July is Graves’ Disease Awareness Month.
Graves’ disease is a car -immune disorder that mainly influences your thyroid gland. Fast diagnosis and treatment is important because, without treatment, the disease can lead to serious health problems such as heart failure and osteoporosis. This is especially important to notice because women and people who were assigned at birth run a higher risk of Graves’ disease, as well as heart failure and osteoporosis.
People with Graves’ disease can experience a wide range of symptoms, but some of the most recognizable signs are swelling in the neck around the thyroid area and bulging eyes.
If you or someone you know, have or have the disease of Graves, here is what you need to know about this complex health status.
What is Graves’s disease?
Graves’ disease is a condition in which the immune system creates antibodies that stimulate thyroid gland that stimulate immunoglobulin (TSI) that stimulate the thyroid gland and ensure that it makes more thyroid hormones than you need. The excess thyroid hormones accelerate metabolism and can cause severe physical and mental health problems, such as irregular heartbeat and fear.
In the US, Graves’ disease is the most common cause of overactive thyroid gland, also called hyperthyroidism. In fact, approximately 4 out of 5 cases of hyperthyroidism are caused by Graves’ disease.
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What causes Graves disease?
Research is underway on the exact cause of Graves’ disease. But researchers think that a combination of genetics and environmental factors, such as a virus or stress, can activate the immune system to stimulate the thyroid gland.
What are the risk factors for Graves’ disease?
Although the cause of Graves’s disease is unknown, there are risk factors that you can have developed earlier to develop the disease.
Risk factors for Graves’ disease include:
What are the symptoms of Graves’ disease?
The symptoms of Graves’ disease can vary from person to person and can come and go over time.
Symptoms of Graves’ disease include:
- Rapid heartbeat
- Fatigue
- Intolerance to heat
- Sweat up
- Fast weight loss
- Swollen thyroid gland (goiter)
- Elevation
- Menstrual cycle changes
- Tension
- Muscular weakness
- Problems
- Shaky hands
- Frequent bowel movement
It is also common for people with Graves to develop a corresponding eye disease. More than 1 in 3 people develop eye disease called thyroid eye disease (TED).
Symptoms of thyroid eye disease can be:
- Bulging eyes
- Grainy, irritated or itchy eyes
- Sensitivity to light
- Lowered and/or Double View
Is it safe to get pregnant if you have Graves’ disease?
It is possible that people with Graves disease have healthy pregnancies, as long as the condition is properly checked.
Thyroid hormone levels that are too high can cause complications for the person wearing the baby and the unborn child. Premature birth, low birth weight, pre -eclampsia and miscarriage are all linked to high level of thyroid hormone.
Pregnant people with Graves’ disease also run a higher risk of experiencing a severe increase in the symptoms called thyroid storm, which is rare but can be life -threatening.
There is a possibility that high levels of the TSI antibodies can cause an overactive thyroid gland in the fetus – but it is rare. It is therefore important to test for antibodies and thyroid hormone levels before you become pregnant. And talk to your healthcare provider about your current and earlier treatments for Graves’ disease, because some medicines can increase the risk of birth defects.
Treatment options for Graves’ disease
There is no cure for Graves’s disease, but there are treatment options that can help you manage the condition. Antithyroid drugs, for example, prevent the gland from producing thyroid hormones to regulate levels.
Beta blockers, on the other hand, do not stop the thyroid gland to make hormones, but can be useful for the treatment of the symptoms of Graves’ disease, such as fast heartbeat, vibrations and anxiety.
Radioactive iodine therapy – an oral medication that gradually destroys thyroid cells that make thyroid hormones – is an option, but it is not often prescribed as antithydroid medicines.
People with Graves disease can also consider a thyroidectomy – surgery to remove the thyroid gland.
Clinical examinations and Graves disease
Unfortunately, little progress has been made in treatment options for Graves’ disease in the last 75 years, despite the fact that many people cannot tolerate the side effects of their current treatment – and that the available medicines simply do not work for some people.
The lack of innovation is why clinical tests are so important. Currently, various potential new treatments are being studied for Graves’ disease, including oral small molecule, monoclonal antibody and peptide immunomodulation options that can block or reduce the antibodies that cause hyperthyroidism in Graves disease.
Yet there is a lot of research that must be done with regard to treatments and finding a cure for Graves’ disease. If you live with Graves’s disease, talk to your care provider about clinical examinations and whether a clinical test is an option for you. You can find more information about clinical tests of active Graves -disease at Clinicaltrials.gov.
Graves’ disease can have serious complications. More research means more information to find a remedy.
This educational source was founded with the support of Immunovant, a member of the Corporate Advisory Council in Healthywomen.
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