Joan’s Boomer Blog

Recently, I did an article on gourmet, or artisan, salts, which contain no iodine. Readers wanted to know, if they use these salts, where can they get iodine, which is a natural thyroid remedy, in their diet? I decided to do some research on foods and supplements which are natural remedies for a healthy thyroid and can easily be added to your daily diet.

Millions of Americans suffer from some form of thyroid disease and many more are undiagnosed. Symptoms can be vague and hard to pin down such as weight gain or loss, depression, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, rapid or reduced heart rate and more. If you are having symptoms, it’s always best to talk to your doctor, and even if you aren’t symptomatic, you can discover thyroid problems on routine blood work during your physicals. There are medications to help you manage symptoms of thyroid disease, if you have it.

If you’re suffering from a thyroid disorder, or if you’re simply concerned with keeping your thyroid healthy, you might like to know that certain foods are a natural remedy for a healthy thyroid, something you can do beyond popping a pill. I’ve compiled a list of foods which help your thyroid and you can scroll down from some of my favorite supplements and seasonings to add to your healthy thyroid regimen:

Nutrients You Need for a Healthy Thyroid

• Iodine
• Antioxidants A, C and E
• Selenium
• Copper
• Zinc
• B Vitamins
• Iron

Foods to Eat for a Healthy Thyroid My husband has Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an auto-immune disease where the body attacks the thyroid.

We have discovered that the issue of foods for thyroid health depends on the type of condition you have. If you have hyperthyroid disease the following superfoods will help calm the overactive thyroid by inhibiting the excess production of thyroid hormones. However, if you have hypothyroidism, these foods are best avoided unless they are cultured:

• Brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• spinach
• broccoli
• turnips
• kale
• beans
• Indian mustards

Foods Containing Iodine for Thyroid Health

Since we know that ordinary table salt has been striped of nutrients and trace minerals so vital to the body and that gourmet salts, such as Hawaiian Pink Salt, are better for us, but contain no iodine, where can we get this important nutrient.

• Sea vegetables are becoming increasingly popular and include kelp, dulse, hijiki, nori, arame, wakame, and kombu. Try sprinkling these on your soups, salads or other dishes to get them into your diet.
• Seafood including clams, shrimp, haddock, oysters, salmon, sardines
• Eggs
• Asparagus
• Lima beans
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Sesame seeds
• Summer squash
• Swiss chard
• Garlic

Other important foods for thyroid health:

Foods containing selenium

Selenium content of food depends on the content in the soil where the food is grown. It is possible to get toxic doses of selenium, however, so I wouldn’t advise supplements, unless you talk to your doctor.

• Brazil nuts
• tuna
• mushrooms
• halibut
• beef
• soybeans
• sunflower seeds

Foods Containing Zinc

• Fresh oysters
• sardines
• beef
• lamb
• turkey
• soybeans
• split peas
• whole grains
• sunflower seeds
• pecans
• Brazil nuts
• almonds
• walnuts
• ginger root

Foods Containing Copper

• Beef
• oysters
• lobster
• shiitake mushrooms
• dark chocolate
• crabmeat
• tomato paste
• pearled barley
• nuts
• beans (soybeans, white beans, chickpeas)
• sunflower seeds

Foods Containing Iron

• Clams
• oysters
• soybeans
• pumpkin seeds
• white beans
• blackstrap molasses
• lentils
• spinach

Foods Containing Antioxidants

• Kale
• sweet potatoes
• carrots
• winter squash/pumpkin
• spinach
• cantaloupe
• asparagus
• Guava
• peppers (chili, Bell, sweet)
• kiwifruit
• citrus
• strawberries
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• Brussels sprouts
• papaya
• parsley
• greens (kale, turnip, collard, mustard)
• Whole grains
• almonds
• soybeans and other beans
• sunflower seeds
• peanuts
• liver
• leafy green vegetables

Foods Containing B Vitamins

• Brewer’s yeast (supplements of Brewer’s yeast are very inexpensive)
• Almonds
• wheat germ
• wild rice and brown rice
• mushrooms
• egg yolks
• peanuts (with skin)
• liver
• poultry white meat
• sunflower seeds
• fish (tuna, salmon, trout)
• beans (soybeans, lentils, lima beans, navy beans, garbanzos, pinto beans)
• walnuts
• bananas

One thing you’ll notice is that there is no sugary or processed foods on the list. That’s because these are not only bad for your health, they are bad for your thyroid and are best avoided. Anther thing you might notice is that you can cover several bases by adding different nuts to your diet or different veggies.

Cultured Vegetables and Your Thyroid

Since my husband can’t have so many of the veggies on the superfood list above, I learned from following the Baby Boomer Diet, to make cultured, or fermented veggies for us to eat daily. Cultured Vegetables are like sauerkraut but can contain just about any vegetable you can think of adding to your preparation. Most commercial sauerkraut has been cooked so the digestive enzymes and many nutrients are killed off so it’s best to make your own.

I’m planning another article on the benefits of cultured veggies and how to make your own. One simple way, and the way I started out, is to purchase Culture Starter by Body Ecology and follow the direction in the package.

I always prefer to get my nutrients from food but if you’d like some products which contain nutrients for thyroid health, you could try these:

• Ancient Earth Minerals contain trace minerals which nourish the thyroid and adrenal system.

• Ocean Plant Extract contains iodine, sea vegetables and seaweed from pure sources.

• Organic Sea Kelp Delight Seasoning - 2.7 oz - Flake Shake a little kelp onto your soup or salad to get iodine into your diet.

• Season’s Sea Seasonings, Organic Dulse Granules. You can also use dulse as a seasoning to get sea vegetable nutrients into your diet.

• Annie Chun’s Seaweed Snacks, Roasted Wasabi We keep a package of Annie Chun’s Seaweed Snacks on the table and munch on it throughout the day. You can also crumble it up and add to soups, salads and other dishes.

Many of these foods for a healthy thyroid may already be part of your daily diet but by focusing on foods for thyroid health, you will not only improve your thyroid but your general health as well.

Read more about Edible Seaweed Nutrition

How do you know if you have a thyroid problem? Check WebMd for Thyroid Disease Symptoms and Treatment

A bone spur in the big toe! It seems every time I go to the doctor, I get another piece of news that tells me I’m getting older. This time, I’d had pain in the ball of my right foot for about two months before I finally gave up and went to the doctor at all. She sent me for an xray, which told me I had only a bone spur but arthritis of the big toe as well.

On the first visit, the doctor also gave me some cortisone pills, which can’t be taken long term, but will take down inflammation. Now I’m not for taking prescription pills of any kind, but the pain was bad, affecting my daily walks and my water aerobics, so I decided to take the pills and see what happened.

The cortisone worked all right - too well! After a day on them, all my bodily aches and pains disappeared. Little naggy joint pains in my knees and hands, which I’d just grown accustomed to over the years, were gone, just like that!

So my doctor’s recommendation was to go on Celebrix. She doesn’t know me and my anti-medication philosophy very well!

This is how I saw my bone spur situation.

1. Arthritis in an inflammatory condition. If I have arthritis in my toe, then I probably have it other places.
2. Instead of popping a pill, I need to get serious about an anti-inflammatory diet.
3. I need to find out what causes bone spurs and how to get rid of them naturally before I even think of popping a medication, which could have serious side effects.

In fact, I knew just the person I needed to go to for advice, a good friend from my yoga and tai chi class, who is also a nutritionist. When I mentioned bone spur to her, she pretty much gave me a free one hour appointment right there in the hallway of the Y, bless her heart.

What Causes Bone Spurs

Bone spurs are caused by ineffective calcium metabolism or excess calcium which allow for calcium deposits to build up and form a boney protrusion off of a bone, commonly in the foot. They are associated with arthritis and inflammation in the body and cause a lot of pain in the infected area. They can affect not only joints but nerves as well.

Excess calcium or inefficient absorption of calcium is caused by the fact that your body isn’t fully utilizing the nutrients you feed it or the fact that you’re not getting the proper nutrients in the first place. This could be due to a poor diet, getting older and other factors.

Symptoms a bone spur are:

Pain in the infected area
Swelling
Sometimes numbness and tingling if it is pressing on a nerve. If this happens around your spine, it is associated with degenerative spinal disease.

Diagnosis of a Bone Spur is most often done by xray of the painful, swollen area.

Medical Treatments for Bone Spurs

The most common medical treatment for bone spurs is surgery, which is painful and can have a long recovery time. Since bone spurs are a symptom of deeper problems affecting your entire body, however, it is best to address those issues but there are also natural remedies for bone spurs to get rid of that trouble in the short term.

Natural Remedies for Bone Spurs

Massage the area. Massage increased circulation to the area and is good for any type of arthritis. Since swelling traps toxins and debris in the joints and causes pain, massage helps release these to decrease pain and inflammation surrounding the bone spur. Deep tissue massage will help break up the calcium deposits.

Ice packs also helps decrease inflammation and therefore pain. My bone spur is in the ball of my foot, along side my big toe so I fill a quart size zip lock bag with ice, put it in a pan and rest my foot on it while I watch TV in the evening.

The spice Turmeric helps with healing inflammation, arthritis pain and bone spurs. Try 400 mg, 2-3 times a day and sprinkle it in your food as well. I use TurmericForce by New Chapter.

Apple Cider Vinegar - Apple Cider Vinegar is good for arthritis pain in general and bone spurs in particular. For arthritis, you can mix a couple of teaspoons in water and drink it. As a remedy for bone spurs, you soak the affected area in ACV for as much of the day as possible.

In the evening, warm a little ACV and pour it into a pan so you can put your foot in it. If possible, it’s also good to apply ACV to a gauze or cotton ball and wrap your foot so your bone spur area so it stays moist as much as possible.

I’ve read that this treatment can work in one week. I plan to try it myself and will report on whether or not it worked for me.

Excercise like yoga, which are gentle to the injured area help the bone spur to disappear gradually over time.

Vitamins and minerals to help heal bone spurs

Vitamins D and K promote bone health and can help heal bone spurs. Vitamin D recommended dosages range from 400mg per day up to 5,000. If you have a bone spur, you might want to consider taking about 2,000mg, which is what I now take. You can also get Vitamin D from about 15 minutes of sun exposure per day-without sunscreen.

Vitamin K can be obtained from hard cheeses like gouda (recommended on the Dr. Oz show!) Gouda also contains nutrients which are good for the heart and arteries so you don’t have to worry about high cholesterol. You can also get Vitamin K from probiotic fermented and cultured veggies and drinks. We’ve started eating homemade cultures vegetables every day with dinner.

Read more about the health benefits of cultured foods.

Minerals- Since your body is probably not absorbing and using the minerals you eat in your diet, you need to make sure you get enough trace minerals. Try drinking a good quality sparkling mineral water and using quality Himalayan Sea Salt, which contains minerals and offers many health benefits. Quality sea salt is definitely NOT to be confused with ordinary table salt which is stripped of any mineral benefits and contains many fillers and additives which lead to hypertension.

Most Americans’ bodies are in a highly acidic state from excess sugar, fast food, processed food, caffeine and alcohol. The acidic nature of our diet leaves us open for diseases like arthritis and other aging, degenerative diseases. Sea Salts added to the diet can help create a more alkaline body, while adding important trace minerals missing from so many diets now.

If you would like more information on how to create a more alkaline body and adding probiotics and cultured products to your diet, I highly recommend you order a copy of the book The Baby Boomer Diet, Body Ecology’s Guide to Growing Younger: Anti-Aging Wisdom for Every Generation, by Donna Gates and Lyndi Schrecengost.

I just finished reading this book, which comes out in October, and I thoroughly believe every baby boomer who wants to avoid all so-called age-related diseases should read this book. It should be the gold standard in anti-aging books. It also gives an eye-opening picture of how baby boomers are suffering the consequences of being the first generation to live with processed and fast food and being over exposed to chemicals, pesticides and additives in our food and water.

Donna Gates also wrote the Body Ecology Diet and many of the principals of this diet are repeated in the Baby Boomer Diet but with an emphasis on healthy aging. Stay tuned for my review of The Baby Boomer Diet. I’ll be talking more about the principals of the diet as I implement them as well.

Don’t forget, if you suffer from bone spurs, this is a symptom of a larger problem which you should address with a natural healing program such as a diet full of vegetables, less acid forming foods like those mentioned above, lots of exercise, drinking plenty of good quality water and other all around healthy living techniques.

Update on Natural Remedies for Bone Spurs

Acupuncture for Bone Spurs

I recently read that people have some success with acupuncture for bone spurs so I am giving this method a try. I had my first treatment yesterday and the acupuncturist (one I’ve been to for other health issues) told me it usually takes 2-3 treatments so I’ll give an update on the results.