Overactive and Underactive Thyroid: What Problems Can It Bring?

Thyroid disorders are on a rise in India. While men are still not majorly hit by thyroid disorders, women are twice more likely to get affected. This difference is majorly due to the difference in hormones creation in men and women.

Among all the thyroid disorders, overactive and underactive thyroid are the two major conditions affecting the human body. In this blog, we will guide you through the problems that an overactive and underactive thyroid can lead to. But first, let’s discuss the facts about the thyroid gland and hormones.

The thyroid gland is present in the neck and releases two hormones, i.e. thyroxin (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). These two hormones work towards balancing the body’s metabolic rate, heart function, and digestive function. If imbalanced, these hormones can affect the mood and development of the body.

Specialists suggest that thyroid conditions can be caused due to iodine deficiency, autoimmune diseases, thyroid gland inflammation, or genetic disorders.

After discussing about the thyroid gland and its function, here is a detail of the two most common thyroid disorders.

Underactive Thyroid

Low thyroid & Hypothyroidism are the two common names given to an underactive thyroid. Under this condition, the level of hormones released by the gland falls, depending on the level of drop, reactions on the body are felt.

An underactive thyroid can lead to many other problems for the human body. These are:

1-      Weakness: When the body’s growth and development is affected due to the lack of hormones produced by the thyroid gland, some weakness is bound to be felt. One is likely to feel weak and mild pain in different joints of the body.

2-      Constipation & Slow Metabolism: Thyroid hormones affect metabolism to a great extent. This can lead to slowed movement of stool, leading to constipation.

3-      Gallstones: Stones can develop in the gallbladder due to slow and weakened metabolism. 

4-      Mental Health Issues: Due to hormonal imbalance, a person can feel sad and depressed. An underactive thyroid can make a person feel dull due to excessive weakness.

5-      Menstrual Changes: In women, hormones can lead to an imbalance in the menstrual cycle. Fertility may also be affected due to changes in hormone levels in the body.

Overactive Thyroid

High thyroid & Hyperthyroidism are the two common terms of use for an overactive thyroid. In this condition, the thyroid gland produces too many hormones that cause serious conditions like:

1-      Pregnancy Complications: Having too much thyroid hormone in the body can lead to complications during pregnancy. In serious cases, miscarriage and premature birth can also be the outcomes.

2-      Mood Swings: Flowing with hormones can affect the mood of an individual to a great extent. One may feel angry all the time when flowing with thyroid hormones.

3-      Eye Problems: While this may seem unusual, an overactive thyroid that produces too many hormones can lead to irritation in the eye or double vision.

4-      Heart Health: Chest pain and abnormal heart rhythms can affect an individual diagnosed with an overactive thyroid to a great extent.

5-      Blood Pressure: In patients with an overactive thyroid increase in heart contractions and high systolic pressure.

The thyroid gland can lead to many critical medical conditions. These conditions have affected many people in India and around the globe. At Medipulse Hospital in Jodhpur, our specialists like  Endocrinologist Dr Tuhin Dubey can help in early diagnosis of the thyroid condition. Ranked as the top private hospital in Jodhpur, at Medipulse Hospital we have all the latest technology to treat different thyroid conditions. Visit the hospital today to get tested for symptoms!

The thyroid gland is present in the neck and releases two hormones, i.e. thyroxin (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). These two hormones work towards balancing the body’s metabolic rate, heart function, and digestive function. If imbalanced, these hormones can affect the mood and development of the body.

What Binge Eating Does To The Body And How Not To Overeat This Diwali

Festivals are a means for families and friends to come together and celebrate in unison. This festival of lights is celebrated with a lot of love and enthusiasm in different ways, involving a lot of food. Indian festivals aren’t really complete without the involvement of at least a dozen varieties in food, with at least a dozen kinds of sweets for the festivities. And in these times, the tendency to overeat often takes over.

Winding up with a full belly with a little soreness is often the aftermath of overeating, and can be dealt with. However, binge eating as a habit can get seriously out of hands, resulting in health problems and conditions that stay with a person for the rest of his/her life. So what happens when a person overeats? And how harmful is that? Can it be avoided this Diwali? This article discusses it all.

What Overeating Does to the Body?

Overeating is a process that takes effect slowly and in parts. The ill-effects of overeating go far and beyond an excess of calories in the body and can be understood with these simple points.

●       Overeating expands the stomach beyond its standard size, causing extra pressure on the surrounding organs. This pressure causes the feeling of discomfort in people, with the additional feeling of lethargy and drowsiness.

●       Overeating also forces other organs to work harder, secreting extra hormones and enzymes.

●       Overeating may result in stomach acid to back up and enter the esophagus, causing heartburn.

●       It can also result in the formation of gas, causing high levels of discomfort.

●       Overeating may also put the metabolism in hyperdrive to digest all the extra food, leaving the person feeling suddenly hot, sweaty, and even dizzy.

How Harmful is Overeating?

Aside from all the above temporary harmful effects, overeating has been known to cause more profound and graver health problems in people. A human body functions typically by using certain calories to perform a certain set of actions, and stores the excess in the form of fat.

An excess of this fat then begins to collect in several different places in the body, causing what is commonly known as obesity. Research and studies from all around the world have long stated that obesity is the most common risk factor for various chronic conditions like heart problems and cancer. The enzymes that break down food to provide energy to the body are available in limited amounts, which means that overeating also causes pressure on the glands of the body as they have to overwork to digest the extra food or store it up as fat.

Another harmful effect of overeating is that it impacts the circadian clock or the biological clock of the body, causing erratic rises and falls in the sleep and hunger levels throughout the day.

 How to Avoid Overeating During Diwali?

Diwali is the most awaited festival in the country, but can easily become a drastic development instead of a pompous time, something that can take months, years, or even lifetime of corrective measures to undo, restrain, or regulate. A few simple steps can go a long way in avoiding overeating and must be included as an important part of life.

●       Eat-in moderate amounts

●       Avoid skipping any meal

●       Choose healthy over unhealthy, like dry fruits instead of sweets

●       Avoid sugar-rich drinks

●       Choose fresh food over stored food or food which uses preservatives

●       Eating slowly is a good habit

●       Include a good amount of physical activity

While celebrations are a necessary part of everyone’s life, overeating should certainly not be. And to create a habit out of it is certainly not good for the body. Celebrating responsibly is the only way forward, be it fireworks, restricted use of water, or even eating.

To enjoy festivals worry-free and in full fervor, it is always advisable to get a full-body checkup from the best hospital in Jodhpur. Medipulse Hospital is offering many exclusive preventive health care packages at affordable costs. With an expert staff that provides world-class medical services, we urge you to take care of the celebrations while being responsible, while we will take care of your health.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease in Diabetic Patients

Inside the human body, the various systems that keep a person alive are interdependent on each other to carry out their functions. But quite often, we witness situations that cause the failure or shortcoming of one of these organs, causing the other to fail as well. This concept sits at the very core of Diabetes, a condition in which the body’s ability to maintain glucose levels (or blood sugar levels) fails.

Diabetes is caused when the body cannot make enough insulin or does not make optimal use of available insulin, a hormone that turns glucose into usable energy for the cells of the human body. As dangerous as diabetes may seem for the body, it opens the doors of a patient’s body to something much worse; cardiovascular diseases.

Are Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases Related?

Yes, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases are related in more profound ways. Heart diseases are caused by narrowing or blockage of blood vessels in essential regions of the heart and chest cavity. If it gets delayed, it leads to heart attacks, chest pains, and strokes. With blood glucose levels rising due to diabetes, the damage to blood vessels and nerves goes into hyperdrive. The longer a person has had diabetes, the chances of developing cardiovascular diseases increase rapidly.

Consider these stats from around the world:

●       68% of diabetic patients above the age of 65 die because of some form of heart disease, out of which, about 16% die of stroke.

●       Diabetic adults are 200% to 400% more likely to contract heart diseases than non-diabetic adults.

●       A premier world organization for cardiac health considers diabetes as one of the top 7 causes or factors of Cardiovascular diseases.

Why People With Diabetes Have Higher Risk of Heart Diseases?

Diabetes is a condition that can significantly affect the overall health of a person's heart and circulatory system if it’s in full swing. Even though it can be controlled to the limit that it can become almost dormant, however, its very nature is quite dangerous for other vital organs of our body. Excessive blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes accelerate the damage to the heart in the following way.

●       High Blood Pressure: High blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes, collaboratively, provide severe damage to the heart. This is simply because hypertension puts abnormally high pressure on the walls of the blood vessels, and diabetes works to damage the walls of the vessels.

●       Bad Lipid Profile: Diabetes instantly causes the level of bad cholesterol (LDL), and triglycerides shoot up, while the good cholesterol (HDL) levels take a sudden dip. These conditions perfectly replicate the early symptoms of heart diseases.

●       Obesity: Insulin resistance has a strong link to obesity in humans, which in turn also is one of the major contributing factors in the development of heart diseases.

●       Sedentary Lifestyle: One of the major risk factors for both diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, is physical inactivity. With proper and timely exercising, a person can reduce the chances, delay, and even prevent conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.

●       Abnormal (High) Blood Sugar Levels: Diabetes increases blood sugar level to dangerous levels, which in turn, harm the heart and kidneys to irreparable extents.

●       Smoking: Smoking, in general, is a risk factor for the human body, especially to diabetic patients. It makes our body resistant to insulin, leading to higher blood sugar level. Such dangerous sugar level in our body warrants extreme problems for many organs, including the heart.

How to Stop Diabetes From Giving You a Heart Attack?

The simplest way is to manage the ABCSs in a person.

●       A for A1C test: the A1C test shows the average blood sugar levels over the last 3 months, which is a different measure than the daily sugar level checks. The goal is to keep this level below 7 percent.

●       B for Blood Pressure: A high blood pressure makes the person’s heart work harder to keep the blood pumping, which can harm a lot of other organs, alongside the blood vessels.

●       C for Cholesterol: Reducing bad cholesterol levels and getting more good cholesterol in the system will keep the blood vessels healthy.

●       S for Stress and Smoking: Smoking and Stress are the two biggest risk and contributing factors in taking a person’s diabetes to cardiovascular disease levels.

Diabetes is definitely a condition that can escalate even the simplest of problems to catastrophic levels. That is why, for even the simplest of symptoms, make sure that you take care of your cardiac health by visiting the best heart specialist hospital in Jodhpur, Medipulse. With the team of expert doctors always monitoring the situations, Medipulse is where you can get the best care for your heart. Visit now for a consultation and to secure your heart better.