[Anonymous]

#1057871

I’ve seen a few mentions in the recent posts about smoking being related to
eye problems with GD. I too have heard this from a number of sources.

Now, no lectures please… I’m a smoker. I have been for about 10 years.
I’ve been trying to quit for a long time & this relation to eye problems
finally gave me a good motivation to quit. I’ve been pretty successful. In
fact, I’ve already gone a 30 day stretch without so much as a single cigarette.
BUT, I keep finding myself going back to it – every time I get stressed.
Unfortunately the stress comes often being a graduate student and having a
boyfriend who doesn’t understand this disease at all.

If you’re not a smoker, you just can’t possibly understand why quitting is
so difficult.

Any other smokers out there? I could use some support in this department!

Although I value my eyes (sometimes even more than my lungs!) it’s still
difficult!

-Lisa

[Anonymous]

#1167148

Hi Lisa

I get to join in on this one, especially since I was the one that brought it up in the first place, huh?

As an on and off smoker, I really know what your’e talking about. For me, the depression and feeling bad with the disease has made it even harder. We Talked a while back on here about when I’m feeling bad, I get a case of the “I don’t care, and I don’t even care that I don’t care”, and that seems to take over a lot.

Thanks for contributing, Lisa

Bruce

[Anonymous]

#1167149

I have double vision, and Jake’s post made me wonder just how much smoking affects the eyes. I don’t smoke as a rule, but am not passed bumming an occasions ciggie. I wonder if that would make matters worse.

Thanks,
Sandy

I’ve been reading the posts for several months, and even though I don’t post often myself, I’ve gotten SO much great information. What a bunch of neat people you are. *G*

[Anonymous]

#1167150

Sandy, according to “The Thyroid Sourcebook” (Rosenthal), “Since the first edition of this book, one interesting fact has turned up about Thyroid Eye Disease–it almost always attacks smokers with Graves’ Disease, while it is much less common in non-smokers. No one knows exactly why this is.”. . . and in “Your Thyroid, a Home Reference”, “Recently smoking has been linked to the development of hyperthyroidism, but again, the way the disease is triggered by tobacco is unknown.” I’ve wondered how many people on this BB with the eye involvement have NEVER smoked? Both my Graves’ and the eye problems developed after I quit. How about anyone else? Dianne

[Anonymous]

#1167151

I quit smoking 6 months before I was diagnosed with
Graves (but my Endo thinks that as severe as I was, that
it had been coming on for a year.) My eye problems, which
are a little different than what I read about here, started about
a month after I quit smoking.

[Anonymous]

#1167152

In answer to my own post about smoking, I went to my Endo today and asked him whether smoking affects GD. He said that it doesn’t. My onset came years after I quit smoking, so I tend to agree. I’m not advocating smoking…there are those other horrors to contend with.

[Anonymous]

#1167153

Just for the record – I have Graves’ Ophthalmopathy and never smoked.
But, Brent smokes in the house and car occasionally, with the windows
open. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Debby

[Anonymous]

#1167154

I too, have severe graves eye disease and do not smoke. Growing up my dad was a heavy smoker but I had moved out after college and was away from it for a while after getting graves. It does make you wonder about second hand smoke.

Does anyone know why they say people who are smokers have a greater tendency to have the eye disease?

Dee

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