Living With Graves’ Disease offers a unique website
dedicated to interaction between sufferers
of illnesses through active, health minded health forums.

“Living with Graves’ Disease has enjoyed a reputation of being one of the best places on the net to go for Graves’ and Thyroid Disease information.”

Congratulations! You’ve found your way to the community created specifically for Graves’ Disease sufferers. We are a public education organization for sufferers. We launched our first website about Graves’ Disease and Thyroid disease in 1999.

Graves’ disease is autoimmune hyperthyroidism. Its ominous sounding name comes from the Irish physician, Robert James Graves, who first described a case of goiter with exophthalmos ^[1] in 1835.

Patients with Graves’ disease produce thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) an autoantibody which overstimulates the thyroid gland. This overstimulation makes the patient clinically hyperthyroid as evidenced by labs tests which typically reveal low thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and high thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). This overstimulation causes the thyroid gland to enlarge which is called a goiter ^[2].

Graves’ disease affects women at a ratio of 8:1 and occurs most often in the third to fifth decade of life. Hallmarks of the condition are bulging eyes (exophthalmos) ^[1], heat intolerance, increased energy, difficulty sleeping, diarrhea and anxiety, although not all patients will exhibit bulging eyes. Symptoms can wax and wane over time.

For an illustration of exophthalmos and goiter click here ^[3].

Please feel free to post any questions on our forums that you might have about any of the information we have contained on our web site. You might be surprised how helpful members and our forum moderators are of each other!

The Living with Graves’ Disease Community