Happy 2021!!! As you probably know, I’ve been helping people with hyperthyroidism/Graves’ disease and hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s restore their health since 2009. And while I’m proud of my book “Hashimoto’s Triggers [1]” and will continue to provide content that can benefit people with both hyperthyroid and hypothyroid conditions, in 2021 I will be focusing a lot more on hyperthyroidism. And the reason for this is simple. While there are many practitioners that work with Hashimoto’s patients, there aren’t nearly as many natural healthcare practitioners who have experience working with hyperthyroidism. In addition, since I personally dealt with Graves’ disease and have been in remission for 10+ years, there seems to be a greater affinity for those with hyperthyroidism.
Here are some of my goals for 2021:
- To create more blog posts that focus on hyperthyroidism/Graves’ disease
- To conduct more Facebook lives and Zoom calls that focus on hyperthyroidism/Graves’ disease
- To have at least a couple of free 5-day challenges focusing on hyperthyroidism (with the first one being in February)
- To create a new Facebook group for those with hyperthyroidism looking for a natural approach
- To begin putting together the outline for my next hyperthyroidism-related book
- To release a podcast that focuses on overcoming hyperthyroidism
In order to accomplish these goals, a few sacrifices will need to be made, and one of the biggest sacrifices involves greatly reducing the number of one-on-one consultations I do. Don’t get me wrong, as I love working one-on-one with people, and I still plan on working one-on-one with patients in 2021. That being said, I will be limiting the number of one-on-one consults, as I feel that if I accomplish the goals listed above that it will have a much greater impact on those with hyperthyroidism. In other words, while I can only do a limited number of consultations each month, an unlimited number of people with hyperthyroidism can benefit from the information in my blog posts, books, future podcast episodes, etc.
Speaking of which, my goal is to help at least 10,000 people with hyperthyroidism avoid radioactive iodine and surgery over the next 10 years. While my articles/blog posts and book have helped thousands of people save their thyroid gland over the years, I feel like I can do so much more. If you have been following me for at least 5 years you might have noticed that I haven’t been releasing as many blog posts as I did in the past, and the reason for this is due to lack of time. And while I can’t promise that I will immediately start cranking out more blog posts and other forms of content, I’m confident that as each month passes by you will see more hyperthyroidism-related information.
How To Save Your Thyroid In 2021
So now that you know my goals for this year, I’d like to go ahead and discuss a few things you can do to help save your thyroid gland in 2021.
1. Choose your endocrinologist wisely. I realize that in some cases people are unable to choose their endocrinologist, and the truth is, most endocrinologists will recommend one of three things: 1) antithyroid drugs, 2) radioactive iodine, or 3) thyroid surgery. In my opinion it’s not a big deal when an endocrinologist recommends methimazole or a different type of antithyroid medication [2] during the initial appointment. However, it is a big deal when they start pressuring you to receive radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery from day one. I don’t expect endocrinologists to recommend a natural approach to their patients, but in most cases, removing or obliterating one’s thyroid gland should be a last resort.
2. Be safe while addressing the cause of your condition. When I dealt with Graves’ disease I chose not to take antithyroid medication, but this doesn’t mean that this is the right choice for everyone with hyperthyroidism. While bugleweed and motherwort did a wonderful job of managing my symptoms, these herbs aren’t always effective. So while I can understand that some people with hyperthyroidism don’t want to take antithyroid medication and/or beta blockers, especially since side effects are common, just remember that everything comes down to risks vs. benefits. I’m not saying that you should just deal with the side effects of the medication, especially if they’re severe. All I’m saying is that if you can manage your symptoms with natural agents that’s great, but some people do need to take medication, and not everyone experiences side effects.
3. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Can Diet Alone Reverse Graves’ Disease and Hashimoto’s? [3]” In the blog post I discussed how diet is important, but there can be other triggers of thyroid autoimmunity. That being said, regardless of whether you have Graves’ disease, toxic multinodular goiter [4], or a different type of hyperthyroid condition, it will be difficult to restore your health if you eat inflammatory foods.
So what type of diet should you follow? While I commonly recommend an autoimmune Paleo diet to those with Graves’ disease, the truth is that there isn’t a single diet that fits everyone perfectly. For example, if I work with someone who is a vegan or vegetarian, I usually will have them make some modifications to the diet, but it still will be a diet consisting of anti-inflammatory foods. Of course there is some debate over which foods are anti-inflammatory, and while I won’t discuss this in detail here, there is no question that the following foods should be avoided while trying to restore your health:
- Refined foods and sugars
- Fast food
- Unhealthy oils (i.e. canola oil, peanut oil)
- Artificial ingredients
You may notice that I didn’t list foods such as grains, legumes, and nightshades [5], which are not part of an autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet. There are reasons why these are eliminated from an AIP diet, but I’d be lying if I told you that 100% of people need to eliminate grains, legumes, and nightshades in order to get into remission. For example, nightshades are inflammatory in some people, but some people do perfectly fine eating tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and/or white potatoes. And the same can be said with grains and legumes. The problem is that there is no way to know who will heal fine while eating these foods, and who won’t recover. This is why I usually recommend avoiding these foods initially, and then reintroducing them later.
4. Improve other lifestyle factors. Stress management and sufficient sleep are both important for optimal health. I have separate articles and blog posts on both of these topics. With regards to stress management, if you’re not doing something EVERY DAY to improve stress handling I would recommend to block out five minutes and incorporate some type of mind body medicine [6] (i.e. yoga, meditation). Obviously spending more than five minutes per day would be awesome, but it’s important to first get into the routine of improving your stress handling skills. Once you’re spending five minutes per day on a regular basis on stress handling you can then gradually increase the duration. As for improving sleep, I once again would refer to other blog posts I’ve written on this topic [7].
5. Focus on improving your immune system health. This is especially true for those with Graves’ disease, but in 2020 EVERYONE realized how important their immune system is. Of course I’m sure that many people reading this understood the importance of immune health even before the events that took place in 2020. Either way, you want to do everything you can to optimize your immune system health. I’ve already mentioned a few things that can have a dramatic impact on your immune health (eating well, stress management, proper sleep).
Having a healthy gut is essential for a healthy immune system, and so you want to do everything you can to optimize your gut health, while at the same time avoid anything that can disrupt your gut health. This includes food allergens such as gluten, and of course you’ll want to minimize exposure to gut-disrupting drugs such as antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors.
6. Reduce your toxic load. Last January I wrote a detailed blog post entitled “How To Reduce Your Toxic Load To Achieve Optimal Thyroid Health [8]”, and so I definitely would check this out. In addition, you might want to consider registering for the Free upcoming DIY Detox Summit [9] (I’m one of the guest speakers). You can register for this free event by clicking here.
7. Take full advantage of the free thyroid-related resources I offer. I realize that not everyone can afford working with a natural healthcare practitioner like myself, which is a big reason why I decided to focus on creating even more free resources for those with hyperthyroidism. I also should mention that I’m always open to suggestions for future blog post topics you’re interested in. While I can’t promise that I will write a blog post every time someone has a suggestion, if multiple people ask me to write about a specific topic I definitely will consider it.
Free 5-Day Hyperthyroidism-Related Challenge Coming Soon!
If you have hyperthyroidism/Graves’ disease then keep an eye out for my upcoming 5-day challenge, which probably will be the week of February 1st. More details to come soon.
Note: Fees Increasing on February 1st
If you’re interested in working one-on-one with me I would recommend to email my staff person Kate at staff@naturalendocrinesolutions.com [10] asap, as not only will I be reducing the number of one-on-one consultations in the near future, but our fees will be increasing on 2/1/2021.