First, I would love to share with you why educating people about the thyroid and how to review their own thyroid labs became so important to me. You see, I went misdiagnosed for what I estimate to be at least eight years. I was told I had depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and various. other nonsense diagnoses. I was even told by a nurse practitioner that I had a large ADAM’S APPLE (for any of you who don’t know, an Adam’s apple is on men only!). I mean, this may be too personal, but this lady had done a pap smear on me. She KNEW that I am a WOMAN, and therefore I do not have an Adam’s Apple!

Despite all my complaints of severe fatigue and malaise for years and despite someone even noticing my thyroid was looking funky (hence, the Adam’s Apple comment), NOT ONE MEDICAL PROVIDER ever thought to check my thyroid function. This all took place during my early 20s before I had even considered a career in the medical field, so I was not informed enough to advocate for myself and request my thyroid be checked.

After several years of looking for answers, my thyroid problem was discovered accidentally. Then several years later, I was told it was Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. No one told me at the time that meant I had an autoimmune disease which meant my own immune system was attacking my thyroid. During this time, I was being treated for mental health problems instead of thyroid problems. I believe this happens more often than we like to think.

Several years later, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer resulting in having my thyroid removed. The nightmare symptoms started when I was a teenager, and by the time I was diagnosed with cancer, I was a new grad registered nurse (RN) in my early 30s. This means by the time I had symptoms of dis-ease and the time I was diagnosed with the disease of thyroid cancer, it took over 15 years.

When I asked the medical professionals what ELSE could be done to help my thyroid HEAL, I was told there was nothing else that could be done. I was given hormone replacement medication, had my thyroid cut out, given radiation, and now will need thyroid replacement hormone for the rest of my life.

• No one ever told me that Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was an autoimmune disease.
• No one told me that an autoimmune disease meant that my immune system was attacking my body.
• No one told me that if I have one autoimmune disease, then I will likely have others because once the immune system is misfiring, it can go after any tissue or organ system in the body.
• No one told me if I helped my immune system to work properly, then I could remove barriers that were preventing my body from healing.
• No one told me that while autoimmune disease is the body attacking the wrong cells, cancer is the body NOT attacking the cells it should be.
• No one told me that if I had an autoimmune disease, my body was much more likely to develop cancer because of my immune system misfiring.
• Even when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, no one told me that my autoimmune disease was a warning sign that cancer could develop in the future.
• No one told me that cancer or my autoimmune disease may have been a result of:
  • My environment (exposure to toxins like pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.)
  • Possible chronic infections (bacteria, fungus, mold, viruses, parasites) that my immune system was no longer recognizing and therefore allowing to run rampant in my body
  • My lifestyle

All of this spurred me forward in my education down the traditional medical path. I thought if I studied enough I would find answers. After four college degrees, I never found any answers in the traditional college education system. I do not blame the traditionally trained medical providers. I believe they were doing the best they could with the information they had.

In recent years, I have immersed myself in learning about how to remove the barriers preventing the body from being healthy. I started doing this due to my own health issues as well as health issues that my family members were suffering from. I believe I have uncovered so many answers that I wish I had when I was first diagnosed. I am now on a mission to help others uncover the hidden signs and signals that their “dis-ease” (or lack of ease, not feeling well) is telling them before it becomes a full fledged disease.

I have come to think of the thyroid as ONE of the canaries in the coal mine of the body.

For those of you not familiar with the saying, “The Canary in the Coal Mine,” coal miners used to take canaries into coal mines with them to work. The canary was more sensitive to carbon monoxide poisoning than the miners. So, when the canary started showing symptoms of being ill or if the canary died from carbon monoxide poisoning, the miners knew to get out of the mine to get fresh air because they would die next if they remained in the mine.

All of our bodies are the same overall in how they function, but we are also each different

• The genes we are born with are different
• The environments we live in are different from each other
• How we respond to our environment differs from each other making us more or less susceptible to toxins.
• Our lifestyles choices are different
• Our stresses are different
• How we respond to stress is different
• And so on.

All of these differences lead to how our bodies express our genes, known as epigenetics. We can turn on (upregulate) or turn off (downregulate) the expression of our genes that we were born with.

• If we turn on healthy gene expression and turn off unhealthy gene expression, then our bodies express themselves in a healthy way.
• If we turn on unhealthy gene expression and turn off healthy gene expression, then our body expresses symptoms of being ill at ease or even disease.

How we choose to live our lives and respond to our situations impacts our overall health as individuals in various ways.  What may be the canary in the coal mine for me (my thyroid) may not be exactly what is the canary in the coal mine for you. For you, it may be your gut, lungs, muscles, joints, skin, pancreas, or other issues that your body manifests as early warning signs of being “ill at ease.” However, often there are clues found in the thyroid labs that may not be found elsewhere.

Who is this thyroid video series for?

• Anyone with unexplained symptoms like:
  • Fatigue/exhaustion
  • Gut issues like constipation, diarrhea, bloating
  • Chronic pain for unknown reasons, body aches
  • Hair loss, dry/oily skin, acne, unexplained rashes
  • Anxiety, depression
  • Heart palpitations
  • More
• Anyone who has any kind of chronic infections:
  • Lyme disease
  • Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)
  • Mycoplasma
  • Herpes
  • Strep Pneumonia
  • Ehrlichia
  • Coxsackie
  • Others
• Anyone with a diagnosis of any thyroid issues like:
  • Hyper or hypothyroid
  • Autoimmune disease of the thyroid like
    • Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
    • Grave’s disease
• Anyone who has ANY autoimmune disease - you will learn how most thyroid issues are autoimmune in nature. If you have one autoimmune disease, you are much more likely to have other autoimmune diseases
• Anyone who has a family member or loved one with any of these issues
• Anyone who wants to optimize their health and catch issues early.

This is the first video of a multi-part series that will consist of simplified information to teach you without any overwhelm. By the time you finish the video series, you will know:

• Basic anatomy and physiology of the thyroid
• What labs are important and usually covered by insurance (no guarantee)
• Labs you may want to request that your doctor order
• What most traditionally trained medical providers understand of the labs
• What additional information can be inferred from the labs even if your doctor does not know that information.

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