I drove home that morning, determined I wouldn’t be medicated. I would spend every waking hour researching ways to manage Hashimoto’s without medication. Every indication told me it couldn’t be done.
Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease. The thyroid is dead and can’t be brought back to life, I was told. Don’t always believe what you hear. That’s my motto. With that statement ringing in my head, I began to learn about the thyroid.
Our thyroid is the largest endocrine gland in our body. No wonder people have problems. Think about it. This little butterfly-shaped gland works 24/7 to keep our body systems operating properly. Compare that to your computer, and consider this. If you turn on your computer and open 20 different tabs in your browser, one of two things will eventually happen. The computer will either lock up or crash.
Our bodies are similar on many levels. We don’t eat right or get enough sleep. The food we put in our bodies if packed with chemicals that we are not meant to digest. This one abuse causes our organs to work on overload to clean out toxins that eventually cause health issues.
Consider your thyroid. It is one small gland that we pollute every day. From brushing our teeth to eating meat injected with hormones and antibiotics to slathering our skin with cosmetics that are loaded with carcinogens. That’s only the beginning. We’ll discuss this in depth in a future blog.
So, we know the thyroid is busy. It produces two types of hormones, T3 and T4. These hormones control how and at what rate your body will burn energy. It also regulates how you respond to stress hormones. That’s a big job, considering the stressful lives we live. I will discuss this in a future blog as well.
We now know basically what our thyroid function is. So, it’s time to quickly look at two ways it can malfunction. There is hyperthyroidism, where the production of hormones is excessive. Then there is hypothyroidism, in which the thyroid produces too little hormone. Both situations can be disastrous if left
- Rough skin
- Weight loss or gain
- Fatigue
- Being too hot or too cold (excessively)
- Depression/Anxiety
- Digestive issues
- Frequent urination
- Low sex drive
- Trouble breathing
- Hair loss
- Vision issues
- Migraines (a biggie for me)
- Muscle aches/tenderness
We’ll be talking about all of these and more as the blog develops. My goal is to provide
