Hayfever & Graves, is there a link?

Hormones
1

So my Hyperthyroidism came back with a vengeance this spring, pretty much the same time time of year as my first attack. Can mild hayfever cause your antibodies to go nuts? Thing is I don't typically suffer from it but this year, as in 2015 I do have a runny nose and the sneezes.

Is this a silly coincidence or something I should talk to my endo about?

2

Hi, if you are interested you could search for this article: The Prevalence and Characteristics of Allergy in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases, 2015, in the Journal of Clinical & Cellular Immunology. It is open access, so you can view it free of cost. 

Here is an excerpt: "Rhinitis allergic attacks were more frequent in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis compared to those in Graves’ disease (20 cases, 18.2% vs. 11 cases, 7.4%, P<0.01). Allergic conjunctivitis was more frequent in AITDs in comparison with controls, but it was higher in Graves’ disease (37 cases, 24.8% vs. not any in controls, P<0.0001). The concordance between the seasonal allergic attacks and the month of thyroidal onset was higher in Graves’ disease showing a significant increase compared to those in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. "

Note: AITD stands for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. 

 

3

Thanks for the link Dan. I guess there is a known link between hayfever, the prevalence of pollen and thyroid craziness. So I'm gonna get it every spring!!!! Still don't want to nuke my thyroid though. I wonder if there is a way to suppress my hypersensitivity to pollen so that it doesn't trigger a Graves attack...?