HUMAN DISEASES REDEFINED

© 2008/2010:Dr. V.M.Palaniappan

44. Goitre (Swelling of Thyroid Gland)

Hashimoto’s type of hypothyroidism develops in some of the obese people (Obesity Types III and IV, with calf hardness of anything between 61% and 100%) who suffer from the inadequacy of iodine caused by the near-total avoidance of consuming salt, fish, cabbage, etc.

In iodine insufficiency, the thyroid gland swells up, and such a swelling is called goitre.

Even if the obese were to consume reduced quantities of the iodised salt, without increasing water intake and urina-tion, they would not suffer from hypothyroidism any more.

However, if such obese people took plenty of salt, irrespective of its iodine status, they would develop hyper-tension, for the salt excesses would only stay within the body (in the blood) because of their under-urination habit.

The non-overweight people, otherwise categorised as the Skeletal and the Thin, normally do not develop hypothy-roidism or goitre, for they always take plenty of salt, and thereby their iodine requirement would get satisfied.

However, if the Skeletal, Thin and Perfect people consume the iodine-enriched salt, the iodine would become excessive in their body. As a result of such an excess, their thyroid gland would secrete excessive thyroxin hormone, giving them hyperthyroidism, which would make them hyperactive.

As a result, the Skeletal people can never put on any weight. Instead, the more food (thereby more salt) they eat, the more will be the hyperactive state of such people.

Any attempt to correct the hyperactivity of the Skeletal people should centre around the elimination of iodine from their body, coupled with the consumption of iodine-free salt.

In addition, the hyperactive people should not consume at all any of the iodine-rich foods such as cabbage, agar-agar jelly, and the ‘sea-foods’ (e.g., sea fish, prawns, etc.).

If the hyperactive Skeletal, Thin or Perfect category people consume far too much of the iodine-enriched salts through their foods and drinks, then, the hypothalamus gland located at the brain would produce a substance called the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH).

The TSH would induce the Thyroid gland to secrete far too much of the Thyroxin hormone.

Such an abundant Thyroxin will increase hyperactivity in the person to an unusual extreme - beyond his body’s tolerance limit.

At this, the brain, in order to save him from collapsing, induces the hypothalamus gland to secrete another sub-stance, viz., thyroid auto-antibodies, and they are called Thyroglobulin antibody and Microsomal antibody.

These antibodies are carried in the blood to the thyroid gland, and they destroy the thyroid gland itself, in a suicidal manner.

As a result, the thyroxin secretion totally stops, leading to the malfunctioning of the body physiology in several ways.

The above action is very much similar to the withdrawal of insulin in the case of type-1 diabetics.

The sufferer is given a daily dose of synthetic Thyroxin hormone, with which he can carry on living almost similar to a normal person. There will be no other choice.

However, minor problems related to slight dosage excess or inadequacy are bound to occur every now and then. Therefore, proper monitoring to decide the right dosage becomes a necessity among this group of people.

Often, all the ill-informed health advocates advise all people to reduce their salt consumption.

The obese people listen to them, and reduce their daily iodised salt consumption. Whereas, those who are thin continue taking plenty of it in their foods.

In some countries, the governments have made it into a law to force the salt manufacturers to enrich all their products with extra iodine.
When the obese people consume reduced quantities of the iodised salt, their health remains alright.

But, when the thin people take plenty of the iodised salt, they initially become innocent victims of iodine over-consumption that makes them into hyperactive people.

As said earlier, at its extreme, they develop hypothy-roidism due to the total dysfunction and death of the thyroid gland.

As per my findings, those who consume more of the natural, uniodised salt (to taste) will remain very healthy.By right, the governments should advocate only the obese people to take less of the iodised salt, while at the same time, make available uniodised natural sea salt for the benefit of the thin people.