In April I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune thyroid condition (hypothyroidism - my thyroid is under-producing). It feels good to have some context for the ways my quality of life has been diminished over the last ~year, including losing muscle, gaining weight, persistent fatigue, and a long list of other symptoms. It seems that we caught it relatively early as the standard markers for thyroid health were in the "good" target range, but we checked more deeply because my mother has Hashimoto's so it runs in the family.
I have a GP/PCP, but it was a naturopath who specialises in women's health and hormones who was able to determine and diagnose me. We're working together on first correcting some vitamin deficiencies which she tells me (and I know from personal research) is crucial before addressing my low thyroid hormone levels. I'm deficient in things like Vitamin D, B12, DHEA, and Iron, all of which are crucial for supporting the thyroid in healthy function. She has me taking a lot of supplements to build up my vitamin stores and then will have me re-test 6-8 weeks later (mid- or late-June).
Ideally, I'd like to support my thyroid and my body to help itself which I understand is possible when Hashimoto's is caught early enough. I'm taking some nutrition courses, listening to nutritional science podcasts, etc. all around autoimmunity and particularly thyroid function and I have every reason to believe that it's possible to avoid prescribed hormonal supplements.
I’m gradually adopting a strict diet (AIP/paleo-style with an initial elimination phase), targeted supplements, stress reduction, and sleep hygiene. I'm fairly active when I have the energy - I do circuit training 4-5 times per week which includes resistance training/weight lifting and some cardio. Hashimoto's is affecting my stamina and is causing me to lose muscle so my strength is not where it was/could be.
This market is for whether I can normalise my thyroid function and reduce antibodies through dietary and lifestyle changes and I'm giving myself until the first day of autumn (22 September) to determine if it will be possible.
If, at any point between now and market close, I am prescribed and begin taking synthetic thyroid supplementation (for any length of time), this market will resolve No.
Although I prefer not to rely on hormone replacements, I am not against taking them if it increases my quality of life - I often feel pretty unwell, I need to rest a lot, the things I enjoy are more challenging, I don't feel great in my skin, and my mood and general vitality are affected. If it's clear that I'm not meaningfully shifting the function of my thyroid or reversing the symptoms, I will take them (even temporarily).
More than anything, this market is to keep me focused and committed to adopting good practices to help myself heal - I really hope to resolve this Yes. If you have experience, wisdom, recommended sources of information, people I should talk or listen to, etc. please feel free to post in the comments or DM me. I may send Mana tips for supportive content or miracle cures (lol)
Update 2025-05-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has provided more specific details on the markers they are tracking, which are relevant to the resolution criteria of normalizing thyroid function and reducing antibodies:
The antibodies they aim to reduce are Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies, which they stated were out of range.
For thyroid function, their TSH level was 2.86 (a few months prior to the comment), and they consider T3/T4 to be more relevant markers.
Update 2025-05-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): For assessing thyroid function, the previously mentioned T3/T4 markers will specifically be Free T3 and Free T4. The TSH and Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPO antibody) tests also remain key markers for resolution.
1,000as an update: I'm not as fatigued lately, and I think hero dosing the vitamins I'm very depleted in is having an effect. for the last ~year I've been getting headaches or migraines most weeks and I'm not anymore! that alone is a relief.
that said, for unrelated (afaik) reasons I'm struggling to eat in general. for the last week or two, even a little food makes me feel overly full and I often forget to eat because I'm never hungry. this may be related, I'm not sure, but I don't think so. I'm going to send a message to the naturopath to see if she'll weigh in. that said, I'm limited on what and when I'm eating and it's not always in line with AIP. I'm in Berkeley for the next couple of weeks and while I haven't made it to the gym much due to feeling depleted, I'm going to join one here and get moving again which will hopefully impact my eating schedule?
I've not been strict on the diet, unfortunately, although I have been mindful of what I'm eating. I haven't quite made it to a strong elimination phase and I'm actually eating a lot less than I should be in general lately for other reasons. I haven't made it to the gym much lately (I'm out of my 4-5x/wk routine due to heavy fatigue) but my strength has been coming back so I've been walking a lot more like I used to and easing my way back in.
I've booked a follow up with my naturopath on the 24th of June, nearly 2 months since our last conversation and when I started really heavy dosing the recommended supplements. I'll need to do another round of blood work before I see her which includes:
DHEA-sulfate
Iron
Ferritin
B12
Vitamin D
TSH
Free T4
Free T3
TPO antibody
as I mentioned below, I met someone on twitter recently who has been on a lifelong journey to manage his hypothyroidism (after being diagnosed at 9yo). he shared this article from his blog about his experience with low-dose naltrexone which is intriguing.
What is the best evidence that vitamin supplementation improves thyroid health? Or just evidence on addressing early stage hashimotos through things other than levothyroxine/other similar medication?
Sincerely interested, I’ve come up pretty unconvinced when looking before (although the downsides are quite small)
@Sketchy oh, that's based on catching it at an early stage and the idea that replenishing depleted vitamin stores in things that help fuel thyroid function may still help it to pick up the slack so to speak. my naturopath said we'll look at hormonal supplementation once we see my thyroid/autoimmune markers once I've built back up the things I'm deficient in and see if it's helped come back to a good place (or at least to what degree it has improved). I'm not suggesting vitamins are a replacement for meds generally speaking. (thanks for asking)
@shankypanky Oh totally, I get the high level mechanistic argument, and not saying you think it replaces medication. Legitimately just interested in reading about the connection between vit d / b12/ etc and thyroid function, and what the best evidence is (empirical or otherwise) that we'd expect fixing deficiencies to "fuel" function.
My last tsh reading was 3.8 mIU/L and I have several close family members with hashimoto's so this isn't hypothetical lol.
@Sketchy oh got it! my TSH reading a few months back was 2.86. I test regularly since my mom has Hashimoto's but I test TSH more regularly than things like T3/T4 which are the more relevant markers. when she saw that it was in range but at a level that we should look at more deeply given family history, she had me check my Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies and I was out of range. I was very, very low on Vit D and B12 (lots of people struggle to absorb B vitamins through the gut regardless of diet) and my iron was low. because of my symptoms we also checked my other hormones which were fine. here's some stuff I know from poking around and hopefully it helps as a starting point or filling in some gaps here:
here's a PubMed about the Relationship between Iron Deficiency and Thyroid Function and I asked for a summary of findings:
A systematic review indicated that iron deficiency significantly increases the prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies, such as anti-thyroglobulin and anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies, suggesting a link between iron status and thyroid autoimmunity.
A meta-analysis focusing on pregnant women found that those with iron deficiency had higher serum TSH levels and lower free T4 levels, indicating a trend toward hypothyroidism.
(I'm not pregnant lol)
this is from an article about the reported commonality of people with hypothyroidism and low B12 levels (notably I've had B12 deficiency a number of times over the years including when I was vegan which shows up as a significant chronic fatigue leaving life barely navigable until I get my levels back up).
Some vitamins play a role in moderating thyroid function, including vitamins A, B, D, and E.2 In the case of B complex vitamins, B12 is indispensable to several biochemical processes and plays a central role in hematopoiesis.
the start of the article is about a correlation in observed levels but, B12 has an important role in metabolism and the thyroid hormones regulate metabolism so low B12 can worsen function. B12 also helps prevent anemia and a lot of its function seems somewhat indirect but worsens symptoms.
there seems to be some remaining ambiguity (I've only done some cursory searches atm to find material to send) about the intricacies of Vitamin D contribution to thyroid health but again it seems like low levels are often observed in people with thyroid autoimmunity - I think a lot of these vitamin deficiencies have to do with thyroid impact on absorption and metabolism? I know that one of my primary and most notable symptoms has been that I'm losing muscle but gaining weight and afaik it's because the thyroid is struggling to process protein as efficiently as it was? I can't imagine general fatigue helps much either, of course, as I do weights/resistance training at the gym but I'm often quite tired.
anyway here's an article without strong conclusive outcomes about Vitamin D if you're interested:
Vitamin D and thyroid disorders: a systematic review and Meta-analysis of observational studies
this is a bit of a haphazard collage of a comment isn't it lol sorry
I met a guy via twitter who was diagnosed with Hashimoto's when he was 9. he chimed in on a tweet about the thyroid and was sharing things relevant to his journey like diet, mental health, gut health, etc. he also wrote this blog about his experience with low-dose naltrexone and how it's helped him. he says it halved his antibodies in 6 months.
eta: here's the thread if you're interested in any of his comments along the way. he's an Austin-based rat (I forget where you are!)
what is AIP? is that just another term for paleo or is it different? and also what is the general basis for paleo with regard to thyroid issues? Less refined grains and therefore less 'empty' carbohydrates? or what? is it a targetted choice? or are you just not on any strict diet as of now and the idea is that any regimented diet will be better than the default state?
I think basic multivitamins for things you are low in should be useful, but i dont know much about what they can do for hashimoto's. good luck, wishing you well
@No_uh AIP is an autoimmune-focused diet that starts with a heavy elimination round (advised for 1-3 months but some people stay on it for a lot longer). it cuts out things that are common sources of inflammation in the body and gut, and as with all elimination diets you start to reintroduce foods to see how your body reacts to them. the people I've spoken to who were diagnosed with thyroid autoimmunity seem to, at the very least, eliminate gluten and dairy. in the modern world, ditching these things often means you're restricting a ton of processed foods too, of course, though I tend to cook my own meals most of the time from whole foods anyway. I struggle with discipline if the guardrails are too loose so I tend to have better success within a framework once I commit to that, so that was my motivation somewhat at looking at something more defined than just "hey don't eat some stuff." I have a friend with IBS and fibro and her time on the AIP helped her turn her health around dramatically after her diagnosis.
I'm not taking multivitamins but I'm hero-dosing the stuff I'm deficient in and I've recently noticed I'm not nearly as fatigued which seems like a good sign!
Eating healthy stands a good chance of making you feel somewhat better, but I don't think there's much of a credible path between diet and reducing antibodies.
Some non-food supplements can act as drugs, even if they're not FDA labelled as such. Not generally very potent ones, and not particularly well studied, but still drugs.
Maybe, maybe some of those can reduce your immune response, and thus reduce the pace of the disease. But there's very little chance that they would selectively target the auto-immune antibodies, without also wrecking havoc on other B cells. Specificity is important for a situation like yours, and supplements offer exactly the opposite.
Are there particular side effects of synthetic thyroid supplements that you're hoping to avoid? I'm no medical doctor, but in priciple they seem like a silver bullet: an extremely targeted replacement for exactly what's being lost.
@shankypanky I dont login everyday, Follow this development and talk to the research team at Penn https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2025/may/worlds-first-patient-treated-with-personalized-crispr-therapy
i am no expert in this. and i think diet, supplementation, and exercise will help a lot, possibly enough to go back to normal level for 1 year; but afaik hashimoto’s thyroiditis might make your thyroid deteriorate over the years.
i have compassion and hope you the best!
(but im buying "no", in expectation; hopefully you see this as mana you can gain if you work extra hard ahah)
@nikthink oh, right, I wasn't specific - I don't.think that successfully turning things around without hormonal intervention now will spare me from having replacement therapy forever. afaik (I'm still learning) it will likely become an issue later. but! if that's the case I'm hoping to delay that for as long as I can or at least use this time to support my body in fueling my thyroid naturally which is possible.
(incidentally, my mom didn't find out she had it until her body had effectively killed her thyroid so she's been reliant on meds since she was diagnosed)
and thank you! 🧡