Thyroid Disease

Your thyroid gland must function properly to maintain an optimal metabolic rate. If your thyroid is producing insufficient amounts of the hormone, thyroxin, you'll gain weight easily and have difficulty taking it off (you'll also be cold and tired). A blood test or a regular morning body temperature (measured for ten minutes in the armpit) of lower than 97.8 F can confirm an inactive thyroid. 

There are people who can eat any amount of food and never gain weight. And there are others, for whom the weight increases automatically, just if they think of food! Some people fly through the day with energy and vitality to spare while others have to drag their bodies around like dead weights. These are all examples of variation in metabolism, the energy system of the body.

Metabolism:  

Metabolism is a very important concept in terms of health. It is the sum-total of the conservation and expenditure of all body energies and is divided in to two:

1. Anabolism: The build up of replacement of tissues and the storage of energy. For example, glucose is taken from the digestive tract and stored in the liver as glycogen.

2. Catabolism: The breakdown of tissues and the use of energy. Of course, the actual situation of metabolism is extremely complex and modern science has not yet found the keys to unlock its mysteries. It is known, however that the thyroid gland is the regulator of metabolism in the body and is itself regulated by the pituitary gland in the skull. Regulation of metabolism in a healthy person occurs in response to physical and emotional demands relayed through the brain and its hypothalamic centres.

The Thyroid: The thyroid gland lies in the front of the neck wrapped around the trachea. It is divided into two lobes, one on either side of the neck, and secretes hormones into the blood stream. These chemicals are called thyroxin.

The manufacture of thyroid hormones depends on the presence of iodine, which can be found in salt from the sea, sea-weeds, fresh vegetables and milk. The absence of iodine from the diet causes the thyroid gland to enlarge, called goitre. This is especially common in mountainous and isolated areas, which are deprived of the benefits of the sea. Healthy thyroid function is also dependent on clear and healthy signals from the brain in the form of brain hormones and nervous impulses.

Thyroid diseases are:

1. 1. Hyperthyroid or thyrotoxicosis in which the gland secretes excess of hormones. This condition is more common in women than in men whose age ranges from 30 to 50 years. Thyrotoxit individuals become tremulous, irritable, anxious and even hysterical. Because the metabolism is raised, they experience rapid heart rate and palpitation, rapid shallow respiration. Frequent bowel motions and diarrhoea, Flushing, heat intolerance, sweating, menstrual disturbance and sometimes bulging of the eyes. Such people suffer the paradoxical situation in which they feel fatigue and lack of energy and yet are compelled to move about, talk and do things. They are constantly fidgeting and the slightest remark may set off an inappropriately angry response.

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