Missy Elliott has been out of the limelight for a few years now because she’s battling Graves' disease, undergoing treatment that has included radiation, according to media reports. The disease, which affects the thyroid gland, may not be familiar to most people, but it can cause a long litany of unpleasant symptoms.

Essentially, Graves' disease causes too much thyroid hormone to be produced, a condition calledhyperthyroidism. The thyroid gland’s hormones help regulate the body’s metabolism, affecting mood, weight and energy. But in people with Graves' disease, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, causing it to overproduce thyroid hormone.
Read more at http://www.latimes.com/