Hair loss Treatment Center

Damage to the thyroid gland is a common cause of hypothyroidism as was the case with track start and Olympic Gold medallist Gail Devers, who was being treated for another thyroid condition when hypothyroidism came into the picture.

PAMELA ALLWEISS, MD:  She was having fast heart rates.  She was losing weight.  She had hair loss and she had muscle weakness.  So finally when it was diagnosed as Graves' disease, named after Dr. Graves, okay -- she felt much better just knowing what she had.  She was then treated with radioactive iodine that would destroy the overactive gland and then she received levothyroxine therapy.  She became hypothyroid and you need a thyroid to live.

GAIL DEVERS: It took 2-1/2, almost 3 years for me to be diagnosed with a thyroid condition and the reason is because the symptoms are so vague. Psychologically and physically it was very debilitating.  I got to the point where I was pulling my hamstring by jogging because you lose the extensor muscles.  And then psychologically it's like as an athlete, you know that you depend on your body and now my body is letting me down.  And there's no answer for this.

HOLLY ATKINSON, MD:  Gail's story is just one among many and it's important to get the full range of causes and symptoms for this serious condition.

PAMELA ALLWEISS, MD:  The thyroid gland is a small butterfly shaped gland in your neck that can regulate your metabolism and it effects almost every organ system of the body.  It can affect the heart and the heart rate -- too fast or too slow.  It can effect the bones.  It can affect the GI tract so it really effects almost all the organ systems of the body and it's also sometimes referred to as gland central.  It can effect many different parts of the body.

Hypothyroidism is when the thyroid gland is not producing enough thyroid hormone.  It's the thyroid hormone that does all of the actions on the bones and the heart and your metabolism.  If the thyroid gland is not working correctly, and that's the most common cause of an underactive thyroid, the person can have varied symptoms and that's what hypothyroidism is.

There are many causes of hypothyroidism.  One, of course, is if the thyroid gland is surgically removed if a person has had thyroid cancer or possibly a nodule.  Another cause can be if a person has had radiation therapy for Hodgkin's disease.  But the most common is called Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  It's what we call an autoimmune disease.  The body kind of self-rejects its own thyroid so that the thyroid gland is working but not efficiently.  So the person effectively doesn't have a functioning thyroid gland.

HOLLY ATKINSON, MD:  The onset of hypothyroidism is usually quite slow so often times it's very difficult to pick up on other symptoms.  Women are often aware that weight gain is a possible symptom, but there are others as well to watch out for.

LOREN WISSNER GREENE, MD:  Some of the symptoms of hypothyroidism include having very dry skin, dry hair, brittle nails, hair loss, fatigue, feeling very cold all the time, feeling like your mental abilities aren't as swift as they should be.  It could be in a woman having very irregular periods, having very heavy periods and sometimes it's just a history of infertility or not being able to get pregnant for a woman.

It could be loss of libido or decreased libido for some people which is a decrease in the sex drive for men or for women.

It could be a problem with constipation.  It could be a decreased taste for food.  It could be difficulty losing weight when you're trying to lose weight.  Taking a thyroid pill might help.  Taking a thyroid pill is not a weight loss pill, but taking a thyroid pill for a person with an underactive thyroid will allow them to lose weight when they are conscientiously dieting and exercising.

HOLLY ATKINSON, MD:  Because the symptoms of hypothyroidism are often so subtle, it's easy for patients and sometimes physicians to mistake the condition for something else.

LOREN WISSNER GREENE, MD:  Hypothyroidism is often overlooked or mistaken for other diseases.  This often happens in women around the time of their menopause.  Sometimes women even think they're going through the menopause and what they're suffering from is really a thyroid problem.  Or giving them the correction of their thyroid levels may allow them to sort of delay their menopause.

PAMELA ALLWEISS, MD:  When a person is hypothyroid, sometimes they lose interest in many things.  They can be very sluggish.  So some of the symptoms of depression and some of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid can go hand in hand.

Sometimes women will have problems with their periods and it can be a cause of infertility as well.  So that these nonspecific symptoms might signal other diseases and you always want to rule out an underactive thyroid.

HOLLY ATKINSON, MD:  After the common symptoms of hypothyroidism are recognized, the next step is a diagnosis which often can involve a variety of tests.

LOREN WISSNER GREENE, MD:   Hypothyroidism is diagnosed very simply.  In most cases it can diagnosed by getting a level of the pituitary hormone that stimulates the thyroid gland.  The pituitary gland puts out a hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone, which is abbreviated as TSH.  And the TSH levels will go up as the pituitary tries to drive the thyroid to work harder when the thyroid is becoming underactive.