New Delhi: In a recent survey conducted by a private diagnostic chain one in ten adults in India suffers from hypothyroidism, with 50 per cent of them being women.Research is under way to find out why the numbers are going up. Strangely, it has increased more among women in the 20-40 age groups.
According to the survey, more than a quarter of India population suffers from thyroid disorders, that means about 32% Indians have various forms of thyroid disorders.

In addition, women were three times more likely to be affected by hypothyroidism than men (15.86% vs. 5.02%), especially those in the age group (46-54 years).For past few years, there has been seeing a fourfold increase in hypothyroidism. And it is more in women. A lot of work is on to find out why this is happening. It is an autoimmune disorder like diabetes and doctors don't think it is due to lifestyle-related problems. Though there are others who view it otherwise. In some cases, it is a genetic problem. It could be linked to more number of diabetes cases these days.
“As far as thyroid is concerned, there is no real reason detected behind the sudden rise in the cases of thyroid in India. And the only reason I could have think of is more and more people are getting checked now. They go through the test, they do it and that’s why more and people are detected cause according to me it is not a lifestyle disease, it has nothing to do with exercising or your diet.” Says Dr.Ritesh Gupta, Additional Director Fortis CDOC, New Delhi.
“Genetically there is a predict position of thyroid happening to people. But the rise in the cases is due to the rise in testing and therefore it is getting detected more now,” he further added.
It is a silent disease where the symptoms are subtle and may be often missed during diagnosis, so it's essential to keep your eyes open.There are two types of Thyroid diseases – Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism, while the later is rarely found; Hypothyroidism was highly prevalent amongst the surveyed population (10.95%). 
Maximum cases of hypothyroidism have been reported from people living in the Northern regions as compared to the rest of the country.In hypothyroidism, the basal metabolic rate (BMR) comes down and patients have swelling around the face, legs and other body parts making them look obese. Hypothyroidism occurs due to very low hormone production.
Strangely, some doctors are seeing an increase in hyperthyroidism too. It is a case where hormone production is higher and people lose a lot of weight. Doctors are still trying to find out why the incidence is going up. There are some indications that it could be because of lifestyle disorders, viral infections, environmental factors or even diet-related issues like preservatives in food. One of these must be disturbing the autoimmune mechanism of the body.
Dr Yogesh Mittal, General Physician based in Gurgaon says, “There is no definite cause of thyroid till now known but most likely in my opinion it is because of the lifestyle and the things we eat, they contain a lot of toxins, the lifestyle changes, the environment we live in and the increase in stress, all this can be responsible for the rise in thyroid cases.”