Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. If you have Graves' disease, your thyroid produces too much thyroid hormone. You may have an enlarged goiter, or benign growth, on your thyroid; a rapid heartbeat; anxiety; or bulging eyes. About 10,000 people in the United States have Graves' disease -- around seven times more women than men. The disease usually shows up in middle age. Though doctors don't know what causes Graves' disease, some research suggests a link between the disorder and a gene called the vitamin D receptor.
Role of Vitamin D
Vitamin D enables your body to process calcium. Vitamin D makes it possible for you to absorb calcium in your intestines. Vitamin D also plays a role in balancing the amount of calcium and phosphorous in your blood so that calcification, or the adding of calcium to bones, takes place.
Vitamin D Receptors
Vitamin D receptors within your cells bind vitamin D to the cells, enabling vitamin D to do its work. Researchers at the Department of Internal Medicine at Changzheng Hospital in Shanghai, China, identified four variations, or polymorphisms, of the Vitamin D receptors in the genes of 3,886 Asian and Caucasian subjects. Of the subjects whose DNA the researchers analyzed, 1,820 had Graves' disease.
Graves' Disease and Vitamin D Receptors
The Chinese researchers found that three of the four polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptors were associated with Graves' disease, but only in the Asian patients. Caucasian patients with Graves' disease had no strong association with any of the polymorphisms. In a report published in the June 2009 issue of "Clinical Endocrinology," the researchers proposed that the presence of the vitamin D receptor polymorphisms indicated a greater susceptibility to Graves' Disease for Asians, but the reasons for this remain unknown. A 1997 report by researchers at University Hospital in Granada, Spain, showed that hyperthyroid patients often suffer from lower bone density. This could be related to a difficulty in processing calcium due to lack of vitamin D.
Considerations
If you have Graves' disease, your doctor can do a blood test to see if you have adequate vitamin D levels in your blood. Vitamin D supplements may not help if the vitamin D receptors prevent vitamin D from binding to the cells. A bone density test can determine if you are at risk of osteoporosis due to a lack of sufficient calcium for your bones.
References
- National Graves Disease Foundation: About Graves' Disease
- "Clinical Endrocrinology": Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms and Graves' Disease --- A Meta Analysis; H. Zhou, et. al.; June 2009
- The Human Gene Compendium: Vitamin D Receptor
- "Clinical Endocrinology"; Bone Loss in Hyperthyroid Patients and in Former Hyperthyroid Patients Controlled on Medical Therapy; E. Jodar, et. al.; 1997
- MayoClinic.com; Graves' Disease; November 2010
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