In this episode of The Dr. Hedberg Show, I interviewed writer and thyroid advocate Rachel Hill of The Invisible Hypothyroidism.  We discussed Hashimoto's disease, hypothyroidism, and many connections to these illnesses.

Rachel suffers from thyroid issues herself so we can learn a lot from her about her personal experiences.  I urge everyone to listen or read and connect with her through her website and social media which I have linked to at the end of the transcript.

Here is a transcript of the recording for those who prefer to read rather than listen:

Dr. Hedberg: Okay. Well, welcome, everyone. This is Dr. Hedberg and today, I'm gonna be talking to Rachel Hill. And Rachel Hill is the founder of Invisible Thyroid and just some background on Rachel. She was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's disease, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as having adrenal fatigue, and experience with depression and anxiety disorder. Rachel created The Invisible Hyperthyroidism. This is an award-winning patient advocacy blog that focuses on helping others by advocating for better thyroid disease diagnosis and treatment. So, I'm excited to have you on. Welcome to the show, Rachel.

Rachel: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk to you today.

Dr. Hedberg: Excellent. Why don't we start with you talking about The Invisible Hypothyroidism, exactly what that is and why you started it?

Rachel: Yes. So, The Invisible Hypothyroidism is the name of my thyroid patient advocacy blogging website that you've just touched on. Under that name, I also get involved in other things such as doing interviews, podcasts like this, fundraising for thyroid charities, and I run a couple of forums in Facebook groups as well to reach for the thyroid patients and other halves, to provide some support and advice, really. The Invisible Hypothyroidism encapsulates what it means to advocate for yourself and your own health, which I think is incredibly important and something that I've learned along my thyroid journey.

Before my blog went live, back when I used to write about my experience as a coping mechanism, like a diary or journal if you will, for myself to read back on. I wrote a poem called, The Invisible, which I really wrote to try and encapture all the sides of living with thyroid disease, which is an invisible illness, and all the signs a lot of people don't understand or see. So, when I decided to start writing on a private blog space, I used the title of this poem, The Invisible, but felt that The Invisible Hypothyroidism described what I was writing about and wanting to convey much better.

And I just wanted to just, kind of, get out all of the sides of hyperthyroidism that people often don't see, and all the various sides that I was struggling with. And then eventually, I turned my little private corner on the web where I was blogging my personal experiences to a public setting, and my blog went public and I haven't looked back since. It's been really popular, and a lot of people seem to resonate with my experiences across the globe actually. And despite being based in the UK, about 60% of my traffic is from the U.S., which is quite interesting.

Dr. Hedberg: Excellent. So, of course, you've gone through this yourself. You've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's, chronic fatigue. So, that was obviously a motivation, but can you give us some more insights into what motivated you to become an advocate for thyroid patients, and also create The Invisible Hypothyroidism?

Rachel: Yeah. So, essentially, I'd had signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's for years. And I was frustrated that it took so long for doctors to find it and then get to the point where I was eventually diagnosed and then began treatment. I was just flabbergasted, if you will,