Do You Have an Underactive Thyroid?
The weather in Grand Rapids has taken a turn to winter: from 61 degrees on Tuesday to freezing today. It’s bone chilling with winds at 20 mph and can leave you feeling cold most of the day. But what if you were cold most of the time regardless of the outdoor temperature? That’s just one of the symptoms of an underactive thyroid, also called hypothyroid.
Before I met with a potential coaching client to discuss his nutrition and training, I asked him when he had his last physical and how his health has been. One of the things he mentioned was feeling more fatigued than he had in the past and that it took longer to recover. Fatigue and feeling tired are also symptoms of an underactive thyroid. Those symptoms aren’t always present, and there are other explanations for those symptoms, but hypothyroid is a possibility. Here are some of the other symptoms of an underactive thyroid:
- Trouble sleeping
- Difficulty concentrating
- Weight gain
- Dry skin and hair
- Depression, as I mentioned Tuesday
- For women: frequent, heavy periods
- Muscle fatigue and painful joints
There could be other explanations, but it’s a place to begin and it’s often part of a routine blood test. Schedule an appointment and have your thyroid levels checked. If your thyroid is underactive, the question I asked Tuesday applies: should you take the medication or are there alternatives? I’ll get into that on Saturday.
What are you prepared to do today?
Dr. Chet
