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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffHyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) is a condition in which your thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxine. Hyperthyroidism can significantly accelerate your body's metabolism, causing sudden weight loss, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, sweating, and nervousness or irritability.
Several treatment options are available if you have hyperthyroidism. Doctors use anti-thyroid medications and radioactive iodine to slow the production of thyroid hormones. Sometimes, treatment of hyperthyroidism involves surgery to remove part of your thyroid gland. Although hyperthyroidism can be serious if you ignore it, most people respond well once hyperthyroidism is diagnosed and treated.
- Graves' disease. Womenshealth.gov. http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/graves-disease.cfm. Accessed April 10, 2010.
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- Information for healthcare professionals — Propylthiouracil-induced liver failure. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/DrugSafetyInformationforHeathcareProfessionals/ucm162701.htm. Accessed April 11, 2010.
- What is hyperthyroidism? The American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hyper_brochure.pdf. Accessed April 11, 2010.
- Living with Graves'. Graves' Disease Foundation. http://www.ngdf.org/living_with_gd.php. Accessed April 11, 2010.
- Fitzgerald PA. Endocrine disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2010. 49th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2010. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=14671&searchStr=hyperthyroidism. Accessed April 11, 2010.
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- Hershman JM, et al. Thyroid diseases. In: Halter JB, et al. Hazzard's Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. 6th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=5133014&searchStr=hyperthyroidism. Accessed April 14, 2010.
- Jameson JL, et al. Disorders of the thyroid gland. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Online. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2877435&searchStr=graves'+disease#2877435. Accessed April 14, 2010.
- Dietary Reference Intakes for calcium and vitamin D. Institute of Medicine. http://www.iom.edu/vitamind. Accessed Dec. 2, 2010.
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