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The following discussion is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or

treat any disease. Please do not apply any of this information

without first speaking with your doctor. Now, let's head to the show. Everyone, let's define

what Hashimoto's is, how it pertains to hypothyroidism, and a few things you can do to prevent it.

Hashimoto's is an autoimmune process in which your immune system attacks your

thyroid gland and if enough damage to the gland occurs, you can become hypothyroid. But there's

actually really good news here in that the majority of people with Hashimoto's will not become

hypothyroid. But let's walk through a few of the basics here. Firstly,

Hashimoto was discovered in 1912 by Hakuru Hashimoto. And what he found was that in people who

had hypothyroidism, a cause could be, not always, but could be, this Hashimoto's, this process in which your immune system attacks

your thyroid gland. And the most notable component that's attacked is known as thyroid

peroxidase. It's a glycoprotein enzyme that combines iodine with tyrosine to make thyroid hormone.

And if you have enough damage, enough of this immune system is not, iodine with tyrosine to make thyroid hormone.

And if you have enough damage, enough of this immune system irritation damage of the gland,

you can then have impairment in the ability of the thyroid gland to release adequate hormone.

And that's hypothyroid.

So the autoimmunity, the immune system attacking the thyroid gland can damage it leading later to hypothyroidism in which you don't have enough thyroid hormone

in the blood. So they're different, but they do connect in the sense that hypothyroidism can be

caused by the autoimmune process of Hashimoto's.

...