Stop the Madness! Your hormones will thank you!

If you suffer from a chronic illness like diabetes, Hashimoto's or any other autoimmune disorder or disease, you need to know about endocrine disruptors (chemicals that are found everywhere when you look) that can wreak havoc on your well being.
To know how this can affect your life, we need to first talk about your endocrine system.
My wha?? Yes, you have an endocrine system that is a very important system in the human body.
I'm not going to go into a bunch of medical blah blah blah...here's some things you'll notice your endocrine system does!
You want to lose/gain weight? That's a part of your endocrine system. How about remembering where you last put your keys or about an upcoming meeting time? You guessed it, that's information that your endocrine system controls. Heart rhythms, skipped periods, low libido? That's part of your endocrine system too! Your endocrine system controls many many areas of your body and with out it or if it becomes severely damaged, the human body can decline rapidly. According to the medical staff on WebMD, "The endocrine system influences how your heart beats, how your bones and tissues grow, even your ability to make a baby. It plays a vital role in whether or not you develop diabetes, thyroid disease, growth disorders, sexual dysfunction, and a host of other hormone-related disorders." It's kind of a big deal.
So what can disrupt your endocrine system? Look in your medicine cabinet. Look in your make-up case. Do you put mass manufactured baby oil or lotion on your biggest organ - YOUR SKIN - daily? Anything we put on our bodies, gets absorbed into us and can disrupt an already faulty or struggling endocrine system. Even room sprays and air fresheners like Febreeze can harm a person trying to get their system back in line. Perfume, mass produced deodorant and laundry detergent can all disrupt your system.
So what is a person gonna do? My recovery plan for my flailing adrenals and confused hormones, I turned to cutting out all non-toxic cleaning materials, laundry supplies, body lotions, sprays, sunscreens and even shampoos. I make most of my own products for our house and if I don't have success making the products, I can usually find something in one of my natural stores or online to fit the bill.

People cannot argue with my results. In a year, I have overhauled my body internally. For the first time in over twenty years, I have been off allergy remedies and medications. And this is just one change that I've noticed. I've noticed several other things like not breaking out inexplainably in hives, I do not have dry itchy skin anymore and my brain fog seems to have loosed up its' grip on me! New lady!

Check out these great items!!

Things for dry skin:

• Coconut oil
• African Shea Butter
• Olive oil

Toothpaste replacement:
I love the brand Tom's, otherwise, baking soda with a dash of peppermint, tea tree or lavender oil will do in a pinch!

Hair care:
Coconut milk based recipes are amazing for hair. You can find some here.
Honey and eggs are also a great conditioner for your skin and they are affordable!

All natural deodorant:
When I first went off commercial mass produced deodorant, I was freaked out. I was having to apply it two or three times a day to keep up with the funky smell. Firstly, I detoxed my armpits using this recipe. Then I purchased a salt block and used that. After a few weeks, I detoxed the pits again. After only six months, I do not even need to salt to start my day and leave the house!

When cleaning your home, look for products that are biodegradable, earth friendly and use essential oils to disinfect and clean. Anything that leaves a trail or a chemical haze in the air is really off limits for a while.

Do you like to burn wax? Try using a soy based wax melt scented with all natural essential oils without artificial coloring. These smell great and our family has  no issues with allergies while using these. These are my current favorites and the product is awesome!

A special note about baby oil: Mass produced baby oil is petroleum or mineral based. These kinds of products do not allow your skin to breath. It coats your skin and disrupts the process to cell regeneration. It actually ages your skin. Your pores do not function as they should. Vegetable or fruit based oils are suggested in place of petroleum or mineral oil.

   In the United States, efforts have been severely hampered by chemical lobbyists to change laws or put statutes in place to  remove the harmful endocrine disrupting agents from the shelves of the stores. Despite the work of several hardworking individuals, over a decade has passed with the measures still awaiting to be carried out. European nations are in a much better lot with their governmental agencies taking the scientific data seriously. For more information on the measures, click here.

Blessings!

Ask me about Distance Healings

or need a consult?

Cris Ness

Still hesitantly excited...and 10 weeks pregnant!

   We are in our tenth week of pregnancy....let me say that again! WE ARE IN OUR TENTH WEEK OF PREGNANCY! It really has flown by! Since I've last written, we've had our first in-person doctor visit complete with ten vials of blood and an ultrasound.

   The ultrasound....I knew we would be getting one but I didn't tell Clayton until we got there. That is very scary for couples that have experienced miscarriage. The last two ultrasounds I saw was first our deceased baby and then the next was an image of an empty womb. A sight you are supposed to be relieved to see, showing that everything had passed and I would be recovering, but that is not what you want to see at all deep in your heart of hearts. I would've given my existence to save that baby. Our ultrasound tech was perfect and was very very compassionate to our case. She was with us through it all before. We began, both of us not really looking at the projection on the television. "OK...see? ....See that little flickering right here? That's your baby's heart and it is flickering strong! Here is the head and here is the rump....now that we can all breath in here, I'm going to get started with my tests, OK?" She had her perfect bedside manner, as usual.

   After we were alone, I admitted that right before the test, I felt panic. My body hadn't changed much and I was twinged with fear of the empty womb. Clayton admitted he felt the same...we are so much alike at times. That moment of the flickering heart, the baby became real for him.

Our baby's flicker of a heart. Our chances of miscarriage statistically have dropped to  two  percent.

We've been in that two percent before....hold your breath!

   The rest of the appointment was full of completing my charts and scheduling upcoming appointments, urine samples and blood sampling. I was anxious for the bloodwork, this was going to be the marker on whether to truly get excited or not....
   About a week later, all of my test came in and the fated call blew up my phone. "Cristina? This is _______ OBGYN. I have your test results and we have a couple of things to talk about."....my heart truly sank. This is how those previous phone calls have been that ended in miscarriage. I mumbled alright. "First off, your TSH is great so we aren't doing anything with your dosage at this time. It is 0.2 and that's right where we want it. Secondly, you do not have an immunity to Rubella, so you will need an immunization after you have your baby in the hospital, okay?" I smiled and said, "Woo hoo! Thank you so much!!"
WHAT A RELIEF! I scooted upstairs to let Clayton know the news and we wore secret smiles the rest of the day!

   As the days have progressed, my bloating is up and down, mood is up and down and the cravings combined with nausea...ranch corn chips with chocolate milk, peppers upon peppers with blue cheese, gluten free bagels with cream cheese, spoons of peanut butter and beef...OH THE BEEF!
   Now all of our children know and that is a relief. It is difficult to keep such an exciting, scary and adventurous secret! They were great and not too scared. It's scary watching mom get sick and having her struggle. It's hard being the sibling of a baby taken too soon---you don't get to have fun memories with them, you get an injured mom and dad, sadness, worry that your mom and dad will never be the same, (and they never are the same---everyone in the house is changed from this hard realization that some things aren't always rosy) and then there is the anger. Anger that this happened to your family. It's hard being that sibling. And many people don't even think about the children involved in those families. Those kids are being strong and waiting for their world, their parents, to not be broken in a million pieces, and some parents never recover. For us, as a couple, we got stronger. We've gone through the deaths of children and somehow lived to tell about it. We are shining after the storm. And our kids are simply beautifully amazing.
  To keep our lives as stress free as possible, we are keeping a lid on things still. We still aren't out of the woods yet, despite the large beams of light upon us, and we just want to keep our lives as routine as possible. Our stress levels depends on it! A lingering question for me is whether my Hashimoto's antibodies will remain inactive. That's key for our success as well and it is beyond my control besides taking my selenium supplement and staying away from my identified triggers like gluten and stress. I am developing my Reiki practice daily and the meditation is invaluable to me. I am writing this blog as we go as a record for others like us....gathering every speck of courage on this journey called Hashimoto's and Hypothyroidism.

Here's me and my Mini Cooper! My husband rebuilt the engine for me!

   With the cooler weather heading our way and the holidays coming up, we will have some decisions to make about public appearances and my possible exposure to Rubella. After the journey we've been on, we won't be taking that lightly. We do not want the chance of causing birth defects in our unborn little. I personally plan on avoiding areas where the chance of exposure is great and this includes family gatherings like weddings and birthday parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

10 weeks pregnant!

Surprise surprise!

   It was July 5, 2016, and I decided to wake up early and secretly take my test. My period was a day late and I'm usually right on time. I hadn't noticed much different with my body besides sore breasts and I had actually felt like I would get my period and then nothing was happening. With any thyroid problems and especially with Hashimoto's it is imperative to be on top of your bloodwork. You really need to know what your numbers are before trying to conceive and although we weren't necessarily trying, in fact - we had kind of given up on the idea that we would be parents again - we weren't opposed to the idea either. We had both decided the wonderful, amazing girls we have are truly enough. That doesn't mean the rest of our people felt the same. We still heard the same verbiage of how the girls wanted a sibling, how some  wished Clayton had a biological child, despite his incredible journey he took to be allowed to adopt the girls.
   With a body like mine, you have to know almost before you miss your first period if you are pregnant because your TSH numbers can shoot through the roof before you know it. And if your numbers are too high, miscarriage is eminent. There is no amount of doctoring that can fix it. As soon as I thought I might be pregnant, I took a pregnancy  test and then doubled up my thyroid medication before we even called our OB doctor with the news. I hadn't spoken to them since I got the all clear last year ... incidentally our last miscarriage was dated July 5, 2015. When I called, I immediately recognized this wasn't my doctor's nurse from before. You build a sort of report when you go through death with someone. Everyone in the office took such great care of us and some would mutter about how brave we were or strong. They admired us. This new nurse got acquainted with my charts on the phone. "I'm going to pull up your history and ......(pauses &  it seemed to last two minutes)...." I lightened the feel and said that we did have quite a history with them. "Yes, the first thing that jumps out at me is that you've had multiple miscarriages.......(another long pause).......and now I'm wondering about your TSH numbers." With a smile on my face in the phone I announced that I have two TSH tests and other bloodwork that was done previously and results from the lab work currently  and I would immediately be bringing those results. You could hear the relief in her voice. We dropped them over immediately and later that afternoon, the nurse called with no special instructions and they said everything looked in range.
   Our first appointment is July 28 - two days after my husband's 30th birthday. What a birthday present!
We are doing all we can to ensure a safe pregnancy. I've been taking my rounds of supplements and I am in really great health. My blood pressure is excellent and my TSH is in the new guidelines which is a huge relief!
   At this time, we have decided to keep our circle very small about the news of our little one....neither one of us wants to really deal with other people's hopes and dreams right now on this reality for us. It's our journey and we are excited, scared, anxious and hopeful. We don't need to add anyone else's worries, thoughts, careless verbalizations. It doesn't help much to hear that it won't happen again, that God has plans for us or any of that kinds of nonsense. With our history and vast knowledge on a subject we wish we knew nothing about, this is pretty much a matter of science.
   Zen is the word :)