Suggestions On Grave’s Disease Diet You Should Know

You only live when you eat. Diet takes an important role in any activities and any processes, particularly when having the disease. Grave’s disease is normally not dangerous to life, but it causes lots of trouble and interferes with daily activities. When having Grave’s disease, there will be a small change in diet to prevent the symptoms and support the medical treatment. Before going to the main part of Grave’s disease diet, some brief views about Grave’s disease that we want to share with you.

What is Grave’s disease?

Grave’s disease is one of the problems in the thyroid gland. Grave’s disease is described as a hyperthyroid disorder which is characterized by an increased amount of thyroid hormones.

In other words, the thyroid gland secretes some special hormones which take responsibility for body’s metabolism. In Grave’s disease, it produces excessive hormones which lead to the overactive metabolism in the whole body.

Its activity is controlled by the pituitary gland, and the body will receive enough amounts of hormones. However, by somehow, the immune system suddenly produces a particular antigen which can make it produce the thyroid hormones which leads to Grave’s disease.

Grave’s disease reason has not been known totally, but there are some factors which are supposed to trigger this disease. Pregnant, particularly postpartum or after labor period, consuming a high content in iodine, lithium treatment, infection, and stress are proven that they have a closed relationship to Grave’s disease.

Because of the wide effects of thyroid hormones on the body, Grave’s disease causes lots of problems in many organs. The primary reason for Grave’s diseases is weight loss, 3-20 kg in few weeks. Also, Grave’s disease patient has anxiety, difficulty concentration, sweating, and exhaustion. In the cardiovascular system, the patient normally has high heart rate, hard breathing, and chest pain. In the digestive system, the patient can have diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

Because Grave’s disease reason is still unknown, the treatment focuses on managing the symptoms until body passes by the thyroid hormones peak attack.

There are various methods for Grave’s disease from surgery to medication, depend on patient’s age and disease condition.

Some suggestions on Grave’s disease diet

Diet takes an important role in the treatment process of any diseases, also with Grave’s disease. Although Grave’s disease diet cannot help you treat this issue totally, it can help reduce the symptoms and enhance patient’s health condition.

High energy foods

Because of the high level of metabolism rate, Grave’s disease diet should contain high calories foods which can be from protein, carbohydrate, and fat. You can choose beef, pork, and chicken as the main source of protein in Grave’s disease diet. Although seafood has a high amount of protein, you should avoid it, because seafood is usually rich in iodine which is one of the substances forming thyroid hormones. About the carbohydrate, there is no restriction in food list so you can choose the food what you like. For the high rate of metabolism, the patient also needs to add more vitamins, minerals, and particularly water in Grave’s disease diet.

Dairy products

People with Grave’s disease are more likely to have osteoporosis due to bone loss so calcium is very important in the diet. Dairy products are a good source of calcium. If you are allergic to dairy products, you can choose almonds, sardines, and some leafy greens.

Vitamin D

The body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium and the fact is that vitamin D is not in Grave’s disease diet. It comes from sunshine, and you just need to walk slowly outside to get enough amount of vitamin D. However, you should wear sun cream to protect your skin from UV light and also should go out when it is too sunny.

Also, when having diarrhea, or irritable bowel movement, you should intake more meals rather than three normal big meals. In addition,

Beside some foods which you should intake in the diet when having Grave’s disease, you should also need to consider avoiding or limiting the consumption if you cannot avoid them.

Caffeine

Coffee, soda, tea are typical beverages, however, when having Grave’s disease, you should not intake them because it can aggravate the symptoms.

Foods containing iodine

Because iodine is one of the materials which are produced by thyroid hormones, you should limit the consumption of foods having a high level of iodine, such as seafood, seaweed.

Medical treatment is the effective one for Grave’s disease.  Although diet cannot treat the disease, it can help you decrease the symptoms and have more comfortable.