The thyroid is just a small gland in the human body, but it
helps regulate many mandatory functions. When something goes wrong,
the problem must be treated
It’s just a little butterfly-shaped gland in the neck, but the thyroid has big responsibilities to the human body. Hollister resident Cindy Guajardo learned this the hard way when a nodule on her thyroid turned out to be cancerous. Doctors had to remove about 80 percent of the gland in her throat, located near the Adam’s apple, and she had to swallow a radioactive iodine pill to render the other 20 percent useless.
“I had no clue how important the thyroid was until I started having problems with mine,” Guajardo said. “I’ll be on medication for the rest of my life that will replace the hormone my thyroid should be making. I see my endocrinologist once a year to make sure my medication is still the right dose for me. Every few years, I have to go off my medicine entirely so they can run a test to make sure the cancer hasn’t come back. That’s when I really see how much your thyroid can affect you.”
The thyroid is an overall regulator for most of the body’s functions, said Dr. Patricia Kan, subchief of endocrinology at Kaiser Permanente Santa Teresa Medical Center, including brain, intestine and heart functions.
“The thyroid is a gland that makes a hormone that spreads throughout the body through the blood and helps cells work properly,” she explained. “You need the thyroid to live. If it isn’t working right or if you have it removed for some reason, you need to be on hormones to replace it – or it’s possible to go into a coma and die from lack of the thyroid hormone.”
The two most common thyroid problems are overactive thyroids, which produce too much hormone, and underactive thyroids, which don’t produce enough of the hormone, Kan said. The third most common problem is growths, called nodules, that sometimes appear on the gland. The side effects of an underactive thyroid can include dry skin, coarse or thinning hair, irregular menstruation, fatigue, weight gain and constipation. The heart may also start retaining fluid and beat less efficiently.
Side effects of an overactive thyroid can include feeling nervous, a rapid heartbeat, feeling hot, sweating heavily, diarrhea, muscle weakness, weight loss or heart palpitations. In extreme cases, when the heart is pumping too fast, an overactive thyroid can cause heart failure.
“Both conditions can cause abnormalities in the thought process,” Kan said. “People may have trouble thinking, concentrating, they may even have memory problems. There can be depression or huge mood swings. People can be irritable and short-tempered, and sometimes this can really affect a person’s family life.”
When doctors ask Guajardo to change her medication doses so they can check her for cancer, she has little to no thyroid function for a very brief time, giving her firsthand experience with many of these side effects.
“It’s horrible – I become a lunatic,” she said. “I’m easily enraged, I’m moody, I’m so exhausted I can sleep for 12 hours, and wake up with swollen eyes because I’m still tired. I start to swell – my face gets very full – and my hair starts falling out. It doesn’t come out in big chunks, but you can really tell in the shower to see how much hair is around the drain. My poor family really suffers with me, but they know I can’t help it and they’re very supportive.”
Once doctors have completed their tests and give Guajardo the green light to resume her regular medications, it takes about three weeks before she’s really back to normal, she said.
Because symptoms of thyroid problems can be similar to other problems – such as heart disease, panic attacks or depression – doctors will almost always order a blood test to check the thyroid to avoid misdiagnosing a patient.
Most thyroid problems are genetic, and often occur in women between the ages of 20 and 40, Kan said. Women may also experience changes in their thyroid during and after pregnancy as the rest of their hormones go through changes. In some Third World countries, where proper nutrition isn’t common or easy to achieve, thyroid problems can be a result of dietary problems.
“Even though an overactive or underactive thyroid can cause major problems, it’s very easy to control with medication,” Kan said.
