Appendectomy and Quitting Smoking Contributed to Hashimoto’s Disease?

Odd Coincidences or Fact??

This week I learned the most odd information.  I’ve been following a Hashimoto’s disease

Facebook group for a few months and everyday I learn something more about my disease, symptoms and treatment.  This week I learned two interesting facts:

1. Smoking may suppress the Hashimoto’s antibodies.  Many people are diagnosed after quitting smoking.
   
2. A lot of people in the group were diagnosed after having their appendix removed. (Research now finds that the appendix plays a role in storing good bacteria and helps with the digestive process.)

At first, I read about the smoking.  Then a few days later I read about the appendix findings.  I was stunned.  In 1984 I was rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery because my appendix had ruptured.  At that time I was smoking, and believe it or not hospitals allowed you to smoke in your room.  That sounds totally crazy but it was true.  I remember being so sick and scared, but as soon as I was stable I asked for my cigarettes, and lit up.  I shared a hospital room with another smoker who had had major surgery too.  On the second day after surgery we were both smoking and talking and I accidentally dropped my cigarette.  Neither of us could get out of bed, so I had to call the nurse.  Right then I had one of those “ah ha” moments of clarity - how completely crazy was this!  Two days earlier I was writhing in pain afraid I was dying and now I am laying in a hospital with a huge incision in my belly, smoking a cigarette, and I am about to burn the place down. I knew in that second that I had to quit.

A week later I was out of the hospital and I signed up for a smoking cessation class through the American Caner Society.  Six weeks later I was a non smoker!  

Less that three months after that I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease. 

Coincidence? How could it be?  On the Facebook Hashimoto’s group there was a multitude of people who had either quit smoking and were diagnosed or had the onset of the disease after an appendectomy. Interestingly, both happened to me nearly simultaneously. I am still trying to get my mind around it. Having my appendix removed and then quitting smoking were the catalysts for this disease to take hold in my body.  Very strange.

There is one more factor that may have also played a role.  At the age of 5 I had my tonsils removed.  Not because they were causing me problems, no.  My brother was getting his removed due to chronic infections, so my Mom decided that I should have my removed as well.  So my otherwise healthy tonsils were removed, doctors thinking they were not necessary at the time.  Research I have found today tells a different story. The tonsils play a role (along with the appendix) in a healthy immune system. "Both the appendix and tonsils are lymphoid organs and thus components of the body's immune system." says Terry Pfau, DO, HMD. So, did this also play a role in the development of my disease?  There is certainly a lot of circumstantial evidence.

When I think back on my history I realize that there are so many factors that played into this illness that it would be impossible to pinpoint a cause.  But this information provides some huge clues.  I believe that there was already something going on in my system long before the appendectomy or quitting smoking. Maybe it began with having my tonsils removed, who knows? The shocking part for me to realize is that I have been dealing with this for nearly half my life and it’s just now that I am really beginning to understand this disease and all the implications.  I regret it has taken so long, but am grateful I am finally beginning to understand my body and heal myself!

Resources:

  

Scientists Finally Discover the Function of the Human Appendix

Cigarette Smoking and Thyroid Disease

Keep Your Tonsils and Appendix