Is my thyroid making me fat?
THE thyroid is a small gland located below the skin and muscles at the front of the neck, just at the spot where a bow tie would rest. But as small as it may be, the thyroid is the part of the body that manufactures the hormones that help control metabolism and growth in a person.
Dr Heron Edwards, general practitioner at Edwards Medical Centre, said as a result, if there is a problem with the thyroid it can control whether a person is thin or fat.
“If the thyroid is overactive it can make you slim; if it is underactive it can make you fat and make you [susceptible] to putting on weight,” Dr Edwards explained.
He explained that what the thyroid does is produce a hormone called thyroxin that helps to maintain the metabolism, which has to do with how the body works and how well it works.
“So if you produce too much of that hormone, you end up using up a lot of energy and that is one reason why you lose weight. And the opposite happens if it is underactive and not working as well as it should,” he said.
Because the thyroid affects the metabolism and how the body functions, it can also cause persons to get very nervous.
“Persons who have an overactive thyroid tend to find themselves getting nervous or frightened easily or they may feel their hearts racing, have excessive sweating, or they may feel very hot especially when others around them are not feeling hot,” the doctor said.
If it is doing the opposite where it is not producing the hormones, the body’s metabolism slows down, making it easier to put on pounds. The person can also feel very depressed and he/she can get very cold, when others are not feeling cold.
In order to identify what type of thyroid problem a person may have, Dr Edwards said the various symptoms have to be first identified.
“It is a matter of the different symptoms,” Dr Edwards said. “If the thyroid is overactive then the person might find that they get nervous, frightened, very jittery, and they can feel their heart racing (palpitating).”
He said the situation could get bad to the point where if the thyroid is overactive, it can actually cause the heart not to work properly, in that it is beating so fast that it does not pump the blood properly.
If the thyroid is underactive persons may find that they feel very depressed, very lazy, get very cold, they can also get heart problems because the metabolism slows down and can cause heart blockage — where the cholesterol in the blood builds up much easier.
“So they can get heart attack earlier than usual, especially if they don’t do anything about it by treating the thyroid problem,” Dr Edwards warned.
Other complications that can occur as a result of the thyroid not functioning as it should are:
1. Persons can get the goiter (a swelling in the thyroid gland, which can lead to a swelling of the neck or larynx (voice box) if the thyroid is underactive.
2. The thyroid can get swollen if it is overactive.
3. Swelling of the feet — This can occur in both overactive and underactive thyroid.
