Overactive Thyroid

In May 1991, 66 year old George Bush, the 41st President of the United States and father of the 43rd president, was jogging around the grounds of Camp David when he suddenly felt short of breath, a tightness in his chest, and horrible tiredness. His heart beat very fast. How could this happen? He was highly fit and jogged regularly. He was athletic. He was a combat pilot during World War II and captain of the best baseball team Yale ever had. With George Bush at first base, Yale went to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, the only time they got that far.

The president of the United States had fainted while jogging. A White House doctor had diagnosed a heart problem and admitted the president to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The president admitted feeling increasingly tired during the two weeks preceding his hospitalization. He had lost nine pounds in the last two months, and his hands shook so rapidly that not even he could read his handwriting. Doctors diagnosed that his thyroid gland was putting out too much of its hormone, and called it Graves' disease.

Soon afterward, the Bush family dog developed lupus (another autoimmune disease). Eighteen months before the president fainted, his wife, Barbara, was also diagnosed with Graves' disease. How could the president, his wife and his dog all develop autoimmune diseases that are thought to be inherited from your parents? Certainly, President Bush, his wife and his dog did not have the same parents. Most doctors continue to think that Grave’s disease is caused a person’s immunity being so stupid that it destroys a person’s own thyroid, but recent research has shown that this condition may be caused by a virus such as HTLV-1.

Doctors gave the president radioactive iodine that he swallowed and went to his thyroid gland and killed it. He now takes thyroid pills every day and will continue to do so for the rest of his life. Most of you know that six years after his diagnosis, and taking thyroid replacement daily, former president Bush jumped out of an airplane at age 72. If you suffer irritability, shakiness, weight loss, headache, osteoporosis, strokes, clotting and inability to stay asleep at night, you may have an overactive thyroid gland that can be cured by swallowing radioactive iodine. Then you take thyroid replacement pills forever, but you can live a long active and healthful life.