antithyroglobulin

Diabetes means your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. With type 1 diabetes, your pancreas does not make insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps glucose get into your cells to give them energy. Without insulin, too much glucose stays in your blood. Over time, high blood glucose can lead to serious problems with your heart, eyes, kidneys, nerves, and gums and teeth.

Type 1 diabetes happens most often in children and young adults but can appear at any age. Symptoms may include:

• Being very thirsty
• Urinating often
• Feeling very hungry or tired
• Losing weight without trying
• Having sores that heal slowly
• Having dry, itchy skin
• Losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet
• Having blurry eyesight

A blood test can show if you have diabetes. If you do, you will need to take insulin for the rest of your life. A blood test called the A1C can check to see how well you are managing your diabetes.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Lupus is an autoimmune disease. This means that your immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues by mistake. This can damage many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain.

There are several kinds of lupus:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common type. It can be mild or severe and can affect many parts of the body.
• Discoid lupus causes a red rash that doesn't go away
• Subacute cutaneous lupus causes sores after being out in the sun
• Drug-induced lupus is caused by certain medicines. It usually goes away when you stop taking the medicine.
• Neonatal lupus, which is rare, affects newborns. It is probably caused by certain antibodies from the mother.

The cause of lupus is unknown.

Anyone can get lupus, but women are most at risk. Lupus is two to three times more common in African American women than in white women. It's also more common in Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women. African American and Hispanic women are more likely to have severe forms of lupus.

Lupus can have many symptoms, and they differ from person to person. Some of the more common ones are:

• Pain or swelling in joints
• Muscle pain
• Fever with no known cause
• Red rashes, most often on the face (also called the "butterfly rash")
• Chest pain when taking a deep breath
• Hair loss
• Pale or purple fingers or toes
• Sensitivity to the sun
• Swelling in legs or around eyes
• Mouth ulcers
• Swollen glands
• Feeling very tired

Symptoms may come and go. When you are having symptoms, it is called a flare. Flares can range from mild to severe. New symptoms may appear at any time.

There is no specific test for lupus, and it's often mistaken for other diseases. So it may take months or years for a doctor to diagnose it. Your doctor may use many tools to make a diagnosis:

• Medical history
• Complete exam
• Blood tests
• Skin biopsy (looking at skin samples under a microscope)
• Kidney biopsy (looking at tissue from your kidney under a microscope)

There is no cure for lupus, but medicines and lifestyle changes can help control it.

People with lupus often need to see different doctors. You will have a primary care doctor and a rheumatologist (a doctor who specializes in the diseases of joints and muscles). Which other specialists you see depends on how lupus affects your body. For example, if lupus damages your heart or blood vessels, you would see a cardiologist.

Your primary care doctor should coordinate care between your different health care providers and treat other problems as they come up. Your doctor will develop a treatment plan to fit your needs. You and your doctor should review the plan often to be sure it is working. You should report new symptoms to your doctor right away so that your treatment plan can be changed if needed.

The goals of the treatment plan are to:

• Prevent flares
• Treat flares when they occur
• Reduce organ damage and other problems

Treatments may include drugs to:

• Reduce swelling and pain
• Prevent or reduce flares
• Help the immune system
• Reduce or prevent damage to joints
• Balance the hormones

Besides taking medicines for lupus, you may need to take medicines for problems that are related to lupus such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or infection.

Alternative treatments are those that are not part of standard treatment. At this time, no research shows that alternative medicine can treat lupus. Some alternative or complementary approaches may help you cope or reduce some of the stress associated with living with a chronic illness. You should talk to your doctor before trying any alternative treatments.

It is important to take an active role in your treatment. It helps to learn more about lupus - being able to spot the warning signs of a flare can help you prevent the flare or make the symptoms less severe.

It is also important to find ways to cope with the stress of having lupus. Exercising and finding ways to relax may make it easier for you to cope. A good support system can also help.

NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect nearly every organ in your body and control many of your body's most important functions. For example, they affect your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion, and moods.

Thyroid diseases cause your thyroid to make either too much or too little of the hormones. Some of the different thyroid diseases include:

• Goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland
• Hyperthyroidism, which happens when your thyroid gland makes more thyroid hormones than your body needs
• Hypothyroidism, which happens when your thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormones
• Thyroid cancer
• Thyroid nodules, lumps in the thyroid gland
• Thyroiditis, swelling of the thyroid

To diagnose thyroid diseases, your health care provider may use a medical history, physical exam, and thyroid tests. In some cases, your provider may also do a biopsy.

Treatment depends on the problem, how severe it is, and what your symptoms are. Possible treatments may include medicines, radioiodine therapy, or thyroid surgery.

Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect nearly every organ in your body and control many of your body's most important functions. For example, they affect your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion, and moods.

Thyroid tests check how well your thyroid is working. They are also used to diagnose and help find the cause of thyroid diseases such as hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Thyroid tests include blood tests and imaging tests.

Blood tests for your thyroid include:

• TSH. It measures thyroid-stimulating hormone. This is usually the first test your healthcare provider will order.
• T3 and T4.They measure the level of the different thyroid hormones in your blood.
• Thyroid antibodies test. It measures certain thyroid antibodies (markers in the blood). This test may help diagnose autoimmune thyroid disorders.

Imaging tests include:

• CT scans
• Ultrasound
• Nuclear medicine tests, including:
  • Thyroid scan. It uses small amounts of radioactive material to create a picture of the thyroid, showing its size, shape, and position. It can help find the cause of hyperthyroidism and check for thyroid nodules (lumps in the thyroid).
  • Radioactive iodine uptake test, or thyroid uptake test. It checks how well your thyroid is working and can help find the cause of hyperthyroidism.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases