Hi,
I have been dealing with Hashimoto's for over 1 year. I still am in need of trying to understand it. Most importatn thing is educate yourself and review your labs and question your doctors. No one knows your body better than you. One plus is that your on Armour. I have been on sythroid and having continous problems even though the thyroid labs read "normal". Two places which I started getting a lot of info is healthboards.com and believe or not a facebook locations called thyroid sexy related to actress Gina Le Nolin who is suffering from the same disease and is opening up about it with leading doctors to try and help others.
Also, from what I have been readying is typically people have other autoimmune disease associated with Hashi's. I was diagnosed with Fibromayalia but my symptoms are so bad and a pain specialist told me to see a leading edge doc in rheumatology and encridroconlogy because he suspects there is more going on then just the thyroid and fibromyalgia-my wife totally agrees. I am still looking to feel normal again and afriad when that might happen. Good luck and hopefully it won't get as bad as mine.

Many publications say to give up gluten. I did 1 1/2 years ago and I am less headachy and have less congestion.
Giving up dairy is good so your body operates better.

I too have been dealing with Hashimoto's for a year now. I was prescibed those lowest dose of synthroid. My HTC levels are normal as always, but my antibodies level continues to rise in the high 300's. I was told I would feel better, but that has not happened yet. Everything I read, no one says anything about your antibody level.
I wish I knew what to do.

I am 49 years old and have had Hashimotos Thyroiditis for approx. 15 years now. I am assuming that this is the same as Hashimotos autoimmune disease as Hashimotos as it is an autoimmune disease. I have not ever been the same since this diagnosis as the result leaving me hypothyroid. I have been searching for answers as my health progressively gets worse throughout the years. I am still left in confusion as my family doctor says that it doesn't matter that I have been diagnosed with Hashimotos Thyroiditis and that I am hypothyroid and it is treated the same way with thyroid meds. However, when coming down with this illness I was very sick. I was diagnosed Hashimotos Throiditis, anemia, monolucleosis, Raynauds Phenomenon, arthritis, Fibromyalgia , I.B.S, etc. My list goes on! Very strange things happened to my body the first couple of years. One day my feet swelled double in size (went to ER and of course no explanation. My arms upon doing light work would swell very quick and get rather large and hurt but dissapeared as quick as it started. Laid on floor in severe pain for a half a day (my insides hurt and pain like never before in my lower stomach) came down with bouts of tendinitis in my wrist and arms often. My family Doctor said that it would go away in a few years, but I do not believe that to be true after researching Hashimotos but have found it is treated with thyroid meds. But I can not understand why my health continues to decline. I have been extremely sick since April of this year with Colengeneous Collitis which is due to my colon . Also acid reflux for may years but stomach burned so intense the pain has been unbearable. My recent diagnosis is now narcalepsy with insominia. Oh and now I have allergies! I am very confused because before April my health just tolerated everything and my weight was 120 - 125# but now am down to 104#. There is so much more but my Doctor says I am healthy even as my spine is degenerating and has narrowed due to old age shown on exray (Ha Ha) I don't find that old enough for this to have progressed to the stage it has at my age now, just turning 49. And the doc is showing no signs of two broken bones in my spine from the past year or so that was found by my pain management doc. in exrays. This is just the tip of the ice burg........go figure.... and I pray that you do not continually get progressively worse thru the years. My point is if you have an autoimmune disease I believe there is a reason for this and could more to it then just Hashimotos (Of Course this is just my opinion). As I wonder about my own diagnosis which do not count for much these days but strongly believe there is a culpurt that is causing this which revealed itself with Hashimotos. My best advice to anyone is; that in the begining of my hashimotos I did see a doc in endrocronoligy and she was concerned about finding out why I was anemic but I didn't understand why I needed endroconology and went back to my family PA. Here I am years later I now have an assigned nurse case manager provided thru my insurance from being disabled all these years strongly reccomending internal medicine as well as endroconolgy to get to the bottom of this and believes it to be autimmune. and I will say that I have read that once you have one auto immune such as Hashimottos that there can be another main autoimmune dysfunction. Hope this is helpful and my advice is to follow your own gut instincts and research; and don't settle until you are satisfied with what the docs say because you know your body best and it will not misguide you if you suspect more. I have had to result to desperate measures in having to have a nurse now go to the Doctors and be my spokes person for me. I will keep you posted of any helpful piece of information that together my nurse may help me discover of just how deep Hashimotos really may go. God Bless and Good Luck! I pray the best to all of you suffering......... And Also I have never heard any special diet for Hashimottos unless this different then Hashimottos thyroiditis