This is my first time posting so I'm not sure if I should post this here or to the Thyroid section. I have hypothyroidism- have since I was 19 and am almost 27 now. I went 3 years undiagnosed dealing with sudden weight gain of 30 lbs in just 3 months, fatigue, IBS etc etc. I finally was diagnosed in 2004 got on thyroid meds and the world got back to normal in just under a year. Last year however, I underwent a tremendous amount of stress and suddenly everything came back- the fatigue, IBS, brain fog, weight gain of 50 lbs in just 3 months, menstrual irregularities, hair loss, etc. I have tried every combo of thyroid meds (I can't tolerate synthetic t4 at all so I've always been on Armour but we added cytomel to see if I would improve and I did a little bit but my heart rate greatly increased and only 5 lb weight loss in a year). I was talking to someone I know the other day and she mentioned something about yeast overgrowth. Here sister-in-law is struggling with many of the things I am going through and one of the things they found was a yeast overgrowth... I have the white tongue thing and many of the symptoms so figured what the heck I'd give this a try to see if maybe it was the reason I wasn't absorbing my thryoid drugs anymore. Anyways, I started the diet yesterday (I have ALWAYS been obsessed about my diet before just not to this extent and was a runner other than when this stupid thyroid thing hits me so hard I can't do it anymore but still exercise to a lesser degree daily). I've been having some weird symptoms though since I started this diet. My heart is racing and skipping beats and I am so tired I can barely move my arms and hands enough to even write this or even be able to sit. I've read that some people will feel lousy initially during the diet but I wouldn't have expected anything this dramatic in just the first couple of days. I'm sorry for the long post just felt that in order for anyone to see where I'm coming from it might need a little background. If anyone has any advice for me I would really appreciate it. I'm not sure if maybe I just need to add a little bit of fruits or other good carbs besides the veggies back in for a little while and slowly go into this or if this is completely normal.
Thanks,
Chel

If you've been eating high carb and suddenly go low carb then that is a pretty big adjustment your body has to go through. Usually it takes about 2 weeks to adapt. You might want to try easing down instead of going cold turkey on the carbs if you think you can't tolerate the symptoms.

As far as your symptoms...

Many of those are symptoms people with food intolerances get and yes, they do overlap with thyroid. You might want to try eliminating all gluten and dairy from your diet and see if some of them go away.

Racing heart/skipping beats is a hyperthyroid symptom. It might be as you get your diet straightened out you won't need so much thyroid med.

Also, make sure you take your thyroid meds on an empty stomach without any other meds or supplements. A lot of things can interfere with absorbing the thyroid, like fiber and calcium.

Thanks for the feedback. I actually have always (since I was in high school) done a low carb diet just not to the extreme. It's because I've had issues with breads and grains so I've pretty much always had to watch those things. I've been allergic to milk since I was in pre-school back before anybody really knew what it was so have been careful with that my whole life. The one thing of dairy that I do eat is plain organic yogurt. When I was having my bouts if really bad IBS to where I was unable to go to the bathroom for 2 weeks several times and ended up in the ER we started the yogurt and it has helped with that tremendously so it would not be good for me to give it up. I've suffered with thyroid disease for 7 years so am very well educated on the subject as I have a very rare case that took many years of research to fully understand. I actually have symptoms of being hyper because of being on too much thyroid medication but my body won't absorb the meds so I stay hypo at the same time. I'm currently working my way down off the cytomel because of the breathing problems it has given me so hopefully some of those symptoms will get better. They haven't been too bad lately until I started this diet which is what I thought was strange. I make sure I take my meds at 6:00 am every morning and no vitamins or food until 9:00 and my calcium goes with dinner to not effect the absorption.
I think I will take your advice and hold off on going 100% for right now and slowly work my way into it. Thanks so much for your help

This is like deja vu. I won't bother with the details because my symptoms progressed in the same order as yours. So I'll start with result. I've been on a no-sugar NO-wheat diet for about 11 months. Within two days after starting the final no-wheat component, I started feeling such relief it was incredible.

How are your muscle cramps? ........those swolen bags around your eyes?

You can call it wheat disease. But most people with wheat disease are fond of disconnecting its link from sugar. Sugar, via candida, is integral to the cause.

It starts with an intestinal candida infection. It can be because of antibiotics, or simply because of time and ingested substances .....like fluoridated, chlorinated water, and salicylate dyes. Candida has a dormant "spore" state which allows it to live through chemicals which kill off competing beneficial gut microorganisms.

Here's where the model gets vague and circular. Damage to the "villi" structure of the small intestine lining is both the cause and the effect of sugar malabsorption. It results in sugar stagnating in the small intestine. Candida feeds on the sugar, and colonizes. The gut's immune system attacks the candida and attacks the villi it compromises.

http://www.food-info.net/uk/intol/hfi.htm
http://www.bcm.edu/gastro/DDC/grand...-04/09-DISC.HTM

Lactose is the sugar in cows milk. The mechanism for detecting and digesting lactose lies in the villi. It is damaged by the above immune response. Half of all adult American males and a smaller number of females of European ancestry are lactose intolerant. And since this is a snapshot statistic of an age-related disease, it means a large majority of Euro-types will become lactose intolerant at some time in their lives.

A similar process governs fructose digestion. 30% to 40% of adults of European ancestry have dietary fructose malabsorption .......from damage to the small intestine lining.

The gut starts releasing a cytokine called zonulin. Zonulin causes the intestinal lining to be permeable. It dumps the intestine's contents into the bloodstream. The trigger for the zonulin dump can be a protein on the surface of candida which is immune-identical to gliadin, the active protein in wheat.

Lancet study: http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/news/celiac.html

The "zonulin dump" moves the intestine's infestation to the blood's more competent immune system. The immune system recognizes this successful tactic, and commits it to memory .....so that, whenever it sees a gliadin-looking protein, it initiates a zonulin dump.

In some people that clears up the candida infestation. In some people it doesn't. But in either case, these people also initiate a zonulin dump when the host ingests wheat ......which for most of us is constant.

This opens a pipeline from the gut into the bloodstream. It delivers antigens .......fungus, bacteria, viruses, and undigested glycoproteins .....into the bloodstream. The antigens attack tissue and organs.

The zonulin dump also dumps zonulin into the blodstream. The same zonulin which made the intestine walls permeable make membrane and cell walls all over the body permeable. This opens tissue, and facilitates antigen attack. It also causes antibodies throughout the body to release their cytokines in a cytokine storm. The cytokines cause inflamation. They tax the immune system, and cause confusion over what is "self" tissue, and what is an invading antigen.

Watch the Alba Therapeutics videos. They will give you an idea about the process.

http://www.albatherapeutics.com/Default.aspx?tabid=168

To clear up the problem, people like us have to stop ingesting wheat and sugar. If that isn't sufficient, fruit is next on the list, then the remaining carbohydrates.

And also ..........Replace tap water with purified water, and supplement with vitamin B complex and C.

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