ngerman8 – Page 10 – Thyroid Dietitian: Nicole Morgan, RDN, LD, CLT

Oil of Oregano

October 31, 2014 By ngerman8

I have recently become interested in oil of oregano for its touted anti-parasitic and possible healing properties. The only negative is that there are no double blind, placebo-controlled human studies that have been performed on its uses. However, there is still some research out there that may help guide us in the right direction.

I figured that since it is just oregano and olive oil (as the carrier oil), I would try it out (Disclaimer: Speak with your doctor before supplementing).

I haven’t done any testing on myself to see if I have any parasitic infections, H. pylori, or other bacterial infections. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that one of these three that is triggering my Hashimoto’s. I have done everything to heal so far except eliminate possible bacteria/parasite/fungi and I haven’t 100% eliminated dairy yet either. I figured it would be a more affordable method to try the oil of oregano, vitamin C, and a few other natural remedies before doing expensive testing.

There is a decent study that came out in 2000 about 14 patients (with parasitic infections) that were healed with 600 mg after 6 weeks of use.
There is preliminary research that came out in 2002 that showed oregano oil to kill fungal toxins, but it was not done in the human body.
Then, in 2003, research compared 5 strong essential oils, and determine oregano oil to be the most effective bactericidal oil. It killed E. coli within 1 minute! Again, this was not done in humans, so more research is needed.

More Reseach Needed

Overall, more research is needed, but results are promising. The question is: what happens when we ingest the oregano oil? Does it stay intact and ready to kill bacteria, or does our stomach acid destroy it? Not sure. But, it would be more likely to kill H. pylori than other bacteria since it lives in the stomach. Any oregano oil or probiotics will survive better when taken with a higher fat food.

So, I am experimenting on myself–which I never recommend. But, of course, I am willing to do on myself.

The interesting thing is that if you read what hundreds of other people have to say about their experiments using oregano oil, they have great things to say about it. Unfortunately, you can not trust everything you read out there.

What Does A LEAP Diet Look Like?

October 29, 2014 By ngerman8

I will admit that the first 2 weeks on my LEAP MRT diet were the hardest. By the 7th day I was finding it somewhat difficult, but I powered through it knowing that I was going to improve my health.

Many might be wondering what foods you can eat on a LEAP MRT diet. Others may think, “there is nothing I can eat!”

That is not the case. There are plenty of creative options we can come up with. Here I have posted an example of what my immunocalm diet, phase 1 looked like.

Breakfast: Organic brown rice cake with sunflower seed butter and black coffee and/or cashew milk; Pineapple.

This week I am going to make my own healthy LEAP approved pancakes made with brown rice flour!

Snack: Pears and/or plain raw cashews or sunflower seeds.

Lunch: Pinto bean salad with homemade vinaigrette and avocado.

Snack: Macrobar or pears or celery with allowed nut/seed butter.

Dinner: Turkey burger with sweet potato and zucchini OR spinach salad. OR: brown rice pasta with spinach and ground turkey.

Snack: Pineapple or sweetened rice cake; recently I have added in chocolate! Yay.

I also found this awesome new cereal called “Power O’s” made with beans. I have recently added that in with my cashew milk.

Here are the ingredients: Bean Blend (navy beans, lentils, garbanzo beans), brown rice, salt, vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) added to maintain freshness.

6 grams of protein per serving, and clean, simple ingredients.

Don’t forget: This is only Phase 1 where you only eat the very lowest reactive foods. It gets much easier after this! And this was a diet specific to my MRT results, so diets will vary.

Why Selenium is Important for Thyroid Health

October 25, 2014 By ngerman8

Early on, even before I found out that I had Hashimoto’s, I knew about the importance of selenium for thyroid health. I would always recommend Brazil nuts (an excellent food source of selenium) to my patients with hypothyroidism.

What does selenium do in the body?

Selenium helps improve the conversion of T4 (inactive) to T3 (active thyroid hormone). Without sufficient selenium, this conversion decreases and we suffer from lower levels of T3.

Those of us with autoimmune thyroid disease also have a tendency to have more free radicals floating around (and more inflammation) in our body, so we need that additional selenium to support the antioxidants in our body. Selenium itself acts as a potent antioxidant. Vitamin C is helpful as well.

There are numerous studies that discuss the importance of selenium for those with autoimmune thyroiditis.

When to Supplement

However, do not start supplementing mindlessly. Selenium is a supplement that you can overdo it on, so you must be careful. For the average healthy person, I never recommend selenium supplementation as there is controversy about it causing blood sugar dis-regulation and the average healthy person does not need additional selenium to support the thyroid. But, in food form, selenium is excellent for everyone! All the more reason to seek out foods high in selenium to get it naturally and minimize any risk.

For those with Hashimoto’s, or Grave’s disease, selenium supplementation is likely appropriate (check with your Registered Dietitian or Doctor of course) as we tend to run low, and additional selenium plays a supportive role.

I choose a selenomethionine version to supplement with as it seems more absorbable. Alternatively, about 3-4 Brazil nuts can do the trick. However, there are some reports that the food form of selenium has not helped to reduce antibody levels, and others reports the food form did not work as well for them. Food form of selenium should work well, but perhaps people were not taking the food form consistently like a food medicine.

Food Sources of Selenium

Brazil nuts
Tuna
Turkey
Shrimp
Sardines
Salmon
Cod fish
Chicken
Lamb
Scallops
Beef
Barley
Mushrooms
Tofu
Brown rice
Eggs
Sunflower seeds

Finally Getting Better on My LEAP Diet!

October 20, 2014 By ngerman8

The start of today was day 9 following my own LEAP (Lifestyle Eating And Performance) Diet protocol. In the previous post, I mentioned how I did my own food sensitivity testing: MRT to find out if there were any foods causing inflammation in my body. Well, since I am now a CLT (Certified LEAP Therapist), I created my own diet therapy to follow for my thyroid health and would see how it went.

At first, it was extremely difficult because you can only eat from 20-25 different foods that you are the lowest reactive to. My friends and family didn’t understand why I was on this “ridiculous” restrictive diet, and had so many questions. Over the week, they have come to support me, but initially, it was difficult telling them, “sorry, no, I can not eat that today”.

Phase 1 is only temporary–up to two weeks. Then, you can start adding in more foods. I will admit that I didn’t follow my Phase 1 perfectly. I ate foods that were not MRT tested. And I know in the beginning, I ate a few small amounts of one or two reactive foods as I was adjusting. This is why it probably took me until day 9 to start feeling better. But, overall, I have to say I am proud of myself for sticking to it!

What Does Feeling Better Mean?

It is so strange. With Hashimoto’s, the destruction of the thyroid gland can be so slow that symptoms can progress so slowly that you don’t know you have a problem, or many deny they have a problem. And early on, you usually have less symptoms. After all, I thought I was perfectly healthy.

So, I started my MRT and LEAP diet looking for any sign that I was “feeling better” (not even sure what that would mean). I didn’t notice anything until this morning when I woke up and my throat did not feel closed-up and sore. My throat felt open, a little dry, but not sore at all! It was a weird feeling because it felt so clear. It made me realize that something had been going wrong with my throat.

My nose had constantly been a little runny, and that has gotten better. Feelings of anxiety seem to be slowly going away (not sure about this though). My afternoon energy levels have perked up a little, and I had much more energy to run harder and faster this afternoon.

Today was only Day 9, so we will see what happens over the next month!

Out and About

Coincidentally, the first day of feeling better was my first day of attending FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo)! FYI, FNCE is an annual conference of Registered Dietitians (pictured right in front of my fav vegetable!).

Too bad I couldn’t eat a lot of the food samples given out at FNCE–too much tapioca and potato in the sample foods. Doesn’t anyone make a gluten free bread without tapioca? Not that I know of. I guess I will have to make my own bread from scratch!

Are You Still Not Feeling Better?

Then, it may be time to consider MRT-LEAP (and yes, I offer long distance programs). Yes, it will cost you to do the test, but the results are priceless (and highly accurate so you do not have to repeat). If you have addressed all other areas of possible inflammation, it is time to look at the hypersensitivities to foods and food chemicals.

The whole process of healing is difficult and tasking, but the reward is worth it: You begin to “feel better” and you didn’t know what feeling better could feel like or would feel like. For me, it has not been drastic so far, but I have not been working on “healing” for that long. So far, so good! I only have good things to say about all the steps I have taken to heal.

How about you?

How Food Sensitivity Affects Hashimoto’s

October 12, 2014 By ngerman8

First, we have to preface this post with discussing the 3 keys that cause a food sensitivity and Hashimoto’s:

Genetics (Does someone in your family have a thyroid or autoimmune condition? I had to look back 2 generations.)
Trigger (bacterial, viral, major stressor, inflammation) that expresses the gene
Intestinal Permeability aka “leaky gut”

Where does food fit into this?

First, food can cause inflammation which can be your trigger that sets off a food sensitivity and Hashimoto’s. For some, it is the ingestion of gluten containing foods. For others, it might be other common inflammatory foods such as soy, dairy, egg, or nuts. For me, almonds are my major inflammatory food.

For others, a certain food is not going to trigger their Hashimoto’s. It is most likely that some bacteria or virus will trigger it initially. But, inflammatory foods can continue to provoke Hashimoto’s symptoms making it difficult to get better. If you can figure out what this is, you will improve your healing!

It is important to remember that inflammation is at the base of problems and symptoms. If we can decrease inflammation, we can heal!

How do you figure out your inflammatory foods?

MRT (mediator release testing) and LEAP diet therapy of course!

MRT can detect all non-IgE hypersensitivity reactions. It is the latest and greatest in testing food sensitivities. Do not pay money for other “food sensitivity” tests that are not as accurate or reliable. It does not test for allergies; it tests for delayed food and chemical sensitivities which are the most difficult to discover.

I would have NEVER figured out that I was highly sensitive to almonds if it weren’t for MRT. I would have gone on and on eating almond butter, raw almonds, Quest bars with almonds, and almond milk and continued feeling worse and not getting better. Other foods and chemicals came up as reactive on my MRT, but none as strongly reactive as almonds.

LEAP Diet Protocol

After you get your results, you can follow what I like to call a “reverse elimination diet” aka the Immunocalm Diet using LEAP therapy. I call it reverse elimination diet because you need to think opposite of what an elimination diet asks of you. Don’t think of it as getting rid of all foods. We focus on eating only the least reactive foods, and slowly add in more and more foods over time–testing them out as we go. Think of what you can eat!

To inquire about MRT-LEAP for yourself, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Create a Health Timeline to Discover Your Trigger

October 2, 2014 By ngerman8

If you want to determine how your Hashimoto’s began, or when it started, you must create a timeline for healing. I can’t stress enough how important this is to getting yourself better. I didn’t think it was very necessary until I did it myself. I thought I could simply think back to my memories and timeline in my head and figure it all out. There is no way I can get the timing correct in my head! You must write it down to get the big picture.

Please note: You do not simply get Hashimoto’s from one of the dozens of triggers out there; you must also carry the gene for it. This is to help determine what caused that gene to be expressed.

Here is an example of part of my timeline:

Birth-Childhood: No major events to report
Age 7: Chicken pox
Age 15: Very thin, yet normal teenage years, no illness or other events to report
- Raynaud’s began during cheerleading, and continued for several years; sister also has Raynaud’s
Age 16: Late menses; Amenorrhea began shortly after
- Move to Georgia
Age 17: Not much to report, normal teenage years
Age 18: Go to college, break up with a boyfriend, lost significant weight unintentionally, underweight
- Acid reflux began about shortly thereafter
- Strep throat more frequent
Age 19-20: Moderate/severe tonsillitis; Bad acid reflux. Started birth control pill.
Started eating vegetarian. Later cut out dairy and felt better (acid reflux decreased).
Early 20’s: Began to eat meat and animal products again. Felt better. Still anxious and nervous much of the time.
Age 24 – 25 starting to notice more extreme fatigue. Needing a second coffee in the day.
Age 26 – 27: Tested my ferritin (iron) and discovered it was very low (at a 15)! I was working at an anti-aging medical spa and worked with a practitioner specializing in hormones. I explained my lack of menstrual cycles and low iron to her, and she recommended a full panel of thyroid testing.
Age 27: Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. Began some natural supplementation on my own and went gluten free. No prescription medication and I saw improvements. A few months later, began medication since I was still experiencing symptoms.
Became a CLT (Certified LEAP Therapist) to work on implementing anti-inflammatory diets. Began my own LEAP immunocalm diet plan. Saw amazing results.
Age 28 – 30: The best I ever felt was the years following this. I also began pole dancing for the fitness and sport of it. Dancing was also my was to de-stress. This reduced my symptoms even more, and at Age 30 became pregnant with my little girl. Healthy pregnancy.
Age 31: Some symptoms starting back up post-pregnancy perhaps due to the immune system shift. Very mild.

And it goes on and on…

After you continue to write it all out, you can pin-point a big change in health. For me, it seems it was around age 18.

The whole point of this is to figure out what triggered your Hashimoto’s or autoimmune disease. If you can identify the trigger, you can figure out how to truly get better! I am still trying to figure mine out.

For many the trigger might be related to a bacteria or pathogen entering the body such as Lyme disease, having mono, or H. pylori. For others it might be related to food sensitivities or something that caused a “leaky gut” or lack of nutrients. There are dozens of possible causes, so it is very difficult to figure out. But, the timeline helps narrow it down to about 5 possible causes! Then, you can investigate further.