Basically, it’s an autoimmune disease where the immune system starts creating antibodies against the thyroid, attacking it and causing the thyroid hormone levels to be low. This is also known as hypothyroidism.
Why did the body start creating antibodies against itself? isn’t that crazy? why would something like that happen? Believe me I asked myself all this questions before. My doctor told me that there was a chance that my body was reacting negatively to wheat food products in my diet. Wheat products have a protein called gluten. To the body, gluten looks very similar to the thyroid hormones. The body does not distinguish them very well. Therefore, when the immune system attacks the gluten in your body, it also attacks your thyroid. The body doesn’t care; it just wants to make you better and remove anything that might harm you.
You would think the body is smarter than that, right? Well after a while of attacking itself, your thyroid becomes weak and unable to differentiate better from the two. This can be very dangerous because if it’s not control, the immune system can get more confused and start attacking other organs. DO NOT PANIC; that’s in extreme cases.
What about the symptoms? Honestly, some people don’t have symptoms for years. If they do, they might mistake them for something else. The common symptoms related to Hashimoto’s are:
- Fatigue
- Heavy menstrual flows or irregular periods (That’s how I noticed something was off)
- Depression
- Weight gain (UGH! I hate this one)
- Feeling cold
As you can see, it’s not something great to have You have to be constantly aware of what you eat and how it affects you. Be conscious to take your medicine every day, even though you feel better. It’s incurable, but it can be controlled. You just have to be determined to make the changes necessary to start healing from the inside out.