Hashimoto’s part 3
In previous articles we learned how hypothyroidism affects your pancreatic digestion and the effect it has on your body.By Dr. Marike de Klerk
We also spoke about the supplements that you can take to assist with pancreatic digestion.
Today we are going to briefly discuss what lifestyle changes you can employ to assist your pancreatic digestion.
- Remove food sensitivities, foods such as gluten, have been linked to gastric motility and gallbladder issues, and can be a trigger for Hashimoto’s.
- Be mindful of fats, perhaps limiting eating them in our initial healing stages, and always supplement with enzymes while eating them. I suggest eating healthier fats to start (such as coconut) MCTs are a form of fat that are more easily digested and absorbed. Coconut oil is a great source of MCTs and bringing this into your diet will assist with digestion.
- Limit or avoid gallbladder-unfriendly foods such as onions, milk, pork, poultry, coffee, nuts, corn, tomatoes, and oranges. You might want to avoid these, at least until your fat digestion improves.
- Support your liver
- Reduce alcohol intake
- Cease smoking
- Improve eating habits:
- Smaller, frequent meals may help with better absorption.
- Chew food thoroughly and relax at mealtime (this helps get digestive juices flowing and working early on through your saliva). Taking deep breaths and practicing belly breathing can help to ease the body into its relaxed, rest-and-digest mode.
- Ensure you stay hydrated, but don’t drink with meals (it dilutes those important digestive juices).
- Stop taking acid-blockers if you are taking them. This will impair your digestion.
- Consider adding digestive herbs to the meal.
- Consider adding spices that may help with fat digestion and absorption such as coriander, turmeric, red chili, black pepper, cumin, and ginger.
