I am sure that the tile has intrigued you already. Can you really reverse Hypothyroidism? As many of you might have heard from your doctors, that are fighting this giant, the answer is “NO!” and emphatically so. How do I know that?
Since I believe in sharing personal experiences to show people whether something works or not, I would like to invite you to follow me as I journey back to my own past.
Several years ago, slightly over 7 to be exact, my husband (fiancé at the time) was diagnosed with a cyst. The cyst was found on his brain and threatened his life. He was hospitalized and had undergone a major surgery with two smaller ones in the following 2 months. I was his primary and only caregiver. Given that the surgery was quite invasive, although very skillfully performed, it took him nearly two years to fully recover.
As I mentioned, I was his primary caregiver. I was also working a full-time job and spent most of my time (all of my “free” time) at the hospital. My husband needed a lot of care and attention that he did not easily accept from the hospital staff, so I had to make up for what they could not do. With such a full load I averaged no more than 4-4.5 hours of sleep for at least 2 months. As my husband was recovering, my health began to deteriorate. Before I knew, I put on 30+ pounds, developed anterior knee condition and my menstrual cycles got crazier every month. By the time we got closer to our wedding date, they were about 3 months apart.
I did not know what was causing the problem, and in reality was too preoccupied with everything else in my life to pay attention to my own health. My doctor was not of much help when I sought her expertise.
About 3 months before my husband and I tied the knot I went in for a physical and decided to go on birth control (BC), as he was still recovering and we wanted to postpone having children until he was well. I had informed my MD about my problem. Instead of trying to figure out what was causing it, she cheerfully wrote out a prescription for BC and sent me on my way. Her only concern was that I refused to have Pap smear done, for which I fought tooth and nail, and, on which, after doing a bit of reading, she had to agree with me.
My body, already exhausted from stress and lack of rest, now took another hit—one of the worst things that happened to females all around the world—birth control drugs. I was too ignorant to know what they might do to my body, even after reading the insert, and my MD did not care to explain them or even cared to be concerned for my well being. With time I had learned just how detrimental birth control drugs and devices can be, but I perhaps one day will write another post on that topic. For now, if I had to plead with you on my knees, I beg you to stay away from them FOREVER! There are many other wonderfully sane and safe methods that are effective in planning a family (and I am not talking about abortions here, because they are neither safe nor sane).
At the urging of my doctor I got on BC to regulate my cycle. While she never bothered to figure out what caused my body to change, BC covered up only one of the symptoms that I developed at the time. BC caused drug induced menstruations, while the rest of my health was spinning out of control.
Before long, I had put on more weight, going from my slim 125 lbs frame to 168 lbs at my worst. My knees were in constant pain, and I could even hear them crackle when I bent or unfolded my joints. There were times I was in so much pain I could not get out of bed, and my husband literally had to pull me up on my feet. Running was impossible to even think about, when even walking and laying down hurt.
My skin started to change: my once completely moist and smooth face had now dry patches all over. Next was my hair: it was falling out in droves, as if trying to evacuate before an inevitable disaster. Next, in the line of attack, was my mental health. Up until that time in my life I had never known what it was like to feel depressed or sad for an extended period of time, however, as my health began to worsen, I plunged into the depth of depression and had to fight tooth and nail to appear normal to others, while struggling from day to day. Had I gone to see a doctor for depression, I know that the only thing that would have been done for me would be yet another prescription.
Next came my eyes—I had developed an extreme case of dry eye syndrome. I ended up having punctual plugs inserted into my eye in an attempt to retain much needed tears. By the way, if you are suffering with a dry eye syndrome, and you are on birth control—get off if as soon as you can—elevated progesterone levels are the culprit!
Believe it or not, but the list of my symptoms could go on for a while, but I will spare you the details.
Over the span of several years, after my husband’s recovery, I had gone through more stress, some of which had to do with moving states, my father suffering a stroke and eventually passing on and many other unattractive things of life. Being that I had never recovered from the initial stress that started all these problems, what had followed simply compounded and made things much worse.
I had visited several doctors and specialist trying to find out what was going on with my body. Some of them were well known in their field and respected in the medical community, yet Not ONE could tell me what caused my problems. At best, they each tried to diagnose me with, what seemed, unrelated health issues and offer severely invasive procedures to improve… THE SYMPTOMS.
The extent of my diagnosis was that I was “border-line hypothyroid”. When I insisted on knowing the dangers of being “border-line” no one could explain those to me, and I was insistently told that I am OK and had nothing to worry about. With time I found out that what is considered “border-line hypothyroid” by one doctor can be considered hypothyroid by another. Eventually, less than 2 years ago, after making a list of all my symptoms and doing a research, I diagnosed myself (this is sadly spoken). My diagnosis was confirmed by yet another MD—I was in fact suffering from Hypothyroidism. I was also told that I could never be cured of it and will most likely need the aid of medicine for… the rest of my life!
By that time I had already gone off BC (thank God for wisdom), yet after losing nearly 30 lbs my body refused to cooperate with me any further. As I stood to believe the cause was hypothyroidism and the only way out was to medicate myself.
The pressure was immense! I wanted to get better and I wanted to get better FAST! My well-being could be envied by no one. My knee joints, which have been assisted by certain exercises, were still aching, my eyes could not get through a day without eye drops (don’t forget the punctual plugs either); hair was going through seasons of thinning itself out.
Those of you who have been following this blog have heard the story of how I saved my husband’s life by changing our diet (you can read it under Our Story topic http://eathealthybehappy.blogspot.com/search/label/Our%20Story). Through that experience, if there was one thing that I had learned, and I learned many, was that I am my best advocate and caregiver and that I should never take a word of MD without thorough examination and questioning. I actually now formed an opinion that I need MDs for diagnostic purposes only, unless there is a NEED for a surgery or something of sorts.
I politely had taken the prescriptions I was given by MD and told him, much to his surprise, that I won’t be using them and will find natural ways to heal myself.
By then I had already been a vegan for over a year. Receiving the final diagnosis helped me to do more research and finally connect the dots. I was able to dig to the bottom of what caused the problem, rather than masking multiple symptoms.
I got off the BC. Being on BC had slowed my recovery. The moment I was off it the world started to seem like a better place to live in. My health issues started to slowly dissipate. The recovery picked up. I kept changing my diet and improving the quality of nutrient intake.
Full recovery did not come overnight, in fact I am still dealing with some minor issues, but the problems that I brought onto myself did not happen overnight either. I had learned that the most important tool in my recovery was patience, to be superseded only by nutrition and rest. I was tempted numerous times to fill the prescriptions that were sitting in my file drawer to get some relief, but then I chose to rather struggle for a little time longer than get a momentary relief and undermine my full recovery. Being patient had also afforded me the opportunity to further educate myself on the subject, to ensure that I would never go through it again.
My best progress happened when I increased my raw food intake to about 70/30-80/20 raw food to cooked food ratio. I excluded any and all processed foods from my diet; I started to eat green smoothies on almost a daily basis. I make sure to add sea weeds to my smoothies for iodine, and take an occasional Kelp supplement when I have no time for a smoothie. I also dumped table salt from my diet, replacing it with sea and Himalayan salts. I limit intake of processed fats in my diet (that includes oils that are deemed as ‘healthy’). I do not eat processed sugars, and take NO medication.
As my body was receiving more unadulterated nutrient, vitamins, minerals and enzymes, it was using them as building blocks to replace the old, ailing cells in my body and to replenish its depleted storages that are needed for our bodies to function properly.
Patience is golden! It helps us bear long-lasting fruit.
I am now back to my perfect weight of 119 lbs. (and, please do believe me that I don’t care much for numbers—it is overall wellbeing that concerns me the most, perfect weight comes with good health). The weight came off slowly, with NO dieting—healthy lifestyle and exercise were the key. My knees no longer ache and I can even jog, if I want to. I no longer use eye drops, my hair is looking great, and my skin is regaining its luster. I am starting to forget what depression feels like [the memories are still too fresh in my mind], and thank God for that every moment I am alive.
I was recently tested and the results have confirmed what I have known for a while—I no longer suffer from Hypothyroidism! There are still a couple of issues that I am diligently working on (one day I will write about them too) that prevent me from saying that I am in PERFECT health. But my life and health are getting better every day.
The truth is out—Hypothyroidism is REVERSABLE!
Once you determine what causes the problem, you can address those issues and reverse the symptoms. For me it was stress that ate away at my life. I had since learned how to eliminate and avoid unnecessary stresses and how to properly deal with the ones we must face to live. It was “safe” and “approved” medication that has no place in a life of any woman (yes, I am convinced enough to speak for every woman). It also was a need for a change in my diet: going to an all-plant, unprocessed, organic mostly raw diet helped my body to restore itself.
This is just a brief report that should provoke my readers to start thinking independently and take control of their own health. I can go into details and medical terminology to explain correlation and processes of certain chemicals and hormones our bodies use to make us tick properly—I have become quite well versed in that area. However, most readers simply want to know the tools to use to improve their health, rather than making sense of what makes those tools work.
If you have a comment or a response to this post, I will be more than delighted to hear from you.
Until next time: Eat Healthy! Live Happy! Trust me—I know what I am talking about ;)
Elena
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