Thyroid is a gland which is located in the neck right beneath the Adam s apple. The hormone produced by it is called thyroxin and this hormone is responsible for controlling the body s metabolic rate. This gland works as a thermostat for the human body as it controls other hormones which are responsible for burning and using calories.

How does it affect your life?

Hypothyroidism, also known as the  underactive thyroid disease , is a disorder which causes the thyroid to secrete insufficient hormone, thus causing the body s metabolic rate to slow down, and in turn affecting the heart rate and body temperature.
The people who suffer from hypothyroidism often experience weight gain and sensitivity to cold. Weight gain in case of hypothyroidism occurs despite having a low appetite. This is because the calories consumed are not burnt and used appropriately.
Fatigue is another major issue associated with hypothyroidism. Individuals suffering from hypothyroidism usually become tired after the first half of the day.
An underactive thyroid also causes drowsiness and depression. These may initially not seem to be major problems but in the long run, both the quality of life and overall health are usually negatively affected by it.
Thyroid related issues have become more common nowadays. Research shows that an unhealthy lifestyle is one of the major reasons behind this. Sedentary lifestyle involving little physical movement coupled with consumption of an unbalanced diet has led to surge in the number of such cases.
Doctors prescribe medications in case of hypothyroidism. But apart from medicines, simple modifications in lifestyle can go a long way in addressing this disorder. Research shows that consuming a healthy diet rich in iodine and comprising of sea food and green leafy vegetables, can increase the production of thyroxin in the body. Regular exercises must also be coupled along with following a proper diet.

Hypothyroidism - How It Affects Your Lifestyle?

If you are suffering from hypothyroidism, it is important for you to deal with the condition so that your daily life and activities do not get affected. Hypothyroidism occurs when your thyroid gland becomes under active and does not produces sufficient amount of hormones. This affects the metabolism rate of your body. Hypothyroidism has several symptoms which include fatigue, constipation, dry skin, muscle cramping, hoarse voice, depression, sudden gain of weight and brittle hair and fingernails.

Here are some important tips which you should follow in order to deal with hypothyroidism and for its treatment:

Go Gluten and A1 Casein free: Common allergies and food intolerance, which occur today are because of wheat and dairy products because of the hybridized proteins of A1 casein and gluten. These may lead to a leaky gut, as a result of which inflammation of the thyroid gland takes place. This affects the thyroid s functioning. You should avoid grain and gluten in your diet. Try to consume dairy products coming from A2 cow s milk.
Avoid BPA: Bisphenol A or BPA is present in plastic bottles. These are capable of disrupting the endocrine system and also affect the thyroid gland. You should avoid drinking from plastic bottles and drink water from glass, stainless steel and plastic bottles which are BPA free.
Check your iodine levels: In case your iodine levels are low, you should use an organic liquid supplement. Kelp is ideal for this purpose.
Heavy metal detox: You need to detoxify your body and eliminate traces of harmful metals from your organs and cells. For this, you may use a combination of milk, turmeric, chlorella, cilantro and thistle, which are ideal for a metal detox.
Increase your selenium intake: It is important for you to consume sufficient amounts of selenium in your everyday diet, but you should not consume them in excess. You should eat food items containing selenium in good amount such as salmon, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, mushrooms, onions and beef.
Take adaptogen supplements: You should lower your cortisol levels and improve thyroid functioning by taking supplements such as tulsi and ashwaganda.
Remove silver fillings: If you have amalgam fillings, you should consult a dentist and get the fillings removed.
Lower your carbohydrate intake: You also need to reduce the amount of sugar and grains in your regular diet. Instead, take healthy fats. Consuming too much carbohydrates leads to increased estrogen, which affects thyroid negatively. Choose healthy fats like coconut oils, avocado, wild salmon, hemp seeds and flax seeds. These will help in balancing your hormone levels.
Hypothyroidism usually occurs from common causes such as toxicity due to radiation and metal exposure, deficiency of iodine and selenium, food intolerance and hormonal imbalance due to stress and excess carbohydrates.

Hypothyroidism - 8 Tips To Help You Deal With It!

Female infertility is considered as the inability of conceiving. As per WHO it is described as the inability to be pregnant, maintain and carry forward a pregnancy to its full term. It is often of two types:

    Primary Infertility: This is the inability to give birth to a baby either due to the inability to become pregnant or maintain a pregnancy, which includes stillborn and miscarriage.
    Secondary Infertility: This refers to the inability to give birth when there is already a live birth or the woman was pregnant.

The causes of infertility can vary from being acquired or genetic. However, following factors are largely responsible for infertility:

    Genetic: Some genes can lead to mutation leading to infertility like, in case of BMP15 gene there is a hypergonadotrophic ovarian failure which causes infertility.
    Acquired: This is caused by factors like age, smoking, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, body weight, eating disorders, diseases like diabetes, thrombophilia and also radiation and chemotherapy.

The treatment for infertility usually depends on the cause, age, duration of time for which a person has been infertile and preference of the patient. Infertility is believed to be a complex disorder and the treatment involves a huge amount of physical, financial and psychological commitments. All this also requires a lot of time. Some women might need just a minimum of two therapies to attain fertility while others might require different treatment before they can conceive.

Treatment is largely aimed to restore the fertility either by means of medication and surgery or help in reproduction with the help of some procedures.

Fertility Restoration through medication

This is the main treatment for women who are infertile because of ovulation disorders. These drugs include:

    Gonadotropins: These are injected to stimulate the ovaries. Drugs like Menopur, Repronex, Follistim AQ, Gonal-F, Bravelle restore the production of eggs, while Ovidrel and Pregnyl are used for maturing the eggs and for their release.
    Clomiphene citrate: This is taken orally and stimulates ovulation by releasing more Follicle Stimulating Hormone and Luteinizing Hormone from the pituitary gland.
    Metformin: This is used in females who have PCOS and also when insulin resistance plays a major role in infertility.
    Bromocriptine: Used when the infertility is caused due to excess prolactin production.
    Letrozole: This also induces ovulation

Fertility Restoration through surgery

Surgical procedures can amend the problem of infertility. However, these treatments are very rare these days owing to the success of other fertility treatments. These include:

    Tubal ligation reversal surgery: In case a tubal ligation has been performed it can be reversed by reconnecting the tubes again through surgery.
    Hysteroscopic surgery: This corrects or removes the abnormalities that cause infertility. This surgery can correct the shape of the uterus, remove endometrial polyps and improve chance of getting pregnant.
    Tubal surgeries: In case of blocked fallopian tubes laproscopic surgery can be performed to dilate the tubes, removed blockages or create a new opening.

Assistance in Reproduction through techniques

The most common used techniques for reproduction assistance are:

    Intrauterine insemination or IUI: In this about million healthy sperms are put in the uterus at the time of ovulation.
    Assisted reproductive technology: In this mature eggs are retrieved from a woman and this is then fertilized with sperms in a dish in the lab. Once the fertilization is done the embryo is placed in the uterus for further development. IVF is the most common and effective assisted reproductive technology. This procedure takes place over weeks with several blood tests and hormone injections.

Dealing with infertility is not easy and can be emotionally and physically draining. To cope with the various tests and treatments of infertility one should be fully prepared, eat a healthy diet, exercise reach out for help and support of family and friends and look for other options like a donor egg, adoption or no children.

Treatments of Infertility

What you eat plays an important role while you are udergoing thyroid disorders. Certain nutrients can influence the functionalities of the thyroid gland, while some foods can prevent the body s ability to absorb the hormones to a substantial extent. As with a lot of health conditions, some factors are not in our hands which include family history and the environmental factors around you. However, the factor that you can control, is diet.

You can empower yourself to choose a healthier lifestyle through the right diet. It is advisable that you choose your foods wisely. Some of the following foods are known to be beneficial in managing thyroid:

1. Yoghurt
You will be happy to know that dairy products can contribute to fulfilling the much-needed iodine requirement of your body. Since livestock are generally given copious amounts of iodine supplements and the process of milking incorporates iodine-based cleaners, you can get plenty of iodine from dairy products, particularly, yoghurt. Greek yoghurt is one of the prime sources of iodine and can make up to about 50 percent of the daily intake of the nutrient.

2. Seaweed
When suffering from thyroid, you need iodine to function properly. Producing adequate levels of the thyroid hormone is important to fulfil the needs of the body. Though taking iodized salt can help a lot in your daily iodine intake, you can take additional aid from seaweed. It is important to understand that taking too much iodine can trigger the symptoms of hypothyroidism and the trick here is to balance out how much your body needs.

3. Milk
Much of the iodine in one s diet comes from dairy products. When you drink about 1 cupful of low-fat milk, you can effortlessly consume around 1/3rd of the daily iodine requirement. It would be better if you take milk rich in Vitamin D. If you are neither a fan of milk nor yoghurt, you may also resort to cheddar cheese, as a single slice can give you around 12 micrograms of the much-needed iodine.

4. Chicken
While all the hype is about iodine, zinc also plays an important role in controlling thyroid symptoms. When you take too little amount of zinc, you can get hypothyroidism and in case you already have this condition, your body will need it more since the thyroid hormones help in the absorption of the minerals. Meat, particularly chicken is an amazing source of zinc when you have it roasted.

5. Fish
Fish is yet another source of iodine since it is found in sea water as well as in soil. Taking 3 ounces per serving of baked cod fish can give you around 99 micrograms of iodine. Moreover, shellfish, lobster, and shrimp are good sources of iodine as well.

By adding these foods, you can definitely control your thyroid symptoms to a considerable extent. Controlling your diet is the key to managing your thyroid condition, and therefore you must pay special attention to it.

Diet Tips For Managing Thyroid!

There are two types of abortion, namely medical and surgical. In case of medical abortion, pills are taken to terminate the pregnancy; whereas surgical abortion is done if the pregnancy has reached an advanced stage when pills are ineffective. While generally there are no health risks or negative effects of abortion on fertility, there are rare cases of complications, which can give rise to severe symptoms post abortion. Following is the information you need to know about abortion and its effects on fertility:

When to seek medical assistance
It is advisable to seek medical help if you have the following symptoms post abortion:

Persistent pain in the lower abdomen, which lingers even after taking medication
Excessive bleeding
A high temperature
Possible effects of surgical abortion on fertility

Infection After Abortion: Infections post abortion like Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) if left untreated for long can spread and harm your reproductive organs, thereby impacting your fertility. It can cause complications like infertility or ectopic pregnancy.
Damage to the cervix during abortion: Damage to the cervix during an abortion can cause cervical incompetence and consequently increase the risk of miscarriage.
Damage to the womb during abortion: There are chances of damage of the womb (uterus) during abortion, resulting in scarring, which can cause fertility issues if not corrected. This is more likely in case you had multiple abortions.
Apart from the above-mentioned complications, there are a number of other complications, which can happen due to abortion, preterm birth, vaginal bleeding during pregnancy and low birth weight, etc. Further, infertility can also be a possible side effect of abortion pills, which happens due to scarring of the uterus during the procedure of forcible elimination of the fetus. In all such cases it is advisable to schedule regular check-ups with your gynaecologist.

Abortion And Infertility - Know More About it!

Blood sugar control is the core of the diabetes treatment plan as by losing control over your blood sugar, you risk serious complications related to health. Frequent or ongoing irregular blood sugar levels can damage your blood vessels, nerves and organs. Irregular Blood Sugar Level is a major concern and can affect diabetic as well as general people.

The most common causes of uncontrolled blood sugar level are:
1. Skipping Insulin or oral glucose medicines.
2. Eating too many carbohydrates in general.
3. Have an infection
4. Exercising less or not at all.

Symptoms of increased sugar level in body
1. Increased Thirst: If you feel unusually thirsty and feel the urge to drink more than usual, you should check your sugar levels.
2. Frequent Urination: Excessive urination occurs when glucose builds up in your blood, and your kidney begins to work harder to get rid of the extra glucose. The excess sugar is thrown away from the body through urine.
3. Fatigue: Extreme tiredness or fatigue is common symptoms of uncontrolled blood sugar. If you do not have sufficient amount of insulin in your body, or if the insulin is not processed properly, then it stays in our blood. Hence, it does not get used up for energy.
4. Blurry Vision: High blood sugar levels can lead to swollen lenses in your eyes due to fluid leaking in, according to Joslin Diabetes Center. This changes the shape of the lens and makes it unable to focus properly, resulting in blurry vision.

How you can control the level of sugar in your body

Diet: Eat right. Consult a diabetes educator or dietician to help you figure out a healthy diet that works for you. Do share all your sugar levels, your preference with them. This would enable them to make a proper and more suitable diet plan for you, which will help you in keeping your blood sugar under control.
Exercise: To keep your blood sugar control, do exercise regularly. Exercise will increase your insulin activity, after which you don t need to as much insulin to help your body in processing carbohydrates.
Medication: Insulin is a hormone that is normally produced in the body. But for people with abnormal blood sugar level, it is either not working as it should or the body has stopped producing it. People with abnormal Blood sugar level may need to take insulin in order to keep their blood glucose levels in a healthy range. Insulin helps your body to use glucose properly.
Blood Glucose Monitoring: Monitor your blood glucose levels regularly in order to know how much insulin you require, especially before you take a meal. Keeping a check on your blood glucose levels will help you in adjusting your insulin medication as well as your meals, so that your blood sugar remains stable.

High Blood Sugar Level in Body - How Can You Control It?

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