How to prevent thyroid disease

The thy­roid gland is our ener­gy gen­er­a­tor. It depends on her whether you will be cheer­ful and fit or always tired, plump and suf­fer­ing from depres­sion. How to keep your thy­roid healthy?

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There are two most com­mon thy­roid dis­or­ders: autoim­mune thy­roidi­tis and nodu­lar goi­ter (Graves’ dis­ease). These dis­eases are insid­i­ous in that in the ear­ly stages they almost do not man­i­fest them­selves. Only some­times a per­son can be both­ered by weak­ness, drowsi­ness, fatigue. Fig­u­ra­tive­ly speak­ing, life begins to lose its col­ors … Autoim­mune dis­eases, includ­ing thy­roidi­tis, are one of the biggest med­ical mys­ter­ies. Until now, no one knows exact­ly what trig­gers the process of their devel­op­ment. But it is believed that thy­roidi­tis is pro­voked by bad hered­i­ty, stress and viral infec­tions. In any case, its pre­ven­tion is not an easy task. But the nodu­lar goi­ter is formed due to a banal lack of iodine.

Iodized Thyroid Salt

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Read more: 5 thy­roid myths

Since we live in a region with a nat­ur­al iodine defi­cien­cy, iodized salt should be used by every fam­i­ly. By the way, from salt, which is sold now, iodine no longer evap­o­rates dur­ing the ther­mal pro­cess­ing of food. The fact is that ear­li­er mol­e­c­u­lar iodine was used for pro­duc­tion, which had a very low melt­ing point (about 40–500). Now potas­si­um iodide is used. This com­pound is very resis­tant to heat. Its melt­ing point is about 5000. And ordi­nary stoves can only be heat­ed up to 2400. There­fore, it is not nec­es­sary to add iodized salt to already pre­pared food.

How much iodine is needed for thyroid health?

The dai­ly norm of iodine is 100 mcg (1 tsp. Spoon with­out top). But if you have any dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, then iodine may not be absorbed. There­fore con­sul­ta­tion of the gas­troen­terol­o­gist is nec­es­sary. As a rule, the bal­ance of iodine in the body quick­ly nor­mal­izes. As a result, not only well-being improves, but also appear­ance. Hair becomes shiny, nails stop break­ing, weight returns to nor­mal. You should not be afraid of an excess of iodine. Salt does not cause it. But phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal prepa­ra­tions can. There­fore, you should not take iodine in tablets with­out a doc­tor’s pre­scrip­tion, and in no case should you take a solu­tion of iodine inside. Iodine tinc­ture con­tains a huge amount of iodine. Such self-med­ica­tion can lead to an over­dose.

Signs of thyroid disease

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If you feel well, there is no need to check the thy­roid gland “just in case”. How­ev­er, for the pre­ven­tion of thy­roid dis­eases, it is nec­es­sary to vis­it an endocri­nol­o­gist every two years. And def­i­nite­ly dur­ing preg­nan­cy. If you are expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety symp­toms such as:

• Sud­den fluc­tu­a­tions in weight (for no appar­ent rea­son)
• Dry skin, exces­sive hair loss
• Irreg­u­lar or heavy peri­ods
• sweat­ing
• Tachy­car­dia
• Diges­tive prob­lems, fre­quent con­sti­pa­tion
• Sleep dis­or­ders
• Prob­lems with con­cen­tra­tion
• Con­stant fatigue
• Fre­quent and sud­den mood swings

or felt a knot in the neck, do not hes­i­tate to see a doc­tor. The spe­cial­ist will feel the thy­roid gland and, if nec­es­sary, pre­scribe an ultra­sound. This study is car­ried out to iden­ti­fy nodes that can degen­er­ate into a malig­nant tumor. But there is no need to pan­ic. Most for­ma­tions are benign. Accord­ing to sta­tis­tics, no more than 5% of nodes can become the cause of can­cer. But to exclude even this small prob­a­bil­i­ty, the doc­tor may pre­scribe a punc­ture biop­sy, as well as a blood test for thy­roid hor­mones. Most often, for screen­ing, you need to donate only blood for TSH. TSH norms for women are 0.4–4 μIU / ml, for preg­nant women — 25–2.5 μIU / ml. If nec­es­sary, the doc­tor will check the lev­el of oth­er hor­mones — T3 and T4. The analy­sis is giv­en in the morn­ing on an emp­ty stom­ach. Elim­i­nate fat­ty foods and alco­hol 1–2 days before the study. It is advis­able to avoid seri­ous phys­i­cal exer­tion and stress, since any “shake” can affect the func­tion­ing of the gland.

And how to quick­ly get rid of stress, see our video.

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