Thyroid Eye Disease does it clear?

I am so sorry that you have had such a rough course.  This disease is certainly not easy.  I have heard of other Graves patients who have had similar problems with thyroxine dosage management who do better on a T3/T4 combination instead of just T4.  Also eating a healthy diet and avoiding Gluten helps as well.  Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

Hi Deborah, I'm sorry to hear you have had such a rough experience. I find that my weight fluctuates loads at the minute is this normal? I'm struggling with trying to keep the weight down. Im not sure if its the thyroxine causing the weight gain or just my body being all over the place x

Hi Jan thanks for the information that's great. I have gone from overactive to underactive recently also I've been having 2 Brazil nuts a day as they have a great source of selenium, my eyes are looking alot better but often still very sore and achy x

Great news, yes Brazil nuts good for us (eyes) ! also supplementation that Linda187 has mentioned above, has been a big help with Graves, take care Jan 

My Graves did not stabilize until I started adding supplements, first L-Carnitine and then vitamin D, now magnesium.  Also change in diet to avoid aspartame and gluten.  I had eye irritation but not bulging and used a lot of eye drops and my ophthalmologist put collagen plugs in my tear ducts to keep more moisture in my extremely dry eyes.  Had I not done these things, I would have been one of those whose Endo pushed to RAI or thyroid surgery which I now believe are more harmful than the original disease.  Though it affects the thyroid, this is not a thyroid disease, it is an autoimmune disease and Endos and the medical profession in general know very little about autoimmune disease and its causes.  All my antibodies are now in the normal range so I am in remission and that is what Graves patients should aim for.

thanks for all the information in your postings. I have learnt a lot and will need to do some research myself. I am having real trouble stabilising my TED and Graves. The supplement line is one I want to follow. I expect it will be a private consultation as the drs I see are all for pushing pills and surgery.

I feel very sad that in this day and age the majority of doctors, including endocrinologists, treat this disease the way they do and are not willing to learn anything new about it.  They do more damage than the disease does originally.  I know cause I have worked for docs for 35 years now.  Part of the reason for this is that Big Pharma drives Medicine and doctors.  They make a billion dollars a year on sales of levothyroxine so there is a reason docs won't change.  However, with the Internet there is no excuse for any patient to be a passive patient and not do research and not take responsibility for their healing by talking to other patients who are succeeding in this.  I belong to another Board of patients who want to keep their thyroids at all costs and have really benefitted from the research we have all done and the successes we have all had.  It is doubtful that docs will change because the only people that treat disease this way (i.e. meds and supplements) are Functional Medicine practitioners, a new branch of Medicine.  In Canada, not so much in the States, regular docs who practice Functional Medicine do so outside of the medical plan because they are at risk of their Medical Boards prosecuting them.  So a lot of patients will see both regular docs and Naturopathic practitioners.  The Naturopath I saw says he feels limited in his ability to really help patients because of his lack of medical training by being a doc so he is thinking of getting his medical degree and then his Functional Medicine certification.  Until that happens, each patient has to be their own best advocate and by teaching their docs how best to treat them.  There is a lot of resistance to this and I encountered it but I like my Endo and the last time he saw me he was smiling so though we have butted heads in the past, I think we are partners in my health care now.  All the best to all of you in Keeping your thyroids and going into remission.