C.  THYROID GLAND  --  ANSWERS

                             
    16. The location of the mammalian thyroid gland is in the  N E C K  and it wraps
          itself around the  T R A C H E A  of your respiratory system. 

    17.  The hormone  T H Y R O X I N E  is made within the thyroid.  This is the
           hormone that stimulates and thus regulated the process of   C E L L    
           R E S P I R A T I O N. 

    18.   Thyroxin can not be made unless there is sufficient  I O D I N E   in your diet.
            In early earth, iodine was virtually everywhere, but being rather water soluble,
            most of it over a few billion years has now ended up in the  O C E A N S.  If you
            even once a month eat a meal of  S E A F O O D, then you have consumed
            enough iodine.

   19.   Several foods that naturally have high iodine content are:
            S H R I M P,  L O B S T E R,   T U N A  (fresh or from a can)
            But since a lot of us will not eat from a marine menu (or one from the army),
            our government has a sneaky way of getting the little bit of iodine we need into
            our diet through a back door means. 

               Which of the two products pictured above contains iodine?  _ B_  (a rough one!)

     20.   Earlier, you learned that the chemical protein (H O R M O N E) needed to
            stimulate cell respiration is none other than T H Y R O X I N E.   But what does
            it mean to "stimulate cell respiration?"  When you have lots of thyroxine, cell
            respiration proceeds at a   Q U I C K   rate, lots of  G L U C O S E  is burned
            and lots of  ATP is made.  The person tends to (burn/store) _BURN_ energy
            (calories) and tends to (gain/lose) _LOSE_ weight.   Obviously, when you have
            little thyroxin, cell respiration proceeds at a  S L O W   rate and all the prior
            answers are reversed. 

    21.   Another side effect of making thyroxine is that you can confuse the poor thyroid
            gland.  When there is insufficient iodine in the diet, the thyroid tries to cope by
            undergoing a lot of mitosis and  I Ncreasing in mass to do a better job of filtering
            iodine from the blood.  This won't work, however, since filtering was not the
            issue, but rather not enough _IODINE_  in the diet.  The thyroid may increase
            to huge sizes in its quest for enough iodine.  Such an enlarged thyroid, due to
            INSUFFICIENT (NOT ENOUGH) dietary iodine is known as a  G O I T E R. 
            Pictured was a rather grotesque one; don't you agree?
           

    

 

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