Hypothyroidism, underactive thyroid symptom - Common questions
Also known as: Underactive Thyroid
What is it?
Hypothyroidism develops when the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone. Too little hormone slows down all the chemical reactions in the body, leading to life-threatening complications.
Who gets it?
Hypothyroidism is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States, affecting an estimated 25 million adults and children. As many as two of every three people with hypothyroidism may not know they have the disease. The condition can develop in anyone, though hypothyroidism tends to run in families. Middle-aged and elderly women are the most commonly affected. Factors that increase a person's risk of developing hypothyroidism include age, weight, and medical history.
What causes it?
Hypothyroidism is most often the result of Hashimoto's disease, also known as chronic thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland). In this disease, the immune system fails to recognize that the thyroid gland is part of the body's own tissue and attacks it as if it were a foreign body. The attack by the immune system impairs thyroid function and sometimes destroys the gland. Other causes of hypothyroidism include radiation, surgery, viruses and bacteria, certain medications, pituitary gland malfunction, diet, environmental contaminants, or a congenital defect.
What are the symptoms?
Patients who complain of fatigue, constipation, dry skin, depression and high diastolic blood pressure are likely to have hypothyroidism, particularly if the symptoms occur together and are persistent. The patient may also experience decreased heart rate, progressive hearing loss, weight gain, problems with memory and concentrations, and an enlarged thyroid gland (goiter).
How is it diagnosed?
Hypothyroidism is diagnosed by testing the patient’s blood to measure the level of both thyroid hormone and the pituitary’s thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). A thyroid nuclear medicine scan and thyroid ultrasound may also be used to confirm the diagnosis.
How the thyroid may be responsible for weight gain
The thyroid is a small (weighing less than one ounce), butterfly-shaped gland that is responsible for regulating virtually all aspects of your metabolism. Now, the thyroid accomplishes this by producing hormones such as thyroxine (T-4), triiodothyronine. These hormones have a direct effect on how quickly your body burns calories and how your body uses fats and carbohydrates.
With an under active thyroid, these hormones are not produced in sufficient quantities. Thus, the body generally will burn calories slower and not properly utilize fats and carbohydrates. It is in this way that an under active thyroid can lead to seemingly unexplained weight gain.
Are Prescription Thyroid Medications Worth The Potential Risks?
Many physicians have prescribed thyroid medications, only to find out that they were associated with significant side effects. These drugs may cause chest pain, increased pulse rate, palpitations, excessive sweating, heat intolerance, or nervousness. For those people who experience multiple health concerns, physicians recommend using caution when taking thyroid prescription medications due to increased associated health risks. There is also the obvious concern that once started on these thyroid prescriptions, the body becomes dependent on them, therefore becoming a lifelong necessity.
Are there alternatives?
Non-Prescription All Natural Thyroid Supplement Products
You might not need to resort to prescription strength drugs to achieve your goal of optimal thyroid function. Natural supplements give you an excellent alternative to prescription strength thyroid drugs. These products have limited side effects, less drug interactions, and are less expensive than a lot of the prescription strength thyroid medications available on the market today.
These products can:
1: Support thyroid function
2: Increase metabolic rate and the number of calories burned
3: Increase memory and concentration
4: Decrease fatigue and sleep disturbances
5: Improve quality of lifeUnlike prescription thyroid medications, alternative therapies can be used with a greater amount of safety and ease.
What all natural thyroid supplement products perform best?
When you're looking for an effective thyroid supplement product, you should only consider a product that uses high quality ingredients that have the potential to improve mood and concentraion, support and boost thyroid function, improve energy levels, increase metabolic rate for weight control, and improve overall quality of life. We evaluated 35 of the top all natural thyroid products on the market today. These products are ones that we feel offer the safest and most effective thyroid support. You may not see the product you use or are interested in using on this list, chances are it did not rank in the top 5. We are constantly reexamining and updating our rankings because of the availability of new products all the time. To see which thyroid supplements came out on top in our research, be sure to check out our review page.
2 Comments:
i always cough. but doctor said i have healty and strong lungs.
what you think the problem i got?
Hello Amiene,
I have something for your reference :
What causes cough?
Coughing is usually a reflex response of the body caused by an irritation in the throat or windpipe. A reflex response means that the body does something automatically, without a person thinking about it. This reflex helps to protect the lungs from bacteria, viruses, dust, and other damaging substances. However, people can cough on purpose if they want or need to.There are many possible causes of a cough, ranging from allergies to lung infections and cancer.
Acute cough is most often caused by the common viral upper respiratory tract infection. Cold viruses often causes a postnasal drip and that causes a cough. This is the most common cause for a cough. The cough is usually secondary to stimulation of nasal, pharyngeal, and laryngeal mucosa receptors. This results from the secretions of the nose and sinuses draining into the throat. A dry cough may follow viral illnesses and may last up to several weeks. Chronic cough may be caused by a variety of underlying diseases including asthma, cystic fibrosis, allergies, GERD and chronic post nasal drip. Smoking is a major cause of chronic cough. Croup is characterized by a barking, "seal-like" cough caused by a virus. Pertussis or whooping cough is an infection that is characterized by a severe cough where the child has difficulty catching his breath with the coughing episodes and may turn blue with coughing.
Pneumonia, which is an infection in the lungs. It may be caused by viruses or bacteria. There is also an unusual organism called mycoplasma, which causes the classic "walking pneumonia". Children with pneumonia can barely appear sick with low-grade fever and a mild cough or be very ill with high fevers and labored breathing.
Asthma may cause coughing and wheezing. This may be triggered by viruses, exercise or an allergic trigger like dust, smoke, mold or pets. Asthma most commonly presents with shortness of breath and wheezing but there are some patients with asthma whose main symptom will be cough. These patients with so called "cough-variant asthma" sometimes notice that their cough is worse after exercise, exposure to cold air, or exposure to different allergens.
Foreign body aspiration should be suspected if there is a history of a coughing or choking episode with eating, especially with small hard foods like nuts or popcorn. Sinusitis may cause a cough especially at night or in the mornings.
"Spitting up" or gastroesophageal reflux in babies under a year may trigger coughing because of small amounts of aspiration of food into the lungs. Wheezing or recurrent pneumonia may be associated with reflux. Gastroesophageal reflux is a very common cause of cough and clues to its presence may include cough after eating, cough when laying flat (for example, when going to bed), and cough when waking up in the morning.
Certain medications (ACE inhibitors for hypertension) cause coughing as a side effect. Medications which can commonly cause cough include angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) which are used to treat high blood pressure or heart failure. Some of the common ACE inhibitors include Zestril, Capoten, and Vasotec. Often the cough associated with these drugs develops many months after starting their use.
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