iThei mdcdaelcinfd o c elllllrlllll t ho hslndbflfddclkThbepOur thyroid is part of a complicated body system and does not live by
itself in a vacuum.
Often, patients with Hashimoto’s present with acid reflux, nutrient de-
ficiencies, anemia, increased intestinal permeability, food sensitivities,
gum disorders, and hypoglycemia in addition to the “typical” hypothy-
roid symptoms discussed in Chapter 2.
The body becomes stuck in a chronic state of immune system overload,
adrenal insufficiency, gut dysbiosis, impaired digestion, inflammation,
and thyroid hormone release abnormalities.
These changes can lead to the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and
chronic fatigue often seen with Hashimoto’s.
This cycle is interrelated and reinforces itself through a positive feed-
back loop, meaning the cycle is self-sustaining and continues to cause
increasingly more symptoms until an external factor intervenes and
breaks the cycle.
Unfortunately, simply adding thyroid supplement to the mix does not
result in full recovery for most thyroid patients.
Additionally, supporting just the thyroid may weaken the adrenals and
immune balance, which in turn perpetuates the vicious cycle. Each in-
tervention must be counterbalanced to ensure we are not inadvertently
causing imbalance in another part of the body.
The lifestyle interventions discussed in this book aim to dismantle the
vicious cycle piece by piece.
We start with the simplest modifications—removing triggers—and fol-
low with repairing the other broken systems to restore equilibrium, al-
lowing the body to heal itself.