16 Warning Signs You May Have a Thyroid Problem: Weight gain, poor concentration, crabby, aches and moodiness? What went wrong? May be, the tiny gland in your neck could have gone wrong. It’s nothing but thyroid gland. When your thyroid isn’t working properly, it can impose dramatic changes in a variety of functions in your body. There are many signs and indications that show your thyroid is not functioning properly. Before looking into the 16 warning signs your thyroid isn’t working, let’s take a brief overview on the thyroid gland.
What is Thyroid:
Thyroid is the butterfly shape gland located in your neck. It plays a pivotal role in governing the metabolic activities in the whole body. It is a part of the endocrine system in the body, which secretes 3 hormones.
1. Triiodothyronine – T3
2. Thyroxine – T4
3. thyroid stimulating hormone – TSH
T3 and T4 are responsible for regulation of metabolism, body temperature, and the heart rate. TSH controls the T3 and T4 hormones. So, even the slightest dysfunction of the gland cause a lot of disturbance in the body.
Types of Thyroid:
As stated above, dysfunction or malfunction of the thyroid gland causes different disorders in the body. The two common problems that your body encounter due to thyroid imbalance is,
1. Hypothyroid – Insufficient secretion of thyroid hormones
2. Hyperthyroid – Excessive secretion of thyroid hormones
Other types of thyroid problems include:
• Thyroid nodules – Lump in the thyroid gland
• Thyroiditis – Inflammation of the gland
• Goiter – Enlargement of the gland
• Thyroid cancer – growth of cancer cells in the thyroid gland
So, how do you know that your thyroid is not working properly?
16 Warning Signs You May Have a Thyroid Problem:
1. Fatigue,where you are totally exhausted:
Fatigue or feeling tired is a common indication of many problems. You may feel tired even when you do not eat properly. However, fatigue is strongly linked with hypothyroidism.
You feel tired round the clock, regardless of what you sleep, how much sleep, and how long you rest. If you feel totally exhausted even after a good meal or a good night’s sleep, it is an evident sign your thyroid isn’t working.
2. Unidentifiable State of being Sad/Depressed:
Isn’t depression too common? Yes. Extended state of sadness aggravate into depression. However, when you have no valid reason to explain why you are even sad, it is a sign of an underactive thyroid gland.
Why? Thyroid glands regulate the other hormones in the body. Serotonin is a feel good hormone which is greatly impacted by the underactive thyroid. You hardly get the sense of that ‘feeling good’ moment.
3. Sudden Weight Gain with no Obvious Reasons:
When you eat and you don’t burn the calories, you gain weight. Weight gain is a gradual process. Yet, it is the name with poor thyroid functions. Weight gain happens sudden and for unexpected reasons. However, you are likely to gain a lot of weight due to an underactive thyroid gland. You may follow the healthy diet and stick to the strict diet regime, eat nutritious food too!
4. Hair Thinning:
Hair loss or thinning of hair associates with a number of problems. Poor diet and poor hygiene aggravates hair thinning. However, when you lose hair in bunches and it continues to grow thin, it is one of the signs your thyroid isn’t working. Poor thyroid affects the absorption of nutrients, increase anxiety and stress, make you feel fluttery. All these lead to hair thinning.
5. Constipation and Unusual Bowel Movements:
Constipation, for a longer period is one of the solid signs of hypothyroidism. Many times, it also accompanied by the unusual bowel movements. When you suffer from overactive thyroid hormones, you may visit the washroom frequently.
6. Feeling Cold Even During the Warm Days:
Your thyroid gland is your body’s thermostat. It regulates and manages the body temperature. When your body don’t secrete enough thyroid hormones to keep the temperature under control, (both increase and/or decrease as per the requirement). Deficient thyroid hormones reduce the both temperature and you are likely to feel cold, have aversion to cold temperature.
7. Irregular Periods:
This is one of the major signs your thyroid isn’t working. Lack of hormones affects your menstruation cycle. The periods become irregular, longer, painful, and you may feel cranky.
8. Brain Fogging:
Gone are the days where the people call themselves affected by the ‘Brain Fog’ by too much of creative thinking! It is indeed a sign of poor hormone secretion. Brain fog is a common sign experienced by most of the underactive thyroid patients. It causes subtle loss of memory, reduce your ability to think properly, and make you gloomy.
9. Poor Concentration:
Overactive thyroid gland with excessive secretion of thyroid makes you feel anxious and affects your concentrating ability. You tend to have little to no concentration and appear aggressive most of the times.
10. Wakeup with Puffy Face, Swollen Neck and Fluid Retention:
Puffiness is one of the most common signs of hypothyroidism. Any malfunction to thyroid gland as mentioned above causes puffiness and swollen neck. Thyroid gland enlarges as an indication of poor functional ability. Eventually it leads to inflammation. Most people wakeup with puffy face in the morning. Severe thyroid cause excessive enlargement of neck, which appear with multiple folds.
Apart from this, if you are prone to fluid retention in the body for no obvious reasons, the culprit is your thyroid gland.
11. You Want to Sleep 24X7:
When your thyroid isn’t working properly, you want to sleep 24X7. It causes an extreme level of exhaustiveness which never wants you to wake-up from bed. This is the sign of hypothyroidism. As stated earlier, even if you sleep for hours without any disturbance, you don’t feel fresh.
12. No Sleep:
This is contrary to the above symptom. When you cannot sleep properly, it could be a sign of overactive thyroid glands i.e hyperthyroidism. Even when you fall asleep, you are likely to wake-up in the middle of the sleep and find it difficult to sleep again.
13. Hoarse Voice:
Imagine, when you catch cold or throat infection, your voice turns coarse temporarily. Since an important part of your neck gets affected, it changes your voice.
Poor thyroid functions affect your voice badly. It turns rough and hoarse. Often, change in voice is accompanied when you develop swelling in the gland.
14. Frequent Miscarriage or Infertility:
Since poor functions of thyroid gland can cause irregular periods, it can dramatically impact the fertility rate (most common in women) or lead to miscarriage.
If you are trying to conceive but unable make it, it could be due to your poor functioning thyroid gland. Poor thyroid is one of the major causes of infertility, next to disorders in reproductive organs. Thyroid makes you sluggish and creates hormonal imbalance. It may lead to miscarriage.
15. Low Libido or No Sex-Drive:
Thyroid spares nothing in your body when it fails to function normally. As so, it affects your sex drive and/or libido badly. It impacts the production and regulation of the healthy hormones in the body. Eventually, it also affects the sex hormones and reduces your libido.
16. Bulging Eyes and Poor Vision:
This is one of the evident signs of the hyperthyroidism, overactive thyroid glands. You develop dry eyes and prone to light sensitivity. It is very common to develop puffy bags around the eyes.
The above mentioned are the solid signs that indicates your thyroid isn’t working properly. Since most of the symptoms are associated with one or more health problems, it is difficult to diagnose the disorder of thyroid at an early stage. However, when you experience few or more signs together for more than two or three months, it is a clear indication of the poor thyroid functions.
Source: Righthomeremedies
