[Melisma]

#1017834

Does anyone have any thoughts on what does it mean to be in remission vs. being cured? I hadn’t really thought about the difference in the meanings of those words before. Right now I’d be just as psyched about being in remission as being cured. :0)

[msmanatee]

#1061231

I thought remission just means you are a-symptomatic.

[snelsen]

#1061232

I agree. Unfortunately, I don’t believe there is a cure for Graves’. Otherwise, we’d ALL be on that train! Seriously, there is treatment. I sure hope you get in remission and stay that way. Good to have labs over time, always, though. In the non Grave’s population, the thyroid hormone needs change over time, and the body audits that, and keeps up with the need.
Then there’s us! We nave to regulate and evaluate our thyroid needs by now our body feel, and the labs.
Shirley

[Bobbi]

#1061233

Remission is defined as a "temporary cessation of symptoms." There is no current cure for autoimmune disorders. With Graves, we do occasionally, if infrequently, experience periods of time where we can go without treatment and have normal levels of thyroid hormone. That is remission. Such a period "must" be over a year to qualify as a real remission, and it can go on for several years. The numbers I have seen, and believe, suggest that 20-30% of us experience one remission; a much smaller percentage experiences more than one. Antibody levels can rise and fall for no well-understood reason, and when they are low, we can be asymptomatic.

That’s looking at the autoimmune aspect of things alone. If you look at the problem of hyperthyroidism, however, (and that is what makes us ill) there is more of a cure: the removal of the thyroid. If you remove enough of your thyroid, you cannot ever again be hyperthyroid unless you take too large a dose of replacement hormone.

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