Introduction
Homeostasis (Goiter)
Endocrinal disease has become a common issue in the present days. There are many types of endocrinal disease, such as diabetes, goiter, thyroid, gigantism, obesity, osteoporosis and so forth. Why is this happening? Endocrine diseases are co-related to endocrine glands in our body. These endocrine glands produce hormones, which are the chemicals through the blood in the body. The hormones regulate the processes of the body weight, breathing, growth and other body systems. Therefore, if the endocrine glands appear to have problems, the secretion of hormones might be more than usual or less than the usual, thus, it creates endocrine disorder in our body.
Goiter is the enlargement of thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is situated in front of the next right below the Adam’s apple. This thyroid gland produces thyroid hormone, which play important role in our body that regulates our heart rate, blood pressure, growth and breathing. The thyroid gland needs sufficient iodine to produce thyroid hormone. However, if the thyroid gland receives insufficient iodine, the pituitary gland will sense the low level of thyroid hormone in the gland. The signal that is sent to the thyroid is called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). The abnormal growth started when TSH stimulates the thyroid hormone and the size of the gland. Due to the deficiency of iodine, the size of the gland starts to grow bigger and therefore this term is called ‘Goiter’.
Task
There are also possibilities that the thyroid gland is in overactive and underactive conditions. Overactive thyroid gland happens when too many secretions of thyroid hormones stimulate the thyroid gland and cause to swelling. This is called hyperthyroidism. Whereas underactive thyroid gland can cause thyroid gland to swell. This condition will happen when the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. One of the leading causes of this condition is called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or Hashimoto’s disease. Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disease, which interferes with the gland’s ability to produce hormones. The body will produce more if the gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. This causes the thyroid gland to swell and lead to goiter.
The prognosis of the goiter includes enlargement of the throat, difficulty in swallowing and breathing. The enlargement of the throat could be varying from a small lump to a huge mass. If the goiter grows large enough, it will press on the oesophagus, thus, it causes difficulty in swallowing. The enlarged goiter could press on the trachea or windpipe that can cause to the breathing difficulty. The goiter itself won’t cause harm to human. However, the deficiency of T4 hormones caused by the goiter will affect the heart, which could cause to death.
Thyroid disorder can be treated depend on the type and the size of the goiter. As for small lump of goiter, it may not need any medical treatment. The iodine supplement may be sufficient as the treatment. For example, the small benign euthyroid goiter does not need medical treatment. The efficient way to treat the patient with benign euthyroid goiter is levothyroxine suppressive therapy. The therapy is given to the patient to keep the serum TSH low but detectable to avoid hyperthyroidism and osteoporosis. A hormone therapy is involved by using the synthetic hormone that replicates our normal thyroid hormone. This therapy can treat the underactive thyroid gland. There will be several side effects when the therapy is on going, such as rapid heartbeat, weight loss or diarrhea. These happen in order to let our body get used to the hormone therapy. Whereas the large lump of goiter requires medical and surgical treatment. Some of the goiters are treated by using thyroid hormone replacement. However, this treatment is often followed by surgical and radiation treatment. Radioactive iodine treatment can cure overactive thyroid gland. A patient takes the radioactive iodine orally. This iodine will go to our thyroid gland; it will then destroy the thyroid cells and reduces the size of goiter. If a patient has difficulties in swallowing and breathing, he should undergo a surgery as it may cause him to death. The doctor will remove half of the thyroid gland after the incision in the patient’s neck. This will reduce the over production of thyroid hormone that causes the thyroid gland to swell. The reduction of the size of goiter will occur.
We can overcome this issue by having sufficient iodine supplement. We can prevent thyroid disorder from happening by eating food that contains iodine. Food that contains iodine is yogurt, cow’s milk, eggs, strawberries, seaweed and more. Besides, we can also take legalize prescription from doctor for the iodine supplement.
Process
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05DyElTqKa8 width:600 height:600 align:right autoplay:1]
The video is taken by the NY Center Head and Neck.
Evaluation
Science has contributed a lot to our understanding. It is the solving problem to the issue. The advancement of the technology has also helped the victims and sufferers a lot in the present days. The doctor has examined and tested the medicine before authorize the medicine for the use of patient. We have the technology to undergo surgery for the removal of goiter. The doctor is able to acknowledge the sizes of the goiter and the symptoms of the goiter and this is all based on the technology usage.
The picture shows the patient has undergone a goiter surgery. The doctor has taken out a giant nodular goiter from the patient’s neck.
The person is able to know when he has goiter by diagnosing his disease through ultrasonography. The picture of ultrasonography is shown below.
Science does interact with ethic and economic. Ethic does apply in the science field as the way of life. Medicine is a type of drug. Some of the doctors will test the effectiveness of the newly discovered medicine onto the patient. It is wrong ethically. Besides, the doctor might not even know what is the long-term effect if the patient tried the medicine. It might bring harm to the patient and might be fatal to them. If the medicines are administered in the right way, it could help lives. The Food and Drugs Administration should authorize all of the medicines. The purpose of doing a surgery is to save life. However, some of the surgeon misused it. For example, some of the doctors doing a surgery to remove an internal organ of the healthy patient in order to do a trading. It is sickly wrong ethically.
In the economy factor, the scientist will be hired by the company to do a research to do testing and to prove the effectiveness and safety of the drug. Most of the scientist will try to find new drug to cure disease, such as AIDS, endocrinal disease and etcetera. If the drugs are found to be useful, they will then patent the medicine as the trademark of the company. This will generate a huge income to the company. For example, Pfizer hired a scientist to do a research in finding a research to cure AIDS, cancer and diseases, if they found out that a drug is useful and safe for usage, they will patent it as their trademark. From the selling of this drug, the company will generate huge money.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, goiter is a disease caused by the lack of T4 hormone. It is caused by the dietary habit and iodine deficiency. Having a healthy diet and sufficient iodine in the food, such as yogurt, seaweed, green vegetables and so forth, can treat the disease. For the case of the serious goiter, it could be treated by hormone therapy or surgical treatment. The sciences can contribute a huge benefit to our human kind. It could cure the disease and save the life. However, if we use it wrongly, it could be fatal to the life and detrimental to the country.
Credits
These are the 15 links that may help you to understand more about hormonal or endocrinal disease.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Goitre/Pages/Treatment.aspx
http://www.naturalremedies.org/goitre/
http://www.healthgrades.com/procedures/endocrine-disorders
http://www.thyroid.org/what-is-a-goiter/
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Goitre/Pages/Causes.aspx
http://www.webmd.com/women/understanding-goiter-treatment
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/120034-treatment
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/04/why-thyroid-conditions-are-so-bad/
http://drllynch.com/thyroid_disorders.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074887/#!po=57.6923
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/iodine-foods/