How Sarah Realised Personalised Nutrition Was The Only Way To Eliminate Her Health Complications...

Read how Sarah now manages her hasimoto's (an autoimmune disease) during menopause... lowering her anxiety, reducing inflammation and pains and finally feeling normal again.

Case Study: A Personalised Approach to Managing Hashimoto’s, Anxiety & Weight Changes in a Woman in Her 50s

When Sarah (name changed) first came to see me, she was in her 50s and had been managing Hashimoto’s thyroiditis for several years herself.

Feeling let down by the limited support from conventional care, she had begun self-medicating with a desiccated thyroid hormone sourced from Canada. She believed it was helping “well enough,” yet her symptoms suggested otherwise.

She had been gaining weight steadily and experiencing bouts of intense, almost debilitating anxiety. She often described feeling wired, overstimulated and exhausted all at the same time. Something clearly wasn’t right.

To understand what was truly happening, I suggested a full thyroid panel - not just TSH, but free T4, free T3, reverse T3, thyroid antibodies and relevant nutrients.

When the results came back, everything suddenly made sense. Her thyroid antibodies were significantly elevated, showing that her autoimmune activity was very active.

More surprisingly, her thyroid hormone levels were high, meaning she was actually hyperthyroid rather than hypothyroid.

In other words, she was unintentionally overmedicating herself. This explained not only her anxiety, but also her racing thoughts, poor sleep and difficulty regulating her weight.

While referring her to a functional endocrinologist for appropriate medication management, we began working immediately on calming her immune system. We removed gluten, increased anti-inflammatory foods, stabilised her blood sugar and focused on nourishing her gut and supporting her nervous system.

Hashimoto’s is highly responsive to lifestyle and nutritional interventions, so we started with the foundations that would support her body while she awaited medical guidance.

During the assessment, she also mentioned taking vitamin D at a high dose, which she had prescribed for herself because she believed it would help her autoimmune condition.

Although vitamin D can be beneficial for immune health, I recommended re-testing her levels to ensure they were in a safe, therapeutic range.

Her results came back extremely high - well above the safe upper limit. Elevated vitamin D can become inflammatory and even toxic, placing strain on the kidneys, destabilising calcium levels and worsening autoimmune symptoms.

Only then did she admit that she had been taking high doses for years. We stopped the supplement immediately, allowing her body time to return to a safe state.

Another important discovery came when reviewing her daily habits.

She proudly shared that she drank fresh carrot and apple juice every morning, believing this to be a healthy start to the day. While this can be beneficial for some individuals, it is often problematic for those with Hashimoto’s.

People with autoimmune thyroid conditions are more prone to fructose malabsorption, meaning fruit sugars are not properly absorbed and instead ferment in the gut.

This can lead to bloating, fatigue, IBS-like symptoms, inflammation and even worsening autoimmune flare-ups. In her case, the juicing habit was adding unnecessary stress to her digestive and immune systems. Once removed, her energy stabilised noticeably and her bloating reduced significantly.

As we worked together, she began to understand that her body required a very personalised approach. What worked for others didn’t necessarily work for her and in some cases, the things she thought were “healthy” were actually aggravating her symptoms.

Through careful testing, nutrition guidance and lifestyle adjustments, her anxiety episodes became less frequent, her weight stabilised and her nervous system felt calmer than it had in years. Most importantly, she no longer felt alone or confused about what was happening in her body. She felt supported, informed and empowered.

This case demonstrates how crucial personalised support is for autoimmune thyroid conditions, especially when someone has been self-managing without clinical oversight.

Hashimoto’s is deeply influenced by nutrition, gut health, medication balance and lifestyle patterns. Without understanding these pieces, many women suffer unnecessarily for years.

With the right testing and a holistic, evidence-based approach, it is entirely possible to bring the immune system into a calmer state, protect thyroid function and restore emotional and metabolic balance.