Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

Sept 12, 2006

The Other Gland

If you’re feeling older than your years, you may be battling a thyroid problem!

Here’s how to beat it.

            You can’t seem to remember where you parked the car., or where you laid down your keys.  The snow shovel really has gotten heavier.  In fact, puttering around the house is even beginning to seem like hard work.  Everyone tells you “you’re just getting older,” but, in fact, you may be suffering from an easily curable medical problem.

            Hypothyroidism, or an active thyroid, affects over 2 million men and women, and many of them don’t even know it.  It’s a disease commonly seen in men, particularly those over 50.  But many men thinking the changes are just a necessary consequence of getting older, and don’t get it checked out.

            The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland just beneath the Adam’s apple.  When it’s under active (or hypothyroid), it produces less than normal amounts of hormones that tell the body how fast to work.  Your metabolism slows, you may gain weight, become forgetful, feel tired.  Other signs that you may have an under active thyroid include: lowered libido, dry hair and skin, brittle nails, puffiness around the eyes, hoarseness, appearance of a goiter (lump in the throat) numbness in the arms and legs, feeling cold, muscle cramps, elevated cholesterol levels and tingling in the fingers.

            Some people have several symptoms---others only a few.  The disease usually comes on so slowly over months or even years that you might not notice anything’s really changed.

            That’s why some doctors recommend an annual screening using something called TSH blood test for all men over 60.  This ultra sensitive test measures the level of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) which is produced by the pituitary gland in an effort to stimulate the thyroid to increase production of hormones.  An increased level of TSH, logically enough indicates that the thyroid hormone is being under produced.  The TSH blood test is very accurate and relatively inexpensive in most laboratories.

            Once detected by a TSH blood test, treatment of hypothyroidism is as simple as a once-a—day tablet of levothyroxine.   Within days, you start to feel better.  In a few months, all symptoms usually disappear.  There are no side effects to the medication unless the dosage is too high.  Too much thyroid hormone can cause heart problems if you have underlying heart disease.  Doctors usually prescribe a low dose, gradually increasing it until the optimal dose is reached.

            Sometimes the thyroid produces too much of its hormones.  The most common form of hyperthyroidism, Graves’ disease, made the news a few years back when former President Bush and his wife both developed mild cases.  Symptoms include frequent loose stools, heightened sensitivity to heat, excessive sweating, weight loss, fatigue, muscle weakness, irritability, and insomnia and hand tremors.  In Graves’ disease, tissues around the eyes can become inflamed, push against the eyeball and cause persistent double vision.  Another symptom---a rapidly pounding heart when you’re at rest---can be especially serious.  See your doctor is you experience any combination of these symptoms.

Here are a list of symptoms that may be associated with hyperthyroidism:
Palpitations
Heat intolerance
Nervousness
Insomnia
Breathlessness
Increased bowel movements
Light or absent menstrual periods
Fatigue

Fast heart rate
Trembling hands
Weight loss
Muscle weakness
Warm moist skin
Hair loss
Staring gaze

As you can see, these are relatively non-specific symptoms. The best way to test for hyperthyroidism would be blood tests ordered by your physician. Serum TSH concentration should be the initial screening test. If subnormal, serum free T4 and T3 concentrations are run by most laboratories. If not, but the index of suspicion for hyperthyroidism is high, a free T4 should be ordered with the initial TSH measurement.

Follow-up with your personal physician is essential.

This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice - the information presented is for patient education only. Please see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.

Bibliography:
Ross. Diagnosis of hyperthyroidism. UptoDate, 2004.        

Hartson Sager Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net