Dear Thyroid^TM

As a follow up post to this morning’s, Care to Host a Dear Thyroid Tweet-Up? I am proud to say that our community has rallied beautifully and I hope to see more meet up requests for coffee, a nosh, a cocktail or whatever you wish!

The goal is for us to feel supported online, and offline locally.

Once we have all the details, we’ll get it calendared on the official Dear Thyroid Calendar. Additionally, we’ll help you organize and schedule your meet ups.

We are so excited about this. Collectively, we’ve created a wonderful online community to cheer each other on, make each other laugh and catch each other when we fall. Let’s move this story offline, too. I know we can do it. I feel it in my bones, Thyrellas and Thyfellas. Are you feeling me?!

So far, here is the dish I have for you:

1. Boston — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
2. Central Mass — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
3. Raleigh — Two dames ready, willing and eager to meet up.
4. Orcas Islands– One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
5. Chicago- Three dames ready, willing and eager to meet up.
6. Minneapolis– One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
7. South Florida — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
8. Washington DC — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.
9. Darien, Il. — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up
10. New Jersey — One dame ready, willing and eager to meet up.

Whoever is interested in meeting up, please email me (katie@dearthyroid.com), and provide me with your email address and location. I’ll make sure you get connected with people in your area.

Here’s what we’re asking for because we want everyone to feel included, please take pictures and share your experience with us. We’ll post everything right here on Dear Thyroid. If you happen to be in your Dear Thyroid gear (t-shirt, sweatshirt, or tank top), that would be dandy, too.

Let’s make this happen and keep it going!

Love,

Us

Just for today, in honor of our new site launch and in the interest of continuing to reach out to each other in as many ways as possible, we wanted to post tweet-ups. Tomorrow, we will resume posting letters, of course. By the by, have you sent us a letter lately? Thought about writing one? Go for it! Email them to submissions@dearthyroid.com.

Here’s a question for you: what maybe, possibly, could ever match the amazing community and support we’ve got going on right here at Dear Thyroid? If your first answer would be “nothing”, then think again!  The only thing that could compete with the level of honesty and awesomeness is, actually, a Dear Thyroid Tweet-Up! Yes, a Tweet-Up.

For those of you not familiar with Tweet-Ups, they are, essentially, meet-ups.  You know, groups of Dear Thyroid users meeting up for coffee or dinner or drinks, or whatever other creative and chit-chatty social events we can dream up.  The point is for those of us who normally chat it up via our website to actually meet face-to-face and continue the Dear Thyroid lovefest.

This is open to anyone, no matter where you happen to live. What you’ll do is email us the specifics of the Tweet-Up you have in mind, and we’ll add it to the calendar on our site.  That way, fellow thyroidians from all walks of life and all locations on the planet can check out exactly when and where said Tweet-Up will take place.

But it gets even better!  Once you get all the details together and actually do meet-up with other Dear Thyroid users, we want to see your lovely, smiling faces.  That means, take pictures!  What would be even better is if you take pictures of your Tweet-Up in some Dear Thyroid gear — shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, etc. We want to see you proudly displaying your thyroid disease for all to see!

Let the Tweet-Ups begin!

Got an Q’s? Email us and let’s get this baby going.

Love,

Dear Thyroid

A few months ago, I shared with you all some of my favorite go-to books in the realm of health and nutrition and today I’d like to introduce you to a few more must-reads.  Personally, as a thyroid patient, being informed and educated is something I place as my top priority.  These are books that are not necessarily directly related to thyroid health, yet they offer solutions for all of us to be healthy, no matter what the specific illness.  These are the kind of books that have helped me grow my general health and food and wellness knowledge — all of which is so important for people like you and I — those with diagnosed chronic illness.

The Crazy Makers : How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children by Carol Simontacchi

This woman knows her shit.  A Registered Dietician and mother, Carol Simontacchi delves into the neuroscience of nutrition and explains how the food we eat either helps our brains to function or hurts them.  Our moods, personality and disposition, and cognitive function are all intertwined and inextricably linked with food.  Because depression and anxiety are often symptoms of thyroid disease, the solutions Simontacchi offers are reasonable and could potentially ease the mood disorders that are related to thyroid malfunction.  She starts by examining the human brain, in utero, to infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and finally in Autism.  She explains how our food industry sells us highly-advertised products that are addictive, nutrient-deficient, and concocted from a toxic mixture of chemicals.  Because nutrients — vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that occur in natural, from-the-ground food — have been removed from the pseudofoods we buy at the grocery store., and because the body and brain require such nutrients, our cognition and moods are suffering.

Simontacchi stresses the importance of fatty acids and essential fatty acids, protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, and an elimination of processed carbohydrates, sugars, and allergens.  She takes aim at dairy and explains why, although it does build big bodies, this does not necessarily mean it builds strong bodies or strong minds.  And actually, much of the food we eat, dairy included, can mute serotonin receptors, thereby causing us to be on edge and unable to be calmed (she says this is especially true for children).

While this may sound overwhelming — the idea that food can and does affect the brain, considering the fact that our food choices can never be perfect — the uplifting news is that there is so much we can do to protect our brains from the damage caused by industrial food.   We have much more control than we realize.  Real, nourishing food — including Omega 3s and vitamins, minerals, and enzymes — can and will fuel our minds.  That is really good news.

The Anti-Estrogenic Diet: How Estrogenic Foods and Chemicals Are Making You Fat and Sick by Ori Hofmekler

This is another must-read, especially for us thyroid peeps.  If you’re interested in learning more about the pitfalls of soy, this is the book for you.  Most of us in the thyroid community know that soy is considered a goitrogen and can decrease thyroid function and cause a goiter (and none of us want that).  But what you may not know is that soy is also considered an estrogenic food, meaning it contains isoflavones, naturally-occurring estrogen hormones that we absorb when we consume.

In addition to soy, the book also delves into the realm of xenoestrogens — chemicals we are constantly and unwittingly surrounded by that also mimic natural estrogen and cause hormonal imbalance.  As people who already have hormonal challenges (thyroid disease), this is important information.  Plastics are one source of xenoestrogens, and we are bombarded by plastic everyday.  The book’s author, Ori Hofmekler says these chemicals eventually hurt liver function, and also end up making us fat, sick, and tired.  From blood sugar problems to obesity, Syndrome X and endocrine disruption, our bodies are overdosing on these estrogen-like chemicals and causing and imbalance in the natural homeostasis of the body.

As thyroid patients, we know to avoid soy, but we have to remember that soy is in nearly every processed food item we can buy — not just tofu or soymilk.  Whether it be vegetable oil (soy), or soy lecithin (an emulsifier and thickening agent), we can be inadvertently eating too much of the stuff. Xenoestrogens are also found in pesticides, food preservatives, sunscreens, paints, dyes, lubricants, adhesives, and lotions (to name a few) that act as too much estrogen in our bodies.  The more of these we can get rid of, the better for our total health and wellbeing.  The Anti-Estrogenic Diet also offers recipes and practical tips for living.

Happy Reading!

Until Next Week,

Love Always,

Liz

Have a question, comment, story, love letter, or rant/rave to send me?: Liz@DearThyroid.com

Check out How To Kick Your Thyroid’s Ass Thylectable Reads.

If anyone has emailed Katie@dearthyroid.com, Liz@dearthyroid.com or submissions@dearthyroid.com in the past 2 hours (6AM/PST), we have NOT received your emails. Kindly email dearthyroid@gmail.com or katiegirl@gmail.com (that’s my pvt email).

Before we go into this week’s fabulous Thyrants, we wanted to take a minute and properly welcome everyone to the new site and explain why we migrated to DearThyroid.org.

First and foremost, Dear Thyroid is OUR home, it belongs to us. That being said, your feedback is extremely important to us. Whatever we’ve overlooked, please tell us. If you’re having an issue using the site, let us know. If you have any questions, ask. Anything you need/want, we want to do our best to achieve.

We migrated the site, so that we’d have more flexibility. Here’s a few examples: If you scroll your mouse over “Submissions“, you can click submissions. You’ll also see a drop down menu with all of the types of submissions Dear Thyroid accepts. Similarly, we wanted to create a Dear Thyroid Glossary, FAQ’s and offer more information about us and who we are.

Let’s face it, all of us make up a pretty unique bunch imagine that?!. We thought Dear Thyroid’s brand should reflect our distinctiveness– OUR COLLECTIVE distinctiveness.

We also wanted to offer more resources. As you’ll see, everything isn’t updated under “Resources” yet. But, if you scroll your mouse over resources or click through, you’ll see a drop down menu with the types of resources that we offer. Of course, and as always, we want to hear from you. If we’ve overlooked resources, send over what you feel we’ve left out.

Welcome home!

Now onto this week’s kick ass Thyrants — Excellent and I mean EXCELLENT ranting this week, loverdeedos.

Twitter:

@tobraavery You are sore today and making my throat hurt. This was suppose to be while I was in bed from RAI not back at work. Boo on you.

@tobraavery My throat hurts today from RAI had been ok all week. Not so gland, I mean grand.

Facebook:

Heather Harris Jones Why is my mood so labile? Even my oldest friend tells me she doesn’t know “who she’s gonna get” when she calls me from day to day!

Diane Fama Shit I don’t l know who I am gonna be day to day. LOL. Believe it or not, sometimes I like the craziness I get when I’m not oh-so-depressed; let’s me have an air of mystery about me, hahaha. Oh and it comes in handy when people piss me off too cause now I say exactly what’s on my mind with no regrets. Believe me I hate being sick but I thank god everyday that I can do something about my disease. I got informed and educated and I am actually in better control of things in my life now. If I need to rest, I rest. I’m being selfish now cause I’m worth it — I am hypothyroid so fuck you!!! I need a nap!! Hahahaha

Lisa Johnstone Klebba My thyrant: I thought I had lucked out that my thyroid wasn’t affecting my hair too badly. Huh! Dry, tangly, knotted balls of hair falling out as I shampoo, and I need to condition 3 times in a row all of the sudden. WTF?

Robyn Davis Hahn Why is it every time I have a good day, I overdo it (so excited to be a little manic –I go, go, go like the Energizer bunny)? It’s productive, but then I crash and lose the will to live when it’s over.

Amy Elizabeth Parker My thyrant is a gallrant… having uncomfortable annoying gallbladder pain. WHY? Just go away pain! Seriously!

Pamela Lau Thyrant? Glad you asked! I don’t understand how I can be so F’ing tired so often. Thanks a lot, F’ing thyroid!

Ari Kenney My thyroid just confuses me. I’m eating more but losing weight, sleeping all the time, and have dry skin. Don’t these things contradict each other? Usually I have symptoms of hyper or hypo, not both together.

Natasha Kahn My heart is racing and no amount of yoga breathing seems to be helping!! Is it thyroid or stress or both? No idea but it’s so annoying!! >:

Kit Kellison I went fucking nuts on a downhill drive with the new synthetic slow release T3/T4 combo. Getting my new bumped-up version today… REALLY hoping it keeps me from going fucking homicidal.

Billie Jean Doty Feeling soooo HYPER but last TSH was almost 3 (2.94) Can’t F’ing sleep, can’t f’ing relax, feel like adrenalin is racing thru my body at warp speed-BP’s starting to elevate. Saw sleep doc this a.m., trying me on a new sleeping pill. Looked up side effects when I got to work: heart failure, weight gain. YIPPPEEE!!! But I WANT TO SLEEP THRU THE NIGHT SO BAD I’M WILLING TO TRY THIS CRAP! Seriously, thyroid, can’t I have 1 day of normal already???

Regina Cintron RANT: Dear Thyroid, Did ya have to cause vitamin D deficiency too? You’re freakin’ gone and still causing trouble! Not to mention a clogged salivary gland for trying to be rid of you. Thanks for nothing thyroid.