I love discussing effective treatments for Hashimoto’s disease. From my standpoint, I don’t actually treat Hashimoto’s. Instead, I look at the underlying causes. So, when I’m trying to determine those causes, because Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease, I start by looking at how the immune system is working, and why it is attacking the body.
So, the most effective treatment that I find is, number one, evaluating and restoring the gut health. Behind the autoimmunity is typically compromised mucosal lining or leaky gut. So, we work on improving the leaky gut. In order to do that, we have to straighten out the diet. Typically, almost 100% of the time, or 110% of the time just for fun, we will recommend that anybody with autoimmunity, especially Hashimoto’s, remove gluten from their diet. The patient should also be evaluated for what we call cross-reactive foods, because from an immune system standpoint, those are key areas that can continue to be triggering that process.
Along with that, we have to look at the stress response. Very commonly in autoimmune type situations, including Hashimoto’s, there will be a triggering event, in my experience, that puts the immune system into overdrive. Some kind of stress or stressor that says, “Hey, that was the final straw. We’re going to kick in, and start attacking.” So, we have to manage the stress response. Managing that stress response can be everything from looking at stressors in your life, we’ll call them negative attitudes or approaches towards people, things, or events in your life, learning proper breathing techniques, taking time for yourself, and getting appropriately evaluated and treated if there is a really, truly abnormal stress response.
The next step in looking at Hashimoto’s and autoimmune disease, after getting the diet and after getting the stress response evaluated, is looking at modulating the immune system. There can be key things in that process. Sometimes we may use vitamin A, we may use vitamin D. Those are very simple, but are key immune modulators.
We also go a little further in looking at the immune system. We look to see if there are other factors that are causing the immune system to trigger. That could be looking for chronic and/or hidden parasitic infections, fungal infections, or bacterial infections that can overcharge or get the immune system overactive in its activity, creating an imbalance in that immune response.
So, those are some of the most effective treatments that I use in terms of looking at the cause and addressing underlying conditions associated with Hashimoto’s. For some people, there is coordinated care, medically speaking, which involves getting thyroid hormones while going through this process just for the sake of getting some additional relief while we are straightening out that autoimmune condition and the underlying factors.
Dr. Greg Olsen at Olsen Chiropractic, APC can be reached at (949) 859-5192 and is located at 22691 Lambert St. #503, Lake Forest, CA 92630.
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