Obesity in Hypothyroidism and Their Management

Abstract

Purpose :-  Hypothyroidism  is a common  endocrinal disorder , mostly occurs in women & elderly person and it has traditionally been  most commonly related with obesity. Hypothyroidism  is a disease of thyroid gland . if any person have hypothyroidism that means the thyroid gland is under active. The term hypothyroidism is made from the word “hypo” – means “under” or “ below the normal”  & “Thyroidism” – mean “thyroid function”. There are very few studies have assessed these associations. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the relation  between thyroid dysfunction and body mass index (BMI) at pre-test  and  post test (after normalization of the hormone levels).

 Patients and methods:-  This is a  observational study of hypothyroid patients that were referred for evaluation of thyroid dysfunction to the school of health sciences C.S.J.M. University Kanpur , India was conducted. We collected data of BMI and thyroid hormone levels before treatment and after normalization of thyroid function within a follow-up period of 6 months.

 Results: :- A total of  312 patients were referred to the School  of health science  (C.S.J.M. University , Kanpur: India) for the thyroid dysfunction  measurement during  the study. From this,220 patients were excluded from this study  for further analysis due to some exclusion criteria. (Eg.:- due to pregnancy, weight loss , recent surgery,  ( 96 patients had already initiated  treatment for thyroid dysfunction, 38 were experiencing  transient  thyroid dysfunction , 47 excluded due to the hypertension, 39 were rejected due to lost to follow – up ). 41 patients were excluded from this study due to hyperthyroidism. And then finally , a total of 51 hypothyroid patients were included in this study, comprising  8 male (15.68%) and  43 female (84.32%). The mean age was 18-65 years and mean  BMI is 27.08±3.19. after that we find out the number of patient with overweight 36 and the percentage were 70.58%and the others were in normal weight those were in numbers  15 and percentage were 29.41 %. The etiology of hypothyroidism per case was 37 patients, 8 patients presented sub clinical hypothyroidism (TSH <10 µU/ ml) and 6 presented severe hypothyroidism (TSH 62.05 µU/ ml) and 53 µU/ ml respectively. 

When comparing mean BMI, there were no significant differences were found between hypothyroid patients and hyperthyroidism 69.81±9.89 kg vs 65±10.94kg and BMI 27.10±3.21 kg/m2 vs 26.40±4.34 for hypothyroid and hyperthyroid patients respectively.

Conclusion:- In hypothyroid  patients, after treatment and normalization of thyroid function have statistically significantly slight changes in BMI, but these are neither major changes nor  show great ( huge) relevance in clinical practice because the BMI remained in the overweight range.s