Christina Rafano explains how hyperthyroidism speeds up metabolism through excess thyroid hormones, usually from Graves disease, while hypothyroidism slows it down from insufficient hormones, often caused by iodine deficiency or Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
In this video, I'm going to teach you the difference between hyperthyroid and hypothyroid. Do not miss this. I'm going to make it super, super duper easy for you. Hello. Hello again, my friend. My name is Christina Rafano from nursingschoolofsuccess.com here to help you both raise your grades and have more free time in nursing school. That's what we're all about here. So if you need help in nursing school, do not worry, I've got you covered. So subscribe to this channel because we post brand new videos every single week. So when you think about hyperthyroid and hypothyroid, there's one word that I want to come to your mind and that one word is metabolism. So think thyroid and metabolism. And what your body's metabolism is, is all of the chemical processes that are happening inside of your body all of the time. So for example, when you eat food, it's a process of metabolism that's going to break all of that food into energy for your body to use. So here's what I mean for hyperthyroid and hypothyroid. Here's how this relates. So hyperthyroid means an increase in the body's metabolism, so the body will break down all of that food into energy super fast. Now with hypothyroid, this is a decrease in the body's metabolism, so it will take a longer time to break down all that food and energy. So the thyroid is all about the body's metabolism. So anytime you see or hear that word thyroid, thyroid, I want you to think metabolism. Both hyperthyroid and hypothyroid have to do with two hormones, T4 and T3. Now these have big fancy names, which are thyroxine and triiodothyronine. I just wanted to mention those big fancy names here for you, just in case you came across them on a nursing school exam somewhere down the line. So now you know what they are. They're just big fancy pants names for T4 and T3, which are those thyroid hormones. I'm going to run through some basic pathophysiology here for you to think about how hyperthyroid and hypothyroid work in the body. If you want a step by step guide for how this works or any other endocrine disorder that you're going to learn about in nursing school, you will definitely want to jump into the nursing SOS membership community, where of course, friend, we've got a full endocrine course there for you. That will walk you through, step by step, all of the pathophysiology, the signs and some the nursing assessment and nursing interventions for the endocrine disorders that you're learning about in nursing school. So I popped that link down below in the description for you to check that out if you think it will be helpful for you. So what's going on during hyperthyroid and hypothyroid? During hyperthyroid, the thyroid gland is going to inappropriately make more T4 and T3. So even though there's already enough T4 and T3 in the body, that thyroid gland is still, still going to make more and more of it. Now the biggest cause of this is Graves disease. Graves disease is an autoimmune disorder where the body's own immune system is actually lying to the thyroid gland. The immune system tells the thyroid gland that the body needs more thyroid hormone even when it doesn't. So the thyroid gland then goes and makes more and more T4 and T3 even when the body doesn't really need it. So that's hyperthyroid. The thyroid gland is making too much much T4 and T3. So there's just too much of those thyroid hormones in the body, which then, as we said before, leads to an increase in the body's metabolism. Now on the flip side, during hypothyroid, the thyroid gland can't produce enough T4 or T3. So the brain keeps telling it to make more T4 and T3, but the thyroid gland just can't. Now the two biggest causes of this of hypothyroid is a lack of iodine, which is necessary to make T4 and T3. So without that iodine, the thyroid gland just cannot produce those thyroid hormones. Iodine is required for that. And hypothyroid can also be caused by Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is another autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the thyroid gland and it just can't function. So in both of these cases, the thyroid gland cannot produce enough of those thyroid hormones that T4 and T3. So there's less thyroid hormone in the body, which causes a decrease in the body's metabolism. Now write Love in the comments below. If this video helped you to understand understand both hyperthyroid and hypothyroid a little bit better for your nursing school exams. I hoped it helped. And click on the next video that we've got for you to help you continue to succeed in nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be I'll see you in the next video.
