Charlie needed to get
the goiter gone...So a trip
to florida state prison
might get you a goiter
guillotine??

Your thyroid is that little glandular butterfly in your neck that you're not exactly sure what it is or why it's there. It wasn't even described in scientific literature until in 1656 Thomas Wharton made a distinction between it and the larynx, but for 200 more years its function (regulation of the body's metabolism) was completely unknown. Goiters are excessive enlargements of the thyroid, which may be caused by iodine deficiency, or by an excess of thyroid stimulating hormone. Because we salt everything with iodized salt, iodine deficiency is never a problem in America, but it is elsewhere in the world.