[Anonymous June 1, 1997 at 2:42 am Post count: 93172]

#1055541

Debbie,

Thank you very much for your response. Your thoughts were very
interesting. It never occured to me that exercise was boosting
my immune system, which then turned against me again. I had eyelid
surgery last December after my eyes had seemed stable for about 9 months.
Then in April I started a regular exercise regiment, everything seemed
great. About 3 weeks into it my eyes started to swell again and
they got worse than ever. I developed double vision in my peripheral
vision and some optic nerve damage in one eye. Luckily the optic nerve
damage seemed to resolve itself within a couple of weeks and I narrowly
escaped prednisone therapy and or radiation. I’m afraid to start
exercising again. One thing I can’t stand about Grave’s disease is
its’ unpredictable course, and the lack of information about it.
It’s also difficult to make your body healthy and to feel good. I
used to know my body much better. Good luck to you too. It sounds
like we’ve gone through some similar symptoms.I wish you the best.

[Anonymous October 11, 1997 at 9:55 pm Post count: 93172]

#1161218

I know that this is an old topic–but I am new here and have been going
through some old posts as this is simply the best BBS I have found on Graves’. And I have had this disease for six years, and have been through much of what you folks have gone through.

I myself noticed in the past that when I exercised, my eyes got worse.
As a matter of fact, my disease manifested itself when I was in the best shape of my life–lifting weights and walking 2 1/2 miles per day. Six months after I had gotten to that point I developed hyperthyroidism. Then two years later after walking ten miles in Alaska I developed the
swelling of the eyes (opthalmalpathy?). I had been on PTU for two years after a partial thyroidectomy which didn’t quite do it.

I found that exercise would make the eyelid resorption/retraction worse.
Only by going up on PTU could I reverse this, and I finally stopped organized exercise. RAI seems to have stopped this somewhat–though new problems started after that (chemosis).

My theory is this: the thyroid affects metabolism–and so does exercise.
Hence, exercise speeds up the thyroid–and aggravates the eye problems in some people. I would be REALLY interested to know what you golks think about this as I have never seen this in any literature.

Sorry about the length of this.

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