Hashimoto's What?

The thyroid is a fascinating little gland that sits in the middle of our necks, but I never gave mine much thought until I realized just how much I need it! The thyroid gland releases hormones into the body that control metabolism and many, many functions in the body. When your thyroid is underactive (hypothryoidism), everything slows down and you feel sluggish and tired all the time. When your thryoid is overactive (hyperthyroidism), your body systems go into overdrive and you can end up feeling on edge and anxious all the time. I'm part of the HIPPOthryoid crowd who gains weight by just thinking about food:)

Hypothryoidism has a few different causes. Mine happens to be something lovely called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. What in the heck is that? Well, it's a fancy way of saying my body is attacking my own thyroid gland. Weird, isn't it? It's an autoimmune condition that causes me to chew away (well, my cells do the chewing) at my beautiful, healthy thyroid tissue. Why does this happen? I'm really not sure. But it's more common than you might think. And it could be happening to YOU!

One of the reasons I came down with so many infections for so many years was that my body was so busy attacking my thyroid gland that my defenses were down. Crazy how our bodies can be completely distracted that they let in viruses that they normally could fight off. For instance, in 2008, I was on antibiotics for 6 different infections. I was even sent for a CAT scan of my sinuses. In 2009, I was only on antibiotics once. What a difference!

I think the reason thryoid disease is so difficult to detect is because it mimics many other things. For example, my lightheadness and syncopal (passing out) episodes were thought to be a heart condition. I even had to wear a heart monitor at home for a month and go to the heart center at our hospital for testing. As it turns out, ever since I went on thyroid replacement hormone (Synthroid), I'm not lightheaded or passing out anymore. What was happening was that my low functioning thryoid gland was affecting how my pancreas was working, causing me to have low blood sugar. Low blood sugar will surely cause you to feel lighheaded and occasionally pass out. Amazing!

Diagnosing thyroid disease seems pretty straightforward, but it does have some pitfalls to be aware of. There are a few simple blood tests that can show if your thryoid is over or under active. However, in some situations like mine, the thyroid starts failing slowly and symptoms appear before the bloodwork shows anything. This is because our blood levels of thryoid hormone flucuate a lot during the day. So you can have two very different readings a few days or even hours apart. That's why I know now that it's so important to listen to your body! Obviously I knew something was terribly wrong with mine. But not every physician will treat hypothyroidism if the bloodwork is borderline, even if you have symptoms. This was where I was. Looking back, I should have found a physician who was more in tune with the whole picture. I don't know if it would have saved me those extra 40lbs, but it might have saved me a few!

The blood tests you need are TSH and T4. This will get you started. But if these come back normal, and you're beginning to have symptoms, ask to have the bloodwork redone in a few months. For some reason, hypothyroidism can be triggered by pregnancy, which I think triggered mine. Perhaps it's the huge demands placed on the body that tire out your thyroid? The scary part of that is that hypothyroidism can lead to miscarriage and future infertility because you stop ovulating, so you want to be sure this doesn't go untreated if you want to have a baby! Well, you wouldn't want it to go untreated no matter what.......but it can have really sad consequences.

It's funny that the more I write about this, the more passionate I feel! I think because I felt so yucky for so long, and it all boiled down to something really simple that could be changed by taking a tiny purple pill each morning. And that brings me to another thought I had. Because my HIPPOthryoidism is caused by Hashimotos Disease, I need to be on replacement thryoid hormone forever. But not everyone needs to be. It depends on the cause. I have to say, though, that being on it has made me feel like a million bucks! The changes are remarkable. I even started growing my hair back!!

I could go on and on, but I'm not sure everyone wants to hear about my bodily functions for much longer:) What I do hope is that maybe somebody out there will read this and start putting pieces of her own puzzle together. They say 1 in 10 women have an underactive thryoid, but it often takes years to diagnose.

Nobody wants to be a HIPPO. I definately didn't:)