What is hyperthyroidism?
Hyperthyroidism occurs when your thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxine. Hyperthyroidism can accelerate your body’s metabolism, causing unintentional weight loss and a rapid or irregular heartbeat. Hyperthyroidism can also lead to your thyroid gland swelling. This is called a goiter. Around 1.2 percent of people in the United States have an overactive thyroid. It affects women more than men and is most likely to occur over the age of 60 years. Untreated, hyperthyroidism can cause severe complications.
Most common symptoms of overactive thyroid
- Unintentional weight loss
- Rapid heartbeat (more than 100 beats a minute)
- Irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia)
- Increased appetite
- Tremor
- Sweating
- Constipation
Causes of hyperthyroidism
- Graves’ disease
- Thyroiditis
- Hyperfunctioning thyroid nodules
What causes weight gain when you have hyperthyroidism?
Some people with hyperthyroidism might experience weight gain instead of the more common weight loss. Some reasons why that might happen include:
- Increased appetite: Hyperthyroidism usually increases your appetite. If you’re taking in a lot more calories, you can gain weight even if your body is burning more energy.
- Hyperthyroidism treatment: Hyperthyroidism is an abnormal state for your body. Treatment brings your body back to its normal state. Because of this, when you lose weight from hyperthyroidism, you might gain some weight back after you start treatment. Your body starts making less thyroid hormone than it was before.
- Thyroiditis: is an inflammation of the thyroid. This can cause either too high or too low levels of thyroid hormone. The most common type of thyroiditis is Hashimoto disease. In some rare cases, the immune response to Graves disease can continue long enough to attack the thyroid and lead to inflammation. Therefore, it can cause Hashimoto disease, which can in turn cause weight gain.
Treatment of hyperthyroidism
Several treatments are available for hyperthyroidism. Doctors use anti-thyroid medications and radioactive iodine to slow the production of thyroid hormones. Sometimes, hyperthyroidism treatment involves surgery to remove all or part of your thyroid gland.
Reference:
https://www.healthline.com/health/hyperthyroidism-weight-gain
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyperthyroidism/symptoms-causes/syc-20373659
https://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/hyperthyroidism/hyperthyroidism-overview-overactive-thyroid
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/overactive-thyroid-hyperthyroidism/
