Graves Disease - A Condition of Autoimmune Hyperthyroidism
By Elaine Moore

Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes hyperthyroidism. Symptoms in Graves' disease, as in most autoimmune diseases, tend to come and go (wax and wane). And most patients have a few predominant symptoms rather than all of the associated symptoms.

Common symptoms include anxiety, nervousness, weight loss, muscle fatigue, depression, headaches, absent or scant menstrual periods, palpitations, elevated heart rate, and irritability. Symptoms are related to elevated levels of thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone is made from the amino acid tyrosine and iodine. Reducing dietary iodine is one way of limiting the amount of thyroid hormone the body can produce.

Alternative medicine and anti-thyroid medications work to lower thyroid hormone levels and help the immune system heal. Lifestyle changes, in the form of dietary changes, nutrient supplements to correct deficiencies, herbal medicine, homeopathic remedies, stress reduction methods and energy healing methods have all been shown to cause immune system changes that help correct the immune system defect responsible for Graves' disease. However, these methods act subtly and take longer to work than anti-thyroid medications, such as methimazole, carbimazole, or propylthiouracil (PTU). For patients with mild symptoms, alternative therapies and dietary changes may be sufficient. For patients with moderate to severe symptoms, anti-thyroid drugs are often used alone or together with alternative medicine.

It's important for patients to have their symptoms and thyroid hormone levels monitored by a naturopath or conventional doctor. If diagnosed with Graves' disease today, I would consult an integrationist physician, one who is trained in both conventional and alternative medicine. Integrationist practitioners generally reduce cardiac symptoms with beta blockers and attempt a trial of alternative medicine to see if the response is sufficient to reduce symptoms until remission is achieved.

While even alternative medical treatments can cause unwanted effects if used improperly, under the guidance of a naturopath this is unlikely. All of the conventional treatment options, however, can cause serious side effects. At a low dose and used for only as long as necessary, anti-thyroid drugs are a safe bet. Unfortunately, some doctors keep patients on these meds hypothyroid, somehow thinking that this is the goal. The true goal in using anti-thyroid drugs is to reduce symptoms and bring thyroid hormone levels into the normal, not hypothyroid, range until remission is achieved. Had I researched Graves' disease when I was diagnosed, I would have opted for alternative medicine. If this hadn't reduced my symptoms (had they been severe), I would have opted for anti-thyroid drugs and combined them with lifestyle changes until I achieved remission.

Instead, I allowed my thyroid gland to be destroyed with radioiodine. Radioiodine stimulates the immune system and increases production of the thyroid antibodies that cause Graves' disease. So while the gland is destroyed and hyperthyroidism changes to hypothyroidism, the immune system problems in Graves' disease continue.

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