Can B Vitamins Fix Your Thyroid Problems?

Imagine one day the station wagon you rely on to get you the office,ferry around the kids, and haul the weekly groceries home suddenlybreaks down. You take it to the garage and the mechanic there tells youhe doesn�t know exactly what�s wrong, but he has a quick-fix solution:push the car everywhere you want to go! You can still do all the thingsyou relied on your station wagon for, only now you have to help italong a little. Time to get a new mechanic, right? Yet when you want totreat your thyroid problem, your physician will often recommend youtake a course of thyroxin, or other thyroid hormones. This is the jobof your thyroid gland! It produces the hormones triiodothyronine (T3),and thyroxin (T4), which control weight, heart rate, skin conditions,and energy levels of body, plus much more. By controlling your thyroidproblem with artificial T hormones you�re not treating the problem butdoing all the work instead, lugging around your thyroid gland like abroken-down Ford Woody. But is there any alternative? We can�t trade in our thyroid gland for a new model, but the treatment of thyroid diseaseand thyroid problems is possible with the help of B vitamins. The Bvitamins are a group of similar, but not identical, nutrients that worktogether and are vital to every function of your body and especially inproviding immune support. Why is providing immune system supportrelevant to the treatment of thyroid problems? Firstly, we need to lookat thyroid disease and related problem in more detail. Under- and Over-active Thyroid Problems: Why? Thyroiddisease can arise from either an under-active thyroid (hypothyroidism)or an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) gland. With hypothyroidism,the thyroid gland makes less thyroid hormone than the body needs.Symptoms of this thyroid problem include: Weight gain, constipation, depression, Fatigue, weakness, nervousness, insomnia, Immune system problems and poor memory. That�sright, hypothyroidism patients often have weak immune systems and aremore prone to infections. What�s more, the cause of hypothyroidism isoften down to a weak immune system. Suddenly, B vitamins used for thetreatment of thyroid disease is looking interesting. The symptoms of hyperthyroidism, and over production of thyroid hormones, include: Accelerated heart rate, weight loss, diarrhea Muscle weakness, sensitivity to heat, and sleeping difficulties Irregular menstrual cycles in women, coarse skin, and hair loss Thecause of hyperthyroidism is linked to Graves� disease, an autoimmunedisorder, in which antibodies responsible for protecting the bodymistakenly attack the thyroid gland, causing over-stimulation and toomany T hormones in the body. B Vitamins and Thyroid Disease Thefirst step in fixing a problem is knowing the problem. Thyroid disease,be it an over-active or under-active thyroid gland, is closely linkedwith a healthy immune system. As B vitamins are crucial in the healthyfunctioning of the immune system, they are also crucial in the healthyfunction of the thyroid gland. What�s more, when thyroid problemsoccur, extra supplements of B vitamins can be used to treat thedisease, and get your thyroid gland firing on all cylinders once again.