Читать книгу The Healthy Thyroid: What you can do to prevent and alleviate thyroid imbalance - Patsy Westcott - Страница 63

Graves’ disease may be associated with all the classic symptoms of hyperthyroidism but, according to the UK-based endocrinologist Dr Anthony Weetman, these can be extremely variable. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Weetman explains that both age and duration of thyroid overactivity play a part in determining which symptoms predominate. In over half those affected, nervousness, fatigue, rapid heart beat, heat intolerance and weight loss are key symptoms. However, in the over-50s, weight loss and loss of appetite are more common. Atrial fibrilliation is rare among the under-50s, but affects up to a fifth of those over 50. And while 90 per cent of younger women have a firm, diffuse goitre, only 75 per cent of the over-50s do. Glucose intolerance (inability to metabolize glucose) and, more rarely, diabetes can accompany Graves’ disease, and if you have diabetes, the condition will increase your need for insulin.