Graves Disease

[MollyBeth]

Hey everyone,

So one of my co-workers was recently dagnosed with Graves Disease. In some of his research he found an article by a person with Graves that said she had recently gone gluten free to help with her symptoms. He asked me about this knowing that I had just been diagnosed with Celiacs. I have no information to give him... It seems to me that the gluten free diet would only be beneficial if celiac disease was causing the Graves. I've seen on here people have mentioned having thyroid problems... The water is so murky in this world of Auto-Immune disorders. Anyone have any tips I could pass along to him?

[julirama723]

This is not neccessarily gluten-related, but here's what I wish my doctor would have told me: STOP eating so much food!

In the months leading up to my diagnosis, I was absolutely RAVENOUS! I would eat breakfast, have a huge lunch at school, a huge after-school snack, a huge dinner, and a snack after dinner. If we went out to eat, I would eat a whole appetizer, a salad, a full entree, and a huge dessert, and STILL be hungry when I got home. Yet, with this insatiable appetite, I was still losing weight. Once I was diagnosed, I was put on PTU, which started to regulate my hormones and metabolism. I kept eating the way I had been eating (after all, I was still pretty hungry!) and I managed to pack on 50 pounds in a matter of months.

If only I or my parents had been warned about this, it would have saved me a lot of grief and health problems later in life. I'm not sure if your friend has had the huge appetite, but now would be a time to start keeping a food journal, or have him keep track of everything he eats, just so he's not going overboard on daily caloric intake.

I'm not sure if the gluten-free diet would neccessarily help with symptom control, unless of course he has celiac disease or gluten intolerance, which he very well could have. I would caution that many gluten-free "treats" are worse calorically and carb-wise than their gluten-filled counterparts.