5 Things To Do If You Have Graves Disease, Hashimotos or a Thyroid Imbalance
I posted this video awhile back sharing my personal thyroid story and I am so happy it has given so many people hope and encouragement in their own thyroid health journey. I have received so many emails and messages on social media and I love hearing from you! I also have received a lot of messages asking for guidance and so I’ve created this blog post and video to share my top 5 things to do if you have Graves Disease, Hashimotos or a Thyroid Imbalance.
1: FIND THE ROOT CAUSE / WORK WITH AN ND or MD
First seek out professional care and I recommend working with a Naturopathic Doctor or a Functional or Integrative Medical Doctor. This health professional can help run tests to get to the root cause of your thyroid condition and from there provide suggestions tailored to your personal needs.
2: NUTRITION MATTERS / WORK WITH AN RDN
Also consider adding a Registered Dietitian who specializes in thyroid health, to your healthcare team. Nutrition plays a crucial role in our overall health, our gut health and our thyroid health. How to eat is also not one-size-fits-all, so it’s important that you tailor any diet so that it best supports your needs.
Below are 2 resources we have available at Healthy Grocery Girl for nutrition support:
Personal Nutrition Coaching
Did you know that we provide virtual nutrition coaching at Healthy Grocery Girl? As many of you know I am a RDN also known as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. We also have another amazing RDN on our Healthy Grocery Girl team, Jeni Hollifield who is our lead nutrition coach and assists with educational nutrition content. Jeni is an amazing dietitian, a certified gut health expert and primally works with clients for gut health, thyroid health, women’s health and weight management.
Working one-on-one in a client / dietitian role is the best way to provide quality care where our RDN can review your health history, blood work, current diet and supplements and listen to your story and health concerns. From there Jeni can provide dietary and supplement recommendations that are tailored to your specific needs and also assist with menu / meal planning. Lowering levels of inflammation and improving gut health are also important for thyroid health and what we eat and also what we avoid, play an important role in reducing inflammation and healing the gut.
You can learn all about our Nutrition Coaching Services here. You can also schedule a free 10 minutes discovery call with Jeni here to answer any questions and help you get started.
HGG Membership
We also offer our HGG Membership with plant-forward meal plans and nutrition education videos. If you’re watching this video you can use the code THYROIDHEALTH for 25% off an HGG Membership. Learn all about the HGG Membership here!
Beyond exploring our blog for hundreds of free recipes, the above are 2 nutrition options we have available to have access an RDN for dietary support and help you on your health journey!
3: FINDING YOUR BEST HEALTH CARE TEAM CAN BE A JOURNEY
When it comes to health professionals, the first health professional you work with may not always be a great fit, try again! There are many wonderful health professionals out there but it sometimes can be a journey to find the ones who truly are a good fit and can help you with your specific needs.
4: REDUCE STRESS
Having a health diagnosis can be really stressful. It’s stressful to go to appointments, to wait for results, to not have your body in balance, to try and find the right plan and solutions. I have personally been there and I know how overwhelming it all is! Stress is also very detrimental to our health so as much as this is all very stressful, part of your wellness plan needs to be stress management and reduction. It’s important to find stress relieving activities such as going on walks outside, being in nature, yoga, meditation, a bath, reading a book, etc. Self-care also does not have to be long solo leisurely activities, although that’s nice if you can fit in the time! Self-care can be finding better ways to support your mental and emotional well-being while doing things you already do each day! For example.. finding ways to support a better night’s sleep, listening to happy music while you work or clean the dishes and so on!
5: EXPLORE UNHEALTHY DAILY EXPOSURES
This is a big one and there is a lot to say on this topic! I highly recommend exploring your everyday products. I switched to healthier cookware, started drinking filtered water with a water filtration system, switched to personal products all made with clean ingredients and so forth. If you’re using a product every single day, it’s important that it supports your health and does not contain ingredients that may hinder your health goals.
There are many amazing clean ingredient brands available today. If you’re curious what I personally use and love, below are some of my favorite clean brands along with any discount codes I have to share. I only share products I use and love.
Branch Basics: Non-Toxic Home Cleaner – Shop here and use code: healthygrocerygirl for 15% off start kits
Primally Pure: Deodorant, Dry Shampoo and Skincare. Shop here and use code HGG10 for 10% off
Beautycounter: Skincare, Makeup, Shampoo, Conditioner and Sunscreen. Shop here with code CLEANFORALL20 for 20% off
Joy Organics CBD: Personally, this CBD helps me with sleep and reducing anxiety. Shop here and use code: HGG20 for 20% off
I look for brands that are truly CLEAN, are transparent with their ingredients and use third party testing to ensure no mold or heavy metals or present.
You can always email me here if you have any questions or want to chat about safer, cleaner products!
Wishing You Health and Healing!
These are 5 tips to get started with to help bring balance back to your thyroid. Helping to heal the gut and supporting optimal thyroid function can be like a puzzle. Perhaps not one of these elements alone will be a magic fix, rather it’s making a variety of healthy lifestyle changes, learning the root cause of your imbalance, eating a specific way for gut health and thyroid health, reducing stress, improving sleep, reducing exposure to unhealthy elements and more that all together can be quite extraordinary in helping bring balance back to your body.
As someone who has done the hard work of implementing all of what I am recommending to you as well, I know it’s a journey! It’s a challenging journey that is 100% worth it and having the right health care team to monitor and support you along the way is important. I am wishing you total health and I hope this blog post and video is helpful or insightful in some small way on your own journey!!
