There was one recently I had this big Aha! moment, "This is why I'm doing this."
It's a patient who I've known for probably 10 years. For the past, I would
say five years, she's been just tired low-energy you know a bit of low mood
but mostly has a happy life you know and some resistance in losing weight which
has affected her confidence and so I've done multiple blood tests and other
testing her thyroid's always been normally I've always felt to myself this
it's thyroid like she is picture, you know, perfect like hypothyroidism and nothing
ever came out positive on our test. This woman, I actually end up actually
checking antibodies so we can have some diseases where our body recognizes our
own self as abnormal which we call autoimmune disease and so our body
instead of forming antibodies against foreign things it forms against
ourselves and attacks ourselves so I decided to broaden the testing and test
her for TPO antibodies which is an indicator of Hashimoto's disease which
is an autoimmune disease and amazingly like the antibodies are supposed to be
negative, hers came back at like over 400 with a completely normal TSH and thyroid
hormone and it was that eureka moment for me where I was I actually was I
actually I think I even screamed out loud I was checking my labs and yeah I
was I think I actually cried too because I just was like there's a reason
right like not that you know we can always find a reason for why people feel
the way they do and it doesn't you know mean that someone doesn't have something
wrong with them if they if I can't find a conventional reason for it but at the
same time it gave me something to pull in on me to focus on I've got a protocol
for that right like you know I can we can alter her diet, we can start giving
her supplements, things that are like directed for that and we can reverse
this before it actually becomes a disease
and that's the beauty of this is that she doesn't yet have Hashimoto's disease
because it hasn't affected the other lab indices right and there's negative
repercussions of actually getting that disease in terms of risk of insulin
resistance and diabetes later on and and metabolic factors so we're catching her
before that even started happening so to be able to issue it in yeah it is reversible.
So where is she at now? How's she feeling?
Well first off when you told her?
Yes at first it's it's just
relief right like some kind of justification for like her continuing to
pursue like "what is wrong with me?" right. And then it was just yeah I just again, you
just see that hope in people's eyes and you know over the past few years we've
tried you know some interventional strategies in terms of weight and not
that ever I don't ever like to focus on weight I like to focus on wellness but
you know we had tried things and she was not really motivated, right, because she tried it all before
she tried everything. She joined Weight Watchers, she tried you know low carb, low
fat, like she tried every diet out there and nothing ever made a difference but
now we understand why right there's people out there who are doing
everything right they're exercising and eating well and and they're still not
seeing those results in their bodies they're expecting and so now we have a
reason for this something we can treat and she's so motivated now so we started
her on an elimination diet we started a few supplements I don't like doing too
many things at once we kind of take a step wise approach and I saw her again
like a month later and she's lost like eight pounds and she's feeling fantastic
you know she's talking about wanting to have kids and Hashimoto's can affect
fertility so it's good that we picked this up like it's just amazing and I
feel like if I hadn't have done this course if I hadn't have broadened my
perspective if I hadn't have advocated for my patients you know
like just you know there's got to be something more you know I would still be
stuck in the same I don't know how to help you so there's an antidepressant
you know shamefully because I don't know what else to do you know so it's it's
exciting for both of us you know to see those positive results.