Hypothyroidism occurs when your body doesn?t produce enough thyroid hormones. The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland that sits at the front of your neck. It releases hormones to help your body regulate and use energy.
Your thyroid is responsible for providing energy to nearly every organ in your body. It controls functions like how your heart beats and how your digestive system works. Without the right amount of thyroid hormones, your body?s natural functions begin to slow down.
Also called underactive thyroid, hypothyroidism affects women more frequently than men. It commonly affects people over the age of 60, but can begin at any age. It may be discovered through a routine blood test or after symptoms begin.
If you?ve recently been diagnosed with the condition, it?s important to know that treatment is considered simple, safe, and effective. Most treatments rely on supplementing your low hormone levels with artificial varieties. These hormones will replace what your body isn?t producing on its own and help return your body?s functions to normal.
The hypothalamus is a small but important area in the center of the brain. It plays an important role in hormone production and helps to stimulate many important processes in the body and is located in the brain, between the pituitary gland and thalamus.
When the hypothalamus is not working properly, it can cause problems in the body that lead to a wide range of rare disorders. Maintaining hypothalamic health is vital because of this.
Hypothalamic dysfunction is a problem with part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus helps control the pituitary gland and regulates many body functions.
The thyroid gland produces two related hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), which play a critical role in thermogenic and metabolic homeostasis. T4 and T3 are normally synthesized and released in response to a combined hypothalamic pituitary signal mediated by thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) from the anterior pituitary and thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) from the hypothalamus. There is a negative feedback from thyroid hormone concentration, primarily T3, to TSH production, causing total T4, total T3, free T4, and free T3 concentrations to move in opposition to TSH concentration.
Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland is functionally inadequate. Causes of hypothyroidism include autoimmune disorders, such as Hashimoto?s thyroiditis, atrophic thyroiditis, and postpartum thyroiditis; iodine deficiency, the most common cause of hypothyroidism in underdeveloped areas; congenital defects; medications or treatments that can result in hypothyroidism; central hypothyroidism in which the thyroid is not stimulated by the pituitary or hypothalamus; and infiltrative processes that may damage thyroid, pituitary, or hypothalamus. These different causes of hypothyroidism are often interrelated. Usually, the exact cause of the hypothyroidism cannot be definitively differentiated.
The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your neck just below the Adam?s apple. It?s part of an intricate network of glands called the endocrine system. The endocrine system is responsible for coordinating many of your body?s activities. The thyroid gland manufactures hormones that regulate your body?s metabolism.
Several different disorders can arise when your thyroid produces too much hormone (hyperthyroidism) or not enough (hypothyroidism).
Four common disorders of the thyroid are Hashimoto?s disease, Graves? disease, goiter, and thyroid nodules.
Crohn?s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease. As many as 780,000 Americans have the condition, according to the Crohn?s & Colitis Foundation (CCF).
More research about Crohn?s disease is necessary. Researchers aren?t sure how it begins, who is most likely to develop it, or how to best manage it. Despite major treatment advances in the last three decades, no cure is available yet.
Crohn?s disease most commonly occurs in the small intestine and the colon. It can affect any part of your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, from your mouth to your anus. It can involve some parts of the GI tract and skip other parts.
The range of severity for Crohn?s is mild to debilitating. Symptoms vary and can change over time. In severe cases, the disease can lead to life-threatening flares and complications.
Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It causes inflammation of your digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition. Inflammation caused by Crohn's disease can involve different areas of the digestive tract in different people.
The inflammation caused by Crohn's disease often spreads deep into the layers of affected bowel tissue. Crohn's disease can be both painful and debilitating, and sometimes may lead to life-threatening complications.
While there's no known cure for Crohn's disease, therapies can greatly reduce its signs and symptoms and even bring about long-term remission. With treatment, many people with Crohn's disease are able to function well.
There are six variations of Crohn?s disease, all based on location. They are:
Fibromyalgia (fi·bro·my·al·gi·a) is a condition that causes torment everywhere throughout the body (likewise alluded to as across the board torment), rest issues, weariness, and frequently enthusiastic and mental trouble. Individuals with fibromyalgia might be more touchy to torment than individuals without fibromyalgia. This is called strange torment recognition handling. Fibromyalgia influences around 4 million US grownups, about 2% of the grownup populace. The reason for fibromyalgia isn't known, however it very well may be viably rewarded and overseen.
Mineral deficiency is a reduced level of any of the minerals essential to human health. An abnormally low mineral concentration is usually defined as a level that may impair a function dependent on that mineral.
Minerals are essential nutrients for every living cell in the human body. Defined in the study of human nutrition as all the inorganic elements or molecules required for life, minerals assist in body functions such as producing energy, growing, and healing. Minerals are required for fluid balance, blood and bone development, maintaining a healthy nervous system, and regulating muscles, including heart muscles. Minerals, like vitamins , function as coenzymes. They participate in all enzyme reactions in the body and help in the assimilation and use of vitamins and other nutrients.
Minerals occur either as bulk minerals (macrominerals) or trace minerals (microminerals). The body needs more bulk minerals than it does trace minerals, although both are essential for health. Minerals are consumed in food from plants and plant-eating animals. These sources of minerals develop in a sequence that takes millions of years, beginning with rock formation, the breakdown of rocks into mineral salts, and the assimilation of these salts into soil that nourishes edible plants.
Recommended daily allowances exist for a number of minerals, such as calcium. However, minimum daily requirements for some minerals such as boron, chromium, and molybdenum, do not exist. The essential bulk minerals include:
Trace minerals essential for human health include:
Trace and bulk minerals are stored in muscles and bones and delivered to tissue cells through blood circulation. They work together synergistically and must be chemically balanced in the body; if one is deficient or out of balance, it can affect all the others, often resulting in illness. If zinc, for example, is present at high levels, calcium levels will be reduced because the two minerals compete for absorption. Similarly, too much calcium will deplete magnesium, and so on. Deficiency in one nutrient occurs less often than deficiency in several nutrients. A child suffering from malnutrition will likely be deficient in a variety of nutrients. Deficiencies in one nutrient do occur, however, such as in populations living in iodine-poor regions, and in iron deficient persons who lose excess iron by abnormal bleeding. All uncorrected mineral deficiencies can affect body functions, produce symptoms, and result in illness.
There are five main categories of mineral deficiency: calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc.
Calcium is needed for strong bones and teeth. It also supports proper function of your blood vessels, muscles, nerves, and hormones.
Natural sources of calcium include milk, yogurt, cheese, and small fish with bones, beans, and peas. Vegetables such as broccoli, kale, and Chinese cabbage also provide calcium. Some foods are also fortified with the mineral, including tofu, cereals, and juices.
A calcium deficiency produces few obvious symptoms in the short term. That?s because your body carefully regulates the amount of calcium in the blood. Lack of calcium over the long term can lead to decreased bone mineral density called osteopenia.
If left untreated, osteopenia can turn to osteoporosis. This increases the risk of bone fractures, especially in older adults.
Severe calcium deficiency is usually caused by medical problems or treatments, such as medications (like diuretics), surgery to remove the stomach, or kidney failure. Symptoms of a severe deficiency include:
More than half of the iron in your body is in red blood cells. Iron is an important part of hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen to your tissues.
Iron is also a part of other proteins and enzymes that keep your body healthy. The best sources of iron are meat, poultry, or fish. Plant-based foods such as beans or lentils are also good sources.
Iron deficiency develops slowly and can cause anemia. It?s considered uncommon in the United States and in people with healthy diets. But, the World Health Organization estimated in a 2008 report that iron deficiency causes approximately half of all anemia cases worldwide.
The symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia include feeling weak and tired. You may be performing poorly at work or school. Children may exhibit signs through slow social and cognitive development.
The body needs magnesium for hundreds of chemical reactions. These include responses that control blood glucose levels and blood pressure. Proper function of muscles and nerves, brain function, energy metabolism, and protein production are also controlled by magnesium.
Roughly 60 percent of the body?s magnesium resides in the bones while nearly 40 percent resides in muscle and soft tissue cells. Good sources of magnesium include:
Magnesium deficiency is uncommon in healthy people. The kidneys can keep magnesium from leaving the body through the urine. Still, certain medications and chronic health conditions like alcoholism may cause magnesium deficiency.
Magnesium needs are also highly influenced by the presence of disease. In this situation, the RDA for magnesium may not be sufficient for some individuals.
Early signs of magnesium deficiency include:
Magnesium deficiency can lead to the following symptoms if left untreated:
Potassium is a mineral that functions as an electrolyte. It?s required for muscle contraction, proper heart function, and the transmission of nerve signals. It?s also needed by a few enzymes, including one that helps your body turn carbohydrates into energy.
The best sources of potassium are fruits and vegetables, such as bananas, avocado, dark leafy greens, beets, potatoes, and plums. Other good sources include orange juice and nuts.
The most common cause of potassium deficiency is excessive fluid loss. Examples can include extended vomiting, kidney disease, or the use of certain medications such as diuretics.
Symptoms of potassium deficiency include muscle cramping and weakness. Other symptoms show up as constipation, bloating, or abdominal pain caused by paralysis of the intestines.
Severe potassium deficiency can cause paralysis of the muscles or irregular heart rhythms that may lead to death.
Zinc plays a role in many aspects of the body?s metabolism. These include:
It?s also important for proper growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence. Zinc is found in animal products like oysters, red meat, and poultry. Other good sources of zinc include:
Zinc deficiency can cause loss of appetite, taste, or smell. Decreased function of the immune system and slowed growth are other symptoms.
Peripheral neuropathy, a result of damage to the nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord (peripheral nerves), often causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in your hands and feet. It can also affect other areas of your body.
Your peripheral nervous system sends information from your brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) to the rest of your body. The peripheral nerves also send sensory information to the central nervous system.
Peripheral neuropathy can result from traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic problems, inherited causes and exposure to toxins. One of the most common causes is diabetes.
People with peripheral neuropathy generally describe the pain as stabbing, burning or tingling. In many cases, symptoms improve, especially if caused by a treatable condition. Medications can reduce the pain of peripheral neuropathy. Your peripheral nervous system connects the nerves from your brain and spinal cord, or central nervous system, to the rest of your body. This includes your:
The job of these nerves is to deliver signals about physical sensations back to your brain.
Peripheral neuropathy is a disorder that occurs when these nerves malfunction because they?re damaged or destroyed. This disrupts the nerves? normal functioning. They might send signals of pain when there?s nothing causing pain, or they might not send a pain signal even if something is harming you. This can be due to:
Diabetes is a leading cause of neuropathy in the United States, although there are many other causes too. Some cases of neuropathy can be easily treated and sometimes cured. If neuropathy can?t be cured, treatment is aimed at controlling and managing symptoms and preventing further nerve damage.
Ovarian cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the ovaries. The female reproductive system contains two ovaries, one on each side of the uterus. The ovaries ? each about the size of an almond ? produce eggs (ova) as well as the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has spread within the pelvis and abdomen. At this late stage, ovarian cancer is more difficult to treat. Early-stage ovarian cancer, in which the disease is confined to the ovary, is more likely to be treated successfully.
Ovarian cancer refers to any cancerous growth that begins in the ovary. This is the part of the female body that produces eggs.
Ovarian cancer is now the fifth most common cause of cancer-related death among females in the United States. That said, deaths from ovarian cancer have been falling in the U.S. over the past 2 decades, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The ACS estimate that in 2019, around 22,530 people may receive a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Around 13,980 people are likely to die from this condition.
Typhoid fever is a systemic infection caused by Salmonella Typhi, usually through ingestion of contaminated food or water. The acute illness is characterized by prolonged fever, headache, nausea, loss of appetite, and constipation or sometimes diarrhoea. Symptoms are often non-specific and clinically non-distinguishable from other febrile illnesses. However, clinical severity varies and severe cases may lead to serious complications or even death. It occurs predominantly in association with poor sanitation and lack of clean drinking water. According to the most recent estimates, between 11 and 21 million cases and 128 000 to 161 000 typhoid-related deaths occur annually worldwide. A similar but often less severe disease, paratyphoid fever, is caused by Salmonella Paratyphi A and B (or uncommonly Paratyphi C).
Paget's disease of bone is a chronic disease of the skeleton. In healthy bone, a process called remodeling removes old pieces of bone and replaces them with new, fresh bone. Paget?s disease causes this process to shift out of balance, resulting in new bone that is abnormally shaped, weak, and brittle. Paget?s disease most often affects older people, occurring in approximately 2 to 3 percent of the population over the age of 55.
Many patients with Paget?s disease have no symptoms at all and are unaware they have the disease until x-rays are taken for some other reason. When bone pain and other symptoms are present, they can be related to the disease itself or to complications that arise from the disease?such as arthritis, bone deformity, and fractures.
In most cases, treatment for Paget?s disease involves taking medications to help slow or stop the progress of the disease. For patients who have complications, surgery may be needed to realign deformed bones or to help fractures heal.
Paget's disease can affect any bone in the skeleton. It appears most often in the spine, pelvis, long bones of the limbs, and skull. It can be present in just one bone or in several bones. It can affect the entire bone or just part of it.
In normal bone, a process called remodeling takes place every day. Bone is absorbed and then reformed in response to the normal stresses on the skeleton. More specifically:
In Paget's disease, osteoclasts are more active than osteoblasts. This means that there is more bone absorption than normal. The osteoblasts try to keep up by making new bone, but they overreact and make excess bone that is abnormally large, deformed, and fits together haphazardly.
Normal bone has a tight overlapping structure, like a well-constructed brick wall. Bone afflicted by Paget's disease has an irregular mosaic pattern, as though the bricks were just dumped in place. The end result is bones that are large and dense, but weak and brittle. The bone is prone to fractures, bowing, and deformities.
