Feeling Inspired to Create Change?
I wanted to take a minute of your time and mention a special organization I just learned about recently. Hashimoto’s Awareness Organization is a relatively new kid on the block and their mission statement is:
“Hashimoto’s Awareness raises awareness of the auto-immune disease, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, connecting people to proper testing for early diagnosis through education, advocacy and advancing research. We stand to inspire people to live a symptom free life.”
How cool does that sound? I read about the founder’s, Pearl and Fabienne’s story on Crowdrise after receiving an e-mail blast from Dr. Kharrazion about their organization. They both have the classic story of their life being pulled out from under them and with good functional medicine care they re claimed their lives and are now raising awareness through this unique organization. I felt inspired to join their fund raising efforts because such a large part of my practice consists of these amazing clients! If you want to bring more awareness to this auto-immune disorder than please go to www.crowdrise.com and search “Hashimoto’s Awareness” and donate whatever you can. Join me, I donated and I look forward to donating more and getting them to their goal of $80,000!
Hypothyroidism – Where Are The Weak Links?
Hypothyroidism is known to exist in more than 40 million women. Is it the scourge of your life? The American Endocrine Society has acknowledged that over half of American women may develop hypothyroidism at some point in their life! Hypothyroidism sufferers experience symptoms from fatigue, anxiety, hair loss, depression, brain-fog, inability to lose weight and poor digestion, many times despite taking replacement thyroid hormones. But what most people don’t know, including your medical doctor is that Hypothyroidism is not a thyroid disorder in the majority of cases!
The #1 cause of hypothyroidism according to the American Endocrine Society is anauto-immune disorder called “Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism”. That’s right – your thyroid condition is really an immune system condition! And chances are your thyroid antibody levels were not assessed properly by your doctor.
Well why the heck didn’t my doctor check my antibody levels to confirm the diagnosis correctly? Great question! The true answer is that these antibodies do not change how they manage the condition (drugs), nor do they have any true understanding of the triggers (like nutrition) that initiate and exacerbate this auto-immune condition!
It may just be how my mind works but I get frustrated on the lack of clarity/ambiguity as it relates to modern medicine. To give a taste of this I recently read the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists position paper on clinical nutrition. In this they clearly indicate a problem and that it should be solved:
The current socio-medical problem can therefore be framed as follows:
- There is a profound shortage of physicians who are experts in clinical nutrition.
- There is an epidemic nationally and globally of over-nutrition and under-nutrition that will have dramatic potential adverse effects on the American health care system.
- Endocrinologists have a background in metabolism and when trained in nutritional medicine will be able to provide ambulatory and hospitalized patients with expert nutrition care.
- They conclude by saying: “New models for nutrition teams that focus on value added must be investigated (20).
Individual physicians and institutions have concerns that must be addressed since currently, endocrinology trainees and practicing endocrinologists are discouraged from developing a hospital nutrition practice. Current physician concerns include lack of are cognized medical team model to base a practice, practicing and significant coding and reimbursement issues (21). Institutions are understandably focused on the bottom line. Many do not recognize or support a clinical nutrition program as they look only at direct costs, rather than an economic model of cost avoidance related to appropriate use of nutrition support and downstream benefits, such as quality of life or clinical outcomes.”
Let me ask you this: When was the last time an endocrinologist, or for that matter your doctor EVER asked you about your diet, talked with you about nutrition or referred you to a specialist in nutrition for your thyroid/hair loss/anxiety/depression/weight gain? All I can hear right now are A LOT of crickets!
Isn’t this what we want from our providers? More than 5 minutes in a cold, sterile office? Enough time and compassion to understand the core of our bodies so that true healing can take place? It just doesn’t happen and what they are giving lip service is to something that takes years of study and practice to master (and they really just need to incorporate functional medicine like the Cleveland clinic has! But, this is one of the most fundamental aspects to functional medicine and is emphasized in the care we administer at Dr. Autoimmune.
Without a solid understanding of biochemistry and how nutrition impacts our genetics and the diseases we live with you will never see long lasting resolution and optimization of metabolic disease states. Nor are the pharmaceutical industries slightly interested in medical doctors having this knowledge when they view it as competition, rather than the solution to your problems! Put in other words, when the pharmaceutical industry already has your doctor’s ear, why would they encourage or allow nutrition and functional medicine to be taught to medical students? There is no return for them in optimizing and maximizing the function of the human body. I recently watched a documentary called “Bought”, and this clearly shows how the medical, government and food industries are inseparably connected and how that leads to poorer health for our nation.
So what are the individual problems with Hashimoto’s/Hypothyroidism that are addressed at Dr. Autoimmune with Functional Medicine?
- Nutritional Status: What are the vitamins/minerals your body needs and are you absorbing them optimally? Which ones do you specifically need and could taking certain supplementation actually hurt your thyroid and immune system?
- Hormonal Status: How can one hormone, for example insulin, impact other hormones including the thyroid? How do your female and male hormones impact the immune and thyroid system?
Central Nervous System: How does various areas in your brain contribute to health? How does thyroid impact the brain and vice versa? - Intestinal Permeability: What is leaky gut and is this impacting how you express auto-immune disease?
- Dysbiosis: How does the 3 pounds of gut bacteria influence our immune systemand the rest of the body? What happens when bad bacteria become the dominant player in your gut?
- Detoxification Ability: How does the environment plus your genetics interact to sequester and eliminate toxins that are known to create thyroid disease?
- Inflammation: How does your body process inflammatory chemicals and how do they create a vicious circle with hypothyroidism?
- Food Sensitivities: What foods are beneficial and what are not? How do I determine what food sensitivities I have?
- Anti-oxidant status: What is glutathione and how can it help my thyroid? How do I get my body to make this naturally and should I supplement with it?
- Immunomodulation: This is a fancy term for “what can we do to calm your immune system down and activate the symphony conductors, T-regulatory cells?” This is critical because these are the generals of the immune system and dictate whether we develop auto-immune disease in the first place! Even with dietary changes and detoxification and the removal of the above factors patients need stimulation to the immune system to rehabilitate it and optimize results.
So If I currently identify 10 separate and distinct interfering factors for this condition (and any other auto-immune disease), how can we address them systematically? This is where functional medicine shines! Functional medicine is all about “thinking & linking” your systems together instead of “blaming & taming”. Whether it’s diet, lifestyle modifications, supplements or specific neurologic therapies, you need a plan that is designed for your specific needs, not a one size fits all drug, supplement or dietary plan. If you are truly committed to empowering yourself towards health than this is where we step in and develop a comprehensive plan to support each of the above areas.
We know it takes a commitment to reach your goals and we are here to guide you to reach beyond your goals. Lets stop accepting “average” and putting up with “good enough”. It’s time to regain our health and our families health!
Join me by contacting Dr. Autoimmune at 303-882-8447 and let your health soar.
Specializing in chronic Hashimoto’s, Celiac, IBS, ADHD, Parkinson’s, Dementia & pain syndromes.
Ian Hollaman, DC, MSc, IFMCP, DAAIM, CGP
“For life makes no mistakes and always gives man that which man first gives himself” – Neville Goddard
I first went to see Dr. Ian after a long struggle with extreme exhaustion and frequent illness. I had been diagnosed with “hypothyroidism” 8 years prior and was promptly told it was incurable and they put me on medication to deal with it. But yet I still had symptoms! Once I started seeing Dr. Ian I learned that I had Hashimoto’s and that it was indeed something that could possibly be, if not completely reversed, reversed enough to reduce or banish symptoms. I also learned I have Celiac disease and that my small gluten cheats in the years prior had contributed to my ails. And finally I learned I had adrenal failure, which was what was contributing greatly to this latest bought of exhaustion.
Immediately Dr. Ian started me on a plan to address each of these and within weeks I started feeling better than I had in years. He also pointed out some memory and neurological issues I had picked up through my years of eating gluten. (My particular type of Celiac disease resulted in entirely neurological symptoms, not gastrointestinal). We have been successfully knocking down each of those issues and I have noticed a great improvement already in my memory, awareness, and attention. I highly recommend making an appointment with Dr. Ian if you have ANY inkling that you are suffering from thyroid issues, memory issues, feel that you may have any food sensitivities, or just don’t feel like you are full of energy and vigor. You deserve more, and Dr. Ian can help you get there.