Hello – Anything that we can do to make ourselves healthier overall, such as eating a clean diet and reducing stress, can certainly help with the healing process. However, as Shirley mentioned, it is very important to get the hypERthyroidism under control, as leaving it untreated can cause bone/muscle wasting, heart issues, and a potentially fatal condition called thyroid storm. You will read books or see testimonials on the Internet about people who say they “cured” their Graves with some natural regimen. However, in some cases the disease actually goes into remission on its own…so there is no *proof* that the approach they used was responsible for addressing their Graves’ Disease or their hypERthyroidism. So we have to chose ONE of the conventional treatment options…all of which have different pros and cons.
With Anti-Thyroid Drugs, you have to watch for potential liver and white blood cell issues, which are rare, but serious side effects of these meds. When the meds are discontinued, there is always the potential that our hypERthyroidism could return.
With either surgery or RAI, you will be on thyroid hormone replacement for life — and it does take some trial and error to find the right doseage that will stabilize your thyroid hormone levels and make you feel good. This can be a difficult process for some patients. As with any surgery, thyroidectomy comes with a risk of complications. The most common complications with this type of surgery are damage to the nerves around the vocal cords and parathyroid glands. The RAI treatment is not recommended for women who are pregnant or who hope to become pregnant within 6 months. Also, there is some question as to whether RAI can exacerbate eye symptoms. (This is actually a topic for discussion at our upcoming conference this month in San Diego, so I am interested to hear what the doctors have to say).
That’s a huge relief that you are not dealing with thyroid cancer. Now you can focus on getting your hypERthyroidism under control and starting back on the road to good health.
Hello, All I might have posted wrong, so i’ll just start my topic. 2 months ago i was dignosed with Hyper graves disease. went from 195 to 167 in 1 month. They did all the work, scan, ultra, determined that it was graves. I take 40 mg of propranolol 1 time a day and methimazole 10 mg 2x a day. While scanning they found something on my thyroid, nodule.??and they did the biospi. waiting for results. I feel much better beside the joint legs pains. Little buldge in the eye, it went away. tremors, gone. heart papitating. gone. I think i going into hypo. now. I go back for my new blood test to find out how these med are doing. I was going to cut the methimazole in half, because it turning me into hypo. could that be. I hope my nodule is not cancer. I don’t want RAI, and i don’t want surgery. I been reading this book by a lady who cured and still does cure herself. She use color of food, and colors of rooms. She basically said that it is stress from life, and love lost. I try to keep the stress out of my life now. and be happy, and have fun.
