January 09, 2009

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Well, here we go again.

As this first week of Oprah’s “Best Life Week” series ends, we all know that Oprah has announ­ced she is going on a weight loss and exer­cise plan once again (hams­ter wheel tur­ning, tur­ning…).   Oh…and did I men­tion that she said her hypothy­roid was cured?

(Wait. Do I hear a collec­tive and world­wide SIGHHHHHHH among thy­roid patients??)

Thy­roid patient Mary Sho­mon now sha­res my own long-held con­cerns in an exce­llent sum­mary per­tai­ning to Oprah’s thy­roid and weight saga.  Oprah has been remar­kably unin­for­ma­tive about her diag­no­sis and details, and leads those unin­for­med to believe they can stop taking their medi­ca­tion and be cured.  And Oprah appears to have igno­red a slew of emails over the years from all camps of thy­roid advocacy!

Just as bad is a visit in the pages of O Maga­zine. On page 151 of the January issue, and right next to the article about Oprah’s weight gain, is a side article tit­led The Truth About the Thy­roid.  And the lon­gest para­graph is about the use of the TSH lab test and its so-called nor­mal range – one of the worst tests ever crea­ted to diag­nose and treat hypothy­roi­dism. Addi­tio­nally, the article ends with the men­tion of a presc­rip­tion of synthe­tic thy­ro­xine–a medi­ca­tion which lea­ves nearly ever­yone with linge­ring hypothy­roid symp­toms.

But the disap­point­ment in Oprah has to go farther than a gene­ral call to be edu­ca­ted about thy­roid disease. There is a need to be spe­ci­fi­cally edu­ca­ted about the scan­dal of thy­ro­xine treat­ment, about the fallacy of the TSH lab test which lea­ves patients undiag­no­sed for years or under­trea­ted when on meds, about the ram­pant pro­blem with adre­nal fati­gue in thy­roid patients on thy­ro­xine or those left undiag­no­sed (and where Oprah may be hea­ded), and about a far bet­ter treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Armour, and opti­mi­zing other areas, inc­lu­ding ferri­tin, B12, and our ove­rall health.

Let’s not give up.

Suc­cess is like lot­tery tic­kets: you have to make seve­ral attempts before that magic one makes it. Even­tually, your email can be the one that finally stops her hams­ter wheel of “eat less, be hungry, exer­cise more, it’s not my thy­roid” men­ta­lity.  Tell Oprah about your suc­cess, others suc­cess, the patient-to-patient site www.stopthethyroidmadness, and more.  And don’t hesi­tate to share your email below.

  • Want to keep track of these “fringe web­site” blog posts? ;-) Curious what’s on Janie’s mind? Use the noti­fi­ca­tion on the lower left of the links, called a News­let­ter, or an RSS Feed.
  • The extre­mely hip and sophis­ti­ca­ted STTM t-shirts are half price! Great BUMPER STICKERS, too. Spread the word – YOU may make a dif­fe­rence in someone’s life.
  • Check out the patient-to-patient book with even more detail (and which doc­tors seem to res­pect more than websites).
  • Need to unders­tand all your best options for thy­roid treat­ment? Go here.
  • Keep infor­med of each live Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe by sig­ning up as a follo­wer.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 and is filed under Celebrities with hypothyroidism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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8 Responses to “Oprah is spelled D*e*n*i*a*l; the hamster wheel of her life”

  1. nutralady2001 said:

    Jan 09, 09 at 2:28 pm

    This has really upset me. Go to the health board on Oprah’s mes­sage boards and the thy­roid dis­cus­sion and you’ll find there women wan­ting to know what Oprah did so they can do it too and stop taking their thy­roid hor­mone replacement !!!

    For a woman so open in so many ways she has been so guar­ded and sec­re­tive about this. I want to know why.Why hasn’t she come out and said exactly what her thy­roid pro­blem was and what she actually did to over­come it?

    Mary’s cri­ti­que is spot on and when you read all her sum­ma­ries you rea­lize this has been going on for nearly 7 years! 7 years peo­ple have been trying to get the mes­sage to Oprah and still she is doing nothing more than talk all around the subject

    All we can do is wait for the crash (again) then maybe she will finally lis­ten . I hope she doesn’t endan­ger the health of others while we are wai­ting for that to happen.

  2. Amy said:

    Jan 09, 09 at 6:17 pm

    Yes, the Oprah.com mes­sage boards are floo­ded with vie­wers and patients who are fran­tic and con­fu­sed, won­de­ring if there is something their doc­tor hasn’t told them about how to “cure” their thy­roid disease. The very vie­wers who she says brought this to her atten­tion when the phy­si­cians mis­sed it are the very ones she is now lea­ving in the dark. What gratitude!

    If the patients were right before, why wouldn’t they con­ti­nue to be right when they explain, as Mary Sho­mon has done, that you can go into a tem­po­rary remis­sion from an autoim­mune thy­roid disease, but you can not “cure” it.

    I don’t care if Oprah wants to fla­ge­llate her­self about how the weight is all her fault and she “fell off the wagon” but don’t con­vey con­fu­sing misin­for­ma­tion to your vie­wers. If anything, you would think she would be worried about the affects of high blood pres­sure, cho­les­te­rol, and arte­rial pla­que asso­cia­ted with under trea­ting hypothyroidism.

    I think timing is everything when it comes to insight. When Oprah was lost in her symp­toms, con­fu­sion, and health strug­gle she was willing to be hum­ble and let in the wis­dom of her fellow patients.

    Now, howe­ver, she is like a dog with a brand new bone. She has com­mit­ted her­self to the idea that her will­po­wer and meal plans alone can save her. If we really want to get through to Oprah I think our moment will come down the road when she hasn’t had the weight loss suc­cess she expects or when her autoim­mune con­di­tion reap­pears. Maybe she will sort through the piles of e-mails and let­ters then and rea­lize how far she has been led astray by her “experts.”

  3. Monica Koziol said:

    Jan 11, 09 at 12:48 am

    The follo­wing is what I pla­ced on Oprah’s web­site:
    Oprah:
    I am deeply con­cer­ned about your issues with Thy­roid disease. Our his­tory dic­ta­tes more about our ill­ness than what most “doc­tors” today see as the cause of disease: sloth and glut­tony. I am neither. I first noti­ced my pro­blems when I was 37. Within 6 months I gai­ned over 80 pounds. I was someone who wor­ked in a very phy­si­cal job. I dan­ced three times a week and I wal­ked EVERWHERE. My symp­toms were too many to recount here. I am sorry that you think that a thy­roid pro­blem is something that just goes away if you exer­cise more and starve your­self. Hashimoto’s patients find that eating soy pro­ducts, wheat, refi­ned sugars, along with too many foods that are cru­ci­fe­rous — only make us feel worse. So too does synthe­tic thy­roid. I know this because I was on T4 only for over 12 years. It was fine when I first began that treat­ment. Howe­ver after three years I noti­ced that I was una­ble to func­tion in my VERY phy­si­cal work as a per­so­nal chef and cate­rer. Having many symp­toms for many years which went unno­ti­ced by health-care-professionals, they were trea­ting each symp­tom as though they were sepa­rate issues; but that is how they were trai­ned – I had undiag­no­sed thy­roi­dism for a long time but over the last seve­ral years I finally said enough! After much research about Hypothy­roi­dism from phy­sio­lo­gists, pain and hor­mone doc­tors, osteo­pathic and natu­ro­pathic phy­si­cians, and myriad stu­dies — I am able to pro­vide you with actual medi­cal proof that this disease is real and can be mana­ged with bioi­den­ti­cal thy­roid hor­mone: Armour Thy­roid. I cha­llenge you to read: Hypothy­roi­dism Type 2: The Epi­de­mic by Dr. Mark Star, M.D. And Goo­gle Dr. Ray Peat, PhD — a phy­sio­lo­gist and pro­fes­sor, The HUNT study — the Fra­mingham Study; The Heart Disease Epi­de­mio­logy Study” 1948. You will help your­self and your rea­dership to further edu­cate your­self about how the thy­roid gland affects every cell of your body! Bright Blessings

  4. Annette said:

    Jan 13, 09 at 12:54 am

    I too was appa­lled at the lack of infor­ma­tion in O Magazine’s “tell-all” regar­ding Oprah’s Thy­roid con­di­tion. My best guess is that she was diag­no­sed with De Quervain’s Thy­roi­di­tis, which is actually an inflam­ma­tion of the thy­roid gland and has the symp­toms she tal­ked about in her article. I had a friend who came down with this, too. And she, too, was cured, like Oprah says she is. Again, though, my con­cern is that the article makes it sound as if EVERY thy­roid pro­blem can be cured by “taking your medi­cine.” I sent an email to Oprah as soon as I read the article, but have had no res­ponse. I’m hoping that she gets enough mes­sa­ges like mine to make her stop and think about what she’s said regar­ding her health.

  5. Joyce said:

    Jan 24, 09 at 8:13 pm

    The vie­wers have given Oprah way too much power over the years. The vie­wers feel that wha­te­ver Oprah says is God’s law, well,ladies, please for your own well being, do your own research, stand up up for your­sel­ves, dis­re­gard Oprah’s sta­te­ments. She is obviously una­ble to face her situa­tion and con­se­quently dan­ces around the sub­ject in the mean time lea­ding those who are not aware down the wrong path. That is a dan­ge­rous situa­tion. Remem­ber, she was told by Chris­tine North­rup (Oprah’s meno­pause guru) that she has a thy­roid con­di­tion because she could not say her words, she could not fully express her­self when she nee­ded to, how ridi­cu­lous is that? Think about it!

  6. Lori said:

    Jan 27, 09 at 1:17 am

    Thank you ladies! I see that I am not alone in my utter frus­tra­tion over Oprah’s misin­for­ma­tion. I have writ­ten to Dr. Oz to please talk about bioi­den­ti­cal thy­roid hor­mo­nes and adre­nal fati­gue. I refe­ren­ced this web­site. I bought the book and I can tell you. YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE! I have suf­fe­red from terri­ble daily pain(fibromyalgia), hair loss, weight gain, dry skin, debi­li­ta­ting chro­nic fati­gue and have lived on a mul­ti­tude of anti­de­pres­sants. The heart pal­pi­ta­tions is what made me rea­lize that something is seriously wrong. Oprah has the chance to save millions of womens lives by giving correct infor­ma­tion. I do hope that women will think for them­sel­ves and not take her words as gos­pel. I am just wai­ting for her next crash to hap­pen for her eyes to open up. Les­son here, we have to take the ini­tia­tive for our own health.

  7. Colleen Coble said:

    Jan 29, 09 at 12:33 pm

    Oprah is doing a seg­ment on bioi­den­ti­cal hor­mo­nes and that might be where her cure is coming from. I dis­co­ve­red that lack of pro­ges­te­rone cau­ses your body to become hor­mone resis­tant – to all hor­mo­nes, inc­lu­ding thy­roid. When I star­ted my bioi­den­ti­cal hor­mone the­rapy 2 years ago, I was taking 3 grains of Armour. I’m now down to 1/2 grain. As my body has again become sen­si­ti­zed to hor­mo­nes, it’s using my natu­ral thy­roid again. It’s not a quick fix, but it’s an ave­nue most peo­ple don’t know about. I star­ted on the pro­gram to cure my migrai­nes (and it wor­ked) but the unex­pec­ted seren­di­pity of it hel­ping my thy­roid was unex­pec­ted, though my doc­tor said it would hap­pen. I didn’t believe him. LOL

    I love your web­site and send peo­ple here all the time. Thanks for the work you are doing to edu­cate people!

  8. Karen Black said:

    Feb 04, 09 at 8:45 pm

    Colleen – many thanks for your above post. I am seeing my doc­tor tomo­rrow after inc­rea­sing my Armour from 45mg to 120mg over the last 9 months. I am seeing some impro­ve­ment, but not enough. Now that I have insu­rance I plan to have him run a series of hor­mone tests. I am gues­sing that this is where my pro­blem truly lies. I would love to think that get­ting my hor­mo­nes in order would allow me to lower my Armour. But wha­te­ver it takes to make me feel bet­ter, so be it. :)
    I agree with some of the other posts. I am con­cer­ned about Oprah’s lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion regar­ding her con­di­tion. My mother died last year. If you look at her medi­cal records it appears she dies from a reac­tion to blood thin­ners. My belief is that her underl­ying, under­trea­ted thy­roid pro­blems led to an over­dose of the medi­ca­tion (and pro­bably cau­sed the clot in her leg in the first place). Peo­ple NEED TO KNOW how serious and per­va­sive a low thy­roid func­tion can be. It isn’t just about low energy or gai­ning too much weight. It can KILL you.

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