[scanders September 15, 2017 at 7:17 pm Post count: 108]

#1060858

Just pondering… Stress seems to be acknowledged as a trigger for Graves. (Even my endo–“just the facts”, “look for the science”, etc–says it may be so.) If a major stressor is introduced, any studies showing how long it might take to see symptoms of a graves flare if it were going to impact a person? Days? Weeks? Longer? I suppose it might depend on what the definition of “major stressor” might be. Death in the family? Break up of a marriage? Loss of job? Can it even be defined or quantified?
Someone asked me a question about it (worried something might be about to impact me, as it turns out) and now I’m just sort of wondering if I need to be concerned. Funny how I didn’t really think about it until the question was posed. But now I’m wondering.
Thanks!

[Liz1967 September 16, 2017 at 3:09 pm Post count: 305]

#1185137

I found this article that had some info re stress and Graves
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24853882
There was another I saw that defined Graves stressors as death in family, divorce, job issues.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26801325
Not sure if you meant flare up of thyroid hormones or ophthalmopathy.

[scanders September 16, 2017 at 4:13 pm Post count: 108]

#1185138

Thanks, Liz! I might be referring to both. I found out something fairly stressful a few weeks ago, and this will continue to be a stressor for a bit. (Meets the criteria from one of the studies mentioned.) I have routine labs coming up this week with my endo visit, but if stress were to wreak havoc, I don’t know that it would show up this soon in labs, anyway? And if I read the studies correctly, it may indicate that age (50’s) is in my favor? Sigh…time for chocolate, I think.

[Liz1967 September 16, 2017 at 4:47 pm Post count: 305]

#1185139

When I had a flare of TED after lid surgery, it happened both times at 4 weeks after the surgery. My initial Graves occurred about two months after the precipitating event. Knowing now what I did not know then, I would have concentrated more on stress reduction and less on trying to control the uncontrollable! Chocolate sounds like a good start!

[KimberlyOnline Facilitator September 18, 2017 at 12:19 pm Post count: 4288]

#1185140

@Liz1967 – Interesting studies!

@scanders – I’ve had 5 flares of hypER over the last 10 years due to stress, and all of them occurred when I was right in the middle of it. (Obviously, my own stress management skills could use some improvement…) It might be helpful to label the stressor as something over which you have no control or some control. Things like meditation, deep breathing, etc. might be more helpful for the former – while adding a concrete action plan might be helpful for the latter.

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