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When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto, I was really worried since I was detected with a thyroid nodule.
One day I was crying being afraid that something really bad could happen to me.
And no wonder, when dealing first with something that is unknown brings up all that fear.
I was diagnosed in 2015, and seven years later, I can say, I was worrying for nothing.
Of course, at first dealing with mystery symptoms that conventional doctor’s can’t explain is hard, because it made me thing what was wrong with me, there is no solution as the doctors who I went were not able to explain my weird tingling in the head, the tremours, the fatigue even if I was already showing normal TSH and following their recommendations.
But oh my, if this has been a healing journey that thank God, I have found the tools and life style that I have to follow to have a good and probable to say almost great health.
I will be answering some of the common questions in relation to quality of life in patients with Hashimoto, but merely from my personal experience.
As well, there are already several examples on the internet of more and more people who have undergone as well the Hashimoto healing journey and are sharing their experiences on healing it.
For starters, and words of hope, if I have improved my health after not knowing what to do, so do you.
The issue wih autoimmune disorders is that there might appear the so called mystery symptoms.
What are these mystery symptoms, well those headaches, fatigue, depression and anxiety moments, cold feet and hands even in normal temperature, sleep problems, muscle weakness, joint pains and so on that are hard to explain why they are appearing constantly.
And when you are presenting such symptoms and you go with the doctor, you get some ibuprofene or paracetamol, but after a while the symptoms return and you go back with the doctor, you do some lab tests, but everything looks fine.
So the doctor might say, “it is all in your head”, or “you are making it all”, “it is stress”, or whatever excuse they will bring out even if they are checking out your thyroid labs for T3, T4, TSH, TPO and TGAB and they are normal.
At this point, Hashimoto is affecting you by actually not addressing the root causes that might be the ones triggering those symptoms.
Usually patients with Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto start their thyroid hormone replacement therapy as prescribed by the doctors, but if the conventional doctors don’t dig deeper into your other symptoms, than your health-related quality of life will take time to be reestablished back to normal and optimal levels.
Are we doomed to have always these symptoms, short answer no.
As I have described in my other articles Hashimoto Diet, Hashimoto in Men, Treatment for Hashimoto with Normal TSH, there are certain steps to take to restablish health.
If you haven’t yet started a proper and real healing journey for your Hashimoto, than it can have a negative impact on your quality of life.
Probably, nobody enjoys a decreased quality of life, but it is these period of time that will trigger you to take the decision to desire and work for a better life.
Low levels of hormones in the body besides of bringing up fatigue, a person can also show signs of the psychological symptoms of Hashimoto.
People can be presenting constant depression.
This low drive in the energy will bring up the person unmotivated and not willing to do things.
So, if the person does not start at least with the levothyroxine therapy, then it can seriously have an impact on the quality of life.
Unfortunately, if the person is first labeled with depression and sent to a psychiatrist without doing the proper thyroid labs, it would be misdiagnosed and given with anti-depressants, which will can affect even more the person due to the side effects of it, but when in first place the person have had high levels of TSH, menaning that his or her thyroid gland is not working properly.
It is extremely important to check out the antibody tests and see if its Hashimoto.
If so, then do the food sensitivity test, check out for nutritional defficiencies, work out on stress levels, add whole foods to the diet and work on the lifestyle changes.
There are two moments of your life that can show how it is like to live with Hashimoto.
The first one is when you are labeled with it, and the second one is when you realize that there is a way out of all those symptoms.
Patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis at first are given with leothyroxine to restore their thyroid function and bring back to normal levels the TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone.
But this is not the only thing that it should be done to “heal”, taking levothyroxine replacement is just a support but not the full treatment, and it is here when patients eventually show up new symptoms or still show that their thyroiditis can affect quality of life, but in reality is that their root causes are not being properly addressed.
If a person is diagnosed with it, but still eating gluten, drinking alcohol several times a week, not aiming to sleep 7-9 hours, not seeking out to reduce stress, then eventually he or she will present sings of slower cognitive function, fatigue, low energy, low libido and so on.
Once the person is decided to recover his or her health, and decides to do his own research and put hands on his or her healing journey, then we can say it is starting the second part of how it is to live with Hashimoto, and it is a better one than the previous stage.
If you undergo a food sensitivity test, a person with Hashimoto can start to eliminate those foods that are generating an auotimmune response.
So basically living with Hashimoto will mean to give up to those delicious foods, but that are bad for health like pizza, burguers and pasta, but that doesn’t mean to fully give up, since there are already gluten free alternatives that have good taste.
If you were up into doing intense sports, than you should might start thinking on reducing it and find a proper balance to your body.
Intense excercise increases the level of cortisol and stress in the body, so it will be working out even more to reduce the inflamation that you are currently undergoing.
Meditation or any spiritual practice should be included to help out to reduce stress and bring up your connection back with yourself.
As well, including some Hashimoto supplements would be important to bring up those nutritional defficiencies that you might be presenting.
Yes, it is possible to live a good life with Hashimoto, but first there are deep changes that you should start to do.
First, you must be willing to leave behind all those things that made you sick in the first place.
Leaky gut is an important factor to consider when healing Hashimoto.
If toxins go to the bloodstream due to the leaky gut, then the body will generate immune responses and will present some symptoms.
L-glutamine is an amino acid that support the regeneration of the gut lining.
As well, including probiotics will help with this.
Finding the right thyroid medication will be crucial, because there might be the case that some brands won’t be good for you and can cause negative effects like me that I had some chest pain, chest pressures and tachychardias which were awful.
They stopped as I changed medication.
Focus on lowering your cortisol and stress levels, so this in general will have a postivie impact on your life.
As mentioned, finding the foods that are for you is crucial, so as addressing the nutritional defficiencies with supplements like Vitamin D, Vitamin B, Zinc and Selenium.
Aim for at least 7-9 hours of straight sleep.
Turn off any digital device 2 hours before sleep so that your brain starts to calm and lets you have a better sleep.
Do some yoga, meditation, prayers, or music therapy to relax and connect with source.
To have a good quality of life despite being labeled with Hashimoto is possible, but it is your responsability to achieve it.
