Every tool to test — a sufferer's toolkit

If you have Hashimoto's and want to try everything reasonable that might help, here's the honest toolkit — ranked from best-evidenced to most speculative — plus the one thing that makes any of it useful: a way to actually test whether it's working.

The ranked toolkit

Best-evidenced first: In rough order of evidence: correct vitamin D if low → selenium ~200 mcg/day → a disciplined 3-month gluten-free trial (mandatory if celiac) → myo-inositol + selenium if you're subclinical → black seed oil and curcumin as low-risk add-ons → LDN if antibodies or symptoms stay stubborn. More speculative: treating H. pylori/SIBO if present, and stress/sleep work. Firmly 'interesting but unproven': EBV 'protocols,' fecal transplant, detoxes. Skip entirely: glandulars and high-dose iodine. Evidence ●●●○○ at the top, down to ○○○○○

The experimentation framework

How to actually test it: The single most important skill: change one thing at a time. Get a baseline first (antibodies + full thyroid panel + a simple symptom score), then add one intervention, give it about 3 months (autoimmune shifts are slow), retest, and keep only what clearly moves the needle — a real antibody drop or clear symptom improvement, not a within-noise wiggle. Stacking five things at once means you'll never know what helped, or hurt. Evidence ●●●○○ as a method

What to track

The dashboard: Track what matters: TPO antibodies (the main one) and thyroglobulin antibodies; your thyroid panel (TSH, free T4, free T3); and the subjective stuff that actually determines your life — energy, brain fog, mood, cold tolerance, weight, hair — with a simple repeatable score. Re-check thyroid labs after anything that might change your hormone needs (like LDN), and never self-adjust your levothyroxine. Evidence ●●●○○

A sensible first stack

For most people: fix vitamin D → add selenium → run a measured 3-month gluten-free trial → reassess, with LDN as the add-on if things stay stubborn. That's the highest evidence-to-risk ratio — everything else is a further experiment, run one change at a time and judged by your own labs.

The Hashimoto’s Guide