May 2 2006: Buy your supplements with care

Hashimoto say: still waters don’t always run deep. Sometimes they’re stagnant.

Dear readers

Sorry I’ve not written for a few days but I’ve been inundated with work, which is great news for my bank manager.

Well, that’s a figure of speech really. Who of us knows our bank manager these days? You get put through to a call centre: Press 1 to be annoyed, press 2, to speak to an idiot who does not know the day of the week, press 3 to get one of our staff to commit identity fraud…know what I mean?

One of the great annoyances of my dietary and supplementation regime to cure myself of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis/underactive thyroid/thyroid disease/hypothyroidism is the price of the products.

Take Klamath Blue Green algae. My local health food shop sells The Really Healthy Company’s 60 veg capsules, 500mg each, for £16.90. I’m taking two a day so they last me a month.

I went to St Albans at the weekend, which is quite a journey for me and went into Holland & Barrett where they, too, were selling the same strength for £15.99 for 120 capsules.

A relative bargain.

However, when I got them home I discovered that the ingredients included soya which I am trying to eliminate from my diet as far as possible because soya is one of those ingredients that apparently can inhibit efficient thyroid function.

Of course, it does not necessarily mean you have to eliminate soya completely from your diet and I would not advocate anyone doing that. However, what I am doing to cure myself is experimental and therefore, I have to adhere to the parameters I have set myself.

I called the shop and they’re willing to refund me as I’ve not opened them.

Do check all the ingredients of your vitamins and dietary supplements. I’d advise you to knock anything with gelatine in on the head straight away. Any ingredient that comes from a dead animal cannot be advantageous to health, in my view.

To remind you, I am taking : Klamath Blue Green Wild Algae, 1 500mg capsule once a day; Pro-Biotic Acidophilus, 2 tablets daily, Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend, 1 capsule three times a day (150mg each) before meals (contains amylayse, protease, glucoamylase, malt distase, pectinase with phytase, lipase, cellulose, invertase, lactase, bromelain); Kyolic Garlic 600mg (one tablet daily); Coenzyme Q-10 (120mg, 1 a day), Vitamin E495mg and BioCare Bifidobactereum bifidum (1gm daily)

All are free from soy/soya

I am having weekly acupuncture to boost my immune system, I have created my own meditation technique where I visualise my thyroid as a butterfly and its wings start to move (signifying thyroxine production). I also visualise blue light entering my thyroid. The thyroid relates to the third charka, for those who believe in such things, which I do.

I am also having fortnightly spiritual healing.

Sunday was the 5th Sunday of dropping one 100mcg thyroxine tablet. When I reach week seven I will drop a second tablet on a Wednesday and at the end six weeks return to my specialist.

So far, so good.

I have now had more than a month of dropping my thyroxine intake by 100mcg a week and I feel fine. No symptoms that I can categorically attribute to my thyroid. Remember that most people with thyroid disease tend to attribute every ache and pain to their condition when the cause might be something else.

So, I’d say I’m winning.

If anyone else is trying anything to help themselves please post a comment.

Hashimoto