The thyroid gland is a small butterfly-shaped organ located on the front side of the neck, just below the Adam’s apple. There are two lobes, the right and left, connected by the isthmus. The primary function of the thyroid is to regulate several important hormones in the body, some of which control the body’s metabolic rate. There are several disorders that can affect the thyroid, including Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, Thyroid Nodules, Thyroid Cancer, and Goiter.

Thyroid function can be measured by the levels of several thyroid hormones in the blood, including TSH, T3 and T4. Too much or too little of these hormones could mean that the patient is suffering from a disorder of the thyroid. If your thyroid is producing too little hormone, you may be having symptoms of hypothyroidism such as tiredness, feeling cold, weight gain, or changes in your skin or hair. Hyperthyroidism, where the thyroid gland produces too much hormone, causes the metabolism to speed up and can lead to weight loss, heart palpitations, sweating or insomnia. Treatment can range from taking replacement thyroid hormones to surgical removal of all or part of the thyroid gland in some cases.

An overactive thyroid is called hyperactive while an underactive one is called hypoactive. Hypoactive thyroid is a very common, yet often undiagnosed condition. Many of the symptoms are vague and can be easily dismissed by a doctor who is not familiar with the warning signs.

Due to the fact that your thyroid is directly linked to your metabolism, one of the first signs of an underactive thyroid is an inability to lose weight or unexplained weight gain. Some hypothyroid sufferers hardly eat at all and still fail to drop a pound. Other symptoms of hypothyroidism are:

• Coarse, frizzy hair
• Outer 1/3 of eyebrows thin or missing
• Pale, dry skin
• Fatigue
• Memory loss and brain fog
• Intolerance to the cold
• Constipation
• Irregular or heavy menstrual cycles
• Irritability and depression
• Joint and muscle soreness
• Decreased sexual libido

As you can see, most of these symptoms are vague enough to be totally overlooked by many doctors except those who are able to put all the symptoms together to see the big picture. This is why millions of cases go undetected while the poor sufferers simply chalk up their symptoms to aging or some other mystery ailment.

While an under active thyroid can have many causes, one of the primary causes is an iodine deficiency. While iodine is added back into table salt, many women do not use enough salt to prevent a deficiency. Living near the ocean helps prevent iodine deficiency as well but that does not help the millions of women landlocked far from iodine rich soil.

How about soaking in a mineral (iodine) rich Dead Sea Salt bath? Lastly, seaweed, specifically Kelp is a fabulous sources of iodine but most Americans do not incorporate seaweed into their diets the way the Japanese do.

Another factor in chronic iodine deficiency in the Unite States is the ridiculously low RDA. The current RDA for iodine in the United States is 0.125 mg while the Japanese regularly consume over 13 mg daily (over 100 times the US RDA) with no ill effects and arguably some of the best health in the world. Click here to learn more about iodine studies, health benefits and why the US RDA for iodine is ridiculous). So even if your daily supplement contains iodine, it does not contain nearly enough to prevent an iodine deficiency.