What’s the Rush in Treating Graves’ Disease?
This article explains the reasons why Graves’ patients should not be rushed into having aggressive permanent treatment. Patients newly diagnosed with Graves’ disease (GD) are frequently rushed into having aggressive treatment to destroy their thyroid glands. The reasons for this, they’re told, are to prevent the condition from worsening and to ward off conditions of thyroid storm. The reasons I have been telling patients not to rush into treatment are similar. Aggressive treatment tends to worsen the existing autoimmune disorder, increasing thyroid antibody production and causing a transient increase in hyperthyroidism and perpetuating the autoimmune process. In addition, thyroid storm is often triggered by radioiodine because of the increase in thyroid hormone levels and thyroid antibodies and occasionally it is triggered by surgery. Finally, unlike some other diseases, Graves’ disease is not typically progressive. Its natural course is a waxing and waning of symptoms and periods of r
