Think of the thyroid as the thermostat for your body.

If your home [or body] was set at 50 degrees, you would be tired, cold, gain weight easily, sleep a lot have dry skin, constipation and a slow heart rate. You would want to wear extra sweaters and clothes, extra socks, and curl up on your couch/bed and not move.

That is an underactive thyroid, called HYPOTHYROIDISM.

Unfortunately, each symptom mentioned above is totally nonspecific. There are a lot of reasons to be tired, a lot of reasons to gain weight which have nothing to do with the thyroid.

If your thyroid is under-working [hypothyroid], a part of your brain called the pituitary gland tastes these low levels of thyroid hormone [called free T4] and makes an extra hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone [TSH] to push your thyroid to work better. So, the best test to determine if you have an underactive thyroid is to measure a TSH in a blood test. If it is elevated, taking a pill every day will help get your metabolism back on track. If your TSH is normal, you do not have hypothyroidism.

There are other types of thyroid problems a person can have including hyperthyroidism [overactive thyroid], goiter [enlarged thyroid], thyroid nodule [bump on the thyroid] and thyroiditis [inflammation of the thyroid].

Thanks,

Dr. Cohen