Jumping into the Naturopathic Approach

It is a strange feeling sitting in yet another doctor’s office. To be honest, and I am sure many of you felt the same, I never imagined myself to be at a position at such an age. Still young, otherwise happy and content, but dealing with a chronic illness, going from one doctor to next because no one seems to see me as a human being. Sitting at the naturopath office, it was beginning to feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. This year has been a rollercoaster with constant barrage of some sort of emotional or physical stress ever since January. We have been bracing for one thing or another in our life these days.

Alhumdulillah for the sakinah (peace and contentment) that Allah (swt) has given us in our home and marriage that we return to find in each other every day.

Dr. Nanao Takaki came in after a rather busy day at the center and I was called in fairly quickly. She jumped right to it, spent nearly 40 minutes with me and showed me the test results where the autoimmunity of my hypothyroidism was confirmed with the existence of antibodies with the number being much higher than it should be. The two additional tests that she had conducted were for Thyroglobulin Antibody and Thyroid Peroxidiase (TPO), the results were 14 (normal range 0-0.9) and 118 (normal range 0-34) respectively. It is important to note that the number fluctuates and at one point could be higher than another. That is why generally the tests are done every three months for those who share my condition. I had no idea what it meant, to be honest. No one has really sat down and explained to me what it really meant. I still remember my physician, upon getting my diagnosis for the first time, stated that, and I paraphrase, “Hypothyroidism is very common and most people with Hypothyroidism get it through the pathway of Hashimoto’s.” Going online, seemingly every website repeatedly stated that most hypothyroid people have Hashimoto’s and another one is Grave’s Disease. That was the extent of my knowledge. Even if I had read some more, it never truly understood it enough to feel confident in it. To my relief, Dr. Nanao begin to draw exactly what that meant.

The Confirmation

You see, my body was having a hard time seeing some of the hormones and enzymes as friendly. They were tagging the hormone T4 and the enzymes (enz) with antibodies and not really allowing the process to convert the T4 into T3. My body has not been working with the adequate amount of T3 to function. In other words, my body is working really hard to produce T4 – the brain has been yelling at the thyroid to make it – but it has been under attack and has been unable to produce what it needs due to the antibodies seeing its hard work as a threat. Synthroid, the medication I have been taking for nearly two years, is only T4 so it has never been able to function as it is constantly under attack.

The Plan of Action

I felt so involved throughout all of this. Here is what we decided to tackle together:

+ The top priorities are to give the body T3 and to eliminate or greatly reduce the antibodies for everything to function properly. I decided to let Dr. Nanao make her own Armor Thyroid (which contains T4 and T3) as the price was comparable with my copay of Synthroid right now and after learning before that armor thyroid quality has been inconsistent recently. Well, almost comparable. This also allows her to manipulate the amount of those two hormones and customize them to what my body needs. She also decided to add in lymphagogic herbs to help the lymphatic system get rid of the antibodies.

+ Additionally, she added herbs to support my gut health and emotional health to help me feel grounded and confident – two things that I truly feel the need after the traumatic move.

+ I am also going to be taking a higher dose of Vitamin D for two-three months of 10,000 IU to up my store as it is still on the lower side and then reduce it to 5000 as a maintenance dose. I learned for the first time that Vitamin D is fat soluble making it necessary to take it with food in order get all of it in the system.

+ Lastly, I to continue taking Digestive Enzymes, L-Glutamine, Omega-3 and Probiotics without allowing it to whither as I have resorted to recently.

I shared with her how my body went through quite a turbulent time after I ate something at a restaurant the same day that I saw her last which was awful for me. I was inundated with headaches that put me to sleep, fatigue and upset stomach that is finally beginning to subside after a week and a half of the entire ordeal. She suggested me to up the probiotics and focus on fermented foods daily.

The Next Steps

I am feeling hopeful. The approach follows a trajectory that just makes sense. I am to watch out for the hyperthyroid symptoms and to contact her immediately should I feel them. The symptoms include: being constantly hot, having too much energy (being wired up and unable to sleep due to it), and rapid weight loss.

Changes can start to emerge within two weeks or so or just take around two months to solidify. I am to reconvene with her in around 3 months time where she will repeat the blood tests and evaluate where to go from there.

Here is to a valiant effort to get a semblance of my life back.

Bismillah.