Irritability, insomnia, thick neck, and extreme craving for food, many people don’t know they are sick

I want to eat all day long.

I ate a lot, but lost 20 pounds in a month.

The neck starts to get thicker and the hands start to shake involuntarily.

Easily irritable and angry.

Can't sleep, heart beating fast.

…

The above phenomena may make people mistakenly think that they are caused by their irregular lifestyle. But in fact, they are probably telling you that you have a disease - hyperthyroidism.

This is a disease that may not seem to be a big problem, but you may have to take medicine for the rest of your life.

At present, there are more than 200 million patients with thyroid dysfunction in my country, and the seventh national census just released shows that the total population of China is about 1.4 billion. In other words, one in seven people has thyroid dysfunction.

According to the TIDE survey results of the Chinese Endocrine Society in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, the prevalence of hyperthyroidism among Chinese people is 1.22%, and the prevalence of hypothyroidism is 13.95%. The most common disease is thyroid nodules, accounting for 20.43%.

In the company's internal research, there are many cases of thyroid nodules.

Among the adult population, thyroid disease accounts for 40% of the population, and the incidence rate in women is higher than that in men.

From "Lian Xiaolan Teaches You How to Eat to Maintain Your Thyroid"

We conducted a survey among the Dad Review fan group and found that many people had related experiences.

We found several fans who are willing to share their stories about hyperthyroidism and tell us their stories:

I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism during a physical examination at my company last year. At that time, the doctor said something like "diffuse thyroid disease" and suggested that I go to the hospital for a follow-up examination. When I heard the word "diffuse thyroid disease", I was completely stunned and scared.

After I got home, I didn’t search on Baidu, but instead asked a friend who was studying medicine. My friend suggested that I go to the hospital.

It was a complete mess at the beginning. I made the wrong appointment and went to the thyroid department, but the doctor said I should go to the endocrinology department.

The doctor pinched my neck, did an ultrasound, and asked me some questions, such as whether I was afraid of the heat and whether I slept well.

I recalled the period before, and there was indeed something strange. I was very hungry, ate a lot, and especially wanted to eat carbohydrates. Although it was winter, I was very afraid of the heat. I had a hard time falling asleep, and emotional problems made me very irritable, depressed, and down.

However, poor sleep has always been my problem, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with my body.

The doctor concluded that there is a serious trend, but it is okay for now. He did not say what caused it, but told me not to drink coffee or milk tea, because hyperthyroidism can cause my heart to beat fast and I can't sleep.

I was faced with two choices, surgery or medication. Medication would take one or two years, while surgery would cure the disease immediately, but there was a possibility of recurrence.

I chose to take medicine. At first I took one pill every 8 hours, and now I take one pill a day. It's easy to forget, and I need an alarm to remind me every day.

During the interview, the alarm clock rang

I told my family after the examination and my brother said to me, "Oh, you have this disease. It's very serious. I learned about it in biology class." Because of the doctor's words, I didn't think it was that serious.

The most difficult time was probably when I was in the hospital for check-ups.

I had to go there once a week. The hospital was crowded and the process was very troublesome. I could only wait, test, and wait. I was alone in the hospital, and the process made me feel very irritated. This state lasted for about two months.

I want to thank one person in particular, my roommate. I am not a person who can take care of myself very well. Since I went to college, I basically eat takeout and small restaurants. I am very lazy.

After she got sick, we started living a life where she cooked and I washed dishes, and she would discuss what to eat with me every day. During that time, she made me feel that normal life was like this.

Roommate chat history

After I got hyperthyroidism, the biggest impact on me was that I cherished my life a little bit, and my health was the most important thing. I also felt that I understood myself better.

What I mean here is that, for example, I didn’t pay much attention to my needs before. When I was hungry, I would order takeout and eat. But now I will consider whether I can eat, and pay more attention to the rationality of my needs. Of course, I can understand myself better emotionally.

I think this illness is my own fault. I took advantage of my youth and good health and thought that it didn't matter if I slept or not, because of life, work and other damn things (remove the word "damn" haha).

I am very afraid of relapse. I may have to take this medicine for the rest of my life, which is very scary to me. The interesting thing is that this medicine can be taken in quarters or half.

One month, I suddenly lost more than 20 pounds. I didn’t take it seriously at the time, thinking it was caused by irregular diet and lack of exercise during the epidemic. Later, during the company’s physical examination, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.

My first reaction was, how could I have hyperthyroidism? Has my neck become thicker? Later, I looked up some symptoms online and found that they all matched.

The results of the hospital examination were not too serious, but the indicators were dozens of times higher than usual. The doctor said that the reason for my hyperthyroidism was that I often stayed up late, had some problems with my diet, and was under a lot of stress.

Screenshot of the report at that time

I just remembered that in winter, I would feel very hot even if I wore thin pants and short sleeves. I felt like I had a red buff on my body, and all my energy was used for body temperature. In addition, my hands suddenly shook when I picked up things, and I couldn't hold them steady.

I told my family about it only after the diagnosis. None of them knew what hyperthyroidism was, so they just told me to see a doctor and get treatment.

After getting sick, the impact on life is still great.

On the one hand, I have to go for checkups every two weeks and take medicine constantly. The yellow pills I take are bad for my liver, and I get a lot of pimples on my face, my skin is dark yellow, and I'm very irritable.

On the other hand, I have to be very careful about what I eat. I can’t just eat seafood casually. I also have to worry about whether the salt I eat outside is iodized. At first, I tried to cook and bring my own food, but I couldn’t stick to it. I used to like fitness and had a strong body. Suddenly I couldn’t exercise, and my mental state was not good.

I lose my temper easily and feel like everything is going wrong.

I remember one time when I was dealing with a task and had a different opinion with someone else, so we had an argument in the meeting room. When I came out, my friend was shocked to see me and asked, "What's wrong with you? Your eyes are popping out."

I looked at myself in the mirror and thought I looked horrible. My eyes were red and bulging.

Later, I began to consciously control my emotions and told myself: Don't be angry. I also memorized a lot of foods that people with hyperthyroidism can eat.

Now it is under control, and the dosage has been reduced from two tablets a day to half a tablet a day. But the doctor said that even if it is cured, I still need to take a certain amount of medicine and observe for a year. I am worried about a recurrence.

This incident gave me a big wake-up call, corrected my life perspective, and taught me to control my emotions. I used to be a very direct person, which might hurt others, but now I think I can communicate with people in a different way.

I will pay more attention to diet and rest than before. I think this is a blessing in disguise.

I gave birth to my child when I was 24, a little over a year after I graduated from college and my hyperthyroidism stabilized.

I got hyperthyroidism when I was a junior in college. During that time, my neck became noticeably thicker and I became anxious. I would get irritated by any noise in the dormitory and my heart would beat very fast. When I got home, my mother noticed something was wrong with me and took me to the hospital for a checkup.

The doctor said that the index is too high, which is hyperthyroidism. I need to take medicine and have blood drawn every week to check the index. There is no way to determine how long it will take to cure this disease, so I have to be prepared for a long-term treatment.

My reaction at the time was, why me? I am not someone who often stays up late, and my life is relatively regular, so why am I different from others?

I often touch my neck and look in the mirror to see how I am doing. I still feel a little inferior because this disease affects the way a person looks.

I also checked it myself on the Internet. This is really a wrong approach. The results can easily make people lose confidence.

My family thought it was because I was eating irregularly and unhealthily, so from then on I could only eat boiled vegetables with only a little salt, like I was eating a diet meal. My mother took me to a nearby salt field and bought a whole box of non-iodized salt.

It took a long time to treat, but it didn't seem serious. Why did it take so long?

Because of anxiety, I changed several doctors, until one doctor told me that I couldn’t keep changing doctors. For long-term illnesses, I needed a fixed doctor so that the doctor would have a good understanding of my condition.

After that, I graduated and started working. About a year later, I had my baby. The doctor said that as long as I controlled my pregnancy well, I could get pregnant. I stopped taking medicine during the third trimester, and I haven’t taken any medicine since I had my baby.

Because I still had the mindset of a little girl when I got sick, I didn’t feel anything. But if I were now in a state with children and my own family, I would probably have more pressure and anxiety.

I still remember that when I went for a follow-up visit, I saw a girl who had been suffering from the disease for several years and was still taking medicine. She felt better for a while, but then relapsed again.

I think I am quite lucky, but I also think that attitude is really important.

It should have been during the period from kindergarten to elementary school. My eyes became bulging and looked like they were staring. I first went to an ophthalmologist and then to an endocrinologist. The doctor immediately said that I had hyperthyroidism.

It is rare for such a young child to have hyperthyroidism, and we are basically still exploring the use of medication. The treatment plans for children and adults are different.

I stopped attending classes for a semester and went out to look for treatment. I finally had radiotherapy in Beijing. It is unlikely that I can be cured to the level of a normal person. Now I have a little hypothyroidism, which is considered to be a relatively ideal state. I need to supplement it with medicine.

This also means that I will have to take this medicine for the rest of my life.

I carry a tablet with me every day.

I was young at the time and didn’t know much about illness, life or death, so I wasn’t afraid. I stayed in various children’s wards, rode in ambulances, and made friends with other patients. I had a lot of experiences and didn’t feel it was a burden. I also felt that it was great not to have to go to school or do homework.

When I returned to school, I was deeply impressed. No one had seen me for a semester and didn’t know I was coming back. When a classmate suddenly saw me, the whole class was excited. At that time, I felt that everyone missed me so much.

I remember there were probably two times when I felt like I might not be able to make it.

The impact on my family was felt later, when I was in junior high and high school and grew up. I felt that my family had spent a lot of money traveling all over the country, collecting all kinds of information, and looking for many hard-to-find doctors and experts. Maybe they saw papers or something and went to visit them to learn more.

Later on, my parents and grandfather were very knowledgeable about this disease and could be considered half doctors. The extent of their research on this disease was beyond my expectation.

Grandpa used to record his status in a notebook.

This must be a big hurdle for the family. When I talked to my mother about my illness, I just treated it as an experience, but my mother cried and wondered why this happened to me. I didn't know if it could be cured, and I didn't know why I got sick. There was no direction for treatment. The child was so young, it must have been quite devastating.

I don’t control my diet now, and my daily routine is no different from that of a normal young person.

I worry about when this medicine will be discontinued because it is something I have to take for the rest of my life.

I feel that health should be put first, no matter in life, emotions or work. As long as people are healthy, everything else is trivial.

In fact, before these diseases are diagnosed, the body will generally send out signals to remind us, but sometimes they are ignored.

How important is the thyroid gland? It is the largest endocrine gland in the human body and is responsible for the synthesis, storage and secretion of thyroid hormones.

Thyroid hormone acts on almost all tissues of the body. Important processes such as metabolism, growth and development require its participation. If the secretion is abnormal, it will endanger almost all organs and tissues in the body.

Source: http://medline.org.cn/news/detail.do?newsId=6743

Let’s take a look at some common thyroid diseases.

You can check the table below to see if you have any similar situation:

The appearance of these symptoms does not necessarily mean that you have a thyroid disease. It is just the body's reminder that we need to pay attention to our own health and go to the hospital for a thyroid health check.

What should I do if I get sick?

Iodine is an essential raw material for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Generally, we get 5% from the air, 10%~20% from drinking water (tap water), and 80%~90% from food, such as seaweed (kelp, laver, etc.), iodized salt, chicken essence, seashells, and dried shrimps.

The more iodine intake is not necessarily better. Iodine deficiency or excess can lead to thyroid disease.

So if we have thyroid disease, we can adjust it by eating a balanced diet and controlling iodine intake.

Regarding how to pay attention to diet for hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, we have listed some precautions. You can save them as needed and forward them to those in need:

The most important thing is to follow the doctor's advice, cooperate with the treatment, and relax your mind.

May 15th is the National Iodine Deficiency Prevention and Control Day. We launched this story + popular science article in the hope that it can provide some help to everyone and help you care about yourself and the people you love.

Each of the hyperthyroidism patients we interviewed mentioned the importance of maintaining a regular schedule and a good attitude.

In today's fast-paced society, it seems that everyone is in a hurry, and everyone has put shackles on themselves. Whether it is work and rest or emotions, they will involuntarily become worse due to the trivialities of work and life.

But these are really nothing in the face of health.

I hope everyone can pay more attention to themselves and cherish themselves more. We can live a healthier and happier life.