Thyroid Hormone Imbalance: What Does This Mean?

Very often, we confront several cases of infertility and sudden weight gain among the adolescent female teens of today. When consulted with a medical practitioner, the reason behind such health problems turns out to be the thyroid hormone imbalance within their body. But what does this really mean? What are the symptoms and the implications of this thyroid hormone imbalance? Here is the right article that can offer you the answers to these queries in detail.
 
What is Thyroid Hormone Imbalance?
 
Thyroid glands are the butterfly shaped glands that lies beneath the muscles and the skin of the frontal neck portion within the human body. This gland is responsible for the secretion of thyroid, a hormone that is vital for growth and body metabolism. The thyroid glands secrete this hormone with the aid of iodine and tyrosine supplied to it by our body.
 
When the production of this hormone reduces or goes beyond the required level, it has a direct reflection on the bone structure and sexual development within the body. The excessive production of thyroid by the thyroid gland is often referred to as hyperthyroidism, while the reduced secretion of thyroid is commonly referred to as the hypothyroidism. Though the actual cause of this problem is under clinical investigation, hereditary factors account to majority of such incidences today.
 
Hyperthyroidism
 
Hyperthyroidism is the thyroid hormone imbalance that results in increased body metabolism associated with a greater stimulation of the nervous, muscular and the cardiac system within the body.
 
Restlessness, difficulty in sleeping, increased perspiration, shaky hands, emotional disturbances, irregular menstrual cycles, elevated appetite and increased intolerance to heat are a few common symptoms of hyperthyroidism.
 
Infertility, eyelid recantation, myasthenia gravis, reduction in libido, bulging of eyes, heart beat rate elevation, changes in sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels are often the complications associated with hyperthyroidism.

This hormonal imbalance can be cured with the help of drug therapy or surgery. Non surgical measures like hormone imbalance diet and planned workouts can help in alleviating the problem on a long term.

Hypothyroidism

It is the thyroid hormone imbalance that results in decreased thyroid secretion thereby resulting in reduced metabolism within the body.

It gets reflected in the form of weakness, sluggishness, dry skin, intolerance to cols, cramps in the muscles, weight gain, constipation, anaemia and reduction in blood pressure.

Complications include psychosis, myxedema coma, cardiac problems, memory impairment and deafness. Thyroid hormone replacement therapy given orally can help in curing this problem. Intravenous thyroid injections and medications can also help in alleviating this thyroid hormone imbalance.

Irrespective of the type of thyroid hormone imbalance it is important to monitor the TSH, T4 and T3 levels of the body periodically so that the imbalance could be detected and treated early with ease.