The Most Common Warning Signs Your Thyroid Isn’t Working Right

Heart palpitations can cause people to feel like their heart is pounding, fluttering, or beating irregularly. These sensations are usually felt in the chest, throat, or neck. Such heart palpitations may be caused by too many thyroid hormones, which stimulate the heart to beat faster and more strongly.

Hyperthyroidism overstimulates the nervous system. An overactive gland can make people stay awake at night by making them anxious and increasing their pulse. A thyroid hormone imbalance may also cause night sweats, resulting in multiple disruptions of sleep.

Though not often, especially if a person’s thyroid condition is not severe, hair loss may sometimes be due to thyroid hormones being out of balance. Thyroid hormones trigger hair growth. When the body has too much or too little thyroid hormones, the hair growth cycle is disrupted, causing hair to fall out, leading to thinning across the scalp.

Unexplained weight gain is one of the most common signs of a thyroid not working right. Gaining weight may be the result of an underactive thyroid, resulting in significantly slower metabolism. However, the extra weight a person with hypothyroidism gains is usually salt and water, according to the American Thyroid Association.

With an overactive thyroid gland, a person often ends up losing weight because the body needs more calories to maintain its weight, resulting in more calories burned.