126. My triumph over Hashimoto's

In this podcast, I'm sharing my experience with Hashimoto's after being diagnosed in 2019. I'm detailing how I found out, what I felt like, different reactions I received, the mistakes I made, what I do now, and how I ultimately live a beautiful and healthy life with it. Let me know if you have questions below!

Jenna Hamm: Nervous System resource: https://www.jennahamm.com/

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Transcript

​[00:00:00] 

Welcome back to my YouTube channel guys or my podcast if you are listening over there. Today we are discussing my experience with Hashimoto's. If you're not familiar with Hashimoto's it is an autoimmune disease where your body attacks its own thyroid gland and I was diagnosed in 2019. The reason I'm sharing this is because there was so much fear mongering.

When I found out I had this, I was terrified. I will get into that in more detail here in a little bit, but I just want to share my experience and how it is so different from what you commonly hear on the internet and take what helps you leave what doesn't.

How did I even find out I had Hashimoto's? So mine was a little unusual in that my actual thyroid level, so my TSH, - thyroid stimulating hormone -, my T three, my T four, just the usual labs that doctors run. Those came back with the normal range, not the optimal range, which can be defined differently by different people, but it was still within the normal range.

And many people who do have Hashimoto's. They have hypo-thyroidism [00:01:00] so their labs will show, oh, something's off here. And then a doctor might test for antibodies to see if they have the autoimmune component. The Hashimoto's, for me, I just felt awful. I. Back in 2019, I was running my body into the ground. I didn't realize it because it had crept up so slowly on me, and it wasn't until I was sitting on my bed in front of my closet, it was the springtime, and I was thinking, man, I really need to switch my closet over.

But the thought I. Was so overwhelming to me. I had that little energy that I said, okay, I need to go get some labs done. I need to have somebody help me figure out what is wrong with me here because I just don't feel normal. I was having a lot of brain fog, just really low energy. I was doing a ton of CrossFit.

At the time, and I couldn't get through my workouts like I used to, and I was burning the candle at both ends while I was building my own business, while working full time on top of doing a ton of really intense exercise via CrossFit. I just never slowed down and I didn't know that it was a problem until it was a problem.

And I happened [00:02:00] to, it's kind of a roundabout way, but a nurse practitioner. Said, I can run some tests for you as through a friend who knew this woman and she ended up testing for antibodies, for thyroid antibodies, and mine came back sky high relative to what's normal. So mine were between five and 600.

And the normal level, depending on people's definition of normal for a lot of labs, it is 30 or below. So mine was glaringly obvious that something was awry.

Now once that nurse practitioner diagnosed me with Hashimoto's, of course, I said, okay, well thank you very much. I'm gonna go get a second opinion. But after I got off the phone with her, she said, and by the way, gluten is gone forever. You are not able to eat gluten ever again. This is a trigger for people with Hashimoto's, with any autoimmune condition.

So that's something you're gonna have to stay away from, and probably dairy as well. And given that I had a negative relationship with food in the past. This wasn't something, 'cause I'd done so much work on my relationship with food that was triggering for me in any way to have to remove this because if that was the best thing [00:03:00] to do for my body, then sure.

But the thing is, I developed so much trust in myself and in making my own rules when it came to food and exercise in my body, that I took that as a suggestion versus a, this is what must be done. Because I was going to experiment on my own, at least initially, until things started to spiral a little bit.

I'll tell you about that here in a moment. But I spoke to my doctor. And he said, okay, clearly you do have Hashimoto's, but the fact that your other labs are coming back normal, it's not something I am really concerned about. I kind of asked him, well. Does that mean that I'll eventually lead to having hypothyroidism then if my body's attacking my thyroid gland, can't I get ahead of that in some way?

And he said, and I understand that they are liable. They can't just say things without research. And he said. We don't really know what can be done at this point. We don't have conclusive evidence of what can be done to prevent your body from continuing down this road. So if there is a point at which your labs come back that you are [00:04:00] hypothyroid, then we'll talk about medication at that point.

But up until that time, there's nothing we can really do. And so I thought, okay, that's another perspective. And then I went on the internet. Why? Why do I go on the internet? Why do we do that to ourselves? Went on the internet, got sucked into these online forums, and there's so much fear mongering on those.

And everyone was talking about how their life is over, blah, blah, blah, that they have never felt normal again. And I was so terrified and I already didn't feel well, and I was already in an anxious state because of that, because I couldn't really figure out why I was feeling so poorly. And so then reading all of that when I was already in a vulnerable anxious state, sent me into a spiral.

I full on spiral.

So here's what not to do. My recommendation of what not to do, number one, is to spiral, is to go on the internet and spend too much time reading about other people's experiences, honestly. Other people's experiences just don't matter, in my opinion. If you're looking for someone to validate that it's uncomfortable or you're struggling with something, I completely understand that.

But I would be [00:05:00] cautious of taking on other people's pain and other people's stories because it's so easy, especially when you're in a vulnerable state, to take that on and make it your own. And say, okay, this is gonna be my story. This is how things are going to go for me. And as I'll share with you in a moment, that is not how it has to be.

Now, the second thing is everyone said you have to cut out gluten. And so I cut out gluten. I experimented with cutting out dairy. I do know I'm lactose intolerant, but that's something that I've developed or built up my tolerance to over time. Barring extremes, so that was something that I was already familiar with, kind of tinkering around with.

But this idea that it has to be gluten, when when I was digging into it, there wasn't research to support this. It was just a lot of, well, it causes inflammation, right? You hear these terms on the internet that all these foods cause inflammation, dairy, gluten, wheat, blah, blah, blah, and in certain individuals, yes, that is true.

But does that apply to every single person who has an autoimmune condition or who has a health issue? I didn't think so. And because I couldn't find anything [00:06:00] that said conclusively, yes, this is the way it is. I asked my doctor, he said the same thing. He himself has Hashimoto's, which was really helpful, and he said, we don't know. We just don't know when we've tested it thus far, based on the research we have, it is inconclusive and most people show that it doesn't impact their Hashimoto's numbers. So that opened up a window of, Hmm, okay, maybe this isn't the case, but what not to do is just jump to conclusions of all these things that everyone else is telling you without conclusive research to support it.

Saying, I need to follow all these rules that somebody else gave me. They may in fact need to be followed for you, but I really recommend keeping an open mind and staying away from the internet Don't Google about it. Don't try and find out other people's experiences unless it's going to give you a positive, uplifting experience about how someone took their power back.

Now after I spiraled and what this looked like was I just could not stop reading and learning about saying, oh my gosh, my, my life is gonna be over. My health is [00:07:00] never gonna work again. My brain is never gonna work again. I'm never gonna be able to do workouts again. I'm just gonna gain a hundred pounds and I'm gonna feel awful, and this is what my life is gonna be.

I'm gonna have anxiety for the rest of my life. I'm gonna end up depressed. Right. That sounds awful. And that is where my brain went to because I was. Brainwashed through these forums. Now, the turning point for me was I remember one day specifically, I felt so brain fogged and I have not been someone who has struggled with depression.

Fortunately, but I have struggled with anxiety in my life, and that day specifically, it felt like I was walking through mud and I was like, oh, is this what this feels like? And I could tell that it wasn't due to negative thoughts or beliefs, although I just did tell you I spiraled, but it wasn't coming from that place.

I could just intuitively tell. It felt like my whole body was just inflamed and nothing was firing properly, so it just felt waterlogged. And like I was swimming through mud. That's the best way I can describe it, where I couldn't really feel much. I was on the [00:08:00] verge of tears all day long. I could kind of pretend to smile, but I was holding on for dear life that day and it scared the living hell out of me.

And I carried on with my day. But I came home and I cried my eyes out to myself and I said, this will not be my story. This is not how I'm going to live my life. I decided at that moment. That I'm not going on the internet to look at this stuff, that usually I cuss a lot more, but I'm trying to stay so that my videos can be viewed here.

I said, I'm never looking at this stuff ever again, and I haven't to this day. I've never logged on the internet to Google about what to do with Hashimoto's or autoimmune diseases ever again. I said, this is up to me. I get to decide what happens from here on out. And my health did not turn around overnight by any means, but the next morning I woke up feeling better.

I felt empowered. I felt rooted in my body, and I said, even if I don't feel well, which I still didn't at the time, I'm gonna find positive things to focus on. I'm going to find joy in my day to day. I'm gonna spend time with people and not talk about this. I just stopped talking about it. I didn't wanna hear about anyone's [00:09:00] stories at that point.

I was still experimenting with removing the gluten from my diet just in case. But I focused on rest. I focused on just taking really good care of myself. And seeing where that would lead me, because I had this deep belief always that my body knew what to do if I just got out of the way. So that anchored me that, okay, my body knows how to heal itself.

Maybe I just need to give it the right environment in which to 

At this time, I was also starting to discover the nervous system and nervous system regulation. It was not nearly as prevalent as it is today in terms of the information that was available, but still that concept of the brain perceiving safety through the body was something that was new to me, and it made a lot of sense of, oh my gosh, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off nonstop pushing my body.

So it thinks that there's. Been an animal trying to to kill it, or a tribe trying to kill me the whole time without any rest and moments of we're safe. We are safe. Nothing is about to attack you, to kill you. Everything [00:10:00] is going to be fine. So learning this and framing my life through this lens was really helpful in getting to a point where, okay, I can chill out and everything is gonna be okay.

And eventually, and this was just within a couple months, I would eventually learn all these lessons again later, don't you worry. But within just a couple months, took time off CrossFit. I just focused on walking, doing really light weights. My levels went back down to the normal range within just a couple of months.

And this is after so much fear had been instilled in me that I was gonna be doomed forever. they say once you have it, you always have it. So we can say that I am in remission and I have been since that point, but I got my levels down to below 30 within just a couple months and have kept them there.

Now, later on down the road, I experimented with gluten. It was something I was still unsure about. I was open-minded to maybe that could be the case, and we just didn't have enough research to know. But I also was not going to just follow that blindly for the rest of my life either. So when I moved to New York City in 2021, I thought, you [00:11:00] know what?

This is the land of the most delicious food. What if that's not true? What the chronic stress was the culprit? The whole time I'm going to see, I'm gonna see what happens. So I started eating more gluten and quite a lot, pretty quickly, guess what happened? Nothing happened to my numbers. My numbers stayed the exact same, meaning normal levels.

So now today I eat gluten, I eat dairy. I do the things that everyone says you shouldn't do. You should never touch alcohol. I drink alcohol in moderation. I eat processed foods. I eat sugar. But what I focus on, and I truly believe to my core that this is the root for so many, not everyone, but for so many people, is nervous system regulation for chronic health issues, if there's chronic pain, chronic health issues.

I also discovered an app about chronic pain called curable. So if that's something you're struggling with, I would definitely check that out. It helps me understand, again, the brain body connection and how the nervous system is just trying to protect us. And things can get a little bit out of whack when it constantly perceives that there's danger.

So paying attention to nervous system regulation is still something that is tip top of mind for [00:12:00] me, and I can tell when my body is starting to get a little bit out of whack when my nervous system is not perceiving as much safety as it needs to to feel really well. For me, this typically is my digestion, so I get really bloated and then my sleep where I struggle to either fall asleep or stay asleep.

And this is something that I just really pay attention to and prioritize for my overall wellbeing. And in summary, what I do to manage my Hashimoto's is I just treat my mind and my body really well, and some people do that. I used to think I was doing that, but because I didn't fully understand how the nerve system worked, and I also didn't fully respect my body's need for arrest, I didn't understand that it needed.

More rest and play and joy and connection, feeling my emotions. All of these things are so important for my brain to register that I am safe, I'm connected. I'm in a tribe, nothing's about to attack me. And then the last piece was fully trusting that my body knew how to do her job. And this is where I think so much of both.

Alternative medicine, if you want to call it that alternative [00:13:00] medicine and western medicine can get it wrong, is just throwing pills and supplements and drugs and everything out of body, acting as if our bodies are stupid, that they haven't been brilliantly designed to self heal in so many ways. Not in every way, of course, but in so many ways that they want to find their version of homeostasis.

They want to heal, they want to feel well, they want to thrive. And my job. Was to get out of the M Fing way so that my body could find her version of peace. And when she's rested, when she has resources and feels like she's safe, then she can heal. And healing doesn't always feel good, by the way, sometimes whenever I get more brain fog and I feel a little bit low, I feel a little bit cloudy, or I feel like I can't recover as quickly from things.

That's my sign that, oh, my body's healing. This is inflammation. Inflammation is what happens when we're sick, when we're recovering from an injury. That is the body healing. So rather than viewing that as the lens of, oh, things are going worse and I need to control and restrict and do even more stuff on top of that, now that's my signal that take my hands off the wheel.

I know it's uncomfortable, but I'll get through [00:14:00] this hump and then the clarity will come, the energy will come back, the digestion will clear whatever it is. So I hope this gave you hope. If you were diagnosed with Hashimoto's, and maybe you're struggling and feeling afraid of it, you've spent too much time on the internet like I did, or you just feel like your body's not something you can trust.

I hope this has instilled some sense of purpose and hope in you that you can trust your body and that maybe all the things everyone is saying on the internet about what your future will look like is completely wrong.

If you found this video helpful, this podcast helpful. If you can give me a thumbs or five star review a rating, I would greatly appreciate it. And if you do need developing more trust with food and your body, I do have a great free training. Four Steps to Stop Obsessing About Food. You can find that in the notes below.

I will see you in the next video.