New diagnosis

[brago]

Hi all,

Have just been diagnosed with Hashimotos disease, and have several lumps on my thyroid, thought by the endo to be harmless, thankfully. Have been having blood tests monthly for the last 4 months and readings up & down like a yo-yo. The thing is I have no symptoms and in fact feel really fit, walking 4-5 miles 3 times a week at least, not overweight or lethargic, is this normally the case?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

It's fairly common to start with limited symptoms, or even to have a period of hyperthyroid type symptoms, or to at least have high energy, and sometimes weight loss too

As the thyroid is attacked and starts to breakdown large amount of thyroid hormones can be released causing hyper swings.

After each swing or flare, the thyroid function is a little bit more impaired

Important to regularly test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12. These are frequently too low and often need supplementing to improve to good levels

holtorfmed.com/vitamin-d-au...

Hashimoto's often affects the gut and frequently leads to low stomach acid and then low vitamin levels

Low vitamin levels affect Thyroid hormone working

Poor gut function can lead leaky gut (literally holes in gut wall) this can cause food intolerances. Most common by far is gluten. Dairy is second most common.

According to Izabella Wentz the Thyroid Pharmacist approx 5% with Hashimoto's are coeliac, but over 80% find gluten free diet helps, sometimes significantly. Either due to direct gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)

Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and slowly lower TPO antibodies

Ideally ask GP for coeliac blood test first or buy test online for under £20, just to rule it out first




Trying gluten free diet for 3-6 months. If no noticeable improvement then reintroduce gluten and see if symptoms get worse

chriskresser.com/the-gluten...

amymyersmd.com/2018/04/3-re...

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

scdlifestyle.com/2014/08/th...

drknews.com/changing-your-d...

restartmed.com/hashimotos-g...

But don't be surprised that GP or endo never mention gut, gluten or low vitamins. Hashimoto's gut connection is very poorly understood