Hashi's and Diet

[vanderr]

This is a repost from About.com:

Hello, I am new to these forums.

I am writing on behalf of my wife who is 27 years old and has slowly been piecing together her medical condition. Since we do not have health insurance, she has relied heavily on the internet as well as a family friend who is also a doctor, and just recently she went to visit a clinic and a lab and has had an unltrasound and blood work. All told, it seems that she has Hashimoto's.

The question that I would like to put to the members of this forum is: has anyone sucessfully reduced the amount of antibody or the size of the goiter through a change in diet? If so, what changes were made, and what effect did they have? My wife recently picked up a book called "How I Reversed My Hashimoto's" and it talks a lot about this in it.

Thanks in advance...

[NastyHashi]

Quite simply, the answer is no. I read that book and its a bunch of garbage in my opinion. It offers useless hope to those who have Hashi's and the author is full of beans in my opinion.

Now, the body can tend to heal itself with a remission-like abscense or lowering of the antibodies but it is usually short lived. Over 3 years of wicked Hashis myself with no meds, I have had antibody counts as high as 3200 and as low as 80 - all with no change in my diet. The only things I've ever found to "work" were reducing stress somehow. When I go through longer stress free periods my symptoms go down a lot.

Please don't hang on to false hope although I strongly believe a healthy body and mind plays a big part in making symptoms better, but not gone. I do not think there is any magic formula. Eat well, exercise, relax, stay stress free and she will feel better than she does now but never pefect unless meds are introduced or the situation changes, like the thyroid finally burns itself out which is usually the eventual outcome with hashi's patients.

[vanderr]

Thanks for sharing a little of your experience. So, have you been able to stabilize your symptoms without the drugs, or have you begun taking them.

Thanks again.

[mw6280]

I am very interested in this discussion as I would also like to know if it is possible to reduce thyroid antibodies. I have read countless other stories on the internet about people being able to do this by sticking to a gluten free diet and taking selenium supplements.

I am trying to fall pregnant and truly believe my high antibodies are to blame for never being able to conceive.

I find it hard to accept that there is nothing that can be done to reduce the antibodies and the size of my goitre.

I have just had fresh blood tests done, and am going to try the gluten free diet for a while and then have tests done again to see if there is any difference.....will keep you updated!

[Andros]

This is a repost from About.com:

Hello, I am new to these forums.

I am writing on behalf of my wife who is 27 years old and has slowly been piecing together her medical condition. Since we do not have health insurance, she has relied heavily on the internet as well as a family friend who is also a doctor, and just recently she went to visit a clinic and a lab and has had an unltrasound and blood work. All told, it seems that she has Hashimoto's.

The question that I would like to put to the members of this forum is: has anyone sucessfully reduced the amount of antibody or the size of the goiter through a change in diet? If so, what changes were made, and what effect did they have? My wife recently picked up a book called "How I Reversed My Hashimoto's" and it talks a lot about this in it.

Thanks in advance...

Hi. The only thing I know about is that keeping the TSH suppressed keeps the antibodies quiet. From what I have read, this is "supposed" to be the medical protocul w/ Hashimoto's. TSH should be kept below 1.

It is wise to omit things from the diet that are known allergens because again, that is the body attacking it's self so that does help somewhat.

Hashimoto's is a genetically acquired autoimmune disease. To my knowledge there is no cure; but........................there is plenty to be done to help the patient feel well. It is a chronic autoimmune disease.