Hashimoto's Thyroiditis vs Gluten

Is Giving UP Gluten REALLY Necessary for Hashimoto’s Patients, or Just Fad Hype?

Unless you are newly diagnosed, chances are you have heard a lot about the connection between eating gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, oats) and auto immune diseases like Hashimoto’s.

You also have probably heard from your doctor, online nutritionists, and many mainstream media outlets and late night talk show hosts saying it is a lot of BS, and that you actually NEED gluten to be healthy.

So Who Is Right?

And also, just how strict do I really need to be? Can’t I have a little cheat? What if I don’t have any gut symptoms?

To find out the answer, I searched through research articles on PubMed. I already knew my stance on the issue, but wanted to make sure there was current research that supported it.

The September 2015 edition of the journal Gastroenterology  found high “proportions of patients with NCWS or CD develop autoimmune disorders, are ANA positive, and showed DQ2/DQ8 haplotypes”. (note- NCWS is non-Celiac wheat sensitivity.)

In the March 2015 journal Cerebellum, gluten was further linked to neurological disorders such as gluten ataxia, where there were no gut symptoms whatsoever, and occurred most commonly in patients with Hashimoto’s and other auto immune diseases. Check out this quote from the study:

“As with celiac disease, patients with GA (gluten ataxia) are often found to have an increased prevalence of additional autoimmune diseases the commonest of which include hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes mellitus and pernicious anemia. Gastrointestinal symptoms are seldom prominent and are not a reliable indicator for the presence or absence of enteropathy. In this respect, gluten ataxia resembles dermatitis herpetiformis, an autoimmune dermatopathy triggered by gluten where gastrointestinal symptoms are not prominent even in the presence of an enteropathy.” (parenthesis and bold added by me for emphasis and clarification)

Wow. That is pretty powerful. How many of you with brain symptoms has ever had your doctor consider a possible gluten connection?

How To Lose Weight With Hashimoto’s

My Top 5 Helpful Weight Strategies For Hashimoto’s

Weight gain and the inability to lose weight may be a devastating consequence for many with hypothyroidism.

Many of you have been asking how to lose weight with Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism…

Here are some helpful strategies for weight management and Hashimoto’s:

1. Get Your Latest Lab Values

Get your latest lab values for TSH, Free T3 and Free T4 from your doctor. You may have been told that these numbers were “normal”, but sometimes when these numbers are on the outskirts of normal, your metabolic rate may still be impaired making it more difficult for you to burn calories.

Additionally, new guidelines have redefined the normal range for TSH to be below 3, however, not many labs have implemented this guideline. Your doctor may be using old ranges.

Most people report feeling well with a TSH between 0.5-2. 0. Remember, thyroid medications are dosed in micrograms, (that is 1/1000 of a milligram), sometimes a teensy increase in the dose can make a world of a difference. Talk to your doctor.

2. Consider The Type of Medication You Are Taking

Some report more weight loss with T4/T3 combinations (Armour, Nature-Throid, compounded medications) versus T4 medications (Synthroid, Levoxyl, Tirosint) alone. T4 is a precursor to T3, but some individuals do not convert T4 to T3 properly, and the T3 component is the metabolically active one. For more information, make sure to read my article on which thyroid medications are best and my top 11 thyroid medication tips.

3. Consider the Type of Diet You Are Eating

DIY Vapor Rub Shower Melts

I am so in love with vapor rub. You may remember my post 10 Uses for Vapor Rub, or 5 Chest Rub Hacks for Babies, and this Vapor Rub Scented Candle. And if those aren’t enough to convince you I am back with more! One of the littles was sick this week and just as stuffy as could be. Insert sad face here. After she was pretty sure I was the Wicked Witch for making her take medicine (side note…Hey pharmaceutical companies, it’s the year 2015. Medicine should be tasting like bacon now. Stop making it taste like rancid fruit juice.) I made her a peace offering of these homemade vapor rub shower cubes.

Now before you go thinking I Betty Homemaker, think again. These are so stinking easy to make, and you can whip them up in about 20 minutes. The end result is a vapor rub infused bath cube that you can place in the shower for instant relief from nasal congestion. Want to make your own? Let’s get started!

Here is what you will need to make your own Vapor Rub Shower Cubes:

Ice cube tray 

3 tablespoons of vapor rub (Maty’s makes a petroleum free, all natural variety with eucalyptus, peppermint, and wintergreen found here for around $5. It is amazing, it is safe for use with children, and I highly suggest it!)

1 cup of corn starch

2 tablespoons of water

Mixing bowl

Blue and green food coloring (optional)

Once you have your supplies, you are ready to roll. As you can see, chances are you already have these items in your home. Oh and when you are done with this recipe, check out my recipes for Vaporizing Bath Bombs and Vaporizing Bath Soak too!

The 5 Biggest Mistakes You Make When Painting Furniture

Improve a less-than-stellar piece with paint, patience, and my tricks. I had the oops moments; now you can learn from them.

There's no shortage of tutorials about painting furniture online. And I've used a lot of them to paint dressers, console tables, chairs, mirrors, and more. But I have found problems/issues with a lot of the tutorials—paint chips, finishes aren't smooth, and paint peels. I have had to redo several furnishings, so I decided to compile all the mistakes I've made to help you give your furnishings a makeover that will last.

Here's how to paint a piece of furniture—without making a major mistake:

1. Sand it. There are lots of tutorials out there that claim you don't need to sand. There are also lots of primers and paints promising no sanding necessary. From what I have learned, sanding is a must. Sand all surfaces with 150-grit sandpaper. (I use this orbital sander with variable speeds.) Be careful not to gouge the surface. You're just looking to rough it up a little so the primer has something to adhere to; you're not trying to strip the surface. Use 80-grit if you are sanding a furnishing with an existing varnish.

2. Remove residue. Wipe down the surface with a tack cloth to remove any residue. Do not use a paper towel. Don't speculate on whether something is a lint-free cloth. Just use the tack cloth.

Nesting Bunny

via  On Sutton Place

Oh my I don't have any words for this very cute little bunny. I found this a couple of years ago and I feel deeply in love with how cute and simple this is. I love that the whole thing has a vintage spring look to it. I feel that the vintage Easter/spring look is so beautiful and I have been slowly changing all of my spring collection to be vintage. 

I can't wait to get this made for my own home. I feel bad keeping this beautiful secret to myself so I thought that I would share this even though I haven't made my own yet. 

What do you think? Is this cute or what!

What We Mean When We Say We Need a Break

As a stay-at-home mom of two small children, when I say that I need a break, I’m not talking about wanting a vacation or a treat as a reward for doing my job. Needing a break doesn’t mean that I’m seeking a respite from my responsibilities or that I want to put my feet up. It means that I need a moment to feel like a human being in the midst of a relentless life where I don’t belong to myself anymore; where I give my love and energy away, every moment of my existence, and can’t figure out how to keep any for myself.

We’re all very aware of men who don’t understand the point of giving the mother of his children a break. They go to work all day and they don’t have fun at work, do they? When they come home and their wives say, “I need a break,” they think,When do I get a break? I just worked all day and now I have to come home and give my wife a break?

Read full article here

How I Easily Organized My Junk Drawers

We all have them, no one is immune. That one or two drawers that everything gets put into when it doesn't have a home. I happen to have a few of these drawers in my house, and here is the proof!

This is one of the 'junk' drawers in my kitchen. Do you remember those cute I Spy books that you would spend hours looking at when you were younger trying to find all of the items in the picture? Well that's how I felt every time that I would open this drawer. I could never find what I was looking for. I keep my instruction manuals for all of my appliances in this drawer and it had become so over run with 'stuff' that they would always fall out the back of the drawer into the cupboard below. There are playing cards, wax for candle warmers, push pins, a light bulb, a golf ball, lots of magnets that I made, and even garbage! It was pushing me over the edge every time that I needed something and I couldn't find it because this is what I had to deal with, so......

Can I get an AMEN! I am new to the de-junking thing and getting rid of unnecessary things that just bog me down and clutter up my life. My sister-in-law Heather (you can check her our at her blog here)was in town this past week and helped me get started on cleaning things out and de-cluttering my home. At first it was hard, like ripping a bandage off real slow. It stung and the hoarder in me had a hard time letting some things go, however as we kept going it became freeing and I soon became excited to go through my whole house. 

I am not a professional organizer at all and Heather had gone home so I decided that I would try something small to start off with. Baby steps. And this is what I came up with.

Ah so much better! It is so nice to be able to get into this drawer and be able to find things. My kids get into this drawer all of the time to find batteries and odds and ins and now they can find things easily and without destroying everything.