With You Or Against You? How Your Body Works Against You in Hashimoto"s Thyroiditis
When your immune system starts to work against your own tissues, what you have is a condition called an autoimmune disease.
The first autoimmune disease to be classified as such is Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Hashimoto's disease.
What is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis? Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease wherein the T-cells produced by the immune system to fight against what the immune system perceives as foreign -- and therefore, a threat -- starts to attack the cells of the thyroid gland itself.
This causes irritation and swelling of the thyroid gland, rendering it unable to produce the hormones necessary to maintain the body's metabolism.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis was named after the Japanese physician Hashimoto Hakaru, who first described the disorder in a German publication in 1912.
Since then, it has become one of the most common causes of hypothyroidism in areas with sufficient iodine sources.
Symptoms -- What to Look Out For Most of the symptoms of Hashimoto's thyroiditis is associated with the low concentrations of thyroid hormone in circulation in the blood.
These symptoms include fatigue and extreme somnolence, constipation, mental sluggishness, decreased cardiac output, intolerance to cold, and sometimes, a slight gain in weight.
There could also be failure of the trophic functions of the body as evidenced by scaly skin, depressed hair growth, and the development of a husky voice.
There could also be development of a swelling of the thyroid gland known as a goiter.
Due to the low levels of thyroid hormone, your pituitary gland keeps secreting thyroid-stimulating hormone or TSH to stimulate the thyroid gland to activity.
Because of this constant stimulation and the thyroid gland's inability to secrete thyroid hormone, the thyroid glands starts to swell instead.
Diagnosis -- How Your Doctor Knows You Have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis There are several blood tests that may hint at a patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
These are the measurement of the concentrations of thyroid hormone present in circulation.
Total thyroxine, free thyroxine, and triiodothyronine are commonly used to screen for thyroid disorders.
Total thyroxine is the amount of thyroxine released in the bloodstream, both bound and free.
Thyroxine is commonly found bound to a protein called thyroxine-binding globulin or TBG.
Unless it is bound to TBG, thyroxine can exert its effect on the tissues of the body.
Triiodothyronine is the other hormone produced by the thyroid gland and can cause an effect on the tissues faster than thyroxine.
Most of the thyroxine released from the thyroid gland is eventually converted to triiodothyronine.
If your doctor finds your thyroid hormone levels to be lower than usual, he might suspect you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and request several more blood tests to confirm it.
These tests include tests for autoantibodies that attack your thyroid gland like antibodies against thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase.
Most people with Hashimoto's thyroiditis have high levels of these antibodies.
Other tests include fine needle aspiration biopsy, nuclear medicine scans, and ultrasound of the thyroid gland.
Patient's with Hashimoto's thyroiditis often show lymphocytes and macrophages in FNA biopsies.
Treatment -- How Do You Recover From Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis may be treated with small amounts of thyroid hormone to make up for the lack of the hormone.
In cases when the goiter poses a problem in swallowing or breathing or is getting to be a cosmetic disaster, levothyroxine may be given to shrink the thyroid.
If this intervention does not work, surgery may be recommended.
When your own immune system starts to work against you, there is very little treatment that could ensure complete recovery.
However, some studies show that treatment with levothyroxine may significantly reduce the lymphocytes and macrophages responsible for Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
The first autoimmune disease to be classified as such is Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Hashimoto's disease.
What is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis? Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease wherein the T-cells produced by the immune system to fight against what the immune system perceives as foreign -- and therefore, a threat -- starts to attack the cells of the thyroid gland itself.
This causes irritation and swelling of the thyroid gland, rendering it unable to produce the hormones necessary to maintain the body's metabolism.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis was named after the Japanese physician Hashimoto Hakaru, who first described the disorder in a German publication in 1912.
Since then, it has become one of the most common causes of hypothyroidism in areas with sufficient iodine sources.
Symptoms -- What to Look Out For Most of the symptoms of Hashimoto's thyroiditis is associated with the low concentrations of thyroid hormone in circulation in the blood.
These symptoms include fatigue and extreme somnolence, constipation, mental sluggishness, decreased cardiac output, intolerance to cold, and sometimes, a slight gain in weight.
There could also be failure of the trophic functions of the body as evidenced by scaly skin, depressed hair growth, and the development of a husky voice.
There could also be development of a swelling of the thyroid gland known as a goiter.
Due to the low levels of thyroid hormone, your pituitary gland keeps secreting thyroid-stimulating hormone or TSH to stimulate the thyroid gland to activity.
Because of this constant stimulation and the thyroid gland's inability to secrete thyroid hormone, the thyroid glands starts to swell instead.
Diagnosis -- How Your Doctor Knows You Have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis There are several blood tests that may hint at a patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
These are the measurement of the concentrations of thyroid hormone present in circulation.
Total thyroxine, free thyroxine, and triiodothyronine are commonly used to screen for thyroid disorders.
Total thyroxine is the amount of thyroxine released in the bloodstream, both bound and free.
Thyroxine is commonly found bound to a protein called thyroxine-binding globulin or TBG.
Unless it is bound to TBG, thyroxine can exert its effect on the tissues of the body.
Triiodothyronine is the other hormone produced by the thyroid gland and can cause an effect on the tissues faster than thyroxine.
Most of the thyroxine released from the thyroid gland is eventually converted to triiodothyronine.
If your doctor finds your thyroid hormone levels to be lower than usual, he might suspect you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and request several more blood tests to confirm it.
These tests include tests for autoantibodies that attack your thyroid gland like antibodies against thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase.
Most people with Hashimoto's thyroiditis have high levels of these antibodies.
Other tests include fine needle aspiration biopsy, nuclear medicine scans, and ultrasound of the thyroid gland.
Patient's with Hashimoto's thyroiditis often show lymphocytes and macrophages in FNA biopsies.
Treatment -- How Do You Recover From Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis may be treated with small amounts of thyroid hormone to make up for the lack of the hormone.
In cases when the goiter poses a problem in swallowing or breathing or is getting to be a cosmetic disaster, levothyroxine may be given to shrink the thyroid.
If this intervention does not work, surgery may be recommended.
When your own immune system starts to work against you, there is very little treatment that could ensure complete recovery.
However, some studies show that treatment with levothyroxine may significantly reduce the lymphocytes and macrophages responsible for Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
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