At least one study has demonstrated the existence of a link between hives and thyroid disease. Some examples of thyroid diseases are Grave’s disease and Hashimoto’s disease (which is a form of hypothyroidism). These conditions are autoimmune diseases. Hence, as they progress, they influence the body to produce antibodies that attack the body’s own organs.
The study mentioned above was focused on 99 patients who had chronic hives. The control group in this study consisted of healthy individuals who were hives-free. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency with which the patients who had hives tested positive for thyroid autoantibodies (that is antibodies that the body produced against itself) when compared to the control group of hives-free people.
The results were unambiguous. They showed that the association between chronic hives and thyroid disease was statistically significant. In other words, the study supported the idea that some cases of hives were triggered by thyroid disease. For the study, testing for autoantibodies was a more reliable indicator of thyroid disease than thyroid function tests would have been.
Thyroid Disease, Hives and the Connection between Them
Thyroid disease is a term that refers to a range of disorders that affect the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is one of the largest endocrine glands; it plays a key role in many metabolic processes by virtue of the thyroid hormones that it produces and secretes. These hormones, triiodothyronine and thyroxine, influence the speed with which the body uses up energy and manufactures proteins, and also impact the body’s ability to respond to other hormones. Thus, it should not be surprising that disorders of the thyroid gland have the capacity to affect many different organ systems and organs, including the skin.
In addition to the study mentioned at the beginning of this article, a number of studies have been done on the association between chronic hives and thyroid disease. The results of these studies confirm the existence of a significant association between hives and thyroid disease. Furthermore, they suggest a stronger association between Hashimoto’s disease and hives than between Grave’s disease and hives.
The patients in these studies who tested positive for autoantibodies also had severe chronic hives, but they often had no other symptoms that could be associated with thyroid disease. When these patients’ were treated for thyroid disease, their hives improved; when the thyroid disease treatment was interrupted, their hives resumed. This simple intervention made it clear that their thyroid disease and hives symptoms were directly related.
