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Tag: quinoa

About Quinoa; Mistakes made on T3-only; Thyroid Patients and West Nile Virus

“WHAT IS THAT??”

As a thyroid patient who went to hell and back thanks to 20 years of a lousy treatment by allopathic medicine, I care about my good health and what I eat. So I attempt to balance my eating sins. And when I was recently at a salad bar, I couldn’t figure out what a particular bowl of food was, sitting next to mixtures of fruit, pastas, etc.

It looked like “frog eye salad”, which is made up of teeny tiny b-b size pasta and sweet fruits. But this had tomatoes in it. And the small round things had a thin white line around them. Were they fish eggs??

Turns out its a high protein, higher fiber whole grain called Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), and is loaded with nutrients, including the minerals iron, zinc, and selenium, plus vitamin E and lysine, and all essential amino acids. I got a scoop and I was impressed.

And voila….if you need to be gluten-free, this grain gets the mark! I plan on buying some at my local health food store for an occasional hot breakfast cereal (as I suspect my husband would do better avoiding gluten thanks to frequent digestive issues), besides strongly recommend it to my husband’s niece, who badly needs to go gluten-free to lower her high inflammation levels.

Don’t feel the need to avoid gluten?? This still looks like a great grain and food to become familiar with, which I’m going to do! But a word of warning: it’s not low carb. So like any carb you intake, you’ll want to eat it in moderation.

KEY MISTAKES IF YOU ARE ON T3-ONLY, says a lot of patient experience

Though ten years of strong patient experiences show that natural desiccated thyroid gives the best results for thyroid disease, some thyroid patients have to be, or choose to be, on T3-only. It’s definitely a far better treatment than the lousy T4-only treatment with Synthroid and other brands.

And along the way, we’ve figured out some mistakes we may be making when using T3-only:

  1. Dosing rigidly every certain amount of hours  When patients were first learning about using T3-only (which requires more multi-dosing at first than does natural desiccated thyroid), we thought it was a good idea to dose rigidly about every 4-5 hours or so, thinking that T3 would peak about 4 hours after taking the first dose, then make a fall, and you’d then need to replenish your levels. We were wrong with that rigidity.It can be very individual when one needs a dose of T3. Some might need another dose of T3 in three hours after taking the first one due to a higher metabolism. So if they go longer, they put themselves in an increasing hypothyroid state. Another person might be a slow metabolizer and only need their next dose in 5 or 6 hours. So if you take it too soon, you put yourself in the direction of a hyper state.Turns out you need to be dosing  T3 when your body tells you it’s time you need it! How to know? Your signs and symptoms. Look for clues that you need your next dose, like a rising heartrate or blood pressure, depression, fatigue, or any hypothyroid symptom unique to you. Notate that on paper, then you’ll know to take your T3 right before that time the next day. It might take a few days of experimenting to figure out when your ideal dosing times are.
  2. Multi-dosing T3 too many times during the day As patients, we used to think that we need to dose T3 up to four to fives times a day in smaller doses. But with our new knowledge about T3, several patients have noted noted that moving dosing to 2-3 times a day, and thus in larger amounts each time, has resulted in better treatment of their hypothyroid state, especially with better cortisol levels.
  3. Thinking that different brands of T3 are equal  Unfortunately, some brands of T3 are weaker than others. And occasionally, some batches of a better brand may be bad due to heat exposure.  Generally, patients have reported Cytomel to be of a quality and consistent strength. Cynomel has been reported as equal in strength, but lately, patients have found some batches to be weak and are reporting this to the company. UK’s Liothyronine by Goldshield has been reported by patients as weaker in strength all the time.  All in all, Cytomel has received the most positive scores.

Using T3 all day while doing the T3 Circadian Method (T3CM) for your proven adrenal fatigue?? As your adrenals kick back in, you may notice that you 1) need to space your T3 farther apart, and 2) that you will need less T3.

WEST NILE VIRUS IS BACK LIKE A VENGEANCE: WHAT YOU AS A THYROID PATIENT SHOULD BE DOING!

Found out that a cousin of mine, who’s a father of two young children, found himself with West Nile Virus several days ago. I got West Nile about 5 years ago, as well. For many of us, it’s like the WORST flu you ever had, and you can take a few weeks to get over your post-illness weakness.

And since having a compromised immune system (as struggling hypothyroid/adrenal patients can have) makes one more vulnerable to the virus effects, I can see it being imperative to be on immune-supportive herbs right now, besides putting on some kind of mosquito repellant of your choice. I also read about Lomatium root, which is supposedly very anti-viral. I would talk to your local health food/supplement store for recommendations.

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New discovery about low magnesium & oxalates, plus a GOOD UK article, and when your spouse is hypo and wants out of the relationship!

(This page, originally written in 2011, has been updated to the present day and time. Enjoy!)

HAVE LOW MAGNESIUM LEVELS AND SYMPTOMS?

Do you have a hard time raising any of your mineral levels?

I have been working to raise my miserably low RBC (red blood cell) magnesium levels for a good year. And in spite of a strong commitment to my magnesium supplementation as well as oil, I continued to have typical low-magnesium symptoms–most especially lower leg cramping after hiking or heavy duty activity. Why was that?  I think I may have discovered one contributing factor, and this may or may not apply to you.  It’s called high OXALATE food consumption.

Oxalate is an “organic acidic salt compound” commonly found in foods of plant origin. It’s also produced in your body by the metabolism of glyoxylic acid or ascorbic acid (vitamin C).  And it is normally excreted out of your body via urine, and sometimes the bowels.

But it turns out if you consistently eat a LOT of food containing high levels of oxalates, on top of what your body naturally produces, your body might have excessive levels. This may be exactly what happened to me this year, also causing chronic hives (scratch~scratch~scratch). The latter pushed me to do research, and voila, I realized I had consumed far too many high-oxalate foods (which in turn produced excessive histamine). And my eyes popped out when I read this:

“oxalates strongly bind to minerals and vice versa (e.g., calcium, magnesium, zinc and potassium), and reduces the absorption of your minerals as they both come out via your urine.”

Of course, I am only proposing this may be why I’ve had a hard time bringing my magnesium levels up. Please do your own research.

What are foods which are the highest in oxalates?

In alphabetical order, they include:

almonds, amaranth, black beans, brazil nuts, beets, blackberries, buckwheat, carob chips, carrots, cashew nuts, cannellini beans, celery, chocolate, corn meal, dried apricots, cooked tomatoes, great northern beans, green peppers, hazelnuts, marshmallow root, milk thistle, navy beans, oil of oregano, okra, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pink beans, pinto beans, potato chips, potato flour, rice bran, rhubarb, sesame seeds and tahini, slippery elm bark, all soy, spinach, star fruit, sweet potatoes, teff (flour and whole grain), quinoa (whole grain), white bean flour, and yucca powder.

And what was I eating daily as I was working on the final updating of the revised STTM book this year? Cocoa-covered almonds! Almonds are considered a very-high-oxalate food, as is cocoa.  That was on top of the slivered almonds in my morning yogurt, as well as my consumption of pecans, spinach, and okra. I also drink iced tea daily, which can have higher levels of oxalates. And many times, I grabbed small amounts of frozen sugar-free carob chips every few hours. ~~blush~~

I am currently on a low oxalate diet (besides a great herbal blend four times a day to counter the itchiness and histamines).  And I am curious that by lowering oxalates, I just may finally be able to get my magnesium levels up and far faster.  We’ll see. To see a good blog post and list of oxalate foods (high and low), called Roo’s Clues, go here.

And for more to the oxalate story, including its connection to autism, leaky gut, depression, kidney stones, yeast overgrowth and arthritis, read this.  B6 is also crucial in lowering oxalates.

P.S. Here’s research that may underscore a relationship between oxalates and mineral loss.  The problem with research is that one study will say one thing and another will say the exact opposite! So you decide! If you know of more research on this topic, let me know and I’ll add it.

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UK thyroid patients are clapping at the latest article which appeared in the July 3rd “The Mail”, a UK based, Sunday only magazine. It’s titled  “For Twelve Years I was a victim of The Great Thyroid Scandal” by Matthew Barbour. You can read its entirety here.

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WHEN YOUR HYPOTHYROID SPOUSE OR LOVED ONE IS RUINING YOUR MARRIAGE or RELATIONSHIP:

Over the years, I’ve gotten several emails, and mostly from men, who are emotionally suffering.  But it’s not because they themselves are hypothyroid. It’s because their spouse/girlfriend is, and many of the latter seem to be in the throes of adrenal fatigue and low cortisol, as well.

The correspondents all seem to love their spouses dearly. But their spouses are defensive, over-reactive, paranoid, depressed and/or reclusive—all typical symptoms of having low cortisol. Depression is especially a problem even for those who just have undiagnosed or T4-only treated hypothyroidism.  And most all of those who email me are facing extremely unhappy relationships at the least, and pending divorces at the worst, even while still loving their spouses and wanting to stay married or connected.

 

 

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