Thyroid Disease in Ageing Populations

[helvella]

A new Special Collection under Endocrine Connections.

I have a nasty suspicion that access will be restricted by a paywall...

And another nasty suspicion that those of us in the upper age brackets will strenuously deny many of the assertions that will be made. But that is rather pre-judging - so, let us see.

Thyroid Disease in Ageing Populations

Thyroid disease is one of the common diseases in the elderly. Population-based and clinical epidemiological studies have shown that the prevalence and risks of thyroid diseases in the elderly are different from general adults.

This collection will further the understanding of the prevalence and risk factors of thyroid diseases in the elderly, including thyroid dysfunction, nodular thyroid disease, and especially thyroid cancer. It will also explore the relationship between thyroid diseases, especially subclinical hypothyroidism, and cardiovascular diseases. In doing so, this collection will help further improve the quality of management of thyroid diseases in the elderly.

"This special collection, the first for 2024, will delve into the intricate mechanisms governing thyroid health. It will illuminate pathways that will lead to enhanced diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately, improved patient outcomes.”- Editor-in-Chief, Professor Faisal Ahmed.

Contribute to this important field of research by submitting an original research article or review via our submission portal, or for more information and to submit your proposal, please email [e-mail]

ec.bioscientifica.com/page/...

[Rapunzel]

Missing John Midgely 🥲

theguardian.com/society/202...

[helvella in reply to Rapunzel]

Every day.

[jgelliss in reply to Rapunzel]

Miss him very much. His valuable information and smart input.

[TSH110 in reply to Rapunzel]

Thanks for the link to his obituary, it’s impressive. I’d been searching in the hope it would appear but hadn’t done a trawl for a while now.

Oddly it alerted me to someone I once knew who had died cos his obit was in there.

[RedApple]

'thyroid diseases in the elderly are different from general adults.'

Umm, at what age do we change to being 'elderly' from being a 'general adult'?

[helvella in reply to RedApple]

Quite. I thought it went something like this (women's version):

Paediatric

Young adult

Getting pregnant/being pregnant/post partum

Menopausal

Elderly

No room for general adult in there!

[arTistapple in reply to RedApple]

I once heard a journalist describe an elderly lady of 60!

[RedApple in reply to arTistapple]

Yes, I think that is still the age most typically quoted. Despite that more and more people are living many, many years beyond that now, and the retirement age has been extended well beyond that for both men and women.

[TSH110 in reply to RedApple]

I’m afraid not, the age of death is now dropping and there is as much as a ten year gap between the rich and poor so things are no longer getting better where longevity is concerned.

Some interesting research on it can be found here

kingsfund.org.uk/insight-an...

[RedApple in reply to TSH110]

Yes of course, the pandemic has made a huge difference to the statistics of the previous upward age trend. Nevertheless, there are still many, many people living into their nineties and well beyond. Which is thirty plus years over the 'elderly' classification of sixty that's so often quoted.

Anyone still living at the age of ninety+, will have spent one third of their life being classed as 'elderly', whereas in my grandparents generation, reaching seventy was considered a major achievement. Nowadays, people are still in employment at that age.

[TSH110 in reply to RedApple]

It’s far more complicated than just the pandemic as the paper discusses in depth, trending downwards. especially for the poorest. I can’t disagree a lot of people are living to a great age, the worrying thing is their quality of life which is costly in terms of health care, 24% of the average life expectancy years are lived in poor health in women and 21% for men. Although life expectancy was 40 and 42 years for those born in 1841 much of this was caused by high infant mortality but those that survived infancy did better. Interestingly, half my grandparents born 1880/1888 made it, reaching over 80 in fact it has been only slightly bettered since. They led hard working class lives one was better off than the other. The other two expired at 64.

Perhaps some of these papers might look into hypothyroidism as a cause of living in ill health, it clearly must have significance to that 24% of years in ill health in women. One can hope that positive outcomes might come out of it, but age has been weaponised as an excuse to treat older people inadequately or not at all claiming th ey need less but with no concentre evidence to back that up. In truth it’s bad enough for the general adult.

[Rapunzel in reply to arTistapple]

Gotta be a MAN what said that, arTist, what what? 😜😆

[arTistapple in reply to Rapunzel]

As far as I am aware, even if it was a woman, there will be a ‘man’ in charge. No disrespect whatsoever to the males of the species who frequent this Forum. We are all in this together.

Reading Grayson Perry’s “The Descent of Man” at the moment. Trust him to have an utterly refreshing view. Little known to him, his descriptions describe so well what we all suffer dealing with endocrinology - and other medical specialisms too. However never has a specialism (endocrinology) held the power to do so much good for patients, patients lives, their families, the wider community and even the GDP and not actually use that power. In fact they go out of their way to actually withhold that power. They don’t even hold the respect of other specialisms - my very own cardiologist “leaves endocrinology to endocrinology”. Endocrinology’s power grabbing has not encouraged them to ‘play nice’ with other specialisms and the detrimental effect of this is on patients is terrifying never mind the NHS budget. So many so called Co-morbidities, so many resources wasted due to hypothyroidism (in particular) not being diagnosed or treated well.

[Lottyplum in reply to arTistapple]

I'd have hit him with my handbag with that comment!!

[arTistapple in reply to Lottyplum]

I like that thought. I may have to employ you!

[Lottyplum in reply to arTistapple]

I've slapped my handbag on people+cars before today! And many GPs need slapping up one side of the head+down the other to see whether it instills any thyroid sense!!

[Rapunzel in reply to Lottyplum]

Handbags at dawn! Get yer bricks ready 🤪😅

[Rapunzel in reply to arTistapple]

I asked for  Lottyplum 's CV and have her on retainer, you're too late. Payment in laffs, Lotty😘

[tattybogle in reply to RedApple]

when do we change to elderly ? lol

in my case it was apparently in 1991 , aged 24 .... just had a baby .... notes on the end of my bed said "Elderly Prima Gravida "

! WTF

[RedApple in reply to tattybogle]

Thought Elderly Primagravida was 35+?

[tattybogle in reply to RedApple]

yes me too , but that was definitely what i read .. i remember feeling appalled / insulted / both

[RedApple in reply to tattybogle]

'appalled / insulted / both' Nothing much changes does it! 🤣

[Bearo in reply to RedApple]

Yes, I was elderly primagravida aged 30 in 1984 but the age slid up as the average age of having the first baby got older.

[Lottyplum in reply to tattybogle]

Same here@age 26!!!! Heaven help what they'd call me now@,75 - but I think I could run away faster after hitting said journalist with my v heavy handbag!!!🤣

[TSH110 in reply to RedApple]

Quite - the whole terminology is a nonsense

[Hollins]

I was diagnosed with Graves at the age of 69 so I'm interested in this 'special collection'.

This seems to be an invitation to authors to submit their research manuscripts so there's no flesh on the bones right now.

I had a look at previous collections, just follow Helvella's link, and the manuscripts seem to be open access with downloadable pdf files. There's a collection on vitamin D.

How useful they'll be remains to be seen.

H

[arTistapple]

I don’t seem to be able to read this but I get the jist - probably.

[helvella in reply to arTistapple]

Do you mean the link in my original post? Just checked and it still works for me. And there is no more text on that page to read - just context and the possibility of following links.

But computer systems are like all of us - each one is different. What works on one doesn't work on another.

[arTistapple in reply to helvella]

Apologies helvella. The link you gave works. It’s just there is no more info than you originally provided. At least I can’t make any more connections. Is that the paywall?

[helvella in reply to arTistapple]

Basically, at this stage, it is a call for papers - and there is no further content - yet!

[TSH110 in reply to helvella]

Can you submit one please?

[arTistapple]

Aha, totally missed that. As ever thank you for keeping us all updated.

[jgelliss]

Helvella Thank you for speaking about this topic. I have thought many times about that thyroid hormones just like any other hormones decline as we age. Personally I feel that low dose of thyroid hormones wouldn't hurt giving 60 years of age . Everything slows down thyroid is not exception.Thank you for posting valuable great posts.

[TSH110 in reply to jgelliss]

Except we have to keep working to 66 and older for the next cohort even 75 is being touted as a retirement age and slowing down is not an option!

I personally find I need the same or a slightly higher dose as I always did but I do a 9.5 hour a day physical job and a three hour commute to get there and back so need all the help I can get to get through the week. Perhaps this change from “general adult” to elderly is yet to come in my case but I don’t even believe in the concept as everyone is different. I imagine aging is a variable process and is not the same at all for each person.

So far (65) I see no drop in my dosage needs. No one is forced to take too much, if we just aimed for as near as asymptomatic as possible there’d be no need for all this ageist double speak.

[serenfach]

I think I have passed "elderly", have slid into "decrepit" and am decending into "crone".

[Rapunzel in reply to serenfach]

In folklore, a crone is an old woman who may be characterized as disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructive. The Crone is also an archetypal figure or a Wise Woman. Source: Google search. Being a crone isn't half bad, if you're good.

Proud crone here. Join the party, babe 😘