The talk show host is taking a three-week hiatus from her job while she’s treated. Without proper treatment, the ailment can cause serious health problems.

Graves’ disease is nothing to mess around with.

Talk show host Wendy Williams knows that all too well.

Williams recently announced she was taking a hiatus from her daytime show due to the condition.

Williams told viewers that her doctor had told her to take three weeks off from her program while she undergoes treatment.

Probably a smart move.

If not treated properly, Graves’ disease can affect your brain, your heart, and your muscles.

In more severe forms, it can cause painful muscle aches, sociopathic behavior, and even heart damage.

“It can be awful,” Dr. Leonard Wartofsky, past president of the Endocrine Society and a professor of medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told Healthline.

So what exactly is Graves’ disease?

It’s an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid.

Its main symptom is hyperthyroidism, which results in too much of the thyroid’s hormone being produced.

That occurs because the antibodies created by the autoimmune issue cause the thyroid to make more of its hormone.

That can have serious consequences throughout the body.

“The thyroid hormone has an effect on every organ and tissue in the body,” said Wartofsky, who is also editor-in-chief of Endocrine Reviews.

The condition is the most common reason for hyperthyroidism in the United States. An estimated 50 to 80 percent of cases are the result of Graves’ disease.

The incidence of the disease is estimated at about 1 percent of the U.S. population.

Graves’ disease is seven to eight times more likely to be seen in women than men.

If you have another autoimmune disease, such as type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, you’re more likely to get Graves’ disease.

The condition is often triggered by a stressful event , such as giving birth or having a serious infection.

“Having one autoimmune condition can increase the risk for developing other autoimmune conditions,” Dr. Barrie Weinstein, assistant professor of endocrinology, diabetes, and bone disease at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told Healthline.

Symptoms of Graves’ disease include insomnia, hand tremors, hyperactivity, elevated heartbeat (tachycardia), irregular or absent menstrual periods, protuberant eyes, and retraction of eyelids.

The protuberant eyes are considered the largest diagnostic “tell” for the condition.