THYROID: THE BODY'S FUEL

A plastic model of a normal thyroid. Shown in red, the thyroid surrounds the esophagus and sits below the voice box.

A plastic model of a thyroid with Hashimoto's disease.

A plastic model of a thyroid with Graves disease.

A plastic model of a thyroid with a nodule.

About eight or nine months ago, Jo Rodgers noticed her fingernails were always breaking or tearing.

She was tired and forgetful. And she was gaining weight.

"I couldn't remember anything. I could be driving down the street and forget where I was going. And I had gained like 10 pounds. That was enough for me," said Rodgers, 49, of Cape Girardeau.

She saw a doctor, who immediately diagnosed her problem: Thyroid disease.

"All he did was look at my hand and he knew immediately, just because I had little ridges in my nails," she said.

Rodgers was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Her thyroid gland wasn't producing enough of the thyroid hormone to keep her metabolism in sync.

Susan Elayer, 42, noticed a lump in her throat about a year and a half ago.

"It felt like I could hardly swallow," she said. "Of course, I thought I had throat cancer."

What she had was a goiter: A growth on her thyroid gland.

She took radioactive iodine, "which basically killed it," she said.

Elayer really couldn't complain about the symptoms she suffered in addition to the goiter.

"The only symptoms I could tell were good ones. I never gained weight," she said. "When I first got it, I dropped about 15 pounds. But I was working two jobs and taking these herbal energy pills. I kind of blame them for triggering it."

But the radioactive iodine did cause some problems: Her hair fell out and she suffered muscle cramps in her arms and shoulders. She retained water.

"My face was really puffy," Elayer said. "I was really kind of mad. I felt great before I was cured. Except I had probably had the hyperactive thyroid for two years and that can kill you in five years, because it just burns you out."

Elayer's resting heartbeat was 100 beats per minute before her thyroid problem was diagnosed.

"The doctor told me that years ago they called it a wasting-away disease. They couldn't find anything wrong with these people, but they just wasted away and died. And they'd do an autopsy, but they wouldn't find any cancer or anything," she said. "It was their thyroid."

Rodgers and Elayer now both take synthetic thyroid hormones to help their thyroid glands function normally. They'll take it for the rest of their lives.

Surgery also may be a treatment option.

Thyroid problems are often hereditary. Both Rodgers' sisters have it, and one sister suffered liver damage because her thyroid was so sluggish.

It took a few months of medication, but Rodgers and Elayer both feel fine now.

"My thyroid was so hyper (overactive) they had to take me all the way down to a hypo condition," Elayer said. "It took about six months to get it straightened out again. One day I woke up and thought, Oh, I feel good again. I can't eat the six jelly donuts and the Big Mac and the big supper without gaining weight, though."

The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ located in the throat. The hormones the gland produces controls the metabolism -- the rate at which the body processes food and nutrients to fuel body functions.

If the thyroid produces too much or too little thyroid hormone, just about everything can be affected, from heart and liver function to skin growth, body temperature, mood and memory.

Elayer and Rodgers' symptoms were classic warning signs of thyroid disease.

That's not always the case, said Dr. Daniel Duick, a Cape Girardeau endocrinologist.

"The problem with thyroid disease is that it can be very mild and difficult to diagnose," he said.

Thyroid function essentially fuels the body, Duick said.

"It's like gasoline in the car. We want to be going down the road, and that's what the thyroid does in the body. With hyperthyroidism, you're going down at 110 miles an hour, and hypo you're going at 15."

Identifying and treating the problem gets the body going at normal speed again, he said.

Women are more prone to thyroid disease than men, Duick said, although doctors aren't sure why.

An estimated 11 million Americans suffer some type of thyroid disease -- 90 percent of them are women.

The risk of thyroid disease also increases with age, but in the case of an under active thyroid, the symptoms are often considered just a side-effect of getting older, Duick said.

Some women may also suffer postpartum thyroiditis -- first the thyroid gland works too much, and then too little. Postpartum depression has been linked to thyroid disease.

Poor thyroid function endangers the immune system, and leaves the patient unable to fight off infection. Untreated, thyroid disease can be fatal.