Oprah's views on thyroid conditions

[kathy1029]

copied and pasted from Stop thy Thyroid Madness website

The irony of the Oprah debacle for thyroid patients

June 7, 2009

By Janie Bowthorpe

opraharmsupI’ve been sitting back silently, reading all the backlash that started with Newsweek’s Best Life or Risky Advice May 30th article, a critical analysis of Oprah’s multiple program topics of Wish Away Cancer! Get A Lunchtime Face-Lift! Eradicate Autism! Turn Back The Clock! Thin Your Thighs! Cure Menopause! Harness Positive Energy! Erase Wrinkles! Banish Obesity! Live Your Best Life Ever!

And granted, some of the criticism seems justified.

Even thyroid patients winced and squirmed when Oprah stated that a month long Hawaiian vacation and eating fresh foods with soy milk were a great way to treat her thyroid condition. Uh huh. Patients equally gagged at her support of Dr. Christiane Northrup who made the the nutty insensitive 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.”

But the ensuing array of blog posts and articles following in the footsteps of the Newsweek criticism of Oprah has presented quite an irony for thyroid patients whose lives have been changed thanks to natural desiccated thyroid. Adjectives and/or descriptions of Oprah in these blogs and articles have included:

* dangerous

* peddling alternative treatments that are ineffective

* failing to present scientific evidence

* failing to listen to bona fide, medical school trained, medical professionals

* being too gullible about the so-called wisdom and knowledge of certain patients (ala Suzanne Somers)

* failing to give more attention to science-based, status quo, mainstream medicine

Any of the above sound familiar? Yup, it sure does.

How many times have thyroid patients been told that desiccated thyroid like Armour or Naturethroid was dangerous, or raising it by symptoms rather than the TSH was dangerous. Or it’s dangerous to use because you’ll get heart problems and osteroporosis. Yet thyroid patients on desiccated thyroid have their lives CHANGED, with stronger hearts and increased bone density.

How many patients have had their doctors tell them that desiccated was ineffective as an alternative out-dated product, yet these same patients started to LIVE again with relief from old symptoms from this ineffective “alternative” medication that grandma once used.

How many articles by medical professionals are there who claim that there’s no scientific evidence to prove that desiccated thyroid is effective, in spite of CLEAR observation and reports of a huge and growing body of thyroid patients and certain doctors around the world about relief from depression, lowered cholesterol, better blood pressure, weight maintenance, hair regrowth, better stamina, less sickness and a myriad of other improvements!

How many bona fide, medical school trained, medical professionals told us ad nauseum that our symptoms were not thyroid related (when they were), that we are “normal” because the TSH lab test says so (when we were far from it), that desiccated thyroid is outdated, unreliable, ineffective, and a ten ton load of other ridiculous comments from bona fide, medical school trained, medical professionals.

How many doctors have told patients that they should NOT listen to other patients on the internet or Stop the Thyroid Madness because patients can’t possibly have any wisdom or know what they are talking about. Yet, lo and behold, it’s been patients and what they have learned who have started a wide-reaching revolution for better thyroid treatment that works, and a growing body of doctors are listening!

And how many times has science-based, status quo, mainstream medicine completely ruined the lives of thyroid patients because many doctors are too lazy to dare question or think outside the pharmaceutical, medical school box.

Yup, Oprah has made some blunders, gaffes and misjudgments as outlined in the Newsweek article. She has gushed too quickly when Northrup opens her mouth or Oz walks in with his surgical garb. But isn’t it a bit ironic that some of the criticism by others towards Oprah are the same blunders, gaffes and misjudgments which most any thyroid patient has heard about their use of desiccated thyroid, and which has all been COMPLETELY wrong.

Bottom line, for every mistake and misjudgment Oprah has made–and CLEARLY she has done so in her understanding of thyroid treatment—she just might be opening the doors to medical truth, somewhere, somehow, between it all.

Janie

[greygoose]

Well, what with Oprah, and Hilary Clinton, we might actually get somewhere!!!

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

[kathy1029 in reply to greygoose]

too bad i found the article on STTM (stop the thyroid madness) and its like eight years old, and now trying to find the actual quote from Oprah on that episode, it seems to have have been deleted, hmmmm

[greygoose in reply to kathy1029]

I Wonder why?!?