Hashimoto's patients, are you TH1 or TH2 dominant?

[TamraW]

Hashi patients, do you know if you are TH1 or TH2 dominant? I'm TH2 dominant. Coffee and green tea make my neck swell. I've given up caffeine and I take my Echinacea and Golden Seal each day and the flareups are gone. (Well, except when I eat chocolate). Which are you? Do you know if what you're eating could be causing auto-immune flareups?

Below is a part of the TH1/TH2 transcript taken from a video by Dr. Geronimo. Here's Dr. Geronimo's website:
http://www.powaychiro.com

I don't have enough room to post the entire transcript.To read the full transcript see my journal entry below:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/182243/Hashi-patients--Are-you-TH1-or-TH2-dominant

:) Tamra

"An autoimmune condition occurs when one branch of the immune system over dominates another branch. This is called an either a Th1 or Th2 dominance. A dominant TH1 response means that the natural killer cells and cytotoxic t cells are responsible for attacking the body, while a TH2 dominance indicates that your bcells and antibodies are mounting the attack. A blood test is needed to find out which branch is dominant. Thus to treat an autoimmune disease, it is critical to find the dominant branch and to balance the seesaw by stimulating the other branch. For example, if a patient’s autoimmune disease was TH1 dominant, treating it would require that we strengthen the Th2 side to balance out the immune system. If the patient were Th2 dominant, we would stimulate the Th1 side to regain balance. It’s a pretty simple solution, but so many people suffer needlessly because the immune system has been ignored, until now.

This is where clinical nutrition and natural medicine comes into play. It is well documented in clinical research that Th1 stimulants are Echinacea, maitake mushrooms and golden seal to name a few. Th2 stimulators are caffeine, green tea, and grape seed extract. So in the example I gave in the previous slide, if a patient with an under functioning thyroid is TH1 dominant, then I would prescribe supplements containing caffeine, green tea, and grape seed extract to stimulate the TH2 side to regain balance. If they were TH2 dominant, then Echinacea, mushrooms, and golden seal would balance out their immune system. Since most people with autoimmune conditions have no idea which branch of their immune system is dominant, they can actually make their condition worse by taking over the counter immune boosters. Lets say for example you were Th1 dominant and you catch a cold. A friend tells you that Echinacea helped them so you take it yourself. Unknowingly you would be flaring up your already dominant Th1 response and cause even more destruction to your thyroid gland."

[TamraW]

My favorite gluten free guide:
http://celiac.org/images/stories/PDF/quickstart-diet-guide-april-2009.pdf

Gluten free food list: http://homepage.mac.com/sholland/celiac/GFfoodlist.pdf

Gluten free restaurants: http://gfrestaurants.com/gluten-free-restaurants/

Gluten free grocery stores: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreefoodshopping/ss/GFgrocerylist_2.htm

Gluten free recipes: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-chicken-nuggets-recipe.html

Candida cleansing website. A lot of info on here and not sue if all therapies are credible. Lemon water has helped me.
http://www.candida-cure-recipes.com/natural-detox-body-cleansing.html

:) Tamra

[sharon_lee]

Thank you, for the information. I've had stomach problems as long as I can remember, and especially after my first child was born, it became worse, with flare up, now since this thyroid diagnosis, it is daily, though the Hyomax helps
Thank you, for the coconut oil suggestion, I believe our vitamin shoppe carries it...I've been working on the gluten, eliminating as much as possible...I also understand there is gluten listed in other forms on many foods, I need to research and find out what they are...It is not easy, simply because I don't know what to substitute it with...for now, I bought rice cakes to use like bread...I use honey to sweeten, is that perhaps not a good idea? Primarily with tea. I appreciate your comment and suggestions..I have an appointment with a Gastrointerologist June 25...to set up a colonoscopy...is that likely to show the leaky gut syndrome? Just curious. Also went to the eye Dr. yesterday for my 4 mo. check up on my glaucoma, and he said, now we have got to get aggressive about your glaucoma,. and right away, as I have lost more vision, and he said, this is not good...so laser surgery the 26th. cataract surgery to follow, then glaucoma surgery...I took my labs into him, to have in my file and he said, good it is good for him to have these...he said, your have circles and checks all over the pale and indicated that my thyroid is not stable, based on what he read...he also said, I had the type of Nodule (hyperplasia) that tends to be malignant..but they are very slow...I told him, he just told me more about thyroid than any Dr. has...he said, well you got all that I know, so, maybe if you piece it all together, you will get some information....he also said, thyroid is a tough one to figure out and treat correctly! Smart man!

[TamraW]

Sharon, you are not the first person who has undergone RAI with thrush problems. I know my thrush issues were due to leaky gut syndrome:

http://www.leakygut.co.uk/

Have you ever had stomach problems in your youth before this all started? You may have a leaky gut and the RAI kind of brought it to the surface. Just a theory. Many people with auto-immune thyroid disease have leaky guts. Try eliminating all foods with yeast and refined sugar from your diet for a few weeks. Also, coconut oil is a natural yeast killer. My hubby and I use it and it works great. I have not had mouth thrush in several months since giving up gluten and drinking a tablespoon of coconut oil per night. Here's a site I came upon about coconut oil.

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/coconut_oil11.html#SIDEEFFECTS

I bought a huge jug from naturesflavors.com which I regret because it's just too big. Whole foods sells it as well. I think naturesflavors sells a smaller jug.
:) Tamra

[sharon_lee]

Have any of you used diflucan, for oral fungus?
Mine is just not getting better on natural meds. like probiotics, and even one with zinc that I let dissolve in my mouth...Of course  it is worse in the morning...but have to brush about 3 times a day....I just feel miserable, as in weak, and tired...and I hate taking prescription drugs...I just have side affects that are often worse than the illness. I was surprised to learn that oral thrush is not unusual with thyroid disease...
I've thought of calling the Dr. as for a liquid prescription of the med. so that I don't get so much in my blood stream, for the side affects..
Thank you, for your feedback, thoughts, or experiences. They also called in a 200 MG and I wondered if I could cut that is half, as I am not in the least good with meds.
Why do those with thyroid get this? Mine started when the gave me the radio active iodine...for the uptake scan...that was in Dec. and I'm no better...
Thank you...have a good day...

[liya8]

Greetings

I take a slice of fresh ginger - pulp it up in a motar and pestle ( hope those are the right English words as English aint my first language) place the pulp in a large mug and fill it half way with boiling water - leave for about 10 minutes, add enough cold water but must still be warm and drink that on an empty stomach.  Have this first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.

Reading Dr K's book and they sent me a whole list of Drs names and their contact numbers - but wow the costs as high - some want as much as 6000USD for a three month period.  

perhaps someone out there has found someone cheaper.  If I pay that I would need to multiply by 8 to bring it Hong Kong value.  as the HKD and USD are set at 7.89 so I may as well work on 8 HKD to one USD.

[TamraW]

I went to Dr. K's website and asked for a referral in my city:

http://www.thyroidbook.com/contact-and-clinic-info.html

I am very lucky that one of Dr. K's students, Dr. Webb, practices in San Antonio. He has two other doctors working under him and they are the most wonderful group of doctors I've ever met. They actually get Hashimoto's and the underlying gut problems that contribute to our decline. In fact, I'm doing their gut detox now and my stomach is feeling better.

Dr. Geronimo will also do long distance consults if you do not have a doctor in your area. My friend is using his services and is very pleased with her results. Here is his website:

http://powaysportschiropractic.com/

:) Tamra