CARACTERIZACIÓN DE LOS EFLUENTES

This section offers foods, herbs, and supplements that heal your damaged thyroid, strengthen all its fellow glands in your endocrine system (adrenal glands, pituitary gland, pancreas, and so on)—and lower the viral load specifically within your thyroid.

“Goitrogenic” Foods

There’s a new trend that’s making people fearful of vegetables such as cauliflower, kale, broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, and broccoli rabe. Rumor has it that these contain goitrogens, that is, substances that cause goiters.

Don’t pay this fad any mind! These so-called “goitrogenic” foods do not contain enough goitrogens to inhibit the thyroid on any level. You’d have to eat a 100-pound barrel’s worth of broccoli daily to reach any level of concern.

So please consume and enjoy your favorite cruciferous vegetables. They actually help promote thyroid health.

Healing Foods

Among the most healing foods for thyroid conditions are Atlantic dulse, wild blueberries, sprouts, cilantro, garlic, hemp seeds, coconut oil, Brazil nuts, and cranberries. Variously, they can kill EBV cells, provide micronutrients, repair thyroid tissue, reduce nodule growth, flush toxic heavy metals and viral waste, and boost production of thyroid hormones.

Zinc: kills EBV cells, strengthens the thyroid, and helps protect the endocrine system.

Spirulina (preferably from Hawaii): provides critical micronutrients for the thyroid.

Bladderwrack: provides easily assimilated iodine and trace minerals for the thyroid.

Chromium: helps stabilize the endocrine system.

L-tyrosine: helps increase the production of thyroid hormones.

Ashwagandha: bolsters the thyroid and adrenal glands and helps stabilize the endocrine system.

Licorice root: kills EBV cells in the thyroid and aids the adrenal glands.

Eleuthero (aka Siberian ginseng): bolsters the adrenal glands and helps stabilize the endocrine

system.

Lemon balm: kills EBV cells in the thyroid and dampens nodule growth.

Manganese: critical for production of thyroid hormone T3.

Selenium: stimulates the production of thyroid hormone T4.

Vitamin D₃: helps stabilize the immune system and its responses.

B-complex: essential vitamins for the endocrine system.

Magnesium: helps stabilize thyroid hormone T3.

EPA & DHA (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid): fortifies the endocrine

system and nervous system. Be sure to buy a plant-based (not fish-based) version. Bacopa monnieri: supports thyroid hormone production and T4-to-T3 conversion.

Rubidium: helps stabilize thyroid hormone production.

Copper: kills EBV cells and augments the effectiveness of iodine.

CASE HISTORY: Stronger Than Ever

Sarah’s friends lived in awe (and a little jealousy) of her ability to take on the world with energy that never flagged. On weekends, she and her boyfriend, Rob, would head to the mountains to hike, and then she’d still want to go out with her girlfriends when she got home. She could eat whatever she wanted and never gain a pound. Rob, who worked as a trainer, loved to show her off at the gym where he worked.

When Sarah was 36, she noticed that she’d put on an extra seven pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. She could barely fit into her good jeans. At first it seemed like it might just be bloating from her menstrual cycle. But when her period passed, she was still struggling to button her waistband.

She decided she’d go full-throttle at the gym and burn off the extra weight. She also cut out all carbohydrates from her diet.

Sarah’s girlfriend Jessica told her she was happy to see her weight go up a little. “You look much healthier,” she said. Still, Sarah had been more comfortable at her lower weight and knew it wasn’t normal to get heavier out of nowhere. She also knew that Jessica had other reasons for being happy to see Sarah fill out—namely, a history of envy.

In the second week of Sarah’s extra workout and no carb regimen, she noticed that the number on the scale hadn’t gone down, but her energy had dropped. Rob, who’d never had a problem keeping weight off, told Sarah she just wasn’t applying herself enough at the gym. He also put her on protein shakes to try and build her muscle mass.

Yet Sarah’s weight was going up at a rate of a pound every two weeks, and her energy just kept dropping. She’d once been 115 pounds. The day the scale hit 130, she called her doctor.

After a full workup, Dr. Kiernan explained that Sarah’s thyroid hormone level tests showed that her thyroid levels were elevated, indicating hypothyroidism. Sarah asked what was making that happen. She’d always been healthy, she said, she ate a healthy diet, and she exercised all the time. Dr. Kiernan answered that it was just something that could happen as people aged.

This didn’t compute for Sarah. “Aging” wasn’t part of her vocabulary. She was still in her 30s, she wasn’t even married yet, she didn’t have children—and already she was getting the ailments of an older person?

Still, she took the thyroid medication that Dr. Kiernan prescribed, continued her frequent workouts, and kept avoiding carbs. Yet her weight continued to increase by two pounds every month. When she reached 140 pounds, she called her mother to vent about how disappointed Rob was in her weight gain. He no longer liked to be seen at the gym with her, because he said her body reflected poorly on his skills as a trainer. Rob had stopped inviting her out with his friends and colleagues. The one time she’d been out with them in recent weeks, he’d said a defensive, “Don’t worry about Sarah. She’s just been eating too many carbs,” at the beginning of the evening.

Her mom groaned over Rob’s behavior and said to Sarah, “I know I’ve told you about Anthony before and you haven’t called him. I really think now’s the time.”

In the initial scan, Spirit helped me confirm that Sarah did have a thyroid problem—thyroiditis, just on the edge of early hypothyroidism. She wasn’t yet at the point of full inflammation of the thyroid, but she was headed there. I hurried to explain that the condition wasn’t a symptom of getting older. A virus—specifically Epstein-Barr—was causing Sarah’s problem.

Right away, we altered Sarah’s diet. We took out hormone-disrupting foods such as eggs and dairy, and minimized her animal protein to once daily. We also increased her consumption of antiviral fruits and vegetables, including papayas, berries, apples, mâche, mangoes, spinach, kale, sprouts, Atlantic

dulse, cilantro, and garlic. For supplements, we concentrated on lemon balm, chromium, zinc, and bladderwrack. With this protocol, we were able to reduce the viral load on Sarah’s thyroid, and it returned to producing its normal level of hormones.

At the beginning, Rob was suspicious of this new diet. He thought fruit smoothies (with no protein powder) for breakfast, a spinach salad with orange and avocado for lunch, salmon with vegetables for dinner, and fruit for snacks in between was too much sugar and not enough protein.

Within the first two weeks, though, Sarah had lost four pounds. And within the first month, a total of eight pounds.

The second month, the weight loss was more gradual, but her energy was increasing. Sarah’s metabolism had bounced back. As an added benefit, she felt like she was building muscles she’d never even felt before.

After three and a half months, she was back to 115 pounds—with more muscle than the last time she’d been that weight.

Meanwhile, Sarah told Dr. Kiernan she wanted to wean off the thyroid medication. Though it went against what he’d been taught, Dr. Kiernan couldn’t deny that Sarah’s thyroid was restoring its normal function, and Sarah was coming back to life before his eyes. Soon, Sarah was off the medication entirely.

Now when Rob had gym clients who were having trouble losing weight, he told them all about his girlfriend’s weight-loss story (implying he’d been the one to help her), and put those clients on high- fruit, low-fat cleanse diets.

Rob apologized to Sarah for his past behavior and hinted that he might be popping the question soon. Sarah told me that while Rob is easy on the eyes, she’s not so quick to commit to him after seeing the way he treated her when times got hard. They remain unmarried.

PART III