Healing Naturally

[calej]

hello I would like to share my experience with Graves’ disease or hyperthyroidism.

short version is I was able to get better through changes in my diet and supplements. Cause for disease was initially a personal trauma, and then compounded by eating too much sodium and no exercise.

Here is the long version:

I got diagnosed sometime in 2008. I research the cause of this disease and it said trauma at the time I was going through some break up so I thought that was why it happened.

The Endo prescribed medicine, but the side effect was crippling migraine that wouldn’t go away. He said my only option was to take a stronger drug so I thought it was hopeless. But my sister did some research and found that hyperthyroidism could be caused by mineral deficiencies so as a quick solution, I bought some mineral water and upon drinking it the first time I felt like life was coming back into me.

Then I joined a forum like this and found out about ithyroid.com. I was able to read a lot of good information there. I changed my diet and took some of the supplements recommended. In a year my test results improved. The shaky hands, sweating and bad moods went away.

in time I stopped the supplements when I felt nausea and for years, I didn’t take anything and felt fine.

In 2016 I had to move to another country. At the time, I felt that my heartbeat was going faster again but not like before. It it did not go over 100 bpm.

I knew I had to get supplements again but in this country you needed a doctor’s prescription. I got progressively worse and finally when I had tests the doctors gave me a lot of drugs. I had to take 10 pills a day (Mercazole or Carbimazole and Thyradin S) . The side effects of the pills were worse than the disease itself. I lost a lot of hair, gained so many weight that I felt depressed. I could hardly work because I was sleepy and tired the whole day and I had lower back pain and my body ached all over like I was an old lady. My dosage didn’t change for a long time.

When I traveled back to my home country. I was able to get trace minerals and took those whenever I would remember. My 10 pills went down to five pills a day!

I kept taking trace minerals and pills went down to 1. In my latest test was that I’ve swung to hypothyroidism.

The endocrinologist prescribed a higher dosage of Thyradin, but it caused a lot of back pain so I didn’t want to take it anymore.

Since I live in a country where I’m studying the language and the medication information all has to be translated. It was so difficult for me to do research on it, but I knew that if I wanted to be weaned off the drugs, I needed to do my own research so I found out that even if I was eating all of the recommended food to be healed from Disease, my problem was with male absorption of nutrients. I read that hyperthyroidism is basically a copper and hypothyroidism is a zinc deficiency so even if I eat a lot of copper rich foods, I was not able to absorb these. I read again from other sources that when you eat a lot of sodium it causes meal absorption of nutrients since I don’t exercise I’m not able to get rid of the excess sodium in my body One can only get rid of excess sodium through perspiration, urine or tears

I cannot say that I have perfect test results now (I am slightly in the hypo range) but at least I feel totally OK and I don’t have any of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism. My back pain from the drugs is getting better since I stopped taking medication. Energy is back. I feel just wonderful!

[Beefull8]

Wow that’s great to read stories like this! What kind of mineral water and supplements did you take? My hyperthyroidism is mild and I do have trouble absorbing nutrients so I wonder if this could help me too.

[calej in reply to Beefull8]

just regular water labeled “mineral water”. It was just a local brand that’s common. I hope it helps you. Glad you only have a mild case.

[Beefull8 in reply to calej]

Thanks!

[TheRightSide]

Hi Calej, amazing to read your story. Glad that you're feeling wonderful again. Could you share what you've done and consumed (food and supplements) so far? I believe what you meant with mineral water is not the tap water? Or trace minerals drops diluted in water? I tried the brand Trace Minerals last year for few days, I didn't notice anything from that supplements, only a slight dizziness.

[calej in reply to TheRightSide]

Hello RightSide, I meant regular bottled mineral water, not tap water. After I felt much better, I started to take copper vitamins (just the recommended daily allowance).

When my T3, T4 were improving, I stopped taking copper every day. After more than a year and seeing my symptoms disappear (heartbeat over 100 beats per minute and shaky hands), I felt nauseous after taking copper so that was my cue that I should stop taking it. But years passed and I guess my absorption issue was still not addressed.

The trace minerals I used was in the form of Vitamin C, Minerals (Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium) and Zeolite. The drops brand I use is Quantumin but that might only be available in the Philippines. You don't have to get that particular thing. I am still taking this now and hope to wean myself off of this as soon as I've fixed my absorption. Yes I use 10 drops in water but I don't do this all the time, just when I remember. You should stop right away if you feel anything bad happening.

I did not feel any bad side effects from this (and you shouldn't as this is basically just food).

[Brightness14]

I don't know how it works for you but I am adopted and within my adopted family there are several members with hyperthyroidism. My Aunt died back in the 1930/s with it leaving a small boy. My cousin has it aged now 77 years old. Her mother never had it and they lived in different countries. Eating and drinking different things. You are lucky to have found your cure. My adopted mother i.e. their sister never had anything and lived to 100 years old.

[calej in reply to Brightness14]

That is interesting! Do you have hyperthyroidism?

[Brightness14 in reply to calej]

No I am adopted so not from the Hyper family.

However, I have had my thyroid removed because it was interfering with my breathing.

Since then I have found out that my birth family mostly have thyroid problems but not Hyper.

[calej in reply to Brightness14]

Ok thank you for the information.

[pennyannie in reply to calej]

There is more than one reason why people become hyperthyroid - and the only way to actually know what is going on is by initially running a TSH + Free T3 + Free T4 + the thyroid antibodies and seeing which are positive and over range from -

TPO / TgAB / TRab/ TSI and or a TSH Thyroid Receptor reading.

All things Graves Disease - elaine-moore.com

[pennyannie in reply to Brightness14]

There is likely a genetic pre-disposition to Graves Disease - it is an Auto Immune Disease for which there is no cure and everyone's journey with Graves unique to them which makes it poorly understood and badly treated by mainstream medical -

though stress and anxiety do tend to be ' common triggers ' -

elaine-moore.com

[Brightness14 in reply to pennyannie]

Thank you we often wondered why my cousin became thin and jittery now I know the connection. Very difficult to treat as you state.

[calej in reply to pennyannie]

That's what doctors say but I've had experiences in the past where the doctor said "there is no cure". This was a few years back when I had skin problems.

I went to a dermatologist because I would have a few pimples every month *which is normal ... and in a year with her, my acne became so bad that I did not want to leave the house and after I had spent a whole lot of time and money in her clinic. My friend asked me what I did before when my skin was not so bad and then I was able to "cure" it through drinking more water and healthier diet. I remembered that I believed what my derma said that "food has no effect on skin". That was such a harmful thing to say!

Sometimes it is just a simple solution like drinking more water and eating vegetables but doctors usually do not encourage those types of solutions.

[pennyannie in reply to calej]

There are natural cures for many things - but I've not read of one that works for Graves Disease -

There are more holistic and alternative treatment options that work for some -

I just think it depends on the severity of this poorly understood and badly treated AI disease.

You can read further on elaine-moore.com

and check out Eric M Osansky - Natural Thyroid Treatments and Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease:

[calej in reply to pennyannie]

What I read was natural and it worked for the author and it seems to have worked for me. The info I read was from ithyroid.com and thanks for your comments

[pennyannie in reply to calej]

Good - I'm pleased you have found something that works for you :

I shall take a look - I've not been on that website before :

Just seen there are references to Atomic Women - I think this website went down some years ago - interesting - and also refers to Elaine Moore - who I read and linked you into earlier - guessing I'll find Eric M there as well - in a while !!

calej

[calej in reply to pennyannie]

It was a lifesaver for me and take note, it does not sell anything. It's old and the author doesn't respond and some links you'll have to manually put in but I'm so grateful someone told me about it.

[pennyannie in reply to calej]

Yes - I recognise several articles I've read previously elsewhere :

[greygoose]

Can I ask how your Graves' was diagnosed? Were your TRAB and TSI over-range?

[calej in reply to greygoose]

I went to see an endocrinologist after I noticed at a wedding that all my pictures were blurred. My hands could not stop shaking. The doctor gave me a blood test and yes, my T3 T4 levels were over-range... not the TRAB I don't think.

[greygoose in reply to calej]

Well, if you didn't have over-range TRAB or TSI, then you didn't have Graves'. Unfortunately, the majority of endos have no idea what Graves' really is.

[calej in reply to greygoose]

Sorry I did not keep my tests from decades ago but I definitely had Graves. I've had several doctors since then and they all agreed I had Graves.

[tattybogle]

pleased you are feeling well again calej, but without giving us actual results on a timeline , it's not clear what happened to you. It would be much more interesting if you shared more detail:

eg Dates , Dose changes, TPOab levels , TRab levels , fT4 levels , fT3 levels, TSH

[calej in reply to tattybogle]

I started keeping my test results in 2021. I'll post the values that were outside the normal range only.

2021 > T3-2.86 and T4-1.30 and TSH-<0.005 (was taking 10mg propranolol and 5mg carbimazole and 50mg potassium iodide)

2022 > T3-2.07 and T4- 0.42

2024 > T4-0.8 and TRAb-5.9 (latest result taking 2.5mg carbimazole and 12.5ug Thyradin S

I hope this helps.

I am so happy I can stand for the whole day again without lower back pain and don't feel like a ton of bricks are on top of me in the morning and have a hard time sitting up.

[tattybogle in reply to calej]

ah , i see , your post didn't make it clear that you are taking Carbimazole and Levothyroxine ( 'Block and Replace' ).

the TRab result looks high , this could be either the Stimulating, or the Blocking form of TRab , or a mixture of both. (TRab test can't tell the difference, TSI test can tell if they are the stimulating form )

some useful information about how TRab can cause fluctuations in thyroid function here :

thyroidpatients.ca/2020/04/... remissions-and-fluctuations-trab/ from Thyroid Patients Canada

[radd]

calej,

That is wonderful. Well done.

My son is controlling his Hashimotos through only diet and life style changes.

[calej in reply to radd]

That's great!!! If he has a story anywhere that I can copy paste for my friend, please let me know. She asks me a lot of questions but we don't have the same type of symptoms so I can't really help her.

[radd in reply to calej]

I’d highly recommend reading The Root Cause by Isabella Wentz. The book is primarily aimed at people with Hashi but the philosophy is the same for Graves or any other auto immune disease.

[calej in reply to radd]

Thank you for the tip!