Goiter

What is Goiter?
Goiter is one of the forms of hyperthyroidism where there is excessive growth of the thyroid glands due to the extra secretion of the thyroid hormones. This results in a big swelling in the neck below the larynx and also shows other symptoms. This is mostly prevalent in women and occurs after forty years of age.

Occurrence
Due to the large presence of iodine content there is extra formation of thyroxine, which generally results in the shrinking of the thyroid glands. This may lead to the splitting up of the thyroid gland into multiple nodules. When there are a lot of nodules in the thyroid glands there is a higher probability of one of these glands getting malignant. In such cases, rather than shrinking the thyroid glands, thyroxine assists in the enlargement of those glands and can result in multinodular goiter. This results in the thyroid gland developing a lot of lumps and makes the gland feel lumpy.

Symptoms
Patients who acquire multinodular goiter sense a feel of intolerance to heat and become restless in a lot of situations and irritations. The may exhibit mild tremors (or mild, to-and-fro muscular movements of parts of the body) which may lead to lock jaw and increase of the blood pressure and heartbeat rate. One basic physical symptom of goiter is the heavy swelling of the thyroid gland, though they don't sense any feel of pain or irritation at the particular area of thyroid growth. Also, the patients acquire a very high appetite for food and also sense a sudden weight loss.

Diagnosis
When a person having the symptoms of goiter is subjected to a blood test, it reveals the presence of goiter at about 80% of the times and it also reveals the type of goiter present in him/her. There are also other means to detect the type of goiter present. In case the patient has a single nodule, an ultrasound scan is enough to detect the goiter. In certain other cases a tissue test reveals the identity. This is performed by taking a small piece of tissue from one of the nodules and examining it through a microscope. This is similar to a biopsy test. An iodine scan of the thyroid tissue can expose the level of iodine in the patient's blood and therefore expose the presence of goiter in him.

Reasons
Goiter is generally uncanny. It may seldom be carried to a person through heredity or by other means like, from a foreign agent. Since it is mainly caused due to the varied level of iodine content in the blood, improper food habits have a fair share of causes of goiter. Also, women at the time of pregnancy have a high probability of developing goiter. Immature puberty also can lead to the development of goiter. Other diseases like grave's disease and thyroid cancer can develop multiple nodules of the thyroid gland, thus leading to multinodular goiter. Lack of the small percentage of lithium in the human body can also lead to a goiter development.

Cure
If a small goiter exists with a little but permissible level of secretion of iodine, then there's no requirement for any treatment. In other cases, the treatment is generally initiated with the idea of operating upon the extra growth to remove it. There are also cases where a radioactive iodine treatment is given to remove the thyroid in some or the other way. This is usually done by giving the patient small doses of radioactive iodine mixed with normal vitamin capsules. These tablets help in slowly disintegrating the thyroid tissue. But excessive doses may lead to passive effects on the body.