What if I Don't Treat Hashimoto's?

A small number of people that have Hashimoto's disease or Hashimoto's thyroiditis actually know they have it, and an even smaller number of people with Hashimoto's are doing anything about it. In most of the medical community, the treatment for Hashimoto's disease is the same as all the other treatments for low thyroid. Patients are almost always given thyroid hormone replacement if their thyroid levels are low, but it's important to remember that this disease is an autoimmune disease. It's a disease that is not caused by the thyroid, it simply affects the thyroid. So what happens if you don't treat Hashimoto's disease at its cause? The video below talks about the possible long term effects of leaving this autoimmune disease untreated.

To understand the kind of damage an autoimmune condition can cause in your body, it's important to have a little better understanding of what is actually happening. Most experts today believe that autoimmune diseases usually begin in the digestive system. Eating the wrong foods combined with lots of stress can lead to a condition called leaky gut. Leaky gut syndrome allows things like gluten to move into the blood stream through the digestive system walls. When this happens your immune system treats it like a dangerous intruder. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to mark gluten for destruction, and some of these antibodies end up in the wrong place. The thyroid gland molecules are very similar in structure to gluten molecules. What experts think happens is those antibodies looking for gluten become attached to the thyroid and your immune system starts attacking those areas.

So what happens if this process is left unchecked? If a problem like leaky gut is not corrected, foods will continue to seep through your digestive system walls. Your immune system will begin forming antibodies to those foods as well. What we see overtime is that people with autoimmune problems begin to get worse and worse until they stop the problem at its source. If you don't treat Hashimoto's disease correctly, it is likely that your autoimmune problems will continue to increase. One autoimmune condition leads to another and pretty soon your health is lost.

The great news is that today we know enough to change this scenario. If you have Hashimoto's and your only treatment has been to take prescription thyroid hormones, there's more that you need to be doing. It's not that you're doing the wrong thing, but much more must be done.

The Orlando Thyroid Project

Hopefully, this article has given you enough information to understand the dangers of leaving Hashimoto's disease untreated. The doctors in the Orlando Thyroid Project at Integrative Health of Orlando are well versed in the dangers of Hashimoto's disease and understand the types of treatments and testing necessary to take control of this disease.

If you have questions about Hashimoto's disease, or know that you have it, call to attend one of our complimentary Orlando Thyroid Project classes today. You deserve the very best!