14 million Americans. That’s how many are suffering from Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid gland right now!
Less than 100 years ago, it was rare. Now it’s the most common autoimmune disease in developed countries.
What has happened over the last 100 years to have created this epidemic? Let’s find out.
And why are the standard treatments of supplying thyroid hormone not working? Let’s find that out as well.
First, you should know that technically Hashimoto’s isn’t a disease of the thyroid gland per se, but more a problem with a misguided immune system attacking the thyroid gland.
Here’s how it works: the immune system attacks the thyroid gland which can no longer make its hormones.
Just knowing that little bit of information, what do you think needs to be done? If you have good common sense, something would tell you that you need to fix the immune system so that it stops leveling its attacks on the thyroid gland.
Unfortunately, doctors pretty much just prescribe thyroid medicine and leave it at that. Then they proceed to watch the thyroid hormone levels in blood work, which, of course will be OK, because the person is taking the thyroid hormone.
What they fail to do is examine the immune system, by looking at the antibodies the thyroid is producing, to make sure the immune system stops attacking the thyroid gland.
All the thyroid hormone prescriptions do is to shut down the thyroid, as it is no longer called upon to make its hormones.
Do you see the problem in treating Hashimoto’s in this way?
The immune system normally has the intelligence to know what to attack. It attacks viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, but it’s not supposed to attack pollen, food or your own body (which is what an autoimmune disease is). But if anything disrupts the normal immune function, then all bets are off, and it can spiral out of control, attacking you, and in the case of Hashimoto’s, your thyroid gland.
OK, then let’s roll up our sleeves and see the correct way to tackle this problem.
We have to keep working our way back to get to the root of the problem.
So first we want to ask, what is the immune system? That would be good to know because we have to start our approach from here. Don’t forget, we want to fix the immune system so it stops attacking the thyroid gland.
So basically, there are 3 basic parts of the immune system that need attention: the friendly bacteria in the gut, the liver and the bone marrow. Let’s take a look at each one individually to see what has happened to it and how to fix it.
The friendly bacteria in the gut are one of the stabilizing forces of the immune system. They need to be growing properly in the intestines, otherwise if their numbers get depleted, the immune system can lose its intelligence and go into the attack mode.
Many pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, birth control pills, steroids, acid reflux medicines, immunizations and many other drugs can destroy this friendly bacteria. So that’s the first strike against the immune system.
Nowadays, the liver, which is the main filter of toxins, is overwhelmed with hundreds of toxins going through it every day, and just like alkaline rain which picks up air pollution on its way to earth, turning it into acid rain, the liver gets overheated from holding onto too many toxins from overuse of pharmaceuticals combined with a bad diet and exposure to environmental pollutants.
As it heats up from all the acid toxins that continually go through it, it starts to heat up, and it is this heat that can spill out of the liver into the whole physiology, pushing the immune system into the attack mode. This is why food allergies are so prevalent nowadays, when they were rare over 100 years ago before the high reliance on pharmaceuticals combined with the over-processing of fast foods.
And finally, the third part of the immune system is the bone marrow. This is where the immune system cells are born: the red blood cells, the white blood cells and platelets. The ancient doctors of India who cognized Ayurveda warned in their textbooks that if toxins were to get into the bone marrow, autoimmune diseases could result.
The problem nowadays is that so many pharmaceuticals, especially immunizations and many others, do arrive in the bone marrow. So does the air pollution: every day when you step outside and breathe in the air pollution, it goes straight into your bone marrow. The same is true for many of the new environmental toxins found in plastics, household and industrial cleaning agents and pesticides.
How do we know all these things? Because in Ayurveda the practitioners are trained in very advanced pulse diagnosis where you can feel the heat in the liver and the toxins in the bone marrow. You can even feel the difference between a chemical toxin and a heavy metal — and we can even track where those various types of toxins are sitting in the physiology.
So now you can see: the answer to treating Hashimoto’s correctly is to: regrow the friendly bacteria in the gut, clean and cool down the liver, and clean the bone marrow. At the same time you focus on these 3 parts of the immune system you have to support the thyroid gland with some herbs. And as with any disease, you always have to learn how to eat healthy, follow a good daily routine of going to bed and waking up early, and learn correct Ayurvedic detox.
BUT… you have to do all these things while at the same time keeping the liver cool or else your attempts will backfire on you, pushing you more into more and more autoimmune.
So what does that mean and how do we do it? It’s a little difficult to give our whole treatment protocols for treating Hashimoto’s since every one comes to it with a different angle that needs to be treated.
I wrote a book called Healing the Thyroid With Ayurveda which gets into much more detail, but I can outline for you here basically how it works.
First of all, when we learn the herbs in Ayurveda, the first thing we learn is are they cooling or heating. This information definitely comes in handy when treating an autoimmune disease like Hashimoto’s because you don’t want to unwittingly heat up the liver as you give your herbs.
In my practice we deliver the herbs in two ways: one is through giving homeopathic liquid versions of the herbs, dropped into alkaline spring water, which you would sip throughout the day. The homeopathic versions of the herbs just contain the intelligence contained within the fibers of the herbs, without having to deal with the side effects of some of the heating herbs.
For example, the two best herbs for the thyroid gland are shilajit and ashwagandha — both are extremely heating, so in this case we give the herbal nectar drops which don’t contain the crude herb. Keep ini mind, everything you swallow goes through the liver, and you don’t want to heat it up further. Since the nectar drops are vibrational, they immediately absorb into the cellular system and the gaps without having to be digested by the liver like crude herbs found in herbal tablets or teas.
The second way we give the herbs is transdermally, through the skin, which go directly into the bloodstream and bypass the liver.
We teach our patients a good alkaline diet, and we give them herbs to clean the bone marrow, such as guduchi satwa, which cleans both the liver and the bone marrow while keeping it cool. So this one herb is amazing for any autoimmune disease since it’s the only herb that has its effects on two whole parts of the immune system — the liver and the bone marrow. This is why it was my teacher, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra’s favorite herb, even though he had an encyclopedic knowledge of over 700 herbs. I will definitely make one whole video to describe why this is consider one of the most divine herbs discussed in the ancient Ayurvedic texts.
We give good probiotics, or if they cannot tolerate them we teach them how to regrow the friendly bacteria making yogurt, buttermilk, lassi (and variations of these if they are allergic to cow’s milk).
I have an hour long lecture on my website on the friendly bacteria so you can learn about the best company to use to regrow your friendly bacteria. Just google my name, go to my website and click on “Classes.” Then click on the class on the friendly bacteria. These lectures are free and you are invited to listen to the other 9 classes that I have made for our patients.
Then we instruct them on what NOT to do: don’t try to get your probiotic cultures by taking kombucha, kefir and fermented foods as these will all heat your liver. And the acids formed from the fermentation process can actually kill the friendly bacteria as they are very delicate and die off easily in the presence of acid.
Don’t take capsules of turmeric, garlic, flax oil or eat flax seeds, as these are all heating as well. And be very careful when you are cleaning the liver with herbs, as most of them will heat the liver in the process. The worst one to use is milk thistle, which tortures the liver as Vaidya Mishra used to say. Even many other Western and Ayurvedic herbs alike heat the liver, so you have to work with a practitioner who is aware of this fact and skilled in cleaning the liver while keeping it cool at the same time.
Don’t take loads of nutraceuticals such as B-Complex, Vitamin C and others, as these are the toxic versions of the real thing, and if you take too many, these too will definitely heat the liver as it tries to digest and detox these chemicals out of the blood.
I have to treat so many of our incoming new patients who have taken loads of nutraceuticals and have created a very toxic hot situation in their liver. They feel so much relief when we take them off everything and instead honor the liver in their new protocols we give them.
So to summarize, Hashimoto’s is not a disease of the thyroid gland, it is a problem instead with a misguided immune system.
Therefore, all treatment must be directed first and foremost to fixing the 3 parts of the immune system: the friendly bacteria in the gut, the liver and the bone marrow.
You also need to support your thyroid gland by pampering it: go to bed no later then 10 pm, eat as healthy as you can. Don’t skip animal protein since the thyroid hormone is made out of animal protein: if you are vegetarian then the animal products will come from good quality animal milk (see my youtube lecture on milk).
Learn how to do correct detox making sure you don’t heat up your liver.
And by all means avoid taking too many nutraceuticals and heating herbs, as well as garlic, flax seed, milk thistle and turmeric capsules.
And keep getting your thyroid antibodies tested to make sure the levels are coming back to normal letting you know that they immune system is settling down its attacks. Don’t just test for TSH and thyroid hormones, as they won’t give you the full picture.
I hope this helps all you guys who are suffering out there with Hashimoto’s. At least now you know there’s a better way to handle the situation.
Thank you.