As many of you know, I have thyroid disease. I’ve been meaning to compile a list of various symptoms linked to thyroid issues for a while, in part to highlight just how multifaceted, unpredictable and nebulous the disease is.
It’s worth remembering that every cell in our body has thyroid receptors (the only other substance with receptors on every cell is Vitamin D). This really does explain why a dodgy thyroid can manifest in so many different ways. It’s an illness of the entire body.
It also explains why autoimmune thyroid disease, or Hashimotos, is so often misdiagnosed as 93847 other conditions and why so many Hashi sufferers finally arrive at the correct diagnosis exhausted from trying all kinds of different supplements and treatments for 93847 unrelated conditions. Oh, and it explains why we can be left feeling like a crazy hypochondriac. Right?
When I reflect on the sheer number of symptoms linked to Hashimotos it reminds me just how fruitless it is to try fix symptoms (which would take several lifetimes even if such fixes existed) and that focusing on a broad healing is far more productive. This is what I do now. I steer my efforts to modulating my stress. This is the core “fix”.
I’ve since seen an extensive list on Hypothyroidmom.com and Dana has kindly given me permission to share it with you kids (I recently shared one of her posts on constipation which you can explore at your leisure. Good toot reading!).
You can catch up on the peculiar and nebulous symptoms from some previous posts I’ve written on hashimotos disease.
Also, Dana provides a few interesting points stemming from how confused people get by the knotted cluster of symptoms thyroid disease presents:
If you’ve got constipation, it could be thyroid disease.
If you’ve suffered a miscarriage, your thyroid could be to blame.
But now to the list. I don’t suggest you start a comparathon here, nor self-diagnose based on having a few of the symptoms below. Nor get alarmed, especially when you get to the list of cancers at the bottom. This list is more to comfort those with the illness who feel entirely ridiculous about “always having something wrong” with them. It’s not you, it’s your thyroid!! That said, if your undiagnosed