“The whisper in the wind gives it away
some secrets are not there to stay!
You may not say anything ’cause you shy!
But I know it all! Don’t you cry!”
For years this gland used to come in the way of surgeon! They used to feel that this shield like organ has no function whatsoever! So much so that the most renowned surgeon of the time, Kocher told that, ““Surgeons had simply assumed that the gland has no function whatever…”;!
Now of course both ENT and Other surgeons fight to handle this gland!
Later on of course it was found to be involved in almost all aspects of metabolism in the body! It even turned out to be responsible for multiple chief functions in the body such as fertility and mental alertness!
Read on about the gland which was thought to be just another appendix! (By the way, maybe some time in the future some one may come up with a big revelation that even appendix is important!)…
This description of a malady of this gland has not been added to the annals of medicine and history!
It is by Sir William Withey Gull in 1873 and is produced verbatim below;
“after the cessation of the catamenial period, became insensibly more and more languid, with general increase of bulk… Her face altering from oval to round, …the tongue broad and thick, voice guttural, and the pronunciation as if the tongue were too large for the mouth (cretinoid)… In the cretinoid condition in adults which I have seen, the gland was not enlarged. …
There had been a distinct change in the mental state. The mind, which had previously been active and inquisitive, assumed a gentle, placid indifference, corresponding to the muscular languor, but the intellect was unimpaired… The change in the skin is remarkable. The texture being peculiarly smooth and fine, and the complexion fair, at a first hasty glance there might be supposed to be a general slight oedema of it… The beautiful delicate rose‐purple tint on the cheek is entirely different from what one sees in the bloated face of renal anasarca.”!
Yes! He was describing a condition which was previously thought to be limited to skin and hence called Myxoedema! But essentially it was reduced function of one of the most important glands in the body! The Thyroid!
Myxedema was first treated successfully in 1891 when George Redmayne Murray diagnosed a 46-year-old woman with the disease. He prescribed an extract from sheep thyroid. The patient improved significantly within a few weeks and lived another 28 years while taking the sheep thyroid extract!
Later of course it was found to be GRAVEly important! (Those who know thyroid will get the pun; others can GOOGLE it!). Thinking of Google (I think we are always thinking of Google!); reminds me of Birthday celebrity, our own Pichai Sundararajan or Sundar Pichai! A quick scribe due to limited time!
Now search for How to fall asleep in Google and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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