The thyroid gland explained: what it does, keeping it healthy, and what happens if it goes wrong
- The thyroid is a gland in the neck essential to controlling cell metabolism. Some 800 million people with iodine deficiency have a swollen thyroid, or goitre
- Thyroid diseases can hit at any age, and are more likely to affect women. Exercise, sleep, and a healthy diet keep the gland healthy; avoid some raw vegetables
Unless you suffer from a problem with it, you probably don’t think much about the thyroid gland – the little, butterfly-shaped organ which sits at the base of the front of your neck, below your Adam’s apple and alongside your windpipe.
Carol Wilson, my sister and a science teacher in the UK, had certainly never given this part of her anatomy a thought – until she awoke one morning with an odd sensation in her throat. “It wasn’t sore,” she recalls, “but it felt as if I’d swallowed a golf ball.”
An ultrasound revealed she had nodules in her thyroid, a gland important in helping to regulate metabolism and body temperature.
Wilson’s experience, in her mid-20s, is not unusual; thyroid issues present far more often in women than men – possibly as much as eight times more; some experts believe as many as 30 per cent of women will develop a condition of the thyroid in their lifetime, and nodules – such as those that presented in her case – are among the most common.
According to Dr Elaine Cheung Yun Ning, a Hong Kong specialist in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, the most common thyroid diseases include hyperthyroidism – an overactive thyroid which presents with tremors and palpitations; hypothyroidism – when the thyroid is underactive and the patient lacks energy and may be prone to weight gain; and nodules, like those Wilson had.
Diseases of the thyroid have been observed for thousands of years. In 1600BCE, seaweed – which contains iodine – was used in China for the treatment of goitre, a non-cancerous enlargement of the thyroid gland. The most common cause of goitre worldwide (the condition affects up to 800 million people globally) is an iodine deficiency in the diet.