3 factors to know about treatment and causes of goiters

Looking to find out what causes a goiter in the neck? Keep reading to understand what this uncomfortable condition is and what causes it.

A goiter refers to a neck swelling due to an enlarged thyroid gland. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped flap of tissue that sits on your neck right below the Adam’s apple. This gland is responsible for secretion of thyroid hormones with some major functions such as controlling your body’s metabolism and maintaining bone mass.

A healthy thyroid needs iodine to produce its hormones. You get your iodine from food and when there is not enough for the thyroid to play with, it responds by enlarging to meet the body’s hormone needs. Iodine deficiency is one cause for a simple goiter formation. However, a goiter can also form spontaneously for no apparent reason at all. Other factors that may contribute to goiter development are:

• Smoking
• Infections
• Certain types of medicine
• Being female and over age 40

The most common symptom is, of course, a neck swelling. However, additional symptoms may occur depending on the size of the swelling. A large swelling may obstruct the trachea or the esophagus, which leads to difficulties with either breathing or swallowing. In some instances, the thyroid may stop producing hormones altogether, causing a condition known as hypothyroidism, or the goiter will overproduce these hormones, a condition called hyperthyroidism. These two conditions will either slow down or speed up your metabolism, causing inabilities to maintain normal body temperature or weight gain.

Simple goiters should resolve themselves spontaneously, so you won’t have to do anything about it. If the enlarged thyroid needs to be treated, here are some options:

• If the goiter is due to low iodine levels, use iodized salt in your cooking or Lugol’s iodine in small doses
• For under-active thyroids, there are thyroid hormone replacement pills
• Radioactive iodine can be used to shrink the gland
• Surgery to remove all or part of the gland

Thyroid conditions can be serious, so if you think you have a goiter in your neck, plan a visit to your physician as soon as possible to determine the best option for treatment.