Hashimoto’s Thyroid? What’s This All About?

By far, Hashimoto’s thyroid is the number one cause of thyroid problems in the United States.  However, it doesn’t mean that doctors or endocrinologists across the board test all of their patients for it.  The main difference between Hashimoto’s Thyroid and a “plain jane” thyroid problem is that it’s actually an autoimmune issue.

What does Hashimoto’s Thyroid really mean?

This means that the immune system has gone haywire and is now attacking self tissue.  In this example, the thyroid.  This attack can go to other areas of the body as well such as the pancreas (regulates your blood sugar).  Many patients describe fluctuations in their blood sugar because they feel tired all the time.  Or, possibly you feel the need to eat all the time.

The longer the immune attack goes on, the more damage is done to the target tissue.  This can be a reason why people get nodules in their thyroid.   You then start to lose function of the tissue.  At this point, it is common for medical doctors to increase the dosage of medication that you take such as Synthroid or Levothyroxin.  Note that these medications do nothing to stop the immune attack.  In my opinion, this is the main reason why people are frustrated and not getting better.

It is no surprise that one autoimmune condition can eventually weaken the body and lead to another one.  If you have ever done any research on Autoimmune conditions, you know that the list is pretty long.  Just take a look at the picture and things can get complicated pretty quickly.   This situation is not considered “bad luck.”  The odds are actually stacked in the favor of the immune attack gaining momentum.  How fast this happens is unknown because there are many risk factor that contribute to this.  But that opens the door into a whole other subject called epigenetics.