Graves’ disease relapse

[Kkol]

[Bernadette_Abraham]

Hi @Kkol – sorry to hear that your wife is in a flare at the moment.

I can also understand why the doctor is suggesting to remove the hot nodule if she’s complaining of a choking sensation, but if she’s against it, then definitely get a 2nd opinion because you’re right to question the removal otherwise.

A good friend of mine recently had thyroid surgery, so I reached out to her for the name of her endocrinologist. While she mentioned that her doctor isn’t an endocrinologist, she highly recommends her thyroid surgeon, Dr. Roger Moukarbel, at CMC. Of course, as a surgeon, there’s always a tendency to lean toward surgery, but she said that out of all the specialists she consulted (and there were many), he was the most conservative. In fact, he even presented “no surgery” as an option, which she really appreciated. She’s now being followed-up with Dr. Moukarbel’s endocrinologist colleague at CMC simply for follow-ups on her medication but she still recommends seeing him despite being a surgeon.

If you haven’t yet watched the Thyroid Balance course, I’d encourage you to watch the following videos about Graves’ and thyroid autoimmunity to hopefully help address the root causes while being managed by medication:

• Protect Your Thyroid (things to avoid)
• Autoimmune Disease Facts
• Graves’ Disease
• Autoimmune Thyroiditis

In terms of best way to support your wife, it’ll be similar to other autoimmune conditions: optimize digestion and gut health (especially addressing dysbiosis and enhanced intestinal permeability), assess and replete nutrients, identify and remove food sensitivities, adopt an anti-inflammatory diet, balance the immune system (especially via T-regulatory cells), reduce toxic exposure and burden, and manage symptoms, including improving sleep and reducing stress.

For Graves in particular, consider:

• Herbs that suppress thyroid hormone production naturally
  • Bugleweed (usually the most effective but may have synergistic efficacy when combined with the following two as well)
  • Lemon balm
  • Motherwort
  • HerbPharm makes a tincture that combines all three in lower doses if needed for long-term use.
  • If these are used, thyroid function should be monitored closely. Consider adding one at a time in order to ensure they are well tolerated (and, of course, factor in any allergy considerations).

• Eliminate known exposure to fluoride as her thyroid may be particularly vulnerable to toxicity from this element (e.g., toothpaste, fluoridated municipal water, tea). Chlorine, fluorine, and bromine compounds can all directly interfere with the appropriate action of iodine in the body, including the formation of thyroid hormone.

Testing you may want to consider pursuing:

• Micronutrient testing (especially to assess nutrients that are critical for well-balanced immune function – vitamin D, vitamin A, Zinc)
• Food sensitivity testing (combo IgA and IgG or IgG with complement). I really like KBMO testing.

Since she’s taking medication and is currently in a flare, any supplements should be discussed with her physician to make sure it’s safe for her to do so.

[Kkol]

One more thing re/supplements. Unfortunately doctors have no clue. She wanted to do parasmart tarfeted parasite cleanse two weeks and he had no clue so she started it

[Kkol]

Thank you B. Any idea about RF ablation for the nodule. She seems looking into this currently after everything calms down

[Bernadette_Abraham]

@Kkol it’s definitely an option to consider especially with a choking sensation since it’s minimally invasive. By the way, the name of the endocrinologist given to me by my friend is Dr Donatella Casiglia at Mediclinic.

[Kkol]

Thank you B. Well noted!

I need to ask you what are the down sides of anti parasite medication such as Vermox? It’s 3 days treatment.

We don’t know if she has parasite but never done a cleanse and we aren’t sure if she can use now Parasmart.

[Bernadette_Abraham]

@Kkol sometimes the inactive ingredients can be less than ideal (like titanium dioxide for example), and the side effects can be worse than herbal antiparasitic since they are stronger.

But the bigger issue is effectiveness. While medications are fast-acting and targeted for adult parasites, 3 days is usually not enough time to get all the parasites since many of them have a complex lifecycle (eggs, larvae, adults). That’s where herbals outshine because they can be used longer term. With herbal antiparasitics, I usually recommend 15 day courses, followed by a 10-day break, and then repeat, which usually helps get the full lifecycle of a parasite if it was still in the egg stage.

[Kkol]

Thank you 🙏🏼 maybe she should wait until the flare is calm so she can do the herbs so she doesn’t trigger immune system or thyroid activity