Anyone know anything on hyperactive thyroids?

Question

I may have a hyperavtive thyroid... not sure yet... I've been to the doctor I have to go back to get the blood work and stuff... If I do have it, what will happen if I don't take the medicine... The reason the doctor suggested that I may have it is because I've lost 12lbs in the past year causing me to weigh 92lbs at 5'5".... I eat a lot and always have but I've been between 90 and 100lbs since I was little (currently 16)... It'll be a couple weeks before I go to get test run and stuff... until then I want to know as much as possible about hyperactive thyroids... what are the main treatments... what happens if it's not treated... what causes it... will it ever go away.... anything that you can tell me would be GREAT... thanks in advance...

Answer 1

Hyperthyroidism (or "overactive thyroid gland") is the clinical syndrome caused by an excess of circulating free thyroxine (T4) or free triiodothyronine (T3), or both.

[edit] Signs and symptoms
Major clinical features in humans are weight loss (often accompanied by a ravenous appetite), Intolerance to heat, fatigue, weakness, hyperactivity, irritability, apathy, depression, polyuria, and sweating. Additionally, patients may present with a variety of symptoms such as palpitations and arrhythmias (notably atrial fibrillation), dyspnea, loss of libido, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In the elderly, these classical symptoms may not be present and they may present only with fatigue and weight loss leading to apathetic hyperthyroidism

Neurological manifestations are tremor, chorea, myopathy, and periodic paralysis. Stroke of cardioembolic origin due to coexisting atrial fibrillation may be mentioned as one of the most serious complications of hyperthyroidism.

As to other autoimmune disorders related with thyrotoxicosis, an association between thyroid disease and myasthenia gravis has been well recognised. The thyroid disease, in this condition, is often an autoimmune one and approximately 5% of patients with myasthenia gravis also have hyperthyroidism. Myasthenia gravis rarely improves after thyroid treatment and relation between two entities is yet unknown. Some very rare neurological manifestations that are reported to be dubiously associated with thyrotoxicosis are pseudotumor cerebri, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and a Guillain-Barré-like syndrome.

Minor ocular signs, which may be present in any type of hyperthyroidism, are eyelid retraction ("stare") and lid-lag. These "fear-like" eye-signs result from thyroid hormone's exacerbation of the action of norepinephrine. In hyperthyroid stare (Dalrymple sign) the eyelids are retracted upward more than normal (the normal position is at the superior corneoscleral limbus, where the "white" of the eye begins at the upper border of the iris). In lid-lag (von Graefe's sign), when the patient tracks an object downward with their eyes, the eyelid fails to follow the downward moving iris, and the same type of upper globe exposure which is seen with lid retraction occurs, temporarily. These signs disappear with treatment of the hyperthyroidism, or treatment by certain anti-adrenergic drugs.

Neither of these ocular signs should be confused with exopthalmos (protrusion of the eyeball) which occurs in one thyroid-related disease (Grave's disease), but which is not caused by the hyperthyroid state in that disease, and is unrelated to it. Exopthalmos when present may exacerbate these signs, however.


[edit] Diagnosis
A diagnosis is suspected through blood tests, by measuring the level of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the blood. A low TSH indicates increased production of T4 and/or T3. Measuring specific antibodies, such as anti-TSH-receptor antibodies in Graves' disease, may contribute to the diagnosis. In all patients with hyperthyroxinemia, scintigraphy is required in order to distinguish true hyperthyroidism from thyroiditis.


Treatment
The major and generally accepted modalities for treatment of hyperthyroidism in humans are:


[edit] Surgery
Surgery (to remove the whole thyroid or a part of it) is not extensively used because most common forms of hyperthyroidism are quite effectively treated by the radioactive iodine method. However, some Graves' disease patients who cannot tolerate medicines for one reason or another or patients who refuse radioiodine opt for surgical intervention. Also, some surgeons believe that radioiodine treatment is unsafe in patients with unusually large gland, or those whose eyes have begun to bulge from their sockets, claiming that the massive dose of iodine needed will only exacerbate the patient's symptoms. The procedure is quite safe - some surgeons even perform partial thyroidectomies on an out-patient basis.


Radioiodine
In Radioiodine (treatment) therapy, radioactive iodine is given orally (either by pill or liquid) on a one-time basis to destroy the function of a hyperactive gland. The iodine given for ablative treatment is different from the iodine used in a scan. Radioactive iodine is given after a routine iodine scan, and uptake of the iodine is determined to confirm hyperthyroidism. The radioactive iodine is picked up by the active cells in the thyroid and destroys them. Since iodine is only picked up by thyroid cells, the destruction is local, and there are no widespread side effects with this therapy. Radioactive iodine ablation has been safely used for over 50 years, and the only major reasons for not using it are pregnancy and breast-feeding.

Often, due to the difficulty of picking the correct dose, the treatment results in an opposite condition - hypothyroidism. However, that is usually easily treated by the administration of levothyroxine, which is a pure synthetic form of T4.

Answer 2

Hyperactive Thyroids

Answer 3

I'm over it so this is from personal experience:
1. Rapid weight loss due to burning more calories than the body can manufacture
2. Difficulty in sleeping, worst than insomia
3. Always hungry, must make several trips a day to the CR
4. Bulging eyeballs, this happened to me, like goldfish eyeballs which returned to normal after i had my thyroid glands removed.
5. High pulse rate, palpitations. Will require a mild sedative. I was on Inderal for a period of time.
6. High strung, low patience level, always tense

At early stages can be treated with pills which are cheap. will require constant monitoring of T3, T4 and TSH levels and plus thyroid scans. Best treatment is RAI or radioactive iodine intake. This will burn your thyroid glands and then you take daily maintenance pill. I'm taking Euthyrox which is very cheap.

No pain with RAI, out patient treatment and depending of the dose, will require a period of isolation. I week in my case as i had a "double shot".

Other option is surgery, partial or total removal. Don't go for the former. I did in 1984 and the developed again last year so I had to undergo RAI.

If not treated will cause more complications.

.......and don't worry about it. Easy to overcome. Just make sure you get the right treatment.

Answer 4

I didn't take medication for 3 years. now I do, religiously. first I started to shake all the time, Then I started to smell an acidic odor from myself. You will smell it in your sweat and urine. Eating, I was eating about 4000 calories a day and losing weight of course your body doesn't get any nutrition from your food as it goes in one end and right out the other. My stomach began to swell from the malnourishment (I looked like an Ethiopian) also the acid seems to eat your muscle. You are dead tired all the time. Your neck begins to swell as a goiter is getting started and your eyes begin to bulge out of your head. Your hair falls out and you start having chest pains like you are having a heart attack and then you actually do start having strokes. Eventually your thyroid burns itself out and you have a hypo thyroid. the good news is that there are 3 things that usually work. medication, irradiated iodine and worse case removal of the thyroid. Usually if the medication doesn't work neither will the radiation. Medication really slows everything down considerably, there are two available but it gets worse for a few days before it gets better. I have a friend who has the same problem as myself. hers is much worse than mine, She had her thyroid removed just 3 weeks ago. she saved her hair for one day to show the doctor, she filled a lunch bag with the hair that had fallen out in just one day. She is 5'7 and weights 78 lbs. but in the last 3 weeks has gained 5 pounds. I hope for your sake that it is not graves disease, please get the tests as quick as possible and best wishes in the fight ahead.

Answer 5

There is no good reason to assume you have hyperthyroidism. Are you constantly too hot, fast pulse, accumulation of fluid in feet and legs, wide blood pressure, tremor of hands, bulging eyes? Treatment can be medicinal or with I131 radioactive iodine. This last is a one dose treatment, but may cause hypothroidism. Good luck. I am betting you do not have it.

Answer 6

I had that when I was in my 20's. The only think I want to say is be careful of the medicine. Some of it can be bad. I had a bad reaction to mine. After all that they had to burn part of out. I'm fine now.