Kinesiologist and naturopath Georgia Kilpatrick takes us on Karen’s amazing Hashimoto’s journey to wellness.
Karen was 38 years old when she first arrived in my clinic room.
She had been through the medical system and was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. She felt very relieved to have finally found out what was wrong, as she thought she was going crazy!
What is Hashimoto’s?
Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition that causes the thyroid to slow down, otherwise know as autoimmune hypothyroiditis. The immune system starts attacking the thyroid because it decides it is foreign and not part of the body anymore.
Karen’s Hashimoto’s symptoms
Karen’s symptoms were:
- Being really tired, even after sleeping extra every night, and to the point of exhaustion before even making dinner;
- Gaining weight although she’d been eating relatively healthily;
- Digestion had totally slowed down so she was now constipated with gas, wind, and bloating, and felt indigestion constantly;
- Constantly feeling stressed and worried about the littlest things. She didn’t used to worry this much!
- Feeling really down in the dumps with everything, although areas of her life were going really well.
Karen had steadily been feeling worse over the last year or so, but she did say she had never felt the same since she had a bad bout of gastro she picked up from one of her kids 18 months before.
Note: whenever a patient says “they haven’t felt the same since…”, my practitioner brain always starts wondering: what changed? With regards to autoimmune conditions this is very significant. Often an acute infection which seemingly has been resolved hasn’t totally cleared up in the gut (or if a virus is in the system), and continues in the background to use up valuable immune strength and cause inflammation. This is when—if that person has a genetic tendency for any autoimmune condition—the gene is “switched on”.
Pharmaceutical drugs prescribed
Immune suppressants and thyroxine had been prescribed to Karen, however she wanted to explore alternatives before committing to start them. She had already cleaned up her diet a lot, cut out gluten, and a lot of sugars and started to feel a bit better. But her body needed some more support to come back into a good balance.
Kinesiology balances for Hashimoto’s
Karen’s kinesiology balances focused on several things.
Immunity & inflammation
- Often the immune system is out of balance. That is, the ratio of cells called T-helper cells is out. When there is more of one than the other, the immune system is more likely to be in autoimmune attack mode. So it is important to address this.
- In a kinesiology immune balance, the body is simply indicating if something is a stress, and therefore if it “knows” how to deal with it. In Karen’s balance, a gut microbe was indicated, along with the imbalance of the immune cells.
- Inflammation – when there is inflammation along the gut lining, it will affect the ratio of the immune cells. Therefore, it is often a key factor in immune balances. The balance of good and bad gut bacteria within the digestive organs themselves are key drivers of inflammation along the gut wall. Therefore, it is paramount to address conditions such as leaky gut and SIBO.
Stress
- Stress in the body—whether it is experienced as anxiousness, depression, overwhelm, or busy days—always drives any inflammation in the body. Therefore, there is always some stress to address. In Karen’s balances, there was a significant stress that dated prior to the bout of gastro.
Detoxing
- Detoxing is often a major focus in autoimmune cases. When there are a lot of heavy metals and chemicals from modern-day living in the system, it causes a lot of oxidation which in turn drives inflammation. In cases of autoimmunity, when the immune system is already working hard, easing the toxin load can have tremendous effects! Thus strengthening and supporting the detox organs (the liver in particular) is very important.
- Balancing the body to chemicals found in our modern lifestyles is almost always a priority. For Karen, this balance came up on the 3rd kinesi session. It was after this balance that she really started to notice a difference in her mood and energy.
Thyroid and thyroid hormones
- Last but not least, Karen’s thyroid was indicated to balance. Kinesiology is primarily based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine system of the meridians. In this system, there is a meridian for the thyroid called the Triple Warmer. Each meridian has specific muscles that relate to it, and for this meridian we use the teres minor. This particular muscle wasn’t locking (activating) properly until we had balanced the body to the above. By the 4th kinesiology balance, the teres minor muscle started to gain good strength.
My thyroid is back!
After six months of following a very clean diet (paleo style); a gut and liver/kidney detox; gut rebuilding with herbs and specific nutritional supplements; plus herbs to support thyroid function, immune-system rebalancing and energy; Karen returned from a doctor’s visit with the triumphant words, “My thyroid is back!!”
This meant that the thyroid hormones were back in a healthy range and the indicators of autoimmunity had significantly reduced to a point her doctor and endocrinologist were happy for her not to be on immunosuppressants and thyroxine.
Maintaining the rage
As maintenance, Karen does a thorough 6-8 week detox annually. She has a kinesiology balance when she feels “not quite right”. After two years since her initial consult, this is about every 4-6 months. She knows what foods to eat and which ones to avoid when she’s busy, stressed, or feeling the downhill slide again.
Congratulations Karen! You are an exemplary patient. I am so proud of you and how much you learnt about your own wellbeing and happiness along the way!
Talk to Georgia
If you think kinesiology sounds like the right choice for you, call the clinic for an appointment on 1300 03 03 25, or book online anytime.
