oprah winfrey tags

The news this mor­ning about Oprah made me pause.

Yes, it’s being announ­ced today that there will be no more Oprah Win­frey Show on CBS after Fall of next year.  She’s saying goodbye. And the rumor is that she will move her talk show to The Oprah Win­frey Net­work, which repla­ces the Dis­co­very Health Chan­nel. We’ll see when she for­mally announ­ces it today on her show.

But the change sure does shine a bright spot­light on a colos­sal and com­plete fai­lure by Oprah and The Oprah Win­frey Show for hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients. Though she had her own bout with thy­roid disease (and may still be dea­ling with it when you con­si­der her weight issues), we all win­ced a year ago when she sta­ted that a month long Hawaiian vaca­tion and eating fresh foods with soy milk (a goi­tro­gen) were a great way to treat her thy­roid con­di­tion. Yikes.   We equally squir­med in our seats when Dr. Chris­tiane North­rup made the com­ment that our thy­roid pro­blems were due to an “energy bloc­kage in the throat region, the result of a life­time of ’swa­llo­wing’ words one is aching to say.” Dou­ble yikes.

And since then, we have watched nothing, zilch, zero from Oprah and The Opray Win­frey Show about a horren­dous 55-year medi­cal scan­dal of thy­roid treat­ment that has nega­ti­vely affec­ted the lives of hun­dreds of millions of thy­roid patients world­wide. T4-only meds like Synth­roid, the dar­ling medi­ca­tion of the medi­cal com­mu­nity for hypothy­roi­dism treat­ment, has left hun­dreds of millions sick.  The TSH lab test has equally sent us to hell.  Because we have been for­ced to live with con­ti­nuing symp­toms of hypothy­roi­dism, we’ve endu­red much more tes­ting and have been put on many other medi­ca­tions to ban­daid our con­ti­nuing symp­toms. And a majo­rity of us have had to deal with the addi­tio­nal bur­den of adre­nal fati­gue thanks to all the above.

It’s been hell, Oprah. But you never lis­te­ned.  So for me per­so­nally, I could care less what you do now. You’ve let millions of us down.

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On a far bet­ter note:  Last night’s Thy­roid Patient Com­mu­nity Call on Talkshoe was exce­llent. From thyroid/adrenal patient Vale­rie Tay­lor, who is abso­lu­tely one of the most know­led­gea­ble patients in the world about adre­nals and RT3, we gai­ned good infor­ma­tion how it rai­ses its ugly head when you have high or low cor­ti­sol, low B12, low ferri­tin and other untrea­ted issues, and how to treat it. You can go back to Talkshoe and lis­ten to the broad­cast, which was Epi­sode 7.  See my blog post right below this. As far as future Talkshoe Com­mu­nity Calls: they will always be announ­ced here first.

Below that, you’ll read how cellu­lose as a filler just may be a huge pro­blem in natu­ral desic­ca­ted thy­roid meds. But we are also dis­co­ve­ring that a good desic­ca­ted thy­roid like Natu­reth­roid, even with its cellu­lose, can seem even worse if we have undis­co­ve­red and untrea­ted issues like low B12, low Vit. A, low ferri­tin, low Vit. D and other con­di­tions com­mon with hypothy­roi­dism.  Make sure you have tes­ted for these.

*HO HO HO! Have a STTM book sent to someone  you care about as a CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY pre­sent. All the work is done for you!

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?

(Want to receive noti­fi­ca­tion of each blog post that comes up here? Just go to the Noti­fi­ca­tion on the left of this page below the links and sign in with Notifixious).

(Want to receive noti­fi­ca­tion of each blog post that comes up here? Just go to the Noti­fi­ca­tion on the left of this page below the links and sign in with Notifixious).

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.

With recent news of Oprah’s con­ti­nuous weight gain (currently par­tially due to her fai­lure to pro­perly treat her hypothy­roi­dism and pro­bably Hashi­mo­tos (see post below this), it can make us all shud­der as we deal with the holi­days and all that great food!

I admit it: At Christ­mas­time, I LOVE the easy Gin­ger­bread Boy Coo­kies recipe I used when the boys were little, the Mic­ro­wave Fudge recipe to die for, my world famous Cho­co­late Chip Merin­gue Coo­kies which I color red and green, my mother’s won­der­ful Pra­li­nes which I occa­sio­nally try to make myself,  and Grandma’s Fruit Cake–yeah an actual fruit cake I LOVE, which I order EVERY SINGLE YEAR at this time.

And it’s hard not to gain weight! Is that you, too?? So let’s go over 6 HOLIDAY FACTS about thy­roid treat­ment with desic­ca­ted thyroid:

1) Armour, Natu­rethy­roid, Westh­roid, or any other desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tion is not meant to be a Christ­mas weight loss pill. Desic­ca­ted thy­roid medi­ca­tions con­sist of thy­roid hor­mo­nes: T4, T3, T2, T1 and cal­ci­to­nin. They simply give you back what your own thy­roid is not giving you…the same five hor­mo­nes which give you back a stron­ger immune sys­tem, a nor­mal body tem­pe­ra­ture & impro­ved meta­bo­lism, bet­ter energy, healthier hair and skin, less aches & pains, emo­tio­nal hap­pi­ness, bet­ter lipid pro­fi­les like cho­les­te­rol, stron­ger bones…and on and on.  But even with all that bene­fit, and even though it does improve your meta­bo­lism, desic­ca­ted thy­roid is not meant to be a weight loss pill.

2) Armour et. al. can only do its holi­day job if you have strong adre­nals or ade­quate cor­ti­sol treat­ment. Because cor­ti­sol is nee­ded for thy­roid hor­mo­nes to move from your blood to your cells, you can only bene­fit opti­mally from desic­ca­ted thy­roid during the holi­days if you are lucky enough to have strong adre­nals, or if you are giving your­self back the cor­ti­sol you need based on sta­ble temps, blood pres­sure, and remo­val of most low cor­ti­sol symp­toms.  So don’t for­get that cor­ti­sol right now, and defi­ni­tely con­si­der adding a stress dose of cor­ti­sol if things get rough with the in-laws. (See Chap­ter 6 in the STTM book for even more details about sta­ble temps, blood pres­sure, and stress dosing)

3) Don’t drink that Armour down with Egg Nog! Cal­cium is a known bin­der of thy­roid hor­mo­nes in your sto­mach, kee­ping you from bene­fi­ting from some of those health-giving thy­roid hor­mo­nes.  So if you swa­llow your desic­ca­ted thy­roid, get the water.  Or even bet­ter, do it sublin­gually.

4) Don’t expect Armour to keep you from loo­king like Santa Claus: you still gotta exer­cise & watch what you eat! It’s true: the opti­mal use of desic­ca­ted thy­roid does raise your meta­bo­lism and eats those extra calo­ries up like Pac­Man.  But if you’re like me, you can still have a ten­dency to put on those love handle but­ter pounds if you eat your fill of holi­day foods.  ho ho ho. To cur­tail the gain, add exer­cise to your holi­day regime, or inc­rease what you already do. I try to aero­bi­cally walk a LOT during the holi­days. And when I’ve eaten a Christ­mas stoc­king full of goo­dies, my next meal will be nothing but high pro­tein, like  tur­key, chee­ses and nuts. Or, you can also balance your intake by choo­sing one meal a day to be low gly­ce­mic to somewhat balance out the high gly­ce­mics you know you are going to eat later. For exam­ple, I make my break­fasts only eggs and nitrate-free bacon, or plain yogurt with berries, nuts, and Stevia.

5) Buil­ding a holi­day snow­man outside?  Con­si­der an extra 1/4 grain of Armour. It’s a fact that pro­lon­ged expo­sure to cold inc­rea­ses your demand for energy, which in turn can inc­rease your demand for more thy­roid hor­mo­nes. As a result, many patients find that adding an extra 1/4 grain of desic­ca­ted thy­roid to one’s daily amount helps meet the demands of Frosty the Snow­man or that holi­day sprin­kling of lights all over your house in the cold air.  Talk to your doctor.

6) Give a gift of the STTM book to a loved one. There are other good thy­roid books on the mar­ket, but unlike all of them, this is the bible of patient expe­rience on suc­cess­ful thy­roid treat­ment. You’ll find volu­mes of infor­ma­tion that patients all around the world have lear­ned. A true patient-to-patient guide to fee­ling won­der­ful again.  Go here to order.  And the publishing com­pany is exten­ding the time you can order a book to be sent DIRECTLY to your loved one.

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.