Are thyroid disorders serious?

If you don't treat a thyroid disorder properly, you can indeed experience some long-term health issues. In this video, integrative medicine expert Aviva Romm, MD, explains some of the problems you can experience if thyroid disease isn't treated.

Transcript

00:00

And you can also get too much bone turnover, which means you're losing bone too fast and you can be at higher risk for osteopenia, which is bone

00:08

loss, or even osteoporosis. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:20

Thyroid disorders, if you get them treated effectively, are not serious and you can live a completely healthy,

00:26

absolutely normal life with no problems. But if your thyroid problem isn't treated effectively, you can actually have long term problems.

00:36

If you have a slow functioning thyroid or hypothyroid, that weight gain can eventually become a problem for you.

00:43

You can develop metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and, eventually, even diabetes.

00:50

And if you have a hyperfunctioning thyroid, that can actually lead to some more serious problems more quickly. So you definitely want to make sure that's well controlled.

00:58

And the serious problems that can happen with that are because it makes your heart race more, you can actually have heart arrhythmias

01:06

and you can also get too much bone turnover, which means you're losing bone too fast and you can be at higher risk for osteopenia, which is bone

01:14

loss, or even osteoporosis. If you're experiencing any symptoms

01:21

that you might be related to underactive or over functioning thyroid, please see your doctor and get appropriately treated.