We will discuss 16 most common signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism in 2020 in this article.
Have you thought that you are eating so less but still your weight is increasing day by day.Your friends eat more than you but they manage to stay slim while your gaining weight like anything!!
You might see this complaint quite often in your family maybe your parents,cousins,siblings,aunts,uncles…
If that is the case then you might be a candidate for hypothyroid or other hypothyroidism related problems.So you will ask me,
How will i know if i have hypothyroidism?
what are the signs & symptoms for hypothyroidism?
Let me help you with your questions and lets know what are the signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism.
16 most common signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism
1) Feeling tired
- The most common symptom of hypothyroidism is fatigue or feeling tired every now and then.
- In a normal individual the thyroid hormone regulates the metablism of the body providing the body with energy.
- When the levels of thyroid hormone in the body are reduced, it causes decreased supply of energy to the body and the person feels fatigue and
- Patient with hypothyroid are get exhausted and feels sluggish or reduced activity.
- In severe cases the people feel so exhausted that they are not able to do their routine work properly.
- When you feel very very sleepy, even after having adequate sleep and you feel like taking a nap every now and then, without any proper explanation, it means that your thyroid levels may be low.
2) Weight gain [most common signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism]
- Thyroid hormones has a role in metabolism of the body.
- It helps regulate the body weight. by metabolism of fats and sugar.
- Decreased levels of thyroid hormone will cause decrease in the bodies basal metabolic rate.
- Because the BMR and the metabolism of the fats and carbohydrates is affected, it results in increase in the weight.
- Risk of weight gain and obesity is increased even in mild cases of hypothyroidism
3) Increased sensitivity to cold as signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism.
- Thyroid hormone plays very important role in metabolism of the fats and carbohydrates.
- When our body burns calories it produces heat, this heat helps keep our body warm.
- Thyroid hormone helps in burning calories.
- So when there is decreased amount of thyroid hormone in our body, the result will be that less calories will be burned and less heat produced.
- Therefore patient of hypothyroidism are cold intolerant, that is you feel more colder than others around you.
4) Constipation
- Thyroid hormone has a effect on the gastrointestinal tract and maintains the normal gut movement.
- When the amount of thyroid hormone reduces in body, it causes slowing of gut movement (peristalsis).
- This causes the food to remain in the intestines for longer period of time.
- The net result is that patient experiences constipation.
- Patient will present with complains of passing hard stools, feeling of incomplete emptying of the rectum, or difficulty in passing stools.
5) Elevated blood cholesterol level
There are 2 reasons why there occurs an increase in the cholesterol levels, due to hypothyroidism.
1.Thyroid hormone helps in translation of LDL or low density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) receptors on the cell surface. Which in turn regulates the clearance of the bad cholesterol.
- Therefore decrease in the thyroid hormone will cause decrease in the clearance of LDL cholesterol from the body.
- End result being increased cholesterol in the blood
2.Reduced thyroid hormone will slow down the gut movement.This will increase the amount of time the food remains in the intestines.
Therefore it causes more amount of cholesterol to get absorbed from the food.
- If a patient has increased cholesterol levels, due to hypothyroidism, then the treatment of hypothyroidism itself will be enough to bring the cholesterol levels back to normal, even without using lipid lowering agent.
6) Slowed heart rate
- The effects of the thyroid hormone on the heart is that it increases the heart rate, cardiac output, and also increases the contractility of the heart.
- So in a patient with decreased thyroid hormone all these functions slows down causing bradycardia, changes in blood pressure.
- Bradycardia can also cause dizzinesss and weakness.
7) Thinning hair and hair fall
- Thyroid hormone is required for all the cells in our body.
- Hair follicle cells and skin cells are rapidly proliferating cells, which are very sensitive to low thyroid levels.
- So in hypothyroidism, the decreased amount of thyroid hormone, hampers the regeneration of hair follicular cells, resulting in hair fall and thinning of the hair.
- Hair loss is seen at regions like scalp, eyebrows, and other body parts.
- These changes are reversible once the patient is started on hypothyroid treatment.
8) Dry and Itchy Skin
- Thyroid hormone is essential for regeneration of rapidly growing cells of skin and hair.
- When there occurs reduced thyroid hormone, it hampers the normal cycle of the skin renewal and therefore these cells take longer than usual to regrow.
- This means that the dead skin cells will remain on the body for longer time till new cells regenerate.
- These dead skin cells make the skin appear dry and flaky.
- These symptoms starts to clear up once people begin thyroid hormone therapy.
9) Pain and tenderness in the muscles
- Normal amount of thyroid hormone helps in the metabolic processes of the body.
- Reduction in the thyroid hormone in the body, will now increase the catabolism ,(which means breakdown of a molecule into smaller units).
- The body will now try to produce energy by breaking down the muscles.
- This will result in pain and weakness in the muscles.
- Patient may suffer from muscles aches, muscles cramps, soreness of muscle and decreased muscle strength.
10) Pain, stiffness or swelling in joints
- Thyroid hormone regulates the process of bone formation and bone resorption.
- And is therefore required for the growth of long bones.
- In absences on thyroid hormones there occurs joint pains, stiffness and swelling of the joint.
11) Heavy or Irregular menstrual periods [most common signs & symptoms of hypothyroidism in female]
- Yes! there is a connection between irregular menses and thyroid levels.
- The menstrual cycle abnormalities which occurs in hypothyroidism are due to:
- In hypothyroidism there occurs increase in prolactin levels.This increased prolactin causes ovulatory dysfunction, which results in oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea.
- In hypothyroidism there occurs increase in the TSH levels. TSH may have a small FSH or LH like effect, which causes blunting of the mid cycle LH surge and therefore causes oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea.
- Frequent bleeding and spotting occurs as breakthrough bleeding. (which means as the endometrial lining goes on proliferating, it outgrows its blood supply and the endometrium sheds off.)
- Hypothyroidism can also cause decrease in the levels of factor VII, VIII, IX and XI. Therefore it interferes with the hemostasis and this also contributes to the irregular menstruation.Due to Prolonged bleeding due to ineffective clotting mechanism.
- Other factors which may also play a role is that, hypothyroidism causes reduced levels of sex hormone binding globulin and also there occurs impairment of detoxification of estrogen.
12) Puffy sensitive face
Puffiiness of the face is due to increased weight gain that occurs in patient with hypothyroidism.
13) Impaired memory
- In the brain the thyroid hormone plays a role in differentiation of the brain cells and myelination of the nerves.
- In case of hypothyroidism where the thyroid hormone in very less it effects the brain and causes changes in brain functioning.
- Patient of hypothyroidism may experience Mood and memory changes such as:
- Trouble Concentrating
- impairement of memory
- slower thinking
- lack of interest
- depression
- low mood
- these changes can be reversible with the start of hypothyroid treatment.
14) Depression
Lesser amount of thyroid hormone affects the brain functions.
One of the symptom is low mood or depression.Which is very commonly seen in hypothyroid patients.
15) Enlarged thyroid gland (goitre)
- In hypothyroid there is enlargement of the thyroid gland due to increased stimulation of the thyroid gland by the TSH. (Thyroid stimulating hormone).
- This is called as goitre.
- Enlarged gland might cause symptoms like excessive cough, pressure symptoms like difficulty in swallowing and breathing, pressure over the laryngeal nerves and muscles causes hoarseness.
16) Hoarseness of voice
- This symptom occurs as a result of pressure from the enlarged thyroid gland, which compresses the laryngeal nerves and layngeal muscles, causing hoarseness of voice.
More articles on hypothyroid-causes of hypothyroidism,risk factors for hypothyroidism
What is Treatment of hyperthyroidism in detail 2020.