Thursday, 23 March 2017

Knowing More About Your Goitre

This disease affects the thyroid gland, which happens to grow in size due to lack or excess of some key ingredients. The thyroid gland resides at the front of the throat, below the larynx also known as Adam’s apple. The thyroid gland plays a very important function in our system. It makes thyroid hormones called thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), which spreads in the body through the bloodstream.

Thyroxine helps to keep your body functions in proper condition.

Some of the signs and symptoms which would help you detect goitre are the enlargement of the throat which can differ in size from a lump to a huge mass of flesh. You will face problems while swallowing your food due to enlargement as well as breathing problems. As the enlarged tissue presses on to the windpipe and oesophagus it becomes difficult to breathe and swallow.

Some of the very common causes for goitre are:

Insufficiency of iodine in your diet
Consuming foods which negate the iodine factor of your diet also creates pathways for goitre
Intake of drugs such as lithium and phenylbutazone is also a one of the cause is also a one of the cause
The effects of thyroid cancer
Growth of nodules on the thyroid gland
Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland)
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland)

There are two types of goitre which can be classified as Endemic Goitre and Sporadic Goitre.

Endemic Goitre – It can be said that this type of goitre is similar to an epidemic wherein, not an individual is affected but the whole area or community residing in a specific place gets affected. The lack of iodine is the major cause and in far-fetched places, it becomes even more difficult to provide the proper care.

Sporadic Goitre – Here an individual is affected and the reasons could be as common as family history, lack of iodine in the diet and women succumb to goitre more than men.

Some of the treatment options you can try for the patients are

Intake of iodine-rich diet.
By using drugs as mentioned by your doctor, you would see a change in your health
Removal of the nodules present in the system either by medication or surgery.