[DianneW]

#1072078

It’s known that smokers are more likely to get Graves’ Disease in the first place than non-smokers are. So the chances are good that you’d have had it anyway, especially with the strong family history. My GD was diagnosed after I quit smoking but I’m quite sure in retrospect that I had it off and on for many years even before that.

In any case, it’s very good that you did quit smoking because you significantly reduce your chances of getting a bad case of the eye disease.

[IMLizard]

#1019504

Hi, I’m new here and I am wondering about a nagging suspicion that I have. My father developed Graves at age 33 shortly after kicking a 3-pack-a-day cigarette habit cold turkey. I developed Graves at age 47 shortly after quitting smoking as well….. I am just wondering…..if the stress of quitting or the chemical changes possibly might have anything to do with it. I’d like to know if anyone else has had this experience? Thanks.

[mamabear]

#1072079

I agree with diane. I was always said to be "hyper" even though tests showed I wasn’t.

I smoked from a young age till I was 24. I quit cold turkey and didn’t get diagnosed with graves till after I was 27 and what triggered it was having had the flu. I have Graves in my family and other two people that had graves didn’t smoke at all.

[woodley]

#1072080

Hi. Just to say congratulations on quitting smoking. I celebrated a year smoke-free yesterday. My main reason for quitting was wanting to feel healthier, so Graves really hasn’t helped. But it is good to read that things could be worse if I still smoked.

Woodley

[Mickey65]

#1072081

Well, I smoke…but don’t want any comments – my choice, my life…

Anyway, I feel as if my GD was brought on by stress. I bought my first house last year, and also was promoted to dispatcher in a busy trucking company and it was a few months later when I was diagnosed with GD when I noticed (and everyone else!) my shaking/trembling hands.

No one else in my family has or had GD.

[IMLizard]

#1072082

Thanks so much for the replies. I haven’t had anyone to ask before. I also realize that the "why" of GD doesn’t matter at this point. Now I deal with the "what". Am doing okay, stable and on levothyroxin. It was a long road to here, and I still have to be tested to see if there is any cardiomyopathy from the GD, but so far am feeling much better for quite a while now. ” title=”Smile” />

[DianneW]

#1072083

Micky, whether or not anyone in your family has GD, you have to have the genetic predisposition or it’s impossible to get it.

When I was diagnosed with GD I didn’t know of anyone in my family who had ever been diagnosed with a thyroid problem of any kind (and I have a pretty big family which includes 33 first cousins), let alone Graves’ Disease; but in the 13 years since my diagnosis there have been other thyroid diagnoses including one other case of GD in a first cousin. My daughter and a sister now both have Hashimotos thyroiditis (hypothyroidism), as did my father and his sister (my aunt) before they died, and two first cousins on the other side of the family.

So check with other family members to see if they have low thyroid function. It’s actually more common in families of Graves’ Disease patients to find family members with low thyroid function than with Graves’ Disease, but it’s all autoimmune thyroid disease and shares genetics and overlapping antibody profiles. If you don’t have a large family it’s less likely you’ll find any one.

Also, separating out what caused GD is a really difficult thing. You say you believe stress caused yours, and you talk about buying a house and being promoted to a stressful job. I think most people would agree that these are events most of us have experienced in our lives, even to a severely stressful degree. (I know I have.) If you randomly happened to get Graves’ Disease when you were going through these things, of course the stress you experienced would be even worse, so you’d think the stress brought on the GD whether or not it did. I’m not saying that I know the answer. I’m just trying to show why it is that people with Graves’ are bound to attribute their Graves’ to stress, no matter whether that caused it or not. We always have stressful things going on, and they’re going to feel worse when we’re hyperthyroid.

I can sit down and write down events for the last 25 years that could have triggered my Graves’ Disease, if it was stressful events that triggered it. But I could do the same with any of my friends who doesn’t have Graves’ Disease. Life is a series of stressful events and then we die. (There’s a shorter way to say that.)

Just some things to consider. I’m not saying I have the answers.

[mamabear]

#1072084

Yes I would also like to say Congrat’s to all who have quit smoking!!!!

It will be 11 years August 14th for me.

[rosemary44]

#1072085

good ” title=”Smile” />

drug rehab

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