Graves disease

[Tweety043]

Can I eat fish with Graves disease an active thyroid

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Welcome to forum.

Was your Graves confirmed with positive thyroid antibodies testing?

Are you able to obtain your test results, you need to know what doctors are testing & what the results are with the lab range.  Lab ranges vary so always needed with each test. 

Why are you concerned about fish?  

Avoiding fish & shellfish is not something most hyperthyroid are required to do.

Sometimes doctors recommend an iodine restricted diet prior to radio active treatment - but you only just been diagnosed.  The hope will be that anti thyroid medication controls your levels until Graves goes into remission.  

A balanced diet with 2-3 potions of fish a week should cause no issues with Graves or Anti thyroid medication.

[Tweety043 in reply to PurpleNails]

Thank you for getting back to me they drew blood twice I'm still waiting for the results to come back but my GP sent me for blood test cause of my eyes that are inlarged but they put me on medication. So I googled what food to stay away from and it said fish and she'll fish which I love

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to Tweety043]

what medication? & what dose.

You might need to see an ophthalmologist specialist, as well as a endocrinologist if you have thyroid eye disease (TED)

200mcg selenium is a good supplement recommended to help with TED. After 6 months reduce dose to 100mcg.

[Tweety043 in reply to PurpleNails]

Well I'm on Carbimazol 5mg I must take 4 every morning on a empty tummy and I must take a block it's called Prodorol 10mg 3 times a day

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to Tweety043]

I was started on 20mg daily dose carbimazole - but had 10mg 2x a a day.

There is no set dose, it depends on your levels & what doctor estimates will be right. 

Important that after 6 weeks your thyroid levels are checked and dose adjusted to keep at right level, not too low or high. 

Prodorol (propranolol) will help with symptoms, usually it can be stopped once thyroid levels are under control - but reduce down slowly stopping abruptly can cause symptoms.

[userotc in reply to Tweety043]

I presume it's because fish often has higher iodine which impacts hyperthyroidism?

[helvella Administrator]

Please do check the details for each possible fish and source, but I suspect the iodine content of freshwater fish is usually modest.

(Yes, I know freshwater fish isn't a 100% replacement for sea-fish! Just replying to encourage you to look and maybe find a partial answer.)

[pennyannie]

Hello Tweety and welcome to the forum :

Ok so it seems as though your eyes are the initial cause of concern or do you have other symptoms.

Shellfish is known to contain iodine and probably why Dr Google mentions this but in moderation nothing is off the menu -

just eat clean cooking ideally from scratch and try to avoid any foods known to possibly upset the body - and it might make sense to ask to be checked out for celiac disease while eating your normal diet just to rule out gluten, a very common problem when dealing with AI problems.

Whilst waiting on blood test results why not register for on line access to your medical records so you can feedback any blood tests results and ranges for us to explain to you as you go through this first phase of ill health.

Graves Ophthalmology runs independently of Graves Diseases and you can read further on all things ' Graves ' on the Elaine Moore Graves Disease Foundation website :

elaine-moore.com

[Tweety043 in reply to pennyannie]

Morning thank you for the reply I have symptoms of hot flushes irritable change of menstrual cyclefeels like menapause grrrr

[pennyannie in reply to Tweety043]

Ok then - could be a couple of things and the results of the blood test will determine what's going on -

How are your eyes, dry, gritty, watering, light sensitive ?

What ever you do - do not use an preparations to ease the eye symptoms unless the product is Preservative Free :

You might like to pop cross to the Thyroid Eye Disease Charity - tedct.org.uk - as they can signpost you to specialist clinics where there is also an endocrinologist to monitor and assist in the monitoring of your medications.

The Carbimazole is an Anti Thyroid drug that simply blocks your own, new daily production of thyroid hormones - T3 and T4 :

It's been presumed your T3 and T4 are too high and causing your symptoms - so hopefully after a few days on the medication you may feel more comfortable as your existing T3 and T4 thyroid hormone levels drop back down into the range.

The Propranolol is a beta blocker and should ease any symptoms of heart palpitations with we wait for the blood test results and a diagnosis of what you are actually dealing with.

There is an alternative to Carbimazole if you find this drug doesn't suit you - PTU for short - Propylthiouracil :

Rest up, and be kind to yourself.