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Thyroid problem news from Thyroid Talk

 

 

 

Autoimmune Thyroid Disease, A Medical

 

Cause Of Anxiety Symptoms

 

 

by: James M. Lowrance
www.jimlowsaudios.com


For the majority of anxiety sufferers, their disorder does not have a medical cause but is simply anxiety but for a relatively significant percent of anxiety sufferers, their symptoms have a medical root-cause. In this article, I will address one of the more common medical causes of anxiety symptoms, “Autoimmune Thyroid Disorders“.

 

Thyroid disorders are one of the more common causes of both anxiety and depression symptoms. The thyroid gland, regulates the metabolism of our bodies and affects every cell and organ. When a person’s thyroid gland becomes either over-active (hyperthyroidism) or under-active (hypothyroidism), the results can be both physical and emotional symptoms. The vast majority of thyroid disease, is caused by an autoimmune process, where the immune system, becomes misdirected and attacks the thyroid gland, by sending “antibodies”, cells designed to eradicate and destroy other foreign cells that can cause illness in the body, such as viruses, bacteria and allergens.. With autoimmune diseases, a natural part of our body, such as one of our endocrine glands (thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, pituitary etc…) is mistakenly attacked and slowly destroyed by the immune system, medical science has yet to understand the reasons why. With autoimmune thyroid disease, this antibody attack, will cause some patients to experience hypothyroidism, also called “Hashimoto’s Disease” and others to experience hyperthyroidism, also called “Grave’s Disease“.


An person with hyperthyroidism, means their body is operating at an over-drive level, with everything being sped up. This will cause the person to have anxiety symptoms, including panic attacks and extreme nervousness and co-existing depression.


A person who suspects hyperthyroidism, should also look for the additional physical symptoms that accompany it and would prompt them to seek testing to either confirm or rule it out as being the cause of their symptoms.


The symptoms of hyperthyroidism include; rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, sudden weight loss, diarrhea, excessive sweating, increased hunger, fatigue, hair loss and swelling in the neck area just below the adam’s apple, called a goiter or nodule (nodules are smaller, tumor type growths).


Interestingly, a person with hypothyroidism, where the metabolism is slowed, can also experience anxiety symptoms, in addition to depression but there are also other physical symptoms to look for with hypothyroidism. These would include; feeling slowed down, fatigue, slowed heart rate, sometimes low blood pressure, constipation, weight gain, dry skin, hair loss and goiter or nodules.


If a patient is found to have hyperthyroidism, the treatment would be to slow down the thyroid by use of oral medications. These medications are called “Anti-Thyroid Medications” and they slow down the thyroid’s overproduction of thyroid hormone. Patients may also be given beta-blockers, which are medications designed to block the effects of the over-production of adrenaline experienced by hyperthyroid patients. In more severe cases of hyperthyroidism, the thyroid may be partially or completely removed through surgery or the gland may be partially destroyed through Radioactive Iodine treatment (RAI). With RAI, also called “Ablation”, they give the patient a solution of iodine, that is radioactive and it will go directly to the thyroid gland, destroying thyroid cells, resulting in slowing down its overproduction of thyroid hormones.


The treatment for hypothyroidism, is also by oral medication but in this case, medications called “Thyroid Hormone Replacement Medications” are used to supplement the thyroid’s underproduction of thyroid hormones.


The most common method used to diagnose thyroid disorders, is through blood testing. Blood is drawn and lab-tested to see if the thyroid’s hormone levels are in the normal range. If they are outside of the normal reference range, on the high end, this would indicate an over-active thyroid gland, “hyperthyroidism”. If the hormone levels are found to be outside of the range on the low end, it would indicate an under-active thyroid gland, “hypothyroidism”.


There is now another very sensitive thyroid function test available and one that many Doctors will use alone before testing the actual thyroid hormones and it is a test called “TSH” (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone). This particular one, is not actually a thyroid hormone but one that comes from the “pituitary gland“, found up in the brain. This gland regulates the thyroid, which is found in the neck, just below the adam’s apple. The pituitary does this by means of TSH, which it sends to the thyroid to stimulate it to produce its own hormones, at the proper levels. If TSH is found to be low, this would indicate that the thyroid gland is no longer being stimulated by the pituitary to produce hormones because it is already over-active. If TSH is found to be high, this would indicate that the pituitary is working too hard to get the thyroid to produce hormones because it is under-active. So TSH is a valuable test because of its sensitiveness in monitoring thyroid function.


If you suspect you have thyroid disease, that is either causing or aggravating anxiety symptoms in you, plus you see some of the other symptoms that indicate possible thyroid dysfunction, talk to your Doctor about getting tested because if this is the cause, treatment will go a long way toward relieving symptoms.

 

Please note: James approached Thyroid Talk recently to offer his knowledge and material on the subject. He has given Thyroid Talk permission to use these articles as a resource for visitors. He has also given permission to anyone who would like to contact him via email at jmjthree@sbcglobal.net

 


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