Radiate My Thyroid? What?! No Freakin’ Way!
Seventeen years ago I was diagnosed with an incurable disease. I had a goiter (picture at left) and auto-immune thyroid disease. Plus I was suffering with allergies, cold sores, poor immunity, and was 25 pounds heavier. My doctor recommended that I radiate my thyroid.
My gut instinct said, “no freakin’ way!” I questioned the treatment for thyroid disease. And, if I hadn’t, I would not have a thyroid today.
Year’s prior to my diagnosis, I watched my mother go through the modern medical treatments for cancer. In the 1980’s she had a radical mastectomy plus radiation. Subsequently, five years of blood testing and MRI’s showed her to be cancer-free. The surgery and radiation had apparently worked.
But, eleven years later, mom fainted and couldn’t stand up. At the hospital they discovered that the breast cancer had come back with a vengeance. It was now everywhere: in her lungs, her brain, her liver, and her bones.
I remember taking my mom to the hospital in Long Island for weekly radiation and chemo treatments. She never wanted to go. She told me it made her feel sick and she wanted to stop. But, we didn’t stop. We followed the modern medical protocol and didn’t question it.
As I watched her suffer I began questioning that treatment. So did my father. He read an article about a doctor that had healed himself of pancreatic cancer using a natural diet (Macrobiotic). So we tried it.
We switched mom from a standard American Diet to a more wholesome diet and immediately noticed changes. Her lips regained their pink color instead of the bluish gray they had become from the cancer treatments. And, the ashen color of her face was growing peachy once again.
It was obvious this new food was giving her a little more life. Like a houseplant that hadn’t been watered for a while; once you add water the plant perks up. That’s exactly what happened; she perked up a bit, but it wasn’t enough to bring her back (read full story here – Honoring My Mother’s Journey).
After my mom died I vowed that if I got sick I would not destroy my body with surgery or radiation. I would try a natural approach first.
So there I was… exactly four years to the date of my mother’s death. Sitting on the examination table listening wide-eyed as my doctor told me to take radioactive iodine to destroy my thyroid. She said my condition was “incurable.”
And, she was right. According to what she had learned in medical school, my disease was incurable.
Thankfully, I didn’t go to medical school, so I had a different perspective. I said, “hey doc, instead of destroying my thyroid, what if improved my diet?”
She said, “your diet has nothing to do with your thyroid.”
I didn’t believe that, and instead of leaving her office with a prescription to destroy my thyroid, I left with a focus on improving my diet to heal my body. I began by eating wholesome foods direct from the earth that didn’t come out of colorful pre-packaged boxes.
Four months later I returned to the doctor and my blood tests showed that my thyroid was changing. My hormone levels had dropped from dangerously high to just above normal.
My doctor said, “it’s still not in the normal range. You need medication.”
I said, “Thanks, but no thanks, doc. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
For the next two years I went for periodic blood testing with a new doctor each time to get a second and third opinion. Each doctor informed me I had a new and exciting disease. First it was hyperthyroid, then it was hashimotos thyroiditis, and then it was hypothyroid. They all recommended some type of medication to eliminate the symptoms my body was experiencing – all of which I refused.
Two years after my initial diagnosis with an “incurable disease,” I no longer had a goiter and my thyroid tested normal. It took time, patience, and a whole lotta self-love and self-care, to rebalance my body’s condition.
Sickness doesn’t happen overnight. My thyroid disease took twenty-eight years to develop. If you’re thinking about incorporating a natural healing plan, keep in mind that health and wellness doesn’t happen overnight either. Improved health doesn’t come after one magical cup of soup or plate filled with green vegetables. It can take years of eating well, exercising, and other natural healing practices to correct imbalances.
I am healthy today, but still consider myself in the process of healing. First my physical body, then my emotional body, and then my spiritual body – all of the layers that make me human.
Now, I’m in the process of helping heal the planetary body and the people of the earth. It’s a big job, and I’m going to need a lot of help. That’s why I created “The New Healers – Master Coaching Program”– a class designed to teach students and wellness practitioners how to diagnose and heal physical, emotional and spiritual diseases.
Here are some basic steps to healing the thyroid:
- Eat organic and clean foods: This is a no brainer. Pesticides and chemicals are endocrine disruptors. The thyroid lives on the endocrine system. Eat clean to ensure the endocrine system is not disrupted.
- Eat Local and Seasonal: Food grown in or near the environment where you live is the best choice for your body. The pineal gland takes information from outside your body and relays it to the inside of your body. Eating out of season and/or out of climate sends mixed messages to your internal system, throwing the thyroid and endocrine system out of balance.
- Eat Naturally Raised Animal Products: Factory farmed animals live in highly stressed conditions without access to fresh air, clean food and sunshine. If you eat animals that live a crappy life you absorb that energy. This can disrupt the body physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The above tips are a great place to start, but there is much more to healing the thyroid. If you want specific foods, plus how to heal the emotional and spiritual components of thyroid imbalance check out my Nourishing Thyroid DVD for the guidance you need.
And, if someone tells you to radiate your thyroid or that your disease is incurable, question it. Then give your body the physical, emotional and spiritual food (plus patience and love), it needs to truly heal. You can do it!
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