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Could it be your thyroid? By Harvard Health Letters
When disease causes your thyroid gland to slack off and underproduce thyroid hormone, or overwork and produce too much of it, you'll know something isn't right. It's important to recognize the symptoms and find the right treatment before you experience the long-term effects of this common condition.
Would you know it if your thyroid gland slowed production of thyroid hormone? Or if it sped up? The symptoms are hard to spot. An out-of kilter thyroid gland causes a variety of puzzling symptoms and many people and doctors mistake them for signs of another disease or normal aging.
The symptoms of thyroid diseases are so wide-ranging--affecting your mood, energy, body temperature, weight, heart, and more--that it may be difficult to get the correct diagnosis right away.
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Estimates of how many people have thyroid disease vary widely, ranging from 10 million to 30 million. The most reliable number available comes from the third U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) of people ages 12 and older. The survey showed that nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population has thyroid disease. Within this group, about 80 percent have hypothyroidism. A much smaller number, close to 20 percent, have hyperthyroidism. But the population is aging, and the proportion of people with thyroid conditions is increasing.
MEET YOUR THYROID
Just as your car engine can't run without gasoline, your thyroid needs fuel to produce thyroid hormone. This fuel is iodine. Iodine is found in such foods as iodized table salt, seafood, bread, and milk. When you eat these foods, the iodine passes into your bloodstream. Your thyroid then extracts this necessary ingredient from your blood and uses it to make two kinds of thyroid hormone: thyroxine, called T4 because it contains four iodine atoms, and triiodothyronine, or T3, which contains three iodine atoms.
The thyroid's output consists primarily of T4. Most of the T3 the body needs is created outside the thyroid in organs and tissues that use T3, such as the liver, kidneys, and brain. These tissues convert T4 from the thyroid into T3 by removing an iodine atom.
As the thyroid produces thyroid hormone, it stores it in a vast number of microscopic follicles. When the body needs thyroid hormone, the thyroid secretes it into your bloodstream in quantities needed for the metabolic needs of your cells. The hormone easily slips into cells and attaches to special receptors.
Your car engine burns fuel, but it is you who tells it how hard to work by stepping on the gas pedal. The thyroid also needs to be told what to do. It takes its orders from your pituitary gland, located at the base of your brain. No larger than a pea, the pituitary is sometimes known as the "master" gland, because it controls functions of the thyroid and other glands in the endocrine system.
The pituitary gland signals the thyroid to tell it how much hormone to make. The messages come in the form of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). TSH levels in your bloodstream rise or fall depending on whether there's enough thyroid hormone in your system. Higher levels of TSH prompt the thyroid to produce more hormone, until TSH levels come down to a constant level. Conversely, low TSH levels signal the thyroid to slow down production.
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
But even the best network is subject to interference. Outside influences--such as disease or certain medicines--can break down communication. When this happens, the thyroid might not produce enough hormone, slowing down all of your body's functions, a condition known as hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid. Or your thyroid could produce too much hormone, sending your systems into overdrive, a condition known as hyperthyroidism, or overactive thyroid.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF AN UNDERACTIVE THYROID
CLASSIC SYMPTOMS:
SYMPTOMS MORE COMMON IN OLDER PEOPLE:
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF AN OVERACTIVE THYROID
CLASSIC SYMPTOMS:
SYMPTOMS MORE COMMON IN OLDER PEOPLE:
(Excerpted from the Harvard Health Special Report, "Thyroid Disease: Understanding Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism," prepared by the editors of Harvard Health Publications in consultation with Jeffery R. Garber, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief of Endocrinology, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates; Physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital.)
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© 2012, PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
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