I'm in two Facebook groups for persons diagnosed with Graves'. One day in discussing intermittent fasting, we found that for a significant number of us our Graves' was "triggered" when we started an IF program. This was true for me as well. I emailed a researcher/physician who has studied IF (sorry I forget his name just now, but I could probably retrieve it buried in my email files) and asked him if he knew of any correlation. He answered "no," but also added that doing an epidemiological study would be pretty impossible. I seem to recall his saying as well that IF should actually improve metabolic profile. I had one hypothesis of my own about it. Dr. Eades of Protein Power claim to fame has written that body fat can store toxic components, as well as estrogen, and that losing weight can release these, with the estrogen triggering hormonal responses in women. ( don't know what the story would be for men.) I was doing quite well on IF, dropping pounds steadily, and tolerating the IF fairly well. I'd have to recheck my diary, but I think I was doing 5:2. I have wracked my brain for what my Graves' trigger might have been, as I have no familial background, so the IF remains one hypothesis. Also, my Graves' occurred very late as I was 71. The other hypotheses--possibly stress, but nothing truly dire, or possibly DES used by my mother in late 40's, but other than you mentioning this in one of your books, I haven't seen any definitive information on this. Anyway, I thought I'd mention this.
There is a connection with dieting and diet pills with Graves’ disease but dieting isn’t a cause. Most everyone with Graves’ disease has an initial hypothyroid. It’s usually mild and not diagnosed but some patients have overt hypothyroidism and are on thyroid replacement hormone for years before developing hyperthyroidism. Patients often don’t recognize the hypothyroidism until, in retrospect, they admit to having trouble with weight gain before developing hyperthyroidism. Diet pills containing amphetamine can be a trigger since they raise T4.
Graves’ disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic factors overlap with rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and lupus. Someone in your family have had one of these disorders. Or relatives may have had the genetic predilection but weren’t exposed to environmental triggers. These triggers include stress, antibiotics, infections, seasonal and food allergens, excess dietary iodine, and really anything that triggers an immune response.
I'm in two Facebook groups for persons diagnosed with Graves'. One day in discussing intermittent fasting, we found that for a significant number of us our Graves' was "triggered" when we started an IF program. This was true for me as well. I emailed a researcher/physician who has studied IF (sorry I forget his name just now, but I could probably retrieve it buried in my email files) and asked him if he knew of any correlation. He answered "no," but also added that doing an epidemiological study would be pretty impossible. I seem to recall his saying as well that IF should actually improve metabolic profile. I had one hypothesis of my own about it. Dr. Eades of Protein Power claim to fame has written that body fat can store toxic components, as well as estrogen, and that losing weight can release these, with the estrogen triggering hormonal responses in women. ( don't know what the story would be for men.) I was doing quite well on IF, dropping pounds steadily, and tolerating the IF fairly well. I'd have to recheck my diary, but I think I was doing 5:2. I have wracked my brain for what my Graves' trigger might have been, as I have no familial background, so the IF remains one hypothesis. Also, my Graves' occurred very late as I was 71. The other hypotheses--possibly stress, but nothing truly dire, or possibly DES used by my mother in late 40's, but other than you mentioning this in one of your books, I haven't seen any definitive information on this. Anyway, I thought I'd mention this.
There is a connection with dieting and diet pills with Graves’ disease but dieting isn’t a cause. Most everyone with Graves’ disease has an initial hypothyroid. It’s usually mild and not diagnosed but some patients have overt hypothyroidism and are on thyroid replacement hormone for years before developing hyperthyroidism. Patients often don’t recognize the hypothyroidism until, in retrospect, they admit to having trouble with weight gain before developing hyperthyroidism. Diet pills containing amphetamine can be a trigger since they raise T4.
Graves’ disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic factors overlap with rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and lupus. Someone in your family have had one of these disorders. Or relatives may have had the genetic predilection but weren’t exposed to environmental triggers. These triggers include stress, antibiotics, infections, seasonal and food allergens, excess dietary iodine, and really anything that triggers an immune response.