The thyroid gland is a small butterfly-shaped gland located in the front of the neck below the larynx. It makes thyroid hormones which travel from the thyroid gland through the blood, to all parts of the body, where the hormones help all your organs work well. They control how your body uses food for energy, and they affect how fast or slow your brain, heart, muscles, liver, and other parts of your body work. When the thyroid gland stops working properly and fails to produce a normal amount of thyroid hormone, hypothyroidism is the result. This is a simplified explanation of a rather complex condition. Hypothyroidism, sometimes called underactive thyroid or low thyroid, is a common endocrine disorder. It is a disorder in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone. Women are two to ten times more likely than men to develop hypothyroidism, with it affecting one in 500 pregnancies in women of childbearing age. People who are older than 60 years old have a higher incidence of thyroid disorders. In children, hypothyroidism can lead to delays in growth and intellectual development.
