One in 10 may have thyroid problem

NORFOLK, Va. - Grab 10 people at random off the street, and doctors say there's a good chance at least one of them has a thyroid condition. Most don't know they have a problem or even what a thyroid is.

Dr. Joseph Aloi points out the butterfly shaped gland--sitting right at the collar line for most of us and can be seen when you swallow.

"It does everything from controlling your basil metabolic rate, to cholesterol, to how you process vitamins," Aloi said.

Patient Katie Davenport learned the hard way what can happen if you ignore a thyroid problem.

"I put it off, [and] put it off, until I got very sick, and had an irregular heart beat that put me in the hospital," she said.

At the time her symptoms started last fall, Katie was a first year student at Eastern Virginia Medical School .

"I would be studying, and fall asleep and not even know I had fallen asleep," she said. "So, crushing fatigue, but again I put it onto first year medical school is not easy."

Fatigue, hair loss, dry and flaky skin, weight gain, and, for women, irregular periods, are all signs of Hypothyroidism, the most common condition.

Untreated, it puts you at risk for heart disease and osteoporosis, and can cause anemia and infertility.

"Fortuantely this is something we can get a simple answer to with a simple blood test," Aloi said.

Katie now takes a synthetic hormone pill once a day.

"If I could give anyone advice it's: listen to your body, don't ignore what your body is telling you" --a lesson the medical student learned as a patient.

Aloi recommends testing for every woman before planning to get pregnant, and for anyone with symptoms or an enlarged thyroid gland. Problems also appear in many women after giving birth, so don't explain away the signs as new parent stress, get it checked out.

For more information Dr. Aloi suggests visiting  The American Thyroid Association website.