#619 Defining Thyroid: Defining Thyroid: Pituitary and Thyroid Glands
Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on thyroid disorder.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 619 of the Juicebox Podcast.
Today's episode of the podcast is the second in the defining thyroid series. And today Jenny Smith and I are going to talk about the glands pituitary, and thyroid, the thyroid and pituitary glands. Now I know you're thinking, oh my god, Scott, so exciting. What are you doing to me? I know. But listen, it's important. If you have autoimmune, you very well may run into hyper or hypothyroidism at some point. Hashimotos disease, in fact, could be around the corner, you need to know what to look for. So, while you might not think this is exciting, it is very needed necessary. Listen and educate yourself. You'll be glad you did. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin.
This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one, learn more about my favorite diabetes organization at touched by type one.org. You can also find them on Facebook, and Instagram. And I heard recently a little birdie told me that I will be speaking at their next event. I think it's an August. That's a ways away. But anyway, go orient yourself with their webpage so that when I say to you, I'm speaking at the next touched by type one event, you'll go, Oh, I know right where to go touch by type one.org and you can go get yourself some tickets. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver for someone who has type one, you could take the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox in fewer than 10 minutes. When you do this, it will be completely anonymous. They will be HIPAA compliant. You will be helping people with type one diabetes, and you will be supporting the podcast T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. If you're looking for the defining diabetes series, they're available in your podcast player or at Juicebox Podcast calm. At that website you'll also find the diabetes Pro Tip series. Ask Scott and Jenny. The diabetes variables episodes after dark episodes algorithm pumping based episodes, how we eat series. It's all right there. It's either in your podcast player or at juicebox podcast.com. At the end of this episode, and at the end of every defining thyroid episode, I will list the symptoms of hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and Graves disease. Do you want to do the glands now thyroid and pituitary? Sure, okay. The weirdest part is the starting over because you have to remember it's another episode. I used to remember the defining diabetes idea. Hey, Jenny. Like like we like we just seen each other for the first time. Yeah. Well, hey, Jenny. Today I'd like to define what a thyroid gland and a pituitary gland are. Sure you want to start or should I read a definition and then we'll talk
Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:45
you can read the definition. I think it's the most specific thyroid gland
Scott Benner 3:49
is an endocrine gland located in the neck that produces hormones to regulate metabolism. The thyroid gland is controlled by the pituitary gland which secretes TSH in effort to trigger thyroid hormone production. But sometimes the thyroid simply won't release enough hormones. An underactive thyroid gland, one that doesn't produce enough hormones will result in hypothyroidism. That's not a bad reaction. I felt pretty good.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:16
Oh, that was a very good read.
Scott Benner 4:20
I didn't even like I'm very proud. Two years old, I read two sentences. And I'm like, wow, look at me. Yay.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:28
You get the gold star reading award today.
Scott Benner 4:31
So so let's go over it. First. Thyroid is where in your body. So it's
Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:35
located in your neck, kind of like this. Beside that bumpiness that you could feel going down in the middle of the front of your neck, right? But you would consider your throat and on either side. That's why it's called like a butterfly type gland because if you imagine the butterfly body being the middle, the wings sort of spread to the sides of your neck, right? So that's why If you've ever had an evaluation by a doctor, they will put two fingers typically on both sides of that middle of your neck and ask you
Scott Benner 5:08
to swallow. Okay, what happens when you swallow? They can find bumps then on it.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:13
Correct? Yeah. So if there are bumps present, indicating something is not going the right way with the gland, then they would essentially do more testing to reveal, you know, what might be the potential problem.
Scott Benner 5:25
Right. And will they feel but they won't feel bumps if I'm, if I'm hypothyroid. Without Hashimotos, though, is that correct?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:34
I don't correct. I believe that the bumps come specific to the autoimmune Hashimotos. Yes.
Scott Benner 5:40
Okay. All right. Well, it's a win. And sometimes when you see people who have that little like scar on their neck, that could be that they had thyroid cancer, right. Or, or that their or their Hashimotos was so a lot of work for graves, right.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:56
Graves disease. Mm hmm. Yep. Yep. Which is kind of the opposite in terms of hypo hyper, I mean, we all talk about hypose and hypers. Right. But this is a very different specific reason for that. But hyper would be, you know, the potential for having like a thyroidectomy or surgical removal of some parts, but most often it's, it's cancer.
Scott Benner 6:20
Yeah, we'll talk about that when we define Graves disease, I think. Yeah. Okay. So that's where the, that's where the actual
Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:29
the thyroid hormones come from and
Scott Benner 6:31
the gland is right there. Right? The gland is right, though we understand that. Okay, now the pituitary gland is a small gland, the size of a peanut that is located behind the eyes of the base of the brain. It secretes thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, which helps control thyroid function. I didn't realize that so yes,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:52
so TSH does not. TSH is regulated by the way that the pituitary gland talks to the thyroid gland. Essentially,
Scott Benner 7:02
they're nowhere near each other. The body is amazing.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:06
No, isn't the body I know.
Scott Benner 7:07
Really? If they were talking, you think you'd make them neighbors? But I guess?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:13
I guess not. I know.
Scott Benner 7:17
I include a pituitary in here, because I don't think it gets talked about much when you actually have hypothyroidism. Nor do I think anybody's ever gonna bring it up to you while you're treating it or living with it. But
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:29
because most people just think that there's an issue here, right? And so while the issue does lie in the thyroid, the way that the pituitary gland responds to the signals, it's getting, they work together. So they're, they're both important to understand. Definitely.
Scott Benner 7:47
Okay, is there anything else people need to know? I mean, that's pretty cut and dry and simple, but they should know their thyroid gland is in their neck, and that it can be looked at manually by their doctor visually, or they could have an MRI taken over as well. Those are the ways that would be looked at. Right. Okay. All right, I will put some more important stuff that people need to know after I let you go at the end of this. Alright, hold on a second. Now I need to keep track of what we've done. Because that is. While I'm moving to the next one, I'll tell people that one check them off. There was one time in 2021 where I had Jenny do a diabetes variable. And then like three weeks later, we saw each other and we did the same exact variable again. Neither of us knew that it happened. And that's all right. I was very amused by that. Why don't we now talk oh, what
Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:49
would be interesting would be to listen to both of those episodes and see where they similar
Scott Benner 8:54
it. And I did Jenny and I put them together in their variable. I forget which one it was. Because interestingly enough, we we sort of built on what we said previously without knowing it. Oh, okay. It was very interest, maybe
Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:10
with a subconscious realization that we've already talked about this, but these are the additional pieces to it, right? No one said
Scott Benner 9:18
it out loud. So I put them together. All okay. Okay, so let's put together here. Let's
Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:26
put well I think maybe the next thing would really be since we talked about like Hashimotos hypo, the glands that are specifically involved, maybe the types of tests like the hormone that would be being produced and how they work. Okay,
Scott Benner 9:43
so talk about,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:47
you think T sh t four T three. Yeah, that kind of stuff.
Scott Benner 10:00
A huge thanks to touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget to check them out on Facebook and Instagram touched by type ones mission is to elevate awareness of type one diabetes, raise funds to find a cure and inspire those with diabetes to thrive, touched by type one.org. And if you're a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go take the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Looking for community around type one diabetes, look no further than Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. It's a private group with 20,000 people just like you.
Thanks so much for listening today. Please stop back frequently for more episodes of The Juicebox Podcast and to continue with a defining thyroid series. If you like Jenny, she's for hire. You can find her at integrated diabetes.com. She helps people with their type one diabetes, she really good at it. So if you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, and you're listening in an app, but you're not subscribed or following, please hit subscribe and follow on that app. And don't forget to tell a friend. Hey, if you find the podcast on YouTube, we started putting up animated versions of the defining diabetes series. They're really cute, great for kids. Very visual. Go find it. Alright, now let's go through the symptoms. We will start with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism signs and symptoms may include fatigue, increased sensitivity to cold, constipation, dry skin, weight gain, puffy face hoarseness, muscle weakness, elevated blood cholesterol level, muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, pain stiffness or swelling and your joints heavier than normal or irregular menstrual periods. thinning hair slow heart rate depression impaired memory enlarged thyroid gland. In infants you're looking for a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes which is commonly called jaundice. In most cases this occurs when a baby's liver can't metabolize a substance called bilirubin, which normally forms when the body recycles old or damaged red blood cells. You also might see a larger protruding tongue, difficulty breathing, hoarse crying, or an umbilical hernia. As progression happens in infants, you may move on to constipation, poor muscle tone, or excessive sleepiness. Hypothyroidism in children and teens may indicate with poor growth resulting in a short stature, delayed development of permanent teeth, delayed puberty, poor mental development. That list is from the Mayo Clinic. Let's move on now to hyperthyroidism. This list is from the Cleveland Clinic. Hyperthyroidism may present with rapid heartbeat or palpitations, feeling shaky and or nervous weight loss, increased appetite, diarrhea and more frequent bowel movements, vision changes, thin warm and moist skin menstrual changes, intolerance to heat and excessive sweating, sleep issues, swelling and enlargement of the neck from an enlarged thyroid gland. Hair loss and change in hair texture. It would get brittle, bulging of the eyes as seen with Graves disease and muscle weakness. Okay, back to the Mayo Clinic for Graves disease, you're looking for anxiety and irritability. A fine tremor of the hands or fingers heat sensitivity and an increase in perspiration where warm or moist skin weight loss despite normal eating habits, enlarged thyroid gland changing menstrual cycle erectile dysfunction or reduced libido. frequent bowel movements, bulging eyes, fatigue, thick red skin usually on the shins or tops of the feed, rapid or irregular heartbeat palpitations, sleep disturbance. If you your child or someone you love has any of these symptoms, please seek medical attention. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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