The Body’s Butterfly
Hashimoto’s. It sounds like it would be the name of a Japanese steakhouse, but the disease itself is not so enticing. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune thyroid disease. Our body’s own immune system attacks our thyroid gland, a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of the neck, making it function improperly; thyroid hormones are essential in the function of every cell in the body. Surprisingly, this hypothyroid disease can produce symptoms of both hypothyroidism (too little thyroid hormone) and hyperthyroidism (too much thyroid hormone). This happens because while the thyroid is being damaged and less thyroid hormone is being produced, an abundance of thyroid cells and hormones leak into the body portraying symptoms of hyperthyroidism.
Back in 2017, one of my sisters was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. She sought out a doctor because she gained a lot of weight in a very short timeframe and couldn’t seem to lose any of it. Luckily, she chose a doctor who happened to practice functional medicine; these types of doctors tend to look for the root causes of a particular condition. So many general practitioners don’t order a comprehensive thyroid panel, and often just test TSH and free T4, leaving Hashimoto’s undiagnosed.
Because my sister doesn’t tend to be the most proactive with her health, I set out on a journey to learn everything I could about this disease for her. That’s when I stumbled upon Izabella Wentz’s documentary, The Thyroid Secret. While thinking I was learning everything I could so I could relay it back to my sister and help her to feel better, something else happened. After watching the first part of Dr. Wentz’s nine part documentary series, I looked at my husband and said, “I have this. This is why I feel the way I do.” He was skeptical and said I couldn’t diagnose myself with a disease after watching a portion of a documentary.
I am not one of those people to complain or lay my burdens on someone else. I tend to internalize a lot of my emotions and not divulge my weaknesses. The few years leading up to this point, I was having symptoms that I simply contributed to events that were occurring in my life. In July 2015, I lost my father to liver cancer. Watching someone you love so dearly deteriorate before your very eyes is devastating and heart wrenching. I felt helpless and was grasping at any strand of hope I could. After he passed, I fell into what you could say was a depression, but I told myself this was normal and part of the grieving process. I saw a doctor and explained to him that I was depressed, anxious, and experiencing panic attacks where I couldn’t breathe; he prescribed me Xanax. During this time, I had my own business I was trying to run. The stresses of owning your own business can quickly become overwhelming. I would lay in bed at night, unable to sleep, because I’d constantly be thinking about work. I contributed my tiredness to not being able to sleep the night before; it was so bad that I’d be sitting at my desk after lunch and fall asleep while typing. During the few years leading up to this, my husband and I decided to try for a baby with no luck. I simply thought I had been on birth control for too long and was now going to have a hard time getting pregnant.
So what started as a journey for my sister, quickly became a journey of my own. In March of 2017, I sought out a functional medicine doctor. Sure enough, after the proper labs were ordered, the results came back with a positive Hashimoto’s diagnosis. This was the reason for my anxiety, depression, tiredness and infertility, and my symptoms hadn’t just been the result of my daily life stressors. The very day my doctor called to tell me the lab results and to recommend that I eliminate gluten from my diet, I went gluten free. I had packed a sandwich for lunch that day, and I threw it away and started looking into gluten free options. Thankfully, there were decent tasting foods for a gluten free diet, and in my opinion, they have only gotten better with time. Don’t get me wrong; when I was first told that I needed to go gluten free, foods I loved started racing through my mind that I would no longer be able to eat. However, when I found out that the Outback Chocolate Thunder from Down Under was gluten free, I was ecstatic and I knew every was going to be OK.
Why would my doctor recommend that I eliminate gluten from my diet now that I had Hashimoto’s? One of the tests my doctor ordered was for thyroid antibodies. While they should be nonexistent, mine were extremely high, indicating an aggressive attack against my thyroid. From my readings, the protein structure of gluten is very similar to an amino acid sequence making up the thyroid gland. When gluten seeps into the bloodstream from a leaky gut, the immune system goes in to attack it, while also erroneously attacking the thyroid. Before eliminating gluten, I’d often eat a lunch filled with bread or pasta. Afterwards, I would have heartburn and want to fall asleep. However, after eliminating gluten from my diet, I no longer suffer from heart burn, and I never get that feeling of needing a nap after eating.
I clearly remember the morning I took my very first dose of my thyroid medication. Shortly after, I felt alive! I couldn’t believe how much better I felt, and I looked forward to many more days of feeling like me again. After starting thyroid medication and supplements and making some changes to my diet, do you know that I was pregnant just three short months later?
Fast forward to four years later. I’m feeling like myself again. My diet is still gluten free, and I’ve had my medication adjusted multiple times to meet the demands of my body, especially during pregnancy. I suffer from occasionally being tired, but that’s to be expected with running after a three and one year old.