Abby, It's so hard to say. There are people who are overweight for a long time and never get an autoimmune disease. People who have fluctuations in hormones who never do either. I tend to think it comes down to basic genetics, with a tendency to have a certain set of diseases. Then a trigger, like surgery, or surge in hormones, comes along and then you get a disease.

Could've been that drug. Could've been aging. There are so many things that screw up the immune system. Since I had mine since birth, I have no idea what I was up to in the womb to get it!

I'm not certain that destroying the thyroid gland is the optimum solution to Graves either (my opinion). So it's hard to second guess that decision of yours because there aren't a lot of studies on the pros and cons.

That's actually very perceptive of you, thinking losing weight might stress the body. If you lose too much "fat" too quickly, it can actually clog up the circulatory system. Any dramatic change in the body can stress it out. That stupid B12 deficiency I had in 1997-99 had a huge impact on my body.

I think the most important thing is to keep a balanced life now so that you don't have even more diseases down the road. Can you imagine? I don't want to. I try to keep my immune system as happy as possible. At least we have control over how we treat ourselves, and others, which might be the best medicine.

Annie

Cute pic and signature, Rochelle!