Overweight? Get your thyroid checked!

Approximately three percent of the population suffer from hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid. 

The butterfly shaped thyroid gland wraps around the front of the windpipe just below the Adam’s apple and produces a hormone that regulates metabolism and organ function. It influences every organ, tissue and cell in the body. When the thyroid doesn’t produce enough of the hormone (often because the immune system creates antibodies that damage or destroy it), you could experience:

• Weight gain of four and a half kilograms or less of fluid

• Fatigue

• Mood swings

• Dry, coarse hair or skin

• Hoarseness

• Forgetfulness

• Difficulty swallowing

• Intolerance of cold

Women are at higher risk than men of an underactive thyroid. But just because you are overweight and feeling tired, it doesn’t mean that you have thyroid dysfunction.

Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Fatigue could be caused by other disorders, such as anaemia, cancer, depression or sleep disorders.

 

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