Todays Hashimoment: Lets Make 2015 The Year of Remission! Remission should be the goal for all of us. Lets make it our resolution for 2015! We should all strive to get Hashimoto’s to a place that can allow us to have our lives back. And we should all work hard to stop the progression and the proliferation of the underlying autoimmune process. The stakes of not doing this are just too high. But how do you define remission? And what happens when you get there? The problem with focusing on this as a goal is that this implies that once we reach it, we’re done. And this begs the question: How do we know when we get there? One way that some people define remission is normal blood work including normal or undetectable antibodies. There are several problems with this. Many, many people have normal blood test results and feel awful. And antibody numbers are not static, they are changing all the time. Getting them into a normal range is a good thing, but it is not a guarantee that they will stay there. And there are lots of reasons why blood tests can look normal and you can still feel terrible (Ive written about this on several occasions). The immune system can release TSH and thyroid hormones all by itself, and this can throw off your results and make them less meaningful. Also, your pituitary absorbs thyroid hormone differently than the cells in the rest of your body, so it may be getting enough thyroid hormone while the rest of your body is not. Again making your blood test results less meaningful. So, blood test results aren’t the only measure of success. As I have said repeatedly, how you feel, on the other hand, is diagnostically important and clinically relevant with Hashimoto’s. This is actually a really important measure of success. And the other problem with viewing remission as an end point is that if we do get there, it is a natural tendency to get complacent and to just go back to the same old behavior and diet that contributed to you being sick in the first place. That’s just human nature. So, I invite you to see remission as a journey and not as a destination. And to view it as a path and not a place you reach. If you think about it his way, it involves a higher level of acceptance and commitment. Because it’s not conditional and it’s not something you’re ever finished with. Remission is an ever evolving journey and if you are committed and vigilant and open to the possibilities of personal growth and transformation then it becomes like a kind of garden that just keeps rewarding you with new gifts. Because here’s the other thing, you never know how good it could be and if you just settle for normal blood test results, then you might be putting a cap on this that stops you from going to a much higher place. The possibilities are endless, people, when you think of it this way. What we need to do is to create a lifestyle that supports healing and remission every single day. And strive to do that at every opportunity. That’s a whole different ball game. What are your thoughts on this? Please share them with us.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:36:54 +0000
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