Archive for the ‘Thyroid, Hormones & Metabolism’ Category
Ode to Coffee… A Long Love Affair
OK- so my biggest weakness is really the coffee. To be perfectly honest, it is not the caffeine that is addiction for me. It is the aroma, the comforting flavor, the way it makes me feel all warm and satisfied inside. It makes me full and over the last 10 years I have come to crave it more than food. Yes, that’s right. Sick, I know. I am an addict- I absolutely LOVE good coffee.
My Ayurvedic dosha is Vata, and these types of people tend to be hyper-sensitive to coffee’s stimulation and run a high risk of adrenal exhaustion. As one Ayurvedic text puts it:
“…getting energy from coffee is exactly like getting money from a credit card. Coffee pulls on the reserve energy of the kidneys and adrenals, putting the body deeper into biological debt. The more exhausted the client becomes, the more desperately they turn to coffee as a stimulant.”
I know all the risks & downsides: acid forming, digestive irritant, adrenal stimulant, pesticide use, etc. So I drink organic and mostly decaf. I know, I should KNOW better, but it is just so satisfying. The funny thing is that as much as I love it, Ian can’t stand it. He has an innate disdain for bitter. He hates IPA. And, while he does enjoy the aroma of the beans, he won’t go near anything with even a hint of coffee flavor.
Before bed a few nights ago, I my nice espresso machine and burr grinder off the counter, cleaned them and stowed them on a shelf in the garage. In their place, I set up the juicer. I figured it was a good trade. A healthy one. I hope it lasts- I just know it will get harder and harder once the weather turns more.
My plan is to limit myself to a cup of decaf french press when I visit the organic coffee shop near my house… which is probably 3-4 days per week. This place is the BEST! It’s called Ladybug. The owners are beyond cool. They use unsweetened soy milk and even keep agave on the bar! I just work so well here. I find it is much easier to concentrate than at home. And, OK, I just had a cup of decaf.
Yikes….. hold on a second….
Talk about a digestive irritant. I am laughing to myself about the irony of the situation…. I just had to literally get up and RUN to the restroom… hmmm. Maybe I will be drinking even less than I planned. Feeling pretty queasy now.
To Detox…
Today is the first day of my “fall cleaning” detox. Yesterday on my run home from downtown, I decided that I needed to take some action and be proactive about changing how lousy I’ve been feeling. I don’t want to put the entire blame on the iron pills, because it might have been a little before that… but they are an easy scapegoat.
A few weeks ago I purchased a copy of the Raw Food Detox Diet and have been contemplating making some changes to my diet. I eat far too much imitation cheese, tortilla chips, cashews, dried fruit and energy bars. And not enough fresh produce. The ironic thing to me is that I am the OPPOSITE of constipated all the time… and I’m drawn to these foods that are dense, both literally and calorically. And yet, I have NEVER remotely had problems with elimination.
In fact, this last spring I went in for a colonic and the therapist told me that I was probably not a good candidate for colon hydrotherapy because of my “constitution”… saying that I have a tendency toward coldness and watery stools, etc. (sorry to be graphic) I do simply just HATE the idea of old putrid waste lining the walls of my intestines and allowing toxins to absorb back into my tissue. yuck!
Last weekend I purchased a new juicer, the one that the author of the book recommends for its ability to handle a large quantity of greens. I’ve been scared away from so many of the “green” drinks and powders since going gluten-free. You see, wheat grass or barley grass shouldn’t contain gluten, BUT it could. The “could” comes from the fact that once it is processed we have no way of knowing whether the grass sprouted first. If it did- then the juice could contain gluten. ugggh, it is another one of those huge gray areas for me.
So I decided, that I should juice my own green goodness from veggies- hence the new juicer.
I know what you’re thinking: “what about the fiber?” Well, I have three answers for this:
1) I could never handle tough greens like Kale, period.
2) Myself, and most people, would be hard pressed to eat the vast quantity of veggies it takes to make a couple glasses of juice
3) Since our bodies have a difficult time processing much of this hard plant matter, we are probably not absorbing all the vitamins and minerals that are locked inside.
So, I’m going to start juicing again regularly. I’m even going to try to stomach beet juice, it is such a good blood builder.
More on my progress later. Off to the lab to get some blood drawn.
Pill Popping… a sample daily intake
Morning:
Levoxyl- on empty stomach of course… sometimes I’ll set my alarm and go back to sleep.
Midday or later morning:
Vitamin D
Zinc
Omega 3
L-Tyrosine (Thyroid support)
Kelp (Thyroid support)
Before Bed at Night:
Iron
B-Complex
Vitamin C
Rhinocort Aqua Nasal Spray (for my allergies)
I don’t take a multi because I don’t like having everything in one pill. It is convenient though! I just want to make sure that I give myself a fighting chance at absorbing everything… especially since my intestines are in a rough shape.
Any to add?
Stoking the Fire…. Iron Scores
Today I got the results from the team blood test we had on Wednesday.
Drum roll please…..Ferritin is 16!*
Because low iron is so prevalent in distance runners, (why? see my post entitled Running Into the Ground) we screen our athletes twice a year with blood work from the health center. The woman who stuck me with the needle asked me what year I was when I got on the table. She was embarrassed when I told her my age and that I’m a coach. At least she complemented my veins.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait that long to get tested. At the end of June I began a pretty steep decline. I went from feeling somewhat decent on runs, to starting to get tired, to having an allergy induced asthma attack while running on Wildwood. That hasn’t happened to me in a few years- and it has only happened 4 or 5 times in my life. I do know from experience (and the allergist) that it is brought on by exposure to the allergen AND severe fatigue. Since the allergy tests revealed that I am basically allergic to Oregon, or at least all of its trees and grasses, I knew that fatigue was the main culprit.
The heat over the fourth of July in Ashland only made me feel worse, so I emailed my Endo in Houston to ask for some blood work. I was overdue in checking my thyroid’s status anyways. The only red flag from the results was, of course, my iron. Ferritin was 6. Again. Again! I thought the gluten-free diet was supposed to be helping, but apparently my intestines are still not in shape.
So it has been 5 or 6 weeks of stomachaches now. 5 or 6 weeks of reading gluten-free forums and message boards in search of some kind of help from the celiac community about how to overcome the chronic anemia. I have known about my iron issues since college. I was even sidelined my sophomore track season with chronic anemia. At least now the malabsorption problems have been somewhat explained. (i.e. in people with celiac, gluten destroys the microvilli which line the intestine to aid in capturing nutrients).
I’m trying to figure out how to go about getting a drip or even injections, but I am without insurance…. so who knows. I am just anxious to get rid of the stomach pain and GI problems again. I can only liken it to eating a steaming bowel of hot buckwheat**….EVERYDAY!!!
* The level of ferritin in your blood is a measure of your body’s iron stores. Ferritin is a protein containing iron stored in your bone marrow and liver. My highest recorded ferritin has been 18, the lowest was 5. Under 30 is a red flag. Ideally, much higher is better for performance.
**I actually did this by accident 3 weeks into my gf life- thought it was the cream o’rice cereal. Paid for dearly for it for three days afterwards.
Summer’s End & Thyroid
On the bright side, the rain does make it much more pleasant to bake. It is hard to believe that we’ve had such a dreary August. It is usually the only consistently nice month in the Northwest. Classes start on Monday and most of the team is back already. They had their camp over the weekend and we have our first practice on Friday. And just like that *** my weekends are booked until Christmas break.
Yesterday we went out to Sauvie Island to run the loop, to celebrate the end of our Sunday running freedom. It was beautiful, but it actually sprinkled on us for a little while. To be honest, I love the sun- but I don’t live in Oregon to put up with 90 or 100 degree weather like we had last summer. Ian often laughs and says that I “have the narrowest temperature range he’s ever seen.” It’s true. I HATE being hot- I absolutely wilt- and I get cold easily.
My tolerance, however, has been so much better since starting the thyroid medication. The difference was dramatic and the first thing I noticed. I used to get COLD. REALLY COLD. It would seep in and settle deep inside and I would feel like I was going to die. I know that sounds terribly over dramatic, but I did actually feel like I would die. The only way to warm up was to submerge myself in a boiling hot bath.
I’m not saying that the thyroid meds turned me into a Polar Bear. I’m still not like one of those middle aged men who wear t-shirts when it’s 40 degrees and refuses to don close-toed shoes. The pills just took the edge off. I still get cold (more easily than most), but I don’t feel like it will kill me. 
Actually, I’ve been lucky with the thyroid medication- I haven’t had to tinker with the dosage at all since starting it last November. I know that is pretty rare and my good friend has had a much harder time. I’m still holding out hope that the Celiac caused the elevated thyroid antibodies and if I remain gluten free for long enough, maybe my thyroid will self correct. I know it is a long shot and I’m not into the idea of going off the thyroid medication in the mean time, so I’m not sure if it would know to correct if I’m medicating it? Maybe that is faulty logic?
There seems to be a growing number of people who think that athletes may, in part, cause the thyroid disorder from overtraining and undereating. It is an interesting theory.
I’m also holding out hope that my long time battles with anemia will go away with my gluten free lifestyle. So far, it’s a no go…. but iron is another story altogether…
For the Health of it…
So how does a compulsive baker with a running addiction and a holy reverence for the perfect banana bread find herself giving up gluten? For the health of it, of course.
I always feel like this is a little AAish, but here goes… I’ve been gluten free for a little over 6 months now. [insert smiles and nods of congratulations here]. To say that it has been a rough half year would be lying. In actuality, I only really miss my oatmeal addiction*, soy sauce at sushi restaurants, and not being able to eat the bread basket at restaurants when they have a wonderfully fragrant olive oil. For the most part, though, I’ve been OK with it. If someone tried to take tortilla chips or cashews away from me, however, there would be a fight to the death.
The funny thing is that I had tried to give up wheat a couple of times in the past on the suggestion of docs, naturopaths, accupuncturists, and a chiropractor- but I never stuck to it more than two weeks because I didn’t see any results. The difference was wheat vs gluten though… I still ate spelt and bulgur and oats and am not sure if I read labels carefully enough. Needless to say, it did nothing for me back then.
The tipping point for me was my digestion. It has always been terrible- maybe my whole life. And, of course, they say it is Irritable Bowel. Let’s just say I tend heavily toward the D side of things.
I come a family of chronic stomach aches. My mother’s was so bad that when she was a teenager, they opened her up (like a c-section) and took out some “needless” stuff like an appendix and a spleen and maybe even her pancreas. Nothing solved her aching though, until at the age of 28, she had me. Since then she still has a sensitive stomach and eats very carefully, but the pain isn’t what it used to be. A pretty good case for pregnancy in my book!
So…. at one particularly terrible point last spring the pain was becoming unbearable. Not only was my stomach distended and painful, the eczema on my hands had returned with a vengeance and was keeping me up at night with the burning. So… I decided to sign up for a cleanse through a naturopath in town. (More on cleansing later). This time I really did give up GLUTEN for two weeks and I noticed a difference immediately, both in my stomach and my skin.
The most striking and obvious affect was that by the end of the two weeks, the eczema that was covering my hands had completely disappeared. Instead of the bright red scaly skin with sores, I had my hands back! The skin was actually soft and normal- it seemed like a miracle.
And so it began…..
