Graves’ Disease Causes

Every day I receive a lot of emails from people asking “Why do I have Graves’ Disease or Hyperthyroidism? Why exactly me? What happened or what I did wrong? What is the cause for Graves’ Disease?

You didn’t do anything wrong. There is an explanation for everything and everything happens for a reason. You’ve heard that before, right?

Well, let me start from the beginning with a little bit history here…

The disease is named after Robert Graves, the 19th century Irish physician who first discovered the condition. Graves’ Disease is caused by a generalized over activity of the thyroid gland (which looks like a butterfly), and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism.

In this condition, the thyroid gland is diffusely enlarged and hyperactive, producing excessive thyroid hormones. It has lost the ability to respond to the normal control by the pituitary gland via TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone).

Although Graves’ disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism (80% of the cases), not all patients suffering from hyperthyroidism have Graves’ disease and not all patients with Graves’ disease have hyperthyroidism symptoms.

 It is believed that the triggers for this disease include stress, smoking, radiation to the neck, medications, and infectious organisms such as viruses… Finally, who can tell for sure?

I personally believe that STRESS (in a very broad term) is one of the main reasons for Graves’ Disease and Hyperthyroidism. Not stress generally- but how you personally react to this STRESS! This stress could be emotional, work related, family related, event related, or a prolonged state of unhappiness to whatever reason. And suddenly, there is a triggering event that brings Graves’ Disease!

I would like to add a few things that may trigger Graves’ Disease or Hyperthyroidism– the reason I know them is because I read the emails and surveys from my subscribers and this is what they say:

Graves Disease Causes

1. death of a spouse

2. divorce

3. marital separation

4. spending time in jail

5. death of a close family member

6. personal illness or injury

7. marriage

8. pregnancy

9. retirement

10. switching jobs

11. unemployment/ laid off

12. moving your home/ house

13. excessive traveling schedule

14. marriage problems

15. dealing with problem kids

16. time pressure

17. financial problems

18. career related problems

19. long term abuse at home or at work

20. concerns about money

Some of them seem unrelated and probably you are asking yourself- well, this is happening to everyone, but not everyone gets Graves’ Disease or Hyperthyroidism?

And you are absolutely right. The questions is how you handle these events in your life. And how you handle your Life in generally, or your life handles you? Now, these are your immediate triggers, but what actually stays behind? Let me summarize that for you, to the best I can:

Four BASIC reasons why YOU may develop Graves’ Disease:

1. Inability to speak up for yourself

2. Inability to be creative or lack of creativeness

3. Inability to ask for what you really want

4. Inability to make decisions based upon real needs and therefore creating a life style based upon these needs

Once you have realized where the problem is, it’s easy to change. Everybody  has different methods for that.

Also, stress can be avoided. Anxiety is #1 reason for the stress. That’s why I have written a few articles about anxiety and stress and how to handle them.  Check them out, you may find one or 2 methods how to handle that more effectively and accelerate your healing process.

Anxiety and Stress

If you can read other people’s stories, you’ll find out that a year or two before the Graves’ Disease diagnosis they have been through some kind of stress, or emotional dis-balance, or unhappiness. I never heard of someone, who is happy and sick. Diseases doesn’t go to happy people who respect their emotional and body needs.

I’ve also created a book about their real life stories (as told by themselves) and how they managed to cure their Graves’ Disease and Hyperthyroidism. Feel free to check their stories now:

Life Stories for Graves’ Disease Ebook