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Gluten free definitely helped me, but it was subtle. I had stopped the gluten because suddenly products with it had just started tasting like flour and gluten free products tasted better to me. A couple months later I realized that I was feeling better and that good feeling would stop when I added in gluten. Later my gastro doc and an endoscopy gave me a diagnosis of "non-celiac gluten intolerance".

Above and beyond, the biggest thing for me has been to be dairy free. Not just lactose, but also dairy proteins (whey, caseins, a number of other things). One doc I had said that dairy will inflame the thyroid, and this seems to be true for us. My husband and I are both Hashis and cutting out all dairy has made a HUGE impact on our quality of life.

I would say there is a "before and after", but the truth is that I had been heading towards Hashimotos (with symptoms) years before I was actually diagnosed. What we have noticed is that we are more frail than others.

But there are lots of things you can do to improve your situation. When I get sick, I know that if the average person takes a week to recover from a cold, it will take me at least 2. So I take extra good care of myself. I take a ton of supplements and I'm pretty careful with diet. A while ago, husband and I did the AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet. Extremely strict for the first 2 months and then we gradually added foods back in to see what we reacted to and then we know that those are foods to avoid. Not to say that we never cheat, it's just that we know there will be a price to it.

I highly recommend this book by Isabella Wentz. It's a good place for understanding a number of facets of what you're dealing with. And these are things neither my gp or my current endocrinologist will discuss with me. -My former endo was awesome and would address these issues all the time... he was a former president of the American Society for Clinical Endocrinology... but unfortunately he retired 2 years ago.

Don't expect to get all your answers from any endocrinologist. The field is sadly outdated. And more, autoimmunity should have it's own specialists and it really doesn't. Instead you have other fields that are touched by autoimmunity (endocrinology, rheumatology, etc) handling it, but the autoimmune process is really not their specialty and that shows when you get inconsistent treatment and you're frequently told to "get used to it" when you don't feel spectacular.

This is where it helps to dig. There's a lot to be said for what's online here when it comes to coping with the disease.

I highly suggest against iodine. For people with iodine deficiency hypothyroidism, it can help. However if you have autoimmune processes, taking iodine can cause a lash back. I know this from personal experience. Tried a little iodine supplementation under an acupuncturist's care and within 2 months I had a hideous autoimmune flare up and then I went spinning between hypo and hyper for a few months. It was hell; thought I'd end up either dead or in a mental institution.

Sodium tends to be a personal issue; some people need more and some absolutely don't. If you do decide to supplement, I suggest the gray, slushy celtic sea salt. For a good year I definitely needed it for adrenal support. I would put 1/4 - 1/2 tsp in water every day and drink it. In the middle of doing all that, routine bloodwork showed that my sodium numbers were still at the very bottom of the normal range. I was obviously "salt wasting". And then something changed and I didn't need it anymore (and I could tell because it didn't taste as good to me). And that just seems to be the nature of the disease. Sometimes you have a solution and then what you need changes.

At one point my husband stopped taking the medicine. He got this weird notion that he didn't need it anymore (like it was a psychological treatment) and he was feeling good. Within a few months his prolactin levels shot up and he started developing mammary tissue under his nipples (we caught it before he ended up needed surgery to remove it fortunately). And of course he ended up with a bad energy and mood lash back.

As I said before, you are a little more fragile than people who don't have the disease. But that doesn't mean your life has to suck. Things that have helped me: meditation, exercise every day that isn't super intense (I used to be all P90X all the time for a few years... and in addition to getting great muscles, my cortisol shot up massively and I gained a ton of fat, felt awful all the time, and couldn't stop getting sick; now I have leisurely bike rides and mild lifting and I'm doing great), a well-tailored diet, and 8 hours absolute minimum of sleep. There will be days when you need 10 hours of sleep. Listen to your body!

Many folk with Hashimotos need to supplement D3 because your ability to absorb it is crap. I take 5000 units of D3 a day and my numbers tend to be low - mid normal. This is something your docs should test when you do blood work.

Please if you can, post what your bloodwork numbers are. I don't know what they're testing, but it would be nice if they tested at least TSH, T4, and T3. That's the picture I would need to decide which endocrinologist to listen to. If your numbers are off, that tells you how well your current dose is work. Honestly, the fact that there is such a huge variance in what they are suggesting is bullshit. Something doesn't know what they are doing. And for what it's worth, I started at 75 of synthroid 9 years ago. And I'm still at 75. It was the right starting dose for me. So I don't think it's an automatic assumption to just start at 25. But it's really hard to tell because I don't know what your bloodwork looked like when they initially dosed you.

Hope that helps!

(I'm going to copy and paste my response to another person who asked similar questions...)

You need to find a doctor that will prescribe an NDT like Armour. Endos can't/won't prescribe NDTs, only synthetics that don't work for the majority of thyroid patients (and studies have already proven this). Usually, primary care doctors or integrative/functional medicine doctors will prescribe NDTs like Armour, but endos won't/can't.

I wasted about a year on levo (and also included Cytomel) until I found a doctor who would prescribe an NDT. I had to leave my endo and then I found a new doctor at an integrative/functional medicine clinic that would prescribe Armour. A little while later, I discovered my primary care doctor was willing to prescribe Armour so now that's how I get it now. I haven't seen an endo in years. My mom had to do the same thing, as have countless people that I know because endos won't prescribe NDTs.

Check out Stop the Thyroid Madness and Hypothyroid Mom if you haven't already. They both also have Facebook (StTM Facebook and HM Facebook) and YouTube pages (StTM YouTube) that you should check out. They're both wonderful sources of information and I believe they will really help you.

If you like to read, definitely read the two STTM books (These books are amazing and I learned a lot from them.):

• Stop the Thyroid Madness: A Patient Revolution Against Decades of Inferior Treatment by Janie A. Bowthorpe
  
  
• Stop the Thyroid Madness II: How Thyroid Experts Are Challenging Ineffective Treatments and Improving the Lives of Patients by Andrew Heyman (Author), James Yang (Author), Janie A. Bowthorpe (Editor)
  
  Here is a clip from a study proving NDTs work better than synthetics...
  
  "Participants were “blinded” during both phases – they did not know the type of pill they received. After each treatment period patients were weighed, had blood tests, underwent psychometric testing and were asked which therapy they preferred. The researchers report that 49% of the patients preferred desiccated thyroid extract, 19% preferred levothyroxine and 23% had no preference. Desiccated thyroid extract use was also associated with more weight loss." - Summaries for Patients from Clinical Thyroidology (from recent articles in Clinical Thyroidology): Desiccated thyroid extract vs Levothyroxine in the treatment of hypothyroidism
  
  Here are a few quick links I found that I believe will help...
  
  Links About NDTs (naturally dissected thyroid) vs Synthetics
  
  
• Thyroid.org: Summaries for Patients from Clinical Thyroidology (from recent articles in Clinical Thyroidology): Desiccated thyroid extract vs Levothyroxine in the treatment of hypothyroidism
  
  
• STTM: T4-only meds like Synthroid do NOT work, exclaim patients!
  
  
• STTM: Natural Thyroid 101
  
  
• Jeffrey Dach MD: Why Natural Thyroid is Better than Synthetic
  
  
• Amy Myers MD: Which Thyroid Medication is Best?
  
  
• Hypothyroid Mom: Which is Better, Synthroid or Armour Thyroid Medication
  
  
• OP-ED News: New Study Shows Natural Thyroid Better than Synthetic
  
  
• STTM: Transitioning from T3-only to natural desiccated thyroid…or vice versa
  
  
• STTM: History of desiccated thyroid as a grandfathered in, yet “unapproved” drug
  
  Links About Doctors
  
  
• STTM: How to Find a Good Doctor
  
  
• STTM: Doctors Need to Rethink
  
  
• Hypothyroid Mom: 5 reasons conventional doctors can’t fix your thyroid
  
  Links About Thyroid-Related Tests
  
  
• STTM: Recommended Labwork
  
  
• STTM: TSH – Why It’s Useless
  
  
• STTM: Optimal Lab Values–how to interpret your results

Thank you for posting and I am so sorry for what you are going through. It is very difficult. I hope you feel better once you get treatment.

I don't know where you are at with everything but there are some things that might be helpful when you are ready to think about them.

I have read that male hypothyroidism is a little bit more rare than female. You may want to do this anyway but if you have a family history you may want to get checked for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Standard treatment is similar to hypothyroid with medication but there are some dietary changes that might dramatically make you feel better if you suffer from Hashimotos. I also say this because many doctors do not standardly test for Hashimotos.

If you can find a doctor and see them regularly and get everything worked out that would be great. If it looks like you are going to have to pay out of pocket. Depending on your financial situation and dealing with the VA you may want to look at using a local lab and ordering your own tests and then sending them to the doctor (or the VA) so you don't have visits you don't need. I think places like Labcor may have sets of tests you can get. If nothing else it might help you keep track of your numbers so you can monitor your health and only see the doctor when you need to.

Here is some good reading that can help you better understand the condition as well as ask good questions from doctors:

• Living well with hypothyroidism
  
• Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms when My Lab Tests Are Normal
  
  Thank you again for posting and please update in the future! I hope you start feeling better.

Do you mean your TSH was 80.56? Or T4 was 80.56?

TSH is Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. It is released by the pituitary gland to tell the thyroid to release more thyroid hormones. If TSH is high, that is like your pituitary glad screaming at your unresponsive thyroid, so no surprise that your thyroid hormone levels were also low. That usually indicates that you need to increase your dose.

I have Hashi's and I take 146 ish mg of NatureThroid along with Hyperbiotics PRO-15 Advanced probiotics, B-complex with coenzymes, Iron, Magnesium, Omega 3-6-9, Selenium and D3-5000IU. I have tried to reduce the number of supplements I take but they all help. I sometimes take Zinc as well. I quit coffee and take caffeine pills instead and I am (not super strictly, but working on it) gluten and soy free.

The first time I took Nature Throid after switching from generic levothyroxine all of my symptoms were about 80% GONE. We increased my dose from 1/4 grain to the current 2+1/4 grain over the course of maybe 6 months.

What really fixed things for me was going gluten and soy free and adding magnesium and selenium. The selenium reduced my antibodies from nearly 500 to 100 in six months. That alone made a huge difference. And going gluten/soy free allowed me to lose 20 lbs in a month and then maintain it pretty easily just logging my calories.

Occasionally, due to poor planning, I eat regular bread or some pizza and I am sapped of energy and achy for a week afterwards. I'm working on getting into the habit of always having gluten free options on hand. But generally speaking, I feel better than I've felt my entire life.

I've never heard of having an immune response to desiccated thyroid. I've done very well on Nature Throid. You may want to get labs done every 6 weeks to check your levels and adjust your dose as needed.

I can't help you in the way you decribe, but this is basicly what every Hashimoto person wants. I'm 10 years in with this illness and am doing ok. But by the look of it I won't be able to work fulltime, ever. So, that sucks.
Fairly recently I did research and found that a lot of people with hashi are doing much better on a gluten free diet. This prevents inflammation of the thyroid apparently. Did you read 'Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?' It clarifies a lot!

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-Symptoms-Tests-Normal/dp/0985690402

Personally I gave up hope to ever finding a doctor who is willing to experiment a bit. Actually I don't think I'll ever find a doctor who is willing to admit there's more to it then taking these meds.. I don't mean to make you feel bad, but I think taking matters into your own hands can help a lot.

Next to going gluten free, I'm exercising. To have a very regulated sleep pattern helps too, but I can't get used to it.

PS Pm me if you want to talk. btw: I don't have any children.

Literally going through a version of this right now.

Diagnosed Hashi's at 17, put on levo and 11 yrs later still had symptoms and felt absolute blah.

Jan. 2018- needed to try something to change this, so I started a keto diet, felt better at first then worse (also avoided gluten like 80% of the time)-- Around April I found out about the AIP diet and tried a mostly, paleoish/AIP as much as I really could, diet, most importantly avoiding gluten altogether. I then staggered eliminating potential problem-causing foods, getting rid of dairy first, then nightshades, etc. As a poor foodie who enjoys cooking, it was tough, but doable. Lots of repeated recipes.

Of course, come these past holidays I had to test some limits. I had eliminated all of the AIP "categories" - I was hangry - but I was also DEFINITELY feeling better. So I had some nibbles here and there, only testing one type at a time, and in a small amount. And, if I had some cow dairy, or a sizable amount of gluten, I got a reaction :( Physically, irritated white bumps on or inside my lips, then a slew of Hashi symptoms, like that fatigue man.

I absolutely scoffed at the thought of a "gluten free" diet when it first popped up too. I hate that I have done the time to test it, with this result. But... I do love learning new, healthy recipes. It sucks, but most doctors aren't interested in treating the cause of these symptoms. Read up and research, take everyone's experience and story in, and listen to your body! It might be gluten, or it might be another sensitivity, but your body's reaction should be a good gauge.

This and This were my starter books looking into the science of what was causing everything, This was helpful when eliminating foods, and lately I've been adapting some recipes from this book (+ meat!) which has been very tasty.

I live in the sticks and there are at least 5 doctors within a 90 minute radius that have functional medicine training that take insurance. Plenty of them don’t but look for someone in a traditional practice. This is a good tool.

http://thyroid-info.com/topdrs/

Call and ask what tests they perform and if they prescribe T3.

Mine doesn’t take insurance but I can pay her and submit an invoice to my insurance. I get paid back once I hit my deductible at the out of network level at 80% in about 6 weeks. All of the labs she orders are covered at 100% if I go to an in-network lab.

You could be what is called pooling which is why the Reverse T3 is important.

https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/pooling/

You could also have iron issues as someone mentioned.

Have you had any genetic testing done? Do you know if you have the MTHR mutation? If you don’t know it’s best to take only folate and not folic acid. The folic acid can also pool.

This also sounds like adrenal fatigue. Do you have hard time getting up in the morning? Tired but wired at night?

Are you taking your basal temperature?


Some additional resources: I’ve gotten a lot of of The Paleo Thyroid Solution: Stop Feeling Fat, Foggy, And Fatigued At The Hands Of Uninformed Doctors - Reclaim Your Health!

I’ve spent hours over at https://www.restartmed.com learning about lab values and supplements and hormones. It’s a good read.

Thyroid patients could be divided into three categories:

1. Still have their thyroid, newly diagnosed, and wanting to try natural options, such as diet, to improve thyroid function.
   
2. Diet may or may not have helped. Need information about medication options.
   
3. No thyroid--already had a thyroidectomy or RAI, for whatever reason: Graves', goiter, cancer, etc. Need information about full replacement dose options.
   
   These are radically different scenarios, and the sidebar should be broken into these 3 (or is 2 part of 3?) sections, with books and websites or other links that could help. The sidebar now only pertains to scenario 1.
   
   I am scenario 3: RAI for Graves', which is why I find the Tired Thyroid book and website helpful. It's about trying to find your optimal dose on medication, because dosing by TSH simply doesn't work. The book debunks a lot of other thyroid myths too. Both the book and website reference numerous legitimate medical studies, so it can be shared with your doctor.
   
   You, campassi, are Scenario 1, so you push diet. I would like to see book recommendations, in case I wanted to do more reading on the topic. There are a LOT of thyroid books with words in the title like Healing or Curing or Healthy or Diet, but which ones are good, and which are garbage? There's SO much poorly written garbage out there! Nearly every book has a 4-5 star review, so even reviews aren't helpful, unless I read the 1-star reviews!
   
   Anyway, just some thoughts. Hopefully others will add to this.

I started this one (sorry for the ugly link) three days ago. I need some serious help with this brain fog and exhaustion. I'm really optimistic!

I hope you update your n a few months- I'd love to know if they do anything for you. Good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M13NHFY/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1496706400&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Zhou+thyroid

I've been eating more vegetables and less meat. Vegetables aren't usually too calorie dense, meaning you can eat more of them. And I pair them with things like rice, polenta, pasta and eggs.

Roasting veggies is an easy and tasty way to prepare them. Just toss them around with some olive oil, salt and pepper, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and stir them halfway through.

I got this book at a thrift store and it has so many awesome recipes in it that are pretty simple to make. I've honestly got at least a dozen and a half things bookmarked in it.

Not that meatless always equals healthy, but I find that I can stay within my calorie budget and eat until I'm full when I eat vegetable-based main dishes. And if you like spicy, try Korean or Thai recipes! I thought I could handle spicy until I had tokbokki (rice cakes in a hot pepper sauce) and I thought I was gonna die after my first bite.

But at the end of the day, it comes down to calorie counting. I keep a food journal and weigh out my food portions with a kitchen scale in order to not overeat and it does work, but it'll still be slow.

Hope that helps a bit!

Electrolyte water can help you hydrate more efficiently. This one is fabulous.

I am doing the best i have in 10 years after getting my TSH down to 0.3 from 6.0. I've lost weight once I got from 30 mg of Natural Desiccated thyroid to 120 mg. down 20 lbs just getting my thyroid optimal. T4 only drugs don't work for a lot of people. Get on Thryoid.

Hypothyroidism causes LOW STOMACH ACID = severe heartburn. I suffered for years. Take Betaine Hcl with pepsin with your protein meals. google how to find your dose.
the low stomach acid has wrecked havoc on your digestion system so you need to supplement with pre and probiotics foods and then a high quality pre and probiotic so you can properly absorb your meds and nutrients.

low iron and low ferritin, low b12 is common in hypo (low iron storage( ferritin) causes hair loss).

READ this site and get educated. You wont believe everything that will get better once you get your thyroid optimal.
you need these tests and then get your numbers OPTIMAL not Normal
https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/recommended-labwork/

TSH,
Free T3 (most important!),
Free T4,
Reverse T3 (really important)

This book taught me how to read my labs and get better! (I am not paleo though) I just make sure to eat high quality organic food.
https://www.amazon.ca/Paleo-Thyroid-Solution-Fatigued-Uninformed/dp/1939563240

I can echo this. Some doctors will tell you that any levels below 2.5-3.0 for TSH is fine. But more recent research points to levels needing to be near 1.0. My TSH was at 2.5 this summer when I got pregnant and I ended up miscarrying at 7 weeks. Was it because of my hypothyroidism (Hashimotos)? We will never know because no doctor thought to test my TSH levels at the time of the miscarriage. Since then, this book was recommended to me: Your Healthy Pregnancy with Thyroid Disease I strongly suggest reading this book for all of the information but also for its ability to empower the reader to be a self-advocate in the doctor's office.

>There is the additional complication of people believing that whatever is newest is best

That belief is carefully nurtured in advertising, in order to maximise profits. As Dr Marcia Angell (former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine) states in her book The Truth About the Drug Companies, new drugs' effect results are tested against control groups taking a placebo. In other words, the new drugs are compared to nothing, and the drug they are intended to replace is ignored. An older drug could potentially have a more substantial effect, but that data is not profitable to the drug companies. Thus in many cases it is simply not gathered in order to avoid inconvenient, non-profitable information being generated.

As for natural therapies which may slower, but more effective and less toxic, the pharmaceutical companies' preference is to not even approve research funding at all. As well as not spending vast amounts on something that can't be patented, there's the added advantage of being able to cast doubt on it by using the weasel-word "unproven".

If it TPOAb comes back positive highly recommend reading [this] 2 or 3 times.

mmm You could just stay on your medication and in a couple of months try to get out of it, to see if treating your thyroid made any difference. Either way, I made a mistake in my previous comment. If you've been on adderrall for a while (or any other type of psychiatric medication) it's extremely hard to get off of them, because they change the chemistry in your brain. So if you manage to get out of them, it'll be a slow process. Have you heard of dr. Kelly Brogan? If you're interested in getting off your medication, she's an invaluable resource. This interview should give you an idea of what she's about and if that route interests you. She has an excellent book called "A Mind of your Own" on the subject.

Edit: I forgot to say: if you've been on psychiatric medication for a while and you try to cold turkey get off of them, you can't really know if you actually need them. The symptoms you're gonna get from trying to get off are very likely to be withdraw. Remember, these medications are so addictive people have to tapper off by 1/1000 sometimes. So don't judge the experience you've had by the symptoms you got by trying to quit it cold turkey. Kelly Brogan talks a lot about this problem. And traditional psychiatrists very often use this phenomena as trying to tell patients that they really needed the medication, when that might not be the case.

Check out the Root Cause by Isabella Wentz! Here is her blog... but the book explains really clearly how you can put autoimmune disorders into remission, so I'd recommend you check it out!

My husband was deficient and uses this one 2-3 days per week. It keeps his levels in range. You want to be rechecked after you’re on it for awhile to be sure you’re not overdoing it. Low vitamin d caused my aunt to feel how she did when she had zero thyroid hormones (ablation).

There are plenty of "thyroid support" vitamins out there: This is Amazon's Choice for what it's worth. It's missing your desired vitamins A, C, and D though.

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Well-Hypothyroidism-Doctor-Revised/dp/0060740957/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341950595&sr=1-7&keywords=thyroid

I liked this book tremendously!

My wife read this book when she was still having problems.

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-Symptoms-Tests-Normal/dp/0985690402/188-3007286-4189369?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

It talks alot about diet. It is likely there are things in your diet that are triggering inflammatory responses and keeping the levels mentioned by /u/squeaksthepunkmouse out of optimal range. Gluten a pretty obvious culprit but others include Tomatoes & bell peppers (any plant in the nightshade family), Soy, and dairy. But you have to experiment and find out what triggers your responses.

Here is the mobile version of your link

Also, campassi, are you familiar with the Root Cause book?

http://www.amazon.com/Hashimotos-Thyroiditis-Lifestyle-Interventions-Treating/dp/0615825796

Page 2, he actually says the upper arm but I can feel it inside my elbow too.

http://www.amazon.com/Hypothyroidism-Type-2-The-Epidemic/dp/0975262408

There are illustrations.

It's in this book, it's not on me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0985615435/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525710568&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=stop+the+thyroid+madness+2&dpPl=1&dpID=51-dpskURlL&ref=plSrch

Also, read this book for details on what tests to order and how to interpret the results: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-Symptoms-Tests-Normal/dp/0985690402

I asked my doctor (GP) about this and she recommended this - haven't gotten it yet but I'm leery based on the split reviews. Very much wanting to stick with evidence based medicine. SO much pseudoscience; am getting really frustrated.

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-Symptoms-Tests-Normal/dp/0985690402

Stop, I'm blushing. :)

There is SO MUCH alt-thyroid crap science. I understand why-- the standard medical treatment does not address the autoimmune aspect of thyroid disease at all, which is just stupid given what we know about the effects of autoimmunity. It often doesn't relieve symptoms. Many doctors are misinformed or disagree (several of mine explicitly told me certain things were not thyroid symptoms, even if they were listed on the Mayo Clinic website as such). People who are suffering look for cures and are willing to experiment on themselves. Self-experimentation is subject to confirmation bias, the placebo effect, and all kinds of other problems. But it's all there is for a lot of us. I'm as guilty as the next person of rubbing glutathione cream on the bottoms of my feet and hoping for the best. It just didn't get me anywhere. It helps that I'm married to an evolutionary biologist (little-known fact: skepticism is sexually transmitted)!

If you like the science without the speculation, I recommend the Harvard Medical School Guide to Overcoming Thyroid Problems. It covers autoimmune and non-autoimmune thyroid problems, thyroid cancers and nodules, etc.