Shownotes
Welcome to this week’s episode of Thyroid Strong where I give you a roadmap of what Hashimoto’s remission looks like from my own journey and the collaborative approach of my doctor. Listen in to find sound bites you can incorporate into your lifestyle.
Key Takeaways
Going into Hashimoto’s remission is possible. First, find a great doctor that will work with you in creating a hierarchical framework of what to treat first instead of treating everything simultaneously. Second, change your diet, change your sleep, change your workout to a Thyroid Strong style of working out and then address the root causes that can trigger your autoimmune condition.
How Do You Know When You’re in Hashimoto’s Remission?
Of women with Hashimoto’s, about 20% can go into remission. Those that go into remission have minimal destruction to the thyroid gland and exhibit their thyroid hormones within optimal range on a blood draw, no presence of thyroid antibodies specifically TGAB and TPO, and no presence of Hashimoto’s symptoms.
Three Changes to Make On Your Journey to Hashimoto’s Remission
First, change your diet. Start eliminating gluten, dairy, and alcohol. Second, change your sleep pattern. Instead of going to bed at the same time everyday, start waking up at the same time everyday and getting into the habit of a new circadian rhythm. Lastly, address the root causes of your Hashimoto’s and adjust your lifestyle further including your workout.
In This Episode
Destruction of the thyroid gland [1:34]
Three components to going into remission with Hashimoto’s [1:52]
First changes I made when first getting diagnosed with Hashimoto’s [4:34]
Address the root cause of my Hashimoto’s [7:48]
How to work out without burning out with Hashimoto’s [11:08]
Quotes
“So I was one of those 20% of women who went into remission. One of the aspects was catching the diagnosis early and taking the steps to make the changes.” [4:10]
“Prioritize protein 30 grams minimum to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, aka muscle growth and not only prioritize every single meal, but especially the first meal.” [9:20]
“One of the things that's really important is working with a great, great doctor, for a collaborative approach to addressing some of the root causes of your Hashimotos in addition to managing your medication.” [12:24]
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Topics Covered:
- What Hashimoto’s remission looks like
- The first steps to changing your lifestyle to improve your Hashimoto’s symptoms
- Importance of finding a great doctor in treating your Hashimoto’s
- How to address the root causes of your Hashimoto’s
- How to change your diet, sleep, and exercise to help treat your Hashimoto’s
Resources Mentioned:
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Transcripts
Some of the newer research supports rising at the same time every day. So instead of going to bed at the same time every day, rising at the same time, no matter what time you did go to bed so that your eyes can see the horizon. You can have sun on your face the first 30 minutes of the day help reset that circadian rhythm What's up lovely ladies, Dr. Emily Kiberd. Here with thyroid strong podcast. I am a chiropractor, a mama to Elvis and Brooklyn and I have Hashimotos. But it's currently in remission. On this podcast, I share simple actionable steps with a little bit of tough love on how to lose that stubborn weight, get your energy and your life back and finally learn how to work out without burning out living with Hashimotos. What's up lovely ladies, Dr. Emily Kiberd here with thyroid strong. I get this question at least once a day. So I thought I'd address this here on direct strong podcast. And it comes in different forms this question that comes as how do you know when you're in remission for Hashimotos? How do I get there? What is remission? What is remission look like? So let's go about 20% of women can go into remission with Hashimotos. If and I am one of the 20%. If your Hashimotos is caught early enough before there is too much destruction of your thyroid gland before there's too much atrophy of your thyroid gland. That means your diagnosis needs to be caught early. And if you're like em, what is remission? What does it mean? What does it look like? What does it feel like There are three components to going into remission with Hashimotos. Number one, your thyroid hormones are within optimal range on a blood draw on a serum thyroid panel, and what the heck is optimal. We talk about this and they were strung a lot. I do not read bloodwork. I have friends that read bloodwork that are amazing. Know that there are conventional ranges that are much, much broader than an optimal range or range where you're going to feel like your best self, those optimal ranges are much tighter and much more narrow. So that's number one. Thyroid hormones are with optimal range on a blood draw. And know that it's not just TSH that there are six different lab values. There is no presence is the number two, there's no presence or there's a minimal presence of thyroid antibodies, there's actually two tests to test with our ad antibodies, one checks if there are antibodies attacking your actual thyroid gland, which is on the front of your neck, a little butterfly shaped gland. And then the second one checks if there are thyroid antibodies attacking the thyroid hormones. So it's number two, no presence or minimal presence, a thyroid antibodies, and then number three for remission is that you don't have a presence of all those Hashi symptoms, right? Your energy levels are good, you don't have that crushing fatigue fatigue worse than like a first trimester pregnancy fatigue, your hair loss is minimal. So you're not pulling clumps of hair, you're not fighting clumps of hair in the bathroom drain, your the outer third of your eyebrow is not totally vanished, which I've definitely had in the depths of my Hashimotos diagnosis and you're not experiencing unexplained weight gain, gas weight can fluctuate, there are many, many factors holding on to water over eating, being in a caloric surplus, trying to bulk right, but it's not like oh, I just gained 40 pounds in the past three months and nothing change. So you could have your weight being managed by your lifestyle choices. Brain fog is minimal. I know in the depths of my Hashimotos diagnosis, I could barely finish my sentence, no dry skin. So you know the big ones are the weight, the fatigue, and it was a brain fog, that you're not having those presence of symptoms. So the three aspects of remission, optimal thyroid hormones and blood draw no presence or minimal presence at 30 antibodies and feeling good. Not having a presence of those symptoms typically go hand in hand with Hashimotos. So I was one of those 20% of women who went into remission. One of those aspects were catching the diagnosis early and taking the steps, taking the steps to make the changes. There's different personality types. I'm the personality type where you give me a game plan, I will execute just give me the plan. I don't hem and haw. I don't ruminate a lot. Give me the plan and execute. So for example, some of the first changes when I first got diagnosed by my functional medicine doc Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Li O N was going gluten free. They didn't hem and haw. I didn't crave bread. I just literally looked at the food that were the recommendations and said okay, this is either going to help me or this is going to hurt me. In addition to my Hashimoto symptoms of hit by a bus fatigue. I was getting some histamine intolerance symptoms. So every time I eat my tongue hurt, also a sign of probably leaky gut parasite, certain parasites will cause that hormonal eczema on my hand. So these are very tangible symptoms. It wasn't like I'm like a little tired. It was there's a burning rash on my hand and my tongue is literally burning and numb. So when I would look at food, I would either go okay, that's gonna make me feel better, or that's gonna make me feel worse and worse was a headache burning on my hand burning tongue. So gluten free, dairy free, and then I took it the next step, no alcohol, and a low histamine diet. We'll go into this in another podcast, but low histamine diet is kind of like next step. So things that could be considered a high histamine would be avocados and I love guacamole. I tore my heart out spinach, which how many times they make a spinach, banana smoothie, spinach banana are both high histamine and think that I was eating something healthy for me for my body at that time, I can eat bananas. Now. I eat guacamole now, but I'm also six years since Guinea diagnosed. So I think the big two were gluten free, dairy free, no alcohol. And then also a low histamine diet took out the night shades. I don't really crave the night shades which are eggplant, red pepper, potatoes, I don't really crave those. So those aren't really hard. If you want a great resource of how to start that my girl Allison Morris, she has a great blog food by mars.com. She has a beautiful book out that has paleo recommendations. And she works with a lot of women who have autoimmune conditions and gut health issues. So that was one of the big steps I took. Even now when I eat gluten, I get a headache within 15 minutes. So I keep that out dairy I can eat occasionally. Sometimes I get bloated with it. I don't really drink and might have one Rosae at the beginning of the season, but I've also managed my stress such that I don't feel like I need alcohol to offset. Some of the newer research supports rising at the same time every day. So instead of going to bed at the same time every day, rising at the same time, no matter what time you did go to bed so that your eyes can see the horizon. You can have sun on your face the first 30 minutes of the day help reset that circadian rhythm. So I started to prioritize my sleep. I use an aura ring. I don't need it. I'm a really good sleeper. I have an eyemask I haven't cooler which keeps my bed nice and cool. I'll drop these links in the show notes. And I'm a good sleeper my husband terrible sleeper but I'm a good sleeper. So while I do use an aura ring just to track I'm usually above an 85 If I'm below an 85 on my aura ring 85 out of 100 I turn into me mommy. So that's number two. So number one was changing I was eating number two was changing my sleep. Number three was I started to work with Gabrielle my functional medicine doc to address different root causes. We had mold, we had water damage in our apartment, we remediated we moved out. We had all that moldy material moved out in the water source patched and then worked through probably a six to nine month mold protocol of different supplements. Binders jumping in a sauna three times a week taking binders after scrubbing the body with charcoal soap, a very intensive protocol killed some very pesky parasites, specifically hookworm and roundworm. They're very challenging to diagnose in the States, a lot of testing around parasites in the States is for research. And a lot of it is a PCR test is looking at the strains versus the actual ova the eggs or the larvae. So I just had a special test sent that stool sample off to Africa to pick up that hookworm and roundworm diagnosis again, protocol for probably six to eight weeks and then a gut health protocol after that, that parasites has also picked up anemia. If you think about parasites attaching to your gut lining wall, you can see why anemia could come up and go hand in hand with that I prioritize and shifted you know, when I was pregnant, I was pounding the carbs in the coffee to get my day going again that idea of burning the candle at both ends, probably causing some adrenal insufficiency and so I prioritize protein first meal of the day, whether is it 7am or 11am. Prioritize protein 30 grams minimum to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, aka muscle growth and not only prioritize every single meal, especially the first meal, so let go of that pounding of the carbs in the coffee. And if you're thinking okay, what is 30 grams of protein in the morning that's five eggs. It is the card deck size of a steak like a ribeye, a fistful of ground beef, palm size of chicken breasts. I'm not big into chicken I find it a bit dry. But those are ways that I measure 30 grams I don't pull out the scale. I don't have time I have two kids. I like to make Get efficient and easy and accessible. So I usually go for a card deck size of a ribeye, or 5x. You know, also going to this idea of pounding the coffee, I like to replace my Coffee with Green Coffee. Going back to this idea mold, a lot of coffee beans, when they're dried out can be moldy, and then you're literally grinding it up roasting it in drinking mold. So I like to drink green coffee. Sun up is the brand sun as you went up all one word, a very high in antioxidants. It tastes more like a tea. So I'm not gonna lie, it is not the perfect replacement for coffee. One container of sunup is equivalent to two cups of coffee in terms of the amount of caffeine, but lots of antioxidants. And it gives you that alertness without the jitters without the anxiousness without like the stinky coffee sweats. So it's another thing that I shifted, did it help me go into remission? I don't know. But it helps me start my day. Normally, no drink coffee, I get the crash my coffee. If you're wondering ice cortado, I get the crash of two. But with some coffee I don't, I switched up my workouts. And this is where thyroid strong comes in my program for women with Hashimotos to learn how to work out without burning out. So when I first got diagnosed, I was overtraining, I was trying to do a 45 minute spin class a soul class, if you're from New York, and I'd walk across the street and go do a 45 minute Barry's Bootcamp hit training, trying to do that four days a week. And so I change how was working out less hit less spinning, less cardio, less bootcamp, more heavy lifting, trying to put meat on the bones, direct Strong Style, heavier weights, low reps, long rest breaks. So that was a big shift in not burning myself out not giving myself joint pain, not giving myself this feeling of like I'm gonna get a flu if I overdo it, and really just doing it better, supporting my body, feeding the muscle, and then I prioritize recovery. So instead of doing five, six days a week, three, four days, not 45 minutes, but 20 to 30 minutes, if I am feeling like Superwoman, depending on my own programming, I'll do 45 minutes, but that is a very, very rare 20 to 30 minutes, I also have little kids, I really only have time for 20 to 30 minutes. So those were the steps I took in my journey to put my Hashimotos into remission. And I think one of the things that's really important is working with a great, great doctor, for a collaborative approach to addressing some of the root causes of your Hashimotos in addition to like managing your medication, so I can't tell you how many times women ask okay, how do you know when you're in remission? How do you get there? And I'm thinking, why aren't you working with your doctor to talk about that, right? Maybe there's too much destruction of the thyroid gland that maybe thyroid medication is required for life, which is fine, because it's gonna make you feel good. But I think it's important to find a great doctor, make it a collaborative approach and know that a really good doctor not only does a bunch of testing, but that they also know how to create a hierarchy around what to treat first. I've definitely seen not very well trained functional medicine Doc's and while they had that functional medicine title in front of their name, they did like a full blast approach where they were trying to treat everything at once. And when you do that you will be taking zillions of supplements, you will feel like you're getting cross reactions between different supplements and yes, sometimes protocols make you feel not so great certain binders for mold, like clay and charcoal. Oof, I feel like death like probably worse than just being exposed to mold. But if I took colas, tyramine, which is a prescription binder, I feel okay. And I can make it through that protocol. It doesn't put me down in bed. So finding a great practitioner to collaborate with who does not treat everything they create a hierarchy. This is what we're going to treat first. This is what we're going to treat. Next, we're not going to treat Candida because you have to treat your parasite first, and then you can treat Candida. So all those little things, all those little pieces matter. But get the big three anchors in your day, right 30 grams of protein per meal resistance training three to four times a week that I read Strong Style, if I had my way 20 To 30 minutes, you know and I'll include walking 10,000 steps a day with the resistance training and then getting your sleep uninterrupted six hours I like to go sleep by 1030 I got my mask, I'm a blackout curtains. So those are the big three the food, how you're moving your body and sleep and then start to dive into those root causes. So I hope this helps I get this question every single day this readmission question. And so I thought I'd share it with you if you liked this episode, share it with a friend. Share it with your mom, share with your sister. You know how she motos and autoimmune conditions is oftentimes familial. Go leave an honest review. If you loved it, share it. If you didn't love it. shoot me a DM on Instagram. I reply to every single email every single message All right ladies, stay strong. You got this if you enjoyed this episode or even learned just one new piece of information to help you on your Hashimotos journey, would you do me a huge favor? rate and review thyroid strong podcast on iTunes, Spotify or whatever platform you used to listen to this podcast and share what you liked. maybe learn something new. And if you didn't like it, well shoot me a DM on Instagram Dr. Emily Kiberd I read and respond to every single DM I truly believe all feedback is good feedback. Even the ugly comments if you're interested in joining the thyroid strong course a home workout program using kettlebells and weights where I teach you how to work out without the burnout. Go to Dr. EmilyKiberd.com forward slash T s waitlist. You'll get all the most up to date information on when the course launches and goes live special deals in Early Access bonuses for myself and my functional medicine doctor friends again Dr. Emily kiberd.com forward slash T s weightless hope to see you on the inside ladies