Helpful guide to hashimotos

[Cooper27]

I was trying to understand hashimotos antibodies a bit more, and found this article. It’s a bit of an idiot’s guide to hashimotos, and I thought it might be helpful for others who, like me, wish to get their heads around the condition:

hashimotoshealing.com/under...

Summary of article:

"Thyroid antibodies are important for determining whether or not you have Hashimoto’s but are not always a good indicator of how well what you are doing is working.

Do not get too excited if antibody numbers go up or down. It’s not the antibodies that are the problem as much as the other parts of the immune system that are attacking and destroying the thyroid.

Get excited about reducing inflammation. That should be your daily obsession. Really, its that important.

Thyroid replacement hormone and selenium have been shown to reduce TPO antibodies, but this may not work for everyone.

"

[greygoose]

Sounds like an intelligent article. That's exactly what I'm always saying - the fact that antibodies have reduced doesn't mean much. Antibodies fluctuate and could rise again. TPO/Tg Antibodies do not attack the thyroid, so lowering them doesn't mean that you are curing your Hashi's. The antibodies are just an indicator that you have the disease because they are highest just after an attack, when they come along to 'clean up' (envelope and remove prior to destruction) the TPO and Tg that has leaked into the blood - where it shouldn't be - during an attack. So, I'm not even sure that reducing antibodies is a desirable thing...

[Cooper27 in reply to greygoose]

Yes, I've seen you explain this, but I didn't quite manage to wrap my head around it. I like the analogy in the article - a bit of a dummies guide!

A friend's TPO antibodies came back over 3000, and they're symptoms sound like a Hashimotos flare, so the high antibodies would maybr back up the idea they've just had an extended attack.

[greygoose in reply to Cooper27]

They would indeed. 3000 is very high.