Graves disease

[Doris11]

Please I wonder if anyone could help? I am posting this on behalf of my cousin who was diagnosed with Graves in 2020!

she was off carbimazole but last Feb put back on 5mg daily I believe as had a reoccurrence/flair up I will post her blood results as she is very hypo and sleeping +10 hrs at night and about 2+ hrs in the afternoon. I can’t post more photos?

T4 14.7 ( 12-22) pmol/L

Free T3 4.9 (3.1-6.8) pmol/L

Many thanks

[SlowDragon Administrator]

you can only add one photo in initial post

Then can add one photo in each reply in this same post

Her results suggest she needs to reduce (possibly stop) Carbimazole

[Doris11 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you 👌

[pennyannie]

Hello Doris :

Graves Disease is diagnosed by over range and positive TRab antibodies - generally written as a TSH - Thyroid Receptor reading alongside a ' cut off number :

Do we have this reading please - as both Graves and Hashimoto's start off the same way -

and only Graves is treated with an Anti Thyroid drug -

as in Hashimoto's the hyper phases are transient and the T3 and T4 fall back down into range without medication.

Graves is an Auto Immune disease - there is no cure - and something has triggered the immune system to turn and attack the body rather than defend it - and quite why this has happened is the 64 million $ question.

There is likely a genetic predisposition with a family member, probably a generation away, with a thyroid health issue and something has caused this immune system response - no two peoples journey with Graves will be the same - and why Graves is poorly understood and badly treated - though stress and anxiety seem common triggers.

The NHS generally allocate a treatment window of around 15-18 months with an Anti Thyroid drug - such as Carbimazole - and all this does is semi-block new own daily thyroid hormone production - and buys the patient time - while we wait for the immune system to calm down and hopefully the thyroid return to normal rhythm and function without any medication.

We can see that the T3 and T4 are low in the ranges and the fact that the TSH is high at 2.93 likely means symptoms of hypothyroidism are being experienced as already identified.

The next step is to titrate down the Carbimazole to allow a little more new own thyroid function which will bring up the T4 to say at least around 50% through the range - so around 17 - which in turn should give a slightly higher T3 - which is the active hormone that controls and runs all the body's functions -

but quite where the T3 and T4 need to be within the ranges is unique to each individual and it takes much skill on the part of an endocrinologist to get this right - since blood tests tend to run behind symptoms by a couple of weeks.

When metabolism is running too fast as in hyper or too slow as in hypo - the body struggles to extract key nutrients through food and since this has being going on a while suggest ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D are run - as if not maintained at optimal levels these core strength vitamins and minerals can compound ill health further than necessary.

We do now have some research that you may find interesting :

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/338...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/306...

I found the most well rounded of all I researched was that of Elaine Moore - books and website - elaine-moore.com

[Doris11 in reply to pennyannie]

Thank you will ask her tomorrow ☺️