Jocie Delk

Professor Penny

ENG 1201

25 April 2020

How does your thyroid affect your body?

20 million Americans have thyroid disorders, but more than half remain undiagnosed

(“Thyroid Disease”). Many people around the world have some kind of underlying health issues.

Whether or not it is your immune system, cancer, or any other serious types of disease. Like

most people, your thyroid does amazing things for your body. But unlike some unlucky people,

they can have issues with it otherwise known as a Thyroid Disorder. Thyroid disorders can cause

our bodies to react in many different ways whether it is hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, or

thyroid cancer.

I think for starters in this essay, I should tell everyone what a thyroid gland is. The

thyroid gland is a butterfly shaped gland in the base of your neck or right underneath your

“adams’ apple” ( Brady). It is part of the endocrine system for your body which helps regulate

your metabolism, growth and development, tissue function, sleep, mood, and many other things (

Zimmermann). The thyroid gland is considered your master metabolic control center because it

controls so many different parts of your body ( Zimmermann). The gland controls your body's

vital functions meaning your heart rate, how your skin is maintenanced, your growth, your

body's temperature regulation, your fertility, and your metabolic digestion ( Zimmerman). The

way the thyroid works is by producing a TSH level or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, which is

sent to your pituitary gland and your pituitary gland then sends out signals to release thyroid cells

into your body to regulate it (Brady). When one of the levels for your thyroid changes is too
much or too little, it causes issues for your thyroid. Luckily for men, it is not very common to

have a thyroid disorder but for women, we aren’t so lucky because it is way more common in

females than males. It can affect any type of race, but it tends to be more in Cacausin, Hispanics,

and Asians rather than African Americans (Imam). Now that you have some background

information on the thyroid gland, let me tell you about myself first.

When I turned twelve years old, I was told that I had to start having my blood drawn

every six months to watch my thyroid numbers due to numbers being close to being out of spec.

I did this until I was eighteen and was a freshman in college. In December of 2018, I was

diagnosed with a Hypothyroidism disorder. My initial reaction was not probably the best because

I didn’t think it was going to really affect my body or what I was doing. Two years later after

being put on medication to help my thyroid, I can personally confirm that it does affect you and

how you act. I have gained so much more weight since I got diagnosed back in 2018. That is one

of the main issues I have had since diagnosis, I can’t lose weight even if I cut calories or go to

the gym. It is one of my main struggles with this disorder. But I am not the only one who has this

issue.

My whole family and doctor knew I was going to get a thyroid disorder, but we just

didn’t know when. My mother and her sister, Tracie and Nikki, both got diagnosed with a

thyroid disorder when they were younger. My mother was thirteen years old and her sister was

eight years old (Tracie). We knew that eventually when they would have children, and that their

thyroid disorders would be inherited to them. I was told that when my mother got put on

Levothyroxine for her thyroid, she could feel an energy increase and was able to focus more

(Tracie). This is the one disorder we all have in common, Hypothyroidism.

 Hypothyroidism is a decreased amount of production of your thyroid hormone which is

impaired action of thyroid hormones on target tissues (Luiz). This means that your thyroid is

slow or has stopped working. When I got diagnosed with it at eighteen years old, I did not think

it was actually going to affect me. But two years later, I am almost twenty and I can say it has

affected me mentally and physically. Hypothyroidism can affect you by making you tired,

depressed, causing heavy menstrual cycles, difficulty concentrating, and many more (Brady).

The list of symptoms that can be associated with Hypothyroidism is endless because they are

constantly finding new things about how it affects you. To this day, there are days where I can

receive up to 10 to maybe 13 hours of sleep and still be exhausted. Another symptom I had was

the heavy menstrual cycles because whenever I had my menstrual cycle, the first day I would

throw up and become so weak that I would have to call off work because I couldn’t lift my head.

Usually Hypothyroidism is found early and treated immediately with a drug called

Levothyroxine. There are other ways supposedly to help treat Hypothyroidism but they are not

recommended by a doctor. If it is caught late, it can lead to life-threatening complications.

Hypothyroidism does have a similar disease that some people get confused with which is

Hashimoto’s Disease.

Hashimoto’s disease is an immune disorder that causes abnormal white blood cells or

lymphocytes to attack thyroid cells (Stark). Hashimoto’s disease was first reported in 1912 by

Hakaru Hashimoto (Luiz). He had that four of his patients had a chronic disorder with the

thyroid, and he called it struma lymphomatosa (Luiz). A few years later, other doctors found

what they call T3 and T4. T3 is known as triiodothyronine, discovered by Gross and Pitt-Rivers

in 1952 and T4 is known as levothyroxine, discovered by Kendall in 1912 but Barger and

Harington synthesized it in 1927 (Luiz). Later, it became known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I

had a coworker, Macy, who actually had just found out that she had Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

She told me that it always made her tired or feel sluggish and even had issues with losing weight

(Macy). Some of the symptoms that affect your body from Hashimoto’s is weight gain, fatigue,

intolerance to cold, constipation, and hair loss (Stark). Her symptoms sounded so similar to mine

but the difference between our types of thyroid disorders, was that hers attacks her own immune

system and mine does not. We have one of the same common symptoms with our disorders

though.

For about a year now of using Levothyroxine to help my thyroid reach where it is

supposed to meet, I can say I have struggled so much with my weight and my tiredness. There

are days, where if I don’t have to work, I usually do not get out of bed until at least two or three

in the afternoon after being in bed for ten or more hours. Having hypothyroidism does take a toll

on your body whether it is your moods or tiredness or heavy menstruals. I am just constantly

exhausted and so is my mother, Tracie. My mother gets up at 6:00 am for work, Monday through

Friday, and usually has to take at least a two hour nap in order to make it through the day

because of this disorder (Tracie). There is also another type of thyroid disorder that is opposite of

Hypothyroidism and it is called Hyperthyroidism.

Hyperthyroidism is an increased thyroid hormone synthesis and secretion (Imam). When

you have hyperthyroidism, your thyroid gland works quickly and can cause it to produce too

much thyroid hormone. When it works quickly, sometimes it is caused by multinodular goiter or

toxic nodules on your thyroid gland (Aleppo). A multinodular goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland

(Hersh). Your thyroid is pretty small to be able to fit inside your neck, but when you have a

goiter, the increased size creates a hard to look at image. The image is one of those “eye sores”

because all you can look at is the enlarged thyroid gland. A toxic nodule is an enlarged thyroid
gland that includes a small round mass(es) called nodules, they produce too much thyroid

hormone (UCLA). Both of these create Hyperthyroidism because they increase the thyroid

hormone release. While Hyperthyroidism is usually more energetic than Hypothyroidism

patients which makes it harder to gain weight for those who have it, it also creates anxiety, mood

swings, skin dryness, troubled sleeping, and light menstrual cycles (Aleppo). My friend’s

mother, Limari, actually had hyperthyroidism before she got thyroid cancer. She told me that

when she was younger it was hard for her to control herself or sit still (Limari). I was even told

that there were times that she would get asked if she had ADHD instead of hyperthyroidism

(Limari). Both of the thyroid disorders are very common and very similar. It just depends on if

you are overactive or underactive with your T4 and TSH levels. Another disorder that is also

very similar to Hyperthyroidism and most people get confused with is Graves Disease.

Graves Disease is actually just like Hashimoto’s Disease because it is also an immune

disorder. Unlike Hashimoto’s though, Graves attacks multiple organs and makes them

dysfunction causing it to be very dangerous (Imam). One of the main areas it likes to attack is the

eyes. When you have Graves Disease and tends to attack your eyes and it causes retraction of

your upper eyelid, edema, and erythema in your periorbital tissues (Bahn). When Graves disease

is present in your body, not only do you have an enlarged thyroid sticking out like an eye sore in

your neck but you also have eyes either swollen or look like they are going to pop out of your

head. This disease was discovered in 1835 by a doctor named Robert J. Graves (Toft). Another

term used to describe Graves Disease is Basedow’s disease after another doctor described the

disease in 1840 without realizing that the Doctor Graves had already discovered it (Toft). Graves

disease is one of the more serious types of disease because it does affect your organs and not just
your immune system. One that is even more dangerous than any of these types of disorder is

Thyroid Cancer.

Like I said previously up in the paragraph about Hyperthyroidism, my friend’s mother,

Limari, had also had thyroid cancer as well as Hyperthyroidism. For her, it first started out as

Hyperthyroidism and turned into thyroid cancer later on in her life. I asked her some questions

about what it was like having thyroid cancer because I knew my thyroid disorder,

hypothyroidism, was so much of a struggle for me. I wanted to know what it was like to have

thyroid cancer. For those of you wondering, she did have it taken out by surgery and is cancer

free (Limari). Thyroid cancer is actually one of the most curable cancers there is and has a high

successful rate. Depending on what type of thyroid cancer you have, some of the chances you

have might increase or decrease your survival rate.

There are four types of thyroid cancer. The most common type of thyroid cancer there is,

is Papillary Thyroid Cancer (Clayman). The others are Follicular Thyroid Cancer, Medullary

Thyroid Cancer, and the most rare one which is Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer (Clayman). The one

that my friend’s mother had, Limari, had the most common one which was Papillary thyroid

cancer. She told me it didn’t really affect her body, the only thing it did was cause pain in her

throat like a sore throat (Limari). All of these cancers have some effect on our bodies and there

can be also not really any effect at all.

Papillary Thyroid Cancer is a mass or nodule found on your thyroid gland (Clayman).

This is the most common one and has the most success rate of survival because of how common

it is. When you have this, it is common for you to have trouble swallowing, hoarse voice, and

throat pain (Rehan). So when Limari said she did not feel anything at all other than a sore throat,

she was right on target with the common symptoms someone could have. Follicular Thyroid
Cancer is a more aggressive type of nodule or lump on the thyroid gland (Norman). This one

usually only occurs after radiation therapy used to treat Papillary Thyroid Cancer (Norman).

Now Medullary Thyroid Cancer is a rare cancer still associated with a lump on the neck that you

can see or see a nodule on your thyroid gland. This type of cancer is actually one of the harder

ones to diagnose because there are no symptoms other than creating a bunch of diarrhea because

of the increased production of calcitonin (Clayman). Lastly, the rarest one is Anaplastic Thyroid

Cancer. This is a goiter on your thyroid gland that has been growing for twenty years or so after

constant radiation therapy. Unfortunately for this type of cancer, it is common for someone to

live only for the next year or so because it spreads quickly throughout your body, first attacking

your throat and moving down toward the heart (Norman). All of these cancers typically do not

have any signs other than a visible bump on your neck or do not have any symptoms. They all

play a much more serious role on your body and how they affect you or a loved one even without

being a visible issue. Another issue no one asks about is how does someone act if they were born

without a thyroid.

My friend, Molly, was actually born without a thyroid gland.. I met Molly around 2016 at

one of my first jobs. This was before I had even been diagnosed with my Hypothyroidism. We

worked together and became very good friends very quickly because we constantly worked

together. Within the first year of knowing her, she had told me she was born without a thyroid

gland. I was very stunned because I have never met someone who could possibly have no thyroid

gland. I asked her several questions about how it affected her like how does it feel, or are you

sluggish or hyperactive. All these questions I asked she answered without hesitation, like she was

waiting for someone to ask her these things. She had told me that since she doesn’t have a

thyroid, she has days where she is sluggish and days where she is hyper (Molly). She also told
me about how she takes medication that are synthetic and act as a thyroid gland (Molly). While

Molly did have some other issues, the most common one was that her menstrual cycles either

were very light or nonexistent, making her have to take medication for that as well (Molly). Till

this day, I still can’t believe that she was born without a thyroid and that she could live without

one. I just knew it was very rare for someone to not have thyroid gland.

All these disorders and diseases affect your body either physically or mentally.

Personally, I have terrible anxiety because of my thyroid because not only does it affect me

mentally, it also affects me physically because it also discourages me from doing certain things.

There are many types of disorders that can come from just your thyroid. All the ones I named

during the course of this paper is only from that gland. Imagine when you get to your heart or

lungs. There are so many things yet to learn about the human body that we don’t know so much

about.

What I’ve learned from this topic about your thyroid gland is that it is a butterfly shaped

organ that controls your vital functions such as heartbeat, growth, temperature regulation,

fertility, and digestion ( Zimmerman). The location of this organ is at the base of your neck or

just underneath your “adam's apple” (Brady). When I asked the question, How does your thyroid

affect your body? My answer to this is that it affects it in so many ways, that it is endless.

If you are like me and my family, then with Hypothyroidism, you are sluggish, and

anxious. Those are just two symptoms that can be named off the top of my head that affect my

family and I dramatically. Other symptoms you have for Hypothyroidism disorder is making you

tired, depressed, causing heavy menstrual cycles, difficulty concentrating, and many more

(Brady). The other type of disease most people get confused with Hypothyroidism is

Hashimoto’s Disease. This disease is an autoimmune disease that causes abnormal white blood
cells or lymphocytes to attack thyroid cells (Stark). This disease can cause your body to gain

weight, be fatigue, become intolerant to cold, have constipation, and increased hair loss (Stark).

For Hyperthyroidism, I know that when you have this disorder that it causes you to become

hyperactive or energetic. This disorder is an increased production of thyroid hormones (Aleppo).

This also makes you anxious, have mood swings, skin dryness, have trouble sleeping, and have

light menstrual cycles (Aleppo). The other type of disorder people get mixed with

Hyperthyroidism is Graves Disease. Graves Disease is like Hashimoto’s Disease because it is an

immune disorder. It attacks multiple organs and makes them dysfunction causing it to be very

dangerous (Imam). It is associated with Hyperthyroidism because it does produce too much

thyroid hormones, T4 and TSH. The area it likes to attack is your eyes and skin by causing them

to swell or retract your eyelids back. For the last type of thyroid disorders, I talked about Thyroid

cancer. There are four types which include Papillary, Follicular, Medullary, and Anaplastic

(Clayman). The one that is most common is Papillary and the least common one or more deadly

cancer is Anaplastic. All of these cancers deal with a toxic nodule or bump on your thyroid gland

that is visible to the human eye. There aren’t many symptoms of these cancers except that they

can cause a hoarse voice, troubled swallowing, or throat pain (Rehan). Medullary can cause

excessive diarrhea because of the increased production of calcitonin by the goiter on your gland

(Clayman). All of these thyroid disorders mostly affect women and not men. Note that all of my

personal references are all female because females mostly get these disorders due to having more

experience of different kinds of hormones throughout their lives.

Most thyroid disorders are not visible to the human eye. People struggle everyday with

these types of thyroid disorders. Whether it’s Hypothyroidism, Hyperthyroidism, Hashimoto’s

Disease, Graves Disease, or even Thyroid Cancer. You could be in a grocery store and see
someone look perfectly healthy, but underneath they could be exhausted or feel sluggish because

of Hypothyroidism. While another person who has some thin spots in their hair could be dealing

with Hashimoto’s Disease. Another person could be overactive or “hyper” and someone could

think that the person could have another issue wrong with them when it’s simply

Hyperthyroidism. You could be working and have a customer and their eyes might look a little

different because their eye tissues are retracting from Graves Disease. None of these disorders

are visible unless you have a malignant nodule on your thyroid gland then it turns into a bump on

your neck. Most of these aren’t visible to your eye unless you specifically know to look for them.

It’s important to be kind to everyone you meet because you never know what someone could be

dealing with on the inside.

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