Your thyroid may just be a small gland, but it plays a major role in your body’s overall functioning.  It plays the important part of creating hormones and controlling the body’s metabolism, puberty, and growth of bones – major parts of healthy development during the teenage years.

In order to do the job it has to do, the thyroid needs a chemical called iodine.  The body absorbs iodine from the foods you eat and the water you drink, and the thyroid takes about one-fifth to one-third of this iodine, stores it, and then combines it with an amino acid called tyrosine to make the hormones your body needs.

Sometimes, though, the thyroid will supply too much or too little of the hormones your body needs to keep growing healthily.  When this happens, a thyroid disorder is generally diagnosed, although it is sometimes misdiagnosed since the symptoms occur over time and the disorder can be mistaken for something else.

There is good news: there are a wide variety of medicines and treatments available to those who have a thyroid disorder.  It is a very common medical condition to be diagnosed with, and one that thousands of people live with every day.  You can go on having a normal, healthy life even if you have a thyroid problem, thanks to the medicines available.