General Medicine

» eyeseelinda - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by cybee:

Good luck. Meanwhile, are you trying anything on the nutrition-side to maintain healthy eating habits to fend off Graves Disease? I just started reading about nutrition and Graves Disease. Elaine provided some good information earlier, I've also heard aspartame is a definite NO. I've also been reading up on the amount of iodine in various foods, particularly prepared and processed foods, all NO-NO's for Graves Disease. So I'm making some (slow) changes in that area. Gave up all diet soft drinks and foods containing aspartame a year ago this July. Tough to do at first but now I don't miss it.

-- posted by eyeseelinda

» cybee - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by eyeseelinda:
I had not known prior to your mention (and then I noted an earlier mention above posted by Elaine) as to the aspartame connection! Very interesting. I wonder is it primarily noted in children or applicable as well to adults. Needless to say, I will stay away from it regardless! I do try to include brocolli and strawberries more in my diet and try to eat a bit more healthfully. I had earlier been including flax seed too, but have done that less lately. Should revive that. Yes, I should study up a bit more on the diet aspect, but am makig some efforts. I certainly threw away my iodized salt and replaced it with regular salt. I never really drank pop anyway, but otherwise, sadly, I do have a sweet tooth! B^)

-- posted by cybee

» cybee - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by cybee:

Oh, finding some interesting article regarding aspartame .
See e.g. http://www.aspartamesafety.com/Graves.htm
While this is likely not what ails me, it is interesting and likely an ingredient I would want to discourage my children intaking!

-- posted by cybee

» eyeseelinda - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by cybee:

Wow! I entered a new post on my blog today with a link to the article as well as a link back to this discussion site. Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry to say I consumed way more diet soft drinks than those documented in the article. Dare I say I could, but didn't often, consume a 2 liter bottle in one evening. Yep. And I'd been drinking diet soft drinks for at least 25 years. All the way back to Tab. I can only hope my body rids itself of the poison I ingested--I heard it can stay in your body's cells for a long time. At least I quit I'll keep looking for more on nutrition, which I think is the key to a strong autoimmune system.

-- posted by eyeseelinda

» cowlover614 - Why are antibodies so high?

Hi Elaine and everybody, Went and got my labs done on 6/22 they didn't do the FT's but here is what I got. TSH 0.041L range[0.350-5.500] T4 10.5 range[4.5-12.0] T3 186 range[85-205] What I don't understand is why my antithyroglobulin is so high at 2762 range[0-40] and my Thyroid Perxidase is >1000H range[0-34]Elaine why would that be so high? Any Ideas? I don't know why they didn't do my Ft's I go to the Endo on July 5th. My TSH sure dropped. I also went to the eye doctor, my pressure's are good and optic nerve's are pink said my swelling should go away if they ever get my levels normal. Yes it is TED, he told me to take a asprin a day and to use the liquid tears as much as needed. Hope everyone is ok. Shirl

-- posted by cowlover614

» cybee - Why are antibodies so high?

In response to Why are antibodies so high? posted by cowlover614:

Hi, Cowlover! Don't know what your labs mean, but am glad to hear from you and sounds like things may be good..in that your swelling will go down and that your optic nerve is pink and such! You are to take an aspirin a day? Is that to keep for anti-inflammatory purposes? I was never told to take that for my TED, but did take ibuproben for that reason on my own accord..and then when I added aspirin I realized that was too much (stomach concerns arose), so I have stopped for awhile to let the tummy heal. But just one aspirin a day sounds good...a regular sized/dose one I imagine,eh?

-- posted by cybee

» cybee - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by eyeseelinda:

Yes, that was a very interesting article and does make one concerned about some possible Graves symptoms stemming from the use of aspartame! Certainly a thing to consider if such symptoms arise! (there are also other interesting e-sites about aspartame/Graves symptoms! )(btw, I was having some diet yogurt the other day..then suddenly realized it had aspartame in it and so I did not finish it! Now I will be most alert to this and not have it in my diet (likely that means cutting out any diet sweet things)!)
Your blog remains quite interesting! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and Graves updates! It does help to hear from others going through similar situations and seeing how they deal with it and realizing some of our odd symptoms are part of this wide constellation set in stage by those mysterious Graves antibodies!

-- posted by cybee

» eyeseelinda - Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance?

In response to Graves Disease/TED--Incidence of recurrance? posted by cybee:

On the food front, it's hard, too, when you visit friends and family especially during BBQ season. I was at my cousins the other day, it was warm, and she was pouring iced tea (which I love!) I happened to see the canister on the counter and saw it was a brand made with artificial sweetener. I passed on it.

I googled "aspartame" and you're right, there are a lot of sites that discuss side effects and possible correlation with Graves Disease.

I have a new question for the group and will post under a new subject. Thanks and glad my blog posts are helpful. Please feel free to comment too!!

-- posted by eyeseelinda

» eyeseelinda - Side effects when you go off Methimazole--

I went off Methimazole on February 1, and now I just take one 20mg dose of Propranalol to regulate my heartbeats and keep the hand tremors in check. About two weeks after going off Methimazole, I started experiencing symptoms such as shortness of breath, irregular heartbeats, and more. I felt so bad that only a few days later on a Saturday morning I drove myself to the emergency room. They couldn't explain it, even when they consulted with my endocrinologist other than they thought it was anxiety. Maybe it was but I doubt it. I've never been anxious like THAT in my life where I physically felt like I was crawling out of my skin. The symptoms subsided a few days later, but I remain puzzled by what happened. Has anyone else had this kind of experience? It was very frightening to say the least. Even more strange, right after that I felt like my old self again. And since then, everything has been ok.

And here's the post I just listed on my blog.

http://eyesee.typepad.com/hyperthyroid_g...

-- posted by eyeseelinda

» Elaine Moore - Why are antibodies so high?

In response to Why are antibodies so high? posted by cowlover614:
Hi,
Thyroid antibodies increase when the immune system is stimulated. This can be caused by vaccines, food and environmental allergies, chemicals, infection, toxins, and by a weak immune system that's over-reacting to your own tissues. Whenever there's thyroid inflammation or immune stimulation, thyroid antibody titers will rise.
Your TSH could be dropping if you're also producing TSH receptor antibodies because these antibodies falsely decrease TSH. With your thyroid hormone levels staying within the normal range you'd be considered euthyroid (normal thyroid function). But you might want to investigate why your thyroid antibody levels are so high. I recently posted an article on using selenium to lower thyroid antibody levels that you might find helpful. Best, Elaine