Wednesday, February 14, 2007
WHAT IF IM DEFICIENT? :(
There's a lot that can interfere with a thyroid's normal generation of me, the most well-known being iodine deficiency. Without adequate supply of this crucial element, the thyroid can't synthesize me. The gland enlarges as it tries to take up more iodine, leading to goiter. This condition can be prevented with iodine supplements, and many industrialized countries now iodize salt.
But other thyroid problems aren't related to iodine deficiency. For example, Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes the thyroid to underproduce me. And people who have had their thyroids surgically removed, or destroyed with radioactive iodine as treatments for thyroid cancer or the hyperthyroid autoimmune disorder known as Grave's disease.
Fortunately, these conditions can be alleviated for the most part by simply swallowing a replacement dose of synthetic thyroxine (remember my friends?), a lifesaver for the large number of people with thyroid disorders. Today, more than 10 million people in the U.S. take synthetic thyroxine. Synthroid, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories and the most popular brand of synthetic thyroxine, is the second-most prescribed drug in the U.S.
For many years, desiccated animal thyroid was the source of T4 used by doctors and was touted as a near-perfect medical therapy. But, as researchers have discovered, the complete biochemical picture of the thyroid's most important ingredient, me, is far more complex.
Even today, the medical community debates about my role and the best way to use it.
Doctors and researchers recognized the thyroid's role in metabolism as far back as the late 1800s. Then, preeminent surgeon Theodor Kocher, who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1909 for his perfection of surgical thyroidectomy techniques, noted that many of his patients after surgery eventually developed the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Soon, doctors found that injecting these patients with thyroid extracts from sheep reversed the symptoms. Even better, they found that patients could take the extracts orally to the same effect.
grow with me 7:32 PMThere's a lot that can interfere with a thyroid's normal generation of me, the most well-known being iodine deficiency. Without adequate supply of this crucial element, the thyroid can't synthesize me. The gland enlarges as it tries to take up more iodine, leading to goiter. This condition can be prevented with iodine supplements, and many industrialized countries now iodize salt.
But other thyroid problems aren't related to iodine deficiency. For example, Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes the thyroid to underproduce me. And people who have had their thyroids surgically removed, or destroyed with radioactive iodine as treatments for thyroid cancer or the hyperthyroid autoimmune disorder known as Grave's disease.
Fortunately, these conditions can be alleviated for the most part by simply swallowing a replacement dose of synthetic thyroxine (remember my friends?), a lifesaver for the large number of people with thyroid disorders. Today, more than 10 million people in the U.S. take synthetic thyroxine. Synthroid, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories and the most popular brand of synthetic thyroxine, is the second-most prescribed drug in the U.S.
For many years, desiccated animal thyroid was the source of T4 used by doctors and was touted as a near-perfect medical therapy. But, as researchers have discovered, the complete biochemical picture of the thyroid's most important ingredient, me, is far more complex.
Even today, the medical community debates about my role and the best way to use it.
Doctors and researchers recognized the thyroid's role in metabolism as far back as the late 1800s. Then, preeminent surgeon Theodor Kocher, who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1909 for his perfection of surgical thyroidectomy techniques, noted that many of his patients after surgery eventually developed the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Soon, doctors found that injecting these patients with thyroid extracts from sheep reversed the symptoms. Even better, they found that patients could take the extracts orally to the same effect.
