Care For Your Elder

You hear all sorts of talk about your thyroid, is it working too much, not working enough, is it why you can’t loose weight, why can’t you gain weight.  The thyroid is a butterfly shaped complex gland in the neck just below the “Adam’s Apple.”  This gland is the largest gland of the body and it is main job is to make and store hormones that control your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and the rate of how your body converts food into energy.  The thyroid uses iodine to make the hormones.  Iodine is commonly found in salt and some other food products such as cod fish, shrimp, tuna, seaweed, milk, navy beans, and eggs to name a few.  A condition where the thyroid is enlarged, commonly called a goiter, is one of the earliest and most visible signs of iodine deficiency. The thyroid gland traps iodine and processes it into thyroid hormones. As thyroid hormones are used, some of the iodine contained in the hormones is released, returns to the thyroid gland, and is recycled to produce more thyroid hormones.  

The aging process has only minor effects on the hormones produced by the thyroid nonetheless; this gland does shrink and shift as you age. The hormone levels may fall slightly but the vital functions changes very little. Thyroid disorders do become more common with aging.  These disorders in the elderly population often are mistaken for symptoms of other diseases or some people just say the symptoms are “old age.”  These disorders, hyperthyroidism (an over active thyroid) and hypothyroidism (an under active thyroid) can dramatically alter the way an elderly person feels and can affect daily living activities.   It is recommended that older people should be screened for hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism by measuring the level of thyroid-stimulating hormone in the blood every year in people over 65. 

Join me for next blog where I will discuss the one of the most common disorders of the thyroid, hyperthyroidism (an over active thyroid).

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