Thyroid-induced obesity

The thyroid gland is an important organ in the human body. At the same time, the thyroid gland is also prone to some disease problems. The thyroid gland can easily cause some symptoms in people's bodies, so we should pay attention to changes in the thyroid gland in a timely manner. Once a disease problem occurs, it should be treated promptly. Because major diseases caused by the thyroid gland may be tumors, which are often called cancer. So what should we do about obesity caused by thyroid?

The thyroid gland is located in the front of the neck. Its main function is to secrete two thyroid hormones:

● Triiodothyronine (T3 for short).

● Thyroxine (abbreviated as T4).

Thyroid hormone plays an important regulatory role in the human body, mainly in two aspects:

● Affects cell differentiation and development.

● Regulate various metabolic functions in the body, especially fat metabolism.

Their effect on fat breakdown is greater than their effect on fat synthesis. Therefore, when thyroid hormone is secreted excessively, that is, when suffering from hyperthyroidism (abbreviated as "hyperthyroidism"), patients often become emaciated. When the secretion of thyroid hormone is too low, that is, when suffering from hypothyroidism (abbreviated as "hypothyroidism"), the patient may become obese, and many patients with hypothyroidism also have lipid abnormalities.

The mechanism by which hypothyroidism causes obesity is mainly due to the lack of thyroid hormone, which inhibits the synthesis and degradation of lipids. That is to say, less is synthesized and even less is consumed, and the overall result is fat accumulation. In addition, patients with hypothyroidism have decreased energy expenditure, reduced physical activity, and depression, all of which can lead to obesity.

It is worth noting that although most patients with hypothyroidism have gained weight, only a small number of them are truly obese. Most patients with hypothyroidism do not have an increase in body fat accumulation, but because hypothyroidism causes water to be stored in the body, the increased weight is actually water. This kind of water contains a lot of protein, and the edema caused is non-concave. That is to say, although there is edema, no pit will appear when pressing with your fingers. After supplementing thyroid hormone to this group of patients, the excess water retained in the body can be quickly excreted, and their weight can be reduced rapidly, even returning to pre-disease levels. However, if the patient's weight gain is truly due to fat deposition, then thyroid hormone supplementation will not immediately restore the patient's previous level. The reason why hypothyroidism rarely causes true obesity is that it also causes significant appetite suppression, and patients eat less, so they cannot gain weight. As for whether thyroid hormone is involved in the cause of simple obesity, a lot of research has been done. The results showed that the vast majority of people with simple obesity had normal thyroid hormone levels, and only a few had slightly elevated T3 levels.

Further research showed that this increase in T3 was only due to the large amount of carbohydrates they ate. Once the carbohydrate intake was reduced, the T3 level would drop quickly. Studies have suggested that people who are simply obese may have thyroid function at a lower level than normal, so their heat production function is weaker and their fat consumption is less. However, this hypothesis has not been conclusively confirmed and requires further research.