How many people in the USA have Hashimoto's disease?

My husband died because he had this disease and I'm angry because he NEVER knew, even though it can be seen in blood work> He suffered because of it and it cost him his life! Most people don't have signs of it and we thought it was everything but what it was. He was only 49 years young!!!

Hello. I am very sorry about your husband. Here is the info you are looking for. It deals with chronic autoimmune thyroid inflammation, commonly referred to as Hashimoto's disease. The source of this is called Uptodate, a professional reference (in case you need the source).


Chronic autoimmune (Hashimoto's) thyroiditis 鈥?The most common cause of hypothyroidism in iodine-sufficient areas of the world is chronic autoimmune (Hashimoto's) thyroiditis, which is caused by cell- and antibody-mediated destruction of thyroid tissue. The disorder has two forms, goitrous and atrophic; they differ in the extent of lymphocytic infiltration, fibrosis, and thyroid follicular cell hyperplasia of the thyroid gland, but not in their pathophysiology.

Both cellular and humoral factors may contribute to the thyroid injury and hypothyroidism in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Cytotoxic T cells may directly destroy thyroid cells. In addition, more than 90 percent of patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis have high serum concentrations of autoantibodies to thyroglobulin or thyroid peroxidase. These antibodies have little if any functional activity. Many patients also have antibodies that block the action of TSH on the TSH receptor or that are cytotoxic to thyroid cells.

Serum antithyroid antibodies need not be measured routinely in patients with overt primary hypothyroidism, because almost all have chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. However, a test for antithyroid peroxidase antibodies may be useful to predict the likelihood of permanent overt hypothyroidism in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism or those with painless (silent) thyroiditis or postpartum thyroiditis.

In community surveys, high serum antithyroid peroxidase antibody concentrations are found in about 5 percent of adults and about 15 percent of older women. The frequency of subclinical hypothyroidism is similar, and that of overt hypothyroidism varies from 0.1 to 2 percent. Hypothyroidism is much (5 to 8 times) more common in women than men. The majority of those who are hypothyroid have a goiter, but not all who have a goiter and circulating antithyroid antibodies have hypothyroidism.

In the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), 13,344 people without known thyroid disease had measurements of serum TSH, T4, thyroglobulin antibodies, and thyroid peroxidase antibodies with the following results:

Hypothyroidism was found in 4.6 percent (0.3 percent overt and 4.3 percent subclinical).
Hyperthyroidism was found in 1.3 percent (0.5 percent overt and 0.7 percent subclinical).
Serum thyroglobulin antibody concentrations were high in 10 percent and serum thyroid peroxidase antibody concentrations were high in 11 percent. The latter were associated with hypo- or hyperthyroidism, while the former were not.

Thus, a significant proportion of the U.S. population has laboratory evidence of thyroid disease, suggesting that routine screening would be useful.

I'm so sorry about Ur husband! but i don't even know what that is.