Feeling Sluggish? It may be your Thyroid

Feeling tired and depressed? Gaining weight but you don't know why? Are your hands and feet cold? If this sounds like you, your thyroid gland might not be functioning properly.

According to the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), about 27 million people in America have over- or under-active thyroid glands, and more than half of those people are undiagnosed and untreated.

Your thyroid gland is the small, butterfly-shaped gland found just below the Adam's apple that produces hormones that influence essentially every organ, tissue and cell in the body.

More than eight out of 10 patients with thyroid disease are women, and women are five to eight times more likely than men to suffer from hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), says the AACE. Incidence of hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) increases with age. By age 60, as many as 17 percent of women and 9 percent of men have an underactive thyroid.

Common symptoms of hypothyroidism include: