Might It Be Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis? The Hidden Thyroid Problem

Are you a women who struggles to keep slim despite eating healthily, has thinning hair, feels cold all the time, gets utterly exhausted and lives with a foggy scattered brain? These sound like classic symptoms of an underactive thyroid but your doctor may tell you that your thyroid is just fine!

However even if your blood tests show a perfectly normal thyroid function, this myriad of seemingly unconnected symptoms may be due to an autoimmune thyroid condition called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. This condition is rife and on the increase, especially amongst women over the age of forty, but we have seen girls as young as eight years old with a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s. Three of our NatureDoc practitioners live with this autoimmune condition and this is why supporting women and girls with Hashimoto’s has become such an important specialism in our clinic.

Oftentimes these symptoms are overlooked and it is not diagnosed as Hashimoto’s. This is because thyroid antibody testing is not offered at the GP level on the NHS, and so you can only find out if you have raised thyroid antibodies through private blood testing. Luckily a private blood test costs under £100, so it is easy to find out yourself and raised thyroid antibodies might be why you feel so bleurgh all the time.

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis occurs when the body’s immune system turns against the the thyroid gland, causing the thyroid to become inflamed and damaged which leads to dysfunctional thyroid hormone output. The under production of thyroid hormone produces symptoms similar to hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) and symptoms can include, but are not limited to:

BUT Hashimoto’s also causes more wide-reaching symptoms which might not typically be attributed to an under-active thyroid gland. These may include:

All too often, straight forward hypothyroidism is diagnosed due to a raised TSH marker but the thyroid antibodies are not checked or addressed. This means that the standard treatment of replacement thyroid hormone fails to produce total improvement, and some symptoms simply worsen over time.

Levothyroxine is the thyroid hormone replacement drug of choice in the Western world and is a synthetic form of the thyroid hormone T4 or thyroxine. This should improve the hypothyroid nature of the illness but is not the answer for the autoimmune aspect of this disease. It will not lower the antibody production and the internal attack on the thyroid can continue unabated. So if you are being treated for hypothyroid and you still have symptoms it is worth exploring the autoimmune aspect to thyroid health.

Because Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is a problem with the immune system, full management of the condition needs to concentrate on this autoimmune angle through nutrition, lifestyle, gut health support and supplements and much of the time this support is given alongside replacement hormone treatment. Or if caught early enough, the antibody attack can be dampened down before much damage has been done to the thyroid gland, and patients can avoid the need for taking lifelong replacement thyroxine.

You will be unlikely to be prescribed Levothyroxine and no medical interventions will be put in place if your TSH marker (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is still below 4.0 even if your thyroid antibodies are sky high. So you can be living with debilitating thyroid symptoms due to Hashimoto’s for around 10-15 years before your TSH rises high enough for your GP or endocrinologist to prescribe thyroid medication. This is why we are so passionate about supporting women and girls living with Hashimoto’s, as you should not need to suffer in silence, and through our own lived experience and working with hundreds of women who have thyroid challenges, we have learnt that nutritional interventions can make a significant difference to how you feel.

Causes of Hashi’s are not fully understood but the rising numbers of cases point towards eating the standard western diet full of ultra-processed foods; mineral deficient soils due to over farming; chronic stress and a high cortisol state; gut permeability due to overuse of antibiotics, histamine and infections; chronic viral, yeast and parasitic infections infections; toxins including plastics, pesticides, fertilizers and dioxins. Heavy metals also interfere with thyroid function particularly mercury (whether from eating tuna or from dental amalgams) and aluminium in antiperspirants might potentially be a contributing factor.
These can confuse the immune system and send it into an autoimmune state where the body starts fighting the thyroid.

Working on optimising nutrient intake, improving sleep and stress, opening up detoxification pathways and addressing long term gut symptoms can all in turn help to dial symptoms down and help you feel so much better.

Where to start?

Our team members with their own thyroid health challenges have had much success with controlling their own Hashimoto’s symptoms through adopting a variety of diet, lifestyle and supplement changes. There are many studies on the benefits of these strategies to stop the autoimmune attack in its tracks, lower inflammation and bring resolution to many of the diverse and difficult symptoms experienced by someone with Hashimoto’s. Here are our top four tips:

• Start by following a nutrient dense diet and cut right back on the ultra-processed foods and refined sugar.
• Prioritise protein at every meal and you may well feel better if you start your day eating a substantial savoury breakfast.
• Try taking an electrolyte drink on waking daily if you feel weak and wobbly on waking.
• Next supplement with vital thyroid nutrients including vitamin D, vitamin B1, selenium, zinc and iron.

Just with these steps you should start to feel stronger quite quickly.

If you feel you need more support for your thyroid then work with a NatureDoc practitioner to address the underlying autoimmunity aspect through supplements such as reishi, quercetin, broccoli sprouts, resveratrol and N-acetyl-cysteine. They will also help you work on your gut dysfunction as well as your hormone imbalance which are often out of whack due to adrenal problems and poor blood sugar balance.

Round up

Symptoms of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis vary considerably from person to person and in most people multiple symptoms are experienced and it can be complex to unravel. A typical scenario for undiagnosed Hashimoto’s can be easy weight gain, exhaustion on waking, brain fog, constipation and feeling cold all the time….as well as a hairbrush full of hair!

Luckily help is at hand and our NatureDoc thyroid specialists can run comprehensive thyroid, nutrient and gut microbiome testing to get a thorough understanding of your thyroid health and then will be able to educate you on the dietary and supplement changes you need to make so that you start to feel more energised, switched on with a much more efficient metabolism. Get your internal thyroid ‘spark plugs’ fired up and dampen down the inflammation from the autoimmunity and you can feel well again.