Subtle Symptoms Of A Thyroid Problem Hard To Ignore
Despite, a significant number of people with thyroid deficiency, routine blood tests do not detect thyroid hormone deficiency, leaving patients without an exact explanation for their symptoms.
Problems with estrogen and testosterone, the body’s main sex hormones, tend to arouse wide public interest. However, we should pay more attention to a much more common endocrine disorder: abnormal thyroid hormone levels. Thyroid disorders can affect a wide range of bodily functions and lead to a confusing and often misdiagnosed array of symptoms.
Symptoms vary from person to person and can appear slowly so that they are not detected or suddenly. Experts believe that 40 to 60 percent of people with thyroid disease do not know they have it. However, even in subclinical disorders, proper diagnosis and relatively simple treatment of abnormal thyroid levels can improve quality of life.
Functions of Thyroid Gland
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck that plays an important role in almost every area of the body. The thyroid produces hormones that regulate metabolism and body functions such as breathing, body temperature, menstrual cycle, control, and affect your heart, muscles in your brain, and other parts of your body. When the thyroid produces too much or too little hormone, your basic functions such as sleep, weight, appetite, and mood are affected.
Thyroid Disorders
Almost 200 million people worldwide are affected by thyroid problems. Thyroid problems affect women more than men. Women are eight times more likely to have it. According to the American Thyroid Association, thyroid disease is common in women, one in eight women experience this disease. Too much or too little of your hormones can have a major impact on your health and well-being.
Hyperthyroidism: Hyperthyroidism is an overactive thyroid, this condition occurs when the gland produces excess thyroid hormones. Excess hormones can cause many problems, such as mood swings, anxiety, fatigue, and heart palpitations, to name just a few. When the thyroid gland is overly active, it can be treated with medication to slow hormone production, for example, radioactive iodine and antithyroid drugs.
Even when thyroid hormone levels in the blood are normal if the thyroid-stimulating hormone level is low (in what is called subclinical hyperthyroidism), serious problems can occur. With subclinical hyperthyroidism, the risk of fractures – especially the hip – was significantly high. In fact, a recent study involving 700 adults, 65 years and older with subclinical hypothyroidism found no benefit from thyroid hormone treatment.
Hypothyroidism: Unlike hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism occurs when not enough thyroid hormones are produced, causing symptoms such as constipation, feeling cold, tired, and difficulty concentrating. If a person suffers from hypothyroidism at a young age, this can cause growth problems, delayed puberty, and irregular menstrual periods. In case the problem is low activity of the gland, the treatment consists of the replacement of the necessary hormones by means of specific medications. Subclinical hypothyroidism (normal thyroid hormone levels but too much thyroid-stimulating hormone) can increase the risk of heart problems, especially in young and middle-aged adults.
Therefore, it is very important to always be alert and act immediately if you feel any symptoms as below:
The Subtle Symptoms of Thyroid Disorders
The symptoms of thyroid dysfunction vary widely from one person to another and tend to develop gradually, so it is possible that neither patients nor doctors will recognize them as a problem that should be studied and treated.
1. You Feel Tired After a Full Night’s Sleep
If you feel this way, you may have hypothyroidism, which is an underactive thyroid. Your body feels sluggish due to low thyroid hormone production and a slower metabolism.
2. Weight Gain or Loss for No Apparent Reason
This condition is another common sign of thyroid problems. Maybe you’re eating less and exercising, but you’re still gaining weight. This is a sign that your thyroid is underactive. This causes the body’s metabolism to slow down so that the body burns less energy and ultimately leads to weight gain.
On the other hand, an overactive thyroid can lead to weight loss. If you have an overactive thyroid, your body will produce too much thyroid hormone. It will increase the body’s metabolism which will burn too much energy.
3. Problems with Sleep
If you start experiencing problems with sleep, you may have a thyroid disorder. Besides causing fatigue throughout the day by slowing down the metabolism, it can also cause sleep disturbances. It is a fact that thyroid hormone secretion has a significant influence on the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness.
For this reason, any alteration in hormonal levels may cause dysfunction in this important metabolic balance. Some people with an underactive thyroid may suffer from insomnia (lack of sleep). In the case of an overactive thyroid, it can overstimulate your metabolism and you may feel irritated and restless and stay awake throughout the night.
4. Irregular Menstruation
The thyroid gland helps to maintain your menstrual cycle. Hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism (an overactive or underactive thyroid gland) can cause disruption in your menstrual cycle. Women who have problems with the thyroid gland may have lighter, heavier, or missed periods, and may also have a hard time getting pregnant. If your periods start to occur more frequently, you may have an overactive thyroid, but otherwise, you may have an underactive thyroid. Disorders of the menstrual cycle can increase the risk of infertility.
5. Thinning Of Hair
Signs of thyroid disease and symptoms often first appear on the skin, hair, and nails. Hair loss is one of the signs that thyroid hormones may be unbalanced. This is because thyroid hormones are essential for the growth and health of hair follicles. The inactive or the overactive thyroid gland can cause thinning of hair and can lead to hair loss. Mostly you can see hair loss on the eyebrows and crown area. Eyebrows hit hardest.
Eyebrows that thin along the outer edges can be a sign of hypothyroidism. People with thyroid problems are also more likely to develop alopecia, an autoimmune condition that causes hair to fall out in patches. However, in several cases, hair can grow back if the thyroid problem is treated.
6. Dry Skin, Weak Nails, and Hair
An underactive thyroid affects the skin in different ways and can cause symptoms such as dry and rough skin, pallor, thin, flaky skin. People with hypothyroidism can also develop dry, brittle, and dull or thin hair, rough nails that break easily. On the other hand, hair loss, oily skin, and oily hair can also be associated with an overactive thyroid. These symptoms can occur after your thyroid has not been working properly for some time.
These symptoms usually go away once people start thyroid hormone treatment.
7. Mood Changes
Variations in hormone levels have a direct impact not only on the physical level but also on the cognitive and emotional levels. For this reason, the psychological symptoms and mood alterations that they produce are equally important. Thyroid problems can have a profound effect on your energy level and cause changes in your mood. Both, underactive and overactive thyroid can leave you feeling out of control mentally and emotionally. An underactive thyroid can make you feel tired, lazy, and depressed. In the case of an overactive thyroid, you may feel anxious, and you may experience sleep problems, restlessness, and irritability. An imbalance in thyroid hormone can also cause mood swings.
8. Feeling Cold
Hypothyroidism can reduce metabolism, which can cause a drop in core body temperature. So some people with low thyroid hormone levels may feel cold all the time or have a low tolerance for cold.
This feeling of cold can persist, even when in a warm room or during the summer months. People with hypothyroidism often report cold hands and feet, although their entire body may feel cold.
However, these symptoms are not unique to hypothyroidism. Circulation problems or anemia can also cause people to feel cold.
9. Muscle Weakness
Both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can cause muscles to feel sore, weak, or stiff. However, because thyroid symptoms often develop slowly, many people don’t notice muscle pain or weakness right away or dismiss it as a typical pain that comes from aging. Check with your doctor if something doesn’t feel right.
