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| CHECK UP
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| | | Check Up is your chance to talk to doctors about the health issues that most concern you and your family. Each week Barbara Myers is joined by a medical expert to take your calls and emails on a particular topic and give you the most up to date advice. No appointment necessary.
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"There is no substitute for one-to-one advice from a top medical expert and that's what we offer our callers and emailers. But for each person who calls to ask for help, someone else phones in to pass on a tip or a suggestion - it's a great programme to present."
Barbara Myers |
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Thyroid Conditions
It looks like a small fleshy bow-tie and sits in front of your windpipe, just below the Adam’s Apple.
In the last of the current series of Check Up, the health phone-in, we'll be answering your questions on thyroid problems.
Little gland, big problems
The thyroid gland may sound small and insignificant, but it manufactures hormones that affect every cell in your body.
This gland releases triiodothyronine (or T3), a hormone that controls how fast your cells work.
Underactive thyroid
People with an underactive thyroid don’t release enough T3 and so the cells in their body slow down.
This can produce symptoms ranging from hair loss, constipation, slurred speech, flaky skin, depression, feeling cold, anaemia and tiredness.
Your susceptibility to underactive thyroid problems (or ‘hypothyroidism’) increases with age. By 60, 17% women and 6% of men suffer from the condition.
Overactive thyroid
Conversely, an overactive thyroid gland secretes too much T3 hormone, forcing the cells to work faster.
This puts the body into overdrive - quickening your pulse, increasing sweat production, raising body temperature, stimulating appetite and even triggering panic attacks.
1% of women and 0.1% of men have an overactive thyroid gland (or ‘hyperthyroidism’). The most common age range is 20-40.
This week's guest
Presenter Barbara Myers will be joined in the studio by Prof John Lazarus of the British Thyroid Association to answer all your questions.
Contact us
E-mail your questions and comments before the programme to checkup@bbc.co.uk.
Or call 08700 100 444 from 1.30pm on the day of broadcast.
Read the transcript of our webchat
Professor Lazarus joined us after the programme for a live webchat about thyroid conditions. Read the full transcript here.
Next series
Join us again in November, when Check Up will be back for the next series. | | |
RELATED LINKS
BBC Health - Thyroid Problems
British Thyroid Foundation
Net Doctor - Underactive Thyroid
Net Doctor - Overactive Thyroid
NHS Direct
BBC Webguide - Health
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
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