One in ten Americans suffers from thyroid dysfunction, yet most don't realize the mental and emotional components of this condition. "This is the first book to explain the hidden suffering that many patients have difficulty expressing and the first book to provide new ways of helping address and heal this suffering," promises author Ridha Arem, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of endocrinology and metabolism at Ben Taub General Hospital, both in Houston, Texas. This book explains the link between stress and thyroid imbalance; how thyroid imbalance affects your emotions, sex life, and relationships; and how to cope with the effects of this imbalance. Because thyroid problems primarily strike women, a whole section deals with women's health issues, such as infertility, miscarriage, postpartum depression, premenstrual syndrome, and menopause. Another section provides practical tools, such as evaluating lab tests and self-diagnosis techniques, dealing with treatment problems and side effects, and preventing memory lapses and depression. The book covers lifestyle choices that affect thyroid health, such as diet, supplementation, and exercise. Frequent case studies (usually told as first-person narratives), checklists, and questionnaires help to simplify the material and make it easier to check the medical information against your own situation. Each chapter ends with "valuable points to remember," making review easy. If you suffer from thyroid imbalance, or think you might, this book could be a valuable resource