Flouride or Fat?

Fabulous fish chowder! Yesterday I started a fish stock from a lovely red snapper. Today I sauteed onions in butter, added some fresh thyme and a bay leaf, then put some potatoes and my still-hot fish stock in the pot and simmered. After awhile I added the snapper meat, sea salt and some fresh raw cream, heated a little more and it was ready to enjoy. I served it with salad and a lovely eggplant torta (courtesy of Nourishing Traditions Cookbook by Sally Fallon). A gluten-free tasty meal!

One day last October, while I was brushing my younger daughter's teeth I noticed that there were some funky brown spots on her teeth. Ahhhhhhh! My child is not perfect?! Cavities?! How could it be?

This is what really started me on my journey to find out if food can cure, although that wasn't my intention at the time. I absolutely refused to accept the party line that says, "if you're child has a cavity the problem is in her mouth, and if we extract the cavity, all will be fine". I saw the cavity as a symptom of some hidden problem in her body.

I went to a "holistic" dentist just in case (I've also discovered on this journey that so many "holistic" care-providers have an agenda to sell their stuff or some other stuff like vitamins, etc and it's really quite a shame) and she said my daughter has 2 borderline cavities. She recommended a massive dose of flouride to stall the decay (so much for holistic care). Of course I refused the treatment. But at this point I felt better knowing that her teeth weren't about to fall out or anything.

Then I discovered a book called "Cure Tooth Decay" by Ramiel Nagel. And in it I was introduced to the concept of stopping tooth decay through a healthy diet and also to the teachings of Weston A. Price. Wow! This was a new world I was entering!

Up until that point I was like most health-conscious thinking people in America, I thought that cholesterol, saturated fat and basically meat were all things to avoid whenever possible. Vegetables, chicken and well, I don't even know what, tofu maybe, were all good things to eat. Low-fat was the way to go. I have to say that up until that point I hadn't really ever been committed to one style of eating for health reasons. I more just went with food I enjoyed eating that didn't make me sick (like I wouldn't eat McDonalds because it made me feel horrible but I would eat a ton of Haagen Dazs).

Suddenly, I was allowed to eat cream and butter and red meat and whole milk and more cream! On the other hand, I did feel chained to the kitchen because now I had to soak my grains, nuts and legumes (to neutralize the phytates that block mineral absorption), I could no longer buy boxed cereal and granola bars for my kids snacks and I had to make my own sauerkraut and yogurt. Local, pasture-raised meats and dairy, fresh veggies, and lots of good fat were to be the mainstay of my diet. Processed foods, rancid and oxidized vegetable oils and refined sugars were out.

Over time I became accustomed to slaving in the kitchen (which I really do enjoy at heart) and things became easier. Now I feel like somewhat of a pro and the food I cook is, if I may say so myself, fabulous!

Oh yeah, my daughter's cavities have not progressed at all. Yay!

Why Is My Thyroid Sick?

I have to ponder this question.

But first, I have to talk about what I ate for dinner! Because that is infinitely more exciting....

I slow-cooked my short grain brown rice in coconut milk and home-made chicken stock (made with chicken feet) and sea salt for a long time. I also cleaned some wild-caught shrimp and grated some horseradish into some of my special home-made ketchup to make a cocktail sauce. And of course there was my famous salad and sauteed greens. We ate some of the shrimp raw and some flash-boiled. It was pretty good and it is such a simple meal (and can be done more quickly if you buy cleaned shrimp.

So in January I went to a routine check-up at the doc and did some bloodwork. He called me a week later to tell me my TSH (that is the hormone that stimulates the thyroid to do it's job) was extraordinarily high. He was shocked because I had no symptoms. Needless to say, I was shocked too.

So what followed was a month or two of anxiety, filled with countless doctor visits and lots of deep breathing moments. You see, I was unwilling to just go pick up the synthroid as my (now fired) doctor had advised. I knew I had a crazy, out of control number on my bloodwork (TSH: 147) and I didn't really know much else about hypothyroidism. So my mission was to find out what was causing the problem and to find the least invasive way to manage it.

The more I read, the more disheartened I became. I subsequently found out that I had Hashimoto's (an autoimmune disease that causes your immune system to attack your thyroid). Even the doctors with the "alternative" approach agree that once you go autoimmune you never go back. And as my anxiety increased I began to have numbness and tingling in my feet and hands when I laid down at night. I was told it wasn't phsychosematic but I realize now that stress aggravates thryoid issues and that my stress was bringing about these symptoms. The more I felt the symptoms, the more stressed I got.

So, I eventually started taking a somewhat "natural" medication called Armour. It is made of pig thyroid hormone (not the synthetically produced hormone in Synthroid and others). I take a very low dose of 30 mg a day. The funny thing is that even before I started taking the Armour my TSH had gone down to 41 (in about one month). I know that my diet can take the credit for this one!

I recently got more bloodwork done and my TSH is now 7. I'm not sure if the Armour did it or not but my (new) doc was shocked at how quickly my TSH and antibodies had improved (especially on such a low dose). She recommended I continue to do whatever the heck it is I'm doing.

So I sort of do know why my thryoid is sick but it's still a mystery as to why my immune system is malfunctioning. Will raw milk change things??