July 17, 2006 photo journal

EDIT as I compile these for the new blog: Whoops, sorry this one is slightly out of order with the fitday food log notes. I didn't catch at first that I made two photo journal entries for July..... I should also point out that I never did take any thyroid meds and I never went back to see a doctor after this appt. I've been doing just fine on my own since then. :-) We ended up moving away from the two docs that I had been seeing, and I just never bothered to find new ones up here near the new house. I should go back someday though and get my antibodies retested, I bet they are normal now.

July 17, 2006
Losing
Weight: 167
Jean size 14-16

Schwarzbein for 4 months.
100% Gluten free and grain free for 1 month (SCD)
Dairy free for 2 weeks.

Showing the belly here to show how much weight I've lost, and how much I have left to go. :-)

First appt. with an endocrinologist was dissapointing. She said my thyroid levels didn't justify thyroid hormone treatment just yet, even though my antibodies were in the thousands. We talked about the diet connection some, but she didn't really believe there was a connection. Doctors just aren't taught about silent gluten sensitivity and unless they do their own research on it, they just don't know about all the studies and theories concerning this. She conceded that celiac and thyroid occur frequently together, but she doesn't believe that gluten causes thyroid antibodies. When I brought up molecular mimicry, she diffused the situation by asking what I did for a living. She did reluctantly agree to retest my antibodies to see if they are coming down, but it may be too early to see a noticeable difference. I've only been gluten free for 2 months, and the studies I read said it could take 3-6 months for the reduction of antibodies to occur. Basically my doctor's plan of treatment is to continue to test my thyroid levels every 6 months and when they go above 3, she will start me on meds. So basically we just sit on our butts until the antibodies burn out my thyroid and then start treatment.



Well, with any luck, my diet changes will reduce and/or eliminate my thyroid antibodies and I won't ever need thyroid meds. The thought of waiting around to burn out just isn't proactive enough for me. Regardless of what mainstream medicine thinks, I do believe that gluten causes thyroid antibodies through molecular mimicry. I've read the studies. I've read the science behind the theories. I've encountered the connection mentioned in numerous health books, in nutrition books, in anthropological works, in personal stories scattered across the internet, etc. I've seen what gluten does to me. I've seen what eliminating it from my diet does to me. I plan on putting together this journal, my food journal, and every study that I can find, (hell, maybe I'll even write a formal research paper on the damn subject) to convince my doctor to look into the subject more. She is one of the top thyroid docs in the area and if she caught on to this dietary connection, she could really make a difference in a lot of autoimmune thyroid sufferers' lives.