[Bobbi]

#1064522

Hi, and welcome to our board.

We do get well again. That’s the thought to hold on to right now. I understand how hard it must be right now for you to feel as rotten as you do — or have been feeling.

Getting well again is a process. The first, vital step is regaining control over your thyroid hormone levels. Your doctor put you on a drug which interferes with the chemical process by which thyroid cells take iodine and make hormone. You have to be taking just the right amount of it, and that can take some time with dose adjustments. But, in many patients, it can control the thyroid hormone levels in the "normal" zone. If the drug doesn’t work for whatever reason, or isn’t something you tolerate well, the thyroid can be removed, and normal levels of hormone can be reached by taking a replacement hormone pill once a day.

Once your thyroid levels are controlled in the normal zone, your body will have time to heal from being hyperthyroid. That can take a few weeks or months, but you should see progress back to what you remember normal being.

We DO get well again.
I hope you are feeling better soon.

[Samdrums80]

#1064523

Hello Bobbi thanks for replying
I am not interested in the removal of my thyroid gland because it is a gland that God gave me and i do believe it can be restored back to its normal ways no matter what any one says. Also i am not interested in waiting for hormone pills to work.
One of my friends gave me a supplement called 5HTP and it helped a lot. After a few minutes i felt way better i even got up and walked my dog around and listened to my ipod at the same time! Listening to music was something i hadn’t done in a awhile and it wouldn’t of happened that day if i didn’t take the 5htp. Do you know of any supplements i can take to take care of this graves problem?Its very strange i don’t suffer from heart palpitations hair loss , or bulging eyes which is what most people suffer from when they have this graves disease.

[Kimberly]

#1064524

Hello – and welcome!

I have been on methimazole for going on 3 years now…and while I am not in remission, my thryoid levels mostly stay in the "normal" range, with periodic tweaks to my dosing. I definitely understand wanting to keep your thyroid, as I feel the same way! But keep in mind that there are some *rare* but potentially serious side effects that can come with anti-thyroid drugs, namely problems with liver function and a reduced white blood cell count. *If* you run into these issues, definitely keep an open mind about other options, as it *is* important to keep your hypERthyroidism under control. Otherwise, you can run into bone/muscle wasting, heart problems, and a potentially fatal condition called thyroid storm.

As for supplements, you will read *all* sorts of stuff on the Internet about this supplement or that supplement that supposedly "cures" Graves’. But the truth is that Graves’ Disease can go into remission on its own in some patients…so there is really no way to tell whether or not the supplements did anything. Also, any supplement that you are thinking about taking should be cleared with your doctor first. Some supplements can have dangerous interactions with meds that you are already taking. Also, supplements are not nearly as carefully regulated here in the U.S. as other medicines, so dangerous side effects are often not discovered until after the fact.

As a musician, you might be interested in hearing about one of the spokespeople for the Foundation, who was diagnosed as a teenager. He is now 25 and is focusing on a career as a musician. If you go to our home page at http://www.ngdf.org and scroll about halfway down, you will see a section called "Patient Voices – Thyroid Disease". Click on the link, and then when the story comes up, click on the "Finding His Voice" link. By the way, when you visit this link, you can also "meet" two of our other bulletin board facilitators, Ski and James.

Again, welcome…feel free to ask questions here…or just vent if you need to!

[Samdrums80]

#1064525

Thank you for the Patient Voices – Thyroid Disease Link it was very inspiring.
I will go to sleep tonight but i know i will be disturbed by insomnia even if i take my melatonin. Hopefully tomarrow will be a better day i hope…..

[Samdrums80]

#1018399

Im only 18 years old i have just finished graduating highschool. I am very muscular and in good health. Just about two weeks ago i was diagnosed with graves disease i cant beliveve it. I am on methameizole 10mg twice a day. This has brought so many problems in my life and has changed me alot. No one in my family has had it so i dont know how i could have gotten it. Also no one in my school has it and i dont know of any one in my age group who has it. I used to be very involved in with music listening to alot and playing music live with bands. Since my graves problem it has ruined my life now its like i have no energy or attention span ever. Instead of being involed in music all i do is spend the days reading stuff about graves disease and hyperthyroid trying to find ways to help myself and cure my problem. I suffer from Cold intolerance, Sweaty palms and feet,irritability, Constipation,insomnia,muscle and nerve weakness, poor concentration,increased hunger, anxieity,depression and buzzing in hands and feet. I feel like im trapped inside of a nighmare that will never end . i JUST want to wake up and say im back to normal. ” title=”Neutral” />

[Harpy]

#1064526

I don’t know where you are with diet etc., but one of the major things you can do to assist any treatment process is to get onto a healthy diet, light exercise & take some actions on stress management techniques irrespective of the treatment program that you are on.

[Samdrums80]

#1064527

For breakfast i usually have oatmeal. Then for lunch my choices are Peanut butter and jelly on spelt bread, Rotisserie Chicken, with collard greens, kale, or broccoli, and whole grain rice. Dinner is like the same as lunch. Now i avoid junk food and fast foods, idont drink soda anymore, no artificial sweeteners.

I also take vitamin B, C, A, Calcium,zinc magnesium but i don’t see a difference in how i feel.

[Samdrums80]

#1064528

it seems that people whit graves disease are hyper but i never feel hyperactive also i have a cold intolerance not heat intolerance.

[Bobbi]

#1064529

Hyperthyroid is not equivalent with hyperactive. When we have too much thyroid hormone it wears us out. Yes, our brains are racing (hence, not being able to sleep); our hearts are racing, etc. But we do not have lots of energy. Maybe at very minor levels of too much thyroid hormone that might be the case — temporarily. But if you are hyperthyroid for too long, it wears you out. It is something that confuses many people.

I would like to emphasize a point that Kimberly made, as well. Please check with your doctor about any supplement that you add to things. There are supplements, and there are supplements. Some are downright dangerous for you, even if you feel a tad better when you take them.

[genuinruby]

#1064530

My question is mostly for Samsdrumsdrum 80…
What was going on with you in your life to cause you to seek out the medical community and get a diagnosis for Grave’s? I was 46 years old when my gyn insisted on a TSH lab and I went from "ignorance is bliss" to my present reality. But looking back, and knowing what I know now, I am positive that I sufferred from this as a child. So as an adult, most of the crazy things that were happening to me were "normal to me", because I had been dealing with them all of my life.

Welcome to the boards, here we have awesome volunteers who strive to keep the information accurate, which is so important when we are searching for answers. Age is just a number here, so we welcome your insight.

[Samdrums80]

#1064531

well what happened with me was that i noticed i was getting tired and tired every day i didn’t think it was anything. Then one day i was really tired and weak then i started having fever sensations that day. During this time i had no idea what graves disease was or what a thyroid was. So i went from my room downstairs and talked to my mom. I can remember i was very sad and i knew something was really wrong i told her something was wrong with me but i didn’t know what it was. I just didn’t feel good. So i went to the doctors. I had to fill out a new patient form and i was all fidgety. The woman sitting at the counter noticed and put me in a room away from the main waiting place where every one else was. I had been sitting in the room still struggling to finish writing down the information for the forms. The woman said that’s okay you don’t have to finish that right now. She checked my blood pressure, Temperature and eyes and then left. Later on the doc came in and talked to me i explained everything that was wrong with me. This doctor was not a endocrinologist but she was a Pediatrician. She said all of my problems were from not getting enough sleep i had believed her because i was not getting a lot of sleep and i didn’t know what else could be causing this My dad came in the room and suggest that i get a blood test. Few days later my dad got a call saying that my TSH or some other level i cant remember was low. About two weeks later i went to a endocrinologist during this time i felt terrible way worse then i was before. I described all the symptoms to my endocrinolgist she said it sould like hypothyroid and my levels werent too off from the first blood test i took. She suggest that i get a uptake scan of my thyroid and a fulll thyroid panel blood test . I thought to my self "great" now i can wait more in pain to see what my problem is ” title=”Neutral” /> SO then i got all my test done about two weeks later i go see my endo she says my xray was normal but my levels are slightly higher and it looks like i have early graves disease. Then i got put on the methimezole. SO NOW im just wating for these anti thyroid meds to kick in

[genuinruby]

#1064532

Thanks for sharing your story. Hang in there, and if you have questions, ask away.

[Samdrums80]

#1064533

Does any one on here know of a diet plan for graveshyperthyroid? I want to try a new diet to see if that improves my health. What vegetables should i be juicing?

[Harpy]

#1064534

Everyone will have slightly different dietry needs as we are all slightly different.
Some general rules.
Stay away from highly processed foods and take away.
Avoid high iodine content foods like kelp, seaweeds etc, like sushi wraps and be wary of shell fish as they may have metal contaminants, personally I would also avoid soy all together except in the fermented state if you must and Trans fats are pure evil.
Minimise gluten & yeast intake and also reduce dairy (cows milk), hard cheeses are better than soft, try goats milk if you can source it, it’s much more easily digestable (20-30min compared to 2-3 hours for cows milk) and the taste difference is minimal, most people wouldn’t even notice it if they weren’t told, personally I find it has a much lighter smoother taste.
Eat fresh whole foods as much as possible that have had minimal processing and if you can get organic or even locally grown food the nutrition value will most likely be a lot higher than food that has been grown in large monoculture farms that use large quantities of fertalizers, pesticides & herbacides to compensate for poor soil quality lacking in trace elements.
Eat a wide range of fruit and veg, you really can’t have too much of these, lots of nuts & seeds (peanuts are not nuts they are legumes), healthy meats low saturated fats, mix it up though get get chicken, pork, beef, fish and other animal protein sources in the mix, cereals should be wholegrain as much as possible.
As for supplements you will need to determine what your needs are as best as you can with appropriate blood testing and if possible engage a Naturopath who has had experience with Hypothyroid issues to work with. I’d suggest fish oil as a definate as most people do not get enough Omega 3’s just make sure it’s ultra clean and has been tested for metal contaminants.
There’s so much more, but that’s a start, just remember don’t stress if you can’t achieve everything at once, it’s better to get half way without stress than all the way totally stressed out. Stress will rapidly negate any positive changes you make, so don’t whip yourself, do the best you can and take one step at a time.
This is all to support the medication and healing process and this is a long race, so pace yourself, as long as you are moving forward you are moving forward, sometimes they will be big steps, sometimes tiny, just remember to heal fully, your body, mind & soul must be number 1 priority.

[Harpy]

#1064535

Oh I forgot the goitrogenic foods
Mainly the cabbage family, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, spinach too I think, they have a very mild suppressive effect on the thyroid action, so may assist in reducing the hyperthyroid state, they should be eaten as raw as possible, just remember the effect is very mild and will not be a substitute for medication.
Lemon balm can be taken as a tea or thrown in with salads for a light lemon flavour it is a relaxant and mild goitrogen also.
There are other herbs that can also assist, but should only be used under advice from a qualified person.
Anyway keep researching and take care of yourself, you will get there, it will just take a bit of time and commitment.

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