Medicine is always progressing.
Many years ago, a common bacterial infection could have killed people. Now, people have invented various antibiotics to deal with them.
Since the beginning of human civilization, smallpox has caused tens of thousands of deaths, blindness and disfigurement. After extensive vaccination, smallpox has disappeared worldwide.
The medical profession has never stopped studying thyroid diseases. Let’s look at what new progress has been made in the study of hypothyroidism over the years.
1. Maybe you can only take the medicine once a week.
The biggest pain of hypothyroidism patients is to take medicine for life. Although levothyroxine is simple to take and has few side effects, no one is willing to take medicine every day for the rest of his life.
As a result, some scholars have suggested that levothyroxine taken once a day can be changed to once a week at a dose of 7 times the daily dose (equivalent to enough for a week a day).
In order to verify whether this medication method is safe and effective, a group of Indian scholars conducted experiments on a group of hypothyroidism patients. The experimental results are as follows:
- Although the original dosage was 7 times at a time, the subjects participating in the experiment did not have obvious adverse reactions. Subjects whose thyroid function was well controlled could still maintain stable thyroid function after changing the medication method. The thyroid function of some subjects who had not been well controlled reached the normal range after changing the medication method.
The above experimental results show that it is safe and effective to give hypothyroidism patients a large dose of levothyroxine once a week.
This is undoubtedly great news for hypothyroidism patients. However, thyroidologists should specially remind the majority of hypothyroidism patients:
Don’t change the way you take the medicine by yourself, and concentrate the levothyroxine that you used to eat once a day on one time a day.
Because there are still many defects in this experiment by Indian scholars:
- Too few subjects-only 40 people took part in the experiment, all of whom were women-did not represent the opinions of the majority of male compatriots. The observation time in the experiment was relatively short-it was not known whether it was harmful to take this medicine for a long time. The history of taking levothyroxine in the subjects was more than 5 years-it was not known whether the newly diagnosed hypothyroidism patients took this medicine tube. It works
Therefore, the conclusion of this small experiment cannot be immediately extended to the vast number of hypothyroidism patients. Whether this medication method is feasible or not still needs to be confirmed by more, larger and more precise experiments.
However, this experiment brings hope to hypothyroidism patients, and perhaps the dream will come true in the near future.
2. Hypothyroidism May Increase Diabetes Risk
We already know that hyperthyroidism can lead to an increase in blood sugar, especially after eating. However, recent studies have found that hypothyroidism also increases the risk of diabetes.
A group of Dutch scholars followed 8,452 adults without diabetes for 8 years to monitor their thyroid function and blood sugar.
During these eight years, 1,100 participants developed early diabetes (i.e. Slight elevation of blood sugar) and 798 participants developed diabetes (significant elevation of blood sugar).
Combined with the thyroid function of the participants, Dutch scholars found that the higher the level of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), the greater the risk of diabetes. We all know that high TSH levels are characteristic of hypothyroidism patients.
This study reminds everyone that hypothyroidism patients may be more likely to develop diabetes than healthy people, so they should regularly check their blood sugar level to detect the existence of diabetes as early as possible.
3. People with headache are prone to hypothyroidism?
A study from the United States found that people with frequent headaches have a 21% higher risk of hypothyroidism than ordinary people. If they are migraine patients, the risk is 41% higher than ordinary people.
The study involved 8,412 participants and lasted for 12.6 years.
Why is headache related to hypothyroidism? American scholars believe that it may be because the two have common inflammatory and immune mechanisms, and genetic mechanisms may also play a relevant role in them.
This headache study reminds everyone that if there are frequent headache attacks or migraine diagnosed by doctors, thyroid function should be checked every 2-3 years and hypothyroidism should be found early.