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Category: Celebrities with hypothyroidism

Actress Sofia Vergara doing thyroid patients no favor by representing Synthroid!

Sofia Vergara

A new campaign has started called “Follow the Script” and you will see the smiling face of Emmy-nominated actress Sofia Vergara next to the proclamation: ‘YOUR THYROID CAN AFFECT THE WAY YOU LOOK, FEEL & SOUND.

Oh sure…it looks all well and good. We want everyone to be aware of the problems of hypothyroidism! And we’re glad if Sofia Vergara feels she is doing well enough for the moment to let herself be paid to do this ad.

But…the Follow the Script campaign is for promotion of Synthroid — a T4-only medication, which represents only one of five thyroid hormones. The campaign is sponsored by AbbVie, a “new, independent biopharmaceutical company composed of Abbott’s former proprietary pharmaceutical business” i.e the company is the result of a January 2013 division of Abbott Labs, the pharmaceutical company which makes Synthroid.

Says Sofia Vergara: “In 2000, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had to have my thyroid removed. As a result, I have a hypothyroid condition and need to take medicine to treat it.” She continues: “In my career, I’m known to ad lib and go off-script but not when it comes to my health. I make sure to ‘Follow the Script’ so I get exactly what my doctor prescribed. This is so important to me, because you can’t enjoy what you have without your health.”

And this is where you hear a booming THUD.

As reported by a huge and growing body of patients in groups all over the internet and across the world, T4-only medications just like Synthroid have done nothing more than keep them sick and sicker in their own degree and kind with their hypothyroidism…sooner or later. In addition, all too many T4-only patients find themselves falling into adrenal fatigue, low iron, low B12, low Vitamin D, immune dysfunction, weight gain, rising blood pressure or cholesterol, reactivated Epstein Barr Virus and more…all due to the inadequate treatment of their hypothyroidism with T4-only meds like Synthroid!

i.e. this is NOT about “whatever works for you”– the watered-down, walk-the-fence message that fails to tell the truth about what T4-only medications has done to millions, besides exposing many more newly-diagnosed thyroid patients to the problems that befall so many while on T4-only. It’s about promoting a product that has left all too many with compromised lives and declining health as compared to the life-changing results from the use of T3-only or even better, natural desiccated thyroid. It’s natural desiccated thyroid which gives you everything your own thyroid would be – T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. And it’s changed lives!

Informed and intelligent thyroid patients worldwide who know the ugly truth about Synthroid are not going to be the least impressed with celebrities who think it’s hunky dory to make money promoting an inadequate medication which has only served to compromise their lives in their own degree and kind…sooner or later…and which will do the same for many others, guaranteed.

P.S. Read Chapter 1 in the revised STTM book about the history concerning T4-only medications.

VITAMIN D AND MAGNESIUM GO TOGETHER

A common scenario with hypothyroid patients who have been on T4-only medications is finding themselves with low levels of many nutrients, including Vitamin D. Why? It appears that continued hypothyroidism lowers stomach acid, and that in turn hinders nutrient absorption like Vit. D, iron, B12 and more.

And it turns out that once you get your Vitamin D levels back up, it’s also crucial to have enough magnesium for your body to utilize Vitamin D effectively. Says the Vitamin D Council, magnesium helps your body activate vitamin D into a form your body can use, as well as helps maintain your calcium levels. They state that you may need more magnesium supplementation that is normally recommended, such as between 500 and 700 mg a day. Dr. Mercola feels that 80% of you aren’t optimal in magnesium.

So it may be wise to get your magnesium levels checked and keep them optimal. Foods higher in magnesium include green leafy veggies like spinach, avocados, dried coriander, cocoa powder (hooray!!) pumpkin seeds, almonds, sesame and sunflower seeds.

THERE’S A NEW DESICCATED THYROID OUT – WESTHROID-P

The makers of Naturethroid, RLC Labs, have reinvented their tried and true Westhroid version of natural desiccated thyroid into “Westhroid-P”, calling it “the purest treatment for hypothyroidism” with only three listed inactive ingredients: Inulin (a natural fiber with natural sweetness), Medium Chain Triglycerides, and Lactose Monohydrate (which is inherent in the NDT). It’s also stated to be gluten free. Looks promising. We’ll see how it work for patients, because it’s patient experiences, not opinions, which rule! 🙂

120 replies

Jennifer Livingston: this goes even deeper than bullying. You are on the wrong thyroid medication!

Jennifer Livingston, a mother of three adorable daughters, is a morning anchor at WKBT-TV in La Cross, Wisconsin and a very pretty one at that. And she received an email from a male viewer which stated that her excess weight was not a good role model for young girls. Jennifer’s supportive husband Mike Thompson, who is an evening anchor on the same station and strongly supports his wife, posted the critical email on his Facebook page:

“It’s unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.”

Livingston followed this up with a bold four-minute rebuttal to the personal attack, emphasizing the cruelty of judging someone based on their exterior, especially considering she is very aware of her weight problem, and has worked hard to deal with it for years. She also referred to the bullying nature of the note. With October being National Anti-Bullying Month, this incidence hit a chord.

Jennifer’s famous brother, actor Ron Livingston, also expressed support for his sister.

BUT JENNIFER, YOUR STORY GOES EVEN FARTHER AND DEEPER THAN YOU KNOW, AND YOU COULD CHANGE MANY LIVES OF YOUR LISTENERS AND BEYOND. YOU MAY BE A VICTIM OF A 50-YEAR THYROID TREATMENT SCANDAL!

You mentioned being on a thyroid medication, and you may be a victim of the same 50+ year thyroid treatment scandal that millions of overweight women have been part of : 1) the use of the TSH lab test, which can be “normal” for years even though the patient has clear hypothyroidism, or 2) the use of Synthroid or any other T4-only medication to treat the hypothyroid condition, which leaves patients with their own degree and kind of continuing hypothyroidism. And weight gain, plus difficulty losing it, is a common symptom of continued hypothyroidism for all too many

Neither the TSH lab test or T4-only meds like Synthroid work well, exclaim frustrated, or sick, or overweight, or angry patients all over the world!

Additionally, the longer patients stay on this lousy medication, the higher the risk of having low levels of Vitamin D, Iron, B12 and other important nutrients. More than 50% of T4-only treated patients fall into adrenal fatigue, aka low cortisol, due to the failure to get enough T3, the active thyroid hormone, into the cells of their adrenals. i.e. T4 is a storage hormone meant to convert to T3, but the body is not meant to live for conversion alone! T4 is only one of FIVE hormones secreted by the thyroid.

And it gets worse….

Many folks replied to the WKTB article about this incident. And one person stated in their post: “…..GIVE UP A FEW BURGERS AND CUT THE CHEESE. START MOVING JENNIFER!”

Jennifer, do you know how MANY thyroid patients with a weight problem have heard this well-meaning but terrible refrain from friends, loved ones, strangers and even some clueless doctors?? Oh sure, we know that eating healthy is important. Many already eat healthy! But continued hypothyroidism keeps our bodies like that of a snail. It affects our body temperatures (it stays much lower), how our muscles work and our blood circulates (true fatigue here), how we digest food (food tends to stay in our stomach longer), and how we eliminate waste (we tend to be constipated or slow eliminators). When we try to exercise, we end up in bed from the excess fatigue of continued hypothyroidism.

It’s not a pretty picture, Jennifer….and it’s just as bad as bullying for millions!

Learn from other thyroid patients: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned

Here’s my story: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/my-story

Here are others stories: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/stories-of-others

Here are the crazy things we have to listen to from our doctors: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/give-me-a-break

Here’s why Synthroid doesn’t work for all too many: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/t4-only-meds-dont-work

Here’s why the TSH lab test sucks: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless

Here are symptoms which went away with Natural Desiccated Thyroid: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic

Here are many good thyroid patient groups: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/talk-to-others

HELP US STOP THE THYROID MADNESS, JENNIFER, OF WHICH YOU MAY BE ONE MORE VICTIM!

20 replies

Jane Pauley: hives, depression & bipolar may be more connected to a poorly diagnosed and treated thyroid condition?

JanePauleyThough this post was originally written in 2009, the principles and information are still applicable today!

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 bipolar disorder (treated with lithium), and the autoimmune thyroid disease called Hashimoto’s (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 hashimoto’s disease for some, 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 Synthroid which promotes depression and other lingering symptoms). Many patients report a resolution of their depression with desiccated thyroid if they understood that it’s about “optimal” doses. See the green graphic here.

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 if taken in high doses, 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!

19 replies

UK celebrities with thyroid cancer or disease

clareblading1Thyroid 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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4 replies

Thyroid Tidbit: Oprah was on Methimazole, a thyroid blocker

Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 11.08.31 AM

(This page was updated in 2015. Enjoy!)

Oprah admitted in January, 2009, on her Best Life Webcase, that she was on Methimazole (Tapazole) when treating her thyroid problem.

Methimazole is an anti-thyroid drug, often used to treat hyperthyroidism, aka Graves disease, or a toxic multinodular goiter. It’s known to inhibit the enzyme thyroperoxidase. In healthy thyroid functioning, this enzyme is made in your thyroid and is an important component in the production of thyroid hormones. But with hyperactivity of the thyroid, it can become a problem.

Oprah may have needed the treatment for Hashimoto’s Toxicosis–an autoimmune combination of Hashimotos and Graves. Treatment with Tapazole can be common in treating Hashimoto’s Toxicosis. Because of that treatment, she may have then fallen into hypothyroidism, since there was mention of a 20 lb weight gain, exhaustion and depression—common symptoms of hypothyroidism.

We don’t know much else, but it’s too bad this issue by such a well known celebrity didn’t move her into more discussion about better thyroid treatment with Natural Desiccated Thyroid or T3 in one’s treatment, especially when so many lives have suffered due to the medical practitioner love-affair with Synthroid and other T4-only medications. Many of us were highly disappointed.

Anybody had Hashi’s Toxicosis and treated with Tapazole? What’s your experience with Methimazole (Tapazole)?

JanieSignature SEIZE THE WISDOM

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19 replies