Hashimoto’s thyroiditis affects approximately 14-million Americans and is 7 times more common in women than in men. It is the leading cause of hypothyroidism in industrialized countries and the second leading cause of an under-active thyroid gland in people worldwide, taking second place to iodine deficiency hypothyroidism. While there is no cure for this autoimmune thyroid disease, there is treatment for the hypothyroidism it causes.
Hashimoto’s is an Autoimmune Disease
With Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, auto-antibodies including the “anti-thyroidperoxidase” and the “anti-thyroglobulin” are created by the immune system to attack the thyroid gland. For reasons yet to be fully understood by medical research, the immune system will at times target a natural part of the body and will relentlessly attack it. There are a number of theories including viral agents, allergens or intolerant foods entering the body as causes of autoimmune responses.
Viruses that cannot be fully eliminated by the immune system for example may result in it turning on the body to destroy tissues that are holding the virus. For whatever reason the body turns on itself with autoimmune diseases, it causes mistaken identity, in which these natural tissues, organs, glands, muscles or joints are recognized as enemies in the body and are attacked. When the immune system is operating properly, it will create antibodies only to attack unnatural invaders that can potentially cause illness or disease in the body. With Hashimoto’s, the immune system has turned on the thyroid gland to destroy it.
Hashimoto’s leads to Hypothyroidism
As the killer cells called “thyroid antibodies” begin to destroy natural thyroid gland protein-cells, it begins to cause death to the gland at a gradual rate. Antibody levels can vary among Hashimoto’s patients and those with very high elevations of thyroid antibodies may see faster cell destruction and damage to the gland. As the damage occurs, the thyroid becomes less capable of producing thyroid hormone to regulate the metabolism in the body. The resulting condition of slowed-metabolism is called “hypothyroidism”. Many patients with the disease experience few or no symptoms until hypothyroidism begins to set in. Mild cases of an under-active thyroid from Hashimoto’s can begin to cause symptoms of fatigue, weight gain, fluid retention (myxedema), dry skin and brittle hair, depression and/or anxiety and constipation.
Treatment for Hashimoto’s
This autoimmune thyroiditis is irreversible in the vast majority of cases and medical research has not found a cure for autoimmune diseases nor do they understand why they go into remission in rare cases. The treatment that will need to be administered is for the resulting hypothyroidism caused by the disease. Once symptoms and/or lab tests reveal that the thyroid gland has become under-active, thyroid hormone replacement therapy is the treatment that is administered.
Some medical sources also believe that hormone replacement may help to reduce thyroid antibody levels over time. Other medical research articles state that supplementing Hashimoto’s patients with “selenium” may also help to reduce high elevations of thyroid antibodies but the dose should be at proper level and monitored by a treating physician.
Jim Lowrance - James M. (Jim) Lowrance has authored over 100 book and ebook publications since year 2004.
