Graves Disease / Hyperthyroidism
Jody Ahrens' Complete Reversal of Graves Disease

Before Jody Ahrens became one of the owners of Vital Earth Minerals, she suffered from an extremely advanced case of Graves Disease, and spent several years searching for an effective treatment through conventional medicine. Much to the irritation of her doctors, Jody refused to radiate her thyroid, knowing the misery so many women endure being forced to take synthetic thyroid for the rest of their lives.

As her condition worsened, and side effects from prescription after prescription became unbearable, her search led her to the alternative and holistic medicine approach for healing. Eventually Jody came across “fulvic” and high potency liquid vitamins, which she attributes, along with the strict dietary changes outlined below, for the complete reversal of her condition. Jody feels that the addition of fulvic to a person’s diet may be one of the most powerful aspects of correcting thyroid problems.

Her recovery took approx 1 1/2 to 2 years, and she has been symptom free since 2001. At the height of her illness, some of her advanced symptoms included bulging eyes and sensitivity to light, thinning hair, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, poor skin condition, extreme fatigue, shaking, and muscle weakness. Her normally sweet, caring and compassionate personality was replaced by fits of temper, irrational irritability, and little or no tolerance for the normal ups and downs of daily life. (We are all very happy to have the old Jody back!) Even the fluid behind her eyes, which caused the bulging, has receded...much to her eye doctor’s puzzlement. Jody’s experience with Vital Earth products is the reason she invested in the company and continues to share her story with others.

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Graves Disease - What is it?
Causes, Symptoms, Helpful Alternative methods for healing

Graves Disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system, mistakenly over stimulates and attacks the thyroid gland, causing hyperthyroidism. When it is over-stimulated it produces more thyroid hormones than the body needs, increasing the body’s metabolism rate by 60% to 100%. A higher metabolism can lead to a number of health concerns, such as an irregular heartbeat, anxiety, and mental issues. Graves disease is also associated with inflammation of the eyes, swelling of the tissue around the eyes, and protrusion, or bulging of the eyes. It is far more common in women and usually begins between 20 and 40 years of age, although it may develop at any age.

Cause:
Generally, the cause is due to buildup of dangerous toxins, chlorinated substances, viruses, pathogens, infections, or pesticides. These toxins can come from many sources such as processed convenience foods, fast foods, chlorinated water, soft drinks, chemical fertilizers, or environmental factors.

Additional Factors:
Because hormone levels are affected, Graves Disease presents a variety of symptoms, many of which can be misdiagnosed as psychosomatic or mental disorders. A thyroid imbalance can seriously affect moods and mental clarity, causing a negative effect on relationships and making a person much more prone to accidents, injury, poor decisions, and rage.

SYMPTOMS:

• Insomnia
• Weight Loss without dieting, ravenous appetite
• Heat and light sensitivity
• Fine or brittle, thinning hair
• Muscular weakness
• Bulging eyes, eye changes
• Rapid heart beat, heart palpitations, hand and voice tremors
• Serious mental problems, depression anxiety, irritability, poor concentration, mental confusion, memory loss
• Low energy levels, feelings of exhaustion
• Headaches, low blood sugar, high cholesterol levels
• Female problems due to high amounts of estrogen

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Alternative methods that have offered relief for Jody and many Vital Earth Customers:

• 1 to 2 oz. each of Vital-Earth’s Fulvic Mineral Complex and Super Multi Liquid Vitamins daily (most effective if added to a water bottle and sipped throughout the day.
• 1 to 2 oz. Cal-Mag Liquid – Calcium is a powerful alkalizer. Over acidity is usually a condition of Graves Disease. Disease thrives in an acidic environment.
• Eliminate ALL processed foods. This basically includes almost everything pre-prepared, packaged foods, and fast foods. They contain chemicals, preservatives, MSG and MSG derivatives, hydrogenated oils, colorings, excess white sugar, white flour, trans fat, artificial sweeteners, and more. All of these compromise the immune system. What’s worse is that their effects can be compounded as they react to each other when combined. Learn to recognize junk food as exactly that!
• Eliminate carbonated beverages. The phosphoric acid used in soft drinks can also contain fluorine (or fluoride), which is extremely harmful because it saturates the thyroid gland.
• Eat organic fruits and vegetables that have been grown without chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. The chemical fertilizer phosphorous contains fluoride, which builds up in plant tissues, and is then passed on when consumed by humans. Fluoride saturates the thyroid gland.
• Don’t drink Green Tea unless it is “organically grown”. Modern agricultural practices require a lot of phosphorous fertilizer, and green tea absorbs and retains many times the amount of other plants. Green Tea is 3 times higher in fluoride than any other crop. Fluoride saturates the thyroid gland
• Avoid Chlorine. Don’t drink chlorinated water, don’t bath in it, don’t wash your clothes with products containing chlorine bleach and don’t use cleaning products that contain it. Chlorine can be absorbed through the skin and lungs. It is thought to be one of the main causes of Graves Diseases. Chlorine filters are widely available. Read labels and avoid cleaners and soaps like, Clorox, and others that contain “bleach”. If you have the mindset that this toxin protecting your family from germs, you may want to rethink that.
• Don’t smoke. It’s unhealthy! Smoking drains the body of essential nutrients. Also, today’s tobacco is grown and processed with chemicals. You don’t want to inhale these toxins.
• Avoid caffeine. It activates adrenaline production and releases sugar into the bloodstream causing excess insulin production, which negatively affects the immune system.
• Get an adequate quantity of protein in your daily diet. Protein has been known to lessen “thyroid storms” for many people. (See the recipe below for a good, natural, protein shake)
• Stop eating white flour, white sugar, white rice, and margarine. Eat only natural, and minimally processed foods. See our report on "How To Eat Healthy".Never consume artificial sweeteners or MSG (or MSG derivatives-see list below). They are excitotoxins and are dangerous and extremely damaging to the body. They have been shown to damage the hypothalamus, which, among other things, regulates thyroid function. MSG report
• Don’t consume any meat that contains growth hormones, antibiotics, or nitrates (nitrates are in bacon and most “lunch meats”). Choose “organically fed” meat and dairy products whenever possible. You can get healthy meat products in stores such as Vitamin Cottage, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, etc.
• Only consume “good” oils: olive oil, or coconut. (For cooking, coconut oil is better able to withstand high heat without transforming into damaging trans fat). Contrary to popular opinion, because of the processing used, Canola Oil is not a healthy choice, and you certainly NEVER want to consume vegetable oils. (Vegetable oils are in almost all manufactured baked products.)

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An important message about labeling,
and who you can trust...

Many times regulations will allow a manufacturer to create names for their ingredients, such as "natural flavoring", for example, when in fact the ingredient could contain as much as 78% MSG. This is why we suggest only eating non-processed foods purchased from reputable suppliers. Conscientious, health oriented stores have strict requirements for ingredient content so you can generally trust that if a product is approved for sale in their store it has undergone intense scrutiny. This same principal will apply to reputable supplement manufacturers also. Several of our liquid products are flavored to mask the strong taste of the high potency ingredients. We use only natural fruit derived flavorings, which are labeled as such. Please be assured that there are absolutely no MSG derivatives in any of our products.

Those disreputable companies who use deceptive labeling practices make it difficult for the rest of us. We face a daily battle to keep our customers informed of these health hazards, and to supply information about our own healthy manufacturing and precise labeling practices. We realize it is very difficult for the consumers to know what they are actually getting when they purchase a product. It's sad that we all have to be such watchdogs against the people who supply our foods today, but that it is the harsh reality with manufacturers who are motivated solely by profit with little concern for their customers' health.

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Avoid these chemicals, preservatives,
and food additives:

1. BHT
2. Artificial coloring
3. Olestra
4. All artificial sweeteners; such as: aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), sucralose (Splenda), neotame, saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low), acesulfame-k) Sunette, Sweet-n-Safe, Sweet One)
5. Brominated Oil – (used as a preservative for bottled juices)
6. Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oils
7. Nitrates – found in processed meats (bacon, lunch meats)
8. Potassium bromate (used in the baking industry to strengthen dough – documented to cause cancer)
9. Sulfites (used as a preservative)
10. Phosphates – (found in soft drinks)
11. MSG – Monosodium Glutamate - in almost all processed and manufactured foods in one form or another

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Hidden sources of MSG:
Look for these ingredients on labels. Regulations allow manufacturers to rename combinations of ingredients under generic names that may include up to 78% MSG content. Be sure you trust the manufacturer of the products you consume.

• Glutamate (free glutamate)
• Calcium caseinate
• Sodium caseinate
• Carageenan (researchers use carageenan when they want to create cancer for lab tests)
• Sodium caseinate
• Gelatin
• Modified food starch
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Hydrolyzed protein
• Hydrolyzed oat flour
• Textured protein
• Natural flavoring
• Yeast extract
• Yeast food
• Autolyzed yeast
• Yeast nutrient
• Anything fermented
• Anything Ultra pasteurized
• Barley Malt
• Plant protein extract
• Potassium glutamate
• Whey protein when processed with high heat
• Soy protein isolates (it is acid washed in aluminum tanks leaving high levels of aluminum in the final product, and the high heat processing creates free glutamates, denatures the proteins making them ineffective, and causes deficiencies in several vitamins and minerals)

EAT ORGANIC! Here's why: There is currently a growth enhancer being sprayed on crops, called Auxigro, that is 30% MSG.

Drinks, candy, and chewing guy are also potential sources of hidden MSG. MSG sensitive people have reported reactions to soaps, shampoos, hair conditioners and cosmetics that contain hidden MSG.

TOXIN CLEANSE
A healthy body that is supported with good nutrition and the right kind of supplementation is able to dispose of the toxins we are all exposed to. An important part of de-toxing is to supply the body with an abundance of organic, plant derived ionic minerals, along with key essential elements, which can perform a chelating effect, and leach the toxic substances out of the body. Vital-Earth’s liquid products fill these requirements.

Vital-Earth’s fulvic based liquid formulas, Super Multi and Fulvic Mineral Complex, serve two important functions. They have been successfully used to counteract toxic chemicals, chlorinated substances, pesticides, clay based and metallic mineral poisoning, while at the same time strengthening immune functions and addressing other health conditions.
Information on fulvic

Natural Protein Drink

Mix in a blender:

• 2 eggs (free range if possible)
• 1 Tablespoon Lecithin (available in health food stores)
• 1 Cup whole milk (preferably raw, unpasteurized milk if you can get it, not skim milk – you need the natural fat for immune system functions)
• 1 teaspoon to 1/4 Cup brewer’s yeast (available in health food stores) Because of it’s unfamiliar taste, (malty without sweeteners) vary the amount according to your personal taste. It’s a very high, complete source of all the B vitamins, and an excellent source of protein.
• 1/4 Cup plain (unsweetened, not "fat-free") yogurt or 1 Tablespoon acidophilus culture
• 1/8 to 1/4 Cup wheat germ (optional) (another good source of B vitamins)

For taste, add fresh or frozen all-natural juices, or fresh fruits such as banana, pineapple, berries, etc. You can also add 1 Tablespoon of blackstrap molasses. Try to make it taste good because this is a great, healthy drink. If you don’t drink it because of taste you will miss the wonderful benefits.

A word of warning and encouragement...

The harsh truth is that if you're not willing to change your lifestyle, clean up your diet, and eliminate the toxins that contribute to thyroid issues, it will be very difficult to realize any significant results. Proper diet, a healthy lifestyle, and quality supplementation go hand in hand.

Jody Ahrens, co-owner of Vital Earth, as well as many of our customers, have wonderful success stories, but remember, recovering from any serious health challenge takes effort and commitment. 

Best of luck in your fight against Graves Disease!