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Category: Patients

What planet to do you live on, Oprah??

Cuz it ain’t the one WE live on, dah’ling.

For a few years now, patients have repeatedly written the Oprah show, begging her to address the thyroid scandal of decades of T4-only medication and the lousy TSH lab, both of which have left MILLIONS of patients with lingering hypo symptoms while our doctors proclaimed we were NORMAL…and about a FAR better treatment called natural desiccated thyroid and dosing by symptoms, NOT the TSH.

And when she finally has a program which somewhat addresses the thyroid issue this week, she allows her hallowed guest, Dr. Christiane Northrup, to state “your symptoms are actually your soul’s way of bringing deeper issues to your attention.” Hogwash! And thyroid patient Mary Shoman has rightly proclaimed that “thyroid disease is NOT your fault, despite what Dr. Northrup says.”

But the issue goes even further. Oprah implies, by her own experience, that taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods is enough to make one well from thyroid disease?? Double hogwash! Thyroid patients seek to live some of the healthiest lifestyles there are. All you have to do is observe the conversations in most any internet thyroid patient talk group, and you will see daily posts on the best supplements to take, healthiest foods to eat, and best ways to de-stress our lives. We are overall a VERY educated group of patients about health, and we practice it. We HAVE to be in light of how poorly educated most of our doctors are about our thyroid disease. And in spite of all the above, our thyroid condition persists.

What has CHANGED our lives is leaving the scandal of T4-only treatment in the dust, and learning about desiccated thyroid like Armour, switching to it, and dosing according to the elimination of symptoms, NOT simply labs. We have also faced the fact that at least 50% of us have adrenal fatigue, which leaves us impatient and angry, with headaches and body aches, chronic back pain and body aches, a loss of passion, and sleep issues. And we have tread new ground in our knowledge on how to treat it, when many of our doctors pooh-pooh the reality of adrenal fatigue.

I love ya, Oprah, as do millions of women out there. But taking a month vacation and eating fresh foods does NOT cure our thyroid disease. So time will tell what went on with you! So now, all we can do is hope eternal that Oprah will get on the planet that the rest of us live on, and help us to spread the word as to why millions of thyroid patients have been suffering and about a far better treatment. If you can continue to have persistence, you can email her here. STOP the thyroid madness!

P.S. Go here to read thyroid patient Anna’s humorous experience with following the same kind of advice given on Oprah’s show.

11 replies

Oprah…you can save yourself a lot of problems….

….if you will take the time to read here of what thousands of patients have found out about the medication you will PROBABLY be put on, and about the lab you will PROBABLY be dosed by.

For those who haven’t heard, Oprah announced on September 10th during her Good Morning America interview that she “blew her thyroid out”. Now that also sounds suspiciously like she also has adrenal fatigue, but time will tell.

And Oprah will now join the club of an estimated “billions” worldwide with thyroid disease. But even worse, she may also be joining the club of those who for nearly 50 years, have been put on the lousy T4-only medications (Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothyroxine and others) and who have been terrorized with the TSH lab and it’s dubious and pathetic “normal” range.

Yes Oprah, beginning in the 1960’s, doctors starting putting ALL of us on T4-only meds, and in the early 1970’s, dosing by the TSH lab. And NEITHER have worked. Sure, some will state they felt better. But many will tell you that NOTHING changed. And ALL, to one degree or another, have been left with a variety of hypothyroid symptoms while doctors have been proclaiming that those VERY symptoms had nothing to do with hypothyroid since we were now “adequately” treated.

But we have NEVER been “adequately” treated, Oprah. Doctors became cattle in the chutes of their pharmaceutically-financed medical schools, blindly believing that T4-only meds were working and that the man-made TSH was the gold standard of diagnosis and dosing…and ignoring clinical presentations which showed the opposite.

And when we still complained of symptoms, we have been put on anti-depressants, statins, anti-anxiety meds, and a variety of other pills to bandaid our continuing hypo symptoms.

And we finally fought back Oprah. For the last 7+ years, patients like myself found out that there has always been a MUCH better treatment (desiccated thyroid), MUCH better labs (free T3 and free T4) and much better dosing strategy (by symptom elimination). Our lives have become far better because of what we have learned.

This website represents the knowledge of a large and constantly growing body of patients worldwide, and some wise doctors, which goes totally COUNTER to nearly 50 LOUSY years of pitiful thyroid treatment.

You, Oprah, are a megaphone of influence. And if you can take the time to read this website, you might play a huge role in helping to change MILLIONS of lives. Because right now, the vast majority of the medical community does NOT get this, and is continuing to keep patients SICK and TIRED and/or with continuing hypothyroid symptoms of some kind. And YOU are going to be one, with your own continuing list of symptoms, if you don’t consider what thyroid patients are trying to tell you by nearly 50 years of LIVING it.

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The Walking Tired

It happened about three hours ago. She was a pretty blonde-headed gal whom I noticed sitting in a vintage oak rocking chair about 15′ from where I stood in a store. When she saw that I noticed her, she asked “Is it OK if I sit here?” “Of course!” I replied cheerfully.

And then it struck me. What is this 50ish, pretty, vibrant looking gal doing looking tired in a rocking chair?? So I asked “Tired?” “Yes!” she mouthed, with more explanation about not having stamina since she entered menopause.

Bingo. I walked over to her and asked “So you don’t have the stamina you used to?

“No!” she exclaimed with her brows furrowed.

“Tell me then” I continued. “Do you have hair loss?”

“Why yes!” she replied, surprised. “I see them on the floor constantly now”

“Do you have chronic low grade depression?”, I asked tentatively, since that’s a personal question.

“Yes”, she replied quietly, and her eyes getting wider. My questions were hitting the bullseye of her symptoms.

“Do have high cholesterol?”

“Well yes, it’s getting higher than it used to be”.

And after more affirmations about dry skin, constipation and tiredness, I asked “Have you had your thyroid tested?”

“Yes, and it was normal”.

So….I proceeded to tell her that I have NO doubt that she is hypothyroid, and that doctors do the WRONG tests. I grabbed a two-page handout, which is identical to the T4 Only Meds Do Not Work page, and explained that she needed the free T3, and if it’s low in the range, THAT is the clue she needs labwise. I also explained Armour as compared to Synthroid, etc.

The fun part of the above was that she looked at me like I had repeatedly hit the bullseye and had practically made her naked. lol

And as she left, she said “I can’t begin to thank you for this information. For once, I have HOPE.” And oh was she smiling.

And that encounter underscored to me that because doctors are BLIND to obvious hypothyroid symptoms and overreliant on ink spots on a piece of paper, there has to be MILLIONS of the “Walking Tired” out there.

How long did you walk tired before ANY doctor had the vision to see what was going on??

15 replies

She wants to cry, and I want to cry with her!

I just want to weep when I get private emails like the below:

I have been reading this site for the last 72 hrs…I want to cry…for 12 yrs, on and off, I have been going to Dr’s thinking I was crazy..I am 38 yrs old and have not felt great in 12 yrs…I have had the nerve testings, I am on anti-anxiety meds, synthroid, lisonopril for high blood pressure…all these linked to my “normal” TSH of 5.48 and Ferritin level of 6.

I was told exercise more and take an iron supplement….I starved myself and never went below 160..I exercise for hours a day and weight doesn’t budge…my Dr told me to start exercising at 5 am and eat a handful of almonds several times a day, plus Fiber 1 cereal and salad…I told him I couldn’t live like that…he told me that I didn’t really want to lose the weight then…

I spent 2 months sleeping all day and staring at the tv at night in a constant panic attack, afraid to tell my husband because I thought I was losing my mind…I saw an Endo last Friday…she told me it was my thyroid and I found your site and I am not crazy or a hypochondriac….I can’t wait to start to feel better. Thank you….

Awful. No, dear one, you were never crazy or a hypochondriac. You just went through what we all have in the hands of doctors who don’t get it. And be aware: It’s not more Synthroid you need; it’s Armour, and dosing by symptoms, NOT the TSH. Demand that from the Endo. Don’t give your power away when you enter his office. www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/things-we-have-learned Keep in touch!

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Richard Simmons, weight issues, and my friend Helen

I have an internet friend named Helen Trimble. Helen is an intelligent, witty, and funny gal whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for almost a year. And recently, Helen sent several of her friends an audio of a recent conversation she had with beloved fitness guru Richard Simmons. In that delightful exchange, Helen shared that she has lost 83 lbs over the past year, and praises Simmons for the important role he and his diet tips played in her weight loss.

But Helen made a key comment in that conversation: that her long years of non-diagnosed hypothyroid played a major role in her weight gain..i.e. it wasn’t just getting older or eating wrong that was doing it. And why was she undiagnosed so long? Because of the failure of doctors and the TSH lab range to give a true picture of what was going on.

In a conversation with me, Helen stated: “For years after childbirth, I went on yoyo diets, starving myself to death, and still did not lose weight. The only thing I lost was energy, hair and eyebrows. I was gaining weight on 1200 calorie diets, whereas when I was healthy and active, I was 124 pounds and ate a 2400 calorie a day diet.” And Helen’s years of unexplained weight gain put her to nearly 300 lbs.

But the turning point for Helen was not just Richard Simmon’s contagious enthusiasm or his diet tips, even if they were and have been extremely helpful. The turning point was when Helen had many conversations with Valerie, the moderator of the Adrenals forum and whom Helen states is her hero, and finally found out about Armour a year ago, besides treating her low cortisol–the latter a common problem with many hypothyroid patients.

Says Helen: “Today, I am now losing at least a pound a week on a 1500 calorie diet and my apple shape is changing. I eat when I am hungry and put a little protein in my body every 4 hours. I had put most of my weight on in the middle…I cannot help believe that the hormone imbalance is the reason for this. As we all have switched to Armour, and get closer to optimized, our body shape changes, faces change, and the weight comes off.”

But just as striking as the above was Helen’s next statement. She works in a pharmacy at a large store, handing prescriptions to patients: “Now when I look at the obese women who come to pick up their prescriptions for Synthroid, a bell goes off. We all look the same, eat the same, and have the devastating symptoms.”

THAT was a clincher! Helen, who has herself experienced the weight gain due to untreated hypothyroid, sees mirror images of herself every day when she hands Synthroid or other T4-only meds to women–women who look just like she has! HUNDREDS OF WOMEN! And what does that say? Exactly what this site is saying: that Synthroid and Levoxyl and all other T4-only meds are leaving patients UNDERtreated, and weight gain is the side effect of a poor treatment

Richard Simmons: Helen and I have a strong suspicion that a certain or large percentage of those wonderful women and men you work with are either undiagnosed hypothyroid (due to doctors overreliance on a faulty lab called the TSH with it’s dubious range) or are UNDERtreated on a T4-only medication. These T4-only meds have been the ineffective treatment of choice by doctors for five decades, and have left millions of patients all over the world with continuing hypo symptoms, and doctors telling them to diet, exercise more, or get on an antidepressant! Stop the Thyroid Madness!!!

7 replies