I realized I am the worst blogger ever. I didn't even put history or meaning to what I have wrote. So here is the long history to my madness.
Back in March 2009 I got the worst headache of my life at my Aunt Patty's birthday party. The room started spinning, I could barely walk and thought my head would explode. My Mom was with me and she walked me to the car and I started to hyperventilate, I seriously thought I was going to die. We went to the Mountain Death...I mean Mountain West E.R. and they told me it would be at least an hour wait. I held my head in the waiting room in complete agony. As time went on, I started to feel better and decided I wasn't going to pay for this crap and went home.
The next day I was completely wiped out, I didn't feel right. Days following I kept getting headaches. I decided to get a doctors appt. with a local doctor. She tested me and found my thyroid was under active and diagnosed me with hypothyroid. She put me on synthroid (man made thyroid hormone) and I felt worse, my hair started to fall out and I became very depressed, it was one of the biggest lows in my life. I told her about it and she said it was normal and to exercise more.
I did a whole lot of research and found a Naturopathic doctor. I had never been to this kind of doctor before and thought it was different. He did extensive blood work and diagnosed me with Hashimotos disease November 6th. He prescribed me Armour (Natural thyroid hormone) I felt a tiny bit better, but still felt out of it and depressed. I found that I blocked things out of my mind from that time. We bought our house and I was feeling a bit better. I remember we went to my cousins wedding in North Dakota and getting back and just getting so depressed and crazy. I decided to just stop my medication, I was done having Hashimotos and I didn't want to live this way,I was in denial. Well that didn't work and I was soon back to my Naturopathic doctor. He did more tests and said he had seen how other patients were having success on T3 and T4 medication. I started this new medication method and found it worked better than all the other meds. I still don't feel 100% "me" yet, but closer than I ever have. This fall I found that I was getting that "off" feeling again with erratic moods and feelings.
I went back to my Naturopathic doc and did tests. My thyroid levels had shifted once again. We raised my medication levels and I am feeling...."better", but I still feel off. My hair is falling out, facial twitching, my arm goes numb and tingly, bones creek, and I cant remember my ass from my head. That is when I remembered how my Naturopathic doc wanted me to start a gluten free lifestyle. After much research and thought, here I am.
1. WHAT IS HASHIMOTOS? Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid disease in which your thyroid is being attacked by your own immune system via antibodies, attempting to destroy your gland. It may start out silently, but the attack will eventually cause an inflammation and gradual destruction of your thyroid gland and can go on for years with miserable side effects to match. It can also cause nodules or lumps.
2. Symptoms of Hashimoto's thyroiditis include: Myxedematous psychosis, weight gain, depression, mania, sensitivity to heat and cold, paresthesia, fatigue, panic attacks, bradycardia, tachycardia, high cholesterol, reactive hypoglycemia, constipation, migraines, muscle weakness, cramps, memory loss, infertility, and hair loss.
3. So why am I attempting to go gluten -free: Research shows there can be a strong connection between having Hashimoto’s disease and Celiac disease. Celiac disease is a autoimmune digestive disorder that results in an overreaction to gluten, a protein found in most grains like wheat, rye, oats and barley, which can be found in breads, cereals, pasta and many processed foods. The overreaction, causes autoimmune damage to the intestines, which results in poor absorption of nutrients. (Oats, which can be gluten-free, are often contaminated within soil where gluten grains were once grown, or in the processing facility).
Gluten can also trigger the very autoimmune reactions that cause you to have Hashi’s, since supposedly, the cells of your thyroid are similar to the cells of gluten, i.e. an attack on one is going to make your ripe for the attack on the other. As a result, some Hashimoto’s patients experiment with eliminating gluten from their diets, and with good results. Or, there are tests developed to help you figure out if you have Celiac disease, and the stool test is highly recommended.
References:
1. & 3. http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/hashimotos/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashimoto%27s_thyroiditis
Now that we got all that medical/history mumbo jumbo out of the way I have to say...YAY! I got my bread machine and was able to eat bread on Saturday. We also visited Grandma Brown on Friday and I just felt awful when she wanted to make us dinner and I told her that I wanted to go gluten free for my health. She searched and searched for something gluten free, I told her not to worry about it. I ended up having salad and Cody and Grandma had pizza. It was really nice to visit and catch up. I have been doing good on my new gluten free lifestyle and hope to see some results soon.
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