How Your Thyroid Affects Your Health

The but­ter­fly shaped gland locat­ed in the front and base of your neck is your thy­roid. The thy­roid gland is part of the endocrine sys­tem and it pro­duces hor­mones that reg­u­late the body’s metab­o­lism. The thy­roid hor­mones help to reg­u­late the fol­low­ing func­tions: weight con­trol, body tem­per­a­ture, heart rate, bow­el move­ments, cho­les­terol, men­stru­al cycles, mus­cle strength and the cen­tral and periph­er­al ner­vous systems.

The most com­mon thy­roid dis­or­ders are hypothy­roidism and hyper­thy­roidism. Hypothy­roidism occurs when your thy­roid does not pro­duce enough thy­roid hor­mones, which cause symp­toms of a slow metab­o­lism. Hyper­thy­roidism, on the oth­er hand, occurs when your thy­roid pro­duces too much hor­mone, caus­ing symp­toms of a fast metabolism.

Below are some pos­si­ble symp­toms of hypo- and hyper­thy­roidism. If you are con­cerned you may have a thy­roid dis­or­der, please sched­ule an appoint­ment with your pri­ma­ry care physi­cian first to per­form a pre­lim­i­nary screen­ing test. If test­ing is abnor­mal, they may then refer you to an endocrinologist.

To dis­cuss symp­toms or ques­tions with a pri­ma­ry care provider, sched­ule an appoint­ment online.

Learn more about our endocrinol­o­gy team.