How Does Thyroid Disease Affect Your Body?

2 minutes

The thyroid gland is shaped like a small butterfly located in the neck, just above the trachea. It has a very important role in the body. It's responsible for regulating metabolism, producing proteins and hormones that control heart rate and how fast the body burns calories, and managing the body's sensitivity to other hormones.

How Does Thyroid Disease Affect Your Body?

Reviewed and approved by the doctor José Gerardo Rosciano Paganelli.

Written by Daniela Echeverri Castro

Last update: 15 December, 2022

There are many factors that can impact the health of your thyroid gland and cause illness. The two main types of thyroid disease are hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. They both have a different impact on the body, but either way, you have to get treatment so thyroid disease won’t affect your quality of life.

You might like: 5 Thyroid Treatments You Can Do at Home

Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is a type of thyroid disease when the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones. As a result, the metabolism slows down, which leads to many other health problems and brings down your overall quality of life.

The way hypothyroidism affects the body is case by case and depends on how far it has progressed. Here are some of the things that happen:

Exhaustion or weakness
Weight gain or obesity
Lack of appetite
Changes to the menstrual cycle
Lack of sexual desire
Feeling cold
Constipation
Muscle aches
Swelling around the eyes
Brittle nails
Hair loss

You might like: How to Use Celery to Alleviate Constipation

Hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid disease and mainly affects women. Along with the symptoms mentioned above, it can also cause dry skin, poor memory, and problems concentrating. In severe cases, it can cause deterioration in the function of the heart, kidneys, and liver.

Regardless of how serious it is, it’s very important to see your doctor and seek treatment.

Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism is the opposite of hypothyroidism. It happens when the thyroid gland produces too many hormones and shoots your metabolism way up. Although the idea of a higher metabolism might sound nice if you want to lose weight, this condition can cause serious health problems.

Like hypothyroidism, the way it impacts the body is case by case and the symptoms depend on the stage of the disease. Symptoms of hyperthyroidism include:

Exhaustion
Weight loss
Nervousness
Accelerated heart rate
Increased perspiration
Feeling hot
Changes in the menstrual cycle
More frequent bowel movements
Tremors

In some cases, people with hyperthyroidism will also experience symptoms like fever, accelerated heart rate, or changes in mental functioning (confusion, convulsions, restlessness, and coma).

Thyroid disease and quality of life

Doctor checks a patients glands thyroid disease

Whichever thyroid disease you have, it’s extremely important to see your doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Thyroid disease gradually starts to interfere with your life, until it begins to seriously affect your health and prevent you from going through your normal daily routine.

With hypothyroidism, it’s very important to completely change your habits and adopt a healthy lifestyle to keep the disease under control, especially when it comes to weight gain. So, proper nutrition and a healthy diet play a major role in treating it.

Hyperthyroidism requires a special diet from a nutritionist that will limit iodine intake, which the thyroid gland uses to manufacture hormones.

Moreover, thyroid specialists warn that there is no concrete way to prevent either type of thyroid disease. However, they insist that a balanced diet, exercise, and healthy habits can be an important factor in reducing the risk of thyroid problems in the future.

Once thyroid disease is diagnosed, it’s important to follow your doctor’s recommendations to prevent serious changes in the body.