<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Conclusions, in my extreme case:
1.  My intestinal damage did not heal well for 66 years without assistance,
even after going gluten free.
2.  Intestinal damage severely limited absorption of Armour Thyroid.
3.  Intestinal damage severely limited absorption of thyroid hormone
precursors so that my thyroid gland was considered “lazy” or even inactive.
4.  Testing positive for Hasimotos Disease, or thyroiditis, may be
misleading as to the cause of my poor thyroid production.
5.  My brain fog seems to be mostly a function of low temperature and low
thyroid created by gluten hits.
6.  Probiotic in the form of kefir allowed healing so the thyroid
gland operated almost normally, except during gluten hits.

Many others may suffer from the same situation but at a much lower level,
and thus are not able to realize or isolate what is happening.

History and observations:
1.  As a baby I had Celiac Sprue, per recently found notes by my
mother.  The cause was not known to be gluten at that time.
2.  In 1958, at age 18, I was put on 5 grains (300 mg) of Armour
Thyroid due to a “lazy” thyroid gland.  This amount is considered
a complete replacement for an inactive thyroid gland.
3.  In 2001 my naturopath diagnosed probable Dermatitis Herpetiformis
(DH) based on skin problems and greatly increasing mental and physical
fatigue.  Blood test was positive.  I went GF and improvements
started in 9 weeks.
4.  The base amount of Armour Thyroid was increased to 6 grains
(360 mg).  With multiple gluten hits I have needed as much as
14 grains (840 mg) of Armour Thyroid to maintain body temperature
and be able to think.  (The endocrinologist says that is enough to kill
an elephant, but at least he is being open minded and learning.)  A
gluten hit for me lasts 3 months, with the last month showing significant
improvement.  If I am exposed to gluten during those three
months the damage is incrementally increased (more Armour).  As an
adult with DH I have not had any gastric upset from gluten exposure.
5.  After reading comments and articles on probiotics and kefir I
started consuming kefir daily in about March of 2006.  By June of
2006 I was down to taking 1 grain (60 mg) of Armour Thyroid.  My
thyroid gland had started to function more or less normally.

Note that I had previously tried live culture yoghurt and simple
probiotics that were primarily Lactobacillus sp. with no positive result.

Roger Weiss, WA

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