How to distinguish benign goiter from other types of goiter?

Goiter is a thyroid disease that is common in women and does not affect health much. Currently, there are many different types of goiter detected and is there a way to recognize a benign goiter? Please follow the following article.

In fact, goiter is a very common disease nowadays. The cause of goiter is often not fixed and not completely accurate, but you can rest assured because this is not a life-threatening disease and can be prevented.

How to distinguish benign goiter from other types of goiter?

Benign goiter (simple goiter)

The cause of a benign goiter is not an abnormal tumor or an inflammation of the thyroid area, but simply an overgrowth of certain hormones.

Patients with benign goiter do not greatly affect the main function of the thyroid gland, ensuring the thyroid gland is still functioning normally. The simple neck step consists of 3 possible steps:

• Natural person: The location of the nucleus in the thyroid gland is not fixed as well as the size is not the same in each person, each case with goiter.
• Diffuse form: This form is caused by abnormal enlargement of the parenchyma in the thyroid gland, so it will often have a similar appearance to the thyroid gland.
• Mixed type: The goiter may have one or more nodules (usually 3 to 4 nuclei) against the background of diffuse benign goiter.

How to recognize a benign goiter is quite simple. Because it is benign, the goiter does not cause any pain or discomfort to the touch and when the tumor grows larger, it will compress other parts, causing inconvenience, not affecting health as well as the gland. armor.

Benign goiter when growing can compress surrounding organs

Malignant neck step

Malignant goiter is often accompanied by other symptoms such as hyperthyroidism or thyroxine toxicity. Similar to benign goiter, malignant goiter also has 3 types:

• Toxic goiter: Also known as Plummer's disease, this goiter is a hyperfunctioning parenchyma, which is understandable, the thyroid gland secretes too much hormone, causing the body to be poisoned.
• Diffuse toxic tumor: Another name is Graves' disease, is a condition that can spread with toxic phenomena.
• Basedow's goiter: At first, the patient had a normal benign goiter, but due to some reasons, it turned into a toxic Graves goiter.

Thyroid benign tumor

The disease is common in middle-aged people and there is only 1 tumor that can be located anywhere on the thyroid gland. Manifestations of benign thyroid nodules are often difficult to recognize and easily confused with benign goiter.

Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is more common in people between the ages of 40 and 60. When suffering from this disease, the patient will often appear a tumor located below the thyroid gland, when lightly touched, it has a rough surface, not as smooth as a benign tumor, the tumor texture is firm, difficult to move. moved because it may have penetrated, ingrained in the surrounding organs.

Thyroiditis

The reason for including thyroiditis in distinguishing types of goiter is because this pathology has similar symptoms to common goiter, so it is necessary to distinguish clearly. Tumors with thyroiditis will often be large in size, causing pressure on the throat or other organs, leading to sharp pain, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, etc.

Thyroiditis is often mistaken for a benign goiter

What causes goiter?

According to many studies, the main cause of goiter is iodine deficiency of the body. However, it is not necessary to replenish the previous deficiency of iodine to cure goiter.

The treatment of goiter is also closely related to a system of nerves that control the activity of the thyroid gland in secreting the right amount of hormone. Normally, the amount of iodine that the body needs is not too large, so the diet can be enough to provide a daily amount of iodine.

The mechanism of goiter formation is that when the thyroid gland does not receive enough iodine from an external supply, it will activate its own mechanism to produce a hormone instead. When this hormone is secreted more than usual to compensate for the lack of iodine, it will cause the formation of tumors, which is the goiter that we often talk about.

In addition, the patient may have had a goiter due to some side effects of some drugs or eating a lot of certain foods that are not beneficial for the thyroid gland, such as:

• Taking synthetic antibiotics or contrast agents when taking X-rays, rheumatism drugs, etc. These drugs inhibit the body's ability to absorb iodine, leading to more and more goiter.
• Eating a lot of foods containing inhibitors, preventing the body from absorbing iodine such as tapioca (tapioca), cruciferous vegetables, salted bamboo shoots or fresh bamboo shoots, ... or have poor eating habits healthy, regularly use alcoholic beverages, smoke cigarettes, eat a lot of sweet foods, eat a diet high in sugar and unhealthy fats, etc.
• Congenital thyroid dysfunction factor also has many cases of acquired goiter. This is often influenced by family members and if someone in the family has had goiter, there is a high chance that you can also have this disease.
• In addition, there are a number of other causes such as erratic female hormone disorders  , sudden onset of puberty or perimenopause that also increase the risk of goiter, which can especially explain the Why do women have a higher incidence of the disease than men?

Some oral medications are also the cause of goiter

How to recognize a benign goiter is actually not difficult, you can do it yourself, but to ensure the correct diagnosis, determine the correct cause of the disease and have a specific and appropriate treatment from A specialist is still much better, because goiter types have similar signs but the severity of the disease is different.

In your daily diet, you should add seafood, fish, milk and dairy products, eggs, ... especially iodized salt to ensure adequate iodine intake per day. This is the most effective way to prevent goiter.