What Is Autoimmune Thyroid Disease?
With its butterfly-shaped appearance, this cute little gland amazingly produces hormones in-charge of our body’s metabolism and/or processes or movements that involve us for using energy. Most of the time, it is difficult to determine if a person is experiencing problems with this gland. One might be gaining weight, suffering from hair loss, extremely energetic, anxious, or some even sweats at an abnormal pace. These are common symptoms if an individual has something wrong with his/her Thyroid Gland. Now, let us briefly discuss one specific illness that we call Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.
What is Hashimoto’s Disease?
Graves’s illness and Hashimoto thyroiditis are types of immune system thyroid sickness. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is an immune system illness, a turmoil wherein the immune system betrays the body’s own tissues. In individuals with Hashimoto’s, the immune system assaults the thyroid. This can lead and turn to hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid doesn’t make enough hormones for the body’s needs. In these ailments, thyroid-receptor T cells are shaped that invade the thyroid organ. The two issues are regular with a predominance of about 1% in the US.
It is a dangerous disease since a person who might have an Autoimmune Thyroid Disease might feel nothing in the beginning. As the disease stays longer in one’s Thyroid Gland, the gland itself might get swollen and enlarged, making your throat feel full; this condition is called a goiter. If not given the attention needed as soon as possible, the gland will shrink by itself, but it doesn’t mean that you are cured because the voluntary shrinking of the Thyroid after a goiter only means that your gland is already damaged.
Symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease include:
- Tiredness
- Sensitivity to cold
- Puffy face
- Constipation
- Enlarged tongue
- Pale, dry skin and brittle nails
- Hair loss
- Weight gain
- Muscle aches and joint pain
- Depression
- Memory lapse
- Heavy menstrual bleeding
How do you reverse autoimmune thyroid disease?
One of the best treatments to reverse autoimmune thyroid disease is to have balanced thyroid hormone levels. A balanced nutritional diet, regular exercise, and natural supplements can also help reverse autoimmune thyroid disease. A doctor’s way of diagnosing a patient with this disease is by blood tests to effectively check your Thyroid hormone level. In some cases when blood tests aren’t clear enough, patients are required to undergo an ultrasound. But in most situations, blood tests can already show if a patient has Autoimmune Thyroid Disease, especially if the doctor is aware of your family’s history regarding this line of illness.
Oftentimes, functional doctors only take a look at the symptoms of a patient in a shallow manner and miss digging deeper into the real cause of one’s issues and risk factors that may lead to the real autoimmune thyroid disease. This leads to having the question of why people get this disease still unanswered, even if it got worse.
In lieu of this, we must know that understanding the risk factors of this disease is important for effective treatment. The advantage of having a functional doctor handle these cases is that unlike conventional doctors, they don’t consider lifestyle and dietary factors in treating Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. We must also be reminded that the most effective way to get rid fully of the disease is to either get medicated or undergo a surgery. For Functional Medication, what will happen is that they will listen and understand your story to be able to find the root cause of your disease; which is something a patient doesn’t want to experience.
Some risk factors of Thyroid Disease are:
- Stress- the production of the stress hormone called Cortisol can interfere with thyroid hormone production, which leads to hormone imbalance.
- Leaky Gut- when gut walls allow undigested food particles to flow through the bloodstream, it could cause chronic inflammation.
- Toxins- exposure to harmful chemicals like plastic can lead to the production of thyroid tissues
- Infections- infections such as mumps and flu are correlated with thyroid problems
- Food sensitivities and inflammatory foods- food that a person is sensitive to may lead to inflammations, diseases, and overproduction of antibodies.
- Autoimmune conditions- once a person is already diagnosed with autoimmune conditions, then he/she is a lot more crucial to get autoimmune thyroid disease.
However, even if Conventional Medicine for this disease has some negative clings to it, there is still a great way to heal Autoimmune Thyroid Disease through a functional medicine approach. The primary step to identifying the main reason for your disease is to visit a functional medicine doctor. They will advise you to have some dietary changes, to adopt some lifestyle strategies, and have some appropriate supplementation to support your body. We may think that during these times, experiencing a lot of stress, sleeping very little, and eating junk food is the norm. But we must be aware that these ‘norms’ are a lifestyle that could lead to serious health problems not to mention thyroid infections.
7 tips that could effectively improve Thyroid functions:
- Get into a fiber-rich and nutrient-dense diet and maintain it. Take in a lot of probiotic-rich foods, and drink probiotic supplements to support your gut flora.
- Avoid refined sugar, refined vegetable oils, processed foods, unhealthy fats, gluten, conventional dairy, and any foods to which you may be sensitive; food that are considered inflammatory. What you must do instead is to eat plenty of greens, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and clean protein.
- Take care of the environment, as it will positively affect your thyroid’s health and condition. Lessen plastic usage, use more organic cleaning and body cleansing products, avoid smoking and as much as possible avoid second-hand smoke; in general, decrease toxicity in your environment.
- Be aware and know of some pre-existing infections in your body as it may be the cause of a more severe one due to Thyroid problems. Do this by seeking professional help from a functional doctor.
- Get yourself moving. At least aim to render 20-30 minutes of active time in your day. Exercising will not only improve your immune system, but it will also improve your overall well-being.
- Manage your stress levels and make sure to get at least 7-9 hours of good sleep a day. Come up with a regular relaxing night-time routine to help your body and mind get the appropriate calmness needed before going to bed. This will not only help your peace of mind but also keep your immune system good.
- Once bothered with even the simplest symptom of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease, seek immediate professional help.
It is useful to address the hidden reasons for your immune system thyroid condition utilizing a framework situated methodology, connecting with both patient and specialist in a restorative organization. As an accomplished utilitarian medication specialist with an incorporated skill of both Western medication and conventional Eastern practice, I can survey all the components, including diet, way of life, stress, harmfulness, hypersensitivities, rest propensities, and drug that may influence your insusceptible framework so as to reveal the underlying driver of your immune system thyroid malady and recommend a customized and successful arrangement to improve your thyroid condition, fix your body and recapture your wellbeing and prosperity.
If you need help from a functional medicine physician, call Splendor of Youth at 972-441-4047 today to get started in your pathway to health and wellness again!
