Hormones, Adrenals and Thyroid Health: My Journey

I know I’ve touched on the subject of thyroid, hormonal and adrenal health a couple times on Instagram, but thought it would probably be beneficial if all my experiences, remedies, thoughts and updates were collected in one cohesive and easy to reference blog post, so here we are.

My journey with all of this began just about 2 years ago, when after doing routine bloodwork with my primary care physician, I received a call from a nurse telling me that my thyroid prescription was ready for pick up at my local pharmacy. At this point I had no idea I even had a thyroid problem and the fact that this information was left on my voicemail, without any additional detail thoroughly had me peeved. I was so annoyed with my doctor that I resorted to google to figure out what my lab numbers meant and more importantly, what this prescription was that they so casually called in. Now, before we continue, let me give you a tiny piece of advice, NEVER GOOGLE MEDICAL THINGS!

My google rabbit hole lead me to read that this synthetic thyroid hormone was a lifelong medication commitment on my part, because once I start taking it my thyroid, which was apparently underperforming, would become dependent on it going forward. I also read all kinds of horrific testimonials where people gained a ton of weight, lost all of their hair, were super low energy, etc, so needless to say, I swiftly decided I was in fact not going to fall into this RX trap and will instead find a way to heal my hypothyroidism naturally.

A friend of mine had been seeing a naturopathic doctor and so I quickly made my appointment and eagerly awaited the given date. My first meeting with the doctor involved several Chinese medicine examinations, where she studied my ears, hands, tongue, etc and, in an almost fortune telling manner, asked me if I frequently had cold hands and feet, felt anxious, had a hard time sleeping, lacked energy in the afternoon, experienced diminished sex drive, etc, all of which I found myself answering ‘yes’ to. The first meeting concluded with her ordering lab work, which would get done the following week, after which we would meet again, review and get a game plan together. Everything sounded promising and I was excited to see how quickly we could get my thyroid back on track.

Once I stepped back into the doctor’s office a few weeks later and she turned and said to me “I have no idea how you’re so active and healthy seeming on the outside, when your inside shows the worst labs I’ve seen all year”…. Yikes! Looking back, this doctor sure wasn’t the best with her choice of words, but let’s put that aside for the time being, because she had a point, and the labs backed her up. Looking at my lab work, it became painfully obvious that my body was all sorts of out of whack and symptoms, which I never thought twice about, were in fact emergency signals that I skillfully ignored.

To start, my gut was not healthy, showing signs of leaky gut syndrome leading to nutrient deficiencies, inflammation in the gut and mild inflammation in the heart. As the doctor was reviewing this with me she asked me how my bowel moments were and I had to admit that they could use some improvement, but again, this was not something I was ever concerned about and an issue I always imagined many people dealing with. I learned that as strange as the connection may seem, excessive overtraining manifests in added stress on your digestive system, hence the reason my gut was so inflamed and I often experienced painful boating.

My adrenal picture further supported the fact that while I was doing life on the outside, my body was screaming for some help. Labs showed that my cortisol, the body’s gas pedal, was through the roof, while my DHEA, the body’s breaks, was practically nonexistent. As my doctor put it, my body was constantly in fight or flight mode, never getting a chance to truly relax, which the persistent anxious tingly feeling I had 24/7 confirmed. Turns out this was also the reason I could never take cold showers, jump in a cold pool or enjoy the Pacific Ocean. My cortisol was already so high, that extreme temperature changes would literally lead me to feel like I was having a full-blown panic attack, complete with racing heart and pure panic. As my doctor was showing me the labs and talking me through these symptoms, I finally realized that I wasn’t just a nervous person that hated cold water, I was the victim of onset adrenal fatigue. Before moving onto the next lab category, my doctor told me that if I continue to do life the way I had up until this point, full blown adrenal fatigue was in my near future, meaning my body would stop producing cortisol and leave me with zero energy to function…again, yikes!

As we reviewed the rest of the lab results, we discovered that I was hypoglycemic, meaning my glucose was low and I was basically ignoring my hunger cues, leaving my body hungry all too often. Furthermore, labs showed my sex hormones were in the dumps and thankfully, they also caught my hypothyroidism, which was the original thing that started this whole process.

Needless to say, after we reviewed all the lab results, I was totally defeated. Here I was, thinking I was living a healthy and active lifestyle when in reality, it seemed, I was one workout away from total self-destruction! How could that be?! Turns out, overtraining and under eating is a real deal breaker when it comes to long term health and considering I was doing 1.5-2 hour long cardio and hiit heavy workouts everyday and not fueling my body with enough nutritious meals, it’s no wonder things got a bit wonky.

Now don’t worry, as bleak as things seemed at this point in my journey, I was in the best hands with my naturopathic doctor and my road to recovery was about to kick off, but before we move on, let us summarize my main symptoms:

1. No sex drive

2. No period

3. Constant tingly anxious feeling all over my body

4. Cold hands and feet

5. Horrible sleep

6. Irregular bowel movements, bloating, digestive issues

7. Hard energy crash post workout

8. Terrible workout recovery (sore for days from simple workouts)

As I alluded to above, my doctor truly was a miracle worker and while I was freaking out about all the different ways I was apparently killing myself with fitness, she was able to calm my mind and give me a roadmap to recovery, which included the following drastic lifestyle changes:

1. 3 x 45 Minute workouts maximum per week, plus 2 leisurely walks (at this point we didn’t have Lexi yet, so walks were not part of my daily schedule)

2. Eliminate dairy, corn, gluten, rice, sesame, and oats as those are very similar molecularly to the thyroid hormone, which my body has built anti bodies to

3. Bone broth every morning to improve my gut health

4. Cod liver oil to increase omega 3 index and assist with gut healing

5. In bed by 10:30P nightly and get at least 8 hours of sleep

6. Meditation daily to help reduce stress and cortisol

7. Spend time in nature (preferably barefoot) and with family/community to help reduce stress and cortisol

8. Keep a jar of nuts on my nightstand and snack when I wake up at night to keep glucose levels regular and prevent me from getting too hungry

9. Increase carb and fat intake greatly, as well as calories overall to entice the body to relax and regain normal hormonal balance

10. Acupuncture 2x a week with naturopathic doctor visit

11. Magnesium before bed ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017CRZIK/?ref=exp_fitnessfrivolity_dp_vv_d is the one I take)

12. Herbal supplements daily (exact meds were specific to me and I am hesitant to share as they won’t pertain to you necessarily)

13. No caffeine

If you know me, it should not be a surprise that I took the above guidelines and adhered to them 120%. I basically took all the energy I previously put into fitness and channeled it into totally nailing these new rules, effectively managing to add even more stress to my system, since I was constantly reading all food labels for corn ingredients (news flash, it’s in literally everything) and worrying about being stressed…go figure! It definitely took a few rounds of meetings with my doctor and reiteration that I don’t have to be perfect for me to finally relax and sink into this new slower lifestyle.

(The photos above were taken right after my appointment during which we discussed the above lifestyle changes. I went on a trip to Canada with my parents and constantly stressed about what I could eat while spending as much time in nature as I could. Do you see why giving me 'rules' never works in my favor lol)

I clearly remember the morning I woke up without that constant tingly anxious feeling hitting me and I said to my husband, ‘wait, this is what you feel like all the time?’ It was such an eye-opening experience to realize that feelings and sensations I lived with for years were actually symptoms of underlying conditions and could be cured with some TLC. Even as my gut health improved, I couldn’t believe that what I thought was normal was so far from reality and bloating with debilitating stomach aches wasn’t just what everyone dealt with. Mind blown I tell you!

With repeated lab work, numerous acupuncture sessions, meetings with my doctor, tweaking of my diet and continued work on finding a new way to balance fitness, work and life, I was finally able to return almost all blood indicators to normal 1.5 years after that very first appointment! Although my thyroid levels never regulated on their own and I ended up taking the prescribed medication to remedy that condition, my life was completely changed by this process and after years of not having a regular cycle I was finally able to buy tampons again!

Ultimately my journey with adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalance and hypothyroidism truly taught me to listen to my body and become in tune with what it is telling me daily. I learned to appreciate the value of a walk through nature, sharing a laugh with family or grabbing lunch with a friend, even when these activities interfered with my workout plan and most importantly, I was forced to realize that more is not better when it comes to fitness. Just a couple months ago, I found myself doing more hiit training than I had in quite a while thanks to a challenge I signed up for, and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I upped my workout intensity some of those old symptoms started rearing their ugly heads again. This time though, I recognized them for the warning signals they were and was able to scale back my physical activity, rather than ignore them and push through like I had done in years past.

Although this recovery process took time and patience, both of which I am generally not a fan of, it was 1000% worth it. I feel better than I have in years and hope I can use my experience to help some of you avoid the struggles I went through. My best advice to you is to listen to your body and never ignore feelings or sensations that make you uncomfortable, because it’s likely that your insides are trying to tell you something and you better listen closely!

At present I still follow the lifestyle changes my doctor recommended fairly closely, although I added the foods we initially eliminated back in, stopped going to acupuncture quite as regularly and try as I might, can’t get to bed by 10:30P to save my life at the moment, but habits like starting my day with bone broth, opting for decaf coffee and taking magnesium nightly before bed are things that will likely stick with me for the rest of my days because they make me feel my very best.

Your road to recovery may look very different from mine, but the thing to remember is that regardless of approach, be patient, give your body grace and throw perfection out the window and you too will realize that a healthy body will get you further and make you smile more than any strenuous workout plan ever will.