Feeding Your Thyroid

My latest update on Facebook from Janie Bowthorpe was basically a continuation of her disagreement with Forest Pharmaceuticals and their changing the formulation of Armour Thyroid and Janie’s successfully getting many people to switch to Naturethroid and Westhroid. It is all getting old to me and I will apologize right now to any readers that offends and tell you that I am grateful to Janie Bowthorpe for her very informative book Stop The Thyroid Madness. I have a different take on the subject of the new formulation causing relapse in everyone and I will share it with my readers.

Early this winter I finally talked my very open minded doctor, Rob Bruley, in to prescribing Armour Thyroid instead of my compounded pharmaceutical T3 and T4 because we were not resolving my hypothyroidism issue after more than a year of constantly increasing my dosage. Admittedly he reluctantly did it, but he did it and told me I had to take a 3 grain dose of Armour Thyroid which by the way had to be special ordered at Target pharmacy (I tell you because it is useful information). 3 grains was equal to the T3 and T4 I was taking that wasn’t working very well although we had corrected several aspects of my thyroid malfunction. At that time I also started a bio-identical testosterone cream and progesterone tablet because those hormones were low in a recent hormone test I had taken.

I don’t want to quote exact times here because it is all a blur of history but approximately 6 weeks later I was having heart palpitations and sudden jolts that would awaken me in the middle of the night. I started taking half a 3 grain tablet at that time and when I called Dr. Bruley he agreed that this was the right thing to do, so he prescribed a blood test  which showed my T3 was now too high, T4 was okay and the TSH was within range although on the low side. I continued on 1 1/2 grains and when I had the next blood test I didn’t take my Armour the morning of the test as it will affect the T3 reading according to Janie and I was not in the mood to take any higher dosage. I was now feeling rather hyper at times and for instance if I was writing something it would almost look scribbled because I was writing too fast (my own test) so I knew I was a little over medicated but the test would tell.

That test came back with both T3 and T4 within range but my total TSH was .3 which indicates suppressed thyroid. I have since cut my half tablet in to half which amounts to 3/4 grain of Armour Thyroid. I will need a blood test in a few weeks but I can tell you that I still feel a little hyperthyroid. On 3/4 grain my heart palpitations are almost non-existent but at times I feel agitated like I need to run a marathon but I don’t run anymore.

Now to my point, the newly formulated Armour has seemingly corrected my thyroid problem greatly reducing my need for thyroid stimulating hormone. I don’t take it sublingually anymore because most of my digestive issues are resolved by not eating grain of any kind and drinking kefir every day. Swallowing Armour allows for slow release of the thyroid stimulating hormone. If and when I did what Janie suggested and took the tablet sublingually I would get a jolt in the morning that was uncomfortable and if I took some early afternoon when it had worn off I was too hyper to relax by bedtime. Swallowing it with my morning tea works perfectly for me I have sustained energy during the day and I am ready for bed at night.

I am now taking Alpha Lipoic Acid (300 mg) twice a day (with breakfast and supper) as well as a B-Complex vitamin for energy and liver health. If you take ALA you must add a B Complex as the ALA lowers your levels of the B vitamins. I also take 200 mcg of a sodium selenate/selenomethionine supplement. When I feel an energy lag I have a great B12 supplement called ProBoneO by Life Enhancement (Dr. Wright). I eat a diet free of gluten, with lots of greens, fresh eggs, avocados, grass fed meat, etc. My conclusion is that by balancing my hormones and taking the right supplements (no excipients or fillers), following a gluten free diet and staying away from excititoxins I am healing my thyroid.

Instead of complaining about the reformulation of Armour Thyroid I would tell you to try it. If it doesn’t work or you start to experience hypo symptoms again follow this advice before you change to Naturethroid or Westhroid:

Balance all your hormones not just your thyroid hormone.

Eat a gluten free diet full of greens which can be from Barley grass and Alfalfa grass or greens from the garden that are raw or lightly steamed. Add homemade kefir with no sugar added for a health gut.

Throw away supplements that have excipients and fillers as they negatively affect your immune system and create a bio film that keeps you from absorbing the supplement.

Judiciously stay away from MSG which means making your own fresh food with no boxed convenience foods and reading The MSG Myth.

Exercise using the T-Tapp method as she concentrates on cleaning your lymph system and allowing your body to heal itself.

If you do all these things and still suffer from hypo symptoms then it is time to try something new. If you choose not to try these steps first don’t cry foul on Forest Pharmaceuticals point your finger at the real guilty party, you.

Boning Up on the Facts

I hope my friend Carla won’t mind if I take a cue from her for today’s blog but she was pondering osteoporosis and its affects on her aging mother. I have osteopenia which means when I had my Dexa scan done there was some thinning of my bone but not enough for my functional medicine doctor to concern himself with. To quote him ” it is a normal thinning of bone”. My mother had osteoporosis and this was evidenced by the change in her general height. That said, she really never did break a bone until she was 90, and she fell more than any other person I know. When she did tumble from her walker at the nursing home she fell right on her left elbow and it did break. It was surgically corrected, and once they took the darned pin out it healed and she acted like she had never had a break. Mother started taking one of the Pharma drugs in her 80’s and it may have helped but it also may have contributed to some wasting in her jaw bone that caused her to lose some teeth. I guess we will never know and that is what the Pharma world counts on. I am left pondering my mother’s osteoporosis thanks to Carla and here are my ruminations.

I believe that my osteopenia and my mother’s osteoporosis were primarily caused by undiagnosed Celiac’s disease. We were a family of bread eaters and cereals, you name it there wasn’t a grain that wasn’t eaten at our house all in the name of healthy eating. Mother had the ability to clear her colon in seconds as her doctor told her “with any kind of stress”. I think we would now call that IBS and mother had it her entire life but not one person thought to alter her diet. I think of all the nutrients she didn’t absorb and I am no longer in wonder at her osteoporosis or for that matter her dementia. I have blamed my similar issues on anything and everything, that is until I started reading and then took to heart everything that Joe Mercola and others were putting out there about grain consumption. Once I eliminated grain from my diet, allowing for the occasional treat, my digestive issues all but disappeared.

Calcium is supposed to build strong bones. Well milk was huge at our house and mother dutifully drank her glass of milk at almost every meal ostensibly “for her bones”. Mother also took her tums. Pasteurized milk is truly useless and that “healthy” drink, skim milk, is just pure sugar and does little more than cause insulin resistance in the individuals who drink it (my father drank gallons of the stuff but ate no sweets and little bread and died with undiagnosed diabetes). In other words, calcium is not the only answer and most of us get plenty of calcium in our diet from various vegetables and if not lactose intolerant from cheese, cottage cheese, etc. What is often is missing is Magnesium to balance the calcium intake and Ionic Fizz and Peter Gilham’s Calm both easily add magnesium to your diet. I love my raw milk kefir and have some most mornings in my smoothie. By the way, there is no pasteurized milk in my house if I can help it but that is a recent revelation (last 10 years) and pasteurized skim milk used to be a constant in our refrigerator and I, too, took Tums regularly.

Mother exercised in her fifties but only then and it was always walking. She worked harder than anyone I know and had more energy than anyone I know but she didn’t actually do weight lifting or any kind of exercise that would cause percussion of the bone and a pulling of muscle on the bones. Lesson learned is exercise your muscles and pound a little on your bones with exercise like running, walking, climbing stairs, etc. T-Tapp actually does it all and also improves your mirror image.

Mom ate a lot of fish especially in her later years as they lived on the shores of Lake Superior but fish is notoriously high in mercury and she was still eating her oatmeal and bread, so whatever goodness she was supposed to get from her fish was washed down the loo. Omega 3 oils are vital to healthy bones and the best kind of fish oil I know of is Vital Choice Salmon Oil. It is a deep orange it is so rich in astaxanthan from krill, has a pure taste and is undistilled and has undetectable levels of mercury.  Omega 6 oils need to be minimized at least in the summer (we may have increased need for some if we live in the northern climes).

Mother judiciously avoided sunshine. She slathered on sunscreen, put a large brimmed hat on her head and covered every inch of her body with thick fabric. In her last years she was seldom exposed to sunshine and when she was she squinted and asked to go back inside. I never had her Vitamin D levels checked but I wish I would have as it is easy to do and is so important. Vitamin D levels should be at least 50-60 ng/ml and even higher if you have any health challenges like cancer or even a virus. My functional medicine doctor ordered the test for me originally but now you can order your own online at the Vitamin D Council site. It is so cool that at my local Healtheast hospital (Woodwinds) you can walk in to the hospital lab and ask for a Vitamin D3 test without doctor’s orders and for $40 find out for yourself. It may be true of a lab near you and it pays to ask. Once you know your D3 levels you may need massive amounts of D3 to get your levels up (up to 50,000 mg temporarily) but you might just need daily exposure to midday sunshine. Sunshine prescription: 15-20 minutes midday sun on as much exposed naked skin as you can decently manage. In the north our sunshine is only effective from May-September unless you live at high altitude so another option is the Sunsplash from Mercola not only will it help your body produce its own Vitamin D all year you will also walk around with a healthy glow.

Lastly, Mom took a daily multiple vitamin but we know now those really aren’t adequate and with her digestive issues it was mostly a waste of her time and money. What she really needed were a host of minerals and vitamins that would have helped her keep her bones strong. Vitamin K2 is vital, selenium, boron, copper, zinc and B12 (a vitamin many of us have unhealthily low levels of) are all necessary to build and keep bone strong. Recently, I found quite by accident a product developed by Jonathon Wright called ProBone-O by Life Enhancement. It has no fillers or magnesium stearate and is easy to use as you just drop it in the vestibule of your mouth, let it sit 20 seconds and then swallow, even the digestively challenged will absorb the nutrients.

I can’t change things for my mom as she died in March at the age of 91 but maybe my ruminations can help you or someone you love. All of the experts I mention have numerous articles about bone health on their websites and they have all proven to be quite reliable. It really is up to you to bone up on your health.

A Gutsy Move

Speaking of guts may not make you think of probiotics but they are all about a healthy gut and a healthy gut is all about a healthy body. If you have ever been treated with the ubiquitous antibiotics prescribed by your primary care physician you need probiotics. The good news is probiotics are simple to make and will be fresher than anything you can buy and certainly freer of additives, fillers and gelatin. How? You make kefir.

Kefir is a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of protein, sugar and lipids. This matrix forms a characteristic cauliflower like “mushroom” and this “mushroom” is placed in a quart canning jar of milk, hopefully “real” milk, capped with a non-metallic canning jar lid, set in a warm place out of the sunshine and allowed to ferment for 24-48 hours. You will know when it is done because the resultant mixture is thick like yogurt but eminently drinkable. If you let it sit 48 hours it will separate in to curds and whey and will have an altogether different composition and much more sour taste (for instance kefir that is fermented for 48 hours has a much higher folic acid content). When the fermentation is complete to your satisfaction you remove the grains of kefir and start a new jar of kefir.

Often when I make kefir I need to let the grains rest in between batches, so the last jar is placed in the refrigerator with the grains still in place. Cooling the grains, slows the fermentation but the grains are still being fed and will stay healthy and useable for a very long time. As soon as I use up one jar and need the next I just transfer the grains to a new jar of “real” milk. If you use whole “real” milk the grains may need the occasional rinse with non-chlorinated (chlorine will kill the grains) cool water as the fat may coat the grains and stop the fermentation from occurring. Also another secret to success with kefir grains is if you don’t need them for awhile you can rinse them, dry the grains off with a cotton towel, powder them with dry milk powder (organic if possible) and freeze them. When you need them again you dust them off, place them in milk and let them warm up and start causing their signature fermentation again. This may take a change of two of milk, so start with a small jar and wake them up gently.

The magical elixir you will have produced has antimutagenic (capable or reducing mutation which is important in cancer control) and antioxidant properties (something that inhibits oxidation and is vital to a healthy body). Many lactose intolerant people find they can digest kefir with no problems as it aids in lactose digestion as a catalyst. It has been found to lower serum cholesterol and blood pressure in rats according to Wikipedia. If you want more history of kefir Google it and you will find there is a plethora of information on various sites dedicated to kefir and kombucha (a fermentation done with tea, sugar, water and a kombucha mushroom).

Kefir has a decidedly tart taste but a delightful sparkle due to the fermentation and very slight alcoholic content (less than 1%). I love it plain but if the tartness doesn’t please you it is easily added to your morning smoothie or you can simply add agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, xylitol, stevia, fresh fruit, etc before you drink it. Years ago I did read that it is advised that you take one day off a week to allow your system to take care of itself but I don’t think the horseback riders in the Caucasus did that as it was a source of calories and liquid for them as they crossed the mountains that formed their region between Asia and Europe. They would carry a small bladder full of mare’s milk and the magic mushroom and let it shake around inside the bag as they rode and then enjoy the sparkling beverage and all of its healthful properties.

Most mornings I make a smoothie with my kefir by putting in a blender 1/2 cup of my freshly made kefir, 1 cup of filtered water, any supplements I want that day that are in powdered form but lately it has been T-Tapps Premium alfalfa blend, Dr. Ron’s multi-vitamin powder, powdered CoQ10, 1/4 teaspoon Taurine powder, a scoop of Cardio-C, a scoop of Coco Mojo, a dropperful of Viragon, and a dropperful of my own blood cleansing tincture,  three emptied capsules of turmeric, a scoop of chia seed, 3/4 teaspoon of salmon oil , and maybe some xylitol. I mix that all up and as the machine is running I can add fresh spinach leaves, parsley, kale anything green from the garden. Sometimes I then add frozen berries or half a frozen banana, a fresh raw egg, and half an avocado. This mixture can be varied by adding coconut milk powder or simply substituting some coconut milk for water. I like my smoothies thick like a shake but this too can be adjusted for personal taste. My spousal unit is happy that I let him leave most mornings before I make my concoction but I enjoy it and it is a powerful combination. You can make your own creations but it is important to know that the base is kefir.

I have introduced many people to kefir, some have turned their noses up in disgust but many have benefitted from their daily dose of kefir and often share the “mushroom” with friends and family and have found it helped them become healthier (from ending lifelong constipation to healing IBS). The “mushroom” will multiply and is easy to separate out of the kefir to give to friends and family, so you will never lack for kefir grains. Go ahead, make a gutsy move, make some kefir and enjoy a new healthier you.

P.S. When first starting on any probiotics you need to start out carefully. Unhealthy gut environs are strongly affected by probiotics and diarrhea may initially result from drinking kefir. Often this is a result of your body getting rid of something bad it was harboring like Candida overgrowth, so the diarrhea isn’t always a bad occurence but it may be uncomfortable. It is recommended that you start with a tablespoon and try more as you can tolerate it.

Vital Choice Salmon Rocks

I wanted to shout out to everyone who checks this blog about my latest find. I have been looking for a good fish oil with no flavor and not in a gelatin capsule (gelatin always contains MSG) and I found one at last at Vital Choice. Or perhaps I should say I found it some time ago but it was out-of-stock.

This fish oil is almost red in color it is so rich in astaxanthan from the krill they eat on a daily basis and it contains natural Vitamin D, A and the necessary Omega 3’s. Wild Alaska Salmon are among the purest of all ocean fish, so the oil is free from hazardous levels of contaminants.

I actually don’t know why I want anyone else to know because they will sell out again and I won’t have a source of this perfect fish oil but I just can’t contain my excitement and had to share it.

Update on Ron Schmid’s supplements

I just wanted to update one viewer on the question “Has anyone used Ron Schmid’s supplements?”. The succinct answer is “Yes”. I have been taking his “Doc’s Best the next generation multi vitamin” and I think it is a superb product. He uses Methylcobalamin for his B12 which is one of my requirements. They have no maltodextrin or magnesium stearate and do provide CoQ10. I took one apart and put it in water and the ingredients immediately melted in to the water and actually tasted good enough to drink. My only reservation is he does use a gelatin capsule and given this is an up market supplement I feel he should use the more expensive but safer vegetable cellulose capsules.
I hope this answers the viewers question.

April Fool’s Joke, I Wish

This is no joke, unfortunately, but I wish it was. For months now I have faithfully been making my spousal unit a glass of vitamin packed juice every morning with a vitamin packed powder from a company called Ola Loa recommended by Mike Adams the self declared “Health Ranger”. My reasoning was that a glass of drinkable vitamins was better for him than the pasteurized glass of orange juice he had had for breakfast for decades as that has no beneficial properties. After all, drinking a glass of pasteurized orange juice, or any pasteurized juice, is no better than drinking a glass filled with water topped off with several tablespoons of sugar. Pasteurization of anything kills all the natural enzymes and vitamins and pasteurized juice is basically just a useless sludge. When I read Mike Adam’s interview with the owner/founder of Ola Loa I was convinced this product was far superior and it has been served most mornings since that time.

Fast forward to this morning when I tuned in to www.msgmyth.com to check on something a friend had mentioned to me recently regarding gelatin and its excitotoxin properties. As I perused the list of names that “they”  use to disguise the use of MSG in food, aspartame was listed along with l-cysteine an amino acid. When I saw aspartame mentioned I had one of those infamous light bulb moments, the SU’s vitamin packed Energy drink listed aspartic acid as an ingredient. Aspartic acid is just another name for aspartame, which may or may not be just another name for the excitotoxin MSG but it has the same affect on the body. Here I am the queen of healthy eating, the spokesperson of the anti-artificial sweetener campaign feeding my unsuspecting SU a drink with aspartame in it every morning without giving it a thought.

No wonder they called it “Energy”! Excitotoxins fill one with a false energy that eventually can reveal itself in unexplained migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, heart palpitations but initially energy is its by product. The question I now have is why would Mike Adams the self declared “health ranger”, the man who purports to be looking out for us uninformed consumers, ever recommend these vitamins as the best on the market? At the very least perhaps he could read the list of ingredients in all the Ola Loa drinkable vitamins and recommend only those that don’t have aspartame such as the “Kid’s” packets or the “Repair” packets and tell his readers to avoid the “Energy” and “Sport’s” variety(“Energy” has aspartame and some “Sport’s” packets have maltodextrin another excitotoxin) but other varieties of Ola Loa drinkable vitamins are filler free and excitotoxin free and thus safe to drink.

Again and again (and you think I would learn) I am reminded of the slogan “Buyer Beware”. If you feel strongly about the healthiness of the food you eat, READ THE INGREDIENTS of every morsel that goes in to your mouth and before you read the ingredients go to www.msgmyth.com or read Russ Blaylock’s Excitotoxins:The Taste That Kills and educate yourself on the hazards of consuming MSG and how manufacturers have disguised MSG in many products you unknowingly consume. “Buyer Beware” and that isn’t a joke.

Filler ‘er up

I am at times perplexed by the willingness of even the most skeptical of us to put things in our mouths and never ask a question about what is in it. I am a skeptic at heart but when my functional medicine doctor advised me to take supplements I dutifully did so and did not read the labels. Apparently I am not “skeptical” if I think I could live a longer, healthier life by doing what I was told.

Fast forward six months or so after my appointment with my doctor and I started to read a lot of articles about fillers in supplements and the harm they can do. In my defense I did discuss this with my doctor and he felt that fillers are not a problem. I might agree if I didn’t take a handful of supplements most days and if they didn’t make me feel bad. Also to my amazement there are reputable manufacturers who make supplements with no fillers but they do cost more.

What are these fillers? Check your label sometime and look to see the words maltodextrin, magnesium stearate, stearic acid, ascorbyl palmitate, titanium dioxide, gelatin, etc. These ingredients have a variety of purposes but most are used as lubricants (magnesium stearate, stearic acid, and ascorby palmitate), some are just fillers that have  excitotoxin properties that will make you feel you are better when you aren’t (gelatin and maltodextrin can both have msg).

Magnesium stearate, stearic acid and ascorbyl palmitate are the ingredients that are the most egregious offenders as they are strictly there to make machinery run at maximum efficiency because they make the ingredients slippery. They are made by hydrogenating cottonseed or palm oil and according to Udo Erasmus “cottonseed has the highest content of pesticide residue of all commercial oils. In the hydrogenation process, the oil is subjected to high heat and pressure in the presence of a metal catalyst for several hours. The resultant stearates contain altered molecules, derived from fatty acids, which may be toxic. The metal catalyst may also contaminate the stearates produced.”  Up to 5% of the average supplement capsule is magnesium stearate, that is 25 mg. According to Ron Schmid, N.D. “if you take 8 capsules a day that is 250 a month-or 6250 mg of this hydrogenated oil, or nearly one-quarter ounce which in a year averages 3 ounces” of pesticide laden artery clogging hydrogenated oil.

Crikey here I am watching every mouthful of food I eat. I buy expensive extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil that is organic. I religiously exercise three to four times a week. I try to get my 7-8 hours of sleep at night. I travel to a farm 50 miles from my house to buy raw milk and my eggs come from pastured chickens 30 miles from my home. I eat only grass fed beef and bison. The chicken we eat has had the run of the prairie at Farmer Darryles and the pigs nosh on organic leftover veggies and eggs. All this and I am unknowingly consuming 3 ounces of pure poison and no one bats an eyelash. I am here to tell you that it isn’t necessary and until the consumer speaks up nothing will be done about it. I can also personally attest to the fact that even if you speak up you will be told they are necessary (Byron Richards at Wellness Resources right here in Edina, MN).

I am now on a mission to rid my diet of these fillers yet take the supplements that  might help my body thrive. A friend of mine and I are researching every possible source of filler and additive free supplement and I can provide you with a few sites and supplements to assist you if you are interested. They are as follows:

Dr. Rons Ultra Pure

Professional Supplement Center

HBC Protocols

Iherb

Baseline Nutritionals

Paradise Herbs

Premier Labs

Viable Herbal Solutions

Vitabase

Dr. Ron’s supplements are pure and unadulterated, all of them. Professional Supplement Center carries Thorne Research, Pure Encapsulations and Metabolic Maintenance. HBS Protocols has some products without fillers like Masquelliers OPC and Idebenone. Iherb has a full line of Dr. Christopher’s herbal supplements that are free of fillers and are all natural formulas for what ails you and they carry Paradise Herbs. If you use my code YAN884 you will get a discount for first time users at Iherb. Baseline Nutritionals are a line of products by Jon Barron and most of his products are free of fillers but you have to watch the tablets or capsules. Premier offers some additive and filler free supplements but not all of them are, so read the label. Vitabase offers some supplements that are free of fillers but again you need to read the label.

I am hoping to entice Chloe to continue her research as she is a fabulous investigator and I will continue to provide you with more supplements that are free of fillers and excitotoxins, so stay tuned and stay healthy.