Every now and then I read a book that completely changes my perspective on myself and the world. I just finished reading one of them: The Power of Your Thyroid and Adrenals: How They Shape Your Health Throughout Life and How to Heal Them by Dr. Elizabeth Bright.
It is highly technical and gets into the long, wild, and wooly history of thyroid and adrenal diseases. It also paints a very compelling narrative of how iodine deficiency and hormonal dysfunction affects every person on earth and contributes to every tissue, bodily function, and every one of humanity's diseases.
Type 2 Diabetes usually gets the spotlight, but the thyroid and adrenals really are the culprits underneath it and are increasing at similar rates (and likely even more underdiagnosed). That's why levothyroxine (synthetic thyroid hormone) is in the top 3 most prescribed drugs every single year.
I have suffered from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and adrenal issues since my teens. I have never truly understood them until now. In fact, it likely explains of my health problems I've had throughout my life.
A 10 Year Old Mystery Solved
From 2013-2015 I was having seizures, swelling in my legs, loss of consciousness, inability to think, motor dysfunction, and all sorts of other mental and physical health problems. On all three emergency room visits, I would have all sorts of scans and tests done. Every single doctor I saw would then just shrug their shoulders and refer me off to a neurologist... who would shrug, give me some drugs to try, and refer me off to someone else again. By the same time the next year I had cycled through 8 different drugs and was far more sick than I was before.
Yesterday I went back to look through my blood test results from those ER visits. Buried at the bottom of a ten page list of labs was a single thyroid marker that was severely out of range. I was already diagnosed hypothyroid and taking thyroid medication at that time. But, no one caught it, and no one was familiar with the signs.
Even my own endocrinologist of 6 years utterly failed. I just looked at their notes on my labs from 2016 and they said, "Positive TPO antibody is an indication of autoimmune thyroid condition. This puts you at risk for hypothyroidism in the future." Like, WTF? My dude, I was literally already diagnosed and taking thyroid medication already. But now I know, synthetic thyroid T4 only suppresses TSH to make the labs look normal, but for the majority of people it doesn't actually get converted into usable T3, T2, and T1 hormones needed to resolve the underlying hypothyroidism or antibodies. Nor does it treat iodine deficiency.
Food Failures
Last Sunday I began trying to eat just One Meal A Day (OMAD) with a new meal plan: Beef, Butter, Eggs, Cheese.
My blood sugars were absolutely fantastic, but something odd happened: I became VERY nauseous in the evening. It happened again the next day around the same time. At first I thought it had something to do with the fasting. I also learned that fasting is rather pointless on a carnivore diet anyways. Autophagy happens in ketosis already and fasting just introduced unnecessary stress on the adrenals.
So I stopped the fasting and split the meal up normally again. However the nausea didn't go away. In fact, it was showing up 7-8 hours after eating every time and lasted for about an hour.
I had battled nausea for years and years until I went on the Lion Elimination Diet of just beef, salt, and water. It was the first time I had ever truly gotten relief from my gut problems. So when I started waking up again for a routine 3am dry heave over the toilet, I knew the culprit was either the butter, eggs, or cheese. I have a history of nausea with all three of these, and it was happening like clockwork. So I cut them out and I'm back to just beef, salt, and water.
Immediately my stomach began to quiet down again. No more nausea. Sleeping through the night. It's amazing how slow-grade inflammation creeps up on you and you get used to a chronic state of feeling like crap as your new normal. But then once you get relief you suddenly realize just how bad it was, and you become less tolerant of letting yourself feel that crappy way again. I can't believe I spent the majority of my life suffering from who knows how many health issues because of the food I was sensitive to.
Anti-Antibodies
I really love at home blood testing. It's way easier to just prick my finger and mail it in than having to deal with scheduling a venipuncture. LetsGetChecked.com seems to have the best thyroid panels for the price. It's hard to find panels that include free t4 + free t3 and both kinds of antibodies, so this is really nice!
For my entire life I've been told that hypothyroidism is just something that gets worse over time. Every doctor and thyroid forum I visited people said that it is IMPOSSIBLE to reduce your antibodies. However, that seems to only be the case if you don't know how to actually treat it.
A few years ago my Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (how much my body is attacking my thyroid enzymes) was off the charts. It was so high they couldn't even measure it so they just put "HIGH - >1000 IU/ML"
Here's some of my most recent numbers:
- Sep 2024 - 511 IU/ML - I had been eating doing about 75% carnivore for a few months at that point
- Jan 2025 - 431 IU/ML - I started to transition to the lion diet right before this and began eliminating more foods that cause inflammation for me
- Jun 2025 - 396 IU/ML - I have been keeping to the lion diet about 90% of the time.
So... clearly the "impossible" is indeed possible. My goal is to get this as low as possible. There are many stories of people stopping the attack completely and bringing it down to 0, but it usually requires correcting iodine deficiency, adrenal health, and using proper desiccated thyroid instead of synthetic thyroid. I will be slowly incorporating these changes in the coming months. We'll see how far I get!
Song of the Week
I can't think of a better band to feature today than MAXIMUM THE HORMONE.
Yoshu Fukushu is one of my favorite songs. I love the explosive contrasts that happen throughout this song. It's a good representation of my frustration with the medical world but also the excitement, hope, and camaraderie found with those who are learning how we can heal ourselves and each other.
Thanks for reading :)
-Jason