When you look at Dr. Datis Kharrazian’s list of credentials, it’s almost overwhelming. He has three graduate degrees in the fields of nutrition, chiropractics and health sciences, and is currently pursuing his fourth doctorate in autoimmunity and immunology. He is a research scholar at Harvard Medical School, and a professor at three other universities. He also…
Science has reliably proven that environmental pollutants, chemicals, and toxins can trigger autoimmunity. These chemicals include mercury, lead, benzene, solvents, and other compounds found in our everyday environment — carpets, mattresses, plastic utensils, plastic water bottles, fire retardants found in furniture and children’s pajamas, etc. Many people mistakenly believe the best thing to do in…
During the past couple of years I continued my investigations into taming autoimmune disease and addressing the mechanisms that underlie it (and will always continue to do so). I found some approaches that looked promising and began experimenting with them with my patients, as well as recruiting other practitioners I know to work with the…
The following was written by Stacey Robbins, a reader with Hashimoto’s who made the lifestyle changes necessary to manage her health. She originally made this post about the autoimmune diet for the Facebook Hashimoto’s 411 group and turned it into a chapter for her book You’re Not Crazy and You’re Not Alone: Losing the Victim,…
When managing Hashimoto’s or any autoimmune disease, one goal is to avoid triggers that cause flare ups. Although avoiding dietary triggers — such as gluten, grains, dairy, GMOs, lectins, etc. — is foundational, did you know environmental triggers can cause flare ups too? For example, one of the most common and most overlooked autoimmune triggers…
In the thyroid book I introduced the concepts of TH-1 and TH-2 and their role in autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto’s. It turns out another key player in the autoimmune scenario is TH-17, and that we can work with nitric oxide and glutathione (which I wrote about earlier) to tame autoimmune destruction caused by TH-17.…
An ancient surgical procedure, called trepanation, consisted of drilling a hole in the head and removing a piece of the skull. It is thought this practice was used to release evil spirits that caused mental illness, migraine headaches and other ills. Nowadays, however, if you went to your naturopath with complaints of headaches and she…
If you’re interested in some of the research that has been done on iodine and autoimmune thyroid diseases, this post covers some of those studies. Introduction to iodine and its effects Although adequate iodine consumption is important for thyroid hormone production and iodine deficiency is the most common cause of hypothyroidism worldwide, its supplemental use…