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What is Autoimmune thyroiditis and explain in detail?
Autoimmune thyroiditis, is a chronic disease in which the body interprets the thyroid glands and its hormone products T3, T4 and TSH as threats, therefore producing special antibodies that target the thyroids cells, thereby destroying it. It may present with hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism and with or without a goiter.

Signs and symptoms
The symptoms may vary depending on the thyroid function, i.e. hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism can cause sweating, rapid heart rate, anxiety, tremors, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, sudden weight loss, and protruding eyes. Hypothyroidism can cause weight gain, fatigue, dry skin, hair loss, intolerance to cold, and constipation. The effects of this disease may be permanent but can sometimes be transient.  Symptoms may come and go depending on whether the person receives treatment, and whether the treatment takes effect.

Causes
Thyroid autoimmunity is familial. The disease is said to be inherited as a dominant trait since it has been reported that as many as fifty percent of the first degree relatives of patients with some type of autoimmune thyroiditis present with thyroid antibodies in serum.Few studies have even related it to chromosome 21 because of its high correlation with patients with Down syndrome and familial Alzheimer disease