Posted on 09/06/2016 5:00:30 AM PDT by LittleSpotBlog
You owe a lot to your thyroid.
The small butterfly-shaped gland in your neck produces the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which help control many activities in your body, from how quickly you burn calories to how fast your heart beats. However, when the gland is underactive (a condition called hypothyroidism, associated with too little thyroxine) or overactive (a condition called hyperthyroidism, associated with too much thyroxine), it can wreak havoc on your body.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Although the effect is small, it would be interesting to see what they can learn regarding the causal link.
I had Graves disease for several years before a young Air Force captain working at a VA hospital caught it. He had my thyroid nuked, and been without one since 1989. A drug fills the void.
This was pre Clinton years, when the VA actually cared for vets.
Link just goes to CNN’s science page — no article about thyroids and sudden cardiac death that I could find in their extensive lists. Did they run the same headline as your post (it would be amazing if they had, given the implications for their candidate). Have they pulled the story already?
I got straight to the story by clicking the link. Maybe it’s changed in the last half hour.
Higher level of thyroxin means hypothyroidism
Casual link? I believe it’s a rather serious link. Back when I had advanced Graves disease, I could occasionally feel my heart just pound, hard enough to wake me up.
Other stressors probably affecting my heart was my lack of sleep. I only needed 1 or 2 hours of sleep a day. I ate like a horse and lost weight. My metabolism was in overdrive. I was perpetually warm feeling. I recall being outside one winter day working on my car. Actual temp was -30F. I was in stocking feet and T shirt, a fellow walked by in a huge parka, and I thought he was crazy. I stashed candy bars all over the place like a drunk would hide a bottle. My whiskers were so tough it was difficult to shave. My nails were so tough I had to use a wire cutter to trim them. My throat was swollen.
So, I kinda think those things could be hard on ones heart.
A few minutes ago the link went to the story, which was really about eating right. Just now it does indeed go to the generic page. It’s not called Covverupforclinton News Network for nothing!
Hypothyroid is low thyroxine. Hyperthyroid is high thyroxine.
The article said the researchers began with the hypothesis that "hyperthyroid causes high blood pressure causes cardiac arrest," but when they factored out blood pressure (and other known cardiac risk factors), the correlation between hyperthyroid and sudden cardiac arrest held up.
Now they need a new, testable hypothesis for exactly how A causes B.
I can’t see it either.
I think it really got pulled. I did a search for it, and all the links have the same headline go to that same generic page. How do we get a cached version?
That is so weird. CNN tweeted the story about 2 hours ago; the tweet is still there, but the link now redirects to the Health page. WTF?
http://trueviralnews.com/?p=382593
The small butterfly-shaped gland in your neck produces the hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine, which help control many activities in your body, from how quickly you burn calories to how fast your heart beats.
However, when the gland is underactive (a condition called hypothyroidism, associated with too little thyroxine) or overactive (a condition called hyperthyroidism, associated with too much thyroxine), it can wreak havoc on your body.
Scientists have long known that thyroid problems that stem from an imbalance of its hormones may be associated with subsequent heart problems, from an irregular heartbeat to cardiovascular disease.
Now, they’ve added sudden cardiac death to that list of potential heart problem connections, according to a new study published in the journal Circulation on Tuesday.
“Our study suggests that persons with higher thyroid hormone levels, even within what we consider the normal range of thyroid function, have a four-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death compared to persons with lower thyroid hormone levels,” said Dr. Layal Chaker, research fellow in endocrinology and epidemiology at Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, lead author of the study.
“The risk factors that were known for sudden cardiac death were mainly the ‘traditional’ cardiovascular risk factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure. However, it was not known that higher thyroid hormone levels could also be a risk factor for sudden cardiac death,” she added. “Our study shows that thyroid function at the high end of normal is a risk factor.”
The current study involved health data on 10,318 adults, ages 45 and older, from Rotterdam. The data, which included information on each person’s thyroid and heart health, were collected from 1990 to 1993, 2000 to 2001, and 2006 to 2008.
After controlling for age, sex and various heart disease risk factors, such as smoking or high cholesterol, the researchers analyzed the data. They compared levels of thyroxine in blood samples of the adults with how many of them died of sudden cardiac death.
They discovered that higher levels of thyroxine were associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death, independent of other cardiovascular risk factors. The data showed that the risk of dying due to sudden cardiac death increased from 1% to 4% with higher thyroxine levels over a 10-year period. The researchers indicated that their findings probably would be similar in the United States.
Why are higher levels of the thyroid-stimulating hormone associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death? “Our hypothesis was that thyroid hormone levels could increase the risk of sudden cardiac death by affecting cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure levels,” Chaker said.
However, “we were surprised to see that when we control our analyses for these factors, the association remained similar, suggesting that other pathways could play a role,” she added. “Thyroid hormone has different effects on the cardiovascular systems, and future studies should pinpoint which pathway could be responsible for the increased risk of sudden cardiac death with higher thyroid hormone levels. This could lead to better assessment of individual risk and identify possible prevention targets.”
Being able to predict sudden cardiac death in the general population is difficult, but the researchers hope that this new study may help identify thyroid hormone levels as a possible screening tool for assessing risk of sudden cardiac death.
“However, we were not able to study the effect of possible treatment of high thyroid function in the prevention of sudden cardiac death, and this requires further research,” Chaker said.
Although the new study’s findings focus on thyroid hormones in the high end of the normal range, they shouldn’t overshadow the cardiovascular health risks associated with low thyroid hormone levels too, said Martin Gerdes, professor and chairman in the New York Institute of Technology’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
“Within the normal range of thyroid hormone levels, many other studies show that cardiac patients on the low end had more cardiac risks than those on the high end,” Gerdes said.
“My worry is that results for this study … may encourage physicians to undertreat low thyroid conditions in cardiac patients,” he said. “For proper heart health, it is important to have normal thyroid hormone function. Thyroid hormone levels directly affect cardiac contraction, relaxation and coronary blood flow.”
He added that often thyroid hormones may offer benefits to treat heart disease. But many physicians are afraid to use them due to the risk of accidental overdosing, which may lead to increased arrhythmias and sudden death, such as what has been outlined in the new study.
“There are so many people around the world dying of heart disease that is likely accelerated due to having low cardiac tissue hormone levels,” Gerdes said. “We need a serum biomarker that identifies patients with low cardiac tissue thyroid hormone levels who may benefit from treatment. This would revolutionize the field and help resolve some of the conflicting reports.”
About 3% of the general population is treated with thyroid medication, Chaker said. She hopes patients receive the treatment they need without being over-treated.
“In these individuals, the thyroid hormone levels are modifiable by decreasing the dose of therapy,” she said, “and thereby perhaps decreasing sudden cardiac death risk.”
SOURCE
CNN
This is part of the reason I now have a pacemaker.
It isn’t just about eating right. It’s about maintaining correct levels of thyroxine, and if it’s not, the trouble. Since Clinton’s doctor has officially mentioned her hypothyroidism, it makes the connection for readers/voters to understand that Hillary could have heart problems too. I think this is why it got pulled.
I also have Graves’ disease. I’m in remission now, thankfully. Looking back at those years before I was diagnosed makes me want to cry-I missed much of the joy of having a house full of young children just because I was so tense and high strung from a hyper thyroid. The older four could see a difference in me as soon as I started taking the methimazole.
If your thyroid isn’t happy, you aren’t happy.
Thanks. That should help others (here) who can’t find it.
Too bad the masses will hear nothing of it.
I wonder if CNN will fire the science writer who wrote it, ala HuffPo and David Seaman a week ago.
I think you’ve got it exactly.
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