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Thyroid Awareness Month 2002

Facts About Thyroid Disease

Who Has Thyroid Disease?

• An estimated 13 million Americans have thyroid disorders, but more than half still remain undiagnosed.¹
• Approximately 1 out of every 8 women will develop a thyroid disorder in her lifetime.²
• Women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to suffer from a thyroid condition.³
• Although thyroid disease can strike at any time, the elderly are more likely to suffer from hypothyroidism. By age 60, as many as 17 percent of women have an underactive thyroid.⁴

What Are The Genetic Links In Thyroid Disease?

• Fifty percent of thyroid disease patients' offspring will inherit the thyroid disease gene.⁵
• Fifteen to 20 percent of diabetics and their siblings or parents are at a greater risk of presenting with thyroid disease compared to 4.5 percent of the general population.⁶
• In a large series of American patients with pernicious anemia, nearly half (48.3%) had laboratory test evidence of thyroid disease.⁷
• The overall prevalence of pernicious anemia among children, siblings, parents, and parents' siblings of patients with pernicious anemia is about 2.5 percent, or about 20 times the prevalence in the population at large.⁸
• In a group of 383 patients with documented rheumatoid arthritis, 9.3 percent had thyroid antibodies.⁹
• Painful tendonitis and bursitis of the shoulder was reported in 6.7 percent of thyroid disease patients, but occurs in only about 1.7 percent of the general population.¹⁰

Thyroid Gland: The Body's Regulator

• The thyroid gland is the small, butterfly-shaped gland found just below the Adam's apple. It is central to the proper functioning of the body, regulating its metabolism and organ function. The thyroid produces hormones that influence essentially every organ, tissue and cell in the body. In short, if the thyroid doesn't work properly, neither do you.
• Left untreated, thyroid disease can cause elevated cholesterol levels, osteoporosis, infertility, depression and, in extreme cases, coma or death.
• Six out of every 100 miscarriages can be attributed to thyroid deficiency during pregnancy.¹¹ Untreated hypothyroidism during pregnancy may also negatively impact a child's psychological development, resulting in a lower I.Q. score and a decrease in motor skills, attention, language and reading abilities.¹²

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Thyroid Disease?

For more information, please call Stacey Wacknov or Theresa Liddy at 212-453-2000 Additional information about thyroid disease can be found at the AACE Web site www.aace.com

Previous Thyroid Awareness Month Campaigns

• Thyroid Awareness Month 2007 – How's Your Thyroid - Who needs to know?
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2006 – A Thyroid Imbalance? Target Your Numbers
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2005 – A Healthy Thyroid: You Make The Difference
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2004 – Take Control of Your Health: Keep Your Thyroid in Balance
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2003 – Thyroid Undercover – Hiding in Plain Sight
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2002 – The Neck’s Generation
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2001 – The Neck’s Time is Now – Think Thyroid
• Thyroid Awareness Month 2000 – Take Cholesterol by the Neck
• Thyroid Awareness Month 1999 – Thyroid: The Missing T in HRT
• Thyroid Awareness Month 1998 – When the Blues Hit
• Thyroid Awareness Month 1997 – 1995 – Not available on AACE Online