Hashimoto's treatment/symptom relief without meds??

[Danikeyser222]

Hi everyone. Just this morning I met with a new endo through one of our big city hospitals here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He did diagnose me with Hashimoto's but he is not giving me any medication yet. He does not want to repeat blood work until November. Although I am relieved with the diagnosis (because I have been suspecting it), I am not relieved that I have to deal with the symptoms.
Can anyone offer some insight on other remedies, lifestyle changes, etc to help with my hypo symptoms? This is all so new to me, I just don't know where to start.

Thanks!

[LazyMoose]

Some more that might have some similarities in some people to Hypo symptoms: Lymes disease, adrenal fatigue (usually accompanied by hypo thyroid) and only recognized by holistic Drs, certain food allergies (celiac, lactose, gluten, corn), digestive issues such as bacterial overgrowth and digestive candida (which are triggered by certain foods), and blood glucose issues.

Some Drs test ANA when an autoimmune issue is suspected but not narrowed down yet. Anti-nuclear antibodies are  higher than normal in autoimmune diseases.

[goolarra]

I'm very familiar with the "wanting a diagnosis" scenario.  I think I was hypo for close to 18 months before the thyroid light bulb went off in someone's brain.  I have no doubt your symptoms are real.      

Regarding your question on whether this is hypo or Hashi's:  Did they find nodules on your ultrasound?  Did you mention that you'd already had a biopsy and were going to have a second at some time in the future?  Did the doctor mention biopsy findings that suggested Hashi’s?

I think you're right, though, "Either way, I just want to get the proper treatment so I can start feeling better."  That's what's important at the moment; you can hash out the finer points of whether this is Hashi's or not later on.  

There are a lot of things that mimic thyroid symptoms.  Something as simple as vitamin D and B-12 deficiencies can have very similar symptoms.  Iron and ferritin deficiencies can, as well, and can also impede thyroid hormone metabolism even when FT3 and FT4 levels are adequate.  You might have all of those tested to see how you stand on them.    

[Danikeyser222]

Thank you for the explanation.

I'm just nervous/confused/scared.... Whether it's hypo, Hashi's, or something else, I just want a diagnosis, ya know. My symptoms are real and they aren't getting any better. I just want to be sure I am taking the appropriate steps and demanding the right tests to get to the bottom of it.

Given my lab results, do you think this could be just hypothyroidism then? Either way, I just want to get the proper treatment so I can start feeling better. Are there any other diseases that you know of that mimic these same symptoms?

Thanks again for all of your help!

[goolarra]

It's not exactly "normal" to have some, but both TPOab and TGab can be "somewhat" (a term I've found to be seldom defined) elevated with other autoimmune conditions.  Practically speaking, positive thyroid antibody counts frequently return in the high hundreds or thousands, so anything within range is considered a negative.  Perhaps the allowable range is the definition of the "somewhat", i.e. anything within range could be caused by something else, so we can draw no conclusions from it.

I think both Moose and I were reacting to the fact that your doctor diagnosed Hashi's with negative antibodies.  As I said above, I have read, as you did, that a very small percentage of people with Hashi's test negative to blood antibodies.  This appears to be an oxymoron...how can you have an autoimmune disease without antibodies?  I can only assume that this means that they TEST negative because antibodies are not or do not show up in the blood for some reason, or, perhaps, there are other antibodies that can do the same damage???  Maybe medicine has only identified the top two so far???  This will be a question for my endo at my next appointment!  

Hashi's is an autoimmune disease, and the antibodies come FIRST.  We can have antibodies for years or even decades before they compromise enough thyroid function to make us hypo.  So, our question is:  how can your hypo have been caused by antibodies that aren't there?  

In many respects, it doesn't matter if you have Hashi's or not.  Hypo is treated the same regardless of the cause.  However, since there is a relationship between ALL autoimmune diseases, knowing whether you have Hashi's or not could be valuable information for future health issues and diagnosis.  I think for now, I'd take your negative result at face value.  Your doctor seems to think that antibodies will eventually show up in your blood, and it would be really interesting to know if they did.

I hope that helps and doesn't confuse more.  

[Danikeyser222]

Goolarra, I understand what you are saying. I was pretty surprised when I saw it just say <35 and <20. I thought I was going to be given an actual figure.

I guess I'm confused how the antibody testing works. I was under the impression you should have no antibodies at all? So it is normal to have some?

[Barb135]

My TPOab was 380+ (range < 35), while my TGab was < 20 (range < 20) ........ that's the way they report them. < 35 or < 20  is considered negative, but to me would be grounds for retesting, at some point.