A guide for life without a thyroid or one that isn't doing what it should

The ThyroBase Foundation Protocol

The AM and PM rhythm. How to time things around your medication. What to feel, and when. The questions worth asking your GP. This page is the overview; the complete 24-page guide comes with your first box.

A letter from Jilda

Hi. I'm Jilda. Twelve months ago I had a full thyroidectomy. Cancer in the thyroid, spread to the lymph nodes, surgery in two weeks. The news came in my endocrinologist's office, and it was the kind that reshapes you.

I survived the surgery. The recovery is what I wasn't prepared for. The fatigue that doesn't lift. The brain fog so thick I'd forget the word for fork halfway through dinner. Hair on the pillow every morning. The 2am wake-ups. And the line every endocrinologist gave me for the first six months.

I wasn't fine. And the gap between what my tests said and what my body knew is the reason this guide exists. Manny, my son, went looking for a supplement made for people like me. With no added iodine. Kelp-free. No added goitrogens. Without the inflammatory fillers that wreck a sensitive gut. He found nothing. So we built it together.

The letter continues in the full guide.

Part 1. The AM and PM Rhythm

Why the day gets two different formulas: what the morning body needs, what the evening body needs, and how the two halves of the system fit into a real day. The full guide walks the complete daily flow, from first glass to lights out.

Part 2. Timing it around your thyroid medication

This is the part of the guide we're asked about most, so here is the heart of it, free.

The 4-hour rule

Levothyroxine is the most-prescribed thyroid medication in Australia, and it has a quirk worth understanding. It absorbs best on an empty stomach, with water only, and it's sensitive to a long list of substances that can bind to it in the gut and reduce absorption.

The standard guidance from endocrinologists is to take thyroid medication at least 30 minutes before any food or other supplement. That's the absolute floor. The better practice, especially for people who've had absorption issues or stubborn TSH levels, is to leave a 4-hour gap between thyroid medication and anything else you put in your stomach. ThyroBase follows the same rule: medication first, then a clear 4 hours before your AM serve.

• Calcium. Calcium-fortified foods, calcium supplements, dairy, and calcium-containing antacids all compete with absorption.
• Iron. Iron supplements in any form, iron-fortified foods, and multivitamins containing iron.
• Magnesium. Magnesium supplements in any form and magnesium-containing antacids.
• Soy. Soy protein, edamame, tofu, soy milk, and soy-based supplements.

The full guide turns this into two worked daily schedules (a morning-medication day and a night-medication day), hour by hour, so you never have to think about the timing again.

Part 3. Week-by-week expectations

What tends to shift first, what takes longer, and what the 60-day window is actually for. Honest expectation-setting, week by week from day 1 to day 90, including when to keep going and when to talk to us. In the full guide.

Part 4. Questions worth asking your GP

Ten specific questions and test requests, with the reasoning behind each one, written for the appointment most people with thyroid conditions walk out of feeling unheard.

The starting questions are in the free Fine on Paper Checklist, which you can have today. The full ten, with the why behind each, are on pages 19 and 20 of the complete guide.

What's in the pouches

Every ingredient, the form it takes, and the researched reason it earned its place. The short version lives on our Ingredients page; the guide goes deeper on how the AM and PM formulas divide the work. And just as important: what we left out, and why.

The 60-Day Empty Pouch Promise

For subscribers, the Promise runs for 60 days from the day your first box arrives. Take ThyroBase daily, empty all 8 pouches if you need to, and if you don't feel a real shift in your day to day, we refund every dollar. No return shipping, no questions. The full policy is here.

Not ready yet? Start with the free Fine on Paper Checklist: the tests to ask for, the questions to bring, and two things you can do this week.

Questions? Reply to any of Jilda's emails, or write to hello@thyrobase.com. For anyone who knows the gap.