The Last Conditions Associated with Hashimoto's and Graves’ Disease

Myasthenia Gravis, Diabetes Type 1, Infertility, and Bipolar Disorder are the last four conditions that need to be defined. Let me start by talking about Myasthenia Gravis. This is a “rare autoimmune disorder of the muscles that affects only about thirty people per million, but it is ten times more common in Graves’ disease patients” (Rosenthal 67). Symptoms of Myasthenia Gravis include muscle weakness, double vision and difficulty swallowing, which are some of the symptoms of Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease (Rosenthal 67).

If a person has Graves’ or Hashimoto’s disease, his or her family (his or her children and grandchildren) is more at risk to develop Diabetes Type 1. Type 1, “insulin-dependent,” Diabetes begins in “children or young adults and needs to be treated with insulin” (Rosenthal 65). Infertility (which will be discussed more in the next blog) is “common in women whose thyroid hormones levels are low” (eHealthMD). After the hypothyroidism has been treated, it usually is easier to conceive. There are two things to keep in mind when taking thyroid hormones. The first is “because the thyroid hormone crosses the placenta in small amounts, the thyroid hormone taken by the expectant mother may have important effects on the developing fetus” (eHealthMD). The second thing to keep in mind is, “because the dose of thyroid hormone may need to be increased after a woman has conceived, it is valuable to get baseline (pre-pregnancy) thyroid tests (including TSH) and to periodically recheck during the pregnancy” (eHealthMD). After delivery, the thyroid hormone should return to pre-pregnancy levels (eHealthMD).

Bipolar Disorder is the last condition associated with Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease that I am going to go over. It is a “psychiatric disease where people experience extreme mood swings from elated mania to down-in-the-dumps blues” (Rosenthal 67). Bipolar disorder is caused by an “imbalance in the brain chemistry and is controlled with lithium” (Rosenthal 67). One of the negative effects of using lithium is that it causes hypothyroidism. M. Sara Rosenthal states that if you come from a family that has thyroid conditions, then you should get regular testing done, especially between the ages of twenty and fifty.

The information from this blog is from M. Sara Rosenthal’s book, The Thyroid Sourcebook and from an online article “What Other Health Problems May be Associated with Hypothyroidism?” found on www.ehealthmd.com.