I am CaveMan
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:11 pm
Wanted to put more info into signature, but not enough characters.
Basically my partner was diagnosed with Graves Disease 5 years ago, terrible name for any disease.
At that point, didn't know all that much about Thyroid, just we had one somewhere in our throat, anyway like everyone you go to the doctor and start the process.
She was told, you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system is out of control and we can not tell you why, small chance of remission, start you on Anti Thyroid medication (PTU) if you don't achieve remission (normal Thyroid function) in 18 months, then surgery to remove it or RAI to kill it. First 2 years she made some little diet & lifestyle changes, but we were seperated geographically & hectic time in our lives, so couldn't doo much. Endo put the pressure on for Surgery, my partner made a clear decision that she wanted to save her Thyroid, so this Journey began, we engaged a Naturopath, I started a new career (unqualified, unpaid medical researcher) and together we presented a treatment program to the Endo, who, slightly reluctantly agreed to remain on board. We addressed Diet, Lifestyle, Stress, Nutrient deficiencies and progresssively things began to improve, her outward symptoms subsided, her physical appearance improved, but the Hormone test results were moving only slowly, but it was in the right direction. Recently she has had 2 test results, 2 months apart, her hormone levels all normal and Antibody levels only marginally above acceptable range, the Endo even freely admited she lost the bet on this one, we now have even more support to complete the gradual weaning process of the medication, if all continues the same, in 12 months my partner will attempt full remission.
Through my research I found I had quite an affinity to the "Hunter Gatherer" diet concept, we loosly based our diet this way and in addition my partner used many different suppliments (which I would also like to cross reference here) as well as dietary enzymes to promote healing of the gut. I started to see lots of crossovers between all the autoimmune diseases and now firmly believe that the vast number of them are closely related by dietary issues, not suggesting this is always the case, there are still too many questions surrounding this topic. I am a regular on a number of GD discussion groups.
Why am I here?
We also have 3 friends with MS, one only recently diagnosed at 7/10 rating, the other 2 are around the 6 mark, I was recently looking at Coeliacs link with GD, then see it,s linked with MS, Hives, Arthritis, Diabetes ............ and the list goes on.
So I think I can get a lot of value from discussions here and may even be able to contribute some value hopefully.
Basically my partner was diagnosed with Graves Disease 5 years ago, terrible name for any disease.
At that point, didn't know all that much about Thyroid, just we had one somewhere in our throat, anyway like everyone you go to the doctor and start the process.
She was told, you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system is out of control and we can not tell you why, small chance of remission, start you on Anti Thyroid medication (PTU) if you don't achieve remission (normal Thyroid function) in 18 months, then surgery to remove it or RAI to kill it. First 2 years she made some little diet & lifestyle changes, but we were seperated geographically & hectic time in our lives, so couldn't doo much. Endo put the pressure on for Surgery, my partner made a clear decision that she wanted to save her Thyroid, so this Journey began, we engaged a Naturopath, I started a new career (unqualified, unpaid medical researcher) and together we presented a treatment program to the Endo, who, slightly reluctantly agreed to remain on board. We addressed Diet, Lifestyle, Stress, Nutrient deficiencies and progresssively things began to improve, her outward symptoms subsided, her physical appearance improved, but the Hormone test results were moving only slowly, but it was in the right direction. Recently she has had 2 test results, 2 months apart, her hormone levels all normal and Antibody levels only marginally above acceptable range, the Endo even freely admited she lost the bet on this one, we now have even more support to complete the gradual weaning process of the medication, if all continues the same, in 12 months my partner will attempt full remission.
Through my research I found I had quite an affinity to the "Hunter Gatherer" diet concept, we loosly based our diet this way and in addition my partner used many different suppliments (which I would also like to cross reference here) as well as dietary enzymes to promote healing of the gut. I started to see lots of crossovers between all the autoimmune diseases and now firmly believe that the vast number of them are closely related by dietary issues, not suggesting this is always the case, there are still too many questions surrounding this topic. I am a regular on a number of GD discussion groups.
Why am I here?
We also have 3 friends with MS, one only recently diagnosed at 7/10 rating, the other 2 are around the 6 mark, I was recently looking at Coeliacs link with GD, then see it,s linked with MS, Hives, Arthritis, Diabetes ............ and the list goes on.
So I think I can get a lot of value from discussions here and may even be able to contribute some value hopefully.