On A Pill

Hypothyroidism, also known as an under active metabolism is a condition that lowers the production of essential hormones. Hormones that are vital to the physical and mental development of people. A slow metabolism is often associated with the senior citizen with male patterned baldness who not only lacks physical interaction but is not mentally stimulated on a regular  basis. This assertion that hypothyroid is indicative of your age or even the lifestyle you lead is not always the reason. The exception to the statistical information is that I am physically active and utilize my mental abilities on a regular basis yet I have been eating a little yellow pill every morning before my breakfast for the last fifteen years of my life. This unfortunate condition that has been posed upon me was not a choice. I don't believe any person would choose to have to work three times as hard as a person with a normal functioning metabolism just to appear healthy. My condition and this mandatory consumption of a Synthroid pill are a genetic result of a handed down tradition through out my family for generations. This condition that is responsible for causing excessive fatigue, slow mental development, inability to metabolize food at a normal rate and a myriad of other negative symptoms is not very genetically prevalent. Besides the thousands of individuals over the age of fifty whose metabolisms have naturally declined I am the lucky adolescent benefactor who has inherited the condition. In fact, in the United States one in five thousand children genetically contract hypothyroid annually. I am not certain of the United States population but I feel it is not an everyday occurrence that on the glorious day of child birth the doctor informs the two previously exuberant parents that their new born will have a life lasting condition that will negatively influence the way they live for the rest of time.
As a carrier of this condition since a new born I have not really looked into the exact cause of my hypothyroidism or even the anatomical location of my "thyroid." The thyroid is in fact the largest endocrine gland in the body and rests in your throat right below the larynx. As I previously stated the gland produces thyroid hormone responsible for physical body and mental growth; regulating breathing, maintaining a stable body temperature, producing energy and digesting food. These are the main functions the thyroid produces but the lack of an efficient thyroid can be far more detrimental to the human body. In cases when babies genetically receive this condition the affects can be very extreme. One such affect is that it reduces the ability to develop cognitively often leading to mental retardation. The physical toll an inefficient thyroid has on a child can go as far as delaying puberty and stunting growth. In some severe instances children can even lead to ataxia, which is the inability to coordinate muscle movement.
For my last nineteen years here on this earth I consider myself a fortunate individual.  I have not suffered any of the severe side effects of a less efficient thyroid gland that I covered. I do experience excessive fatigue and who knows maybe I will suffer from baldness when I am older. But as of now my life does not seem to out of the ordinary.The monotonous task of consuming this little yellow pill every morning has just become a habit; it is as regular as stepping one foot in front of the other as I walk. If This condition that I've had for nineteen years and will have until the day I rest six feet under has taught me anything it is that some people have to work harder for what they want than others. I don't ever publicize my condition because I know there are other individuals who may have experienced the more severe side of the side effects as children, I just try my best to compensate for this discrepancy and have become a harder worker because of it, physically and mentally.