Graves' Disease: A Practical Guide

Updated 2/06 Normally a fit, athletic 50 year old woman, 5 years ago Jan. 2001, I was so ill from all the horrible symptoms of Graves Disease on a cruise and could not even dance with my husband or climb stairs. When we got back for an immediate visit to the emergency room to have every heart test and all, this major medical center did not check my thyroid for hyperthyroid for the reason of the palpations, but found nothing wrong with my heart, which was their only focus. After suffering for another 3 months, the next general MD I went to immediately diagnosed, just from my symptoms (what later blood work confirmed) that I was hyperthyroid. Test confirmed it was from Graves Disease. He gave me three options; drugs that have terrible side effects, surgery that can nick your voice box etc., or RAI; Radio Active Iodine. RAI is the route he signed me up for but I cancelled the appointment after my research on About.com forums scared me to death. Also because you have to have monthly blood labs, I went into a shut down because my veins are so small at the bend of the arm where they want to take the blood, that most experienced nurses usually give up and get someone else to try several times nicking my nerves. I am a good patient but this was very hard and went into denial for a year since the heart palpitations were controlled with Atenolol. The forums then, were like going to a cemetery with not much good news. I was feeling so much better, so did not go to any doctor and certainly not back to the one whom I did not follow his direction to have RAI, which I knew I would not do. I had to know the truth and trusted God to heal me or send the truth I needed. I got back on About.com after that first year to find that there was now an expert with Elaine Moore as moderator, who really sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Plus there were so many women who were seriously helped by her. I wrote her, telling her my history and she informed me that the Atenolol would not work for the long haul. Soon after the palpitations violently started until I was very scared at what they were doing to my heart. Thinking that I was going to have to go for surgery, I ordered her wonderful book. Education is so powerful and the truth will set you free. I got the information that was vital, and golly was I glad that I procrastinated until I got the answers I needed to make an informed decision! The Lord leads if you ask. I started on 30 mg of Tap. in Jan 03 with no side effects following her guidelines and keeping tabs on her several forums and her website. I found a local lab, with a tech gal who was profoundly good with a butterfly in my wrist vain with monthly labs a breeze. I found a local Physician Assistant that was willing to keep watch over me, and give me the prescriptions I needed. Getting a PA was suggested on the forums, as they are usually willing to learn and work with you. The Endo experience is often a h

I recommend this be the first book read by everyone (and their family and concerned friends) who has recently been diagnosed with Graves' Disease. Diagnosed just a few months ago, the indepth and well researched information presented in this book by Elaine Moore has helped me considerably to understand what is happening to me and to choose and manage my treatment with more confidence, rather than getting frustrated with more web searches and/or blindly depending on what the doctors tell me. There is information in this book that I have not found in any other book on the subject (or the web) and certainly not from any of the 4 doctors I've already consulted (and ultimately wasted my time and money) with. Get this book first! Don't make the same mistake I did by spending all that time on fustrating web searches and money on other books, and still wondering and worrying about my situation. Search the web and get the other books later but start with Elaine Moore's Graves' Disease: A Practical Guide. Your mind and body will benefit from it. Update: 01/07/2010 - I was diagnosed at the end of 2003 and I stopped taking antithyroid medication in early-mid 2005. I have not had any further problems with being hyperthyroid, and I'm convinced it is because I followed the lifestyle and dietary advice found in this book and on Elaine's website, and I learned how to read my lab reports and not depend on doctors for anything but the prescription. For the better part of the time I took Tapazole I was on a very low dose...but only after I realized the first 3 doctors I saw were overdosing me, which was causing more problems than the Graves Disease itself was. I would not have known this if it hadn't been for Elaine Moore. Thanks to Elaine I still have my thyroid and I know I'm a lot healthier than even before the beginning of the Graves. Even though a lot of people say they've had positive results with RAI, there are also a lot of people who have had very negative results with RAI and continue to suffer. I don't know why anyone would want to disparage a book/author who gives you so much information and alternatives to this very drastic treatment, and why people wouldn't want to try the alternatives first. After all, once you take RAI you can't go back.

If you've just been diagnosed with Graves' disease, and the only thing your doctor has managed to do is confuse the heck out of you, then GRAVES' DISEASE, A PRACTICAL GUIDE is an absolute necessity! Just think, you can educate yourself with this book, and then show up at your next doctor's appointment ready and able to competently discuss your disease and ALL your options. In fact, I believe that every DOCTOR who truly wants to help his or her Graves' patients should also read this informative book.AND for those of us who have been struggling with this complicated and frustrating disease for months, or even years, this is just what we've been waiting for: ANSWERS to our questions -- all in one refreshingly in-depth and yet easy-to-understand book. It discusses the many aspects of this disease, explaining how the thyroid works, how the immune system and its antibodies are involved, and which dietary, emotional, and other factors may be influencing your thyroid health.This book fully explains all the traditional treatment options--anti-thyroid drugs, surgery, and radioactive iodine--as well as nutritional and alternative therapies that some Graves' patients have had success with. You will find valuable information on the various diagnostic tests--which ones are useful and which ones may not be necessary. It also teaches you about lab testing and how to interpret your results. There are lists of organizations and wonderful support groups, as well as numerous medical resources that can enable a patient to continue to research this disease as far as s/he desires. Most importantly, this book offers suggestions for healing. Up until now, most thyroid reference books tended to favor the destructive practice of radioactive iodine (RAI) "treatment" or I-131 thyroid ablation. In fact, most doctors still prefer this method because it is quick, easy, and cheap. It's in your best interest to know why killing off your thyroid gland with radioactivity, and trying to replace its function with synthetic hormone pills, is not your ONLY option! This brilliant author has been there. Elaine Moore has taken her extensive medical knowledge as well as personal experiences, and has put them to good use in helping others to educate themselves. We all know that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! You have every right to take your time and research ALL of your options. You have the right to make INFORMED DECISIONS regarding your treatment, testing, medications, and other avenues you may wish to explore. After all, it's YOUR body, isn't it?I've had this disease for 23 years, and this is the most USEFUL and INFORMATIVE Graves' reference book I've ever seen. Thank you, Elaine Moore. I have learned more about Graves' disease from you than I have from all the endocrinologists I've consulted over the last 2 decades--all put together!

Whether you have just been diagnosed with Graves Disease or have been living with it for a while now, this book is a MUST have. This book has become my bible on living with Graves Disease. When I first sat down with it I felt a little intimidated, felt I would never be able to understand all of this and to learn from it. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Ms. Moore has written a book that can be understood by anyone with or without a medical degree, it raises questions and gives answers that never seem to be addressed by our doctors. The first time reading I sat with a highlighter and a pen, thumb through my dog-eared copy now, I have many notes of 'this is me!' because her descriptions of what is going on in our bodies is so accurate. I have highlighted many areas that have raised questions only to find the answers within a page or two. To live with Graves, one must become proactive in their chosen treatment. In my opinion, this book will help you learn how to do this very quickly. It will teach you all of the W's, What, When, Where, Why, and How, you will learn when to call your doctor and request labs, what the labs mean, questions to ask and answers to wait for, the role stress plays in our lives, what role antibodies play, the eye disease, what supplements are aids for us,. It covers the full spectrum of GD in an understandable way. Read it from cover to cover, or skip around, think of any question relating to Graves, go to the index and you will find an answer. It is a book, not just for Graves patients and their families, but for our doctors who treat us as well.

Graves Disease: A Practical Guide should become the gold standard for thyroid patients and their families. Like other popular books on Graves disease, Moore's maps out the basic Graves symptoms, Graves Opthalmopathy, diagnostic procedures, and treatment options. That's where the comparison ends. Unlike the other books I've encountered, this one ventures into more complex territory, and does it well. For example, instead of the standard single page on the nature of autoimmunity, Moore gives us a chapter that starts with the basics and gets detailed. She tells us what the immune system is; she clearly discusses antigens, antibodies, and autoantibodies in a way that allows the Graves patient to actually understand the intricate misfirings that result in disease. Nifty little illustrations let us see that antigen and the binding antibody. Any thyroid patient knows that our favorite refrain is, "the thyroid affects every cell in the body." This book might not hit every cell, but sure gives us a run at it: we learn about the various hormones and how Graves affects them, about vitamin deficiencies that go hand-in-hand with Graves and how those deficiencies play out upon our bodies, we're treated (yes, treated, considering the clear cut prose) to a lesson in the anatomy of the thyroid. In addition, Moore ventures where others are afraid to go, offering the latest theories of how the environment and hereditary play out together in the development of thyroid disease. She also incorporates alternative medicine into her discussion of treatment options through the testimonials of people who have employed alternative methods with or without allopathic treatment. The end result of this well-written and thoroughly researched book is that the newly diagnosed can read this and know precisely what is happening inside of their bodies and become fully informed on their treatment and lifestyle options.