Well, all I want to say is that I went onto a Paleo diet a few years back to loose weight and keep it off. I was otherwise healthy. Paleo made me sick quite quickly. I became hypothyroid, suffered low adrenal reserve too and never felt worse. There are patients on here that will tell you a hypothyroid patient needs carbs to help the body utilise thyroid hormone.
I've not been well since that experiment. I would never do that again. Eat sensibly. Cut out refined carbs by all means. But eat complex carbs with each meal, just make sure you have a decent amount of protein and plenty of animal fats.
Because we need them. Our brains need saturated fat and our bodies use them to help produce the hormones and enzymes we need. People have been scared off them with incorrect assumptions about cholesterol and heart disease. Also scared off them because for years we were told that to loose weight we needed to cut out fat. Which is actually the direct opposite of what we need to do to loose weight in most instances, as is now proven with the various low carb, high fat diets and lifestyles.
Also coconut oil. Coconut oil is a medium chain fat and very good for us. And olive oil if cold pressed. If you are a vegetarian then you won't want to eat animal fats, so in that case use a lot of coconut oil and olive oil.
Thanks! I am a vegetarian. I agree we need fats, but I disagree we must cut carbs. The same hype for fats in the past is being replaced now by carbs. This sounds like making money as it happens to every thing these days. We certainly don’t need refined carbs as well as any shelf products, but let’s not change our diets drastically (again) just because another hype is going on. A sedentary lifestyle is much more evil than carbs. Athletes make good use of them and their insulin levels are alright. Another hidden evil is sodium chloride. I can’t say anything regarding the UK but over here (Brazil), iodised kitchen salt has been a reality since 1950 and the increasing intake of salt has increased the intake of iodine, which in theory should be good but last time this was checked (2014) some brands had higher iodine levels than allowed and people were eating too much salt, so even the brands that have suitable amounts were delivering high iodine levels.
That situation led to an increase in thyroid diseases and now the amount of iodine added to kitchen salt has been decreased, when of course the right thing to do would be to decrease salt intake...
Sorry for the long post... my point is: too much or too little can both be evils. Balance is the best approach, always. How to achieve a dynamic balance is the question!
I certainly don't advocate cutting carbs back hard. I tried it. It made me very unwell. I only suggested cutting back on refined carbs if wanting to do something for weight loss.
following mainly paleo diet, no carbs whatsoever!!
So, that probably means no conversion whatsoever! You need carbs to convert. They're not the vilains they're made out to be.
Level of tsh on first test was 7.56 but v low and cholesterol high
V low what? High cholesterol means your T3 is low (results of no carbs, perhaps?). The cholesterol level will come down as T3 level rises. So, you don't need statins.
I do want to get back within range where body can work itself again without pharmacology.
Ain't gonna happen! Without the 'pharmacology' your levels will go out of range again. You have Hashi's, which is slowly destroying your thyroid. With a TSH of 11.68, there has obviously already been considerable damage done to the thyroid, so that it will never be able to 'work itself' again. It will never again be able to produce enough hormone to keep you well.
Dietary changes might help you feel better - gluten-free, perhaps - but they are not going to change the fact that your thyroid has been damaged, and damaged thyroids do not regenerate.
Have you had your vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin tested? They could very well be low, and need to be optimal for your body to be able to use thyroid hormone.
Bonjour, greygoose! Is there a link to fuller info on T3/cholesterol connection, please - been scouring around since I read your post but not successfully. Other half was once on statins, side effects set in so he stopped the statins and successfully relied on porridge and diet. Recently he was found to have underactive thyroid so on levo. Most recent blood test has got the statins army on the warpath again - so any further details would be gratefully received! Hope all goes well with you!
Iron, I went for blood test this am and requested to have test for ferritin, folate and b12. The system here is very hesitant to test for b12 less so for ferritin and folate however not part of routine tests. Your comments were helpful in my requesting that today. I will await results, prob early next week....
Fancy pants and greygoose have said it all: you need some carbs , ok non gluten. You won't get 'without pharmacology' once hypothyroid, but think of levo as a replacement hormone rather than a drug... Got your Vit D, b12, folate and ferritin tested as with Hashimoto's comes poor gut absorption and compromised nutrients whether from food, drink or supplements....you need them upper half of their ranges, and might need some serious supplementing as no diet will improve them!
There are some US sites that want sufferers to believe you can reverse hypothyroidism, especially if you buy their expensive supplements...they are a bit selective with their facts and proofs. Stick with this forum.
If you look on the Internet for cholesterol information from Dr Malcolm Kendrick you should find a decent amount of information about the thyroid / cholesterol link. Before the invention of the TSH blood test for diagnostic purposes, doctors diagnosed hypothyroidism on symptoms. One of the things they looked for was rising cholesterol levels and rising blood pressure. These days they seem blind to all but the blood test.
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