Hello, in my high school, I am in a class called Disease. In Disease we have been learning about diseases, the different systems in the body, the ways in which people get diseases or why they have them, and the process of diagnosing someone and asking questions to a patient. So far, all the information we have been discussing has been really fascinating and informative. I think that it is really interesting how there are many ways and processes in figuring out what diagnosis different people have. What is also very interesting is how people's body systems react to different diseases and how they react to things when they have certain diseases. For our action project in this class, we are meant to pick a disease of our choice and research all about it. (We want to get a viewpoint of the person, and of the doctors.) So what we were asked to do was to interview someone about, it and then research online. The disease I decided to research is Hashimoto’s Disease. It is a disease where your immune system attacks healthy cells in your thyroid gland. I decided to research this disease because somebody close to me has it and I wanted to know everything about it.
One of the first steps I took in researching the disease was to interview the person with the disease. I asked five questions, and she answered all of them well. After the interview/conversation with her, I already had much more information on what the disease really was. I learned quite a few things about it, especially how it affects her. The name of the disease is Hashimoto’s Disease, and what she has exactly is called Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Hypothyroidism. She has had Hashimoto’s Disease for a pretty long time. “I’m not sure how long I have had Hashimoto’s Disease, but I do know that I have been diagnosed with it since 2016”. She doesn’t know what caused her to have it, but she says it is possible it had to do with her stress levels since stress is something that can make you more likely to get Hashimoto’s Disease. Another thing she told me was that you can get Hashimoto’s Disease if your biological family has a history of thyroid disease. She told me that her aunt actually had a thyroid disease, but also that the doctors investigated and concluded that her aunt got it because of the stress from living with her husband. I think that it could have also been related to genetics as well though. I asked her what symptoms she has had, and she listed quite a few things. “So a few of the symptoms, it causes me to be tired a lot, so that’s why I went into homeschooling because I needed to sleep in excessive amounts. It causes me to have a lack of energy to do things, and it made me struggle with my weight because it slows down my metabolism. Also, this is kind of gross but I get constipation sometimes because of it. It also actually emphasizes mental illnesses like my anxiety and depression, so it made me struggle with that too. It also gives me kind of dry skin and hair loss. I would say that for me, the way it affected me the most was definitely with my height. My thyroid gland having uneven hormone levels affected my pituitary gland, and that stunted my growth.” What she went through was a little different than most people with Hashimoto’s Disease because she was young when she first got it, and most people who get it are middle-aged. The fact that she was young made it different because she was small and hadn’t gone through much puberty yet. The fact that her hormone levels were uneven made her growing process weird, and her height slowed down. Because of this, she is a lot shorter than she would have been if she hadn’t had Hashimoto’s Disease. The last thing we talked about was the treatments or medication she tried and currently takes. “I take medication every day in the morning, it’s called Levoxyl. I’ve tried Asian herbs and different brands of medications. My mom made me try acupuncture, but it didn’t help. I also got second opinions from other doctors.”
"Thyroid" National Cancer Institute
The next step in researching Hashimoto's disease was to use the internet. I researched reliable websites to see everything that they said about the disease. After a lot of research, I got to learn almost everything about the disease. Hashimoto’s Disease affects your thyroid gland, and the thyroid gland is in the endocrine system. The endocrine system's purpose is to control your growth, your energy, your metabolism, and your blood pressure. Hashimoto's disease affects the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system. The reason Hashimoto’s disease affects the endocrine system is because your immune system attacks your thyroid gland; which is part of your endocrine system. Your thyroid gland is the butterfly-shaped gland in your throat. It does things like stabilizing your blood pressure and producing hormone-producing cells. When your immune system attacks your thyroid gland, it leads to the death of the thyroid’s hormone-producing cells. This makes the hormone production lessen, and the hormone level in your body becomes uneven, causing all sorts of different problems and symptoms (5). Some of the symptoms of this disease may be fatigue/sluggishness, increased sensitivity to cold, increased sleepiness, dry skin (10), constipation (8), growth stunt, muscle weakness, muscle aches, (11) tenderness and stiffness, joint pain and stiffness, irregular or excessive menstrual bleeding (9), increased chance of depression/anxiety, increased chance of heart problems (4), stomach bloating (6), increase risk of gallstones (7), problems with memory or concentration (2), swelling of the thyroid (3), a puffy face, brittle nails, hair loss (1), and enlargement of the tongue.
"Anatomy of what Hashimotos can affect" N.M, 2022
People who think they might have Hashimoto’s Disease can get antibody tests because people who have Hashimoto’s Disease usually have TPO antibodies in their blood. The other way to see if you might have Hashimoto’s Disease is if you have a combination of symptoms. One of these symptoms may be low energy; this would be because the body’s metabolism is slowing down. Another symptom could be dry skin or a change in appearance. These symptoms could both be because of how your body processes slow down. Another thing to consider is if you have been really stressed recently, and also if there is a history of thyroid disease in your biological family.
The people that are most likely to get Hashimoto’s disease are biological females who are around 45-65 (middle-aged). Also, people who live in houses with lots of stress are more likely to get the disease. Hashimoto’s disease is rare, it affects 1 to 2 percent of people in the United States. People with mild hypothyroidism, usually get regular TSH tests to monitor their thyroid hormone levels. The disease is also treated with a synthetic hormone called levothyroxine. Hashimoto’s disease is not communicable, meaning it isn’t contagious. The factors that cause Hashimoto’s disease are genetic factors, environmental triggers, like infection, stress, radiation exposure, interactions between environmental and genetic factors. Other things that cause a higher risk for the disease are pregnancy, excessive iodine intake, and having other autoimmune diseases.
This Action Project was a lot of researching, a lot of information consuming, and a lot of typing. It was difficult, but I got to interview someone and that was pretty cool. It was also very interesting learning all about Hashimoto’s Disease. Thank you for visiting my blog post!
. (n.d.). Coping with fatigue. British Thyroid Foundation. Retrieved January 22, 2022, from https://www.btf-thyroid.org/coping-with-fatigue
Eisnaugle, J. (2019, August 16). Effects of hypothyroidism: Thinning hair, heart attack and more. Healthline. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/hypothyroidism/effects-of-hypothyroidism
. (2022, January 15). Hashimoto's disease. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved January 22, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hashimotos-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20351855#:~:text=Hashimoto's%20disease%20is%20an%20autoimmune,many%20functions%20in%20the%20body
. (2020, August 18). Hashimoto thyroiditis: Medlineplus genetics. MedlinePlus. Retrieved January 22, 2022, from https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/hashimoto-thyroiditis/
M, N. (2022, January 18). Hashimoto's Disease. personal.
. (n.d.). Thyroid Gland. The Thyroid Gland. Retrieved January 22, 2022, from https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/S_T/The-thyroid-gland
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