• Celebrities with hypothyroidism
• t4
• thyroid cancer
• thyroxine
• uk

Thy­roid pro­blems have become rampant.

And it’s not just in the US with indi­vi­duals like Oprah, fit­ness guru Jillian Michaels, Sex and the City’s Kim Cat­trall, George and Bar­bara Bush, Kelly Osbourne and others.  A recent article in the Daily Mail-UK high­lights the saga of  Clare Bal­ding, the BBC TV sports pre­sen­ter in the UK whose thy­roid was gladly remo­ved due to a malig­nant tumor.

Even the gal who wrote the well-written article about Clare, Pippa Jolly, reports having gone through the same remo­val 13 years pre­vious due to an extreme case of Hashi­mo­tos and a nodule pres­sing against her trachea.

But within the infor­ma­tive and hope­ful tone of the article are a few Rod­ney Dan­ger­field thuds of the con­ti­nuing SCANDAL and idiocy of a par­ti­cu­lar thy­roid treat­ment which even the most inno­cent of article wri­ters can be fooled.

Thud #1: The very first sen­tence of the article says: Some good news for Clare Bal­ding, the BBC TV sports pre­sen­ter, is that her recent ope­ra­tion to remove her can­ce­rous thy­roid gland — a thy­roi­dec­tomy — should be the end of the matter.

End of the mat­ter? Only if she had been put on desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Natu­reth­roid, et al. Because it appears she’s on the delight­fully enchan­ting synthe­tic “thy­ro­xine”, the dar­ling of most UK doc­tors and which ser­ves to leave almost ever­yone with their own brand and inten­sity of con­ti­nuing hypothy­roid symp­toms.  You can lis­ten to my audio here about T4.

Thud #2: Diag­nos­tic rates are on the inc­rease, says Pro­fes­sor Mon­son, as thy­roid tests are now done rou­ti­nely at GP sur­ge­ries. ‘As a result there is a higher detec­tion rate and the disease can be tac­kled ear­lier and if neces­sary follo­wed up by surgery.

Right. Those inc­rea­sing diag­nos­tic rates, some which are based on the lousy TSH lab test, are ove­rri­dingly catching someone’s hypothy­roid state years after it star­ted, which lea­ves a cer­tain per­cen­tage with the misery of adre­nal insuf­fi­ciency and host of other pro­blems from being undiag­no­sed so long.  And if one is trea­ted after sur­gery based on the same holy TSH, you will only con­ti­nue to have your brand of con­ti­nuing symp­toms. You can lis­ten to my audio on the TSH here.

Thud #3: If the thy­roid is remo­ved or not func­tio­ning pro­perly, thy­ro­xine will need to be taken in drug form for life. 

You and millions of others have been hood­win­ked into thin­king it’s thy­ro­xine you will need the rest of your life, aka Eltro­xine, Synth­roid, or levothy­ro­xine,  et al.  But those T4 meds force you to depend on con­ver­sion alone, a pro­cess not well done in many, and you miss out on what natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid would be giving you as a much wiser treat­ment–exactly what your own thy­roid gives: direct T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin. Or even at the VERY least, giving your­self synthe­tic T4 with synthe­tic T3.

Thud #4: Now I have to have my hor­mone levels chec­ked every three months and make sure I take my medi­ca­tion, but other­wise I feel fine. 

I com­ple­tely believe Pippa when she says she feels fine. But I want to warn her:  some CAN feel fine on a T4-only medi­ca­tion, but even­tually and espe­cially as she ages,  she’s going to have to watch out for those pesky little demons of being on an infe­rior, ina­de­quate medi­ca­tion, which can inc­lude rising cho­les­te­rol, chro­nic low-grade depres­sion, rising high blood pres­sure, or a host of other symp­toms which are indi­vi­dual to each per­son on thyroxine.

Here’s hoping Clare and Pippa join the gro­wing body of patients all over the world whose lives are being chan­ged thanks to natu­ral desic­ca­ted thyroid.

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Oprah admit­ted tonite on her Best Life Web­case that she was on Methi­ma­zole (Tapa­zole) when trea­ting her thy­roid pro­blem.  Methi­ma­zole is an anti-thyroid drug.  So it appears that Oprah had Hashimoto’s Toxi­co­sis – an autoim­mune com­bi­na­tion of Hashi­mo­tos and Gra­ves.  Treat­ment with Tapa­zole can be com­mon in trea­ting Hashimoto’s Toxi­co­sis.  But you are left won­de­ring about the weight gain and depres­sion — com­mon symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism.  Wha­te­ver hap­pe­ned. Oprah will need to be pre­pa­red, because hypothy­roi­dism is a good pos­si­bi­lity for the near future.  So we’ll keep our fin­gers cros­sed that she’ll become infor­med about desic­ca­ted thyroid.

Any­body had Hashi’s Toxi­co­sis and trea­ted with Tapazole?

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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.

SECOND UPDATE as of Dec. 10^th: WHOOPI GOLDBERG has it RIGHT! Today on The View, she sta­ted that Oprah needs to take her thy­roid pro­blem SERIOUSLY!! Con­tact the View about STTM and the seriously correct treat­ment here.

UPDATE as of Dec. 10: Gail King, Oprah’s best friend, was on the Good Mor­ning Ame­rica show this mor­ning tal­king about Oprah’s weight gain and thy­roid pro­blem. She also tal­ked about how depres­sed she loo­ked.  Oprah, a huge and gro­wing body of thy­roid patients are all around the world, wai­ting to tell you what the ans­wer is.  Lis­ten to us.  We have been emai­ling you for years, and you’re going to see more of those emails. Con­tact Good Mor­ning Ame­rica here. (Then con­tact Oprah below)

Just on the stands, Oprah’s January issue of “O” maga­zine has an eye-opener: Oprah Win­frey admits that she’s now back up to 200 lbs, a con­di­tion that puts her at higher risk of seve­ral chro­nic con­di­tions, inc­lu­ding dia­be­tes and heart disease.  She sta­tes “When it comes to main­tai­ning my health I didn’t just fall off the wagon. I let the wagon fall on me.” 

But what Oprah, a won­der­ful talk show host and chair­man of  Harpo, Inc, doesn’t seem to get is that the “wagon” is pro­bably a “poorly trea­ted” hypothy­roid con­di­tion, which cau­ses a lower meta­bo­lism and easy weight gain.  She even admits in the article that she deals with an out-of-balance thy­roid con­di­tion which has made her deve­lop a “fear of wor­king out.”

A fear of wor­king out?? Oprah, do you get exhaus­ted from wor­king out? Because there is NOTHING to fear with wor­king out if you are opti­mally trea­ted with natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid in the pre­sence of strong adre­nals or ade­quate treatment.

Are you on desic­ca­ted thy­roid, Oprah?? Are you dosing high enough to remove all symp­toms?? Have you lear­ned what patients have lear­ned? And what con­di­tion are your adre­nals in, Oprah?? Because it’s all too com­mon for thy­roid patients to have deve­lo­ped adre­nal fati­gue from being poorly trea­ted for so long.

And Oprah, when you state that you don’t need to be thin, but do want to be “strong, healthy and fit”…the way to do that is opti­mally treat your thy­roid! We are a large and gro­wing body of patients world­wide who have done just that, and now live “strong, healthy and fit”.

IT IS TIME FOR JANIE TO BE ON YOUR SHOW, OPRAH. (Thy­roid patients even have a book you can recom­mend to others.)

Because in all due res­pect to your per­so­nal trai­ner Bob Greene and Dr. Meh­met Oz…you have YET got­ten someone on your show who can give you GOLD about the right thy­roid treat­ment.  Call me, Oprah.  Email me, Oprah.  I am wai­ting to tell you how to stop your yo-yo weight pro­blems and fear of wor­king out!  We and I have a LOT to tell you, Oprah, to stop your own per­so­nal thy­roid mad­ness. Con­tact Oprah here.

Send a mes­sage to Oprah’s best friend, Gayle King, here.  Tell her about desic­ca­ted thy­roid and YOUR story. Send Gayle to this web­site so she can unders­tand all this.