Under-Active Thyroid

An under-active thyroid can be the underlying cause of a multitude of health conditions and associated symptoms.

In this article:

What is an under-active thyroid?

Symptoms

Causes

Diagnosis

Treatment

How Chemist Online can help

Advice & Support

What is an under-active thyroid?
The thyroid is a gland in your neck. It is ‘curled around’ your windpipe. Its primary function is to keep your metabolism working properly and at the right pace, so that overall your body functions well.

The thyroid gland produces a hormone called thyroxine. When thyroxine is not produced by the thyroid gland in sufficient quantities (it travels around your body through your bloodstream), then a range of symptoms can develop. Your thyroid gland is then regarded as being ‘under-active’.

Symptoms
Symptoms of an under-active thyroid include:

Overwhelming tiredness and fatigue

Constipation

Weight-gain

Aches and pains (both muscular and skeletal)

Changes to your hair – making it lifeless and lank

Shivers and a general feeling of being cold

Muscle cramps

Dry and scaly skin

Brittle nails

Note: For some people an under-active thyroid can result in symptoms of depressive illness.

Causes
The thyroid gland’s inability to produce enough thyroxine is usually due to an autoimmune reaction where the thyroid becomes inflamed and damaged.

Diagnosis
If you are suffering from the aforementioned symptoms, make an appointment with your GP. After taking your medical history and asking you some questions, you will then be asked to take a blood test where a confirmed diagnosis of an under-active thyroid gland will be established. If this is the case, you will be referred to a specialist (an endocrinologist) for further tests.

Treatment
Under-active thyroid is treated with prescribed medicine in tablet form (levothyroxine).

How Chemist Online can help
Through this website we have a range of treatments available to buy which can help ease the symptoms of constipation – an associated symptom of under-active thyroid.

www.chemistonline.co.uk

Advice & Support
British Thyroid Foundation
Tel. 01423 709 707
Website: www.btf-thyroid.org

Thyroid UK
Tel. 01255 820407
Website: www.thyroiduk.org

This information and advice is not intended to replace the advice of your GP or chemist. Chemist Online is also not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based upon the content of the Chemist Online website. Chemist Online is also not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites.

Ethical Rules for Gene Editing – Opportunity or Obstacle?

On February 1, 2016, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) of the UK announced the world’s first formal approval of the request for editing of human embryos by Kathy Niakan of the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Kathy planned to use the CRISPR technique to answer questions like what genetic faults cause some women to miscarry and what is crucial for a healthy embryo. In 2017, her lab published the first major study in Nature, demonstrating that the transcription factor Oct4 is essential for fetal development.

Gene may sound mysterious to most people, but there are many reasons to support this research. An important reason is that modifying human DNA is the key to finding treatments for many diseases, helping people stay healthy and young, and live longer.

“It is estimated that human DNA has approximately 12 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms and thousands of copy number variants, most of which are harmless.” Said a scientist in Creative Biolabs, a leading service provider of gene therapy, “however, genetic disorders sometimes occur due to mutations that alter or inhibit protein function. The focus of gene therapy is to correct these mutated or defective genes.”

So far, the therapeutic effect of gene therapy has been far away from the expected outcomes. However, this method has great potential, especially for the treatment of genetic diseases.

Potential as it is, it must be warned that there is an important watershed in modifying human genes: who is the target population for genetic modification. For patients, it is a cure for the disease. However, if it is applied to healthy people, it is all about creating “Superman” or “God”, which might result in accelerated evolution and the social disorder after it.

Considering gene modification, almost all countries are still conservative or even against it. It is believed that the changes in the genetic sequences will be passed on to all cells in the individual. What’s more, these modified genes will also be part of the human gene pool, which will be extremely difficult to reverse.

Since it’s of great danger to let things drifts on, US authorities have been promoting the related low and order. Over the past 45 years, gene therapy oversight by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has evolved significantly. In 1974, the NIH established Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) to oversee the protocols of gene therapy trials. The FDA began to regulate gene therapy products in 1984 and issued its first guidance document in 1991.

Now, there is no federal legislation that bans protocols or places restrictions on experiments that manipulate human DNA. However, federal control does exist. For example, in 2015, Congress passed a provision stating that the FDA must approve any human clinical trial that involves gene editing. The FDA will certainly reject human trials that modify the human lineage via germline edits.

Gene therapy development is just like a car. Accelerator and engine cannot work alone, and brake is also necessary. Ethics, management and law are the brakes to keep humans safe and sound on the car of gene editing. Perhaps at a certain social stage, this technology can be proven to be effective and safe.

All Information About Cosmetic Dentistry

Many people are getting confused between cosmetic dentistry and normal dentistry. Some think that they can go to a normal dentist and get cosmetic dentistry done.

It is important to make sure that you know the difference between cosmetic dentistry and normal dentistry. This is so that you don’t waste money on going to a dentist that won’t be able to assist you. There are a couple of things that you need to make sure about before you decide to go for cosmetic dentistry. Knowing these things, you will not make a mistake in going for the wrong type of procedure or to the wrong dentist.

What is cosmetic dentistry

Cosmetic surgery is completely different from the other, normal dentistry. Normal dentistry is all about the health of your gums and teeth.

With cosmetic surgery, it is all about your appearance and the appearance of your mouth and teeth. For example, getting braces is actually a cosmetic and not a necessity. However, getting a broken tooth fixed is necessary for your health, or if you have bleeding gums. Then, you will go to a normal dentist.

Some of the cosmetic dentistry options

Now, you might be asking what type of procedures might a cosmetic dentist offers? What are normal dentist procedures and what is cosmetic options? With this information, you will not get confused anymore. These are some of the cosmetic dentistry options that you can choose from when visiting a cosmetic dentist.

Teeth whitening
Bonding
Veneers
Tooth reshaping
Smile reshaping
These are just to name a couple of the cosmetic dentistry options that you can go for when you are visiting a dentist. You should make sure to talk to your dentist before you are just getting any procedure done.

Choosing a cosmetic dentist

It is important that you are choosing a high-quality cosmetic dentist that has a good reputation. There are too many people that are going to the cheap dentist for getting the treatment, and then they are getting a cheap job done.

There are many cosmetic dentists out there that claim to be high-quality dentists, but that isn’t at the end of the day. If the price is much cheaper than with other dentists, you need to know that you might not get the right results that you hoped to get. With some research, you will know how to choose the right dentist that has the best reputation and that will ensure that you are getting the right procedure done, without any problems at all.

Tips when you want to get some cosmetic dentistry done

When you are considering getting some cosmetic dentistry done, there are a couple of tips that you need to remember. You need to make sure that you are going to do research about the procedure that you want to get done. You want to make sure that this is the right procedure. And, you will want to research the pros and cons, the positive and negative things about the procedure.

Some procedures aren’t working for just any teeth problem. This is why you should talk to your dentist first. Making sure that you know everything about the procedure possible. Even the side effects and the success rate of the procedure.

Cosmetic dentistry. This is different from normal dentistry that you will get from a normal dentist. You want to make sure that you are going to know everything about the procedure before you just choose any cosmetic dentistry option. The more research you have done, the better you will know what you are in for. And, if there are any side effects of the cosmetic dentistry that you should know about.