I just wanted to respond to the Graves disease issue. I was diagnosed with Graves disease on March of this year. I had lost some wieght and was experiencing the heart plapatations, so in some ways I was considered a "mild" case. Either way, they were wanting to do the radio active Iodine ablation. After reading some things on line and in some books, I decided I would try a more holistic approach. I was directed to a very good acupunturist here locally who said she had treateed hyperactive thyroids, and told me that she could help help me, if I got off Sugar to start with.
I started seeing her weekly, then every other then, every three weeks, now I up to about once every six weeks. I also started working with an herbalist who was focusing on mainly boosting my immune system, and energy balance, since Grave disease is an auto immunee disease. I was also taking a very low dose of methimizole (5mg) each day
Anyway, I'm happy to report that after my last blood test last week, all of my blood counts are back in the normal range, and I'm feeling great. My point would be to anyone, is not to jump into anything permanent with the ablation until you've tried some other things.