Jeanine (Traverse City, Michigan) on 03/01/2009:

first i stopped all soy products. i had to be real careful with this because i quickly realized that to ingest even a little soy that may be hidden in bread etc gave me a violent reaction.i began to read labels very carefully. by the way our food is invaded by soy. after stopping soy my thyroglobulin ab antibody became normal in two months and is stiil normal 8 months later. i decided to stopped eating all foods that decrease thyroid production know as goitrogens , to go on a gluten free diet and i also stopped dairy products because of the caseins. every day i take selenium, and because i drank reverse osmosis water all my life and wanted to get more minerals i bought a water filter from aquasana that does not remove the minerals. i had questioned hauling and storing the reverse osmosis water in plastic containers that i was filling at the heath food store. pcbs can leach into the water and pcbs damage the thyroid gland. i got rid of all my plastic containers in my house and replaced then with healthy glass containers.i also made sure i got 150 mcg of iodine a day and if i took more than that i felt heper that day. i don't have heart racing but it made me nervous, so i am careful with the iodine. i know people in japan get about 12.5 mg iodine a day .... but think about this...... hashimoto's disease was discovered in japan and japanese people eat lots of goitrogens in their diet including soy which cause the thyroid not to absorb iodine so that is why they can get away with the amount of iodine they get from eating lots of seaweed.

in any case when i stopped all goitrogens and began iodine the pain in my neck area completely stopped within 24 hours and has not returned.i had also began to feel pain in my breast which also disappeared. i felt great on 150/mcg a day. during this transition since i made all these changes my test results are all normal except my tpo ab is still a little high but every two months it drops 20 points. it was 141 and now it is 120. i am sure it will continue to drop until it is normal. i am feeling sooo much better. my basal temperature is 98.2 every morning.

finally after 10 months of this whole progress and changes i found an alternative healer in my area. he was amazed by my progress and the decisions i had taken. he suggested i add a homeopathic remedy called thyroidinum 30x 2 pills 3 times a day. i am doing this and really feel i am almost 100% healed. when i think back to those times my heart was acting up so badly i know my metabolism was really in bad shape. i feel the major cause was the soy. it turns out i am allergic to soy, but even so 1/4 cup of soy milk will cause the thyroid in an non-allergic individual to work 50% less for 24 hours. i also think if you eat a goteiren type food on those days and maybe a few days afterwards it would be wise to increase iodine but than go back to a standard dosage. every night before i retire i take 1/2 teaspoon of magnesium citrate in a glass of water this heals me sleep like a baby. i hope my experience can help someone out there. if you want more information on any change i made in my diet just go on line and look..soy and thyroid ,gluten etc.... this is a great sight to read all about it as well.

god bless you all .....jeanine.