Small But Mighty: A Thyroid Life

1 in 5 have thyroid disease.

Over half of the 13 million cases of thyroid disease in the US are undiagnosed - that's 1 in 20.


Thyroid disorders are misdiagnosed as everything from depression to Alzheimers to obesity or anorexia. 


They can cause infertility, weight gain or loss, depression, extreme fatigue, tremors, palpitations, blurred vision....the list goes on and on.

Many people go years before they are finally diagnosed, but detecting thyroid disease is usually by a simple blood test, and treated with medication.

In May 2009 the world saw the first ever international thyroid awareness week. So far as I could tell, the media didn't even refer to it. Thyroid disease, like I guess any disease, can run a life. And it may well be the cause of some of the world's greatest challenges - obesity; infertility; depression...




This blog is aimed to raise awareness of thyroid disease - to teach those who have never heard of it, or who know only one or two things about what the thyroid can do. It is aimed to lower those figures of misdiagnosis and the undiagnosed above, and to reduce the amount of years which people are hypothyroid or hyperthyroid simply because no one knew how to spot their symptoms.

In addition, this blog offers advice to people who are 'Thyroid Newbies' or 'Current Sufferers' - to find posts which might help you, search for the tags by those names.

In order to raise awareness without claiming things with no meaning, I have taken a knowledge-full approach to finding out what the current state of awareness is - and that means looking at the media and at what people actually know. And what I have found shows that:

 you have to know about this disease to find out about it

 - so how are people supposed to be diagnosed?




The thyroid is a small but mighty gland in your neck.