Two years ago, I was feeling pretty crummy. I was extremely tired all the time, suffered from chronic nausea, weakness, the shakes (I had trouble writing), and I was losing weight, which I was thrilled with, but I was feeling so terrible. I was also having major night sweats, soaking the bed every night and a terrible persistent itching over my entire body. Since I was pushing 40, I figured it was hormone related. Maybe I was starting to show signs of menopause. So I called my OB/GYN and made an appointment. She sent me for some blood-work, but based on my symptoms she had a hunch it was thyroid related.
She was right, the blood work came back with elevated thyroid levels and recommended I go see an endocrinologist.
And so begins my story.
After more blood-work, my endocrinologist, who I will refer to as Dr. G., diagnosed me with hyperthyroidism, specifically Graves' Disease. Graves' disease is an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism). Although a number of disorders may result in hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease and Hashimoto's Disease are the most common causes.
We began to talk about what options I had: I could a)try medication to bring my thyroid function under control. It is an effective treatment, however, only 30% of patients are cured with this option. And, long term use of this pill can cause bad side affects to your body. So, its not a long-term answer if you are not responding favorably; b)go with a more permanent answer, which is to remove the thyroid via RA, or radiation treatment. Here, I would take a big fat radiation pill that 'burns' out the thyroid and I take a pill every day for the rest of my life that replaces my thyroid function. This option is effective, and the most popular, but also has a cancer risk associated to it; and finally, c)remove my thyroid via surgery and take a pill for the rest of my life. Of course, surgery comes with its own risks as well, and I am left with a nasty scar on my neck.
After going over the options with me, he sent me home with medication to help get my symptoms under control and think about what route I wanted to take with my treatment.
I weighed the options very carefully, fretting over every detail. In the end, however, I wanted to keep my thyroid if at all possible. The idea of taking a massive about of radiation scared me. I have a couple of friends who had this procedure who have also had cancer. I am not sure if the two are related at all but I didn't want to take the extra risk. The idea of surgery seemed to not be an option either. The last two surgeries I had resulted in some pretty serious skin reactions that I didn't want to repeat. Plus, the scar was not appealing. So that left the medication route. But, the medication only worked in 30% of patients. And, if it didn't work, I would end up having to chose between the last two options anyway. Many people I confided in thought I might as well get it over with and have it removed. But my gut was telling me different.
I finally settled on a plan. I wanted to do everything I could to keep my thyroid. Maybe I could be the 30%! I chose the medication route and to work on getting my body and health in tip-top shape. I had the #1 natural nutrition company at my disposal, why not take advantage of this?
I began by removing all toxic chemicals from my home. Personal care, cleaning products, anything and everything that I found to have any bad stuff I got rid of. We also make a conscious effort to eat as clean and natural as possible. Of course, we are not perfect with this. We enjoy eating out and the occasional pizza night, but for the most part we eat organic and natural.
Then, I put together a daily supplement regimen to try to repair my immune system. After some research, I decided to go with the Shaklee recommendation for hyperthyroid disorders. I also found many people in the Shaklee family have successfully been in remission using this regimen. More on this later.
I went back to Dr. G every 6-8 weeks for follow-up. Each visit, my blood-work continued to improve. Dr. G lowered my medication every six months and finally, in January this year, he declared me to be officially in remission and felt comfortable stopping all medication. To say I was thrilled was an understatement! But, this didn't mean I was cured. Remember, only 30% of patients are cured from the medication. My symptoms could return at anytime. I was instructed to go back in three months and re-assess. I continued my daily regimen and prayed.
My three month check-up was in early April and I am happy to report my thyroid levels still look great! It has been almost 6 months now and I still am symptom free. I have learned a lot throughout this journey. The most important being that you CAN keep your thyroid and successfully fight this disease. Knowing what I know now, I am so glad I decided to try to keep my thyroid. I feel that so many doctors push the removal route. While I am sure that is the only option for many people, I can't help but wonder how many people remove their thyroid unnecessarily. It is possible to find a cure a more natural way!
Many people have asked me what I take daily to manage my Graves' Disease. So I am going to break it down for your below. Of course, I follow the Shaklee plan because I trust Shaklee implicitly. I know they have high quality, pharmaceutical grade products that are constantly tested for contaminates. They don't have any fillers or bad ingredients to compromise your body. Plus, they have a team of medical professionals and experts, whose opinions I trust, and I can contact them anytime I have a concern.
Having said that, this is by no means a medical recommendation or claim. I am just sharing what I believe has worked for me in the hopes that it may give others a baseline to work with. Whether you choose Shaklee products or not, please be sure to do your homework and choose high quality, reputable products, preferably pharmaceutical grade. Cheap, over the counter supplements have been proven to not be what they claim and can have little or no beneficial effect. And obviously, talk to your doctor before starting any regimen.
Ok, so here we go.
My daily plan is as follows:
Vitalizer:
In my opinion, this should be the basis to everyone's health regimen. It is one of the highest quality multi-vitamins on the market today and has incredible clinical science to back it up with the Landmark Study. Specifically for thyroid function it contains Iodine and Selenium, both found to be helpful in regulating thyroid and adrenal gland functions.
Watch our latest video about Vitalizer HERE .
Vivix: This is often referred to as Liquid Gold. This helps the body repair itself at the cellular level. What does this mean? Well, every ailment is really a breakdown of our cells in some fashion or another. This helps repair that damage. Even though it is promoted as an Anti-aging product, many many people have seen incredible results for many ailments such as macular degeneration, cancer treatment recovery, heart disease, diabetes...etc. The list goes on and on. it is such a powerful antioxidant that it was a no brainer for me to add it to my daily must-haves.
Watch a video about Vivix HERE.
UPDATE: Since this post was published, Shaklee released an AMAZING
product combining Vitalizer and Vivix into one, called the
LifeStrip. Basically, they put Vivix into a liqui-gel form. This makes
it much more convenient because the Vivix liquid required refrigeration
so this is much more mobile and easy. I now use Shaklee's new LifePlan, which includes the LifeStrip and the new Life protien powder. Shaklee put prebiotic and probiotic into their protein powder as well which provides 750X more pre and probiotic than yogurt. SO awesome. See more about LifePlan HERE.
Nutriferon:
When I first joined Shaklee as a distributor, this was one of the products I began using right away. This stuff is amazing and works great! When used daily, it increases the production of your body’s natural interferon, a critical activator of the immune system. NutriFeron works at the cellular level, by rapidly activating your immune system’s defenses. So, since hyperthyroidism is an auto-immune disease, I wanted to make sure I had my immune system in tip-top shape. Nutriferon is critical support autoimmune disease since it works to regulate the immune system.
Protein:
Dr. Forrest Shaklee always maintained that good health is built on a foundation of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Protein also helps normalize thyroid function by transporting thyroid hormone to all your tissues. It is important to get a high quality protein. So I also try to add in a smoothie each day (usually for breakfast). Now, there is some (or a lot) of debate about soy protein and its affect on many things including thyroid. I obviously don't know a lot about it, but I had a discussion with my endocrinologist about this very issue and he reassured me that it is a certain type of soy (like hydrolized, I think) that can have adverse affect on the thyroid. The soy that Shaklee uses is 100% clean, non GMO soy, which is not harmful to my type of thyroid issues.
See more about the best protein ever HERE!
See more about the best protein ever HERE!
GLA Complex:I have recently added this to my daily routine, mostly to help with my monthly cycle symptoms. But I added it to this list for its benefits in regulating the body's hormones, including the thyroid hormone.
GET CLEAN:
So I don't have any clinical evidence to support this, but I am sure it is out there. I figure since we know how dangerous toxic chemicals are to our bodies, it only makes sense that removing them from the environment as much as I can will only help increase my health even more. Since tossing all of my toxic, chemical cleaners from my house, my family has seen drastic improvements in our health. And, I didn't have to compromise my very high cleaning standards since the Get Clean products actually work better than anything else I have used and they are CHEEEEEEEAP! LOVE THESE PRODUCTS!
Personal Care and Diet: Last but not least, as I mentioned earlier, I try my best to eat naturally and/or organic as much as possible and use personal care products that are as natural as possible. I specifically stay away from items with parabens and sulfates that are typically rampant in body wash, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen...etc. Of course, Shaklee has a lot of my favs, but there are many options these days at the store, just make sure to read your labels for hidden ingredients. Many of the labels will say "Natural" on them but really that only means that they include a natural ingredient in the long list of crap they make it out of.
Whew!! That is it folks! I am so very happy to be in remission from Graves' Disease and still have my thyroid. Was it all due to my daily regimen? Was I in the 30% group of people who can be cured by the meds? Who knows. But I believe it is a combination of the two. As I said before, my disease could come back at any time, but I am bound and determined to fight everyday to keep that from happening. I am determined not to have to make the hard choice to remove my thyroid.
Another note: Many doctors are too quick to recommend radiation therapy or surgery as an answer to curing thyroid diseases. After all the research I have done and the many testimonies I have seen, people have successfully beat this disease without losing their thyroid. It takes a lot more effort and some trial and error, but it can be done. Of course, some can't avoid removing their thyroid, but I just want you all to know that there are other options, more natural ones. If your endocrinologist doesn't support alternative methods, find one who does. There are good thyroid doctors that are open-minded about thyroid treatment options – 30 online resources to find a good thyroid doctor.
Here are some additional references:
Books: “Living Well with Hypothyroidism”, Mary Shomon“The Thyroid Diet Revolution: Manage Your Master Gland of Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss”, Mary Shomon
“Thyroid Power” by Shames and Shames has a good chapter on how to talk to your doctor
Note: Anything written by Shomon is good.
On Line Information sites:
www.Women’s Health Network
EXCELLENT article by Mary James:
http://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/thyroid-health/hyperthyroidism.aspx
Blog sites:
www.drlowe.com
www.thyroidscience.com
www.holtorfmed.com
http://chriskresser.com
about.com/thyroid
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