Symptoms and Causes of Thyroid

Lybrate - Dr. Anirban Biswas talks about Thyroid Problems

Hello friends, I am Dr. Anirban Biswas. I am practicing diabetologist in Fortis C-Doc Hospital in New Delhi.

Today I am going to discuss with you about thyroid disease as you know thyroid disease is very common these days and most of the patients when they check their TSH is high, doctors suddenly declare that they have hypothyroidism. Now basically you have to understand what is thyroid disease? Thyroid is a disease which is a cause of a poor functioning of thyroid glands. It is a butterfly shaped organ which is located in our throat, basic function of a thyroid gland is to produce thyroid hormone and when thyroid hormone is deficient it is known as hypothyroidism. Basically the T4 and T3 are the active thyroid hormones.

TSH is a thyroid stimulating hormones which is not secreted by the thyroid gland but it is secreted by the pituitary gland. In response to the lesser secretion of thyroid, it is a feedback mechanism which is developed in our body. So whenever a patient has hypothyroidism, T3 and T4 levels are low or normal. TSH is high and it is compensating for the lack of the thyroid hormones. So this stage is known as sub-clinical hypothyroidism. And the symptoms of sub-clinical hypothyroidism is that patients may have sudden weight gain, patient may feel weak, lethargic, dryness of skin, patients may have other difficulty in managing their memory, routine activities, issues with their sexual and hormonal problems as well, heat and cold intolerance may also be there. So all these things are very common with thyroid patients, most of the patients come with the problem of weight and usually thyroid patients improve after substituting the thyroid hormone which is in the form of tablets.

Now a days, once a weekly tablets are also available for thyroid. Many of the doctors and patients don’t know but I have started once weekly which has a very good response and better come plans and I recommend the patients to take once weekly. Management of thyroid is easy but dose has to be titrated with frequent checkup of the thyroid function. And I am organizing thyroid checkup camps in my clinic on regular basis. The other problem of thyroid is hyperthyroidism which is the reverse of the hypothyroidism and in this, thyroid gland secretes the excessive thyroid hormone which causes the reverse action like weight loss, increases basal metabolism rate, eyes may start to protrude. These are the symptoms of hyperthyroidism. For this also, treatment is available.

Other things we should be careful about is that if we are having thyroid problem then we should avoid having too much of soya product and few vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli and we should take our medicine regularly.
If you have any queries regarding thyroid, you can please contact me through Lybrate.
Thank you.