Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 101 // What does Hashimoto's feel like?

Transcript

101 // What does Hashimoto's feel like? · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

• 0:00
  What does it feel like to have Hashimoto's? Great question. The thing is,
• 0:03
  it varies for everybody.
• 0:05
  And that's one of the things that makes Hashimoto's so difficult to diagnose.
• 0:09
  It's one of the things that makes it so that the average woman who finally gets
• 0:13
  a diagnosis has spent four years trying to figure out what's wrong.
• 0:18
  And that's after the symptoms started coming along so slowly and so gradually.
• 0:24
  On average, she's also seen four
• 0:26
  different doctors or specialists because everybody's path is different.
• 0:31
  Everybody's symptoms is different.
• 0:33
  So today we're going to talk about the most common symptoms and even some not
• 0:39
  as common symptoms so that you can understand what does Hashimoto's feel like.
• 0:43
  This episode is for you if you have Hashimoto's.
• 0:46
  It's also for you if someone you love has Hashimoto's and you want to know what they're going through.
• 0:52
  Hello, my name is Esther. If we have not met already, ready. I am a registered nurse.
• 0:57
  I spent 17 years in the emergency department, and then I just got sick and tired
• 1:01
  of putting short-term band-aids on chronic things.
• 1:03
  I went back to school for holistic health education, and now I get to blend both of those things.
• 1:09
  I get to blend Western medicine with helping people address their root causes and make a difference.
• 1:16
  I'd like to think of a plant.
• 1:19
  Now, I am not a super good plant mom, and it is common that the plants will
• 1:24
  have, the plants in my house at least, will have some brown on the leaves,
• 1:27
  and I have to figure out why are those leaves brown.
• 1:31
  Now, I don't go and get some green paint, because while that would make the
• 1:35
  leaves green again, it wouldn't really solve the problem, right?
• 1:39
  Well, that's what Western medicine does with medications.
• 1:42
  They just give you Synthroid or Levothyroxine, and then they just say,
• 1:45
  come back in a while and we'll check your labs and we'll adjust your medications.
• 1:49
  That's green paint. That is not addressing what's actually going on.
• 1:53
  It's not actually helping your,
• 1:55
  your leaves get green again. For my plants, I need to figure out why the leaves
• 2:01
  are brown. Did I forget to water them again?
• 2:04
  Possibly. Did I overwater them because I felt really bad about not watering them?
• 2:10
  Possibly. Did my cats start eating the leaves? Possibly.
• 2:15
  Did I get bugs or pests in the leaves or in the roots?
• 2:19
  Not yet, and I really hope that I never do, but I have heard that that can also
• 2:23
  cause brown leaves and problems in plants.
• 2:26
  You see, there's a lot of different things that can cause my leaves on my plants
• 2:30
  to turn brown, and they will need different methods to fix them.
• 2:36
  Underwatering and overwatering are obviously going to have two completely opposite different cures.
• 2:43
  Now, today when we're talking about Hashimoto's, I'm not going to be talking
• 2:47
  about cures for two different reasons.
• 2:49
  Reason number one is we're not addressing the Hashimoto's. We're addressing,
• 2:54
  that's the leaves, right? We're addressing the roots.
• 2:57
  And the second reason is because the government alphabet soup agencies have
• 3:02
  decided that there is no cure for Hashimoto's. So we're not going to talk about cures.
• 3:06
  We're going to talk about how you address the root causes, how you get to the
• 3:11
  actual problem instead of addressing the leaves or the symptoms.
• 3:16
  And we will get there after we talk about what does Hashimoto's feel like.
• 3:21
  Hashimoto's is essentially things slowing down.
• 3:26
  If you know what Hashimoto's is, you know it's an autoimmune problem.
• 3:30
  That means your immune system is attacking yourself.
• 3:32
  In the case of Hashimoto's, it's attacking your thyroid gland.
• 3:36
  Your thyroid produces a hormone, thyroid hormone, and it is converted to an
• 3:42
  active form in your body.
• 3:44
  And then that active form of the hormone is kind of like the ignition switch
• 3:48
  in every single cell in your body.
• 3:50
  And this is why you can have such
• 3:53
  a variety of symptoms because you have trillions of cells in your body.
• 3:58
  And whichever cells are not igniting or not turning on very well in your body
• 4:04
  might be different than how your friend has her cells turning on or igniting.
• 4:10
  Every single person is going to have different symptoms because we're all individuals.
• 4:16
  So the most common symptoms is the ones of fatigue, whether it's your brain
• 4:22
  is tired, and that could feel like depression, or it could feel like mental brain fog,
• 4:28
  or it could feel like you just can't make any decisions.
• 4:32
  It could also feel physically tired, like you are bone weary.
• 4:38
  You are tired on every single level, physically, emotionally,
• 4:42
  emotionally, even spiritually, socially, you are exhausted.
• 4:46
  Think of the worst flu that you've ever had. Like you're just lying in bed,
• 4:50
  wondering if you have enough energy to like go to the bathroom.
• 4:54
  That's what it can feel like to have Hashimoto's, except instead of having the
• 4:58
  flu, you have it all the time.
• 5:00
  That can be what some people feel like when they have Hashimoto's,
• 5:03
  that amount of tiredness all the time, and they just learn to push through.
• 5:08
  It doesn't mean they They have more energy. It just means that they have coping
• 5:11
  mechanisms and they are learning to push through and put on a quote, brave face.
• 5:17
  Other things that can slow down when you have Hashimoto's is your metabolism.
• 5:21
  And this is super frustrating for so many people.
• 5:25
  It seems like no matter what they're doing, no matter how little they're eating
• 5:28
  or how healthy they're eating, how much they're exercising, nothing seems to
• 5:33
  help them lose weight. Instead, they're gaining weight.
• 5:37
  This is so frustrating as the metabolism can slow down. Other things that can
• 5:43
  slow down are your hair and your nails and your skin health and growth.
• 5:48
  So you can, in your hair, you might notice a thinning hair or like the actual
• 5:53
  volume of hair is thin, or you might notice the thinning of each strand or both.
• 5:59
  So you can have thinning hair.
• 6:01
  Also eyebrows, that's a first place. A
• 6:04
  lot of people who are observing others will notice
• 6:07
  it's the outer third of the eyebrows starts to
• 6:10
  thin and that's a classic sign of thyroid problems
• 6:13
  also your skin and your nails can be
• 6:16
  affected and this can look different in a lot of people again with the slowing
• 6:21
  of the growth you'll notice that in your nails they won't be as healthy or in
• 6:26
  your skin you can have skin problems also your gut can slow down constipation
• 6:31
  is a common symptom of Hashimoto's.
• 6:34
  And then, of course, when you're constipated, then that leads to other problems
• 6:39
  because of the gut health.
• 6:41
  You want to make sure that your gut is so healthy because 70 to 80% of your immune system...
• 6:47
  In and around your gut. And when you have an autoimmune problem,
• 6:51
  that's your immune system going haywire and attacking yourself,
• 6:55
  you want to do all you can to make sure that your immune system and your gut
• 7:00
  are as healthy as possible, because that is one of the roots of Hashimoto's.
• 7:07
  It's your immune system going haywire and attacking your thyroid.
• 7:11
  So we want to make sure that our immune system is well cared for.
• 7:14
  There are other things that can slow down with that ignition switch missing in Hashimoto's.
• 7:21
  And one thing people notice is their libido will slow down and they don't know why.
• 7:27
  And maybe their partner is doing all they can and thinking they're doing all that they used to.
• 7:31
  And yet this person, their libido is just nothing, right?
• 7:35
  That can be be a symptom of Hashimoto's and hypothyroid.
• 7:39
  Other things that can slow down? It can be your internal thermostat.
• 7:43
  Do you know somebody who is always freezing cold no matter what everybody else feels like?
• 7:49
  Everybody else can be super hot and this person is wearing a sweater or sweatshirt.
• 7:53
  They always want an extra blanket, warm socks.
• 7:55
  They're always cold no matter what. That can be being hypothyroid or Hashimoto's
• 8:01
  because their internal temperature is turned down. They feel cold.
• 8:06
  And so then you would think, of course, those people, they're going to really
• 8:09
  love a super hot day because then they're finally going to be warm, right?
• 8:13
  Well, no, they actually, it's like their internal thermostat is a little broken
• 8:18
  and they can't tolerate really hot temperatures either. They need a Goldilocks temperature.
• 8:23
  And what is right for them might might not be right for everybody else.
• 8:27
  That is one symptom of Hashimoto's.
• 8:30
  I'm going to read a little bit from two different letters that have been circulating
• 8:33
  in the Hashimoto's world.
• 8:35
  And one of them is more to those who love somebody with Hashimoto's.
• 8:39
  And one of them is written from
• 8:42
  the perspective of Hashimoto's itself and describing what it does to you.
• 8:47
  I will have links to the full letters in the show notes.
• 8:50
  You can go down there. But before I read those, I want to tell you about steps
• 8:54
  one, two, and three on your path to better health with Hashimoto's.
• 8:58
  Step one is my free Hashimoto's Decoded course.
• 9:03
  Now, I have recently revamped these and made them more streamlined and more
• 9:07
  easy for people to consume and so they can get better and faster results.
• 9:13
  Step one is Hashimoto's Decoded. It is 10 questions to ask your doctor.
• 9:17
  This really gives you the knowledge and the empowerment as a patient and as
• 9:22
  an advocate for your own health.
• 9:23
  I'm going to help you know what questions to ask, why to ask them,
• 9:27
  and what to do with the answers.
• 9:30
  Step two in your path to better health with Hashimoto's is the second Hashimoto's
• 9:36
  Decoded class, and that is Root Causes Revealed.
• 9:40
  Both of these mini courses are available on the Health with Hashimoto's app,
• 9:45
  and then after you're done With both of those steps, you're going to have step
• 9:49
  three, which is the holistic Hashimoto's course.
• 9:52
  So in step two, Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes, I'm going to help you figure
• 9:57
  out perhaps why you have Hashimoto's. We're going to look at all the root causes
• 10:01
  because again, we don't want to paint the leaves green.
• 10:04
  We want to actually figure out how to help the plant have green leaves.
• 10:07
  And of course, you are the plant and the leaves are the symptoms.
• 10:11
  We want to make the symptoms go away.
• 10:13
  We want to address the root causes. That is all about step two.
• 10:17
  That's what you are going to discover.
• 10:19
  Step three is the holistic Hashimoto's course, like I said, and that's where
• 10:23
  I'm going to help you shortcut your time.
• 10:25
  Like I said in the beginning, the average person who is finally diagnosed with
• 10:29
  Hashimoto's has spent four years looking for a diagnosis.
• 10:33
  You don't have more time to waste. You don't have time to try to figure out
• 10:39
  different solutions and is this going to work for me or is this going to work
• 10:42
  for me or my friend said to do this.
• 10:44
  I'm going to shortcut your time and I'm going to save you energy because I'm
• 10:48
  going to tell you exactly what to do so that you can address the root causes.
• 10:52
  No more painting the leaves green. Let's just get right to the root causes.
• 10:56
  Hashimoto's Decoded is steps one and two. And then the Holistic Hashimoto's
• 11:01
  is step three. And that will take you about four weeks.
• 11:04
  All right, here are the two different letters from the internet.
• 11:08
  This first letter is from Very Well Health. It was written by Mary Shoman.
• 11:12
  And I'm going to read a little bit about the hypothyroid section,
• 11:17
  but there is a letter to you, your loved ones, if your family member or loved
• 11:23
  ones has hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, thyroid cancer, there's a lot of different things.
• 11:28
  All right, here's a little bit about hypothyroid. If your loved one is hypothyroid,
• 11:33
  they are facing different challenges.
• 11:36
  Hypothyroidism means the thyroid is underactive and not producing enough of
• 11:40
  the energy and oxygen delivering thyroid hormone.
• 11:42
  This is like trying to get somewhere with barely enough gas and feet that can't
• 11:46
  even reach the gas pedal.
• 11:47
  If your loved one is hypothyroid, he or she may be feeling sluggish,
• 11:52
  spaced out, and exhausted all the time.
• 11:54
  Think about the worst flu you've ever had and how tired, achy, and exhausted you felt.
• 11:58
  Now imagine waking up every day feeling like that, but having to get up,
• 12:02
  go to work, school, and take care of yourselves and others while struggling through the day.
• 12:07
  Depression and mood changes are common, as well as memory problems and being
• 12:11
  fuzzy-brained, or what patients call brain fog.
• 12:14
  Your loved one may look in the mirror and not recognize herself.
• 12:17
  When she looks in the mirror, she may see the outer half of her eyebrows are
• 12:22
  thin or missing, her hair is thin, dry, coarse, and falling out,
• 12:25
  or her face and eyelids are puffy, her face is bloated and puffy.
• 12:29
  She may have gained weight despite eating less and working out more than everyone else around her.
• 12:34
  With hypothyroidism, anything and everything can be slow, even digestion.
• 12:39
  For women, periods can be worse and come more often than before.
• 12:43
  Menopause can be worse and come earlier than for others. And after pregnancy,
• 12:47
  hypothyroidism can worsen postpartum fatigue and depression and make breastfeeding
• 12:52
  difficult or impossible.
• 12:54
  And then there's that issue of weight gain. Your loved one may be following
• 12:57
  the most rigorous and healthy diet and exercise program, yet be unable to lose
• 13:01
  weight. He or she might be gaining weight on that program.
• 13:06
  That is the letter from VeryWellHealth. And then the next one I'm going to read,
• 13:12
  honestly, I don't know where it originally came from.
• 13:15
  I have looked to see if I can find a source to credit it. The place I found it was on Reddit.
• 13:21
  And then the person who posted it on there said they found it in a Facebook
• 13:24
  group, but they did not attribute it to a specific author.
• 13:28
  I have looked online. If you know who wrote it, I would be happy to give them credit. it.
• 13:34
  Now, I'm not going to read this whole letter because honestly,
• 13:37
  it's a little depressing and dark.
• 13:39
  It almost makes Hashimoto's out as a vengeful villain who really wants to get
• 13:45
  you and destroy your life.
• 13:46
  And that is not how I see Hashimoto's. I see Hashimoto's as an immune system that got overwhelmed.
• 13:52
  It is trying its best to do a good job and there are so many things coming at it and confusing it.
• 14:00
  It's like a toddler who's all hyped up on caffeine and just kind of dissolves
• 14:05
  in a puddle or lashes out at somebody.
• 14:09
  It's like a mom who is completely stressed out and the kids will come inside
• 14:13
  and just do something normal.
• 14:15
  And the mom is like, just loses her cool because there are so many things going on that they can't cope.
• 14:23
  That's how I see Hashimoto's. I don't see it as a villain, I see it as.
• 14:29
  Overwhelmed immune system, and we need to have compassion on it,
• 14:32
  and we need to help it do better.
• 14:35
  That's how I see Hashimoto's, so I'm not going to read this whole letter,
• 14:38
  but I will read the parts where it talks about the most common symptoms and what it does.
• 14:44
  It starts out, it says, Hi, my name is Hashimoto's. I am an invisible autoimmune
• 14:49
  disease that attacks your thyroid gland, causing you to become hypothyroid.
• 14:53
  Others around you can't see me or hear me, but your body feels I can attack
• 14:58
  you anywhere and any way I please.
• 15:00
  I can cause severe pain or if I'm in a good mood, I can just cause you to ache all over.
• 15:05
  Remember when you and energy ran around together and had fun?
• 15:08
  I took energy from you and gave you exhaustion.
• 15:10
  Try to have fun now. I can take good sleep from you and in its place give you
• 15:15
  brain fog and lack of concentration.
• 15:17
  I can make you want to sleep 24-7 and I can also cause insomnia.
• 15:21
  I can make you tremble internally or feel hot or cold when everyone else feels normal.
• 15:26
  I can also give you swollen hands and feet, swollen face, eyelids, swollen everything.
• 15:31
  I can make you feel very anxious with panic attacks or very depressed.
• 15:34
  I can also cause other mental health problems. You know, crazy mood swings? That's me.
• 15:39
  Crying for no reason? Angry for no reason? That's probably me too.
• 15:43
  I can make your hair fall out, become dry and brittle, cause acne, cause dry skin.
• 15:48
  The sky's the limit with me. I can make you gain weight no matter what you eat
• 15:52
  or how much you exercise.
• 15:53
  I can keep that weight on you. I can also make you lose weight. I don't discriminate.
• 15:58
  So I'm going to interject here. It is kind of a dark letter, right?
• 16:02
  I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. It goes on to say, there are so many other
• 16:06
  ways I can make you sick and miserable. The list is endless.
• 16:09
  High cholesterol, gallbladder issue, blood pressure issue, blood sugar issue, heart issues.
• 16:14
  It's probably me. Can't get pregnant or had have had a miscarriage.
• 16:18
  That's probably me too. Short of breath or air hunger. Yep, probably me.
• 16:22
  All right, I'm going to skip ahead again, because it goes through even more things.
• 16:26
  But this is this section coming up is very common.
• 16:31
  And it's about how your doctors and your friends might see or not see how you are.
• 16:37
  It says, you'll be told if you just sleep and exercise properly,
• 16:41
  I'll go away. You'll be told to think positively.
• 16:44
  You'll be poked and prodded, but most of all, you will not be taken seriously
• 16:47
  when you try to explain the endless number of doctors you've seen and just how
• 16:51
  debilitating I am and how ill and exhausted you really feel.
• 16:55
  It goes on to say, your friends and family will not understand that having this
• 16:59
  disease impacts your body from the very top of your head to the tip of your toes,
• 17:03
  and that every cell and every body system and organ requires the proper amount
• 17:07
  and the right kind of thyroid hormone medication for you, not what works for someone else.
• 17:13
  That letter, like I said, it is kind of dark and villainous,
• 17:16
  and that's not how I see Hashimoto's,
• 17:18
  but it really gives a good picture of how a lot of people feel because it can
• 17:24
  be so frustrating and demoralizing to be seeking answers for so long and not
• 17:30
  find what's going to work for you because every single person is different. You have your own path.
• 17:36
  You have your own root causes. And until you know your root causes and are taking
• 17:41
  action on them, you're just going to keep feeling worse and worse because as an autoimmune problem,
• 17:46
  your immune system is going to continue to attack your thyroid gland and it's
• 17:51
  going to cause more problems.
• 17:52
  And if you're only painting the leaves green, if you are only taking medications for your thyroid,
• 17:59
  if you're not actually addressing the root causes, what's causing the autoimmune
• 18:03
  problems, then you're not going to have, you know, your leaves turn green again.
• 18:08
  You're just painting the leaves green in the, you know, the picture of the plant.
• 18:13
  So we want to find your root causes so that you can take action to feel like yourself again.
• 18:19
  And that is where I come in.
• 18:21
  I have created, like I said, step one, step two, and step three on your path
• 18:27
  to health with Hashimoto's.
• 18:29
  So to recap, step one is the free Hashimoto's Decoded mini course that I have inside the app.
• 18:36
  You can download the PDF and then listen to the audio.
• 18:39
  And that's going to take you less than 30 minutes. Step two is the other part
• 18:44
  of Hashimoto's Decoded.
• 18:45
  So part one is Hashimoto's Decoded 10 thyroid questions to ask your doctor.
• 18:50
  And then part two is Hashimoto's Decoded root causes revealed.
• 18:54
  Now, step one, when you're talking to your doctor, that's one side of the equation
• 18:59
  because your doctor is on your team trying to help you, trying to provide the
• 19:03
  best advice that they can.
• 19:05
  But the other half of the equation is you.
• 19:08
  It's you making the decisions and what is going to work for you.
• 19:12
  And it's you evaluating the whole picture.
• 19:15
  So that's why I have the Hashimoto's Decoded Root Causes revealed.
• 19:19
  And then step three is the Holistic Hashimoto's so that you can shortcut your
• 19:24
  time in addressing your root causes.
• 19:26
  Whichever step you are on, I welcome you to take that step. And I will see you
• 19:31
  in the Holistic Hashimoto's app doing those courses.
• 19:35
  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
• 19:38
  Please discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare professional.
• 19:42
  If you found this episode helpful, will you please share it with a friend?
• 19:46
  I'll see you next week on the Health with Hashimoto's.
• 19:49
  Music.