Elixir Naturopathy

This is one of those client journeys I feel genuinely proud to share 👏🏼

When this client first came to me, her TPO antibodies were sitting at over 4,000, and because the lab only reports up to 4,000, we didn’t actually know how high they were.... they could have been 6,000 or they could have been up at around 12,000.

And this is where Hashimoto’s care can get tricky.
Because antibodies can take time to shift. Sometimes a long time.

In the first few months, her blood work didn’t look dramatically different on paper. Her antibodies were still high.

But clinically? Things were changing.

~ She was no longer needing afternoon naps.
~ Her energy was improving.
~ She was able to work again.
~ Her joint pain had reduced.
~ The brain fog was lifting.

And to me, that matters.
Because while pathology is incredibly important, it is only one part of the picture.

When we’re working with autoimmune thyroid disease, we also need to look at how someone is actually functioning, feeling and living day to day.

After 12 months, we finally saw her antibodies drop below 4,000.

A beautiful reminder that healing is not always instant, linear or perfectly reflected in one blood test.

So proud of this client and her persistence. 🤍

Supporting people with thyroid conditions is my life's work. But what most people don't know is how I ended up here.

Before all of this, I was in my twenties, feeling invincible, burning the candle at both ends, not really looking after myself. Like most people that age, I wasn't paying attention to the signals my body was sending.

For years through my teens I battled recurrent tonsillitis. Then in my mid-twenties, I noticed a lump in my neck visible to the eye. I was told to get it biopsied. I ignored it.

Three years later, at 25, I landed in hospital with an unknown illness that wasn't improving. Severe sore throat. Difficulty swallowing. Twenty-four hours on IV antibiotics and steroids later, I was discharged, but sent for a throat ultrasound.

That ultrasound confirmed a multinodular goitre. A biopsy came back indeterminate for cancer. I was advised to have a hemi-thyroidectomy.

I went in for surgery in March 2013. Two weeks later, the results confirmed papillary thyroid carcinoma. I was told: "At least it's the good kind of cancer."

I had the second half removed in June that year. I was put on thyroid medication and told life would return to normal. Annual ultrasound. Yearly bloods. That's it.

And for a while it was.

Then a few years later, the symptoms began.
My weight increased rapidly. Two dress sizes in the space of months. My hair was falling out faster than it could grow back. I was exhausted down to the bone, genuinely struggling to walk the dog further than around the block. I had no idea what was wrong with me.

I kept going back to my doctor. And I kept being told: "Your levels look fine. There's nothing wrong with you."

Something didn't sit right. With the limited knowledge I had at the time, I had a hunch there was a medication conversion issue. My GP refused to test my reverse T3. So I paid for private testing myself.

My reverse T3 came back over 900. My ratio showed I was producing far more inactive hormone than active hormone, meaning my cells weren't getting what they needed, despite being on medication.

I had finally found the missing piece. But I'd had to fight to find it.

What I didn't know then was that this would become the beginning of a decade-long deep dive into thyroid research and the entire reason Elixir Naturopathy exists.

I am the practitioner I wish I'd had. And I built this to make sure no one has to fight as hard as I did to get answers.

Mel 🫶🏼

Emerging research is continuing to show that thyroid health is influenced by far more than just thyroid hormone levels alone.

This recent paper explored the relationship between allostatic load, the cumulative burden chronic stress places on the body, and thyroid function.

The findings reinforce something we see all the time clinically.

Long-term stress, nervous system dysregulation, inflammation, sleep, lifestyle factors and overall physiological load can all influence how the thyroid functions over time.

When supporting thyroid conditions, especially autoimmune thyroid disease, it is so important to zoom out and look at the bigger picture rather than focusing on one lab marker in isolation.

Your body keeps score of stress.

Supporting the nervous system matters. 🤍