• Celebrities with hypothyroidism
• bipolar
• depression
• mental health

You might have already known about her, but it was only a few days ago when I found out that the effer­ves­cent Jane Pau­ley, for­mer host of the The Today Show and Date­line NBC, has had cer­tain medi­cal strug­gles in her life­time. They have inc­lu­ded hives (trea­ted with ste­roids), depres­sion (trea­ted with an anti-depressant), a bip0lar disor­der (trea­ted with lithium), and the autoim­mune thy­roid disease called Hashi­mo­tos (trea­ted with Levoxyl).

Hives are sud­den small rai­sed bumps which can mass into patches, and are often itchy and mise­ra­ble.  Bipo­lar, also called Manic Depres­sive Disor­der, invol­ves swings bet­ween extreme mania (exci­ted, ener­ge­tic) follo­wed by depres­sion (extreme sad­ness or lowe­red res­ponse to life).

And all the above four issues made me pause.  Con­si­der the following:

1. Hives have not only been lin­ked to hashi­mo­tos disease, they have both been suc­cess­fully trea­ted with the most bri­lliant medi­ca­tion for hypothy­roi­dism ever crea­ted: natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid. That hea­ling con­nec­tion was revea­led by the belo­ved Dr. David Derry of Canada here.  Hives is also men­tio­ned as a lin­ge­ring hypothy­roid symp­tom while on T4 meds which went away with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

2) Depres­sion is all too com­mon for those with undiag­no­sed hypothy­roi­dism (thanks to the lousy TSH lab test) or under­trea­ted thy­roid disease (thanks to the lousy T4-only meds like Levoxyl which pro­mo­tes depres­sion and other lin­ge­ring symp­toms). Many patients report a reso­lu­tion of their depres­sion with desic­ca­ted thyroid.

3) Bi-polar can often be a mis­diag­no­sis for Hashi­mo­tos disease, since the lat­ter can cause the same swings. Even without Hashi’s, bipo­lar and other men­tal health issues can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of low cor­ti­sol aka adre­nal fati­gue, also cau­sed by undiag­no­sed hypo because of the TSH, or under­trea­ted hypothy­roi­dism with T4.  At the very least, bipo­lar can be a com­mon mani­fes­ta­tion of a hypothalamus-pituitary – adre­nals (HPA) axis dys­re­gu­la­tion, again com­mon with those undiag­no­sed or under­trea­ted hypothyroidism.

4) Lithium, iro­ni­cally, is a known cause of hypothy­roi­dism, only making one’s thy­roid situa­tion worse, as well as pro­mo­ting poten­tial adre­nal fati­gue and low cortisol.

Now gran­ted, Jane’s big four of hives, depres­sion, bipo­lar, and thy­roid disease could be coin­ci­den­tal.  But there’s so much con­nec­tion in one way or another bet­ween them that you are left won­de­ring if she’s been a vic­tim of mis­diag­no­sis and under­treat­ment just like hun­dreds of millions of us thanks to labs and medi­ca­tions which do not work. And she may need a good doc­tor to be ree­va­lua­ted, besi­des put on desic­ca­ted thy­roid and dis­co­ver what patients have lear­ned about bet­ter treatment.

And on another note: I fear it’s going to take someone just as power­ful, and as stric­ken with health issues which could be rela­ted,  as Jane Pau­ley is, to FINALLY break open the pro­found and des­truc­tive media silence about this scan­dal of thy­roid treat­ment diag­no­sis and treat­ment which has left hun­dreds of millions SICK with pro­found sto­ries,  and is the very rea­son Stop the Thy­roid Mad­ness exists. Do we dare hope? We’ll see.

Do you have a simi­lar story of men­tal health issues that ended up being con­nec­ted to your thy­roid and/or adre­nal state? Use the Com­ment form and let’s talk. Who knows – maybe Jane will see this, pon­der, and become far bet­ter edu­ca­ted like we’ve had to become!

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. A card will be inc­lu­ded, and the book will be in an enve­lope with a red bow!! Save money the more you buy!