I often see people on this board talking about having a “compromised” immune system. The sense I get from that — out of the context of their posts — is that they feel that our immune system is less effective than a normal one, simply because of GD.
This is not precisely true. While we are hyperthyroid, and obviously “ill”, yes, we might be more subject to infection than the normal, healthy person. That would be true no matter what the disease was. But once we get back to normal levels of hormone, and are stabilized there, we should be no more likely to become ill than the next-door neighbor. Our immune systems made a “typo”, if you will. They created an antibody by mistake. But the rest of the antibodies should work just fine. In this days of AIDS, “compromised immune system” typically means that the immune system is less-than-capable of fighting off disease. That is not true for those of us with GD provided that we are no longer being made ill by hyperthyroidism.
I hope this helps,
Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator
