Five Easy Steps to Keep Your Thyroid Healthy

For anyone who doesn’t have a thyroid condition, it might be easy to forget about the gland in the front of their neck that controls hormone production. But behind the scenes, the thyroid does a lot of work to help metabolize and maintain blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate.

Thyroid disease affects approximately 20 million people in the US and about one in eight women. The two most common types of thyroid disorders are hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism.

Hyperthyroidism produces too much thyroxine hormone (an overactive thyroid) and hypothyroidism does not produce enough (an underactive thyroid). Although the two conditions have different signs and symptoms, there can be some overlap.

“There is no replacement for getting the proper diagnosis and starting medication when necessary,” said Vatche Zohrabian, DO, primary care physician with the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group, “but there are some lifestyle modifications that can help augment conventional treatment and help keep your thyroid on track.”

Visit the Hartford HealthCare NewsHub to read the 5 things Dr. Zohrabian recommends you do to upkeep a healthy thyroid...