Newsletter #1: Healing Your Thyroid and Activating Your Voice
Welcome to our newsletter!
If you've spent more than a minute with me, you'll know I'm a word-wizard by nature, with a penchant for spinning yarns that could rival a spider's web in complexity. Here's the scoop: I sat down to pen a quick newsletter guide on how I kissed my thyroid troubles goodbye (something I've been asked to share in detail for years), but, true to form, I ended up writing something that could give "War and Peace" a run for its money. My business manager, (Jessica), I'm grateful for her patient heart, reminded me that bite-sized, digestible pieces are best.
So, in an effort not to begin our Lighthouse journey with a saga that could fill a library, I've taken the inaugural issue of our monthly newsletter and made 3 separate weekly newsletters with almost everything I know about healing and recovering the thyroid (which every human needs, in my opinion).
So, welcome to part 1 of 3 of this series of The Lighthouse Newsletter focused on Healing Your Thyroid and Activating Your Voice, delivered on Thursday. I always give more than expected, but I don't want to overload you, so be certain to keep your eyes open for Part 2, next Thursday.
Now onto the newsletter...
Unlocking Thyroid Health: Natural Strategies to Overcome Thyroid Dysfunction
If you have thyroid issues, you can cure them naturally and this newsletter is the first issue in a series of 3 total that are full of so many tools to show you how. Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. Our modern diets, filled with processed foods, pesticides, and pollutants, do more than expand our waistlines; they also challenge our thyroids, key regulators of our body's energy.
This newsletter issue is born from my personal victory over thyroid and autoimmune issues, aiming to illuminate the often-overlooked connections within our bodies. Western medicine might hand you a pill for each symptom, but here, we look at the whole picture. We will explore the intricate connection between our environment, lifestyle choices, how we use our voice, the foods we eat, and the impact on our thyroid health, with a special focus on gluten sensitivity and the misunderstood condition often labeled as celiac disease.
If you're feeling perpetually tired, gaining weight out of nowhere, you have chronic fatigue or pain or your mood and memory aren't what they used to be, you might be experiencing thyroid issues.
Exploring the Full Picture of Thyroid Dysfunction
From inexplicable fatigue, cold sensitivity, and dry skin to the less obvious signs like depression, hoarse voice, or even fertility issues, thyroid dysfunction speaks in many ways. Are your muscles and joints aching without reason? Or perhaps you've noticed your heart racing or your appetite changing dramatically? These symptoms, spanning from hair loss to changes in menstrual cycles (ladies), signal that your thyroid could be calling for help.
Let's embark on this journey together, exploring how to nurture not just our thyroid, but our entire being back to health.
The Frustration of ‘Normal’ Lab Results
One of the most common things I experienced and also see with clients are the “normal” lab results yet they are still experiencing thyroid symptoms. It’s so frustrating. The doc says, “everything looks fine”, but you don’t feel fine. Or worse, the doc doesn’t fully understand the whole nutritional picture (they were not trained to do so) and so they hand out thyroid medications like tic tacs that are a bandaid with side effects. Typically, doctors measure TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), T4, and sometimes T3. However, these tests might not capture the full picture, especially if the issue is at the cellular level or involves conversion problems, which aren't always reflected in TSH levels alone.
Also, most doctors do not take into consideration the adrenal glands, gut health, and microbiome influence because they were not trained to understand it. The gut microbiome plays a critical role in autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's (hypothyroidism) and Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism). The gut bacteria influence, the immune system, hormone conversion, and inflammation levels--- all of these might exacerbate or initiate thyroid dysfunction.
Disclaimer: I'm here to share wisdom like a pirate with a treasure map - not a doctor with a prescription pad. My Insights? Think of them as your guiding compass, not your final destination. So, before you embark on any new health adventures, be sure to check in with your lighthouse's doctor. I light the way; they chart the course.
Thyroid Healing: From Black Mold to Nodule-Free - My Journey & Your Solution 🌿
The Root of Our Health Issues:
After over 15 years serving clients and the community as a holistic health practitioner and somatic life coach, I am now firmly convinced that the root of most health issues today stems from our exposure to environmental toxins, our dietary choices, our thoughts, unprocessed emotions, and the medications we use.
Here’s how my journey unfolded:
In 2013, despite a very healthy diet, I was stressed from a recent divorce, gaining weight, losing muscle, and plagued by pain, migraines, and exhaustion. My digestion was off, and I had rashes. I was 3 years into running my business and my son was just 3 years old. A misguided attempt to eat less meat combined with a discovery that we were living in a home with airborne black mold—were significant but not sole contributors to my health woes. This led me to learn about adrenal fatigue, glyphosate poisoning, gut health, mycotoxin exposure, thyroid issues, autoimmune diseases, methylation issues, genetics, and more.
While meeting with my holistic doc, he said, “Renee, you have nodules on your thyroid. I know you are going to try to heal these yourself first but please check back in with me in 6 months.”
I decided not to give in to fear but to heal myself.
Here's what my approach included:
Understanding the Body:
Recognizing that our adrenal glands, liver, gallbladder, and gut health are crucial for thyroid function.
Nutrition:
What we eat daily shapes our health, from the glyphosate in Cheerios to mold in coffee. (I explain much more about glyphosate in a future issue of this newsletter - stay tuned).
Environmental Toxins:
From mold to endocrine disruptors in daily used products, these significantly impact our health by increasing estrogen levels, which affects the thyroid.
Lifestyle:
Stress, personal relationships, and history, negative thoughts, and even our inner critic—all play roles in our health narrative.
The Unseen Impacts - Consider the Toxins in Your Daily Routine
Consider an experience I had: I discovered extremely high Bismuth levels in my system, an ingredient in Pepto Bismol, which I had NOT consumed in over 20 years! The culprit? An "organic" makeup I was using that unknowingly was leading to significant digestive issues. Surprising, right? Here’s more…
Daily consumption of Cheerios means you're likely taking in considerable amounts of glyphosate (herbicide, and crop desiccant), a topic I dive into more next week.
Your “super healthy” protein bars likely have soy lecithin- which contain phytoestrogens and impact hormones and the thyroid. Those so-called healthy bars have more sugar than a donut and that sugar impacts the thyroid.
Regularly eating bread, crackers, or granola bars? Expect more glyphosate poisoning.
Or perhaps you opt for diet sodas, thinking you're cutting calories, but you're also introducing a cocktail of chemicals that disrupt your body's balance.
Do you have a penchant for sweets? This affects your insulin and cortisol levels---both influence thyroid hormones.
Coffee lovers, be aware: many coffee brands contain high mold levels. This creates inflammation and you guessed it, impacts the thyroid.
And those household products? If you're using traditional items like Tide or old-school cleaning agents, you might be surrounding yourself with endocrine disruptors, thought safe but far from it.
Personal stress or a habit of negative thinking can compound these issues. I go deeper into this in a future issue of the newsletter. I consider the habit of negative thinking to have just as bad of an impact on the thyroid as the food itself (strong statement, I know).
A Personal Health Revolution
My holistic healing journey began when I was 16-17 years old, during the late 90s, battling allergies, infections, and a weakened immune system likely triggered by my diet, stress, and also a tetanus shot that led to an immediate case of Shingles. I realized then that doctors often overlook the diet-health-shot link. They couldn’t figure out why a 17-year-old had Shingles and basically no immune system. When I asked if it was what I was eating, the doctor told me that “food was a placebo and had no bearing on my health”! I didn't put together the shot I received, just a week before, with those painful Shingles bumps on my abdomen. My doctor gave me zero answers or help.
This was my wake-up call. I became an advocate for my own health, realizing that medical education often lacks substantial nutrition courses, focusing instead on medication over prevention.
We are not being protected - we must protect ourselves
The industrial food revolution has transformed our diets, often prioritizing addiction over nutrition, leading to a surge in health issues in the United States in particular, that are obvious and visible when we compare global dietary impacts. As food giants employ tactics from the tobacco playbook, hiring their scientists to make food more addictive, we're seeing a landscape where what's on our plates is more about profit than health.
A Call to Awareness. This is not just information; it's a call to action:
Assess Your Life:
Look at your diet, your environment, and your emotional and mental health. What are you consuming, taking in, putting on your skin, breathing in?
Take Action:
Small changes like choosing cleaner products, managing stress, becoming a label reading junky, using the Yuka App to check to scan food and personal care products to help you understand their impact on your health. You could go grain-free and/or gluten-free to initiate healing. Start somewhere simple.
It’s my opinion that diets rich in nutrients like iodine, selenium, vitamin D, B vitamins, magnesium, and zinc are crucial.
Eating grain-free is important and so is healing your gut as a strategy.
Stress management and controlling your thoughts are imperative.
After working with clients for over 15 years, I see “most” long-term thyroid medication as a band-aid to manage symptoms. They don’t address auto-immune origins, gut health, and the root issues that caused them, which means that the thyroid issues remain unaddressed.
Meds don’t tackle lifestyle factors like stress, your thinking, your diet, and exposure to endocrine disruptors.
Moving Forward
This newsletter issue is the beginning of a guide to taking control over your health, amidst a world of hidden health adversaries. You are being called upon to be a Lighthouse and to be the keeper of your Lighthouse first and foremost.
Start with what's manageable, reflect on your consumption in all aspects, and embrace a path to wellness.
P.S. My thyroid healed; no nodules, no autoimmune issues, no chronic fatigue or pain. No migraines! There's hope. You can heal too. I can show you how.
P.P.S. Let's embark on this journey together! You have options: work with me directly (below), or dive into your journey with the free strategies in this issue of the newsletter and the one's that will follow. Act now—your growth path awaits, and I'm here to walk it with you.
The FDA Isn't Doing Enough to Keep Dangerous Chemicals Out of Food
On October 15, along with parents, doctors, nutritionists, healers, and state politicians, I joined a groundbreaking grassroots movement at Kellogg's headquarters, where hundreds from across the nation, led by Vani Hari (@thefoodbabe), marched to demand cleaner ingredients in our children's foods, particularly their cereals.
We delivered over 400,000 petitions, but Kellogg's response was a chilling silence and a sign to 'Get Off My Lawn'. We had a peaceful protest with children and parents who are beyond fed up with the crap in our food. This indifference shows Kellogg’s disregard for American health, using artificial dyes made from petroleum-based colors that are brighter and cause attention disorders in children. and cancer-causing BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) in the U.S. while opting for natural alternatives abroad. In Europe, Kellogg's uses carrot and watermelon juice to color the cereals. BHT, a preservative, is banned from use in food in Europe due to its toxicity in animal studies. It has been linked to issues with the liver, thyroid, kidneys, and lungs, can promote tumor growth, and may mimic the hormone estrogen.
They will eventually be held accountable for poisoning American citizens with artificial ingredients and toxic substances.
A significant portion of the FDA's budget, especially in its drug regulatory sector, comes from user fees paid by pharmaceutical companies under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). While this directly relates to drug regulation, it illustrates a broader point about the FDA's financial dependencies. Although less directly tied to food, these financial relationships can lead to conflicts of interest where regulatory actions might favor industry over public health.
Companies like Kellogg's do not care about our children, they spend millions hiring scientists they recruited from the tobacco industry to make food purposefully addictive.
Food and beverage companies spend nearly $2 billion each year marketing junk food to kids.
Over 92 million boxes of artificially colored Froot Loops are sold each year!
It’s time to put our health over profits. I encourage you to Boycott Kelloggs and any other company that has products filled with crap.
Check out my Instagram for a video of our united voices singing the national anthem outside of Kellogg’s headquarters.
Visit Vani Hari's website to learn how to join the #boycottkelloggs movement.
I grew up eating cereal like many of us did-- I loved cereal so much and it also turned me into a sugar addict. The cereal now is much different - the ingredients now are far worse than sugar.
We want the harmful glyphosate, artificial dyes, and BHT preservatives out of our food and Kellogg's is only the beginning of a HEALTHY FOOD MOVEMENT that is long overdue.
Let's create change for the health our children (and all of us) deserve!
Pictured below: Renee and Calley Means, healthcare reform advocate and Whistleblower who used to consult for the pharmaceutical and food industries and saw the massive corruption firsthand. Along with many of us, he is helping to shift the healthcare focus from medication treatment to prevention.
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Online Course: Heal Your Gut 18-Day Eating Plan and Cleanse (50 days of access)
“This program (Heal Your Gut Cleanse) has been much more than a diet plan, but really a symphony of the mind, spirit, body, and balance with the environment that we live in and a great stepping stone into a healthy lifestyle. Much more important than the 11lbs I lost is what I have gained in the approach to loving myself and starting to put myself on a higher priority list instead of always at the bottom – that of course is a work in progress since I have been so engrained in helping others first. I love myself and even better is I love the person I will become. Like a caterpillar trapped within a cocoon from society’s demands, Renee has started me on my own metamorphosis to become fully who I am destined to be. Thank you, Renee!”
- Dr. David Schindler, MD
Somatic Practice: Activating Your Voice
Start by finding a comfortable seated position where you can feel your throat open and relaxed.
Gently hum at a comfortable pitch for five minutes, feeling the vibrations in your throat, then gradually open your mouth to transition the hum into an "Ah" sound, allowing your voice to express freely and release any tension or blocked energy with each breath.
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