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!!!