You probably don’t think twice about your thyroid and what it does for you, right? It’s one of the most misunderstood glands in the body, often even taken for granted by medical professionals. The thyroid is a small – it weighs less than one ounce – butterfly-shaped endocrine gland that sits snuggly behind the Adam’s apple in your neck. Its job is to secrete key hormones that regulate your metabolic rate, among other things. The truth is the thyroid provides some essential regulatory hormones in the human body and understanding how they work can potentially improve your quality of life.
What are the Thyroid Hormones?
Thyroid hormones control how quickly your body use energy, makes proteins and how sensitive it is to things like temperature. The hormones produced by this one tiny gland affect every single cell in your body. Given its importance, it’s a bit shocking how often thyroid problems go undiagnosed. The test involved in detecting the levels of thyroid hormones, referred to as a TSH test, is fraught with false negatives leading doctors to believe everything is fine.
How Do Thyroid Hormones Work?
The thyroid gland pulls in iodine from the food you eat and converts it into two essential hormones:
- Thyroxine
- Triiodothyronine
The cells that make up this gland are distinctive because they are the only ones able to absorb iodine and combine it with an amino acid to manufacture these specific hormones.The thyroid hormones travel from cell to cell via the blood stream to increase the basal metabolic rate. They are also responsible for regulating the strength and beating rate of the heart muscle and play a critical role in development both during gestation and after birth.
What Happens When the Thyroid Isn’t Working Right?
If you suffer from symptoms like fatigue, mood swings and weight gain, you may have hypothyroidism – in other words, your thyroid gland isn’t producing enough hormones. If you feel full of energy all the time even when you try to sleep, your gland might be overproducing – a condition called hyperthyroidism.The American Thyroid Association reports that 12 percent of the population is diagnosed with a thyroid condition each year, but it’s estimated that as many as 13 million Americans have a problem left undiagnosed. This would seem to indicate a fault exists with the TSH test used to make the diagnosis.The TSH test was developed in 1973 and is an inadequate measure of thyroid health. It is designed to measure a substance produced by the pituitary gland, which controls the thyroid, instead of the actual hormones.
How Do You Know if You Have a Thyroid Problem?
Pay attention more to what’s going on with your body than a lab test. People who suffer from hypo or hyperthyroid may know something is wrong, even though the doctor hasn’t been able to nail down a diagnosis. That’s where nutritional medicine can step in and help find a solution.
Source (characters / words)
- http://www.wallerwellness.com/health-and-aging/understanding-thyroid-hormones
- https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless/
- http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/fatigued-or-full-throttle-is-your-thyroid-to-blame