Egg white omelette with spring onion and cheddar cheese,
strawberries, avocado and a glass of veggie juice
After I finished my placement and had a sudden surge of free time to spend on the Internet, I decided to take a greater look into healthier eating. Since I started blogging (followed by a late sign up to Instagram...) I have occasionally browsed fitness and healthy eating blogs. One of my absolute favourites is Annie Jaffrey, who is also on YouTube, and I recently watched a video of hers (see below) where she talks about why she had chosen to transition into a 100% raw diet: diagnosis of a medical condition. In her video she says how she hopes to cure herself and reverse the condition she has, and something hit home with me. How could I change my own diet and potentially live healthier and more natural with my own condition?
Blogging about this has perhaps been one of the things that I have been debating with myself for the longest time ever. It is quite a personal issue which I have grown up with but I feel ready now to share it with the Internet. It is going to be pretty long and I thought about separating it into two posts, but I think it would make a lot more sense to just keep it together. Here goes...
Winding the clock back to 2006 when I was 14 years old, my mother had long been frustrated with how little our GP was doing to find out why my breathing at rest/during sleep was so shallow and quick. After a couple of visits and a different doctor later, we went to an otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat specialist) on the 18 May 2006, who did his regular check up as well as an ultrasound of my throat. He told us that I immediately had to go see an endocrinologist and booked an appointment for me himself.
With this new doctor, I was set up to get blood tests and another ultrasound after which I was finally diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (an over active thyroid gland). The excessive amount of thyroxine hormones being released meant that my metabolism was working at an incredible speed, but it also meant that I was experiencing irregular/elevated heart beat, sweating, shortness of breath among other things. It also explained why I was having nose bleeds almost every night: my body temperature was so warm that it was bursting the capillaries in my nose!
As well as being put on medication to reduce the activity of my thyroid, I was also told that I could no longer participate in sports. At the time I was over the moon because it meant I could sit out during gym class, but it wasn't until about a year ago I finally began to understand the seriousness of it. At rest, my heart rate was around or above 200. It meant that any strenuous exercise could have caused my heart to, well, fail. To stop.
I had a successful round of treatment and my medication was slowly adapted for me to come off of it. It was looking good and my thyroid was less swollen. But after a while my overactive thyroid began to flare up again. I went on another round of medication but towards the end of 2008 (aged 16) my doctor, my parents and I began discussing alternative treatments as the medication wasn't working as well as before.
On 29 January 2009 I had a Radioactive Iodine treatment. The cells in the thyroid gland are the main ones which absorb iodine and so taking in radioactive iodine treatment meant that it would destroy cells of the thyroid gland without the radioactivity affecting much of the rest of my body. It had solved the issue of my overactive gland but now that so much of the tissue had been destroyed, it meant that I would be unable to produce enough thyroxine (i.e. hypothyroidism) - I would be on thyroid hormone replacement medication for the rest of my life.
It has been over 5 years since that treatment and I am now 22. I have noticed various changes in my mood as well as my weight and various other factors. The main thing though, is how I differently I feel about my condition now. I felt somewhat "trapped" with having to take medication for the rest of my life and I wanted to see what choices I could make for the better of my body. Aside from stopping the contraceptive pill I haven't made any great changes, but something sparked in me after seeing Annie's video.
I wanted to see how making better and healthier choices would affect my thyroid condition. I have read a lot about how following a vegan diet can reverse hypothyroidism. Ideally, I would love to live without my thyroid medication but seeing as my thyroid was pretty much obliterated I think it would be difficult to come off of it entirely. I am hoping to reduce the dose of what I have to take.
There is also another side to having gone through this condition and subsequent treatment. As the condition does affect hormone levels, my mind and emotions were a little all over the place. It is a little more of a sensitive area of discussion, I would like to share it with you but a little later in time.
Congratulations if you have made it this far! I actually have a little more for you if you "click to see more photos" about some of the little lifestyle/dietary changes I have been making as well as Annie's video I referred to earlier and the French translation.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them the best I can but, if you are worried that anything I mentioned may concern you as well please have a chat with your doctor as I am certainly no expert and I only write from my own experience.
Blogging about this has perhaps been one of the things that I have been debating with myself for the longest time ever. It is quite a personal issue which I have grown up with but I feel ready now to share it with the Internet. It is going to be pretty long and I thought about separating it into two posts, but I think it would make a lot more sense to just keep it together. Here goes...
Winding the clock back to 2006 when I was 14 years old, my mother had long been frustrated with how little our GP was doing to find out why my breathing at rest/during sleep was so shallow and quick. After a couple of visits and a different doctor later, we went to an otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat specialist) on the 18 May 2006, who did his regular check up as well as an ultrasound of my throat. He told us that I immediately had to go see an endocrinologist and booked an appointment for me himself.
With this new doctor, I was set up to get blood tests and another ultrasound after which I was finally diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (an over active thyroid gland). The excessive amount of thyroxine hormones being released meant that my metabolism was working at an incredible speed, but it also meant that I was experiencing irregular/elevated heart beat, sweating, shortness of breath among other things. It also explained why I was having nose bleeds almost every night: my body temperature was so warm that it was bursting the capillaries in my nose!
As well as being put on medication to reduce the activity of my thyroid, I was also told that I could no longer participate in sports. At the time I was over the moon because it meant I could sit out during gym class, but it wasn't until about a year ago I finally began to understand the seriousness of it. At rest, my heart rate was around or above 200. It meant that any strenuous exercise could have caused my heart to, well, fail. To stop.
I had a successful round of treatment and my medication was slowly adapted for me to come off of it. It was looking good and my thyroid was less swollen. But after a while my overactive thyroid began to flare up again. I went on another round of medication but towards the end of 2008 (aged 16) my doctor, my parents and I began discussing alternative treatments as the medication wasn't working as well as before.
On 29 January 2009 I had a Radioactive Iodine treatment. The cells in the thyroid gland are the main ones which absorb iodine and so taking in radioactive iodine treatment meant that it would destroy cells of the thyroid gland without the radioactivity affecting much of the rest of my body. It had solved the issue of my overactive gland but now that so much of the tissue had been destroyed, it meant that I would be unable to produce enough thyroxine (i.e. hypothyroidism) - I would be on thyroid hormone replacement medication for the rest of my life.
It has been over 5 years since that treatment and I am now 22. I have noticed various changes in my mood as well as my weight and various other factors. The main thing though, is how I differently I feel about my condition now. I felt somewhat "trapped" with having to take medication for the rest of my life and I wanted to see what choices I could make for the better of my body. Aside from stopping the contraceptive pill I haven't made any great changes, but something sparked in me after seeing Annie's video.
I wanted to see how making better and healthier choices would affect my thyroid condition. I have read a lot about how following a vegan diet can reverse hypothyroidism. Ideally, I would love to live without my thyroid medication but seeing as my thyroid was pretty much obliterated I think it would be difficult to come off of it entirely. I am hoping to reduce the dose of what I have to take.
There is also another side to having gone through this condition and subsequent treatment. As the condition does affect hormone levels, my mind and emotions were a little all over the place. It is a little more of a sensitive area of discussion, I would like to share it with you but a little later in time.
Congratulations if you have made it this far! I actually have a little more for you if you "click to see more photos" about some of the little lifestyle/dietary changes I have been making as well as Annie's video I referred to earlier and the French translation.
If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them the best I can but, if you are worried that anything I mentioned may concern you as well please have a chat with your doctor as I am certainly no expert and I only write from my own experience.
