Читать книгу The Healthy Thyroid: What you can do to prevent and alleviate thyroid imbalance - Patsy Westcott - Страница 10

The role played by the immune system in triggering a number of thyroid disorders remains a controversial topic. Autoimmune thyroid disease, which underlies both hypo- and hyperthyroidism, is caused by failure of a fundamental mechanism: the body’s ability to recognize its own organs and tissues as belonging to itself.

If the body fails to recognize itself, it produces self-attacking proteins – known as autoantibodies – to destroy its own tissue. Experts are becoming increasingly aware of a number of diverse thyroid problems due to the production of such autoantibodies, including:

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which causes an underactive thyroid

• Graves’ disease, which causes an overactive thyroid

• Myxoedema, or generalized swelling of the skin and other tissue

• Subclinical hypo-/hyperthyroidism, mild or hidden thyroid under-/overactivity

• Thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid

• Postpartum thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid after childbirth

• Thyroid eye disease (TED).