>From: Holly Jagger <[log in to unmask]>
>When we are told we have autoimmune hypothyroidism, does this definitely
>indicate the gland will decline in function more and more until it is
>totally destroyed?
In a summary of an endo journal on a med school website, I read about a
patient coming in with adrenal crises. He historically had high Hashimoto's
titters, but after they treated him with corticosteroids they fixed the
adrenal crises, he also no longer had Hashi's antibodies, and the course of
the treatment was only short term.
So, sometimes hydrocortisone or other corticosteroids can cure Hashimoto's,
if patients on thyroid replacment, the antibodies frequently go down, and in
one of the better but more techinical sites about thyroid problems, they say
that it goes away on its own sometimes -
http://thyroidmanager.org/Chapter8/8-frame.htm
"However, it is now clear that up to one-fourth of patients who are
hypothyroid may spontaneously return to normal function over the course of
several years. This sequence may reflect the initial effect of high titers
of thyroid stimulation blocking antibodies which fall with time and allow
thyroid function to return(23)."
Which means sometimes thyroid medication isn't necessary forever.
They go on further to talk about it in combo with Addison's -
"Hashimoto's thyroiditis and hypothyroidism are associated with Addison's
disease, diabetes mellitus, hypogonadism, hypopara-thyroidism, and
pernicious anemia. Such combinations are described as the polyglandular
failure syndrome. "
Anyway, according to Arem in "The Thyroid Solution", up to 10% of those who
have Hashimoto's can be detected by some kind of ultrasound, but they don't
know how to test for all the antibodies.
I would say if your antibodies weren't going down, the treatment isn't the
best one for you, but that's kind of hard to measure when they're not the
detectable antibodies.
Skipper
_________________________________________________________________
Check the weather nationwide with MSN Search: Try it now!
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=weather&FORM=WLMTAG
_______________________________________________________________
Snip, Please
If you "Reply" to a message, and *you* fail to erase or delete
the previous message, *your* message cannot be distributed.
Why not ask a question? If we're not currently talking about
what *you* want to hear about, ask about another topic! Or
make a statement. To be prepared, you might want to search
the Thyroid Archives http://www.Emissary.Net/thyroid/index.html
to see what has been said before about any thyroid-related topic.
_______________________________________________________________
|