part two of Healing Hashimoto’s
part two of our guest post by Liz Schau. (if you haven’t read, part one – check it out here: Healing Hashimoto’s)
I started an anti-Candida diet that winter and four months later, my thyroid numbers were surprisingly better, so much so that my medication dose got reduced. This trend continued for the next few months until I hit a plateau and realized I was missing a few things. I so valued the work that Dr. William Crook had done for me in writing The Yeast Connection And Women’s Health, but, with time, started to see that I needed to eliminate food allergens; that they were causing this fungal infection and all of my symptoms. There’s much more to this food story, of course: I did a bunch of research and trial and error and finally figured out what my body needed and what I had to avoid. It turned out to be a long and transient list and a whole new world of information. Mostly, I realized that the food I had been eating wasn’t food at all, it was industrial product; I learned what real food looked like and that fats were actually good and necessary for life. I learned that bacteria were my friend and I had to stop sanitizing my body, my emotions, my food. In short, I learned that everything I had ever known about eating was wrong; it was simply too modern for my own good.
Because I had success healing my Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, I started sharing my experience with other people in similar situations via health writing. Quickly, I realized I needed to put my expertise and insatiable curiosity to good use, and enrolled in formal nutrition school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I now work as a Holistic Health Counselor, guiding people to heal their symptoms and causes of thyroid disease, autoimmunity, Candida overgrowth, and food allergies. I empower my clients to live their best lives, overcome fear and limitations, and live out their unique purpose in this world.
In working with my clients, I find that they also inherently understand that they can heal their diseases: they are always fighting and working hard and researching; they know that they shouldn’t feel this way and that there has to be an answer to their dilemma. Even those who are not interested in natural health understand that this isn’t the way things should be for them and that there simply has to be a solution. My job is provide these people with all of the information, guidance, support, and care they need to overcome their illness in the form of listening and action plans. My work is very important to me because this is a calling, not a job. Guiding people to medical independence, true health, and ultimately, fulfillment and happiness isn’t something that can be done in a doctor’s office.
And I would know.
Liz Schau is a Holistic Health Counselor and Health Writer who helps those with thyroid disease, autoimmunity, Candida, and food allergies overcome their health problems and embrace radical wellness. She’s always looking for motivated and intelligent clients. You can find her at lizschau.com.
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About donielle
Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles (with another babe in heaven) after dealing with infertility. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility will be available in June 2012. She also runs a local blog (Grand Rapids Natural Living) and is active the local community in order to provide the area with resources and information for natural families.
Wow! I am so glad I subscribe to this blog and got to read this! I was diagnosed this last summer with Hashimotos. I am blessed to have a rather wholistic doctor who put me on the Armour, but also had me go on a two week yeast clearing diet and test for allergens. Right now I am mostly glutten and dairy free and considering going on the GAPS diet. I am also 11.5 weeks pregnant. I am struggling with my energy levels and my blood work is requiring an increase in meds.
I know I need to do more for my body than just sort-of avoid the foods I shouldn’t eat, but it seems so overwhelming (especially when I’m this tired). My SIL has chronic fatigue syndrome and I know needs help too. SO MUCH TO LEARN. I hope you wrote a book I can read! Thanks!
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Liz Reply:
November 17th, 2010 at 7:32 am
@Andrea, So sorry to hear you’re going through this! Well, I can’t make any real suggestions just based on what you’ve said here, but I will say that a two-week yeast cleanse probably was not long enough, unfortunately. Clearing the dysbiosis from our bodies really does take years, especially for those with chronic illness and food allergies (both of which are a sign of imbalanced gut flora). Would love to chat with you more!
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I love this story. I was plagued with gastro-intestinal issues that no doctor could really explain. I took test after test after test and all they could come up with was gastritis, IBS, and GERD. I was put on Nexium and told I’d be on it for life. This didn’t set well with me so I started researching and found Dr. Mercola and an article about how Nexium actually causes the symptoms it is supposed to cure and causes patients to be on them forever. I weaned myself off and manage my symptoms with diet. I’m still not 100% so I recently went off gluten. My doctor suspects I have Candida. I hope I don’t have to remove more foods from my diet, but I realize that I may eventually have to do that for total healing. I also am hypothyroid and on Armour, and I have low iron and am experiencing inexplicable hair loss. Again, doc things I’m not absorbing nutrients since I eat so well. I hope I can heal my body by figuring out and avoiding whatever is causing this. Your story is an inspiration.
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Liz Reply:
November 29th, 2010 at 10:17 am
@Musings of a Housewife, Thank you so much for sharing your story! Those of us who are healing our bodies naturally have to speak up because there is so much hope, but this knowledge isn’t mainstream yet… people don’t realize they have these natural options. I am so thrilled that your health problems are clearing up. It is a long road back to health and it does not happen overnight, but there are always gains and we can look back and see how far we’ve come.
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A friend sent me a link to this blog. Please please help me, steer me in the right direction, tell me where to begin. After 2 pregnancies and YEARS of unsucessful synthroid treatment I am completely hopeless. I have been diagnosed with hypo-then more recently Hashi’s and I’m supposed to keep taking the meds that SOMETIMES kinda work but mostly not. I’m miserable and I’m so tired of fighting it. Sometimes i wear the same clothes for days at a time because the thought of showering shaving and blowdrying my hair is so overwhelming I give up before I’ve begun. I never had memory or concentration problems before the thyroid problems started and I take adderall daily just to get myself off the couch, and don’t get me started on my addiction to diet coke. Any advice, a starting point…would be so helpful, something has to change. I can’t live the rest of my life like this.
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donielle Reply:
December 13th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
@Angela, If you have itunes, you can download a really great podcast from http://www.UndergroundWellness.com that he did last summer with an expert on thyroid issue. GREAT to listen to! You can also listen to it off of his site.
One of the biggest things you may start doing though, is eating more whole foods and less processed foods. *ahem* bye bye diet coke!
Going gluten free may also be immensely helpful! The proteins in gluten look very similar to proteins in the thyroid and the body attacks them – so cutting out something that is causing your body to attack itself (a.k.a auto-immune) is very important.
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Where do I go to find the info on what foods to get out of my diet and other info. Google is so confusing and I seem to be in a constant fog.
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donielle Reply:
December 13th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
@Pam, Here’s a good link with some of the menu plans we’ve posted here. The top few are the best.
http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/tag/menu-plans/
This link includes many of the posts I’ve written here: http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/table-of-contents/
Check the links near the bottom of the page – specifically the podcast on gluten.
On that same page there are also a list of posts under Fertility Diets that will be helpful in what foods to cut out and which ones nourish the body.
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Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring story! So easy to google and find forums to commiserate on. I, too, have SUCH a similar story to yours. Through a self-imposed mind and diet revolution two years ago, I went from a TSH of 202 to 3.81 in 4 months without medication! But now in the long run, I realize that healing is not static. So even though the chocolate chip cookies and ice cream are organic, I can’t indulge like before. I’m on meds now, breast feeding a super healthy baby (lucky me), and having to wait to go back to a more hardcore approach to wean myself off of the meds. I just learned about the connection and became gluten free two months ago. I am also a research junkie and am resolute in healing myself for good. I will read that book! Thanks for the recommendation! Have you hard about the Marshall Protocol? What are your thoughts? Many blessings to you!!! Continue shining that beautiful Fifth Chakra of yours and using your Voice!
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