S2 E8 Angie interviews Ryan Monahan, who is recovering from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

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Welcome to The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast Season 2! We’ve created this podcast as a free resource to accompany our book, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook: A DIY Guide to Living Well with Chronic Illness.

Season 2 Episode 8 is our final episode of the season! And what an episode to end on. We don’t often hear stories from men in the Hashimoto’s community but today, Angie is interviewing our friend Ryan Monahan who has managed his Hashi’s symptoms in one of the most challenging professional environments: a tour bus.

As a traveling musician, Ryan had to become an expert at thinking ahead and being proactive about his healing. No matter your career, you will definitely find takeaways here. Scroll down for the full episode transcript!

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Full Transcript:

Mickey Trescott: Welcome to the Autoimmune Wellness podcast, a complimentary resource for those on the road to recovery. I’m Mickey Trescott, a nutritional therapy practitioner living well with autoimmune disease in Oregon. I’ve got both Hashimoto’s and celiac disease.

Angie Alt: And I’m Angie Alt, a certified health coach and nutritional therapy consultant, also living well with autoimmune disease in Maryland. I have endometriosis, lichen sclerosis, and celiac disease. After recovering our health by combining the best of conventional medicine with effective and natural dietary and lifestyle interventions, Mickey and I started blogging at www.Autimmune-Paleo.com, where our collective mission is seeking wellness and building community.

Mickey Trescott: This podcast is sponsored by The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook; our co-authored guide to living well with chronic illness. We saw the need for a comprehensive resource that goes beyond nutrition to connect savvy patients just like you to the resources they need to achieve vibrant health. Through the use of self assessments, checklists, handy guides and templates, you get to experience the joy of discovery; finding out which areas to prioritize on your healing journey. Pick up a copy wherever books are sold.

Angie Alt: A quick disclaimer: The content in this podcast is intended as general information only, and is not to be substituted for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. On to the podcast!

Topics:
1. Introducing our guest, Ryan, and his diagnosis story [2:30]
2. Learning about holistic treatment [13:17]
3. Treatment with the greatest impact [19:53]
4. AIP on the road and touring [24:54]
5. Biggest dietary impact on symptoms [33:06]
6. Stand-out supporters [36:17]
7. Highest point of the journey [40:11]
8. Final takeaways from Ryan [44:29]

Angie Alt: Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Autoimmune Wellness podcast, season 2. This is Angie, and today I’m interviewing Ryan. He is a Hashi’s warrior, and also a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. And additionally, with all of that going on, he’s also a passionate musician who has been in the music industry for 15 years, and member of a regular touring band, Easter Island. We are going to dig into that, you guys; touring and AIP. It can be done.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that you guys find it helpful to hear from folks who have taken on the healing journey in real life. So today we will be sharing a little bit of Ryan’s story. Thank you, Ryan, for joining us from Georgia. Are you ready to get started?

Ryan: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

1. Introducing our guest, Ryan, and his diagnosis story [2:30]

Angie Alt: Yeah. We’re really excited to share a lot of different stories this season. So let’s just dive in with some questions. You know, one of the areas we love to explore with people is diagnosis, and folks’ diagnosis story. Because as you probably know, in the autoimmune community, that can be kind of a harrowing journey. What was the first symptom you noticed of your autoimmune disease?

Ryan: Yeah. So I had really struggled with allergies and asthma my entire life. And just generally symptoms of related to ear, nose, and throat. I was one of those just kind of sick all the time kids. Like, oh he’s on antibiotics; oh, he’s had bronchitis, the croup. You name it. Strep throat, just constantly. And that kind of persisted into my adult life. And then it started getting worse when I was in college. And it was really when I noticed that things were getting really bad was when I was sleeping for 10, 12 hours at a time, and was having trouble waking. So I would set three alarms, and that still wouldn’t wake me up. And I would set an alarm on my stereo system, and it would be shaking the entire room.

Angie Alt: Oh boy! {laughs}

Ryan: Yeah, and I would still just sleep through it and miss classes. It took me a few years to really piece it together. Because at that time, I had just assumed I’m burning the candle at both ends, I’m a busy guy, I’m just exhausted. I’m just kind of burnt out. And you know, that was kind of the narrative I told myself for a while.

Angie Alt: Ok. So it was probably since childhood that you were kind of dealing with some of this stuff, and it sounds like it kind of came into full being in probably your early 20s, in college. I think that happens to a lot of us, actually, in this autoimmune world. And it can be hard to separate it, right? From, is this just regular, like you said, burning the candle at both ends, or not?

Ryan: Absolutely. I think as a society, we’re just kind of accustomed to accepting a really low baseline for health. And when everybody is more or less sick around us, I don’t think. It’s kind of like that quote, “The last thing a fish would ever notice is water.”

Angie Alt: Right.

Ryan: And so I think, yeah, we just kind of assume that because symptoms are common that they’re normal. And we just try to cope with it, and maybe try things here and there. I’ll try some vitamin C, and kind of self-medicate a little bit. But as you know, that only lasts for so long until your symptoms are sort of screaming at you for help.

Angie Alt: Right. So how long did it take you, then, to actually get an official diagnosis from that point when you were kind of like; “Oh, this is not normal. I can’t even get up to my stereo system screaming at me. What’s going on here?”

Ryan: Well. You know, it’s really hard to say. Because I had been dealing with these things most of my life. It was just really in college that they kind of reached a peak. But I would say it’s at least 10 years. I wasn’t...