Hi Linda, you're very welcome. Unfortunately, the medical approach for thyroid disease doesn't include prevention or management other than medication, radiation and surgery. Fortunately, there is help out there!
The gluten free is extremely important, especially if you live in the US, because of the practices with farming. The reason for the GF diet is to reduce the load on your immune system. Wheat and other gluten containing products can trigger the immune system, worsening autoimmmune disease, particularly for certain types of cells, including gut, thyroid, brain, and lung, because these cell express surface proteins similar to the gluten protein. The gluten triggers the immune system against gluten, but the immune system mistakes your own cells for another gluten substance because of these surface proteins and you wind up with your immune system attacking your own body and worsening autoimmune disease. For people with celiacs, the colon cancer rate is something like 30 times more likely. So if you have gluten sensitivity, which you do if you have thyroid disease, you will feel much better off the wheat. I can tell you, when I first heard of the whole gluten thing, I really thought it was just another ridiculous trend. But after two weeks eating at home, I felt so much better. Then at the two weeks, I tried my hand at gf dining out, and 6 hours later was sick as can be. GF is not easy and most venues and food manufacturers don't do it properly. Even the allowable meds amounts in GF foods sold in the use are enough to trigger the immune system. For this reason, I shy away from GF foods unless they are manufactured in a GF facility by a company who's goal is truly healthy eating. The best thing is to learn to cook without grains, but you'll have to use the go foods to wean yourself off your current lifestyle of high grain eating.
Yea, the adrenal thing is very important. When I started the levo, it actually reduced my ability to cope with stress. You may want to keep a log on your stress levels and coping capacity to see if the meds make it worse. When the thyroid levels are wonky, the body reacts by adjesting adrenaline and cortisol levels as a backup way to regulate energy levels. For the body, this is somewhat of a safety mechanism so that vital functions are maintained. However, prolonged hypothyroidism can lead to adrenal exhaustion, followed by early onset menopause because the adrenal she produce the precursors to the hormones produced by the ovaries and other sex organs. So with your thyroid out of whack, you're in for total system failure. This is why people scream for medications, diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately there is no bioidentical treatment, so all traditional thyroid treatment offers less than desired results.
Since you're feeling like rubbish on the levothyroxin, I feel I should offer some words of wisdom, that this drug did not work for me at any dose, and is extremely harmful, more so with prolonged use and higher doses. My experience was that it's a placebo with horrible side effects including 4 different types of cancer, thyroid disease, and many other autoimmune diseases. Clinical case studies show this drug can cause liver lesions in healthy patients at the lowest dose after only one month. I was so desperate when I tried this drug, I wish I hadn't given in to that desperation because I really feel it did irreparable damage.
I found a book that was very helpful in dealing with all the effects of thyroid disease. I'll send you a PM.