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Times health  - Saturday, September 29, 2012

PIONEER THEN, LEADER NOW

UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES OF THE THYROID GLAND

"The thyroid gland, as you all know, is an important gland in our body as it produces vital hormones that help our body function better. Some of the vital functions performed by this gland are the controlling of usage of energy by our body, making proteins for the functioning of the body and regulating the metabolism rate, to name a few. To understand thyroid and the types of thyroid one must understand the functioning of our body," says Dr V Mahendran, MBBS, DCH., D.Ac., Ph.D. (A.M), at the Thyroid Centre.

UNDERSTANDING OUR BODY

Five eternal substances - earth, water, fire, air, and space - combine to form the human body. They do so by creating three vital energies, or doshas. The three doshas construct and maintain our physical beings, and they determine by their proportions, our unique characteristics and traits.

In Ancient times the purpose of treatment or therapy was to keep the doshas in harmony and balanced.

• Vata
• Pitta
• Kapha

Dr V Mahendran says, "Our physical constitution and our health both depend on the balance and interplay of the three doshas. Disturbances in the equilibrium of three doshas are normally attributed to the origin of diseases. The fundamental theory of ancient medicine is that the body's state of dynamic equilibrium is dependent on Vata, Pitta and Kapha - the three doshas.Maladies, diseases, abnormalities like hypothyroid and hyperthyroid are all caused by the imbalances of these three doshas."

UNDERSTANDING HYPOTHYROID

Thyroid disease symptoms and hypothyroidism symptoms afflict millions of adults world wide. The most common type of thyroid dysfunction is the condition hypothyroidism, also called low thyroid or under active thyroid. 90% of the patients suffering from Thyroid diseases have hypothyroid. When thyroid function slows too much, one of the consequences is that metabolism in the body slows down more than it should. When the body slows downs more than it should. When the body's metabolism slows down due to underactive thyroid function, the result can be hypothyroidism symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain and depression. And other thyroid symptoms may be experienced as well, through these other symptoms may appear to unrelated.

THE DIAGNOSIS

A diagnosis of hypothyroidism can be suspected in patients with fatigue, cold intolerance, constipation, and dry, flasky skin. A blood test is needed to confirm the diagnosis

TREATMENTS

Treatments include Yoga Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Acupuncture, Accumassage, Reiki, Pranic Healing, Varmalogy and Medical Astrology