Page 65 - The Miracle of Hormones

The Rhythm Of Life:
The Thyroid Gland

For a factory to
achieve the
highest level of
productivity,
the speed at
which the work-
ers do their
jobs must be
both organized
and controlled.

safety. If the employees in one department of your factory worked more
slowly than they should, it would not be good for the factory's general
production. If there is no foreman to tell the workers what job they must
do and how quickly they must do it, production will suffer.
The same thing happens in our bodies. If there were no foreman to
tell your cells how quickly they must work, the result would cause the
activity of the cells to slow down, the food you ate would turn to fat, you
would not have enough energy to raise your arm, and your whole body
would come to the point of exhaustion. When too little thyroxine hor-
mone is secreted, a condition called hypothyroidism occurs which is
characterized by these symptoms. 11
But even if you are not aware of it, your thyroid gland is working for
you, secreting the thyroxine hormone that controls each one of the 100
trillion cells and prevents them from slowing down. As a result, you can

live your daily life normally.
Thyroxine not only prevents the cells from moving too slowly, it
also prevents them from working too fast. Because this hormone is
secreted in a definite amount, the speed at which the cells work is kept in

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