She was eating more than usual. But instead of gaining weight, Janie was getting thinner. And even though it was December, she was sweating a lot.
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He decided it was time for Janie to have a checkup. It didn't take Janie's doctor long to discover what was wrong. Janie had a problem with her thyroid gland. Now the doctor knew just how to help her. But first Janie had a question: What in the world is a thyroid? The major hormones that the thyroid makes and releases into the bloodstream are called T4 or thyroxine say: All the cells in the body need thyroid hormones to work properly.
These hormones control how fast the body uses up energy and are also key factors in helping kids grow. The thyroid is shaped like a little butterfly or bow tie and it sits under the skin in the front of your neck. To find it, touch your throat in the Adam's apple area with one finger and the top of your breastbone the flat bone that runs down the middle of your chest with another finger.
The thyroid is in that small space in between your fingers. And it bobs up and down when you swallow. See if you can feel it! The thyroid works like the thermostat in your house. If the thyroid is too active and produces too much T4 and T3, it's like having a thermostat that's set too high, so the house gets overheated. If it's not active enough, it's set too low and the house is too cold. And if it's making just the right amount of thyroid hormones, then it keeps the temperature just right. There are two main kinds of thyroid disorder or thyroid disease. Kids with the opposite problem have hypothyroidism say: In this case, the thyroid isn't active enough, so not enough thyroid hormone is being made and released into the kid's bloodstream.
In most cases, doctors and scientists can't say exactly why a kid gets thyroid disease. It's not something that you can catch from someone else like a cold, and usually it isn't caused by anything you've eaten or didn't eat or done to your body. A kid with thyroid disease might have inherited the condition because the tendency to get thyroid disease can run in the family. Problems tend to develop slowly, often over a number of years. At first, you may barely notice the symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as fatigue and weight gain.
Thyroid Disease: Hypothyroidism & Hyperthyroidism | Cleveland Clinic
Or you may simply attribute them to getting older. But as your metabolism continues to slow, you may develop more-obvious problems. Although hypothyroidism most often affects middle-aged and older women, anyone can develop the condition, including infants. Initially, babies born without a thyroid gland or with a gland that doesn't work properly may have few signs and symptoms. When newborns do have problems with hypothyroidism, the problems may include:. As the disease progresses, infants are likely to have trouble feeding and may fail to grow and develop normally.
They may also have:. When hypothyroidism in infants isn't treated, even mild cases can lead to severe physical and mental retardation.
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In general, children and teens who develop hypothyroidism have the same signs and symptoms as adults do, but they may also experience:. See your doctor if you're feeling tired for no reason or have any of the other signs or symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as dry skin, a pale, puffy face, constipation or a hoarse voice. If you're receiving hormone therapy for hypothyroidism, schedule follow-up visits as often as your doctor recommends. Initially, it's important to make sure you're receiving the correct dose of medicine.
And over time, the dose you need may change. When your thyroid doesn't produce enough hormones, the balance of chemical reactions in your body can be upset.
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There can be a number of causes, including autoimmune disease, hyperthyroidism treatments, radiation therapy, thyroid surgery and certain medications. Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland situated at the base of the front of your neck, just below your Adam's apple. Hormones produced by the thyroid gland — triiodothyronine T3 and thyroxine T4 — have an enormous impact on your health, affecting all aspects of your metabolism. These hormones also influence the control of vital functions, such as body temperature and heart rate.
Hypothyroidism results when the thyroid gland fails to produce enough hormones. It is not fully understood why this occurs, but it is thought to be partially genetic as these diseases tend to run in families. Goiter is the general enlargement of the thyroid that can be associated with many thyroid diseases. The main reason this happens is because of increased signaling to the thyroid by way of TSH receptors to try to make it produce more thyroid hormone. In hyperthyroidism caused by Grave's Disease or toxic multinodular goiter, there is excess stimulation of the TSH receptor even when thyroid hormone levels are normal.
There are many changes to the body during pregnancy. One of the major changes to help with the development of the fetus is the production of human chorionic gonadotropin hCG. This hormone, produced by the placenta, has similar structure to TSH and can bind to the maternal TSH receptor to produce thyroid hormone. Diagnosis of thyroid disease depends on symptoms and whether or not a thyroid nodule is present. Most patients will receive a blood test. Others might need an ultrasound, biopsy or a radioiodine scanning and uptake study.
There are several hormones that can be measured in the blood to determine how the thyroid gland is functioning. These include the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine T3 and its precursor thyroxine T4 , which are produced by the thyroid gland. Thyroid-stimulating hormone TSH is another important hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary cells in the brain. Its primary function is to increase the production of T3 and T4 by the thyroid gland.
The most useful marker of thyroid gland function is serum thyroid-stimulating hormone TSH levels. TSH levels are thus often used by doctors as a screening test, where the first approach is to determine whether TSH is elevated, suppressed, or normal. Because a single abnormal TSH level can be misleading, T3 and T4 levels must be measured in the blood to further confirm the diagnosis.
When circulating in the body, T3 and T4 are bound to transport proteins. Only a small fraction of the circulating thyroid hormones are unbound or free, and thus biologically active. T3 and T4 levels can thus be measured as free T3 and T4, or total T3 and T4, which takes into consideration the free hormones in addition to the protein-bound hormones.
Free T3 and T4 measurements are important because certain drugs and illnesses can affect the concentrations of transport proteins, resulting in differing total and free thyroid hormone levels. There are differing guidelines for T3 and T4 measurements. Autoantibodies to the thyroid gland may be detected in various disease states. Many people may develop a thyroid nodule at some point in their lives.
6 Common Thyroid Disorders & Problems
Although many who experience this worry that it is thyroid cancer, there are many causes of nodules that are benign and not cancerous. If a possible nodule is present, a doctor may order thyroid function tests to determine if the thyroid gland's activity is being affected. If more information is needed after a clinical exam and lab tests, medical ultrasonography can help determine the nature of thyroid nodule s.
There are some notable differences in typical benign vs. The ultrasound may also locate nodules that are too small for a doctor to feel on a physical exam, and can demonstrate whether a nodule is primarily solid, liquid cystic , or a mixture of both. It is an imaging process that can often be done in a doctor's office, is painless, and does not expose the individual to any radiation. The main characteristics that can help distinguish a benign vs. Although ultrasonography is a very important diagnostic tool, this method is not always able to separate benign from malignant nodules with certainty.
In suspicious cases, a tissue sample is often obtained by biopsy for microscopic examination. Thyroid scintigraphy , in which the thyroid is imaged with the aid of radioactive iodine usually iodine , which does not harm thyroid cells, or rarely, iodine , [36] is performed in the nuclear medicine department of a hospital or clinic. Radioiodine collects in the thyroid gland before being excreted in the urine.
Thyroid Disorders
While in the thyroid, the radioactive emissions can be detected by a camera, producing a rough image of the shape a radioiodine scan and tissue activity a radioiodine uptake of the thyroid gland. A normal radioiodine scan shows even uptake and activity throughout the gland. Irregular uptake can reflect an abnormally shaped or abnormally located gland, or it can indicate that a portion of the gland is overactive or underactive.
For example, a nodule that is overactive "hot" -- to the point of suppressing the activity of the rest of the gland—is usually a thyrotoxic adenoma, a surgically curable form of hyperthyroidism that is rarely malignant. In contrast, finding that a substantial section of the thyroid is inactive "cold" may indicate an area of non-functioning tissue, such as thyroid cancer. The amount of radioactivity can be quantified and serves as an indicator of the metabolic activity of the gland. Overactivity or underactivity of the gland, as may occur with hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, is usually reflected in increased or decreased radioiodine uptake.
Different patterns may occur with different causes of hypo- or hyperthyroidism. A medical biopsy refers to the obtaining of a tissue sample for examination under the microscope or other testing, usually to distinguish cancer from noncancerous conditions. Thyroid tissue may be obtained for biopsy by fine needle aspiration FNA or by surgery. Fine needle aspiration has the advantage of being a brief, safe, outpatient procedure that is safer and less expensive than surgery and does not leave a visible scar.