Hi, marlomole, and welcome to our board.
For the most part, Graves disease is very treatable. There are two basic ways that we can regain control over our thyroid hormone levels (removal of the thyroid, or use of so-called antithyroid –ATD– medications), and with normal levels of thyroid hormone reestablished, we can go back to leading normal, healthy lives. Our treatments do work to give us back our health. We typically have to take some form of medication, but we do regain our health.
Try to keep in mind that while the disease is an autoimmune one — caused by antibodies — what makes us actively ill is the aberrant levels of thyroid hormone. Regain control over the thyroid levels and the symptoms go away, unless you are talking about the eye disease (TED). TED has is also caused by antibodies, but has nothing to do with our thyroid levels.
There is usually a genetic link, although not necessarily a direct one. It is said that some families have a “predisposition” to the development of autoimmune problems. But it does not necessarily involve just Graves disease. In some families other, extended relatives may be on synthroid to raise their thyroid levels. Or perhaps someone had arthritis, or prematurely gray hair, etc.
How long your brother may have had the wrong levels of hormone is strictly a guess. It’s possible that there was an extended period of time when things were only slightly “off.” Or not. There’s no way to tell. But the fact that the doctor thinks things were caught early is good. The longer we are ill, the longer it takes for our bodies to recover.
