I am a 43 yr old caucasian woman with stage one Emphysema. Recently, my blood was tested for thyroid problems. Turned out that I have an inactive thyroid. I'd like to know if you can give me a description of what that can do to a body, I have been lethargic long before I had chronic bronchitis with COPD. Is is possible that I have had hypothyroidism for 20 years? What causes this? Is it possible that anorexia/bulimia played a part? Knocked it out of whack so to speak? Also, she put me on Synthyroid (SP?). What can I expect to notice, cuz so far, I don't really see a difference and I've been taking it for approx. 120 days. Does this drug "cure" my thyroid problem? I'll save the emphysema questions for another post. Thanks in advance for anything you can tell me.