Your doctor can help you identify the best option based on your age, health, symptoms and other factors. Hypothyroidism, or an inactive thyroid gland, can actually be caused by hyperthyroidism treatments, because the whole goal is to reduce thyroid activity. Conversely, hyperthyroidism can be caused by taking too many thyroid hormone replacement drugs to treat an inactive thyroid. Physical symptoms such as hair loss, thyroid eye disorders, weight gain or loss can affect the way you feel.
However, hypothyroidism can be fully controlled in almost all patients. It is treated by replacing the amount of hormone that your own thyroid can no longer produce, so that your T4 and TSH levels return to normal. So even if your thyroid gland is unable to function properly, T4 replacement can restore your body’s thyroid hormone levels and body function. Synthetic thyroxine pills contain hormones exactly like the T4 produced by the thyroid gland. For the few patients who do not feel completely normal by taking only a synthetic T4 preparation, the addition of T3 (Cytomel®) may be helpful.
Women are more likely than men to develop thyroid disease, especially just after pregnancy and after menopause. Graves disease is an anautoimmune disease that can cause hyperthyroidism or overactive thyroid. Thyroid hormones regulate the way your body uses energy and affect almost every organ in your body, including the way your heart beats. When used at the right dose, levothyroxine can be safely taken for the rest of a person’s life. The main antithyroid drug deficiency is that the underlying hyperthyroidism often returns after the drugs have stopped.
Eating foods containing large amounts of iodine, such as seaweed, impulses or other types of seaweed, can cause or worsen hyperthyroidism. These symptoms can start before or at the same time as the symptoms of hyperthyroidism. Rarely can GO develop after Graves’ disease has been treated. You can develop GO even if your thyroid function is normal. Watch our short film that explains more about the thyroid gland, the symptoms of thyroid disease and how thyroid disorders are diagnosed and treated. These are lumps that develop in the thyroid gland and sometimes start producing thyroid hormones.
An overactive thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. Your doctor may also use radiation therapy after surgery. Radiation therapy destroys thyroid cancer Hashimoto Thyroid Disease cells that have not been removed during surgery or that have spread to other parts of the body. This treatment kills thyroid cells that make thyroid hormones.
Your doctor may also do a physical exam and check your neck for thyroid lumps. Your doctor will make a medical history and perform a physical examination. A diagnosis of hyperthyroidism cannot be based on symptoms alone, because many of the symptoms are the same as those of other diseases. Therefore, your doctor may use various thyroid blood tests and imaging tests to confirm the diagnosis and determine its cause. Hyperthyroidism is usually treated with medications, radioiodotherapy or thyroid surgery.
Doctors don’t know why the body starts making these antibodies. Graves’ disease can affect a person’s health for the rest of a life. That is why it is important to receive medical treatment to keep it under control. The most common option in adult treatment is radioactive iodine, which destroys the thyroid gland over 6 to 18 weeks. Once the gland has been destroyed or removed by surgery, most patients should start using pill-shaped thyroid hormones.
An inexplicable weight change is one of the most common signs of a thyroid condition. Weight gain may indicate low thyroid hormones, a condition called hypothyroidism. Conversely, if the thyroid gland produces more hormones than the body needs, it can unexpectedly lose weight. If they think they can have it, they want to do a blood test to check their thyroid hormone levels.
However, taking extra iodine in supplements can cause your thyroid to produce too much thyroxine or triiodothyronine. You should monitor your TSH for 6 to 10 weeks after a change in the thyroxine dose. You may need to be tested more often if you are pregnant or taking medications that interfere with your body’s ability to use thyroxine. The purpose of the treatment is to get and keep your TSH within the normal range.