Alert! Are you a smoker? Your thyroid glands are in risk: Here’s how smoking impacts the gland

Hyderabad: Are you a smoker? Here is a study which claimed that smoking is not only increases the risk of cancer, it also creates huge impact on thyroid glands.

According to the report published in New Indian Express, a study titled ‘A study on correlation between smoking and thyroid function’ which was published in European Journal of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry showed the relation between the levels of Thyroid Stimulating Hormones (TSH), Thyroxine (T4) and Triiodothyronine (T3) with smoking habit. The study was conducted by researchers from Biochemistry Department of Osmania Medical College.

The study found that the level of TSH was lower whereas T3 and T4 levels were higher among smokers when compared to non-smokers. This condition is called as hyperthyroidism. Study also found that 58.5% of the smokers had unusual low TSH levels whereas 20% and 46% of the smokers had abnormally high levels of T3 and T4 respectively.

In order to conduct the study, healthy men who are aged between the age of 25 and 50 were selected. It was also made sure that the persons selected do not have any history of thyroid disease, steroids medication, liver disease or pituitary disorders.

According to Dr. Abdur Rehman Asif, one of the researchers who conducted this study said that smoking may cause cancer but the disease takes years to develop and affects only few persons among the smokers. However, smoking can cause thyroid problem in large number of smokers. Smoker may start facing thyroid problem from the moment he/she gets trap in this habit.

Function of thyroid hormones:

Metabolism in the body is maintained by these hormones. Imbalance in its level can cause many health issues which include, infertility, improper menstruation, calcium deficiency, hypertension, obesity etc.