I had a visit with my endo this morning, and asked her why the antibody levels are not routinely checked (Em’s question, I think). She answered that since there is no treatment for the antibodies at this point in time, that it is a waste of time and money to run routine checks. Areas where she said they are helpful: 1) in pregnant women, when Graves is suspected and they cannot do an uptake and scan (due to the radioactive iodine used) it allows for diagnosis; 2)also in pregnant women, if it is suspected that the antibody level might be threatening the baby’s health they may do a test, so that pediatricians would be alerted to the problem. I’m sure she did not exhaust the list with these two examples, but it points out that knowing what the antibodies are isn’t terribly helpful when there is no good treatment for getting rid of them.
Re: avoiding salt. She said that while things with very high iodine content in them (like kelp) can make us distinctly sicker, there is no reason to avoid low or even moderate salt intake.
I hope this helps.
Bobbi
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