For years my mom has told me I can't eat gluten, but what person in their right mind wants to hear those words? Most certainly not this one, lover of all food period. Until now that is.
Let me take you back...
I have suffered from Hashimoto's Thyroid Auto Immune Disease (a form of low thyroid) since I was 14 years old. Since then, I pretty well have had my dose of thyroid medication regulated up until pregnancy when it went a little lower than it normally was. My midwife was able to regulate it towards the end of my pregnancy and my levels stayed normal up until Radcliff was about six months old when all of a sudden my thyroid levels went super low. At that point she really upped my dose because I didn't want to lose my milk, and it then ended up go extremely high (which I liken to hell, truly). I was able to finally get it regulated but having my levels fluctuate that much really took its toll on my body. I was extremely tired. No matter how much sleep I got, I could always sleep longer. I had the foggiest brain. Wren would speak to me and it took everything in me to actually comprehend the words I heard coming out of his mouth. I literally felt like I had take ten NyQuil. I was anxious a lot of the time and just didn't feel right. I was at a loss of what I should do and just frustrated that I didn't feel 100% at this fun time in Radcliff's life! It only happens once and I wanted to feel present and enjoy every second.
Well my cousin just got diagnosed with Celiac's Disease (meaning your body can't tolerate gluten) a couple months ago and she came in to town right after she found out. Also a sufferer of Hashimoto's Disease, she too told me she knows I can't do gluten by how I've felt my entire life. She talked me into trying it with her while she was here, and honestly? It was like the heavens departed and someone came and saved poor Savy! In literally just a couple days I felt 100% better. No exaggerations here. I could think straight for the first time in a loooong time. Doing things actually sounded fun again because I had so much more energy to do them. I wasn't butt @$$ tired after every meal I ate (a common denominator I've had my entire life), and I've just been a much kinder person overall! It really makes me sad too, because I know I could have felt so much better over the past ten years had I just bucked up and gone off it. I've had a couple slip ups since going off it a couple months ago, and let me tell you what. The big D came full force (and I ain't talkin Dallas folks), and my head went completely up my butt all over again for a couple days straight. BAD NEWS, but a confirmation that my body really can't tolerate it. So now? It really isn't that hard for me to stay away from gluten because I think, "Is the one minute of happiness this roll is going to bring me worth it to feel like crap for two or three days? Absolutely not." So for anyone else who knows way more about this than I do, what are some tips, recipes, links, ANYTHING that I should know?
If any of this sounds familiar to you out there, here is a little more info on Hashimoto's and why people with it are so likely to be intolerant to gluten. It's actually really scary, check it out...
"Hashimoto’s disease is named after H Hashimoto, a Japanese physician who worked in Europe before World War I. He described the disease in a German publication in 1912. It was the first condition to be recognized as an autoimmune disease. Approximately one in five people suffer from some form of autoimmune disease. Some experts estimate that 75% of those affected – some 30 million people – are women. Thyroid autoimmune disease is the most common of all autoimmune disorders, affecting 7 – 8% of the U.S. population. In the United States, autoimmune disease accounts for approximately 90% of all hypothyroid, mostly due to Hashimoto’s autoimmune disease. Autoimmune means that the body is now attacking itself. In regards to the thyroid, the thyroid is being attacked by white blood cells. The body received misinformation and has gone haywire attacking the thyroid and destroying not only the thyroid but also brain tissue. Hashimoto’s autoimmune disease is not really a thyroid disease but an immune dysfunction. You could have Hashimoto’s if you are hypothyroid (this is the most common form), hyperthyroid, or have what appears to be a normal thyroid. Perhaps no disease is more overlooked in the health care system that Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroid. Although the disorder is the most common cause of hypothyroid in the United States, many doctors don’t test for it since a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroid does not change the standard of treatment which is to prescribe thyroid hormone. Instead, because most doctors expect the thyroid to continually lose function, they just monitor blood levels and adjust medication accordingly. As other hypothyroid symptoms pop up, the standard of care is to prescribe more and more powerful medications, such as Prozac for depression, even drugs to slow the heart or suppress the adrenal glands. Another approach is to remove the thyroid gland all altogether. This approach doesn’t always work either, as some tissue is always left behind and still serves as a site for autoimmune attack.
If you have depression and a thyroid problem this could most likely not be a mental depression but a physical condition manifesting as a mental depression. This condition should be treated physically not mentally. Most physical depression is being misdiagnosed as mental depression, when in reality it is coming from aphysical or functional cause in the body. Please see my list of “59 Physical Reasons for Depression.” These 59 physical reasons for depression should be ruled out first before anyone is put on an antidepressant. At the top of the list for physical depression you will find nutritional deficiencies and hypothyroid, hyperthyroid problems.
Numerous studies from several countries show a strong link between gluten intolerance and Hashimoto’s disease. Because the molecular structure of gluten so closely resembles that of the thyroid gland, the problem may be one of mistaken identity. What is gluten? Gluten is a protein found in wheat rye and barley. Because of genetic engineering for the past 20 to 30 years there is five times more gluten in wheat. We are not designed to consume that amount of gluten, our bodies do not break it down. In order to break down that much gluten you would need three stomachs like a cow. Gluten will affect your digestive system and contribute to what is known as a leaky gut (intestinal permeability). Once gluten leaks through the intestinal track and enters the blood system white blood cells look at it it as a foreign invader and start to attack it. As time goes on the body goes haywire and because the molecular structure of gluten so closely resembles that of the thyroid the body starts to attack the thyroid – case of mistaken identity. Once the attack is on there’s no way to turn it off. A person with Hashimoto’s autoimmune thyroid must be on a gluten-free diet. If you digest gluten it can affect you for up to six months. Being on a gluten-free diet is another strategy to help protect thyroid tissue."
Now it's...
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