What is Graves' Disease?

Graves disease, also known as toxic diffuse goiter, is the most common. It is caused by the presence of an irritant in the blood to excite the thyroid gland. It has three major characteristics: high metabolism, diffuse goiter, and exophthalmos.

Graves disease

Graves' disease

Parry first reported it in 1825, and Graves and Basedow published detailed reports in 1835 and 1840. Therefore, the disease is called "Parry disease", "Graves disease" or "Basedow disease".

Treatment generally includes antithyroid drugs, adjuvant treatment, and nutrition-enhancing lifestyle treatments. Antithyroid drugs are mainly thiourea compounds. This method is the main method in medical treatment. Adjuvant treatment is mainly symptomatic treatment with propranolol and reserpine. Life treatment is to take a proper rest, and to provide adequate nutrition and calories, including sugar, protein, fat and B vitamins, etc., and pay attention to avoid mental stimulation and excessive fatigue.

(1) Pay attention to the rest of the eyes, avoid reading and using the eyes for a long time in poor light conditions.

(2) Pay attention to protect the cornea and bulbar conjunctiva of the eyes. You can wear black or brown glasses during the day to prevent the irritation of dust and sunlight. When you go to bed at night, you can apply some antibiotic eye ointment or wear a blindfold to sleep to prevent the cornea from drying out. Corneal ulcers and infections.

(3) Patients with severe diplopia can use a unilateral eye mask to reduce diplopia, do eye movements every day to exercise the eye muscles, and improve eye muscle function, but try to avoid staring upwards to avoid exacerbating the eyeball and inducing strabismus.

(4) Use a high pillow during sleep to reduce eye swelling.

(5) Pay attention to light diet and limit the intake of water and salt to avoid exacerbating eyeballs.

(6) Regular eye examinations to prevent blindness caused by corneal ulcers.