Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune [self + immune] disease that causes damage to the thyroid gland. Over time, this damage leads to low levels of thyroid hormones and hypothyroidism. This disease is the most common cause of hypothyroidism.

With Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, the thyroid gland becomes the “enemy” of the immune system. It has mistakenly identified the thyroid as something to be destroyed. The thyroid has become the victim of a poorly controlled immune system.

It is important to understand what is causing the problem; the cause is not the thyroid…it is the immune system. The focus of intervention must be placed on immunity.  So, what controls the immune system?

Your immune system is a very complex system of “push” and “pull.” It pushes out to identify and destroy threats to your body, but it also pulls back on itself, so as not to overreact and cause self-damage. When the “push” outweighs the “pull” we see autoimmunity develop.

The best functional medicine approach to Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, is to support the immune system so that proper regulation can be restored. This is very different than the traditional medicine approach. If you have been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, odds are, you were not given any information regarding immune system regulation or support.

Standard Medical Approach

The current standard of care is to ignore the cause (immune system) and simply prescribe thyroid hormones. The cause of this disease is given so little importance that many doctors (even endocrinologists) don’t even bother to diagnose Hashimoto’s as the cause of hypothyroidism. In my office, we regularly diagnose patients with Hashimoto’s that have been on prescription thyroid medication for years.

Why isn’t screening for Hashimoto’s the standard of care? The reason is that traditional medicine has absolutely no solutions or even recommendations for patients. Their “solution” is to prescribe thyroid hormones and ignore the underlying cause…poor immune system function…and hope things don’t get worse!

Functional Medicine Approach

The functional medicine approach to Hashimoto’s targets the immune system–the cause, and not the thyroid–the effect. Your immune system is a complex system that is influenced by other complex systems in your body. When dealing with autoimmunity, I see the immune system as needing two things, it needs a break and it needs support.

Give it a break!

How do you give you immune system a break? I see making dietary changes as an excellent way to give it a break. You must understand that most the entire immune system of your body lies in and around your digestive tract. Why do you suppose that is? Our diet can be one of greatest burdens our immune system must cope with. The sheer volume of strange and potentially dangerous substances and organisms entering our bodies through the digestive tract is enormous! A tremendous amount of your immune system’s attention and resources is focused on the new and mysterious things gaining access to body’s interior.

This is why immune-friendly diets are being used to help manage autoimmune conditions today. The diet factor of disease management is so important that failing to identify and address food-related problems will significantly reduce your odds of success. We offer food sensitivity and food allergy testing in our office as a tool to help us collect objective information about your particular food-immunity status. Appropriate testing and test interpretation can be incredibly useful when dietary modification is required.

Support your immune system!

Making changes to your diet can reduce the workload on your immune system, but it will often need more than just a lighter load. It will need to be supported so that it can regulate itself and stop attacking the tissues of your body. This can be much more complicated than dietary changes because there are several contributing factors. The good news is that doctors trained in functional medicine and experienced in the management of autoimmune disease can determine where additional support is needed.

Below are some areas to assess:

• Adrenal gland function

• Detoxification capacity and glutathione production

• Neurotransmitter levels and balance

• Cytokine regulation

• Immune-specific nutrient levels

• Inflammation levels

• Methylation capacity

• Intestinal health and gut flora balance

• Digestion efficiency including stomach acid and digestive enzymes

• Hormone levels and balance

As you can see, there are several factors that will play a significant role in immune system function and balance. Your immune system does not stand alone, just like the other systems of the body, they can help or harm one another. Balance is the key to health.

If you have an autoimmune disease like Hashimoto’s, then you can assume you have other systems out of balance too, not just the immune system. With functional medicine testing procedures, these imbalances can be identified and addressed.

Autoimmunity should never be ignored and permitted to persist without attempting to bring order back to the immune system. Once you have one autoimmune disease, your likelihood of develop additional autoimmune diseases increases significantly. There are many autoimmune diseases and Hashimoto’s can certainly have a significant impact on your quality of life. Doing all that you can to protect and support your health is of the utmost importance, Hashimoto’s is tough, but there are other autoimmune diseases that can completely incapacitate you or even kill you. This is not a light subject, it warrants your full attention and commitment to restore your health as much as you possibly can.

If you are ready, we are here to help.

If you would like more information about Hashimoto’s disease, autoimmunity, functional medicine or Dr. Sexton contact our Naperville office or go to www.napervilleintegratedwelness.com

Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations.

This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. Why is this? The FDA enforces its position that these words can only be used with drugs. This approach does not use drugs.