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Can diet cause Graves Disease? I found an article stating that soy, lentils, beans, dairy, grains, and yeast are linked to Graves Disease. I also found an article stating that Vitamin D deficiency can cause Graves Disease. I know my it D level was low a couple of years ago, then 1 got diagnosed with Graves August 2011. However, I had been on Vit D supplements for more than 1 year before the diagnosis and my Vit D level was normal for more than a year before the diagnosis. I have been eating a lto of soy products int he last year or so. I stopped soy about 1 week ago except for a couple of nutritional supplements that have soy lecithin in them. Any advice?
No. Diet does not cause Graves disease. You also cannot affect the course of your Graves disease with diet.
This question of diet and GD is something I have wondered about. While it may be completely coincidental, the onset of GD occurred at exactly the only time in my life when I have been dieting. Around last Christmas, i decided I should pay attention to my hypertension or prehypertension. Although I was healthy as a horse and almost never sick a day in my life, my bp was stubbornly around or above 140/90. I figured I would try and lower it naturally through diet, rather than going on lipitor, like everyone else. So I cut out my normal meat and potatoes supper (I did not change my continental breakfast or sandwich lunch) and began eating rice or oatmeal, some celery and a vegetable for supper, instead of a chicken breast or pork chop, baked potato and veggie. It worked marvelously, I started losing weight, even though I wasn’t heavy, I figured this would lower the bp naturally. Around Easter, I began feeling less healthy. I quit the diet and went back. But I still lost weight, eventually going from 190 to 150, also developed an excessive thirst and physical weakness. By July, I got diagnosed with GD. I am on the methimazole and also a beta blocker. I have regained 25 lbs and feel great, although my labs from early October aren’t normal. Getting new labs and going to see the Endo just before Christmas. I am not claiming this is proof of anything, but the only time in my life I have gotten sick was the time I tried to switch to an allegedly healthier diet. Maybe a coincidence, who knows? Don’t really care as long as I can remain healthy.
Bobbi, Thank you! In my case, I have been on Methimazole since December 2011. After coming back from Africa where I had been for 2 weeks, my TSH, T3 & T4 levels went down even though my dosage had been reduced by 25%. However. 1 month later, my dosage had to be increased, and then a few months later, again. Perhaps a coincidence. However, I am cutting out ally soy that I can from my diet, to see if that makes any difference. I can then say that I have tried to do all that I can for my Graves Disease.
cmac, Perhaps cutting out protein wasn’t a good idea? We all need protein to build our immune system. I learned tha hard way. i was on a Pritikin diet many years ago and then got diagnosed with cancer about 8-10 years after I stopped. The Pritikin diet was a mainly carbohydrate diet allowing only 10% fat and 10% protein. I am convinced that my body lacked the protein and hence the ability to build up my immune system to fight cancerous cells.
I think we still need to eat healthy yet providing our body with good fats and protein.
cmac wrote:This question of diet and GD is something I have wondered about. While it may be completely coincidental, the onset of GD occurred at exactly the only time in my life when I have been dieting. Around last Christmas, i decided I should pay attention to my hypertension or prehypertension. Although I was healthy as a horse and almost never sick a day in my life, my bp was stubbornly around or above 140/90. I figured I would try and lower it naturally through diet, rather than going on lipitor, like everyone else. So I cut out my normal meat and potatoes supper (I did not change my continental breakfast or sandwich lunch) and began eating rice or oatmeal, some celery and a vegetable for supper, instead of a chicken breast or pork chop, baked potato and veggie. It worked marvelously, I started losing weight, even though I wasn’t heavy, I figured this would lower the bp naturally. Around Easter, I began feeling less healthy. I quit the diet and went back. But I still lost weight, eventually going from 190 to 150, also developed an excessive thirst and physical weakness. By July, I got diagnosed with GD. I am on the methimazole and also a beta blocker. I have regained 25 lbs and feel great, although my labs from early October aren’t normal. Getting new labs and going to see the Endo just before Christmas. I am not claiming this is proof of anything, but the only time in my life I have gotten sick was the time I tried to switch to an allegedly healthier diet. Maybe a coincidence, who knows? Don’t really care as long as I can remain healthy.That’s weird since the same happened to me…I realize that you either have the antibodies to Graves or you don’t, but maybe the diet can “trigger” it?
My Graves also started after a diet – I started Jenny Craig in February to loose 15 lbs that I have slowly gained over the past 20 years…anyway, I lost the weight quite easily, went to Honduras and ate like a pig and lost more – more than I had wanted so I quit JC after the trip, lost more weight and was then dx with Graves…so maybe the “stress” on my body with the weight loss (although slow and steady) triggered the Graves?I have also just been dx with low vitamin D – it has been checked over the past 10 years (due to other diseases) and has never been low.
Interesting.
What an interesting topic.
What causes GD is the Million Dollar question.
What triggers it? What causes the TSIs to start up? What causes them to get elevated? What causes them to decrease?
I personally think that anything that can alter our immune system might be the thing that triggers it. Maybe and infection (I have read that some research says that this might be a cause), maybe a weak immune system due to lack of nutrients. Maybe it is a drastic change to our body such as a very different diet.
Looking back, there are few things that I can be suspicious of and think of as the trigger for me. If I had to list them, these are it:
I did too eat more soy the month prior to me becoming sick with a hyperthyroid. I started drinking soy milk every day. Something that I had never done before. I don’t drink soy milk anymore just in case and I have also lowered my soy intake.
I also started eating yeast. I had been yeast free for years but I started up again the month prior. I don’t eat it anymore just in case.
I had developed an ear problem. Maybe an infection. I mentioned it to my Dentist and my General Dr but neither one thought it was an ear infection.
I few months prior I had had fertility treatment to get pregnant. I think this might have been it if none of the above.
Maybe all of the above led me to where I’m today. Maybe it is not one thing alone but a group of things.
The truth is that if we don’t ask the question and we don’t compare what we know, we will never know the answer. We are not scientist and probably cannot come up with the answer on our own but we as patients can help by continue to ask the question …
What is true is that no matter what causes it or what does not, we need to maintain a healthy diet and a healthy daily routine. Our immune systems might be damaged but who is to say that they can’t heal with a healthy nutritious diet and a healthy lifestyle.
As for me, I’m off the yeast, the gluten, I’m consuming less soy, I’m getting some exercise (I need to increase this), I’m trying to get a good night sleep every night, I’m taking my vitamins including B12, and I’m trying to maintain a healthy level of stress. Maybe down the road my immune system will start to heal.
Caro
The doctors I have now, just think it’s genetic in my case. Father had thyroid cancer, on my mother’s side, they have Hashimotos. He says it’s just manifesting itself in another form inside my body. I imagine I was destined to be this way. Glad my father isn’t here for once in my life. He’d be pretty upset if he knew I had Graves disease and I know he’d feel responsible, but I certainly wouldn’t blame him.
It’s like diabetes. My husband has it, my sister-in-law has it, my father-in-law had it and my husband’s grandmother had it.
Genetics … we all have some of that. Some people have genes that never get activated so when you think about it, we can have the genes for something but it is until something triggers them that we develop the problem. At least that is how I understand it.
Carito71 wrote:Fellow GD patient diagnosed June 2012 with a non-existent TSH, elevated fT3 and fT4, and a TSI of 4.5. On Methimazole 30mg/day for the first 8 weeks. On Methimazole 10mg/day for the next 6 weeks. On Methimazole 5mg/day for a week and a half. On Methimazole 5mg every 4 days for a month. On Methimazole 2.5mg/day starting Nov 15. Current labs show a normal fT4, a normal TSH, and a TSI of 3.2. Diet: Gluten and yeast free. Love to read and learn. Very interested in the immune part of GD ~Carito71, When in the treatment regimen did you cut out gluten, yeast and soy? I am off all 3 except for 1 day a week. Not sure if my goitre is a little smaller now after 2 weeks of doing this change in my diet. I have been exercising for years now, long before my thyroid issue. I think stress has a big part in triggering it too.
HelenYH wrote:Carito71 wrote:Fellow GD patient diagnosed June 2012 with a non-existent TSH, elevated fT3 and fT4, and a TSI of 4.5. On Methimazole 30mg/day for the first 8 weeks. On Methimazole 10mg/day for the next 6 weeks. On Methimazole 5mg/day for a week and a half. On Methimazole 5mg every 4 days for a month. On Methimazole 2.5mg/day starting Nov 15. Current labs show a normal fT4, a normal TSH, and a TSI of 3.2. Diet: Gluten and yeast free. Love to read and learn. Very interested in the immune part of GD ~Carito71, When in the treatment regimen did you cut out gluten, yeast and soy? I am off all 3 except for 1 day a week. Not sure if my goitre is a little smaller now after 2 weeks of doing this change in my diet. I have been exercising for years now, long before my thyroid issue. I think stress has a big part in triggering it too.
I too was during a lot of stress when my thyroid issues began … or at least when they were diagnosed.
I’m allergic to Gluten and yeast and was off for many years but I started eating yeast again the month prior to getting sick. I was feeling so well that I started to doubt my allergy to yeast. I had “gluten free” pizza at a pizzeria but they couldn’t make it for me yeast free and well, like I said above, I was doubting my allergy anyway. I had it several times that month. I think maybe I had gluten too being that it was pizza and it was baked in the same place as wheat pizzas. Anyway, a month later I was very sick. I haven’t had yeast since then again so it would be since June. If I had gluten those times then the same for gluten but I had been gluten/yeast free before for many years. I’m not off the soy completely. I like tofu and I eat it once a week but in very small amounts and less than I did before getting sick. Like I mentioned earlier, the month before getting sick I started drinking one glass of soy milk a day. I stopped that in June also but I do have the tofu as I mentioned. I’m completely off the gluten/yeast because of my allergy. Gluten really makes me sick so I can’t have it. Many years ago when I went Gluten/yeast free it took several months before I could feel better from the allergies. Back then my stomach used to bother me all of the time.
Did you start the gluten/yeast/soy free diet to see if it helps with GD or are you allergic to any of them? There was an article in Yahoo about a month ago that talked about wheat and how it is so different now from the wheat that was eaten many years ago. It said that now it is toxic to humans and causes a lot of problems.
I have read that people with GD can also have Celiac (Gluten allergy) because they are both autoimmune diseases.
I suspect my problems started with soy and stress. About a decade ago I decided to take my lactose intolerance seriously and switched to soy. In the years that followed I became slightly hypothyroid but this is by today’s reference ranges – back then the ranges went up higher so the doctors still said it was acceptable. So many years passed, and then many big stressors happened. My guess is if I hadn’t been hypo and hadn’t had the stress maybe I could have gone longer before Graves showed up, but no doubt I had a date with it eventually.
Carito71 wrote:Did you start the gluten/yeast/soy free diet to see if it helps with GD or are you allergic to any of them? There was an article in Yahoo about a month ago that talked about wheat and how it is so different now from the wheat that was eaten many years ago. It said that now it is toxic to humans and causes a lot of problems.I have read that people with GD can also have Celiac (Gluten allergy) because they are both autoimmune diseases.
Carito71, No I have not had any real allergy to any of these except what the therapist for treating allergies with acupressure told me.. So, I got acupressure while being exposed to an electrical signal that simulated the allergen. I often wonder if I didn’t have the allergy treatment, whether I would have GD today. The GD diagnosis occurred near the end of the allergy treatments. I think I had the allergy treatment for at least 6 months.
And no one in my family has any thyroid disorder or autoimmune issues. I must say I also am a cancer survivor who went through chemotherapy and radiation. Perhaps, the chemo and/or radiation affected my immune system such that I started making TSI?
Hey everyone, Just got my thyroid hormone blood test results back. They are:
TSH 0.004 (same for about 4 months)
Free T4 1.90 (1.93 a month ago)
Free T3 8.3 (9.4 a month ago)This was a result of increased methimazole dosage from 10mg daily to 12.5mg daily.
Looks like my free T4 has been normal for a while but the free T3 is not. However, it looks like the T3 is coming down. Is it pretty normal for the free T3 to lag behind for so long (about 4 months)?
Hello – The latest medical guidance doesn’t give a time frame, but it does note that “…serum free T4 levels may normalize with persistent elevation of serum T3.”
You can read the full document if you are interested; it’s the second link in the “Treatment Options” thread in the announcements section at the top of the forum.
Take care!
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