Alright, you’ve been a good girl, your gut is cleansed of Candida, and you’re still listless, lethargic, bloated, well on your way to Baldsville, and for some reason you don’t even really care that much.
Seriously.
You used to have this HUGE barrel full of craps to give, and now that thing is so empty, hippies use it for their drum circle.
It’s not you, darling. It’s your thyroid.
I lost a beloved family member late last summer, and I was already deficient in B vitamins (because I’d gotten sloppy about my self-care and hadn’t taken my vitamins regularly in months), and in iodine (because I use the pretty pink salt instead of the iodized stuff, and my chickens were molting, which meant: no eggs). The trifecta of those deficiencies plus the increased cortisol levels from stress sent my thyroid off a cliff in September.
My hair fell out by the handfuls for over two months; I’d lost a good 80% of it by the time it stopped. My waist thickened even though I’m not a comfort eater: I was fatigued, depressed…when you’re rapidly going bald and you don’t even care, there should be klaxons going off in your head, girlfriend.
I half-heartedly did a few charcoal cleanses during that time, since the depression, fatigue, and bloating mimicked Candida symptoms, and I thought I was losing hair from stress because that’s happened before, but nothing improved, and then in mid-November I started having arrhythmia.
Every day.
Heart palpitations are NOT a sign of Candida overgrowth. Suddenly, a light bulb came on in my brain, and the hair loss, weight gain, depression, and palpitations pattern came together and spelled “hypothyroid“.
- Fatigue
- Weakness
- Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight
- Coarse, dry hair
- Dry, rough pale skin
- Hair loss
- Cold intolerance
- Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
- Constipation
- Depression
- Irritability
- Memory loss
- Abnormal menstrual cycles
- Decreased libido
- Slower/irregular heartbeat
(Typically: An increased heart rate + palpitations = hyperthyroid. Slower heart rate + irregular beat = hypothyroid)
I’d thought that hypothyroidism only happened to other women.
Older women. You know, mid-30’s and up. Old people. Not me.
Wait a minute…I just turned 36.
Okay, I jest. I was too depressed to be that melodramatic about it.
There are many causes of hypothyroidism: it can be triggered by a deficiency in a number of elements, like selenium and Vitamin D. For a list of them complete with exceptions and warnings, click here.
If you have reason to think you may have a more serious underlying problem with your thyroid than a simple deficiency (like if you’ve already tried supplementing and didn’t see improvement), you should definitely make an appointment with an endocrinologist and get bloodwork done.
When I looked it up, B vitamins and iodine jumped out at me because I hadn’t been taking my vitamins, and hadn’t been getting iodine from my usual source. I decided to try those since I already had them, and there was no reason to suspect I had Hashimoto’s or Graves’ (for which iodine is contraindicated).
I got right back on my vitamins, which contain the complete B complex, and I had potassium iodide on hand so I started taking two of those a day. Within 7 days my hair stopped falling out and I was already feeling much better, emotionally. Over the next month, everything gradually normalized, with my waist slimming back down and my hair visibly starting to re-grow like gangbusters.
I’d had to cut 6″ off and wear the skimpy remainder in a bun, because I had nothing left to braid and it made the saddest little ponytail you ever saw.
I started supplements the week of Thanksgiving and was back to feeling like myself again around Christmas.
A week later, the Staph From Hell began. A week after I finally killed that infection, I developed a UTI, which I killed off….a week ago…..
Hide me.
I am trying to figure out what might be the problem with me and so I was skimming your blog. I am on day 6 of celery juice in the morning and thought I would be having diarrhea and instead I am constipated! I have had my thyroid checked numerous times and so I don’t think that is the problem. I am usually very regular so I am wondering if it is the celery juice?? It is very confusing because I was fine even on the charcoal cleanse just a few weeks ago! I have even taken magnesium and nothing. Does the celery juice do something that could be causing this problem?
Interesting! It generally causes quite the opposite issue.
You’ve got lemon in the celery juice? Are you taking lemon shots with meals?
I haven’t been as faithful as I should with the lemon shots with meals. I decided to order the HCL caps because that will be more convenient. I have only been drinking straight celery juice because I wasn’t sure about adding lemon because most sites state that it should only be consumed by itself. I am just a little perplexed that I never have a problem and suddenly I do. I wanted to get the most from the celery juice and can add lemon to it and see how that works.
I try not to be too purist about anything because you find out more if you experiment. 😁
My rationale for using lemon and ginger with the celery is that the acid in the lemon helps absorption when you have little acid of your own, and the ginger is a natural digestive stimulant and full of enzymes.
That blend is also highly potent at killing bacterial and fungal pathogens. Some people have, in the beginning, what can only be described as explosive diarrhea…which is why you want to have charcoal on hand when you start. That’s the ideal situation for a really good charcoal cleanse.
Now, if you have a gram positive bacteria you want to use ascorbic acid rather than lemon, and if you have the rare E. coli strain that responds badly to ginger (increased bladder pressure 40 minutes after ingestion) you want to just do celery and lemon.
Very helpful! Thank you! I am not sure what I have because the nitrite pad is clear but the leukocyte pad is never clear. 🙁 I have been told possible IC because they tell me nothing grows most of the time even though my bladder pain will flare. I tried the lemon in the celery juice this morning and that seemed to get things moving but nothing explosive. Hehe. I will add ginger to the mix tomorrow and see what happens!
And your bladder felt fine after the lemon juice, I take it?
Yes! I felt no irritation from it.
Okay, if you had a gram positive bacteria it would have felt worse.
If you had a gram negative bacteria it would feel better.
If your problem is a case of gut poisoning irritating your bladder, you’ll feel much better with charcoal cleansing.
If none of that makes you feel better, the irritation is vaginal, not bladder.
Are your leuks ever pink instead of purple?
When I let it sit at least 5 minutes it turns more of a pink color than purple. When I took charcoal a few weeks ago it definitely helped with the bladder discomfort and I felt so much better. It did not clear for good though so I might not have taken enough because I only took 5 pills every morning which is 2500mg and I should have probably taken 2-3x that amount.
Yes, you want to get things galloping along and then take a couple of 5 gram doses in succession, ideally. That’ll settle its hash and any purple leuks will clear up. You may also pee Candida afterward (looks like white shreds/flakes/strings).
Pink leuks indicates the presence of BV bacteria: for that you want to blend ACV into melted coconut oil like you’re making salad dressing, and chill into bullets.
Use a piece the size of your pinkie finger’s middle joint every night for 3-5 nights.
Ok! I am going to double check it again in the morning because I am second-guessing the color. I am ready to get this cleared. It would be nice to be able to drink a glass of wine occasionally without worrying about having the consequences of a terrible UTI the next morning!
You sound like a perfect candidate for thorough charcoal cleansing!
I’d get nice and loose and really focus on that.
Expect to have to pee a LOT the next day, as your body sheds retained water.
That is what I have been thinking as well so I am glad your thoughts are the same! When the celery juice gets things moving more, I will add in an increased dose of charcoal this time around.
As long as you’re taking lemon juice or HCL with meals, that should keep the charcoal moving through you nicely, so you can take some large doses.
You’ll love how you feel, afterward. My chronic headaches disappeared like magic, and my energy and mood soared. I wish I’d known about it and done it years ago. I hate to think how much time I spent walking around in a fog of pain when I didn’t have to.
Awesome! <3 It really sucks feeling that way! I have had low energy, depressed mood, and chronic headaches for 20 years now and look forward to feeling better. It is frustrating and depressing when you feel your body is falling apart so much that you may not be able to even hold down a job anymore because you have to take so many sick days! I have been to the ER multiple times for kidney infections. And then the side effects from the antibiotics have been horrible. I have already seen a difference so I thank you for your help and blog!! 🙂
My pleasure!
You can’t go wrong treating for low stomach acid (if you have it) and cleansing with charcoal: it’s like pressing a reset button for your whole system.
There’s always some bumps in the road, but as long as you keep trying, you’re going to make progress. And remember that pain is a red flag alerting us to a problem we need to fix: if I hadn’t gotten a UTI I would have lived my whole life with chronic headaches and never realized I could do something about it. A painful bladder will force you to fix every other problem you have before it’ll shut up.
And in the end that’s a blessing, because you’re better off than before you started.
You have really helped things come together in my mind about my health as well as the health of my loved ones. We have to take care of our guts and how we do that is through proper digestion with HCL. Otherwise we are spending money on all of these supplements that aren’t doing us a bit of good!! My husband even wants to jump on the charcoal bandwagon now and take it for gut issues he has been having! And I love your perspective…it was tough going through but it is even better on the other side! 🙂
It is, indeed!
My husband did a charcoal cleanse a couple of months after I first did it, and he lost 20 lbs in three weeks. The only thing he changed, diet-wise, was he stopped drinking sodas because he didn’t crave them anymore. He was intrigued because I was so energetic and pain-free, and now he’s a believer due to his own experience! Other things changed for the better, too.
I’ve given it to the kids to stop stomach bugs in their tracks, and I knew I was doing it right when, on a recent 1000 mile road trip, gasps broke out in the back of the van and several siblings grabbed their noses, looked accusingly another sibling and shrieked nasally, “You need to drink some charcoal!”
And you know I had it with me, too. 😂😂