thyroid fluctuation and lifestyle change

[rivet]

As you may know, I have a thyroid problem. Most of the time, I take a pill every day to replace the thyroid hormone my body isn't producing, and dont' think too much about it. Sometimes, that balance gets messed up, and the changes are subtle enough, and come on gradually enough, that I don't recognize that I feel rotten. I imagine people on

Comments

[clashfan]

It's been 3-4 years for me. I'm not celiac, but I do have a sensitivity. If I eat too much gluten, I get tired for a couple of days and some GI stuff goes wonky. Phoebe suggested it, I resisted, she said try it for two weeks, I saw a difference in three days. I do NOT have a problem from cross-contamination--I can eat stuff that was made in the same kitchen as regular flour exists. Dylan's mom is SUPER sensitive and feels effects after a minor 'dose

[rivet]

Thank you. This is exactly the kind of information I wanted to hear. I'm still going to wait until I get settled in Melbourne to give it a go, but I'm relieved to hear that the improvement was rapid, unambiguous, and doesn't require too much fuss about cross contamination.

[clashfan]

Oddly enough, I recently had a gluten oops--the pizza delivery place screwed up and put the toppings I'd wanted on the regular pizza, and vice versa. I was so hungry, I ate two small slices without thinking about it. Luckily, there was *not* a disaster. I'd been really good the several days prior, and was very careful for the next few days, and there were no nasty repercussions.

Obviously, Your Mileage May Vary; if this had happened to Dylan's mom, she'd be in her bed for two days. But if you can be pretty careful for five days running, you should know something. How long you in Portland for?

[tyellas]

Sorry that you've been feeling poorly when you do so much to keep yourself at above-average wellness. Possibly silly questions: any Irish or Swedish family in your background? Is going 95% gluten free, to allow for the occasional soy sauce or travel moment, also beneficial?

[rivet]

Lots of Irish. It's where the freckles and little round nose come from. I don't think I have celiac, but I suspect I might be a bit sensitive (especially when I've got other inflammation in my system.) It would have to be a night and day difference for me to be willing to turn into a zealot about it. But if avoiding most gluten makes me feel much better, I'll work toward that.

[tatjna]

I don't really know how these things work, but what about cutting down rather than eliminating completely?

Also, I've noticed that GF options are becoming more and more available pretty much everywhere these days.

[rivet]

The quality of GF has definitely improved, especially in wellington. We'll see how avoiding rather than eliminating works. Hopefully the 80/20 rule is in effect here :)

[russiandolls]

Hey Jodi, as you know I have Grave's disease (the same but opposite to Hashimoto's, if that makes sense), and ever since the radioiodine treatment I had a year ago, the doctors have been trying to sort out my hormone levels (both my T4 and TSH are high most of the time, which seems to really confuse them). About 90% of the time I have exactly the symptoms you described, so I was tested for Coeliac's last month. After a bit of faffing about, the test came back negative, but I've been thinking about trying a less gluten-heavy diet than I have now anyway. At this point I'll do anything that clears my head and wakes me up, I'm sure you understand

[rivet]

Thank you for all the practical help! In some senses, I feel like I've already fought a lot of the painful battles of discovering something like this when I eliminated most flour and sugar from my diet. I'm not going to be crying over the loss of bread/cake/pasta as key parts of my diet. But it's nice to know how to navigate things like eating out and eating while traveling.

Let me know how you get on with your experiments and health!

[wildilocks]

Can't help much with Sydney but can give you some tips for GF stuff available in Melbs if you do go down that path once in MEL. It's been over 4 years for me being gluten-mostly-free, and I still always feel it when I have too much, but I bend the rules pretty regularly, so I think it's still working and worthwhile avoiding the stuff. Doing a bit of a test for a week or two might be an idea but maybe after you've had time for the new meds to adjust?

[rivet]

Thank you. I think I'll do a test run when I'm settled in Melbourne. And then I'll take lots of suggestions for where to go and what to eat!