| I want to point out that the vast majority of people who quit smoking who gain weight or become depressed do not do so because of underlying thyroid problems. They gain weight because the eat more, they become depressed because it is one of the common side effects from the sense of loss from a lifestyle change like quitting smoking. The weight can be managed by proper diet and exercise changes and the initial depression will pass with time and experience as people come more to the acceptance phase of quitting. But there are some people who do have underlying problems that were masked while smoking. If anyone is having symptoms raising concerns weeks and months into a quit they should be checked out. While the thyroid issue raised here isn’t a phenomena encountered by the majority of people, it is something that may be a real issue for an individual here. I normally would have this issue raised once every few months from one of my clinic graduates. Even before I saw anything in the literature on the issue, I was hearing it from these people who were all experiencing similar reactions and then similar diagnoses. Again, we are talking about a very small percent of people, probably less than 1% although I don’t have accurate records of the instances. But when I heard it raised by the third time in my first couple of years of smoking cessation work, I knew to keep my ears opened to people having longer-term reactions. A few times when I sent them to their doctors they did have problems that needed to be treated. Don’t automatically assume that you are having thyroid or other metabolic problems when quitting smoking, but don’t automatically write off symptoms either. If a symptom or symptoms of conditions persist, get checked out to rule out pre-existing problems. Then to keep your risk of developing future problems of all your body systems minimized, always remember to never take another puff! Joel |
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