Thyroid Hormone

Thyroid Hormone Animation

Thyroid hormones control the rate of energy release (metabolic rate), and disease results when they malfunction. Excess storage of surplus energy causes obesity, one of the most common diseases of Western society.

The thyroid hormones T3 and T4 are unique in that iodine (as iodide) is an essential component of both. In most parts of the world, iodine is a scarce component of soil, and for that reason there is little in food.

Thyroid hormones interact with intracellular receptors, and it is this ligand-receptor complex that directly provides the signal, generally to specific genes whose rate of transcription is thereby affected.