Feeling like ?

MANY women go misdiagnosed with Hashimotos for so long. Their OBGYN might feel their throat and say everything is OK without running any blood tests!!

They start to feel incredibly frustrated when they are told that everything is “normal” when they KNOW it’s not.

So what is Hashimoto’s disease?

Hashimoto’s disease is a condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid…

It’s the small gland at the base of your neck below your Adam’s apple and controls SO many functions in your body. The thyroid gland produces hormones that regulate your metabolism as well as heart and digestive function, muscle control, brain development, mood and bone maintenance.

Another important aspect that’s unfortunately not enough discussed by traditional doctors is the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis (HPT):

I know it’s “sciency” but you need to know about this because the crappy way you are feeling NOW really relates to it.

When the gland in your brain senses low circulating levels of thyroid hormone, it tells your thyroid to release more hormone (Triiodothyronine (T3) and Thyroxine (T4). This triggers thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) which hits up another gland in your brain called the pituitary to produce thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH).

I know it’s a bit of a nerd alert, but ladies, TSH is where it is AT!!

Because it tells your thyroid to manufacture and secrete T3 and T4 thereby raising their blood levels – and BINGO you are all set. So when your thyroid is down this whole TRH-TSH feedback loop gets messed up.

Hence brain fog and some of the other yucky symptoms you are probably feeling right now!

So when your antibodies are tearing up your thyroid gland, your hormone balance gets thrown off.  This results in an under-active thyroid gland, called hypothyroidism. While it primarily affects middle-aged women, it can happen to anyone, including younger women and even men (about 2  million in fact)!!

Doctors typically test your thyroid function to help detect Hashimoto’s disease. Treatment of Hashimoto’s disease with thyroid hormone replacement usually is simple and effective.

Yet when we test for thyroid health at Kay Spears Functional Nutrition, we are looking at much more than your standard “thyroid gland squeeze” or even just a blood test.

Many of my clients who already know that they have Hashimoto’s never get the right testing from their doctors, who only tested their TSH levels.

In order to know if you have Hashimotos, you NEED to test for TPO antibodies. Elevated TPO antibodies are what confirm a Hashimoto’s diagnoses… not just imbalances in free T3/T4.

You see, many doctors don’t bother to test the free T3! Conversion of the inactive form of T4 into the active form of T3 is required for proper thyroid health so they are only seeing part of the picture.

While it can be tricky to find the right thyroid medication balance, I typically help revamp my clients’ food and lifestyle factors that caused the autoimmune condition in the first place!

There are a few factors here:

 The first and most prevalent is impaired gut health. With most of my clients, they have a long history of gut complaints, and we realize through testing that these GI disorders and imbalances that were never treated over many, many years caused the Hashimoto’s issues. That’s why the gut is the first place to start after we tweak your T3, T4 to get you out of the slump, and a leg up.

 Other causes include serious heavy metal toxicity (YES it’s a thing) and stealth infections from things like Epstein Barr virus. So if you’ve ever had mono, it could have compromised your immune system.

If you’d like to learn more about how we help clients heal from Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune conditions, head over to my website… or even better yet, sign up for a Discovery Call.

It’s my mission to help as many people as possible to heal their Hashimoto’s like I healed my own condition. Please help me with this mission by sharing 

To your health,

Kay Spears, CCN

P.S. If you haven’t already, join my free FB Community of like-minded health seekers… or claim your free health consult!