Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist series.

My name is Brandy Burrow. I'm a licensed and registered dietitian here at Nutritional

Weight and Wellness. On today's episode, we'll be doing

a follow-up to a previous episode that aired a couple of weeks ago where I talked all about

the thyroid gland and what it means to have an underactive thyroid or hypothyroid. So on today's

show, I'll be focusing on what it means to have an overactive thyroid or hyperthyroid.

Hyperthyroid is not as common as hypothyroid, but it can be just as disruptive to your health.

So today we'll be talking about the steps you can take through food and lifestyle choices

in order to feel your best and start to heal. So let's get right into it.

Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland makes too many thyroid hormones.

It's usually caused by an autoimmune disorder, in which case you may have heard it referred to as

Graves disease, but it can also be linked to genetics and certain nutrient deficiencies.

Women are more likely to have Graves disease than men, and it typically occurs somewhere in their

40s and 60s, so mid-life.

So how would you know if you have Graves disease or hyperthyroidism?

Well, I wanted to just go over a few of the common symptoms of hyperthyroidism,

just to give you an idea.

So you could feel more anxious and irritable, fatigued. You can develop sleeping problems like insomnia. You may notice increased heart rate or heart palpitations, even tremors. You may notice that you're swimming a lot more than normal, especially compared to what you would expect for the activity that you're doing at the time.

You may even suddenly lose weight that you didn't intend to lose or without really trying.

You may see changes in your bowel movement.

You're using the bathroom more or you're experiencing diarrhea.

And something you may visually see is your neck might start to swell.

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