Hashimoto's

I recently was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and in the process of learning a lot about how to try to control it with the medication I have been on for years. I just want to share this info taken from this blog:
http://www.drtraviselliott.com/blog/tag/hashimotos/

To identify Hashimoto’s, it’s important to screen for TPO and TGB antibodies on a blood test. If either of these is positive it indicates the immune system is attacking and destroying the thyroid gland, causing symptoms. In this case, the main strategy is not necessarily to treat the thyroid gland (although thyroid hormone medication may be necessary), but to balance the immune system in order to tame autoimmune attacks against the thyroid.

Going on a strict gluten-free diet. Numerous studies from several different countries show a strong link between Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism and gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, and other wheat-like grains. Interestingly, studies show those with a gluten intolerance are genetically more prone to Hashimoto’s disease. Gluten also promotes inflammation and leaky gut, which exacerbate autoimmune disease.

Adopting an autoimmune diet. For some people, going gluten-free is not enough to manage Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism and they need to follow an autoimmune diet that eliminates common inflammatory foods, such as dairy, eggs, or other grains. A whole-foods diet that emphasizes plenty of produce and eliminates processed foods is important to manage an autoimmune condition such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.

Repairing a leaky gut. Leaky gut, or intestinal permeability, often plays a role in autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. Leaky gut is a condition in which the lining of the small intestine becomes inflamed, damaged, and porous, allowing undigested foods, bacteria, fungus, and other foreign invaders into the sterile environment of the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream these foreign invaders trigger inflammation and autoimmunity.

Stabilize blood sugar. Stabilizing blood sugar is vital to managing Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. A diet high in sugars and refined carbohydrates (such as breads, pastas, pastries, and desserts) creates inflammation and hormonal imbalances that make it difficult to tame an autoimmune condition. Energy crashes, fatigue after meals, excess belly fat, hormonal imbalances, mood swings, and sleep issues are all signs you may have a blood sugar handling disorder, such as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or insulin resistance (high blood sugar).
These are just a few of the basics of autoimmune management for conditions such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. It’s important to manage your autoimmune condition to lower your risk of developing other autoimmune diseases, such as pernicious anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, vitiligo, or Type I diabetes.

I want to try to get things under control as much as possible with diet, mainly vegan and gluten free. Tomorrow I will start the day with a healthy breakfast of steel cut oats with chia seeds and fruit!

Preparing

I went to see my new naturopathic doctor to go over my blood work on Thursday morning. She told me that my thyroid medication dosage is working well, however my anti-thyroid antibodies were really really high. Which explains a bit why my medication needs to be adjusted way too often. I went expecting miraculous solutions to all
my problems: weight, allergies, depression, fatigue, sore muscles and joints. But basically I was told that I have an autoimmune disorder, which is near impossible to treat and there are not a lot of answers in the medical community. I spent the day feeling very sad and depressed. I wanted to hear that she had all the answers and during treatment I would lose weight and feel better. Now I will have to work even harder all on my own.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-thyroid_autoantibodies

I am preparing for my elimination diet to happen soon after Christmas. If you have any good non dairy, wheat, citrus, soy, nut, sugar, caffeine, aspartame, preservative, egg free recipes, I would love to try them!

Happy 12/12/12

Today I am celebrating my small accomplishments in my pursuit of health and fitness. I have been keeping to my habits of no aspartame, more fiber, no alcohol, no caffeine and no sugary drinks. I am beginning to feel a little better and have a bit more energy. I know that once I completely cut out the other bad stuff in my diet (while hard at first) I will feel even better. On Jan 1 I will start my elimination diet for three weeks at least. I have been staying in my calorie range and exercising daily.

I get discouraged easily when I don't see immediate results or when I mess up on my eating plan. I need to remember to hold my head high and be happy with where I am right now.

We had our first team scrimmage last night during practice. I felt like I am improving! I got some good hits in, and I feel like I am starting to understand what is happening on the track better.

Healthy Habit #5

I have been meaning to write this earlier, but life has been unusually busy this week. Also, I have been avoiding this lifestyle change...I have given up a lot the last few days!

Are you ready for this? No more sugary drinks, like soda, sweetened tea, juice. It's water and unsweetened herbal tea for me. Ugh, this is so hard!

Healthy Habit #4

Cut out alcohol. It turns to sugar in my body, is full of empty calories, and that is no bueno. Plus wine and spirits can be expensive and we really need to spend way less on the grocery bill.

I had skating practice tonight and felt pretty good out there after implementing my few new healthy habits. I still am out of shape and need to come a long way with my skills, but I felt less exhausted and winded. Are you ready for Healthy Habit #5? it's a doozy! I'm not sure I want to put it in writing!

Healthy Habit #3

Cut out the caffeine. This will help cut the carbonated beverages and sugar too, they go hand in hand for me. I will be drinking a lot of herbal teas.

Healthy Habit #2

Eat 25+ grams of fiber daily. I was told to grind flax or chia seeds and eat several teaspoons full (mixed in food) three times a day. This will help keep my blood sugar under control. Here is a great article about the importance of fiber.

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate (just like sugars and starches) but since it is not broken down by the human body, it does not contribute any calories. Yet, on a food label, fiber is listed under total carbohydrate. So this gets kind of confusing for people who have diabetes. Carbohydrate is the one nutrient that has the biggest impact on blood glucose. So, does fiber have any effect on your blood glucose?

The answer is that fiber does not raise blood glucose levels. Because it is not broken down by the body, the fiber in an apple or a slice of whole grain bread has no effect on blood glucose levels because it isn't digested. The grams of fiber can actually be subtracted from the total grams of carb you are eating if you are using carbohydrate counting for meal planning.

So, fiber is a good thing for people with diabetes. Of course, most of the foods that contain fiber (fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, cereals, and pastas) also contain other types of non-fiber carbohydrate (sugar, starch) that must be accounted for in your meal plan.

The average person should eat between 20-35 grams of fiber each day. Most Americans eat about half that amount. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that people with diabetes who ate 50 grams of fiber a day — particularly soluble fiber — were able to control their blood glucose better than those who ate far less.

So if fiber does not give us any calories, why exactly should you eat it? There are two types of fiber: insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber keeps your digestive tract working well. Whole wheat bran is an example of this type of fiber. Soluble fiber can help lower your cholesterol level and improve blood glucose control if eaten in large amounts. Oatmeal is an example of this type of fiber.

Another benefit of fiber is that it adds bulk to help make you feel full. Given these benefits, fiber is important to include in the daily diet for people with diabetes, as well as those who don't have diabetes. You can add fiber by eating whole grain products, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Leave the skin on fruits and vegetables, as it is high in fiber. Eat whole grain breads and crackers. And be sure to increase your fiber intake generally, and remember to drink 6-8 glasses of water per day to avoid constipation.

Healthy Habit #1

Cutting out aspartame. And gum. This artificial sweetener is in almost every major brand of gum. The chemical essentially turns into rocket fuel in the body and really messes with the gut. Thankfully, I mostly avoid aspartame but have been chewing gum more recently. I will be cutting that out, or searching for the xylitol sweetened gum instead.

Eczema and me

I get horrible eczema and I started doing some research on food sensitivity causing it. I came across this article: http://eczema-natural-healing.com/eczema-food-allergies.html
I would like to give this diet a try. But what is left to eat??

Sickness

No fun at all. We had planned a fabulous night away, got a room at a nearby hotel, sent all the kids off to various places, had take out Thai and went to a movie. But both of us have a terrible cold! We tried our hardest not to let it ruin our date night.

Newsy

So many new chapters going on our family right now. Where to begin?

1. I am starting my own business and applied for a license (it came in the mail a few weeks ago). I named it White Rabbit Arts. I am still kind of developing a business plan, but here is where I am going with it currently: kids arts classes, crafts for young and old, fine art and mixed media, event planning and children's room decorating and organizing.
2. I have been teaching a dance class for preschoolers called "Lil' Crocodiles. It is being held at this awesome older building in town and I am able to trade cleaning it for class use. I am starting out with one weekly 45 minute class for kids ages 2-6. It has been lots of fun!
3. Bartering has been something both J and I have been really getting into. We have been going through the house, ridding rooms of clutter and unused items and gaining some nice, needed things. J and I have also traded some labor for delicious meals.
4. My newest bartering agreement...providing childcare last minute to a single dad who is a personal trainer. He is going to be training me for two months for me helping him this month caring for his two sweet kids.
5. We are waiting to hear some big news that may effect our family so be praying. Will write about it soon.
6. E has been going to therapy here at a local place. She has been wonderful and we had a bit of a breakthrough with him!! It was emotional and awesome to see him express some sort of feeling toward his background and birthmom (we have no clue who she is) and turn to ME for comfort.

Stress

I have had a very hard time these last few years. The stress of adoptions, attachment difficulties, raising five kids, homeschooling some, my husband's job and life in general is taking a toll on my body.

I went to the dentist last week and have three teeth that are needing repairs due to clenching and grinding in my sleep. Two cavities have cracked, one tooth is worn down. My crown also needs to be redone, not sure if it is related or not.

I also have had some problems with my arms, they have been numb and tingly for about a week. I had this happen last year, right before I went to Uganda. I thought it was stress and caused from me on the computer often. This time it is in both arms and more severe. I haven't been on the computer often at all. The doctor doesn't think it is carpal tunnel, but maybe a pinched nerve. She said to wait and see if it goes away. Well, since this is effecting my nerves and circulation, I didn't really want to sit idle. So I went to the chiropractor yesterday (first time I have ever been). She was very nice and really seemed to get me. She suggested taking fish oil and vitamin B6. I went for an x ray and will see her again on Monday morning.

Food Dye

We are Feingold members. This is an association that helps educate families about food choices to help with behavior and health complications. We have been following this program (sometimes very closely, other times too relaxed) for about six years now. I really see a difference in my children's behavior when they eat foods with artificial colors and preservatives.

I got this email and wanted to share:
We are so excited!! We just had to share this with you right away, and we could not wait to include it in the December eNews.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), finally responding to the 2008 petition by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), has agreed to hold a hearing on food dyes in March. See the Federal Register announcement dated today.

This hearing is long overdue, but very welcome! Although Yellow 5, Red 40, and other commonly used food dyes have long been shown in numerous clinical studies to impair children’s behavior, the FDA has continued to dismiss the mounting evidence against the dyes.

According to Dr. Michael Jacobson, CSPI Executive Director, the continued use of synthetic food dyes is hardly worth the risk. "What’s the benefit?" he says. "Junk food that’s even more appealing to children than it already is? Why, when we’re medicating so many children for hyperactivity, would we let food manufacturers worsen some children’s problems? Behavioral problems aside, animal studies indicating that dyes pose a cancer risk provide another reason for banning those chemicals."

Fortunately, a few companies are adopting smarter policies even in the absence of government action. Starbucks does not permit dyes in any of its beverages or pastries, NECCO has switched to safer natural colorings for its famous Wafers, and Frito-Lay is testing dye-free snack foods.

Europe has moved much more quickly to protect children from artificial dyes. The British government has urged companies to stop using most dyes, and the European Union requires a warning notice on most dyed foods. See more. As a consequence, Kellogg, Kraft, McDonald’s, and other American companies that do business in Europe use safe, natural colorings over there — but harmful, synthetic petrochemicals over here.

We in the Feingold Association have been working with Dr. Jacobson on this issue, and we plan to be at the FDA’s March meeting. I will fill you in on details as I get them, so that perhaps many of you, too, can make yourselves heard (and maybe seen).

We can optimistically hope that this is finally the beginning of the end of synthetically dyed foods in the United States.

Best wishes,

Shula Edelkind, Feingold eNews Editor
Feingold Association of the United States

lowering the risk

INCREASED RISK:

My S. has many neurological complications. He has had to undergo several surgeries at a young age, and has a VP shunt for hydrocephalus. Because of the shunt, he must be monitored closely and undergo yearly visits including imaging at the nearby children's hospital. Children with shunt-treated hydrocephalus are exposed to serious amounts of radiation when undergoing computerized tomography (CT) scanning. I know S. has had at least 4 CT scans in his life so far, he is 2. I found this article interesting and alarming:

The risk is especially high for children. Researchers say that children are 10 times as sensitive to the radiation as adults are, putting them at an even greater cancer risk.

"Children's tissues are more sensitive to radiation, and they live longer than adults do, which means the cancer has more time to develop," says Cynthia McCollough, a radiological physicist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "However, if you need a CT scan, parents shouldn't lose a minute of sleep over it."

The reason parents shouldn't be too concerned is that the individual risk of developing cancer is small.

"One in four Americans will develop cancer in their lifetime," explains McCollough. "That's 25 percent. Radiation from CT scans when you are a baby increases your risk of developing cancer to 25.1 percent."

Since last year, S. has been administered MRI's instead, which do not use radiation. But I AM concerned. Cancer freaks me out. I have had many members of my family suffer from cancer related illness or death. We have cared for a teen from Haiti who lost his leg above the knee from cancer. My mom recently had surgery because of cancer.

HOW WE ARE CHANGING:

I have become more and more cautious of our health in our home. We try to eat a lot of produce, healthy oils, whole grains and lean meats. We are concerned with environmental toxins like PCBs, VOCs, pesticides, and the like. This article has many good ideas. (I wasn't aware that avoiding sugar can help prevent cancer. I did know eating a lot of sugar can cause other health problems.)

1 Eat more vegetables
Vegetables aren’t just delicious and filled with vitamins and nutrients; they also contain a lot of fiber, antioxidants, and beta-carotene. All of these help reduce your risk. Eating vegetables makes your body more alkaline, which is also good for preventing any illness.
For more on why eating a more plant based diet is better for you and the environment, please read another great resource at GoVeg.

2 Go organic
Organic food not only tastes better, it doesn’t have all those pesticides, antibiotics, steroids and growth hormones that can make you very sick. A lot of people say to me organic costs more. One trick is to go to your local farmer’s market right before closing. The vendors are practically giving their products away. Plus, eating organic is much cheaper than getting sick, missing work, and having medical expenses.

3 Sweat more
Sweating releases toxins through the skin. Fewer toxins in your body, the lower your risk of getting sick. Go for a hike, take a power yoga class, or sit in a sauna on a regular basis.

4 Do a liver cleanse on a regular basis
If you’ve been getting my newsletters for a while, you know I’m a fan of doing a SAFE cleanse at least once a year. Along with sweating, a liver cleanse will flush out the bad stuff that’s stuck in your liver.

5 Taking care of your mental health
Stress can weaken your immune system. Thus, making you more susceptible to getting sick. So whether it’s meditating, therapy, a spiritual practice, exercise, or all of the above, please take care of you!

6 Avoid sugar, including sugar substitutes, and dairy
Sugar feeds cancer. Eat some fruit instead. And dairy is mucous forming, since it’s mucous too. Try milk alternatives, such as hemp, almond, or rice. You can get really creative and make your own.

7 Deep breathing
Cancer cells won’t thrive in a highly oxygenated body. So take out that yoga mat and breathe.

8 Don’t store or cook your food in plastic.
Highly heated plastics release dioxin (carcinogens) into your food and ultimately into the cells of the body. In fact, avoid using plastic altogether.

AVOIDING PLASTICS:

More recently I have become careful about the use of plastics. I have become a plastic tossing fool the last few days. I am not throwing them out, since who knows how long this phase will last? I hope it will be a life long, healthy living choice. But I will keep my Tupperware and Rubbermaid in storage for a bit to be sure I really don't want to keep them. Or maybe find another non food storage use for them? I am trying to not bring any more plastic into the home. That is my intention.

GIFT GIVING:

Then I think about Christmas. And toys and gifts loaded with plastic. Read this article if you are buying toys for children this Christmas. Or avoid toys all together and give something different.

Some great ideas:

memberships

classes

trips or mini vacations

books

gift cards or certificates

Update

No news, just in case you were wondering.
Dear lawyer was not able to meet with important person today. Will try tomorrow. If he can guarantee us a favorable judge we shall go with that.

I have no idea what that means.

In other news, my baby S. is sick. He's had a fever for two days. J. took him to the doctor to rule out vp shunt issues. The doc said it looks like a virus. I feel so bad I am not with him while he feels lousy.

Speaking of sick, there are about 5 kids I am living with here who have been sharing their germs with me. I feel like I have been fighting this bug off for a week.

I am ready to get off this crazy train. Right about NOW.

Morning yoga

We are not really a yoga family, but J. really needs to stretch and get his flexibility back. He is doing the P90X video workout and Yoga X is part of the program. Here is E. doing some poses with his Daddy. Too cute. I bet this will help with his balance...