[HelenYH]

in reply to: ** Words of hope and needing good advice … please ** #1179527

Hi Carito – I too am very much in favor of being your own advocate because you’d be your best advocate! Also agree with the others about trying out a new endocrinologist if the current one continues to insist on withdrawing from the methimazole.

BTW, to combat the liver effects of methimazole, I have found the herbal supplement (edited by moderator) very effective. After about a month of taking it, my doctor was pleasantly surprised that my liver function tests became normal! I am still on it to “protect” my liver from methimazole.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175392

barbra wrote:

It seems that in my case the problem didn’t start until the stress in my life stopped. I took care of my husband, who was fighting cancer for 7 1/2 years, with no health worries of my own. 4 months after he passed away I noticed a small goiter, then weight loss and so on.
Incidentally, my youngest son was diagnosed with Hashimoto a month before my Graves.
So, did the stress keep the Graves away?

Hi Barbra, I am not an expert in this at all. I am pretty sure that Graves Disease symptoms can take a while to manifest. It doesn’t happen overnight. I doubt that the stress kept Graves Disease away. I have read that stress reduction can help with Graves Disease. In any case, stress reduction is good for a healthy life, so I have nothing to lose by keeping stress down.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175390

Just wanted to report on my latest status. While on Methimazole, my free T4 went below normal and the free T3 became normal, and the TSI went down from 6.1 to 5.8! – finally. So the endocrinologist reduced my methimazole dosage. I think a number of factors contributed to this, in tandem with the right methimazole dosage: a good diet, the right nutritional supplements, stress reduction, exercise.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175384

Kimberly wrote:

@HelenYH – So glad to hear that you are doing well! It’s important to note that some patients don’t see relief right away from starting ATDs, as it can take some time for the body to burn off it’s existing stores of excess thyroid hormone.

Thanks Kimberly. It took me more than 14 months to get to the point where the free T3 was close to normal. Does it really that this long? Also, my T4 and T3 started to decrease only about 2 weeks after starting on 10mg daily initially. Then it went up & up until 2 months ago. All that time I think I was taking too much zinc etc.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175382

Harpy wrote:

We looked at increasing positive influences and reducing negative influences.

So along with the PTU, we researched diet, toxins, exercise, lifestyle, stress management (meditation, yoga etc), behavioural patterns (self sabotage etc.), sun & Vitamin D, and anything else that we could think of that could be having an impact one way or the other. With all of that we always used a degree of moderation as per the 80:20 rule, which says 20% of the effort gets you 80% of the way and most of the time the last 20% is not worth the 80% of the effort. If absolute perfection is going to increase stress & trauma in your life, it probably isn’t worth the effort and is going to negate any benefits.

Did your partner also go on a gluten-free diet? I did not and will probably not even though I try to minimize gluten and dairy in my diet.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175381

beanie1960 wrote:

Just curious if you drank soda with Aspartame or anything else with Aspartame when you were dieting, or even when you weren’t dieting. Right now I am trying a gluten free diet. I just started about 5 weeks ago. I want to see if it changes anything. I still have my thyroid and I take 5 MG of Methimazole every day. I would try anything to get this in remission.

No, I did not drink soda, let alone with Aspartame. I didn’t go on fad diets, just healthy balanced diet. I do think that I had an imbalance of trace elements and minerals due to over-supplementing certain trace elements. I think going gluten-free is a good thing. I am not really gluten-free but try to avoid that and dairy during the week.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175377

An update: It looks like my nutritional changes have made a difference. In addition to the increased methimazole dosage (which didn’t seem to improve my hypERthyroid symptoms after a few weeks), I started taking some nutritional supplements (copper, magnesium, boron, etc.) and also started soy protein again.

Instead of taking multi-vitamins and combination supplements, I took the supplements individually so I could tailor the dosage of each one. I started the supplements January 9th and the blood test on Jan 22nd showed normal free T4 and almost normal free T3! 4 weeks later again, my free T4 is at the low end of normal and the free T3 is 3.9! Tomorrow I am to decrease methimazole back to 10mg daily and re-do labs in 4 weeks!

As soon as I started the copper supplements and stopped the zinc supplements, I started to feel better and less hungry and had fewer and less severe headaches! Also avoiding green leafy vegetables (and minimum chocolate) because apparently these have cadmium in them which I’ve read can aggravate Graves symptoms.

Also on an anti-stress herbal supplement and cut out a few volunteer duties to help de-stress.

I think I am on the right course of action for me at least. The goal for me is, of course, to get the auto-immune issue resolved and consequently Graves Disease gone!

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175375

snelsen wrote:

Best wishes to all of you, regarding what you decide to eat or not to eat. Since there are varying thoughts on this topic, my thinking is that what we eat or don’t eat, is not relevant in any way to Graves’.

The only change I have made, and not for any reason except that I like good food, is to organically grow most of my fresh produce. I notice that carrots, especially, taste wonderful, like they did when I was a little girl in Iowa.
I pretty much dug up my lawn, planted vegetables, and lots of berries. In the northwest, much food winters over, so I can go outside now for beets, onions, garlic, chard, leeks, carrots and kale, to mention a few I remember at this moment.
Shirley

Thanks Shirley. I am happy with doing home-cooking these days. I feel better for it. I totally agree about organic food tasting better I love beets and leeks. Someday, when I am retired, I will consider growing my own veggies. But that might mean I can’t travel anymore?

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175374

Kimberly wrote:

Hello – The latest medical guidance doesn’t give a time frame, but it does note that “…serum free T4 levels may normalize with persistent elevation of serum T3.”

Thanks Kimberly. I read some of the article – the part about management with antithyroid medications.

I just got back my TSI level today. It’s 6.1 whatever that means. My TSI was 403 September 2011 (but I think this was in a different unit/scale). They think my TSI went up compared to September 2011.

Anyway, I was told to increase my methimazole to 15md daily. This time I just said OK. I think given the free T3/T4 results, it made sense to me to increase from 12.5 to 15mg.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175371

Hey everyone, Just got my thyroid hormone blood test results back. They are:
TSH 0.004 (same for about 4 months)
Free T4 1.90 (1.93 a month ago)
Free T3 8.3 (9.4 a month ago)

This was a result of increased methimazole dosage from 10mg daily to 12.5mg daily.

Looks like my free T4 has been normal for a while but the free T3 is not. However, it looks like the T3 is coming down. Is it pretty normal for the free T3 to lag behind for so long (about 4 months)?

[HelenYH]

in reply to: * Graves’ Disease … are we in a loop? * #1175670

Kimberly wrote:

@catstuart7 – I’ve never seen any studies that specifically looked at levels of antibodies in patients in a hyper vs. hypo vs. euthyroid state. However, there is research to support that the eye disease occurs most commonly (although now always) in patients who are hypERthyroid, and that hypOthyroidism causes a worsening of the eye disease.

Thanks Kimberley. Did the research say that the worsening of eye disease happens after hypOthyroidism, regardless of whether it’s RAI, Anti-thyroids or surgery? Or is it just from hypOthyroidism after RAI?

[HelenYH]

in reply to: * Undestanding Thyroid Stimulating Immunoglobulins (TSIs) & GD * #1175558

Kimberly wrote:

http://www.eje.org/content/158/1/69.full

Keep in mind, though, that the chart you see was taken from averages from all of the patients who participated in the study. Some could have had an even faster disappearance of the antibodies, while others could have had antibodies linger far past the “norm” for other patients. And this was one study — another doctor’s personal experience with treatment options and antibody levels could be different.

Thanks Kimberly. I found this article useful. I have all 3 symptoms – the hyperthyroid (with goitre), slightly protruding eyes, and pre-tibial myxedema. The myxedema only occurs in about 5% of GD patients. Does it mean that my GD is more severe than others? Also I have had to increase the methimazole because I started getting hyperthyroid (after being euthyroid for about 6 months). The hyperthyroid started about 2-3 months ago. Doesn’t this mean that my TSI is increasing and that the methimazole is not going to cause my TSI to go down?

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175370

Carito71 wrote:

Did you start the gluten/yeast/soy free diet to see if it helps with GD or are you allergic to any of them? There was an article in Yahoo about a month ago that talked about wheat and how it is so different now from the wheat that was eaten many years ago. It said that now it is toxic to humans and causes a lot of problems.

I have read that people with GD can also have Celiac (Gluten allergy) because they are both autoimmune diseases.

Carito71, No I have not had any real allergy to any of these except what the therapist for treating allergies with acupressure told me.. So, I got acupressure while being exposed to an electrical signal that simulated the allergen. I often wonder if I didn’t have the allergy treatment, whether I would have GD today. The GD diagnosis occurred near the end of the allergy treatments. I think I had the allergy treatment for at least 6 months.

And no one in my family has any thyroid disorder or autoimmune issues. I must say I also am a cancer survivor who went through chemotherapy and radiation. Perhaps, the chemo and/or radiation affected my immune system such that I started making TSI?

[HelenYH]

in reply to: Diet & Graves Disease #1175367

Carito71 wrote:

Fellow GD patient diagnosed June 2012 with a non-existent TSH, elevated fT3 and fT4, and a TSI of 4.5. On Methimazole 30mg/day for the first 8 weeks. On Methimazole 10mg/day for the next 6 weeks. On Methimazole 5mg/day for a week and a half. On Methimazole 5mg every 4 days for a month. On Methimazole 2.5mg/day starting Nov 15. Current labs show a normal fT4, a normal TSH, and a TSI of 3.2. Diet: Gluten and yeast free. Love to read and learn. Very interested in the immune part of GD ~

Carito71, When in the treatment regimen did you cut out gluten, yeast and soy? I am off all 3 except for 1 day a week. Not sure if my goitre is a little smaller now after 2 weeks of doing this change in my diet. I have been exercising for years now, long before my thyroid issue. I think stress has a big part in triggering it too.

[HelenYH]

in reply to: What are your experiences with Methimazole? #1175275

Hi StacyA, My first week on Methimazole was horrible. The endo precribed 20mg daily. I itched and itched, and my headaches got worse during that week. I felt worse than before I started the meds. I quit and went on Chinese herbs without any meds, then a homeopathic remedy. The remedy helped the levels but not fast enough. I got to the point where I could hardly walk 2 steps without feeling over-exerted. A 2nd endo put me on 10mg methimazole daily and within a week, I started to feel much better. I am now on 12.5mg daily.

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