sodium and calcium are antaganosts of Vitamin A so it is making sense that if the sodium is diluted by the water then I get the stiff neck, and too much Vitamin A is competing against sodium. Only thing if I take Nat Mur can increase and not subside. I am still trying to get to the bottom of it and work out the jigsaw.

Where are you in the UK. My maternal grandfather was born in Devon and other ancestors came from the Manchester area. Also an ancestor from Renfrewshire in Scotland. My paternal grandmother came from Derry in Northern Ireland.

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Oh, homeopathics! I am in the U.S. and didn't recognize the term of tissue salts. I know they make you feel worse before you feel better but a month in bed is going too far I would think. I do believe they can be effective if you choose the correct one.

I also think kinesiology or muscle testing can identify sensitivities if your practitioner is good.

You are right, it is a puzzle and trial and error is probably as good as anything else.

Best wishes on accomplishing that.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

I forget to add that I have been having quite a lot of extra virgin olive oil, just the Coles homebrand one and I am doing really well on it

I just noticed that my first hair test from the US said to avoid high dietary fat until their next evaluation and the list included coconut oil.

It is worth trying just a little and see if you tolerate it. If you tolerate other fats it should be okay.

I am eating a lot of brown/yellow onions and cook them with some olive oil or sometimes coconut oil.

Once or twice a week I put a teaspoon or so on my rice and vegies.

[shaws Administrator]

This is an extract from a conversation between Mary Shomon of Thyroidabout.com and Dr Ray Peat plus other interesting comments. I doubt if you can do away with thyroid gland hormones:

Mary Shomon: You are a proponent of coconut oil for thyroid patients. Can you explain why?

Dr. Ray Peat: An important function of coconut oil is that it supports mitochondrial respiration, increasing energy production that has been blocked by the unsaturated fatty acids. Since the polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit thyroid function at many levels, coconut oil can promote thyroid function simply by reducing those toxic effects. It allows normal mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, without producing the toxic lipid peroxidation that is promoted by unsaturated fats.

Mary Shomon: Do you have any thoughts for thyroid patients who are trying to do everything right, and yet still can't lose any weight?

Dr. Ray Peat: Coconut oil added to the diet can increase the metabolic rate. Small frequent feedings, each combining some carbohydrate and some protein, such as fruit and cheese, often help to keep the metabolic rate higher. Eating raw carrots can prevent the absorption of estrogen from the intestine, allowing the liver to more effectively regulate metabolism. If a person doesn't lose excess weight on a moderately low calorie diet with adequate protein, it's clear that the metabolic rate is low. The number of calories burned is a good indicator of the metabolic rate. The amount of water lost by evaporation is another rough indicator: For each liter of water evaporated, about 1000 calories are burned

thyroid-info.com/articles/r...

[Firinne in reply to shaws]

Thanks, shaws - very interesting.

[Hidden]

I recommend that you google Autonomic Nervous System Health/Dr L Wilson and also Keeping your Autonomic Nervous System Health by Lawrence Wilson MD - 2 similar articles by same person. Also ARL: Nutritional Causes of Allergies at Arltma.com. Then it would be wise to get a hair mineral analysis done.

I am in Australia but have had a couple done by Trace Elements in the US. The last one was $120 Australian but it is well worth it. You can see what minerals are high or low and what the different ratios are. They also recommend a diet to help balance the body.

It seems that when our autonomic nervous system is out of whack that we get all sorts of diseases and allergies. It is the body trying to repair itself.

I hope this helps.

[Firinne in reply to Hidden]

Thanks so much, sicktoo - will have a look.

[Hidden in reply to Firinne]

I hope that my information can help a lot of people on the road to getting their lives back on track.

[Hidden]

If you take a look at Acu-cell.com you will see how intricate mineral interactions are and what a snowballing effect it can have if you supplement something which is not needed. Last year I had a blood test which showed my minerals were all at perfect levels in my bloodstream. But at cellular level it was a different story which was indicated by the hair mineral analysis.

Minerals work in pairs and also are antagonist or synergistic. Without a hair analysis it is like trying to win lotto. You could go on forever having the wrong combination of minerals.

[Firinne in reply to Hidden]

Good information, thank you.

[Hidden]

I have always been aware that coconut oil raises your LDL cholesterol,so have always used it, with this in mind.

If they don't like this misconception regarding LDL then do all the necessary tests to prove otherwise.

Thank you for the article.