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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The study was to be presented this week at the Endocrine Society meeting in Washington, D.C.
Hypothyroidism, or not enough thyroid hormone, can cause feelings of weakness, depression and fatigue.
People with sluggish thyroids are also at greater risk of weight gain, high cholesterol and heart failure and a slight possibility of making borderline dementia worse, said Dr. Jacob Warman, chief of endocrinology at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York.
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Though hypothyroidism can occur at any age, older people tend to get it more often. Women older than 60 are especially at risk.
In the recent past, doctors often treated underactive thyroid with medication, but that's changing, Warman said.
"I see a lot of people with this elevated TSH, and I usually do not treat all of them unless I see the TSH levels going up to above 10," he said.
A normal TSH level is generally considered to be between 0.5 and 4.5. In the study, 40 percent of centenarians had TSH levels over 2.5, Surks said.
However, Warman does recommend that people with elevated TSH levels take a blood test for Hashimoto's thyroiditis, a common cause of hypothyroidism in older adults. Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease in which the body makes antibodies against the thyroid, slowly destroying it.
For people with Hashimoto's, using medication to treat the hypothyroidism is probably called for because the condition continues to worsen with time.
Dr. Stephen Rosen, chief of endocrinology at Pennsylvania Hospital and a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said he also does not treat slight hypothyroidism with drugs.
Too much thyroid hormone can also have ill effects, such as osteoporosis and irregular heartbeat, particularly a concern among the elderly.
"The decision to treat depends on what the TSH level is and the level of symptoms," said Rosen, an Endocrine Society spokesman.
He described the current study as fascinating. "We don't know why there is a population of people that can live to be 100," Rosen said. "This is beginning to get us some answers for what is important for that degree of longevity."
More information
The U.S. National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service has more on hypothyroidism.
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