# Thyroid diseases run in families?



## imcold (Dec 17, 2007)

Hi all,

I always knew both my moms parents had some rought spots with health. both did live their late 80's

My question is - do thyroid diseases pass down in families? are they genetic? My grandmother I was told had to drink the radioactive ****tail and she had very buldging eyes and was very thin, so it was graves I believe. My grandfather had his whole thyroid removed - I dont know why but im guessing because it was enlarged, maybe due to hashi's?

I have felt sick for two years - although everythign so far has been ok via lab work - its got to be thyroid with my body hair shedding and scalp along with a dozen other thyroid symptoms

I would love some imput on the genetic factors of thyroid? Thanks in advance


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## GD Women (Mar 5, 2007)

Hypo/hyper-thyroidism is not genetic. Thyroid like any other health conditions can run in families, but doesn't necessarily mean one or ones family member will ever come down with that perticular heath condition or hypo/hyper-thyroidism. When thyroid is in the family there is more of a chance for family member to come down with it than a family that doesn't have thyroid in the family.

Autoimmune thyroid has a genetic predisposition, but it doesn't necessarily mean one or ones family member will ever come down with autoimmune thyroid. I believe that its the immune system that goes arye, so it can attack any part of the body, turning into an autoimmune condition. In other words where your mother might have autoimmune thyroid, your immune system might attack your bones/joints causing autoimmune arthritis instead. Also, which happened to me, I came down with arthritis first, after years suffering it went into remission for 20 years when I came down with Graves'.

No one in my family that I am aware of has autoimmune thyroid. My mother, sister and her daughter has hypothyroidism. They never said that their doctor said it was autoimmune thyroid nor do they care enough to ask the doctor, and they don't care to know their levels, they just trust in and leave it all up to their doctors. They never complain about having any symptoms, they just go merrily along with their lives, getting test every year.

If your Labs are normal, then perhaps checking other areas of health for causes of your symptoms would be wise.
Thyroid symptoms are so non-specific. In other words, a lot of other health conditions have the same symptoms as thyroid, it is very difficult to distinguish where the symptoms are coming from or which health conditions are the cause. Thus the practice of prescribing thyroid treatment on a clinical basis alone without biochemical confirmation carries potential risks. To achieve lasting improvement you may have to treat more than one condition at a time. It is important that you obtain a full and complete diagnosis and treat in the appropriate order all conditions that may be contributing to your health issue(s).


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## jess12808 (Jan 14, 2008)

I was going to say I totally agree with GD. The only reason my Endo was looking at genetic history was because my father had thyroid cancer. Usually she told me they dont look into your genetics to do profiling unless there is a history of thyroid cancer or an adrenal disease. They always take a medical history in my docs office but usually wont go any further unless there is a history of something life threatening or that needs to be monitored even closer than usual.


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## bella77 (Jan 15, 2008)

the answer 2 your question is YES thyroid disease does run in families, my grandfather had graves, my mother, my sister who now is deseased passed away from a thyrotoxic storm 2 years ago but was just discovered recently what the cause was, I myself after 3 years of struggling just had my thyroid removed on Dec 6th "07" my labs were always they would tell me in range but what I went through was horrible I lost massive hair also the problem was an enlarged thyroid, even the ultrasound done on my thyroid did'nt pick the size up, an enlarged thyroid therefore is not normal so mine became toxic which wrecked havoc on my body, sometimes my own body would attack itself there is so much more I have learned about this disease so feel free to ask me anything. Bella77


imcold said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I always knew both my moms parents had some rought spots with health. both did live their late 80's
> 
> ...


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