HOW I QUIT MY THYROID MEDICATION

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Do you ever wonder how dependent you are on your thyroid medication?

I did.

It was unclear to me if I would ever be able to stop taking medicine.  It took 7 months of slowly dropping my medication, but now I can proudly say that I quit my thyroid medication!

I began to lower my medication about one month after going grain free to heal my leaky gut.  You can read more about how a leaky gut plays into Hashimoto’s in Part 6: The Leaky Gut Connection to Hashimoto’s. 

At the time, I was having symptoms that indicated that my medication was too high.   

My biggest signal was having heart palpitations.  This can be one of many symptoms of having too much thyroid hormone in your system and it is very uncomfortable.

I decided to try to drop my thyroid medication back and see if I had any problems- slowly of course because I knew it was not something that can be done quickly.  

In fact, I should have waited and discussed it with my doctor first because my body had been depending on these hormones daily.  

At the time, I was on full thyroid replacement with desiccated thyroid.  Please do not follow my example.  Do not start to drop back your medication without first making a plan with your doctor.

SLOWLY DROPPING BACK MY THYROID MEDICATION

By the time I went to see my functional medicine doctor for my next appointment, I was taking half of my normal amount of medication.  

She told me how dangerous it was to do this since my body had become dependent on my thyroid medication for such a long period of time.  She asked me to work with her to do this in the future so the blood tests would show true numbers.  

This meant that I needed to be on a consistent amount of thyroid medication for 4-5 weeks before my blood tests.  

I made sure I would be better for my next doctor appointment.  However, I was lucky that I hadn’t had any of my hypothyroid symptoms return so she told me I could continue at this dose.  Yea!

To say that I was an easy patient would not be true, but my doctor handled my ideas and changes well.  There were several times I dropped my medication before letting her know, but I tried to do it very slowly to allow my body to adjust each time.  

At one point,  I dropped my medication too low before my body was ready and all my symptoms of exhaustion and freezing cold came rushing back.  Unfortunately, I also began to gain back the weight I had lost previously- this felt awful after all of my hard work!

To be honest, I could deal with being cold until my body caught up, but I could not deal with the exhaustion while chasing two toddlers around all day.  

That was a good learning opportunity for me when it came to listening to my body.  It also helped me slow down the pace at which I was pushing my body to get off my medication.

At this point, I understood that my healing diet was slowly taking the place of my medication but I needed to allow my body more time to heal.  

 

FOOD IS MEDICINE

I have continued on this journey of eating grass-fed and organic meats, organic fruits and veggies, and pasture raised eggs while avoiding my food allergies.  You can read more about healing a leaky gut in Part 7: Healing My Leaky Gut Stopped Hashimoto’s.

I am still gluten free and avoiding processed food in order to allow my body to heal.  If you would like to know more about the gluten connection for Hashimoto’s you can read Part 5: A Gluten Free Diet Can Help Hashimoto’s. 

I have, however, added healthy grains back into my diet such as brown rice and quinoa.  When I can, I try to use sprouted grains in place of conventional grains because they are much easier on your digestive tract.  

Along the way, I was able to continue dropping back my medication while my antibodies continued to drop.  

As you know from my previous blog post, I recently read an amazing book called AUTOIMMUNE: THE CAUSE AND THE CURE by Annesse Brockely and Kristin Urdiales.  This book goes more in depth about what causes the autoimmune cycle and I was blown away.  

The first part of the book is very technical and breaks down each piece of the autoimmune progression with supporting studies.  

The second part of the book focuses on eating specific (fermented) foods that are healing for your gut and why.  Before reading this book, I never understood that sauerkraut was such a powerful food for digestion or why raw milk kefir was stronger than any probiotic you can take.

This book was a game changer for me.

HOW I QUIT MY THYROID MEDICATION

Nine months into this journey to heal my thyroid, I quit my thyroid medication completely.  This was HUGE!!

My motivation to begin to lower my medication came from something I read during my journey about how thyroid healing works.  Sadly, I am not sure where I read it at this point, but it has always stuck in my mind.

Your thyroid gland must be stimulated in order to heal.  If your thyroid gland is never stimulated by TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) because you alway have the correct amount of thyroid hormone (or medicine) in your blood, then your thyroid gland won’t need to heal.  

Knowing this helped me to realize that I needed to keep my thyroid medicine just a bit lower than “optimal” to keep my thyroid gland being stimulated by TSH from the pituitary gland.  

TSH is what tells your thyroid to make more or less thyroid hormone.  

Now, remission is here!  You are considered in remission when your TPO antibodies drop below 35 IU/mL.  I expect them to continue to drop and eventually am hoping to see them at less than 2 IU/mL.

Currently, at 12 months into my journey my TPO antibodies are at 34 IU/mL and still dropping.  If you would like to know more about my labs when I began this journey you can read Part 2: What Do You Mean My thyroid is Broken?.

The rest of my thyroid labs are completely normal.  My Free T3 was normal but a little in the low range, however, I am expecting it to normalize with time as my TPO antibodies also continue normalize.

I feel like my journey is getting close to the end and I have never been happier to know that our bodies were made to heal.  

My journey with my Hashimoto’s is proof that food is medicine.  Amazingly, I quit my thyroid medication.

I want the same for you.

My Thyroid Journey Series

Part 1: What is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?

Part 2: Understanding Thyroid Tests

Part 3: The Great Thyroid Medication Debate

Part 4:  My Struggle With Postpartum Hashimoto’s

Part 5:  A Gluten Free Diet Can Help Hashimoto’s

Part 6:  The Leaky Gut Connection to Hashimoto’s

Part 7: Healing My Leaky Gut Stopped Hashimoto’s

Part 8: How I Quit My Thyroid Medication