Fatigue is the worst with Hashimoto’s. It is the mother of all of the symptoms because it impacts your life so much you just can’t function anymore. It steals your life. Everything gets foggy. It saps all of your energy and makes life soooooo very hard. And it affects almost everyone with Hashi’s.
It sneaks up so slowly that you don’t really recognize it as something wrong. You think maybe I’ve been to busy or maybe I haven’t slept enough because most Hashi’s are overachiever’s and we always suspect that sooner or later we won’t be able to keep up the pace that we do. I think for most of us, it isn’t even a pushing, it is just the pace we exist. We sacrifice ourselves for all that we care about but beyond that, we seem to be wired to move at the pace we do.
And when it finally gets too much for you, it doesn’t make sense where it came from because you weren’t paying attention, you were just pushing through. And the reality is that other symptoms generally show up first. Skin rashes, weird joint issues, headaches, sleep issues, body aches, digestive issues, hair loss, and the dreaded weight gain. And they all seem to morph. And here begin the trips to the doctor, for this prescription and that prescription. Each time hoping for something to help.
But they don’t help.
And each time you go in, they look at you more and more strangely because you don’t actually look sick. But by now, you feel like you are dying on the inside. Nobody understands and the fatigue is now getting worse and worse.
If you are lucky, the doctor will test your thyroid, but they don’t really understand what they have to look for. But again, if you are lucky, they do. But then they don’t know what it means. Because they don’t understand the stages of autoimmune. They don’t understand what must happen to make you feel better. Thyroid meds aren’t enough.
It isn’t your thyroid that is the problem.
That is the fallacy of it all. The thyroid isn’t the problem. It is your immune system and it is attacking your thyroid. And the problem with the medical community is that they treat hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s exactly the same way.
Let me let you in on a little secret.
95% of women diagnosed with hypothyroidism actually have Hashimoto’s.
I know. WTF!!!. I’m sure I used those words when I found out that little tidbit. Well, I have used words worse than that when it comes to this lovely little illness.
Ok, back to the fatigue. What can you do?
When I work with my clients, the first place we start is diet. It can be the most impactful. You noticed that I said “can”. I didn’t say it would be. The reason is because everyone is a little different. But diet is necessary for healing, so I start there anyway. You give the body a break by changing your diet. You are going to be malnourished because you have leaky gut. If you want to read about leaky gut, you can find my blog on that here. And we have got to get the right kinds of nutrients into your system to begin supporting the body in the right way.
This is likely the reason you are fatigued.
Your cells just aren’t getting enough nutrients. There are other fatigue contributors like trouble sleepin but again, the best place to start because it is amazing how food can help sleep too. And the second goal of diet is to reduce the inflammation in your body.
What diet you say?
Autoimmune Protocol Diet. I have written blogs on it. If you click on AIP, you will find one of my blogs. If you are looking for a place to start, I say start here.
As I said above, this may or may not be enough to help you begin to feel better, and I am also saying, do it anyway.
You might even have some weight loss on this diet.
It is amazing the weight in inflammation that some people lose. Now, not everyone does and what that means is we have a lot more to tackle. Weight loss or not there is more to tackle. I tell my clients being healthy is more important than weight loss at this point.
Let me get back to the AIP. There is a right way and a wrong way to implement the AIP. When you implement, you one of the foods you will be eliminating is gluten. But for most, gluten is the only prebiotic that you are getting.
Prebiotics feed the probiotics that you have in your gut along with other things.
It is a complicated explanation so I’m just going to say it simply. If you are eliminating gluten, you must make sure you are eating root veggies every day. They are also prebiotics. As is dark chocolate – don’t overdo it and blame it on me. Haha. You have the potential to make yourself very sick if you aren’t replacing gluten with these foods.
Again, I want to reiterate, that this is just the start of the healing process. Food sensitivities come into play and they should be determined. Your triggers come into play and they must be eliminated. You can only determine your triggers through testing. But the AIP is a very good start and may go a long way to helping you feel better when it comes to fatigue.
That might have been a lot. I try to keep it as simple as possible and to not get carried away with pages that you don’t have the focus to read right now. Baby steps.
AIP resources. There are tons of recipes out there on Pinterest. The internet has lots of information on there. What do I do for my clients? I like Mickey Trescott’s The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook. Everyone of my clients will get this book. It walks you through the process of implementing the AIP into your world. Yes it is a lot but baby steps, right?
Alright, I’m going to stop talking now. If you have questions, email me here. Clientcare@yourhealthmadesimple.com
Have a wonderful rest of your week.
Love having you in the pack.
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