Graves' disease - what is it?

Graves' disease (diffuse goiter) is the name of the most famous and widespread thyroid disease. It is familiar to many of us from the photo from textbooks, where people with a goiter on their neck and protruding eyes are imprinted.

That's what a diffuse goiter is, treating it with hormonal therapy. Even before its appearance, it was believed that the only way to cure Graves' disease was to remove part of the thyroid gland. During the Middle Ages, no one ever thought about how to treat this disease. People with strange eyes were simply burned at the stake, because they were considered sorcerers and witches.

Fortunately, to date, Graves' disease can be called well-studied. And for its treatment there are several very effective techniques.

A variety of this disease can be called nodal colloid goiter.

Causes of the disease

There are many reasons for this disease. Modern doctors suggest that the hereditary predisposition plays the greatest role in the onset of the disease.

In addition, in the past few years, scientists have found that Graves' disease is of an autoimmune nature, that is, it is associated with a deficiency of the immune system. For this reason, it can be put on a par with hepatitis, rheumatism and ulcerative colitis.

The very occurrence of the disease, and, to be more precise, the likelihood that a person will become ill with it, is associated with a variety of factors. The first is attributed to mental trauma and infections. When an infection gets into the body, it triggers protective mechanisms, which lead to the fact that the immune system selects the thyroid gland as the target.

Remember that even if you have a predisposition to Graves disease, this does not mean that you will necessarily be ill with it.

Degrees of disease

The severity of Graves' disease is characterized by how much the thyroid gland is affected:

1. Easy degree . With her, the body weight decreases by 10-15, heart palpitations and decreased work capacity.
2. Average . There is already lost about 20% of the body weight, a person feels high nervous excitability, and the heart beats about 100-120 beats per minute.
3. Heavy stage . Signs: strong weight loss, tachycardia, the occurrence of atrial fibrillation, liver damage, insufficient blood circulation and almost total loss of ability to work.

Symptoms of the disease

All the symptoms, and some of them have already been named earlier, can be divided into 3 main groups:

- Goiter, becoming visible even with visual contact. Moreover, the extent to which the thyroid gland is enlarged does not indicate the severity of the disease. That is, in men, goiter can be increased quite insignificantly and can hardly be probed. The enlargement of the gland in them is due to the lateral parts, closely adjacent to the trachea.

- Ejection. Here everything again is very individual. One will simply have strange eyes shining, while the other can be deformed eyelids.

- Tachycardia - heart palpitations.

These signs can be called characteristic of Graves' disease, but apart from them there are also other symptoms manifesting in this disease.

A person suffering from such a disease as Graves' disease will complain that he feels a general weakness, his irritability rises, sleep is disturbed. In addition, you can notice almost complete intolerance to heat and sweating.

Sometimes there are pains of a compressive or piercing nature in the heart. Also increases appetite, but the weight while it tends to go down. Excess of the hormones of the gland leads to the fact that there is a shiver in the fingers, the tongue and the entire body. There is an almost constant feeling of anxiety and fear.