You may know Zoe Saldana for all her popular acting roles now, but as a little girl growing up in the Dominican Republic, her passion was ballet. Though she eventually gave up on learning that particular form of dance, her training was integral to her performances with the Faces theater group in Brooklyn. After her performance in a production of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, Zoe was recruited by a talent agency, and by 2000, she was acting in ‘Center Stage’.
Afterward, she had several roles in movies and television shows but her breakthrough role came in ‘Avatar’. Since then, she’s been involved in many highly recognized movie projects. While acting though, she was always aware that she was at risk for Hashimoto’s disease because it affected her mother, grandmother, and sisters. Still, she noted in an interview with ‘The Edit’ that she wasn’t prepared for her official diagnosis in her 20s. Zoe has been managing her disease with the help of her doctor and living a healthy lifestyle.
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What Is Hashimoto’s Disease?
Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the thyroid and affects the quantities of hormones the gland produces. The disease usually results in an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) but in some cases, it makes the thyroid gland overactive (hyperthyroidism). The effects of Hashimoto’s disease can be varied because the thyroid hormones control the way almost every organ in the body uses energy.
As a result, some of the common symptoms of the illness include fatigue, weight gain, constipation, dry skin, thinning hair, irregular menstrual cycles, and a slowed heart rate.
While doctors don’t have an exact number of people who are living with the illness, it’s believed to be one of the common causes of hypothyroidism, which affects approximately 5 in 100 Americans.
Additionally, studies show that women are up to 10 times as likely to develop Hashimoto’s disease than men. If you’re already dealing with another autoimmune disease, you typically have a higher risk of having Hashimoto’s disease as well.
How The Disease Is Diagnosed
Before giving a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s disease, your doctor will first need to determine if there is a problem with your thyroid. To do this, they will discuss your symptoms and check if your thyroid is enlarged. If there are reasons for concern, they’ll recommend further tests.
First, you would do blood tests to check the level of certain thyroid hormones. With the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test, high levels of the hormone usually indicate that you’re dealing with hypothyroidism. This diagnosis can be confirmed with a Free T4 test.
If your doctor thinks you might have Hashimoto’s disease, they’ll recommend an antibody test. This test checks for