How I found Out EBV Was 1 Reason For My Thyroid Struggles
Looking back through my “health timeline” at the times I was sick from the time I was born up to birth to 28 years old, which was a year before I was diagnosed with my first thyroid illness (hypothyroidism). I never had mononucleosis, my boyfriend in school did, but not me. So I thought this meant that I must have been fine. I never had chronic fatigue. There was nothing in my health timeline that I could think of where I was exposed to the EBV virus, so I thought.
The I get the same response when I talk about this infection, many people say to me " oh I never had mono, or I was never exposed to the Epstein Barr virus that I know of,” and brush this conversation off, and Im standing there shaking my head thinking, hang on just hear me out.
This is important and you need to give this information a chance now. (since you did come to me for help anyways)
Wracking my brain I remembered that I did share my chapstick with a friend in high school and caught the dreaded cold sores and although extremely embarrassing to admit, I had a boyfriend give me genital warts (they lasted a year on and off then they just “disappeared”).
I also had strep throat really bad once as a little girl. Not no EBV I concluded
So, in my desperate journey of recovering my health from Hypothyroidism and Hashimotos myself, I came across some information about dormant EBV and the chaos it can wreak on your organs and glands especially the thyroid, and was floored.
I thought, well if this virus is supposed that strong in harming my health and I’m neglecting that, then I’ll check more into it, but honestly, I didn’t take it very seriously.
So I went to my primary care doctor to pull the basic blood test who at the time was a really helpful cool guy (hence the name Dr. Cool, and Im not making this up) and told him my theory so he ordered an EBV panel for me.
I took the blood test very casually, but when I saw the results from the lab a few days later I bout died.
Every category showed me very high in antibodies but especially EBV-EBNA IgG (nuclear antigen). This said that I suffered from a past infection AND the lab added a little side note saying, “that the infection was likely passed down to me as a newborn frm my mom,” my jaw dropped and I called my mom.
My mom was struggling with her health over the years too, she had similar symptoms to me, and my brother got severely sick from a goiter that practically closed up his throat and he was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s also.
I noticed I had lots of aunts and cousins on my mom’s side of the family all being diagnosed with thyroid illness too.
What in the world is going on, I pondered. My interest peaked and I was listening and EBV infections have been an issue on my radar ever since.
This is why now that Im a Coach, It is mandatory that my clients take an EBV test as well. To my surprise but not surprisingly they all have high antibodies too showing active, reactive, or past infections.
Then I came across an article by Dr. Izabella Wents that reads,
“More than 90 percent of the world’s population has been exposed to this human herpes virus. The virus can take up residence within our thyroid gland where it can live and be inflammatory to our immune system. It can call our immune cells to come into the thyroid gland and attack the virus along with the thyroid gland.
Many people say that this is something that they’ve recognized on their personal health timeline with autoimmune disease—they were perfectly normal until they were exposed to the Epstein-Barr virus. Many people say they never quite felt like themselves again after contracting it, and this was my story too. I was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed student until it triggered my chronic fatigue syndrome during my freshman year in college.
I believe EBV may have played a huge role as one of my underlying triggers that exacerbated my Hashimoto’s symptoms. I suspect that many people with Hashimoto’s may be suffering from a hidden Epstein-Barr infection in the thyroid gland. When I conducted a survey of 2,232 people with Hashimoto’s, 11 percent of them reported that they started feeling unwell after an Epstein-Barr infection!”
I knew it! I found 1 underlying factor to this illness ( yes 1, there’s bout 6 keystones, more on that in another article)
So in closing, if you are struggling from any “thyroid” illness I encourage you to ask for the test yourself to see what’s going on with your antibodies, it may be one of your underlying triggers also, and trust time if it is that’s great news! There are lots of natural ways to fight it off. Here are the basic tests to request.
