Whole food plant-based diet seems to have helped

[papamoon]

Hello All,

I'm new here. I wanted to briefly describe my journey for you, then share a bit of good news to encourage.

I'm 57, and was diagnosed with hypothyroid 10 years ago. (Frankly, I may have had it much earlier, as my "bounce" went missing around age 31-32.) My TSH number at diagnosis was in the 19.5 range. (They say 0.4 - 4.0 normal).

The doc started me off at 50 mg. levothyroxine. My TSH first shot up a bit, then came down to the 7.5 range. The doc increased the dose to 100 mg, then to 112 mg, which brought me down to the 5.5 range. Good enough, said the doc, and this has been my holding pattern for five years.

Until this year that is. I just tested at 0.95 TSH.

What's different? Food. A buddy of mine had heart trouble, his doc suggested that a plant-based, whole food diet might help reverse his heart disease, so he took the plunge -- and I decided to support him by doing the same.

I always meant to eat in this manner anyway -- and I had begun to experience joint pain since mid-2015 (knees, hips, and most especially my hands), which was a fearsome reminder that both my parents had rheumatoid arthritis, and at my age my dad was quite crippled with it. I'm at a fairly normal weight, but it was getting hard to walk down hills, I lost the ability to fully squat, and the fingers of my left hand were getting crunchy and triggering.

To be clear, I'm not strictly vegan. But less than 5% of my overall calories comes from animal protein -- a recommendation I took from The China Study, a book by T. Colin Campbell. I mostly eat a lot of fresh, raw or gently cooked veggies, fruits and grains, and avoid refined sugars and flours. Plenty of nuts. There are tons of great, tasty recipes out there.

I started in March 2016, and I didn't notice much of a difference at first. However, in November I realized my joint pain was gone (with the exception of my hands). I can squat again, there is no pain walking down hill, I can go for miles.

Feeling a bit cocky, we ate duck at Christmas, and I got back to eating butter for a bit in January, and some cheese, and salmon once a week. Probably about 10% of my calories was from animal protein. Then the joint pain returned, and I was having intestinal issues. I finally got back to the sub-5% routine, and the pain is gone. (Took a bit longer to kick the intestinal problem.) Three months later I had my last blood test, and was pleasantly surprised by the 0.95 TSH level.

There's still a ways to go. I would like to experience more energy overall. I exercise regularly whether or not I feel like it, so no issue there. That's important. My next moves may include reducing my caffeine and alcohol intake. I've just begun a short-term therapy of taking a massive probiotic (34 strains/100 billion), as I've read about the connection of certain gut biome imbalances to autoimmune disease. I could be a little more disciplined with sleep.

So that's my story. I hope there's some encouragement in it for someone. Also, I would love to learn from others about their diet-and-disease experience, and about nurturing more energy.

Cheers.

#autoimmune #levothyroxine #vegan #diet #arthritis

[startagaingirl]

Hi - I'm glad you're feeling well and I really don't mean to rain on your parade. However, in the interest of other people reading this and looking to emulate your success, and given that you mention auto-immune, is it just maybe possible that what has really helped is cutting out some foods you might be intolerant of? For instance gluten from the grains and dairy? Such measures can really help a lot of us.

As you aren't eating many animal products, please do remember to keep an eye on your vit b12 levels.

Congratulations again,

Gillian

[papamoon in reply to startagaingirl]

I appreciate the comment, Gillian. My post was meant more as encouragement than prescription, so I left a bunch out.

I am taking B12 (brand name MyKind, a sublingual spray of methylcobalamin B12).

On gluten (or any other influencer in the thicket of potential influences):

I may be gluten-sensitive past a certain amount, but I'm not sure. I've tested negative for celiac disease. My daughter, however, has MS and has tested positive for celiac. So we have an autoimmune issue link.

My understanding is that a lot of folks who say they are vegetarian or vegan think in terms of not eating meat or animal products, rather than in terms of eating plant-based whole foods. So they may get a lot of croissants in their diet, cookies, breads, or other stuff that carries a certain degree of gluten. But focusing on a diversity of live, raw, whole foods has the effect of dimming the overall gluten intake.

So yes -- your reduced gluten-hunch makes sense to me.

And also, increasing raw food intake also improves balance of the gut biome -- the imbalance of which is correlated to many autoimmune diseases. My daughter's neurologist tells us there's plenty of research going on in that field. There are somewhere between 300 and 1000 strains of gut flora, and they number in the billions. A study done last year (2016) is quoted at Wikipedia (keyword "gut flora"):

"A systematic review from 2016 examined the preclinical and small human trials that have been conducted with certain commercially available strains of probiotic bacteria and found that among those tested, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus genera (B. longum, B. breve, B. infantis, L. helveticus, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, and L. casei), had the most potential to be useful for certain central nervous system disorders.[8]"

I suspect glyphosate (Monsanto's Round Up) in our U.S.A. food supply is a major culprit behind the uptick in autoimmune diseases, as it will kill off gut flora. There are surely other inputs, but that one is ubiquitous in our food supply, and we come in contact with it around publicly maintained buildings and parks.

Hope this adds to the conversation.

David

[Serendipitious]

papamoon,

That's a really inspiring experience. Out of interest what probiotic are you taking? I've heard that taking a high quantity strain is recommended as opposed to the usual 5 billion. Thanks.

[papamoon]

This is the brand and product: Garden of Life, RAW Probiotics Ultimate Care, 100 billion guartanteed, 34 Probiotic Strains. gardenoflife.com/content/pr...

They also make a 400 billion version.

[Debnels]

I'm in the states, I went completely gluten free and vegan and have never felt better. Just went to endo as I was experiencing some hyper symptoms. Dr said I lost another 6 lbs since March, my Ha1c was borderline for high blood sugars. Endo bets that has lowered with weight loss and diet. He said my synthroid/cytomel combo, may need to be lowered in dose. I have energy now to exercise regularly and started implementing an HIIT program by riding a stationary bike, going 30 seconds "all out" and recover for 90 Seconds, for a total of 6 reps. I've never felt better since diagnosis of Hashis 15 years ago

[papamoon in reply to Debnels]

Inspiring! Thanks, Debnels.