Healing from Graves’ Disease—her story
Hi, it's Yvonne from The Breathing Heart, and today, as promised, I have the interview from a woman who cured herself from Graves' Disease. She likes to say that she's in remission.
I really think she's cured herself. Graves' Disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes the thyroid to become overactive. It can lead to symptoms like anxiety, rapid heartbeat, weight loss, hair loss, and many more uncomfortable symptoms that can be potentially life-threatening as well.
The traditional path of treatment usually includes medications, radioactive iodine, or even surgery.
Today, it's considered incurable, medically anyway, but is remission possible? Possibly.
Some people have actually reported that their body no longer shows signs of the disease, but maybe a person is still considered at risk for relapse? From a holistic or integrative perspective, many people have reported healing graves through diet, like the autoimmune protocol, incorporating stress reduction, gut health, and other lifestyle interventions.
While mainstream medicine may not call this a cure, these individuals often live symptom-free and without medication. So is it incurable? Technically, yes, in the conventional view, but in practice, many have healed. And that's what makes this story so wonderful and so important to share. Her story is one of deep listening, trust in the body's wisdom, and reclaiming health in her own terms.
When I sat down to interview “Maureen” (not her real name), she made one thing clear: this was a personal journey—private, vulnerable and full of transformation. She’s sharing her story so others know alternative healing is possible.
TBH—Welcome Maureen. I'm so glad that you're here to share your story with us. Tell me, how did your journey start with healing yourself from Graves' Disease?
M— Well, it actually goes back somewhat further in that I have had mild autoimmune conditions for many years, but nothing that was major. And so when COVID was here and we were all just trying to do our bit to keep everybody healthy, I wanted to get vaccinated because that's just what they were telling us.
TBH—Yes.
M—And so because of my previous immune conditions, I was concerned that I might have a reaction. So I actually asked the doctor to send me for testing. I went to an allergist who assured me that, no, there would be no problem. I would be okay. So I got the first vaccine and it was fine. And then the second one I got, the next morning, I woke up and I basically couldn't close my hands. My hands were all swollen. I just I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.
TBH—Oh my gosh.
M—And which I knew because they said, some people have more reactions than others, I was hoping it would just be my arm and I was hoping that it would go away, but it didn't. And over the ensuing months, really, I experienced all kinds of different symptoms. A lot of my hair fell out. I had thick hair. It became very, very thin. I lost 60 pounds in about just over three months.
THB—Wow that is alarming!
M— Yeah, so I was like losing almost a pound a day, which sounds good in some ways. “laughs” But not to that extent.
TBH—Yeah, that's not good. Not like that. That's way too much. Can I just quickly ask you what vaccine did you get? What brand?
M—Pfizer.
TBH—Okay. Go ahead. Carry on.
M—And so of course, I was going to the doctor and asking , what's wrong with me, because my heart was racing and I was sweating. I was getting shaky sometimes. I can't even remember all the different things, achy joints and it was just, it was like a light switch. One day I was fine. And the next day, all these weird things were happening. I did call the side effects reporting line to say look, this is more than just a few days of a sore arm. I think something's going on here. Maybe we need to look further. But unfortunately, their response was— did you need to go to the hospital? And I said, no, it was not an anaphylactic reaction. It was just like my hair is falling out and I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’m not going to go to emergency for that. And they said, oh, well, if you didn't need hospitalization, it's not considered a relevant side effect.
TBH—How did you feel emotionally during those first days or weeks of uncertainty?
M—Well, yeah, I just didn't know what was going on. I was scared. I was annoyed, frustrated, angry, and just trying to deal with how do I deal with this? The uncertainty, I think was really difficult because I've generally been a very healthy person my whole life. So anyway, from the second vaccine, that’s when everything started. And then it was back and forth with the doctor, trying to figure out what was causing all my unexplained symptoms. Was it the vaccine or was it something else, you know, who knows, right?
TBH—Can I ask you, when did you receive your official diagnosis of Graves’ Disease? And what did the doctors tell you at that time?
M—October. So this was all happening from July to October 2021. But of course, again, we were still in some COVID things. So I was doing all of this with them over the phone. I wasn't going in person, and then trying to go for blood tests and various things. So finally, they checked my thyroid.
TBH—Yeah, I’m surprised they didn’t check that earlier to be honest.
M—In October, that's when the result came back that my thyroid tests indicated a diagnosis of Graves’ Disease, which is an autoimmune condition where your bodies’ antibodies actually attack your own tissue. There's about 150 different autoimmune conditions out there— like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and lupus to name a few. Graves’ Disease is one of them. There are other thyroid conditions that aren’t autoimmune, but in my case, the testing showed autoimmune antibodies, so that's where the diagnosis of Graves’ Disease was made.
TBH— Were there any moments where you felt dismissed or unsupported by the medical system?
M—I always had allergies to medications, even aspirin, so I wasn't keen on starting any medication of any sort anyway. And then when in discussions with the endocrinologist and the diagnosis of Graves’, that's when he suggested that Graves’ was incurable, that the treatment for something like what I had would be either to destroy the thyroid with radiation or surgically remove it, which then of course would mean I would need to be on thyroid medication for the rest of my life, because you can't live without a thyroid. You still need those thyroid hormones. And my question was, so given my history of reactions to other medications, what if I somehow had a reaction to the thyroid medication? His answer was, well, we'd have to deal with that if it happens. But of course, at that point, I would not have a thyroid anymore. So yeah, I was not too keen on that answer.
I grew up with a lot of those old wives tales—simple homegrown wisdom passed down and a lot of them were pretty common sensical.
TBH—Yeah some were and are still very good. These were tending around natural remedies I assume.
M—Yes. Once the Graves’ Disease had been diagnosed, I started my search for holistic remedies and all those sorts of things. And one of the things that I discovered was something called the auto immune protocol, which is now a reasonably well supported thing out there.
It’s referred to as AIP in a lot of things. And all of a sudden found a whole community of people that were also dealing with autoimmune conditions, not necessarily related to vaccines— just individuals with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, or hyperthyroidism. Any of those are really some of the most chronic autoimmune diseases out there that people are dealing with today.
And so I started to look into that. One of the main components of it, although there are many, is changing your diet. And so I started to follow an autoimmune protocol diet, which I did discuss with the endocrinologist and said, look, I'd like to kind of wait a bit because I was already starting to see some positives. I was feeling a bit better.
TBH—How long did it take you to notice a positive change in your body?
M—I actually started to feel an improvement within the first week.
TBH—Oh, that's really sudden. Wow.
M—Yeah it was amazing because I had felt so badly. Basically, the AIP, what it does is it removes a lot of things that are kind of known allergens. The thing that I particularly like about it is that it is self directed in that the idea of thought behind it is every person is different. And the idea is that you follow this diet for 30 to 90 days, and you eliminate all the foods that tend to activate people's immune system. And then after 30 to 90 days, hopefully you've be seeing some positive results. Mainly that you're feeling better. Like I said, I started to feel better within a week. I could see that I was gradually continuing to improve. After the initial 30-90 days, then you start a program of reintroduction. There's a whole procedure that you go through to basically identify individually for each thing that potentially triggers your immune system?
TBH—Can you walk me through a day in your healing routine? Was it just your diet you changed? Did you change anything else?
M—Yeah. So the autoimmune protocol, just to go back to the endocrinologist, when I mentioned that I was going to follow the autoimmune protocol diet first, because I wanted to see if it could work for me before I considered some of these very invasive treatments, he basically dismissed me saying, Oh, what you eat has nothing to do with it. But I wanted to exhaust every possible natural remedy before any invasive treatment option.
TBH—Wow. That is so sad.
M— I know, we sort of came to a mutual agreement that we decided that I wasn't going to do what he said. And he really didn't agree with what I was trying to do. So I haven't talked to him since. That was it. Anyway, I'm not an expert in the AIP, I'm just a follower. It talks a lot initially about diet, but it also looks at things like your sleep, and your stress.
TBH— What about exercise, breathwork or meditation?
M—Yeah. Sleep— stress— exercise—diet. I explored all the categories and in working with yourself you start identifying what your particular triggers are. And the thing that I really liked about it is that it's tailored specifically for you as an individual. There's no right or wrong. Like a person could say, Oh, well, carrots are perfectly healthy. But if I have a reaction to carrots, I should not eat carrots. Some people may have great sleep habits, but not eat properly. Or some people may have a great diet, but have too much stress in their life, which of course stress was also a big part of everybody's life. Well, at that time it was. And then you've got a disease on top of everything else, that's just stressful. So I did do a lot of meditations and breathwork. And one of the things that the autoimmune protocol says it that it tries to give you a lot of different tools in your toolbox to try. And so I think probably most people start with the diet just because it's concrete. And in fact, what I ended up doing was finding an autoimmune certified coach. And she was really of great help. I worked with her for about six months. And again, we just did phone calls and zoom, but we identified a lot of different things. There's all kinds of testing that you can do to sort of look at where you’re at. Another thing about the autoimmune diet is it's not just about removing things. It's also about adding things in. It's really focused on nutrient density. So sometimes some of these adverse symptoms can also be caused by certain nutrient deficiencies or excesses. So working with an AIP certified coach, they can do some of those tests and help you discover what works best for you. I ended up eating a lot of liver.
TBH—Oh, yeah, that's supposed to be really good. I have that in supplement form. We used to get fed a steady diet of liver growing up. Mom was a talented cook in that department…
M—Well it just seemed to help with a lot of the things that I was deficient in. And I focused on my sleep. I focused on what you said, meditations and breath work and trying to get my stress under control. What I found with a lot with doctors is they try to treat the symptom, instead of figuring out what the root cause is. Not all but many.
TBH—Correct.
M—Yeah. Like I always used to say, my headache is not caused by a deficiency of Tylenol. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't take medication for various reasons. That's fine, but why am I having this headache? Or why is this happening? Why is my hair falling out? Why am I losing all this weight? What's the root cause of it?
TBH—Did you experience any setbacks or doubts during your healing process?
M—Oh, absolutely. The hardest thing for me was actually literally learning how to cook because I was very much a convenience food eater, not necessarily junk food, if that's a term.
TBH—Processed food?
M—Well, more processed food. I used to say my two most used kitchen appliances were the can opener and the microwave.
TBH—Oh boy. Okay.
M—And so to start to learn how to cook everything from scratch, particularly in that first 30 to 90 days, where basically it's fruit, vegetables, and clean proteins. That was a big learning curve. So again, that's where working with my autoimmune protocol coach was really good. Can I really do this? How is my life going to change? Because I mean, even now, I just don't just go into a restaurant and order whatever off the menu. I do still have to be a little bit careful because I've identified things that I know make me feel bad.
TBH—Yeah, for sure. You are what you eat really rings a bell here.
M—So it's like anybody. If you're Celiac, yes, you don't want to have a sandwich. No, you don't. Because you know it's going to make you feel bad. It's that kind of a thing. When you know, it actually is ultimately very powerful. It's a big motivator. You realize hey, if I am just a little bit careful with this or that, then I can feel so much better. And I must say I feel better physically now than I have in the last 20 years.
TBH—Yes, because you've completely changed your lifestyle. And I really believe that diet has a lot to do with it. That's how I eat, I eat fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean proteins. I mean, I have my my treats every now and then, but I have to say, mindful eating keeps you healthier, keeps your body healthy because it will tell you when something is amiss. It's so important to honor your body.
TBH—How long was your journey to healing yourself or going into remission? You said it took about two years for you to totally feel better? When did you go back to the doctor and start getting more labs to see what was going on?
M— I started to feel better within the first week of eating differently, and then I would say probably once I completed the elimination phase, 30 to 90 days, I felt so incredibly better. And then I started to reintroduce a few things and boom, I knew immediately. Oh, okay. I used to eat this all the time and I can't eat this anymore. I just, I immediately had a reaction. But other things, thankfully, I was able to reintroduce without a problem. So that was good. Also, my mental health, as you asked, was really impacted. And so I did all the sleep things. I had to get more sleep. I had to work on my stress level, my exercise. So it was a process. So but I would say that I was feeling really good probably within less than six months.
M—Wow.
M—So I still kept getting my blood tests, every six to eight months. But it said you still have Graves’ Disease. Your thyroid is still out of whack and whatever. But I felt okay. My hair stopped falling out. I stopped losing weight. I sort of got to a stable weight. And I was feeling okay. So I thought, okay, well, if I still have Graves’ Disease, but I don't have 90% of the symptoms, I can live like this. Yes. Right. And then in January of 2024, I started to gain weight. I hadn't changed my eating. I was still following the same autoimmune protocol. I pretty much figured out what worked for me by that point, and then all of a sudden, my pants are getting a bit tight or whatever. Over the next month, I probably gained maybe 10 to 15 pounds. On the autoimmune protocol, I kind of maintained that lost weight, which was one of the only perks, because I'd always been a bit overweight. But I got to a stable weight and I maintained it. I wasn't losing, I wasn't gaining, I was just there, but 60 pounds thinner. So then all of a sudden, when you start to gain weight, and I hadn't changed my eating now for two and a half years. So I phoned the doctor and I said, look, I'm wondering if maybe my thyroid is starting to act up again because Graves’ Disease typically causes weight loss, Hashimoto’s which is the autoimmune version of hypothyroidism causes weight gain. And so I said, I'm wondering if maybe my thyroid is reacting differently, because I'm gaining weight now. And could we check my levels again? Because we'd checked, as I said, every six to eight months, and it was like, oh, you still have Graves’, So when I phoned, his response was, oh, you're gaining weight? Are you looking for a prescription for Ozempic? And I said, absolutely not. I just want to see if my thyroid levels have changed.
Anyway, we finally managed to do that and I got my results. And when I spoke to him about it, he said, oh, yeah, your results are normal. And I said, so you mean they're stable like they've been for the last two and a half years showing that I still have Graves’ Disease? No, they're normal, all within normal ranges. And I said, oh, so I don't have Graves’ Disease? Well, basically your results are normal he said. And so I said to him, to make it clear, you did tell me that Graves’ Disease was incurable. “Yes.” And that you had to remove or destroy my thyroid. “Yes.” But now you're telling me I don't have it. “Yes.” So how do you explain that? He said it was an anomaly. Wow, I said. Do you think it may have had anything to do with me following the autoimmune protocol? Because I had discussed it with him previously. No, I don't think that would have had anything to do with it. And so I said, well, how have you explained this to other patients where it miraculously disappears or goes into remission? Now I'm not saying I'm completely cured. It may reactivate. I don't know. And then he said, well, actually, you are the first person that has ever refused to have your thyroid removed or destroyed. So he'd never discussed this with anybody else because nobody else had done it.
TBH—Amazing! How did you stay grounded and strong in your decision when you had these doctors & experts telling you otherwise?
M— Because again, my history of following natural things and my family, that's how I was raised. But I felt better. The proof is in the pudding. Going from feeling awful to feeling better was absolutely amazing.
TBH— So in hindsight, how do you view the decision not to remove your thyroid?
M—Well, I mean, I'm obviously happy that I decided not to do that. I'm just I'm so grateful that I followed my instincts.
TBH—Yeah no kidding, looking back, what do you think the illness came to teach you?
M—Oh my goodness. That as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If we look into ourselves, we are our best healers.
TBH—Yeah, and I feel too, if you get a diagnosis, you have to sit with it for a bit. Your intuition really will tell you how to help yourself. I tell everybody that they are they’re own best healer. It's a beautiful thing.
M—And again, if I break my arm, of course, I want to go and have a doctor set it because that's not something I can't sit here, and look at my arm and go, heal my bone. But for other things, and I'm not saying that there's not conditions out there where people need to be on medication, I'm sure that there are. But I like the individualized approach, not that we are all the same.
TBH—Well a woman I know told me her mom’s hip healed without intervention. She had to lay down for a few weeks bed ridden. She was too elderly to have surgery. Can you imagine? I saw her the other day in a wheel chair in good spirits. She’s a centenarian! The body is amazing! Ha I’m constantly blown away by the power of intention and the human condition.
M—I mean, the endocrinologists did say at one point that if I didn't deal with the graves’, that I could have a heart attack or whatever. And I was like, yeah, and I could walk out my door and get hit by a bus tomorrow. So it has to be an individual person's decision. You have to weigh up the risks versus the potential reward and make that decision for your own health.
TBH—Yes. Now, did you take any medication at all?
M— No.
TBH—Wow. Just decided to go hardcore on the diet and change your lifestyle. Amazing. I mean, what would you say to someone newly diagnosed with Graves’, who feels scared or really hopeless?
M—Well, again, I would just use myself as an example. This is what worked for me. You really have to look into yourself and decide if this could work for you. Not everybody would be able to follow the kind of strict-ish diet that I chose to follow. And some people would say, no, I'd rather just take a pill. So it's an individual kind of decision. Again, weighing up those risks and rewards, but also recognizing we have more power over our own health than we recognize.
TBH—Well, I have to agree with you 100% on that. I mean, I really feel it also has to do with the commitment or intention you make to yourself to heal.
M—Yeah, you must be committed. I had a strong commitment to heal. I would encourage people to investigate some of the resources on the internet and again, taking everything with a grain of salt, making sure that they're looking at reputable sources. And of course, looking into the autoimmune protocol community and seeing what they think and potentially consider working with an AIP coach because they're trained in the different sorts of things that are related to autoimmune illnesses.
TBH—Did you ever share your healing story with these people in your community? I think anyone who may have a Graves' Disease diagnosis will not necessarily get all the holistic information you got for yourself, from an allopathic doctor. They might not even think to go for help in a more holistic way. I agree with you, a holistic way is not for everyone, but it might be. And it's good to have the opportunity to choose a different way if it aligns.
M—Oh, yeah. I did. There's a variety of different resources.
TBH—I will post your links here for people to read up on.
M—It's not an either or, you know, like it can work in concert with whatever level you are comfortable with, in terms of dealing with allopathic. And it's just to me, it's a very empowering thing when you can get ideas of things that you can do yourself that hopefully help to make you feel better. And if you still need additional support from traditional doctoring and all that, then that's okay too.
TBH—And so today you're just kind of like a walking miracle. You've cured yourself of Graves’ Disease and, or you're still in remission.
M—I never say cure, but it's in remission, which suits me fine. I'm still following the tenets of the autoimmune protocol. If I do certain things or eat certain things, there is potential that I could go back into a flare. Yeah. So it's a process. It's a way of life. I feel great!
TBH—Thank you so much for sharing your healing journey. You are an inspiration.
M—Well, thank you for asking. I'm happy to share.
LINKS
https://autoimmunewellness.com/resources/
https://autoimmunewellness.com/announcing-modified-aip-a-2024-update-to-the-autoimmune-protocol/
This blog post is for information and story telling purposes only. It reflects personal experiences and is not intended as medical advice. I am not a medical professional, and this content is not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health and wellness practices. Any products, links, or practices mentioned are shared without endorsement or guaratee. The views expressed are personal and do not represent any medical or professional institution.
