Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause Paperback – 31 May 2013

I bought this book when I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I felt utterly overwhelmed by the diagnosis of autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimotos) and desperate to find a way to get better. This book is the product of the authors experience, both as a sufferer herself but, perhaps just as importantly, as a pharmacist whose combined medical knowledge and more holistic understanding of how the things we put into our body affects what we get out.This book lays out exactly how you get to the underlying cause of your disease process and clearly sets out a pathway to health using the authors "DIG AT IT" approach:D = Depletions, DigestionI = Iodine, Inflammation, Infection, Immune ImbalanceG = Gut healing, GlutenA = Adrenals, Alkaline PhosphataseT = TriggersI= IntolerancesT= ToxinsThis book is for you if:1)You are willing to take responsibility for your health into your own hands.2)You are doggedly determined to find out what is causing your autoimmunity and tackle the underlying issue with the aim of getting it into remission.3)You are willing to make whatever diet and lifestyle changes you need to in order to get yourself well. I'm talking big stuff here. Like giving up sugar, alcohol, grains, gluten, in your search for your triggers. To give an example: I have been a strict vegetarian for 25 years. To solve MY specific depletion issues, I have had to start eating meat.4)You can find money in your budget to spend on supplements, vitamins and minerals, some of which are quite expensive.5)You have a GP who is willing to be OPEN MINDED to views on this disease which do not follow UK NHS dogma and will work WITH and FOR you in obtaining the tests required to assess what action to take (this was the hardest part for me personally and I have ended up having to pay for much of the testing privately.)This book is not for you if:1)You are looking to suppress your symptoms by popping a prescribed pill without really wanting to understand the underlying disease process or make any big changes to your lifestyle.2)You are easily put off by the complexity of human biology. This book is in depth and in truth, you will probably end up with more knowledge on the subject than your GP has by the last page. It goes way beyond medical school teaching or conventional NHS policy on treatment. You will need to be invested in reading this book and looking up things you dont understand along the way. It is worth it and whenever I checked out anything I was unsure of, what Izabella Wentz had concluded was always spot on. It is an amazingly well researched book.Along the authors own journey she has either considered or tried almost every diet, protocol, supplement and drug available for this condition and her own research on the rationale behind them brings together what I can only say appears to be the best knowledge out there.I nearly gave this book 4 stars because the one major downside of this book is that it is written for an American audience where the healthcare system is different and you can walk into your doctors office and demand a battery of tests, pretty much on a whim and as long as your insurance will cover it, the doctor will order it. Not so in the UK and many of the tests mentioned were things my GP was not willing to entertain or had never heard of. Fortunately, I found a fabulous functional nutritionist who was able to order many of the tests instead of my GP. Not cheap, but worth it to get the answers I needed. I also found it massively frustrating that the 'Decoy' supplement Thyrophin PMG (suggested in the book) is only available in the USA and I couldnt get any of the US sites selling it online to ship it to a UK address. I got round this by having it sent to a family member in the US who then posted it on to me, but, it is annoying to find things which really could be helping a lot of people with this condition are so hard to get hold of over here.Anyhow, if you are newly diagnosed and looking for help, start here, with this book. If I can also just say, if you are newly diganosed and you are feeling utterly floored by it all, scared, anxious and very unsure what the future holds for you health, please take courage from the author of this book. There is HOPE and you CAN and WILL feel better than you do today.I would also recommend Dr Datis Kharazzian's book 'Why do I still have thyroid symptoms when my lab results are normal?' and 'The immune system recovery plan' by Susan Blum. Lots of people suggested I get 'Stop The Thyroid Madness' and it is a good book for people with Thyroid Disease but I wouldnt recommend it in your first round of reading because Hashimotos is actually about understanding Autoimmunity first and foremost and *then* how it affects your thyroid.Best of luck on your journey to health.2017 update: Since writing this review I was diagnosed with several more autoimmune diseases and the battle against them began. It's been a long road but I now have the autoimmunity well controlled. I am well. I'm working. I'm living, not existing. My TPO antibodies are in remission and TgAs are low and stable.Please could I also recommend to anyone facing autoimmunity the following books:The Paleo Approach by Sarah BallantyneThe Autoimmune Solution by Amy MyersThese two books compliment the Dr Wentz approach very well.

If you want to know more about the Thyroid from a book that is not overly technical then this is the one for you. The chemistry of the Thyroid is a complicated process, and other books I have read need a solid understanding of Chemistry, this one doesn't. That said I don't pretend to understand it all but I would say (as a lay person) I have about a 90% understanding now. The book starts very simplistic and builds your understanding from simple to complex. The author adds a box of her own experiences in the discussed area which takes it back to practicality (which I like). This book covers: Knowledge about your Thyroid, what it is, does, things that can go wrong, things that affect it (e.g foods & toxins), tests that can be done, and changing your diet. What I find useful is that many GP's say when your Thyroid is defective (under/over active) that's it you are on tablets for life, this book shows that thinking is wrong. The most useful thing for me is understanding the wide range of tests that can be done to clarify what your Thyroid issue is, then many diet suggestions on how you can put it right naturally. This book is expensive, but If you only buy one Thyroid book then this needs to be it. The only thing I found disappointing is that the use of low level lazers to repair a damaged Thyroid was not covered (even though using Ultraviolet light is hinted at). In the USA these are widely used, but in the U.K. this is in the testing stage. Maybe this will be covered in a later book. In my view, well worth the money.

I fell in love with this book! Having being diagnosed with hashimoto's, I was feeling very frustrated not getting better taking levothyroxine. My GP would tell me it was an autoimmune disease and yet couldn't tell me what went wrong in my immune system for these things to happen. I heard about root causes a lot so decided I'd try his book. It's brilliant as Izabella Wentz has hashimoto's herself it's easy to relate too as you feel like you can relate a lot more. There are a lot of medical and scientific references, but it's still easy to understand and realise why certain things link together with thyroid issues such as adrenal fatigue. The explanations given are great as to how your body can react and makes you think about what things have started your condition. There is no quick cure for hashimoto's as all our bodies are different and we have different genes and what could work for one couldn't work for someone else. The references given to find supplements etc are great the only thing that annoys me in uk is the docs can't just test to find what else is wrong the give you drugs to mask symptoms and they don't work, and we get worse. Most the time as patients we have to pay extra for testing to try and get to our root cause which is wrong. I think all GP'S and Endocrinologists should read this book to help us patients get our bodies back in to remission and start to feel well again. I am on the road to recovery but have a long way to go, I certainly won't be taking levothyroxine again