May 25th- World Thyroid Day
If you are battling with any type of thyroid dysfunction, then you know how important it is to spread the word about thyroid related health issues and try to get physicians to test the right levels in order to properly diagnose and treat. While many understand it is an important thing to do all year long, on May 25th, 2015 many will be focusing their attention on this little butterfly shaped gland in honor of World Thyroid Day.
Thyroid gland is just a small gland that is part of the endocrine system. It isn’t that significant, right? Wrong! While many are aware that the thyroid is a small, butterfly shaped gland located at the base of the neck, they can’t tell you what it does, let alone what happens when it doesn’t work properly. The thyroid gland monitors how the human body uses energy. It also produces some proteins and it has absolute control over how sensitive the human body is to other types of hormones. This gland produces two primary types of thyroid hormones: T3 and T4. It is these hormones that regulate the metabolism. The thyroid is also responsible for the production of calcitonin. This is a hormone that is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the levels of calcium found in the bloodstream.
Thyroid gland needs iodine to produce T3 and T4 hormones. Both too much and too little iodine can cause the thyroid to malfunction.
There are two types of Thyroid disorders Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism, while the latter is not very often found; Hypothyroidism was highly reported amongst the surveyed population (10.95%).
According to one of the researches the tendency of abnormal thyroid status in younger women is because the young women of city today, though highly educated are in an effort to make it big in their career or in order to follow the modern-day lifestyle, tend to neglect their health. Women of today lack the required physical activity appropriate for their age, improper diet that is deficient in iodine.
Do you know that Thyroid disorder is considered as the second most important common endocrine disorder next to Diabetes? Symptoms are overlooked or misinterpreted as signs of stress or depression. Many women have trouble getting pregnant. While infertility can have various reasons, thyroid problem is certainly one of them, doctors say.
Sleep is a problem for the individuals with underactive thyroid who may fall asleep easily but awaken after only a few hours and be unable to return to sleep for the rest of the night. Headaches can often plague low thyroid sufferers, not only migraines but stress and tension headaches.
Ways to boost your thyroid function:
- The most important one, is to use iodized salt, Hypothyroidism due to Iodine deficiency is the single most important preventable cause, which is also important to achieve a healthy pregnancy.
- Indulge yourself in regular exercise as it is crucial. Exercise not only enables weight-loss benefits, but also releases ‘happy hormones’ in the body thereby reduce the stress levels by improving low moods and depression.
- Frequent consumption of vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other members of the cruciferous family should be avoided in case of hypothyroid, as the cabbage family is known to reduce production of thyroxine which affects thyroid hormones and may lead to goiter.
- Have eggs as well as deep yellow or orange fruits and dark green vegetables which help in meeting additional vitamin A requirements.
If you suspect that thyroid problems may be to blame for your health concerns, its best to ask your doctor to do a full thyroid profile which includes checking levels of T4 and T3 and checking for the presence of thyroid antibodies.
Let us continue to spread the information all year long and help others understand the thyroid!