Thyroid gland, one of the important glands of our body, tracks and governs the digestive system and performs various other operations. But the malfunction of the thyroid gland results in hypothyroidism. And, hypothyroidism is caused due to Hashimoto's autoimmune condition. Autoimmune conditions leave chronic inflammation in our body that needs to be treated with diet and lifestyle changes. Let's look into the blog to know about the diet options available to rebuild our health.
What is Inflammation?
Inflammation is our body's own method of fighting the foreign cells that reach our body. When a virus or bacteria attacks our body, the immune system releases chemicals to protect us and that causes inflammation in that particular area. Inflammation may be acute or chronic.
Acute inflammation symptoms are evident and usually go off within a few hours or days. But chronic inflammation symptoms are subtle that includes weight gain, tiredness, and fatigue. Chronic inflammation needs treatment and diagnosis to cure.
What is an anti-inflammatory diet?
Anti-inflammatory diet is prescribed to reduce chronic inflammation and to enhance the body's health. These diets include fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, and foods containing Omega 3 fatty acids. And it eliminates sugar, savour foods, dairy products, and processed foods completely.
Autoimmune condition and Hashimoto's thyroiditis:
Autoimmune condition or disease is a stage in which your immune system attacks your own body cells.
The main responsibility of your immune system is to protect you from foreign cells. Also, the immune system fights and prevents us from various diseases. Sometimes our immune system misleads our own body cells as foreign cells and attacks them. This leads to the root cause of autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis, celiac disease, and inflammatory bowel disease.
The reasons for this autoimmune condition may be the environmental factors and the inflammation developed in the body. Hashimoto's thyroiditis attacks the thyroid gland and disturbs its production. Therefore the deficiency of thyroid hormone production causes Hypothyroidism in people.
Anti-inflammatory diet to treat hypothyroidism:
There are various diets that help many patients get rid of their symptoms of Hypothyroidism. Each diet recommends people to eliminate foods that have inflammatory effects on their body. The following are some of the diet practices that derive maximum results when followed strictly.
Gluten free diet:
Gluten is a protein commonly found in wheat, barley, and rye. In Hashimoto’s autoimmune condition your body's own antibodies affect the thyroid and disturb its function. Gluten similar to the structure of the thyroid is also attacked by antibodies. This increases the inflammation and worsens the disease. And so, avoiding gluten completely is necessary for treating thyroid disease.
Also, gluten causes leaky gut, and chances are high that people diagnosed with hypothyroidism are also diagnosed with celiac disease. Moreover, gluten can cause cancer, heart diseases in some people. Additionally, a gluten free diet reduces inflammation naturally and promotes thyroid function.
Instead of gluten, add more fresh fruits and vegetables, good fats to your diet.
The Paleo diet:
The Paleo diet is one of the successful anti-inflammatory diet practices that helped many people who suffered from Hashimoto's disease. According to a survey, the paleo diet reduced 82 % inflammation in autoimmune conditions.
The Paleo diet focuses first on eliminating inflammatory foods such as processed foods, canned drinks, refined sugars, soy, and more. And the diet shifts to consuming lean meat, fatty fish, pork, and leafy greens.
The paleo diet reduces many symptoms of autoimmune conditions such as joint pain, fatigue, stress, and tiredness. It improves thyroid functions and aids in weight loss. Overall, the paleo diet seems to be the favourite diet for many people.
Mediterranean diet:
The Mediterranean diet came into practice by the people who live near the Mediterranean sea, Italy and Spain. This diet is followed to improve the health condition of chronic diseases.
The Mediterranean diet includes a large part of fresh veggies, legumes, nuts, and olive oil. In the Mediterranean diet, red meat, sugars, and dairy products are strictly avoided.
It is found that this diet stabilizes the immune system and fights inflammation. Also, this diet prevents the risk of cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, and type 2 diabetes. The Mediterranean diet is followed to improve one's health condition but it also helps in weight loss.
Gaps diet:
Autoimmune condition is due to the leaky gut in which the gut releases the toxins into the body. These toxins damage the whole body and serve as a reason for many diseases.
In order to deal with this, the GAPS diet was introduced. This diet heals the gut lining by involving certain lifestyle and food changes. Any food that favours and reconstructs the digestive system is advised to consume. Gaps diet targets to heal your gut and build your digestion process.
Gaps diet strictly eliminates inflammatory foods, grains, refined carbohydrates, and dairy products. Foods such as fresh meat, bone broth, vegetables, and nutritious food are taken as a part of Gaps diet.
Elemental diet:
Elemental diet is a diet practice in which the patients consume only liquids as food. This diet is considered if one has serious digestive or intestinal issues. And no solid foods are consumed while following this diet.
This diet treats the whole body by resting your bowel and intestine. Liquids are easily absorbed by the intestines and avoid pressure on the digestive system. Hence this diet is recommended depending upon the digestive capacity of the patients.
This diet is not advised if your goal is weight loss, as this mainly focuses on achieving good health. Most importantly, this diet seems to reduce the symptoms of inflammatory diseases. Elemental diet can be incorporated only under medical supervision.
Although these diets have numerous health benefits, it needs to be followed only after a medical practitioner's advice.
Why does Jeevam Health recommend an anti-inflammatory diet for autoimmune conditions?
Autoimmune conditions produce inflammation and worsen the disease even more. Inflammation is developed because of many reasons and one such is inflammatory foods that trigger the situation. Hence following an anti-inflammatory diet will not only reduce the inflammation but also will help you recover from the disease easily.
Anti-inflammatory diets improve the health conditions of severe diseases and reduce inflammation. That is why Jeevam Health doctors recommend an anti-inflammatory diet to patients suffering from chronic inflammation. But also choosing a diet must not be according to your interest. A diet must be undertaken after a doctor's advice.
We, at Jeevam Health, examine patients' bodies, history, their immune systems and recommend personalized diets according to the needs of the patient's body.
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