There have been occasional discussions over whether it is possible to cure hypothyroid or hashimotos. Here is a case study of someone who states they have cured their hypothyroid illness with a number of aspects including a plant based diet amongst a number of things including a very high level of aerobic exercise.
No one here is recommended to give up thyroid medicine - and tbis is exactly what this lady did.
The traditional view is that hypothyroid cannot be cured.
I have taken on the message over aerobic training but not yoga or vegan diet. I feel there are some risks moving to vegan diet but will continue to explore further.
Written by
Danielj1
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I would never seek to judge or discount someone’s experience snd she certainly looks the pic of health. Everything she is doing would appear conducive to good health, however not sure about the strict vegan diet. It is not clear if she has autoimmune thyroid disease? I have been one of the querie posters regarding claims of ‘remission’ ‘reversal’ and ‘cure’ and indeed the very well respected Dr Izabella Wentz uses some of this terminology. Cure seems to be generally disregarded whereas remission appears to refer to reducing antibodies to within the normal range. I wonder though if this means the attack on the thyroid ceases, takes longer, or thyroid nodules disappear? We know that good protocol such as diet excluding gluten, soy and dairy can help plus optimum thyroid meds but this lady seems to stop meds? Hmmmmmm Jury is out for me still. Good protocol may also prevent the development of additional autoimmune disease. Known research would be useful here! Any about? Thank you Danielj1 for this post. Always valuable to have the opportunity to read of positive experiences that have the potential to inspire and offer hope to all of us.
It’s very strange to accept being a committed non vegan but the very few cure stories I have read have all from memory been vegans who got super super fit.
It encourages me to continue to feed the family loads of fruit and veggies
He wrote various books on health matters including one i recently read over healing thyroid issues - books are all available online. He also implied from what I could read that the thyroid can repair itself - I will try to locate exact wordings he chose.
Given his background, I am keen to dig and unearth recovery opportunities from using his approach.
I recently finished the thyroid protocol book, and if I remember rightly, Izabella Wentz said most people who addressed their imbalances and healed their gut could reduce thyroid medication, while some could stop altogether (some, not all).
I can see that an abundance and variety of fruit and veg will encourage gut healing, as well as keeping active, and she will no doubt be better educated on the body's nutrient needs. I don't think veganism is the only answer - for example it doesn't automatically mean cutting out soya and gluten, which can be a trigger for many with thyroid disease.
If one benefits from vegan diet then good for them. But some amino acids your body can't make you only get from animal protein. Lack of those amino acids will cause harm. So veganism can otherwise be very great for your gut but without essential amino acids rest of your system eventually fails.
Anyways I think there are several different scenarios and pathaways that can lead to hypo so to say it's cured might not be true. If you were deficient to iodine leading to thyroid malfunction then supplementing iodine does fix the situation for most. But did you get cured from hypothyroidism? How to define that as iodine deficiency causes same symptoms and increase TSH.
If one has one of several genetic mutations causing thyroid gland hiccup then did you get cured from hypo or did you just correct the malfunction leading to normal thyroid function?
There are several bacterias and viruses affecting too, did you get cured or was is just transient hypo or hashimoto you will always have that goes into remission?
I like Wenz and have her books. People can reduce meds by fixing deficiencies and leaky gut. Some can quit meds altogether. But did you get cured or was it something else that caused the malfunction? That's the question.
I am seriously wondering if most/all of the hashi issues (leaving aside under provision of iodine) is down to estrogen issues. Coffee, vegan diet and high levels of aerobic exercise all massively help from what I have read. Once the estrogen is under control then I presume the liver can operate effectively and create appropriate t3 levels.
By all means let me know if you disagree, but this is the only way I can make sense of those who claim cures using veganism and challenging training regimes.
But progesterone is important as low progesterone cause estrogen dominance and just lowering estrogen isn't enough unless there is not enough progesterone. Vegetables and fruits seem to support progesterone production.
But how long has she been "cured" for and what were her bloods like before an now? And was the diagnosis just post major hormonal changes, for example? Certainly, plenty of probiotics and a diet with enough raw materials to make hormones is going improve things. If diagnosed when TSH is around 3 it is probably possible to prevent any further damage to the thyroid from antibodies, but since in the UK we don't get a diagnosis until TSH is over 10, the thyroid would be too damaged to work properly again. Then again, there are yoga postures which are supposed to target certain conditions, including thyroid. As a hypo vegan, I don't think it's the diet.
All good questions and I will do my best to get an answer from the woman in question.
We do all need to agree on what constitutes a cure - I can claim virtually all the health symptoms linked to hypo have now been addressed over past 6 months - does this mean I am cured. Probably not , as my TSH, T3 and TPO may be less than perfect. I am due results from a recent blood test shortly - but do these matter any more if symptoms have all pretty much cleared up?
I remain very unclear what risk I carry with raised TPO levels now health is broadly restored hence the need to keep digging...
You might be fine, but also remember that if you have autoimmune thyroid disease you can have long periods of euthyroidism or even slightly hyper. But if you feel fine, there is no need for meds, just remember that it might be very hard to get a diagnosis a second time if you haven't been getting prescriptions and it comes back. Might be worth getting the free prescriptions and not taking the meds, just to stay on the books , so to speak.
I dislike the word “cure” being used, as I strongly feel that what we do with Hashimoto’s is “manage” the condition. Curing it would imply that, if you went back to your old lifestyle and diet, you wouldn’t have the disease any more. Well that’s not true, is it.
And, of course, there are different reasons for being hypothyroid, not just auto-immune disease. If you have no thyroid at all, I don’t understand how you would “cure” that if you didn’t take thyroid medication. No amount of bean sprouts and exercise is going to replace it.
Interesting post. I don't take a huge amount of medication 1.75 grains of NDT and I don't have antibodies but I've often wondered if my i tail problem was lack of iodine. Several years ago now I had a food intolerance test followed by a cruise-just coincidence so changed my diet to fit in with the testing and found myself eating a cheese omelette every day for breakfast and very quickly I went to having loads of energy to go on the trips ashore do have seriously wondered where I Thyroid fits in the middle of this. I've since gone back onto NDT which I started my thyroid journey on and now feel my downsidesare not thyroid related as over the last two years had breast cancer and a spiral metatarsal fracture and just recovering from a badly broken wrist plus I'm not as yoing as I was. So taking all into consideration I feel pretty good. I know if I don't keep on top of things I wobbleca bit but as symptoms go I'm doing very well alongside some of the posts I read so to say I've had a thyroid problem for over 30 years I don't feel problems are getting worse as I would have expected them to but I don't think I could do without medication, that's a huge step into the unknown! But I can't dismiss the scenario either. I do take loads of supplements but I do have food problems but I sometimes think there is such a lot we don't know and understand that I tend to feel opened minded about the suggestion of a 'cure'.
Silver fox, interested to hear your story. I took 50 mcg levo to get my tsh down from 30 to about 9 I recall (don’t quote me!) and had T4 at the top end, felt dreadful could not tolerate a drop higher of levo (felt much worse) and then used diet and supplements and exercise to fix all my symptoms (and I will post most recent blood tests shortly when they arrive).
So from my point of view levo has contributed on its own a minor part of fixing things. I think the medical industry expects the patient to do a huge amount of the legwork themselves
I think the hormones in the meat causes a degree of difficulty for the hypo sufferer. So as side of me is very keen on the vegan principles. I am just not sure about the need for certain vitamins that come more readily from animal sources - for now I supplement each day with beef liver capsules on organic farm - I can’t imagine how I can replace this with anything equivalent.
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