This week: how’s it for you? Thyroid autoimmunity, corn/gluten rage and my daily menu. Enjoy x
Hello – No 15 Newsletter already – is it working for you?
Thanks for all your lovely comments, emails and support on here and Facebook last week after my third (!) foot injury! It’s healing well. I’m trying to keep off it, although I still seem to be hobbling along the corridor from my office to the lounge and kitchen a zillion times a day.
Had such a lot of comments last week, which is lovely. Do read them if you get the chance – I often find some of the best gems of info and nuggets of wisdom are in comment threads, don’t you?
Many of you said you enjoyed the newsletter last week. I am hoping it is hitting the mark for you. This is issue no. 15. I would really like to know how you are getting on with it. Am I writing stuff that interests you? Is it coming into your inbox OK? At the right frequency – is weekly too much?
Do you like the longer once-weekly email or would you prefer I did individual posts; some of you have said it’s a bit difficult to find something you read a few weeks ago? There is a search button but I do know what you mean. I do worry how we would find things once there are loads more newsletters, which is why I did separate posts on the blog for years. One of our options is to go back to doing single posts as I think about them, here or on the blog, and sending you a monthly round up – would you prefer that? I write this for you, my lovelies, so tell me what works best for you.
Meantime, let’s get on with this week’s missive…
Thyroid Autoimmunity
Subscriber question this week: J asks whether she should worry if her thyroid autoimmune antibodies are a bit raised. Their doctor said nothing to worry about.
Hmm…
I see this all the time: people told they don’t have thyroid issues, even though their autoimmune antibodies are higher than they should be. It’s an early warning sign, folks! Thyroid autoimmunity – in fact, any autoimmunity – doesn’t just come out of nowhere; it builds up, often over decades. So, if you see changes happening, take action earlier; don’t just wait and see if it gets worse, would be my advice.
As a reminder: typical hypothyroid symptoms might include fatigue, weight gain, constipation, dry skin, no mojo.
Thyroid autoimmunity goes something like this:
Stage 1. Silent autoimmunity: No symptoms or tissue damage, TSH is OK probably, but Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and/or Thyroglobulin (Tg) antibodies are raised. In other words, an autoimmune process has begun. It might be several years before you see symptoms.
Stage 2. Autoimmune reactivity: Symptoms present, TSH is probably normal and TPO and/or Tg antibodies are raised. Process has been going on for a while so that symptoms are now occurring.
Stage 3. Autoimmune disease: Symptoms present, TSH raised, and TPO and/or Tg antibodies are raised. The autoimmune process is now causing tissue damage to the thyroid.
Which stage are you at? Get in at stage 1 or 2, preferably, to stop the process occurring. Read more on my Thyroid Factsheet here. And my Autoimmunity Factsheet here. You can read all about thyroid testing and order anything you need here.
Bonus Tip: did you know that hypothyroid can be behind pretty much any menstrual hormone condition? Doesn’t matter if it is PCOS, PMS, migraine or what, always check TSH levels and correct.
In fact, for a change, here’s a quote from me – from the forthcoming Hormone Plan:
Think: Thyroid First
In essence, menstrual problems are caused by something going wrong with the interaction between hormones, prostaglandins, neurotransmitters and blood/nutrient/fluid flow. It’s a complex system and the trick is to find where in this web things are going wrong; what is affecting what?
The first thing to note is that any and all hormone conditions can be caused by hypothyroid, specifically primary hypothyroid, low serum TSH. To a lesser extent, low levels of T3 and T4 will also cause problems. Basically, you will struggle to regulate any hormone condition until any thyroid problem is sorted. There is a huge complex web relating to this I could bore you with, but trust me: it’s the number one thing to check for a reason. Here’s a diagram just so you can see some of the ways the thyroid impacts hormones:
Source: Kharrazian Institute
Not everyone with low TSH will have resulting hormone problems, no-one knows why it does in some, but not in others, but it’s definitely one of the first things to rule out.
Corn/Gluten Rage – is it a thing?
On a corn allergy Facebook group this week, someone was asking about whether we thought corn could be causing their autistic child to experience ‘corn rage’. I share my answer here in case it helps someone else….
I have seen it in child patients before. I always remember a little boy who used to get so angry, he used to smash his head against the wall. Truly shocking. We tracked it to dairy.
Nowadays, we can test for so-called casomorphines (from dairy) and gluteomorphines (from gluten) and they affect mood drastically when those foods are consumed by those sensitive to them. One day, I’m sure we’ll discover corn morphines or some such. For now, all we have to know is that corn is a cross reactive food to gluten – the body sees it as structurally the same and can react the same, so if the gluteo morphines are present, and they eat corn, they could well have the same anger/mood issues. That’s my take on it anyway, in case it helps.
They then asked how you test for the morphines…
It’s called a Cyrex 3x test. You can read about it here – it’s a bit techy and the test is here. This is a general layman’s overview of the markers tested – I must make time to write one myself!
By the way, I set up a TrulyGluten Free section of the newsletter separately but I seem to be nattering about it somewhere in each newsletter, so I think I’ll carry on with incorporating gluten/NCGS/TGF stuff in this Purehealth newsletter – is that OK?
I truly hope you find my Purehealth newsletters useful. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe here, like and share on your socials; it really helps others get life-changing info they may need x
What do I eat?
I keep getting asked this. I’m not a very good person to ask really as I have so many foods I can’t eat! My diet is grain, dairy and lots of other things free and I am fighting diabetes and menopause, so I’m working my diet on several fronts!
But here’s a typical menu for me. This is a weekend one, actually, so I allow myself some spuds! I couldn’t eat them for so long, I can’t even bear to see sweet potatoes anymore as that’s all I could eat carb-wise for over a decade. They help fill me up and, surprisingly, they don’t skew my blood sugar as long as I eat them with plenty of protein and fat.
My general diet is fish, seafood, a little beef, some veg and fruit. I’m trying to extend the veg – it used to be root and I couldn’t tolerate above ground, but that’s not good for diabetes tendencies. I’m also trying to get eggs and pulses in but pretty reactive so far. I have a ton of stuff on my ‘trial’ shelf like lupin flour, black olive pate, lentil crackers etc to try.
My aim, overall, is to get as many different foods as I can into meals in a bid to improve my gut microbiome and therefore my short chain fatty acids and improve oral tolerance levels. If I could, I’d be eating lots of soups, stews, curries and casseroles more, but I can’t do stock or broth yet, or tomatoes and those always seem to the base of such meals! Plus, I am gradually finding my optimum carb level. I initially went too low for my body, so have gone back up a little and am coming down more slowly.
One lesson I have learned is that there is no one diabetes diet that suits everyone; everyone’s carb level is different and people respond to different carbs differently. Just to make it nice and complicated. Of course, if I could tolerate meds or berberine, chromium etc, that would help. But, currently I’m managing it through diet and big-muscle exercise after meals.
Breakfast
So, weekday brekkie is usually a high protein smoothie with lots of ground flaxseed, nuts and berries, or a bowl of coconut yogurt with berries and nuts. On a Sunday, though, I make Micki’s porridge for both of us. I don’t measure anything. Who has time for that on a Sunday morning?
I have a ready-made ‘porridge’ mix, which is mostly ground almonds mixed with fine desiccated coconut and ground golden flaxseed. I put 3 small spoons of that in the bowl and mix it to a paste with hot water. Then I use that as a base and add whatever I have to hand. I like to add a spoonful of Cocos coconut yoghurt for extra fat and protein, then add berries, fruit and nuts. So, in this version, we have a fig, half a golden kiwi, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, strawberries, quarter of a banana, all topped with walnuts, pecans, flaked almonds and coconut.
On P’s, he has a bit of agave syrup. Sometimes, I drizzle a tiny bit of honey, fig jam or apricot compote (or compost as it’s known in our house) on mine. I might even have this for lunch in the week if I am out of other food. It tastes heavenly and, thankfully, P loves it. I aim to get at least 12 different things in it and to make it high protein with some fat and lower carb.
I have a bean to cup black coffee after breakfast.
Lunch
Is usually a salad. I make a base to last me several days and then add protein to it.
The base is usually green – rocket, watercress, spinach, lettuce and I add ‘bits’ to it like radish, cucumber, broccoli, carrot strips etc. When I serve it up, I might add a couple of berries for colour, some pomegranate seeds, avocado, pine nuts or walnuts, beetroot and whatever extra protein I have – that might be beef, salmon bits, smoked salmon, a few prawns, crab etc.
I dress it in simple good quality extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon or lime and some salt and pepper. It’s delicious. The very fact that I can now have lemon makes a huge difference to the taste.
By 4pm, though, I’m hungry again. Sometimes, I save some of my breakfast or some of this salad and have a second helping then. If not, I eat some nuts or a spoonful of nut butter and try to keep going until tea. This is my worst time of day; my blood sugar and adrenals drop, always have done. I find the nut butter helps – mainly I assume because it has salt in it.
Drinks through the day: several cups of hot water with maybe peppermint or rosemary from my garden or usually plain. I might have another coffee if my head is tight – it helps.
Tea/Dinner
Is most often fish and veg in some form or another. I usually get fresh fish and freeze it or use Waitrose frozen fish as standby – they are really good. Then, I make either roasted veg and greens eg. cabbage and broccoli, or a green stir-fry with eg. broccoli, fine beans, sugarsnap peas, spinach and kale etc. I often herbs from the garden and am trying various spices – cumin seems ok so far.
So this one was Sunday dinner – fresh mackerel from the local shop, potatoes baked in olive oil and rosemary, green herby, mushroomy stir fry and some roasted cherry tomatoes – which were a trial as I’m finding tomatoes and all nightshades (except spuds!) difficult. I regretted them. My usual weekday version has no spuds and half the plate is green.
I really must learn how to take better food photos, lol! But I hope that answers the question – that’s what I eat. I might eat a lot differently if I could have other foods, of course. I’m struggling with curries and spices like paprika, which is a shame because otherwise I’d eat spicy food all the time!
Let me know what you eat – what else could I have? What are your fave grain and dairy free meals? Share in case you inspire someone else!
And finally…am half way through reading The Secret Life of Bees again thanks to K recommending it. Loving it all over again. I also just read Meredith, Alone, which was about a woman suffering agoraphobia and how she overcomes it. It sounds tough, but it was a good, uplifting and amusing novel, actually. I think I liked it mostly because she had a cat!
TV-wise, I tried to watch Miss Austen on BBC, I usually like a period drama, but I got bored. I also watched the first episode of series 5 of the thriller You on Netflix. It seemed the same as all the other seasons. I got bored. There’s a theme developing here! Tell me some good things to watch, quick!
Flower-wise, I’ve still not got my finger out and chosen something for the door (as per last week), but P did come back from a trip out bearing a beautiful bunch of Sweet Williams, so my floral needs are currently met 🙂 I’m still dithering about bathroom rugs and chests of drawers. I need a large one – about 180cm wide – SO expensive. I’ll have to sort it soon, though, as we’ve nowhere to store our clothes in the bedroom and are flinging them everywhere!
Anyway, I’ll leave you this week with my Sweet Williams. Beautiful. And they last for ages. Happily, they seem so far to be the only flowers Winniecat doesn’t want to eat!
That’s it for this issue, folks!
I truly hope you find my Purehealth newsletters useful. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe here, like and share on your socials; it really helps others get life-changing info they may need x
If buying supplements mentioned in this article through Natural Dispensary, please use Micki Rose during registration when prompted. If using Amrita, use this code to register for access to advanced products, no need to do it again then: 4Y2AE7. Lab tests are here.
Feedback – I personally prefer lots of shorter posts. I am a slow reader and never seem to get time to read the whole post when it is long, whereas shorter ones I can just fit in easier.
Ha, I was just about to come onto FB group and ask for some feedback and here you are popping up! Yes, we were just ‘discussing’ that on the Substack comments. I do wonder if shorter would be better. But then I like doing the and finally bits too lol
Feedback – I personally prefer lots of shorter posts. I am a slow reader and never seem to get time to read the whole post when it is long, whereas shorter ones I can just fit in easier.
Ha, I was just about to come onto FB group and ask for some feedback and here you are popping up! Yes, we were just ‘discussing’ that on the Substack comments. I do wonder if shorter would be better. But then I like doing the and finally bits too lol
I can’t seem to find that on Substack. I’m still getting quite lost on there. I don’t use a mobile phone, so I just look on the computer.
That’s weird – I just checked and I can see comments via the PC only, not via the app. You don’t actually need to use the app, most don’t.