Thyroid disorder can affect any one men, women and children but they are more common in women and become more common with age. So to understand thyroid disorder, understand it from the start with thyroid gland.

What is thyroid?

The thyroid is a small butterfly shaped gland that's locates at the front of the neck.

What thyroid gland do?

The thyroid gland makes the thyroid hormones, thyroid hormones are needed for maintaining tissues in the body like for the heart, brain, and other body system also.

How thyroid gland works?

Thyroid gland works under the control of pituitary gland (which is the hormone control center that lies in the middle of the brain).

Pituitary gland job is to produce various hormones and among those hormones TSH or Thyroid stimulating hormone that acts on thyroid gland is also produce by pituitary gland.

This thyroid stimulating hormone orders to make

Thyroid hormones which is T3 and T4 that acts as chemical messangers travelling and through the blood stream to all cells and tissue in the body.

These thyroid hormones control the speed at which your body works that is also called the body's metabolism. Therefore they affect energy level, heart beat, digestion, body temperature etc.

Body system impacted by thyroid hormones or thyroid function:

Energy levels

Bowel function

Metabolism

Temperature tolerance

Mood

Menstrual cycle

For such a small gland which people haven't heard of it has a huge effect on our bodies work.

Because of this, it is important to have the right amount of thyroid hormone in the body.

If there is too little of this hormone then the cells work too slowly, but if there is too much the cells work quick. Thus the brain helps to keep level check by measuring the levels of thyroid hormones in the blood.

If levels are low, the Pituitary gland releases thyroid simulating hormones or TSH to stimulate the thyroid gland to release more thyroid hormones.

And if the thyroid hormone levels are too high, then less TSH released by the pituitary gland, in this way the levels of thyroid hormones in the blood are usually kept in balance.

However, in some people the thyroid gland doesn't work properly due to underacitve or overactive of thyroid gland.

An under active thyroid gland can lead too little hormones being made which is called Hypothyroidism.

On the other hand overactive thyroid gland where hormones level are too high which is called Hyperthyroidism.

These are the two main types of thyroid disorder.

Symptoms of Hypothyroidism

Slow Metabolism

Tiredness

Weight gain

Feeling cold

Constipation

Dry or thining hair

Muscles weakness

Aches

A hoarse voice

Slow speech, movements & thoughts

Low mood and anxiety

Memory problems

Concentration problems.

In babies and children hypothyroidism can also affect normal growth and development if not treated properly.

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism

High metabolism

Increased heart beat

Loss of weight

Feeling sweaty and shaky

Feeling uncomfortably hot

Diarrhoea

Itchiness

Mood swings

Feeling anxoius and irritable

Concentration problem

Restlessness

While these symptoms are wide ranging it is rare to experience all of them and they may be missed or confused with other condition.

For some people symptoms are subtle and hardly noticable, while for others they can have a significant impact on daily life. Depending on the cause symptoms may come on quickly over a matter of days, or slowly over many months or years.

Thyroid disorders may also have other effects, such as a swallen thyroid gland ( known as goitre) nodules or lumps on the thyroid, and eye problems ( which are most likely to affect people with an overactive thyroid and sometimes called ( thyroid eye disease).

Uncontrolled thyroid disorders can also lead to problems with fertility and pregnancy and long term heart problems. Therefore, it is important to get a diagnosis even if symptoms are mild.

Diagnosis

Thyroid disorders are diagnosed by checking the levels of thyroid Hormones in the blood (blood test) and sometimes by physical examination.

Usually, (in hypothyroidism TSH will be high and T4 will be low) and (in Hyperthyroidism TSH will be low and T4 will be high).

Depending on the diagnosis there may be further investigations such as:-

Blood test

Thyroid scan

Biopsy ( to find out underlying cause)

What are the underlying causes of thyroid disorders?

Rarely, hypothyroidism can be present at birth, when babies are born with a thyroid gland that does not develop or work properly. This is called congenital hypothyroidism and all babies receive a blood test at birth to screen for this so it almost always picked up early.

Thyroid disorder can also be acquired at any age thought life, including childhood through the range of causes like autoimmune causes that are most common in which body's own immune system attack or stimulate the thyroid gland.

Hypothyroidism is usually caused by Hashimoto disease and Hyperthyroidism is most commonly caused by Graves disease both of these can run in families.

Thyroid nodules are extra lump or nodule of thyroid tissue which are usually benign ( non cancerous) but they can affect thyroid Hormones level.

Treatment

The main aim of treatment is to ensure the right levels of thyroid hormones in the blood. If thyroid hormones levels are too low then synthetic thyroid hormone medication can be taken as replacement.

If levels are too high, antithyroid medication can be taken to dampen down the overactivity of the thyroid gland.

Apart from medication, treatment for an overactive thyroid can also include taking a radioactive capsule which targets thyroid tissue or surgery to remove some or all of the thyroid gland which may also be recommended for a goitre or for nodules.