Thyroid hormone

“ This gland is now known to manufacture and pour out into the blood a hormone which is a regulator of metabolism. When it is produced in normal amounts, the metabolism goes on at the rate that we find in healthy people. If the gland is inactive and does not secrete enough of the hormone, there is a reduction in the metabolism. Since this implies a lowering of the vigor of the life processes, we might expect it to have important effects. The most marked of these are in the nervous system. Persons whose thyroid glands are relatively inactive are mentally sluggish ”

“ Asthenic conditions necessarily indicate hypofunction of the adrenal system ...” etc.
“The use of gland extracts in the treatment of aplasias of the pluriglandular system has become an established therapeutic measure of miraculous potency (Bayard Holmes: The Internal Secretory Glands, Lancet-Clinic, Sept. 19, 1914) .”
The G. W. Carnrick Company also advertises a “Hormotone Without Post-Pituitary,” each tablet of which is said to contain 1⁄10 grain desiccated thyroid, and to “present” “hormone bearing extracts of thyroid, anterior pituitary, ovary, and testes.” ”

“ Physical symptoms include a sense of heaviness and lethargy, dry skin, sensitivity to cold, constipation, and thinning hair.
HYPER- AND HYPOPARATHYROIDISM
The parathyroid glands, which are four bean-size glands located on top of the thyroid gland, manufacture hormones that regulate phosphorus and calcium levels in the body. Excess hormone raises the calcium level too high, and psychotic-like behavior can result. Too little hormone lowers the calcium level to the point that a person may behave like an alcoholic. ”

“ The thyroid is the gland of energy. It controls the growth of certain organs and tissues of brain and sex. The internal secretions of our thyroid glands, mind you, are not necessary to life. If these secretions are inadequate, we may go on living, but we shall be below normal mentally, and our level of energy will remain low. But when more thyroid is introduced into the system our vital chemical reactions will speed up. It has been proved and accepted without qualification by men of science that the more thyroid a person has the more energetic will he be. ”

“ The pulse-rate becomes very rapid, the extremities become warm, so that the patient is obliged to wear few clothes, the temper becomes irritable, the patient nervous, and a fine tremor is observed in the hands. On stopping the administration of thyroid these symptoms again disappear. When the thyroid is hypertrophied, as in Graves's disease, the same symptoms are observed, and these are probably due to increased secretion from the thyroid. At the same time other symptoms, such as exophthalmos, may appear, which have an independent origin and are not due to the secretion of the gland. ”

“ Studies with thyroxin carried on in recent years have rounded out the whole concept of the business of the thyroid in the body economy. One may sum it up by saying that the thyroid secretion is the great controller of the speed of living. The more thyroid one has, the faster one lives; the less one has, the more slowly one lives. ”

“ Occasionally a child is born without an active thyroid gland; this child is doomed for life, unless artificial aid can be procured, not only to complete idiocy but to all the other results of lowered metabolism; these show themselves in dwarfishness and a misshapen body. One of the conspicuous and beneficent discoveries of medicine in comparatively recent years has been that extracts of the thyroid glands of meat animals, when eaten by persons whose own thyroids are not sufficiently active, supply the lack, and so they may be restored to the normal condition. ”

“ Rapidly he sketched what he had already told me of the thyroid and the hormones. “These hormones,” added Kennedy, “are closely related to many reactions in the body, such as even the mother’s secretion of milk at the proper time and then only. That and many other functions are due to the presence and character of these chemical secretions from the thyroid and other ductless glands. It is a fascinating study. For we know that anything that will upset—reduce or increase—the hormones is a matter intimately concerned with health. ”

“ We cannot say at present whether this treatment is going to be of any value, but we are investigating its action. Like all animal extracts, thyroid is a very powerful drug, and sometimes gives rise to very alarming symptoms. If it is going to be valuable, it will only be used for very marked cases of obesity. ”

“ The discovery of iodothyrin in the body by Eugen Baumann, in 1896, suggested the relation of the thyroid gland to iodine metabolism and an adjoining pair of ductless glands, the parathyroids, discovered by the Swedish anatomist, Ivar Sandström, in 1880, would appear, from experiment, to have an influence on calcium metabolism. In 1891. Eugen Gley showed that where excision of the thyroid is negative in certain animals, these animals will speedily die if the four parathyroids are also removed. ”

“ The thyroxin in the tissues diminishes after a period of great exertion, the thyroxin probably being carried back to the thyroid gland and kept there as reserve until further demand. So it has been discovered that during the winter months, the thyroid glands of beef, sheep and hogs all contain much less iodine than during the summer months. During the winter months, manifestly, more energy is required to maintain body temperature, hence the gland surrenders more of its secretion to the tissues and so keeps less of it itself. ”

“ The influence of the thyroid upon the skeleton and size of the body is easily shown by simple observations.
Children of parents with cachectic diseases like chronic tuberculosis, syphilis, alcoholism, etc., in which the thyroid gland is, as a rule, found degenerated (Gamier, [31] Hertoghe [32] ) , are (as shown by Prof. Perrando [33] and Garnier) born with a congenital atrophy of the thyroid. Just as young animals with an extirpated 14thyroid, so these children will not grow, and we know that cretins (degeneration of the thyroid) remain as a rule dwarfs all their life long. ”

“ When the thyroid sends more secretion into the blood, more thyroxin, it accelerates all the functions and activities of the organs. Tea and coffee produce loquacity because they stimulate the thyroid. People with thyroid dominant constitutions talk fluently, rapidly, and continuously. Their energy makes them doers, actors rather than spectators. They get up early in the morning, are on the go all day without surcease or fatigue, go to bed late, and often suffer from insomnia. ”

“ The fundamental chemical reactions within the cells occur in the complete absense of thyroxin. But they go on in a relatively fixed, rigid and unvarying way, confined within the narrow limits of a constant figure. Under such conditions, the level of energy production is bound to be low, and to remain low, and the modus of its mobilization slow and unwieldy. With thyroid is introduced the trick of catalysis, or the speeding up of the vital chemical reactions, through the agency of an intermediate which accelerates the process. It is par excellence the great catalyst of energy in the body. ”

“ It seems to follow from these observations that persons with a good sound thyroid have a better chance in fighting infections and intoxications than persons with a degenerated thyroid. In persons with an active thyroid, an increased activity of the gland, and thus a better functioning of the eliminative organs which are governed by it, can take place more easily than in persons with a degenerated thyroid, and, in consequence, with a dry skin, constipated bowels, and lazy kidneys. ”

“ While the study of the hormones is still in its infancy, there seems to be no question but that the endocrinous glands act conjointly, the one influencing the other, and that together they exert a very great influence in the life processes of the body and on the behavior of its component cells. The thyroid has been shown to be one of the main factors in the management of calcium within the body, which is believed to be an element in cancer, and enhances the catabolism of toxic wastes, which are etiologic elements in this disease. ”

“ Again each step of transformation requires the aid of some energizer or catalyst. The presence of many of these catalysts is only surmised. Some of them, however, have been captured and their mysteries are exposed. Among these is thyroxin, which Kendall showed to be the chief product of the thyroid gland. Thyroxin sets the pace of life. The rate of oxygen utilization is governed largely by it, so that when the thyroid gland is destroyed or not functioning, as in some forms of goiter, energy transformation proceeds at a slower tempo. ”

“ Thyroid gland was introduced for the treatment of patients suffering from goitre, myxoedema and cretinism, in which diseases it has been remarkably successful, cretins growing rapidly under the thyroid treatment and developing intelligence. It has also been used in dwarfism, excessive obesity, psoriasis and scleroderma. When used in obesity an excess of nitrogenous food should be taken to balance the destruction of proteid. ”

“ By the thyroid influence, the brain thresholds are lowered and life becomes exquisite; without its influence the brain becomes a globe of relatively inert substance. Excessive doses of iodin alone cause most of the symptoms of Graves' disease. As we have stated, the active constituent of the thyroid is iodin in a special protein combination which is stored in the colloidal spaces. Hence one would not expect to find changes in the cells of the thyroid gland as a result of increased activity unless it be prolonged. ”

“ Because of its unique connection with the thyroid gland, iodine-131 is most valuable in measurements connected with that organ. Thyroxin, an iodine compound, is manufactured in the thyroid gland, and transferred by the blood stream to the body tissues. The thyroxin helps to govern the oxygen consumption of the body and therefore helps control its metabolism. ”

“ Thus it supplies a mechanism not only for quantity output of that subtle reality we label energy, but also an apparatus for varying the available amount of it, and for permitting the maximum range in ease and rapidity of its utilization. The thyroid is still another device of life for procuring more and more variation and differentiation, its goal, as far as we can peer through the opalescent screen upon which its manifestations quiver. ”

“ In certain parts of the world—in high altitudes and fresh-water regions—the water does not contain enough iodine. In such regions goiter is prevalent.
“To sum up very briefly the workings of the thyroid gland, life is worth while when it is sufficiently active; and when it is not, life is a burden to the unfortunate [30] individual so affected. It is my belief, then, that when we come to know more about the glands we will realize that man is regulated by them. ”

“ By treating with thyroid extracts a child that has remained backward in his mental development we can make a curious observation. The child who had previously been a cretinous idiot will not only improve bodily but also mentally, and he will be transformed into an intelligent being with normal mental faculties. The logical deduction is that the thyroid must influence powerfully the condition of our nervous system and mentality. Indeed, the physiological activity of the nervous system and mentality depends entirely on the co-operation of the ductless glands with internal secretion. ”

“ What is more likely than that individuals differ in the strength of their adrenal secretion or in the readiness with which the glands are aroused to pour it out into the circulation? The excitable individual might be one with over-active adrenals. And in the same way the strenuous individual might be one with an unusually active thyroid gland, since there certainly seems to be some connection between this gland and the tendency to great activity. ”

“ Certain endocrine facts in relation to heredity should be mentioned. The daughters of mothers who menstruated early, themselves menstruate early. Animals fed upon thyroid during pregnancy, comparable to the thyrocentric, give birth to offspring with a very large thymus, comparable to the thymocentric. Women with partial thyroid deficiency, or myxedema, bear cretins. ”

“ It seems that few ordinary drugs approach in their effects on metabolism the hormones of the thyroid. In excess they produce such diseases as exophthalmic goiter, and goiter is concerned with the enlargement of the glands and surrounding tissues beyond anything like natural size. Then, too, a defect in the glands causes the disease known as myxedema in adults and cretinism in children. Most of all, the gland seems to tell on the germ plasm of the body, especially in women. ”

“ For such, so to say, physiological purposes as we are required to give them, thyroid extracts should be administered in a quantity just sufficient to make up the amount of thyroid secretion which the body demands; the greater the age, the larger the dose; but we must not forget that, as in advanced cases of myxœdema, so also in advanced senility, we must not expect too great results from the treatment. ”

“ When thyroid is taken in an irrational way in large doses, or when continued for too long a time, we may sometimes have the very opposite symptoms for a time—even more fat, and in some cases older looks; but if we abandon the treatment for two or three weeks we may witness, as we ourselves have done, a general improvement in the condition and personal appearance; after iodide treatment we may observe the same, sometimes with increase of fat. Thyroid extracts cause a greater activity of the thyroid, and at times even an overactivity—thyroidism—which may be followed by its exhaustion. ”