The Hormone Diet

THE HORMONE DIET

 

Introduction

If you are looking for a big opportunity, seek out a big problem.

--H. Jackson Brown Jr.

My Story of Hormonal Havoc

Just a few months had passed since I had graduated from college

in 1993. I was 22. I arrived home one day from my summer

job in tears and feeling overwhelmed. I felt weak and feverish. I

couldn’t think - my head was buzzing with confusion. I couldn’t

understand people when they spoke to me. I couldn’t seem to

process information fast enough to make sense of anything. My

best friend, Lise, who was living with me at the time, was talking

to me about some mundane household incident and all I could do

was stare blankly back at her. She said, “Don’t worry, I can tell

you’re just not getting it. It’s okay.” I started to cry again. I

thought I was going crazy and was certain I had a serious neurological

disease.

Later that day, I wound up in the emergency room, where the doctors

found I indeed had a fever, along with severe anemia. They told

me to take some iron and to go home and rest, which was about all

I was capable of doing. I would wake up feeling okay, but within

minutes the confusion and fogginess in my head would return. I

couldn’t even watch TV.

When I thought about it as best I could, I realized something had

been off for months before my breaking point. I had needed so

much sleep - over 16 hours a day - and was too tired to go to the

gym, even though I was an exercise fanatic. I was gaining weight -

25 pounds, a lot for my small frame - and I felt fat and unattractive.

My periods were irregular and I was losing fistfuls of hair. I had

chalked it all up to the stress of finishing school and ending a relationship

with my boyfriend at the time.

Thank heavens the emergency room doctor who treated me

decided to investigate more thoroughly into why I was so anemic and

tested my blood to rule out hypothyroidism. Days later, I received a

call letting me know my TSH was over 25; a normal level is considered

to be less than 4.7, and an optimal level is less than 2. (TSH is

a hormone that increases when the thyroid is not functioning well.)

I was severely hypothyroid, with extremely low iron levels. Confusion

was overcoming me because my brain function was slowing

down along with the rest of me. I started taking thyroid medication

immediately. Within a week I felt like a completely different person,

and I continue to take thyroid medication today.

From THE HORMONE DIET by Natasha Turner, ND

Copyright (c) 2010 by Essence Wellness, Inc.