Gazette.com | The autoimmune disease you've probably never heard of
By Michelle Karas from Pikespeaknewspaper.com
Gail Devers won her first Olympic gold medal in 1992 while battling a host of bizarre symptoms.
“Weight loss, hair loss, headaches, insomnia, bulging eyes and painful skin sores were some of the health issues that afflicted Devers in her early 20s, driving her to desperate measures over a two-and-a-half-year period ...” states a July 6 CNN.com. article
The track and field athlete nearly retired before she had a chance to become a champion because of a mystery ailment that was affecting her running, and every other part of her life.
Devers, who went on to win two more Olympic golds, has spent much of the last three decades raising awareness of the disease that nearly toppled her Olympic dreams — Graves’ disease.
Graves is an autoimmune disease that causes the thyroid gland to over-produce the thyroid hormone. Being hyperthyroid, or having too much thyroid in one’s system, causes myriad health issues, including those that Devers experienced and still battles today.
Even Olympic Gold Medalists suffer from mystery illnesses; but she didn't let it stop her. She looked for the answer and wants you to know your answer is out there. She had Graves disease and we are sharing this article because we want to share all the research on all the symptoms of all the conditions we can find.
Thats why we created the Symptoms Log; a journal where you can track all the things going on with your body -- so many things we think are un-related could be the key piece of information you forget to tell the doctor, or maybe don't recount it all exactly the same when you see the next doctor. The weather that day -- might matter. What you were doing before the symptom -- might matter. How you slept the night before -- might matter.
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