Goiters?

[sg40]

I have goiters on my throat, going for an ultrasound. (they were discovered on my spine MRI). My thyroid is fine, so the doctor said it's either diet (not common in the U.S.) or an auto-immune issue. Have any of you ever had goiters on your throat?

[Khiba]

I hope they tested you for thyroid antibodies, as autoimmune stuff like MS and Hashi's tend to run in packs. I have antibodies and MS. It could be that if you have one autoimmune disease you might be predisposed to another. Just a hunch.

"Hashimoto’s Thy­roi­di­tis is an autoim­mune thy­roid disease in which your thy­roid is being attac­ked by your own immune sys­tem via anti­bo­dies, attemp­ting to des­troy your gland as if it’s some vile enemy. It may start out silently, but the attack will even­tually cause an inflam­ma­tion and gra­dual des­truc­tion of your thy­roid gland and can go on for years with mise­ra­ble side effects to match. It can also cause nodu­les or lumps. It may be the most com­mon thy­roid disease, espe­cially with women."

You can check out stuff on thyroid issues at
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/hashimotos/

It appears that iodine therapy has some merit with thyroid issues like goiter. If you live in the goiter belt I would surely check into it.

I am looking into thyroid issues for myself and understand that just doing a TSH doesn't tell the whole story. When they say normal, remember that normal is a setting on a dryer. ;)  It might be worth a read at the least.

Jessica

[sg40]

Thank you all for your imput - very helpful. The tech that did the ultrasound did tell me that I could just have nodules. I was hoping they could do something for me, since I went to check it out because of discomfort and difficulty swallowing at times. I guess if that's my biggest complaint I guess I'm doing pretty well.

Thanks again.

[Guitar_grrrl]

Funny you should mention that... When I had my 1st T-Spine MRI, as an incidental finding they found thyroid abnormalities.  That lead to a thyroid ultrasound, which lead lo thyroid biopsy (ultrasound guided).  The verdict?  Run of the mill nodules.  My thyroid tests are completely normal.  Whew!  One less thing to worry about!  It also means any thyroid mimics were ruled out.

HTH,
Guitar_grrrl

[slightlybroken]

I've heard of goiters and I actually have one myself. More left sided on my thyroid. I've had it checked through blood panels and a thyroid scan and ultra sound. Everything is fine and the thyroid is working properly. The doctors have said sometimes they just develop without a cause.

Back in the day, goiters were common because of the lack of iodine in peoples diet. That has changed now since we eat iodized salt.

Goiters can mean something..or they can mean nothing. Sometimes it can point to a lack in the thyroid hormone being made or too much (hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism). The ultra sound will be able to see anything abnormal growing on the goiter as well.

As long as your thyroid levels have been check recently (TSH ,T3) and they have been within normal levels I wouldn't think that you are having problems with an autoimmune disease that involves the thyroid.

Take Care

[Lulu54]

How about it everyone else - do you know anything about goiters and MS that would help here?

SG40 - I hope you will find something here useful for your journey.  I'll look for you around the forum.  Lulu

[sg40]

Yes, they were. But I have no lesions there - only in the brain. I'm on my second neuro. The NP is certain I have MS - the doctor says he's 70% sure - we have ruled out everything else. There is just a bit of ambiguity over whether my second 'attack' was an actual attack (which to me is cut and dry - but you know how the docs are). He wanted to put me on meds - but I am waiting until December to decide. I didn't think the goiters were MS related - but since my GP said it could be an autoimmune issue I thought one of the many here with autoimmune issues might know something about them.

[Lulu54]

I don't remember anyone here ever mentioning goiters with their MS.... no cross referenced threads come up either so we're not much help.

Were they doing a c-spine mri looking for MS?

Lulu