What the blip do you know about... your thyroid?
By Healthkeep
@Healthkeep (996)
Israel
April 12, 2007 5:43pm CST
The thyroid is one of our hormone secreting tissues. Many people hear about hipo or hyper thyroidism. What is it? How do we deal with it? How do we make sure we have no problem with it (and why don't we want any problem with it)?
Well, the thyroid is responsible for our metabolism. It secrets the hormone T4, which is very important to increase our metabolism. In the cells it turns into T3 which is actulay the one who's doing all the job.
The thyroid secrets more, if the piturity gland secrets TSH (Thyrois Secreting Hormone) after the hypothalamus secrets TRH (Thyroid releasing hormone). So, we have a chain of command - we have a stimulus, the hypothalamus reacts by secreting TRH. The piturity gland get the messege and secrets TSH that gets to the thyroid which secrets T4.
T4 is very important for development. It is responsible for the increase of metabolism rate by increasing protein synthesis, adrenalin sensitivity etc. Being so important, it actualy controls our protein, fat and sugar (carbohydrates) metabolism.
If it controls all that, balance is very important, right? What if there is immballance? In this case, we might have one of the following:
Hipothyroidism - the thyroid is working less than it should. The problem might be in any of the 3 components stated in the "chain of command" above. In this case, the person would probably get fat (since his metabolism is slow), and feel drowsy and tired at all times. It is not a pleasnt condition.
Hyperthyroidism - the exact opposite. A person's metabolism will boom, and he will feel strong and fast heart beats, fat and eventualy muscles will be consumed and many more effects of super fast metabolism.
The treatment varies according to the source of the problem (Hypothalamus, piturity or thyroid itself). The best treatment is to prevent... but that is another story.
If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask...
2 people like this
6 responses
@4cuteboys (4099)
• United States
12 Apr 07
No questions here. I had graves disease (extremely hyper-thyroid) and had my thyroid killed with radiation. Now I am hypo-thyroid and take synthroid daily. Unfortunatly since 1999 they have never gotten my dose right and I STILL have to go in for TSH/T4 tests every 6 weeks.
1 person likes this
@naty1941 (2336)
• United States
13 Apr 07
My thyroid is swollen and the doctor sent me for blood tests. He still doesn't have the results of the tests. He said it is probably a cyst. I had a cat scan 6 months ago and they said there was nothing wrong with the thyroid. Now I am waiting for the blood work results. My question, is it normal for a CAT scan to show negative on the thyroid if a cyst is present?
@Healthkeep (996)
• Israel
13 Apr 07
Anything is possible. Was your thyroid swollen 6 months ago?
A CAT scan is usualy very accurate. To check the thyroid for a tumor, the most common scan is with injection of marked Iodinewhich enters the thyroid and then it is possible to see what is realy going on there. Was that the procedure you've been through?
It is not normal for a scan to show negative if there is a large cyst present (if a thyroid is swollen because of a cyst, it is supposed to be very noticable).
@5000ml (1923)
• Belgium
13 Apr 07
My mother had her thyroid gland removed when she was 3 (late 1950s), but she still shows lots of the symptoms of Hypothyroidism. She's been on thyroid medication all of her life, and she needs to remain on it as it's the only thing still keeping her alive. Recently the dosage has gone up too, so you could say she's very slowly getting worse. If she were to stop taking the medication she would fall into a coma and ultimately die. As long as she takes the medication she's doing good though.
@liranlgo (5752)
• Israel
13 Apr 07
Well i did know alote about the thyroid, because there were a time in my life, that i was sick, and one of the tests were of hormons and the thyroid, and i researched alote about it. Not alote of people know what important role it has on our life. But luckily everything is fine with me. and i hope it will stay that way.
@samrat16 (2442)
• India
14 Apr 07
My moms thyroid keeps swelling up and getting rock hard. She had blood test done and her endocrinologist said that everything was fine. I dont believe that because a few years ago my dad went through the same thing and had to get his removed. They even did a scan and said it was normal. Yet my moms regular family doctor was feeling her neck and told er that on that day it was in fact swollen and hard to go back and tell them to do more test. But my moms endo just keeps saying that it is fine...HELP? It is starting to affect her breathing and eating when it does this.
