Thyroid is a small yellow-to-green gland located on your front side under your neck. It helps regulate body temperature, the metabolism, and digestion.
The thyroids in your neck and back are referred to as thyroid glands, but the one on your front side is an accessory gland. It serves as a backup thyroid when the main one does not function right.
It can become problematic if it does not regulate blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which it may occasionally do. If you have a hard time remembering to take a thyroxine (t Thy) injection or a triiodothyronine (t3) injection, you may be experiencing problems with your thyroid.
This can lead to depression, energy drop off, weight gain, infertility, and various other conditions where the thyroxine levels are needed. Fortunately, there are solutions that do not require taking medication.
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Make an appointment with your doctor if yours shrinks
As stated before, thyroxine is a hormone that works in your body.
Thyroid hormones help maintain your body temperature, control metabolism, and contribute to some major functions like growth and repair.
When you have an unusually low thyroid level, your doctor may recommend a special medication to boost thyrogenes levels. This helps build up enough thyroid hormone in your body to function as normal.
However, this procedure can be costly and not everyone needs it. Fortunately, there are ways to boost thyrogenes levels in your own body. Some people even take it as a supplement.
Make an appointment with your doctor if yours grows
Thyroid disease can be mild or severe. Most people with severe disease only needs to see the doctor once a year for check-ups.
When your doctor notices a change in your thyroid, she or he will typically recommend an annual thyroid check. This is to make sure the disease is working and staying active.
If your doctor does not use current technology to gauge how much Thyroid you have, then it can be difficult to get an accurate picture of how much medication you need. Technology allows for easy and quick measurement of the Thyroid in people with cancer, but technology does not always work for people with normal thyroids.
A general average size for the thyroid is about midline between front and back (GS Drost et al., 2015). Make an appointment with your doctor if you feel like yours is more of an average size.
Thyroids can be one of the most stubborn parts of our bodies
Sometimes, they can become stuck or enlarged which can cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing or breathing strongly through the nose, feeling heavy or thick in the stomach, and/or unusual hair growth in one part of the body (usually on the neck, chest, and/or underarms).
Thyroids are a dwarf gland that sits on top of the hollowed out part of our brain that controls metabolism. When we eat a lot of food, our body needs to use more energy to digest it and make more energy for us. This process is calledenergy metabolism. Certain parts of our body have special energy metabolisms vs. others that do not.
Our thyroids are like little engines that run energy metabolism. When we are older, our thyroids stop working well and sometimes people with this condition have trouble finding an adequate amount of sleep.
They can become inflamed or swollen
If the thyroids are too small, they may become inflamed or overgrown. This can cause symptoms such as dry skin and hair, trouble swallowing, and increased risk of developing thyroid cancer.
If the thyroids are too large, they may not function properly and may lead to complications such as goiter (a bump on the neck).
Thyroid surgery is an option for people with high cholesterol or diabetes who have no other options. Surgery can be a quick fix and help restore normal hormone levels.
When surgery is done properly, patients generally feel good within a week and have good energy levels for several months after. Some people even stick around to have the surgery again.
Surgery is an option if you do not know your Thyroid functioning level.
Thyroid problems are more common than you think
Around the world, people with too little thyroid is rarer than people with too much thyroid is common. However, Thyroid problems are more universal than that!
Thyroid problems can be mild or severe, butterfly or cancer. Thankfully, it is more likely to be a butterfly rather than a cancer.
Because of this, it is easier to seek medical attention and treatment. Fortunately, in most countries, you can have a slightly larger thyroxine (TSH) concentration than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
Ask your doctor about getting a thyroid test
A thyroid test measures how much TSH (taken as a hormone) your body uses to regulate its metabolism.
It can be difficult to get a thyroid test because it requires a blood sample. Therefore, only people who feel well enough to take a blood sample can get a thyroid test.
However, many doctors use an iodine screen to screen for Hashimoto’s disease (known also as dry-type or goiter), so they will often ask the doctor if the person has a regular thyroid.
If you feel that you are close to having a normal or dry-type thyroid, you can try getting an iodine screen done earlier than if you were hyperthyroid. You would still get the same results, but maybe less time to detect the change is available.
Watch for these signs of a thyroid problem
When your thyroid is not working properly, you may notice some signs of trouble. Some of these symptoms can be similar to other conditions and/or symptoms of the Thyroid gland.
Signs of a problematic thyroid include:
• weight loss or weight gain (even minor)
• mood swings (even slight swings are concerning)
• unusual behavior (even minor)
• an absence of hormone production (anything appears abnormal.
Get enough iodine in your diet
Thyroid cancer occurs in only one out of every hundred people, but too little thyroid can be a death sentence. As we mentioned earlier, too little thyroid can cause an inability to maintain normal blood sugar levels and ketoacid levels.
Because we talk to our Thyroid every day to make sure it is working, we tend to give it a higher dosage than the government recommends. However, this is still a dose that can be life-saving.
A dose of 100–150 micrograms per 24-hour period is considered the smallest amount of iodine that should be consumed. Although it may seem like a lot of iodine at first, it will eventually filter through your body and into your Thyroic.
In order to get enough iodine into your body, you need to consume it in small doses throughout the day.