Grave’s disease is a chronic condition where your body produces too many thyroid hormones, known as hyperthyroidism. While hypothyroidism, not having enough thyroid hormone production, is also a problem, hyperthyroidism can be just as bad. This is because thyroid hormones play an important part in many organs and systems of your body, including temperature regulation, heart rate, bone density, and much more.
Therefore, if you have too many thyroid hormones because of Grave’s disease, these functions will be inhibited and out of sync. This can lead to a variety of problems, including brittle bones, heart failure, muscle weakness, and much more. As long as you receive an early diagnosis and treatment plan for Grave’s disease, you can live a mostly normal life. However, because there’s no known cure for the condition, you’ll have to receive lifelong treatment for Grave’s disease.
Grave’s disease is a chronic, autoimmune condition where you have a hyperactive, over productive thyroid. As a result, your thyroid produces too many hormones that get distributed throughout your body. Because many different parts and systems of your body use thyroid hormones, the signs and symptoms of Grave’s disease can vary wildly. However, here are some of the most common signs to watch out for.
Symptoms of Grave’s disease will vary from person to person, depending on which part of the body is most impacted. Symptoms will also vary depending on the cause of your Grave’s disease, how long you’ve had it, and how soon you started treatments after your diagnosis.
As an autoimmune disease, the root cause of Grave’s disease is that some aspect of your immune system isn’t working properly. However, experts aren’t sure why this happens or what the exact cause is. The result, however, is that your thyroid is unable to regulate the release of its hormones, resulting in too many of them circulating through your body.
While the exact cause of Grave’s disease is unknown, here are a few suspected causes and risk factors.
Because of the wide range of potential symptoms, the only way to diagnose Grave’s disease is with diagnostic tests, including the following.
While there’s no known cure for Grave’s disease, there are treatments that can allow you to live a full, normal life. However, because Grave’s disease is a chronic condition, you’ll have to take these treatments your whole life. Radioactive iodine therapy, beta-blockers, and anti-thyroid medications are the most common treatments and fulfil the task of regulating your thyroid hormone production. In serious cases, you may also need to remove part or all of your thyroid with surgery.