Comment by researcher11 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by researcher11 | Hacker News Reader

I also have a very strict microbiota tailored diet and do intermittent fasting (5:2). I do this to naturally manage Graves' disease. I also have to exercise regularly and I use blue light therapy to regulate circadian rythims. It's not easy but it really works.

The alternative was to remove the thyroid and replace the hormones with synthetic. Unfortunately you body needs different amounts for different things at different times of the day. It is a constantly moving target and in many cases you never really feel right again.

The special diets were known to the Graves community when I started 8 years ago. Later on I learned and incorporated microbiota theory and used that as a basis for experimenting which has worked well. I only recently started intermittent fasting and feel even better for it.

Interestingly I started intermittent fasting after reading Nassim Talebs book Anti-fragile. He and I share the same opinion on the medical establishment (I won't bore you with my details) so I figured I'd give it a go and it helps.

Hashimoto's here. The problem with all of these diets is that its not known if they actually do anything and the source is usually a mommy blogger who's making money from selling supplements.

I tried to talk to a few doctors and the only one(yes, one) who didn't dismiss the whole thing mentioned that there's nothing conclusive about any of these diets besides some well known diseases such as celiac and gluten. He told me to try it out if I wanted to and see how i feel but don't go to drastic measures because you could be depriving your body of nutrients it needs. I guess that's why the recommendation is always a varied diet; nobody knows what the body needs exactly so eating everything in moderation is likely to give your body anything it could need. Not really scientific though, is it?

So my question is, how do you know what fad diet actually works? Searching for peer reviewed published work on anything nutrition related is a futile endeavor.

Your comment on garbage info on on garbage blogs that seems to dominate google search results is on point. But there is plenty of good data and studies from legit sources if you sort through it. Here is one of the key papers that drove interesting in fasting and immune system repair:

http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(14)00...

BTW, if you only talked to a few doctors, and one of them supports it, that's actually a fairly high percentage: 20-33%.

> BTW, if you only talked to a few doctors, and one of them supports it, that's actually a fairly high percentage: 20-33%.

This seems wrong, because it's not taking into account sampling bias

Not only is it wrong, it's also incorrect. I used to work in healthcare IT so a "few doctors" to me is different than other people. But I got his point, I didn't see the need to get too technical.

A few generally is 2 or 3. If you are talking to scores of doctors, and calling it a few because you work at a hospital, then it is the usage of the word that is incorrect.

One datapoint: the autoimmune protocol diet worked wonders for my wife. The first time she got graves she was on the mediation and hospitalized due to weak liver. When it came back she wanted to try something different. Tried a few different diets, but only getting worse for a few months. Tried AIP and felt better after 1-2 weeks. She's been healthy for over a year now.

I have atypical cystic fibrosis and manage it with diet and lifestyle. I have gotten off the boatloads of drugs I was once on.

I am one of those "mommy bloggers" being talked bad about in the comments here (though I don't make money selling supplements) and I am also the person who submitted the article. If you ever want to share info or chat with a like-minded person, drop me a line.

Thank you for commenting here.

What is your light exposure regimen? Even though I have a SAD lamp in my room set to turn on before my alarm I still struggle to regulate my sleep, especially in winter.

Sure, I wear blue blockers 2 hours before bed (~11pm) and I use blue LEDs that shine in my eyes from a distance while I'm reading for an hour after I get up at (7am). I don't use an alarm clock and I can't drink caffeine (Graves). I found the blue blockers at night to be more effective for regulating sleep than the blue light in the morning. You can get blue blockers for $5 on Amazon. Highly recommended.

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