If you have been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, or thyrotoxicosis which is a similar condition, you have a toxic condition that is caused by having too many hormones made by the thyroid in your blood. Your butterfly-shaped thyroid gland is located in the lower part of your neck, around your windpipe and removes iodine from the blood which you take in through your food, mostly the salt that exists in what we eat, or that we add.
In healthy people, the thyroid makes just the right amounts of T4 and T3, two hormones which regulate your metabolism, such as how many calories you burn when active, how warm or cold you feel, and how much you weigh, and they affect the performance of your organs including your heart, which may experience periods of irregular beats.
Your body’s metabolism is increased and you may feel hotter than others in the same room. You may also be slowly losing weight even though you seem to be eating more. You may be extremely tired at the end of your day, but have trouble sleeping. You may be easily upset by life’s little trials. You may even experience shortness of breath and chest pain. The symptoms often come on slowly and continue for weeks before you finally admit that something is wrong and seek medical advice.
If you are a woman, you are 10 times more likely to get the disease than men and about one in 1000 women get it. The most common result of developing the condition is the occurrence of a goitre in your neck, which happens in four out of five cases. A small or medium sized goitre can be treated by medications to keep it from growing any larger. If it continues to grow, surgery may be an option.
Your doctor will consider all factors, such as age and other conditions affecting your health before deciding on a course of treatment. Antithyroid drugs will stop your body’s overproduction of thyroid hormones. If you are pregnant you should take the lowest dose possible. Other drugs which will cause your body to absorb iodine found in the body may also be prescribed and will result in the eventual shrinking of the thyroid. Finally, your medical professional may consider surgery, which results in total or partial removal of the thyroid. This is usually reserved for patients who have frequent relapses or whose goitre has become very large.
