Hashimoto’s Disease – Causes

Transcript

“Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune condition. And the exact Hashimoto’s disease cause is unknown at this point of time. But what the researchers think is that it’s the interplay between your genes and the environment around you, which causes Hashimoto’s disease. What that means is that based on your genetic makeup, your body starts reacting to things in your environment. The most common things, being food like gluten, toxins in your environment, infections that you might have gotten before. So these sometimes can trigger your body to start producing antibodies against your own thyroid gland. And that leads you to the development of Hashimoto’s disease. Now, there are certain risk factors which increases the chances of you getting Hashimoto’s disease. And these risk factors are, number one, age. So it most commonly affects the middle aged women. So anywhere from 30 to 60 years of age is where the Hashimoto’s disease affects you.

Second is gender. So Hashimoto’s disease affects most commonly women, but as I said, we are seeing more and more incidents in males, as well as in children, but still it affects more women than males. Then third is genetics. So if you have family history of Hashimoto’s disease, then there is a high risk that you might also get Hashimoto’s disease. The next risk factor is radiation exposure. So if you had got radiation exposure in your life, then you can develop Hashimoto’s disease in the future. The next risk factor being infections. So certain viral infections, especially Epstein-Barr virus infection, predispose an individual for getting Hashimoto’s disease. And the last risk factor being, having other autoimmune conditions. So if you have any other autoimmune disease like lupus, like rheumatoid arthritis, that all increases your risk of getting Hashimoto’s disease in the future also.”