How is Hashimoto's disease cured?

[HusbandBob]

My wife has Hashiimoto's disease and the doctor's have said that her body is resistant to treatment. She started feeling better on Armour Thyroid medicine but here condition has since started to regress. It seems that all of the progress she made in the last 4 months is being lost. We are at our wits end. Can this be cured? I have heard that removal of the Thyroid can be a big step but a big help. Howevever, will this remove the source of the Hashimoto antibodies?

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

Removing the thyroid does not always help - it may reduce the antibodies and many do feel better afterwards, but not always -- so this is a last resort and typically not recommended for "difficult to regulate" hashimoto's.  The source of the antibodies is the immune system which attacks the thyroid -- so removing the target often decreases the attack.

Armour is not for everyone.  Make sure the TSH is consistently regulated (0.5-2.0 range). Also look into other causes of the symptoms -- sometimes a rheumatology evaluation is helpful.  

Would see a thyroid specialist if not done already

Selenium 200mcg/day can decrease the antibodies a little.

[Blueyedmimi]

Hi HusbandBob----.  I have Hashimoto's disease also.   After 2 years of testing, office visits, blood tests, catscans, 2 needlebiopsies, waiting and medicating, my endocrinologist recommended thyroid surgery.  In 1998, I had 90% of it removed, leaving only the parathyroid.  I had gained 120 lbs in 2 years and went from a happy, energetic, thin person to a very depressed person with alot of pain, confusion, tired all the time and just miserable.  Over the past 9 years though, I have regretted having the surgery so much.  Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease.  I will always have it.  Now, I have Rheumatoid arthritis, (another autoimmune disease) Osteoarthritis, bone spurs, (on my heels, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders and spine) and I am in pain so much of the time ... still.  I just don't think surgery was the answer for me, although the surgeon said my thyroid was just mush in his hand.  His words to my husband after surgery was, 'that thyroid was rotten'. My right lobe was the size of his fist and was resting on my collarbone, putting pressure on my right carotid artery.  The left lobe was also large but nothing like the right.  He saved the parathyroid by attaching them to my neck muscles.  Now, I have a large 'mass-feeling lump' on my neck where my thyroid was and I am having alot of the same symptoms I had before.  I am just wondering if it has grown back.  I don't know if that is possible but there is definitely something there again.  I guess I have gone the long route to say that I don't think there is a 'cure'.  I just think there is treatment.  Once you have Hashimoto's, you allways have it.  It is just treated.  I hope this helps, just to know that I am also at my wits end.  Don't think that removing the diseased thyroid is going to be the magical 'answer'.  It is just part of the treatment, sometimes.   Please let me know what she decides to do.
Blueyedmimi.