Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 086 // 10 Best Books for Hashimoto's & Autoimmune Health

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086 // 10 Best Books for Hashimoto's & Autoimmune Health · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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Hey, hey, welcome to another episode of Health with Hashimoto's.
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Today's episode is for all of the readers out there.
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So if you are not a reader, you could probably skip this one.
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Or let's be honest, if you're not a reader, they probably skipped this episode
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as soon as they saw the title.
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But if you are listening, you might be a reader and you might want to know what
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are some good books to read about health in general and about Hashimoto's specifically.
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I love to read. I read a ton. some of the books I read are just for like to
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zone out, just to wind down, to relax.
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But a lot of them, I try to make it at least 25%, are nonfiction books to help
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me in life, to help me in health, to help me in things like that.
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So let's talk about my top 10
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favorite books or recommended books for Hashimoto's and for your health.
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These are going to be in random order because I really could not put them in a top 10.
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I tried, but they're all so good. These all got four and five ratings from me.
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I really am stingy with my five-star ratings.
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If you follow me on Goodreads or Storygraph, I really reserve those five-star
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reads for a book that is going to change my life or that I want to recommend
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to people or that I'm going to read over and over and over.
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Now, Right off the bat, I will tell you I'm not going to be including the books
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I did a standalone bonus podcast about.
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For example, The Underactive Thyroid by Dr. Sarah Myhill and Craig Robinson.
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I'm not going to include that one here because I already did a full podcast
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about it, and I believe I gave it four stars.
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I can't remember. I do remember that the other one that I reviewed,
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like the first book review I did as a bonus, it got red flags instead of stars,
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and that one is the one by the guy who claims that he's an expert.
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Oh, shoot. What's his name? The medical medium. I just looked him up.
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I gave that one red star or red flag reviews.
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No stars, just red flags. It was highly recommended when I started looking at resources.
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I do not recommend that one. But here are 10 books that I do recommend.
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Again, random order. Number one is Refresh.
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This is a a book by Shauna and David Murray, and I loved it.
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This has so many post-it sticky notes in it, little flags, and then highlights.
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I have read this one at least twice.
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So for each book, I'll read you what the back says or the description.
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This one, it says, I feel so overwhelmed.
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Do you race from one thing to the next, unable to keep up with all the demands
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of your ever-growing to-do list?
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Are you overcommitted and overstretched, but don't know how to slow down when
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the world just says to speed up?
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Is there any hope for rest in a world of never-ending demands?
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Many women do not realize that they are running at an unsustainable pace until
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it hurts them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
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Drawing on many years of counseling and their own experiences of burnout,
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wife and husband team Shauna and David Murray want to help you slow down to
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a more grace-paced life,
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enabling you to avoid the pitfall of burnout, cultivate sustainable habits for
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the future, and experience the rest of body and soul that God intends for you.
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Now, of course, you know that I love talking about you as a whole person,
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body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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One reason I loved this book so much is because it does such a good job of incorporating
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the whole you into the design for Refresh.
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The title is Refresh.
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Different chapters include how to relax, how to rest, how to reduce stuff,
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how to refuel. That one's about nutrition. Caprician.
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There's so much in here. Love that book. So Refresh by Shauna and David Murray.
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I will include an Amazon link to every book that I talk about.
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Also, if you go over to my blog, the link is down in the show notes,
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then I will have a picture of the cover and you can judge a book by its cover
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and the links will be there as well.
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I know that obviously shopping at an independent bookstore is the best.
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So if you have an independent bookstore, then go shop there.
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There, but my podcast is worldwide. So I will give you the Amazon links.
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All right. So book number two is actually two books.
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It is The Common Rule or Habits of the Household.
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Now The Common Rule, both of these books, they are written by Justin Whitmill Early.
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And on this one, I'm not going to read you the back. I'm going to describe it.
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So The Common Rule, when I looked at the title, I was like, wait, what?
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Why do I need more rules in my life?
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But this book really is about creating habits of purpose.
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It looks at rule as in the original word, the root word for it,
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and it's the same word as for a trellis.
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So just like you're going to train a vine or a plant to grow up in one direction.
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That's what it's talking about.
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And so the common rule is creating habits of purpose.
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It goes through four different daily and four different weekly habits designed
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to to transform your days and thus your health.
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The Common Rule is not technically a health book, but when you look at your
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whole self, body, mind, spirit, diet, environment, when you're doing things
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that create a better you, you're going to have health because you are a holistic person.
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Now, Habits of the Household is very similar. It was his second book,
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I believe, and that one is more creating rhythms within your household, so for your full family.
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And it's very similar, so it's up to you.
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Do you want to focus more on yourself and your own habits first or do you want
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to do this as a family? Both books are great.
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The next book is also two books. I told you I love to read and I had a hard
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time getting just down to 10.
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So this next one is Rushing Women's Syndrome, but then The Companion is also
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Exhausted to Energized.
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Both of these are by Dr. Libby Weaver. She is amazing.
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And if you get to listen to her, she has this beautiful New Zealand accent.
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New Zealand or Australian? I can't remember, but it's gorgeous.
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I love listening to her. Rushing Women's Syndrome was like the first light bulb
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moment for me that really connected all of these things,
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like how we are so pressed and so busy and how that impacts our hormones and
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how that impacts our thyroid.
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Now, I read this book many, many years ago, probably about 15 years ago.
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It was before I was diagnosed with thyroid problems.
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And like I've told you in my story, I think episode two, I was so confused by thyroid stuff.
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So quite honestly, I really skimmed that thyroid stuff in that book the first time.
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I like tried to look at it, tried to understand it. They're like,
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whatever, this book is fat.
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I'm going to move on to the next section and really dig into that.
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But it is so good. So Russian Women's Syndrome, this is what the back says.
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It describes the biochemical and emotional effects of always being in a hurry
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and the health consequences that urgency elicits.
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It doesn't seem to matter if a woman has two things to do in her day or 200.
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She is in a pressing rush to do it all. She's often wound up like a top,
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running herself ragged in a daily battle to keep up.
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There's always so much to do, and she very rarely feels like she wins,
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is control, and gets on top of things. In fact, her deep desire to control even
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the smaller details of life can leave her feeling out of control, even of herself.
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Now, this book by Dr. Libby Weaver, she is a biochemist, so it does go a little
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deep into the physiology and the biochemistry of you and what that constant rushing produces.
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It is such a good book, though. I love it. I also love the other book,
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or one of the other books she wrote, which is Exhausted to Energized.
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Now, out of the two, do. Rushing Women's Syndrome is a little bit more biochemical
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and Exhausted to Energized is a little bit more practical, but both of them are great.
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And I counted them as one book so that I can give you more on today's list.
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All right, book number four is again, not a specific health book.
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It is Atomic Habits because when you're trying to change your health,
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you have to change your habits.
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Most of our daily life is built on our habits.
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So if you want a healthier life, you have to look at at your habits and Atomic
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Habits is such a good book. This is what the back says.
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No matter what your goals are, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving every day.
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James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation,
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reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits,
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break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
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Atomic Habits is one that I have read several times.
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I always get get new things out of it. If you're looking to improve your health,
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that's a great one to start.
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All right, book number five is Fast Like a Girl. I talked on this a couple episodes
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ago when I was talking about fasting.
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This book has been so helpful because fasting has been like everywhere and everybody
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seems to say that do this and it's going to change your life and it's going to be so good for you.
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And then when a lot of women try it, they have the opposite happen.
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Fasting Like a a Girl, or Fast Like a Girl, is a book that teaches you how to
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do it in sync with your hormones.
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Because women are not men, and men are not women. Our hormones are not the same.
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And we have a 20-ish, 28-ish day cycle.
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And when we fast along with our hormones, honoring them, and knowing which phase
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we're in, it works better.
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So if you want to listen to that fasting episode, I do talk about Fast Like a Girl.
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And that's all I'll say about this book. It is book number five.
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Book number six, I realized that I told you I wasn't going to use any that I
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did a review on, but I did a review on this next book, which is Food Saved Me by Danielle Walker.
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This is a memoir and I love how relatable it is.
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If you have any type of autoimmune problem or if you have any type of health
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problem that you think could be impacted by food, which, you know,
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side note, That's all of them.
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This book is just a beautiful picture and memoir of Danielle Walker's journey
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to figure that out when all the doctors told her it wasn't related,
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and then how she cleaned her food, or how she changed her diet and what she
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ate, how she developed recipes, how now she's helping other people.
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And the memoir is amazing. Her cookbooks are also fantastic.
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So if you're looking for cookbooks or a blog with tons and tons of recipes,
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Danielle Walker has so many resources for people who are trying to adopt a gluten-free,
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grain-free, dairy-free diet.
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She is amazing and Food Saved Me is book number six on my list.
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Book number seven is actually a book that I have not read for many years.
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I checked it out from the library on a whim when I was going,
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either when I was going through school to be a holistic health educator or right
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after, and it's called Breathe. Breathe.
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The subtitle is The Simple Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve Your Mental and Physical Health.
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And quite honestly, I don't remember a ton about this book, but I know that
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it changed the way I breathe, and I know that it changed everything I teach
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as far as diaphragmatic breathing and how it can help you.
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Here is a little bit from the back of the book. It says, Dr.
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Vranich, I think that's how you say her name, shows readers how to turn back
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the tide of stress and illness and improve the overall quality of their life
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through a daily breathing workout.
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In a fascinating, straightforward, jargon-free exploration of how our bodies
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were meant to breathe, Dr.
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Belisa Vranic delves into the ins and outs of proper breathing.
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By combining both anatomy and fitness with psychology and mindfulness, Dr.
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Vranic gives readers a way of solving health problems at the crux and healing
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themselves from the inside out.
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Honestly, I do not remember what that daily practice is, but I remember that
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this book is how I learned to breathe with my diaphragm. I was such a stress breather.
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I breathed with my chest and with my shoulders. I could not breathe with my
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diaphragm. Even when I was reading this book, I had to lay on my back on the
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floor with my knees up so that I could relax my core so that I could breathe correctly.
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And this book taught me how to do it. And it went through why to do it.
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So I recommend this book, even though it's been many, many years since I read it.
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All right, book number eight has a title that I just smile. It makes me smile.
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It's called Aggressively Happy.
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Isn't that just like, those words don't go go together. That's why I love it. Aggressively Happy.
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Subtitle is A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life.
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The author is Joy Marie Clarkson. And this was a fun book. Every single chapter had me thinking.
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There was one chapter about how to be more like Mr. Collins.
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Okay, if you've ever read Pride and Prejudice, if there's one character that
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you don't want to be like, it's Mr. Collins, right?
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And that's why I was like, what are you talking about? Why is this a title for
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one of your chapters, but really, she explains it and it makes perfect sense.
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Mr. Collins is never upset with how he is.
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He is always in the moment, looking for the bright side, like he's complimenting
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what the potatoes, and he's sincere in it.
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He's looking on the bright side of life, even...
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Though he's Mr. Collins. Let me read you from the back of the book.
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It says, This weary world can be ugly, depressing, and cynical.
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Oh no, sorry, despairing, not depressing. But you don't have to be.
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Instead, you can cultivate resilient joy, an act of defiance that will give
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you peace and delight in times of turmoil, pain, and chaos.
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In this inspiring read, beloved writer Joy Clarkson leads the way,
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crafting an audacious case for happiness that that will leave you feeling lighter, braver, and wiser.
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With eloquent truths, humor, and memorable storytelling, Joy offers a philosophy
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of life that doesn't make light of the heartbreaks of the world.
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It gives you strategies for a hope offense, defends goodness,
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and wards off the paralyzing forces of cynicism.
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Now again, this is not a technically health book, but you are a whole person,
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body, mind, spirit, diet, environment.
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And when you have a more aggressively happy outlook, when you are,
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you know, rebelling against the despair and the cynicism of the world by looking
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for moments to have more joy,
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it's a good thing. It's a good thing for your overall health.
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And that is why Aggressively Happy made number eight.
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So number nine is a book that I'm actually not completely done with,
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so I can't tell you the overall view, my overall view of it,
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but I know that within the first half, I have highlighted so many things.
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I have said yes, I have made notes to talk to you about things on the podcast,
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and it is the book How to Heal Hashimoto's.
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The author of this book is Mark Ryan, and he does pull in a lot of Chinese medicine stuff.
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So if that like weirds you out, if you're like, that's too much woo for me,
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even though Chinese medicine is based on, you know, centuries of practice.
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Then this might not be the best book for you.
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But it is an integrative roadmap to remission. That is the subtitle.
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I'm going to read you a little bit of the description, and you will probably
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see why this book resonated so much with me and why you need to add it to your to read list.
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It says, most people are familiar with the common hypothyroid symptoms of fatigue,
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brain fog, weight gain, sensitivity to cold, hair loss, and constipation.
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But what many people don't seem to understand is that many Hashimoto's patients
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also have anxiety and depression, acid reflux, blood sugar imbalances like hypoglycemia
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and insulin resistance,
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intestinal permeability, anemia, food intolerances, and much more.
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This This is not a coincidence.
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It is all caused by repeated patterns of one system of the body breaking down
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and bringing other systems down with it.
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This causes vicious cycles that lead to the breakdown of the gut,
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the brain, the adrenals, the stomach, the gallbladder, the liver,
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and every other major organ in the body.
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This book, How to Heal Hashimoto's, offers a practical, easy-to-follow approach
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that treats the whole body by figuring out what's breaking down and and then
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developing a plan for fixing it.
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Using an autoimmune diet, lifestyle changes like meditation and qigong,
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and other natural interventions, Mark Ryan shows you how to transform these
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vicious cycles into positive healing momentum, thereby allowing your body to return to balance.
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Do you see why I like that book so far? Like I can't tell you the whole book
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because I haven't finished it, but so far it's been so good.
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The sections about labs is very very helpful.
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I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm doing a lab series.
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I'm trying to do a lab episode about once a month until we cover all of the
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labs because I get a lot of questions.
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And this book has been a resource for some of those episodes.
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I pull from a lot of different resources.
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Dr. Isabella Wentz is another one that I pull a lot from as far as when I'm doing research.
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But this book by Mark Ryan is superb so far.
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Speaking of Dr. Isabella Wentz, book number Number 10 is actually three books.
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Dr. Isabella Wentz was one of the authors that I looked for specifically when
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I was diagnosed because I had heard about her books and she was so helpful to
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me when I was trying to figure everything out.
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So she's got a couple of books. The Root Cause book I think is my favorite of hers.
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She also has a Hashimoto's Protocol book, and then she also has a cookbook.
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So she tells you in the Hashimoto's Root Cause book, which
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technical title is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Lifestyle Interventions by Finding
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and Treating the Root Cause.
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The description is this. What's really going on in Hashimoto's?
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Hashimoto's is more than just hypothyroidism. Most patients with Hashimoto's
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will present with acid reflux, nutrient deficiencies, anemia,
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intestinal permeability, food sensitivities, gum disorders.
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Hypoglycemia, in addition to the quote typical hypothyroid symptoms such as
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weight gain, cold intolerance, hair loss, fatigue, and constipation.
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The body becomes stuck in a vicious cycle of immune system overload,
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adrenal insufficiency, gut dysbiosis, impaired digestion, inflammation,
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and thyroid hormone release abnormalities.
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This cycle is self-sustaining and will continue causing more and more symptoms
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until an external factor intervenes and breaks the cycle apart.
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The lifestyle interventions discussed in this book will aim to dismantle that
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vicious cycle piece by piece.
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We start with the simplest modifications by removing triggers and following
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with repairing the other broken systems to restore equilibrium,
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allowing the body to rebuild itself.
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Did you notice a lot of similarities between number nine and 10?
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Because they both look at Hashimoto's as a problem of not just the thyroid,
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which is what so many conventional or Western medicine doctors believe or at
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least treat you like, because it's not a condition of your thyroid.
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It's a condition of your immune system. And there are so many things that go
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into it. And then it impacts other things. There's this cycle.
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And that is why I have the course that I created for you, the free mini course.
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It is Hashimoto's Decoded. And I go through the root causes.
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When I went back to school for holistic nursing and for education,
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one thing that I was trained to do was look at a whole bunch of resources,
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put it in plain, simple language, and apply it to your life so that you can
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have simple and sustainable actions.
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Because reading research or reading a book that just overwhelms you is not always the answer.
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I need to make it simple for you. I need to make it so that you can sustain
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these changes. I need to make it so that you understand it.
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So step one is downloading the app.
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The link is down below. And then enrolling in the free mini course Hashimoto's Decoded.
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I will go over the root causes with you and help you figure out your next step on your path to health.
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I look forward to seeing you in the app. This podcast is for informational and
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educational purposes only.
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Please be sure to discuss any concerns and plans with your trusted healthcare.
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Music.