So the topic we’ve, been asked to broach today, is hashimoto’s thyroiditis in a teenager. So again these questions. This question is kind of an open-ended question. If it’s, a question at all, it’s, it’s like okay.
Does teenagers get it? Are they different than adults? What do they experience? So i’ll. Try to hit all of those. So yes, teenagers get it um. I i have a. I have some paperwork on someone. I’m, going to be consulting in the next few days and they’re 17.
. Just for the record, we have seen a lot of teenage hashimoto’s, um and and the two and and and and and we’ve, even seen it younger than 10.. So hashimoto’s is seems like it’s evolving through genetic lines and it’s showing up earlier and earlier i don’t know if it’s because more, we’re.
Aware of it, if the testing is better because it’s, not particularly better, but if we’re looking at the ranges better um it’s. So but it feels to me like it’s, just promulgating itself more through through through our patient populations through society.
So yes, people get it and 17. What i have seen is um is those seminal moments in life seem to set it off. Um like puberty uh, the teenagers seem to blow up, especially the ones that go to college. They seem to blow up their freshman year in college and it’s like duh, so they already have the genetic propensity to to develop.
Uh hashimoto’s, and now they go to college and they’re, like their schedules, are a little bit off. Maybe they don’t, go to sleep at ten o’clock every night and get up at like six o’clock in the morning and take their shower and dutifully go off to their classes.
Just saying that there’s, a small group of college students like that, maybe they are eating in the cafeteria. Maybe they’re eating gluten all over the place. Maybe they’re partying a little bit on a friday or saturday night.
Maybe their blood sugars are all over the place because they’re. You know they’re, not eating. Well, their circadians are rid of their sleep. Is all over the place because it’s college and so that’s, and then there’s, the stress of the freshman year and and the in and being on your own and trying to find classes.
Just that whole thing is uh is very stressful, and so i i see a lot of hashimoto’s blow up in in that particular period of time and so um and the other thing i see blow it up is just stress in a sense That, if that teenager is in a difficult situation at home, with um stress from maybe a recent divorce – or you know those types of things, these seem to trigger them, but i mean i mean the ultimate answer is yeah: they get it.
Yes, teenagers get it and it’s. The and the symptoms are no different than when you get it. When you’re 50 or when you’re 40 or when you’re 30, i mean it &. # 39 s, the same thing i’m fatigued. Sometimes it’s.
You know my hair is falling out. I started putting on weight. I couldn’t, go to class, i had to drop out of school. My bowels are bad, just just everything is the same, so you should, if you suspect, hashimoto’s in your teenager.
You should know. Yes, they get it. Yes, the symptoms are the same. No, it’s, not just because they went to college, but that may be the trigger and you should check for it. You should check them to see the antibodies, and, at that point in time i wouldn’t, put them on any new diets.
I wouldn’t, put them on, take them off of gluten, or anything like that. I would just make sure that they’re, doing exactly what they’re doing, so that you can make sure that the antibodies are up when you check for them go in.
Hopefully i have a doctor who may be aware of this and and should be aware of this, but it’s. Just i think it’s. Just i think it’s. Kind of date is just seeping out into the medical world, just like drip by drip a little bit at a time, and if you can get a doctor to check them further thyroid, then that’s.
What you should do, because, without a doubt, your teenager could have hashimoto’s. Thyroiditis
