A minor

Thyroid

At age 17, I was diagnosed with Graves' disease, a common form of hyperthyroidism caused by a generalized overactivity of the entire thyroid gland. We first noticed swelling in the base of my throat/neck, and blood tests revealed that my thyroid levels were toxically high. After unsuccessful thyroid suppression therapy, my options were either radiation therapy or surgical removal of the thyroid gland - both of which would cause me to go from hyper- to hypothyroid, and would require me to take thyroid replacement pills for life. We opted for radiation therapy, which successfully made me hypothyroid. However, I have yet to reach a normal, stable metabolic plane, and occasionally this prevents me from functioning normally.

Through all of this, I have realized that medical science still has a lot to learn about the nature and treatment of thyroid disorders. Two examples: 1) When treating hyperthyroidism with radiation therapy, doctors have no way of measuring exactly how much radioiodine to use, so they use a dose that is higher than necessary to avoid the need for another round of radiation. 2) When treating hypothyroidism with replacement therapy, most physicians use blood tests as their primary measurement - despite the fact that regularly checking body temperature is, overall, a better way to measure thyroid levels. As these examples demonstrate, traditional treatments for thyroid disorders leave something to be desired. However, I recently learned about some different approaches to thyroid-related illnesses; see DrLowe.com and WilsonSyndrome.com for more info. I hope these approaches turn out to be as helpful as they look.