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Your thyroid produces thyroid hormones, which control all of the metabolic activity in all of your cells. It's important that your thyroid is functioning properly.Many people may not even know they're suffering from hypothyroidism because there are so many different symptoms.
The classic symptoms of low thyroid include:
It can be caused by stress, pregnancy, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, nutrients (or lack thereof) and some medications. If you're concerned that your thyroid may not be functioning the way it should, give the Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine a call to get tested!
**Begin Transcript**
Dr. Mark Stengler: Thyroid gland is right below the Adam's apple and it's a butterfly shaped gland. And as you said it's very critical because it reduces thyroid hormones which control all the metabolic activity nerve cells so producing energy increasing your metabolism. So very very important.
Dr. Angela Stengler: So let's first talk about if someone is suffering from hypothyroidism. Many people don't even know that because there are so many symptoms list some of the symptoms.
Dr. Mark Stengler: There are a lot of symptoms but classic symptoms are fatigue. You gain weight very easily. You can be prone to depression and anxiety joint pain water retention. So there's a lot of just generalized symptoms. People can get when they have a little thyroid function.
Dr. Angela Stengler: So some of the viewers may be wanting to know what can cause low thyroid?
Dr. Mark Stengler: Sure. Well there's many different causes. First of all studies show just stress. Prolonged stress can cause your thyroid function to go down lower. Pregnancy is very common. Women are pregnant they do develop low thyroid function. But you know the most common reason people develop hypothyroidism. It's an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and that's basically a condition where your immune system attacks your own thyroid gland and start to inactivate as well.
Dr. Mark Stengler: Certain medications can disrupt thyroid function for example birth control pills can suppress thyroid function cortisone and prednisone use some heart medications used for heart rhythm. So there are various medications which can suppress thyroid function as well. And of course there is nutrients. We know the thyroid gland really needs to nutrient iodine. So let's say you're avoiding table salt and you have an iodine deficiency or in certain parts of the world where iodine isn't that common in the food supply that can cause low thyroid function.
