My Journey To WellnessI have been on my journey to wellness for most of my life. I just wasn't aware of it for most of it. I have had some pretty severe health challenges the last couple of years (2006-2010) and I wanted to share the information with others so that they would not have to suffer from ignorance the same way I did. I have struggled with weight issues all of my life and I think I now know why. I believe that my thyroid has been sluggish or malfunctioning since I was a child. I want to make it known to people that there is an epidemic of thyroid problems today and how to recognize the symptoms. Awareness of the problem will go a long way towards rectifying it and that is my purpose with this page. I'll tell you what happened to me on my journey to wellness. Problems Show Up In 2006 of this year, two of the owners of Forrest Hills Mountain Resort where I work decided to have a Wellness Center there. Since health is my passion, I was thrilled to work with them on this. My journey to wellness was going to be accelerated! We moved the Spa to its current place and did much of the work ourselves, especially Brian. We were still trying to do massages around moving and getting the Spa ready for its grand opening. I was trying to get the information ready to do classes on raw and alternative food and deciding how to organize it, which was a tremendous task. It was overwhelming to say the least, the same as this site has been, but I persevered. The end result was that I burned out my adrenal glands to insufficiency, almost to the point of adrenal failure. What precipitated all of this was multifaceted. I had to move my Dad from Albuquerque, NM to Georgia when my beloved stepmom died in 2004. We drove his belongings from New Mexico to Georgia and he stayed with us for a month while I searched for an assisted living home for him. We live on the side of a mountain on ten acres and it wasn’t safe for him to be here because he had Sundowner’s as well as Alzheimer’s and would wander if left alone. I also went to massage school while still working full time in 2005 once the governor passed a law saying massage therapists had to be licensed. Halfway through school I found out I could have been grandfathered in and didn’t need the schooling but I decided to go ahead and finish anyway so there could be no questions later. I was in charge of Daddy’s care in an assisted living home for 4 ½ years until he died from Alzheimer’s in 2008. Someone once said that disease is the long goodbye and they were absolutely right about that. It was devastating for me and took a huge toll on my health. My journey to wellness was taking a U turn. Then I had to settle Daddy’s estate for a year after his death and pay all the taxes, etc. Any one of these things by itself I could have handled OK, but with all of them together I was just overwhelmed. I have finally come to realize that I am not Superwoman and I can’t do it all, but it was an expensive lesson. The adrenal fatigue then messed up my thyroid, which messed up my female hormones, making menopausal symptoms almost unbearable. I was having hot flashes every two hours day and night, and the night ones woke me up every time to throw the covers off for a minute and then pull them back once it was over. I was so sleep deprived I would fly off the handle at anything and everything and was even having mild anxiety attacks. My journey to wellness was being derailed! Thyroid Problems Since everything in the body is related, that also messed up my thyroid which enlarged to try to process more iodine. There was even a growth that showed “some vascularity” on an ultrasound. A subsequent biopsy showed “atypical” cells. Three doctors recommended surgical removal of the thyroid and I said “No”. I believe strongly in holistic alternative medicine and I was not going to just have it removed without trying everything possible to see if it would go away on its own. That was in 2009 and I pursued my journey to wellness in earnest then. I’m going to a place in Atlanta now called Progressive Medical Center and I am finally getting well. I’m on bioidentical hormones compounded specifically for my body and they have been a Godsend. All of the menopausal symptoms have gone away and finally I can sleep at night with no hot flashes. I’m even nice to be around now and don’t fly off the handle at every little thing anymore. We’re still trying to get the rest of my body balanced out but I’m feeling so much better and my journey to wellness is back on track again.
The other thing was that I was packing on pounds around my middle in spite of rigorous diet and exercise, and the numbers on my triglycerides, cholesterol and fasting blood sugar levels all just kept creeping up. I had no energy and exercise was just horrendously difficult to do. I knew something was terribly wrong but my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) tests showed up normal. It was only after I went to a holistic doctor that he said my thyroid was malfunctioning. He did a test for free T-3 and found out I wasn’t utilizing it properly at all. So even if I was producing enough thyroid hormones, my body wasn’t using them effectively. Dr. Mercola says that if your TSH score is over 1.5 on a scale of .03 to 3, you are hypothyroid. My score was 1.7 and I was severely hypothyroid with all the symptoms. My journey to wellness was sidetracked. My naturopathic doctor has put me on a strict regimen of Iodoral tablets and Armour thyroid pills with a thyroid cream to administer nightly. Finally it is beginning to take effect. As of March of 2010, I have dropped 30 pounds of excess weight that was all around my middle. Excess abdominal weight is one symptom of thyroid problems. I also found out that it didn’t matter what foods I ate or didn’t eat, or how much I exercised, as long as the thyroid was out of kilter, that fat was going to stay there because it was storing excess iodine for my body to use. I would have died without it. Listening To My Body I couldn’t take the time to listen to my body until after my dad passed away, but my symptoms were trying to tell me that something was terribly wrong with my body. He died in April 2008 and in December of that year, I went to my first doctor to begin my journey to wellness. As long as the adrenals are not functioning well, you are not going to be making enough cortisol either. While that might seem like a good thing, it is not. Your body needs cortisol to function, especially for exercise. I used to walk three miles a day, five days a week, religiously, no matter what the weather was like. I found out that I was doing my body a grave disservice by forcing myself to exercise, thinking I was doing the right thing. It takes cortisol to exercise and you use it up when you do. If you don’t have enough, it will put you flat on your back if you keep pushing your body. This I discovered the hard way. My legs felt like lead weights when I tried to go up the steps to the road to go walk and I was absolutely exhausted afterwards. I could only do it late in the day because there were many times I had to go lie down and rest after walking. There was definitely no “runner’s high” of euphoria for me anymore. My body felt tired as if I had not slept enough for weeks in a row, with a sort of borderline sick-to-my-stomach feeling. I simply had to quit exercising – I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m still not able to get back to exercising yet but I hope to be able to soon since spring is just around the corner. I will definitely listen to the cues of my body for feedback, though, and not push myself. Once was enough. I want my journey to wellness to be accelerated now.
I'm sill not exactly where I want to be yet, but I am resolutely working on it. I have to pace myself on the exercise, especially when I have an 8:00 PM appointment at the spa. I can't overdo the activity or I almost can't do a massage at that hour. I also decided to quit coloring my hair and to let it go natural. I figured my body did not need the extra chemicals. With Me All My Life Since I have fought a weight problem pretty much all of my life, I truly believe that I have had thyroid and adrenal problems most of my life as well. My poor body was just trying to take care of me and I didn’t understand that. I need to honor and appreciate it more for its innate wisdom. I even tried liposuction one time in a desperate attempt to get the fat off of me. I saw 500 cc of fat go literally down a tube and thought that was the answer. It all came back within a month. I know now that I am on the right path on my journey to wellness. I feel better when I eat the raw vegetables but I also know that I need good organic meat and raw cheese as well for my optimum health. Subclinical hypothyroidism is epidemic in this country and people keep being told that it is all in their heads. We are NOT getting enough iodine here in the US for multitudinous reasons and we need to change that. That is one of the reasons that I did this site, to raise awareness of the problem. So many of us, women especially, are being told it’s all in our heads when we complain of symptoms to our doctors. No wonder my journey to wellness was so difficult! The average is 10 different doctors before one finally tries something new and finds the problem. Most just look at TSH scores and say “You’re fine.” Well, if I’m so fine, why do I feel this way? You just have to keep digging until someone listens to you. ***************************************************************** HEALTH UPDATE - May 27,2010. I just had another ultrasound done last week and I got the results back on Monday of this week. The growth on my thyroid had been 2.9 cm and it is now 2.3 cm. It is going down! Naturopathy takes longer to work but it lets the body do its own healing. I went back to my wonderful Dr. Burdette yesterday and we are tweaking the supplements I am taking and adding more adrenal support. I have dropped another three pounds and I fully expect to have my thyroid totally back to normal functioning. I feel very blessed. June 22, 2010 My latest tests show that my adrenals are back to working normally now so I am delighted. I'm going to try to get back into walking again if it will ever cool down enough. That may have to wait until September because I don't want to stress myself out again. We're still cutting down on supplements but until my thyroid is back to normal, I'm still on some meds. Happy days are here again! ***************************************************************** This page on Thyroid problems goes into much more detail. If you suspect you have a problem with either hypo or hyper thyroidism, please check out the resources on this page. Perhaps I’ll see you on my journey to wellness too. If you would like to have more great health information, you can subscribe to the newsletter of the number one alternative health site by clicking on the link below.
Return from My Journey to Wellness to Healthy Eating On The Run
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Here is what I look like now, with more energy and 30 pounds off of my middle. I'm in my kitchen doing what I love best, which is making raw food to promote my health and wellness.