Imbalanced Gut Probiotics May Trigger Grave’s Disease

Grave’s disease is autoimmune hyperthyroidism. Symptoms include rapid heart rate, anxiety, hand tremor, heat sensitivity, weight loss, puffy eyes, and/or enlarged thyroid (to name a few).

There are multiple associated risk factors including genetic susceptibility, being female, high stress (including significant acute emotional trauma), smoking, diet, and infection.

In my practice, I have observed that emotional stress is a HUGE contributor to expression of Grave’s disease. The stress could range from losing a sibling to uprooting your life and moving cross country.

The graphic above is a recent research paper that shows that an unhealthy gut can be the trigger of Grave’s disease in some people. Specifically, an imbalance in the relationship of good bacteria (probiotics) to potentially pathogenic bacteria.

As I discuss in my book, The Autoimmune Answer, an imbalance in your gut microbiome has a direct impact on the function of your immune system and it’s ability to differentiate between friend (you/self) and foe (not you/non-self).

When your immune system becomes inefficient at discerning self from non-self, development of an autoimmune disease is not far behind.

This paper elucidates one way that it happens in Grave’s disease.