What is the function of the thyroid gland?
(2) Thyroid hormones increase the basal metabolic rate of the body and improve oxygen uptake and heat production. Additionally they increase the heart rate, cardiac output, alter body temperature and ventilation rates in support of these activities. Other effects on the brain and skeleton are essential to normal growth and development. A patient who is seriously deficient in thyroid hormones will usually be female, elderly, cold, living in poor conditions and mentally sluggish or comatose – easily distinguishable even from those suffering severe ME. Very mild hypothyroidism can occur at any age and in both genders with non-specific symptoms as a normal physiological response to general illness. Both free T4 and T3 are marginally low: treatment for ‘hypothyroidism’ cannot make them feel better because it cannot cure the underlying illness. 6. WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF THYROID UNDERACTIVITY? (3) (1) Iodine deficiency – this is no longer geographically widespread in developed count
