The famous "Dr. Oz" -- celebrity doc Mehmet Oz -- is leaving Oprah. That's right, he's doing a "Dr. Phil" and leaving the Oprah show, in order to launch his own daytime television show this fall. He's written his farewell letter at Huffington Post titled "What I Learned on The Oprah Show."Certainly, Dr. Oz has contributed valuable information in his many Oprah appearances. But sadly, over the past several years, at Oprah's side as her "medical authority," Dr. Oz has also shared a great deal of misinformation about thyroid disease, as Oprah has struggled with her own thyroid diagnosis and thyroid symptoms. So as he leaves Oprah Winfrey's daytime television show to start his own daytime show, it's relevant to ask: what legacy is Dr. Mehmet Oz leaving millions of thyroid patients who have relied on him and Oprah for thyroid information and advice?
- Millions of women have heard Oprah claim, with Dr. Oz by her side, that she is "cured" of her thyroid problem
- Millions of women have learned that, according to Dr. Oz, Oprah's thyroid issues "aren't the usual thyroid problems...." and that they are "so unique...." (Oprah reportedly has Hashimoto's disease, with periods of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. This is actually quite common -- not unique at all, in fact, the most common thyroid condition in the U.S.)
- Millions of women have learned that Dr. Oz believes Oprah's thyroid condition is "...a frat party in [her] thyroid...." Seriously, that's how he referred to it -- though interestingly, after I reported on this, the Oprah.com folks edited the "frat party" nonsense out of his online writeup at Oprah.com.
- Millions of women have watched Dr. Oz stand by Oprah as she has announced that she has gone off medical treatment for her own autoimmune hypothyroidism, and instead is taking bioidentical hormones (i.e., bioidentical estrogen, progesterone) as treatment. (Estrogen and progesterone, bioidentical or otherwise, are not, of course, treatments for hypothyroidism or autoimmune thyroid disease.)
But given that the audience for daytime shows like Oprah and Dr. Oz's future show are women in middle age and beyond -- the exact group that is at greatest risk of developing thyroid problems -- I hope that Dr. Oz will go on to offer more enlightened thyroid information than we've seen from him so far on Oprah.
Because right now, the thyroid legacy Oprah and Dr. Oz are leaving millions of viewers with thyroid disease is a mishmash of misinformation, including the idea that they should refuse medical treatment for thyroid conditions, and treat thyroid deficiencies and autoimmune disease with other hormones.
More on Oprah's Thyroid Condition
Photo: David McNew, Getty Images News
Mary, I am soooooo glad that I am now following you on Twitter, because I get your wonderful tweets and this one I just had to read and comment. I had no idea that you had written a few blogs about Oprah’s condition, so I went through them before I started this comment.
Let me start by saying that I am in 100% agreement about Dr. Oz and Oprah’s comments about Oprah being cured. When she first said that she is cured and off all of her meds, I was furious and jealous. I began questioning myself and wondering how in the world can someone who has been recently diagnosed with this aweful disease be cured in only about 6 to 9 months! I have been battling with thyroid problems, fluctuating between hyper and hypo, since December 1994. I was so mad that I even stopped taking my meds out of frustration. Needless to say, I got worse!
I told my family and friends that if Oprah is cured, then she needs to share with the world what the heck did her doctors do to cure her. What combination of meds or treatments did she undergo. I felt that she did not spend enough time talking about thyroid disorders.
So, I too am irritated because women who are watching the show who may be newly diagnosed may be misled and stop taking their meds, which is the wrong thing to do.
I got back on my meds and I am improving and I have committed to myself to take care of me based upon my body and not based on someone else’s diagnosis. Everyone has different things going on in their life, which makes each treatment slightly different.
Mary thanks for sharing your thoughts too!
While I am a huge fan of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, I certainly would never consider it a “cure” for thyroid problems, and I too am disturbed at Oprah’s claims. I take progesterone, testosterone and estriol creams, but I also take Levoxyl and a compounded T3 preparation which combine to keep me running at optimal levels. Although I am a fan of Dr. Oz, I hope he presents thyroid issues in a more common sense approach in his new show, I look forward to watching and seeing!
Thanks for exposing this travesty. Mary, have you considered contacting Dr. Oz’s “people” so, for once, we can bring the truth forward? I bet he’d have you as a guest on his show.
I do know that Oprah did see my Beverly Hills doc and he would never tell her to go off her treatment.
Also, one positive point about Dr. Oz…in his “You…Beautiful” book, he did say that low-dose hydrocortisone was recc’d in more serious adrenal cases. We know that adrenals should be treated before thyroid so the thyroid can utilize treatment, and most women with thyroid problems have burned-out adrenals. I am now doing this with an improved overall result.
I think there is hope for Dr. Oz getting the word out there. I believe Oprah’s biggest problem is her pal Dr. Christiane Northrup, who doesn’t believe in thyroid replacement. One look at Oprah tells us she is not well.
Why are you all so obsessed about what the great goddess Oprah has to say? She obviously cannot tell the TRUTH about thyroid disorders … do you think she got to where she is by telling the TRUTH? It’s funny, though, how Oprah actually had Jenny McCarthy on her show … maybe Oprah felt she was losing street cred with the mommies and was FORCED to have an “alternative” voice on the air.
Dee-WTF are you even talking about? Oprah is obviously confused. I don’t think she ever set out to purposely LIE so to confuse the masses. She just doesn’t understand that if it were her thyroid–it wouldn’t be healed up like a scrape and “all better”. If anything she is using it as a cover for her current weight issues. Perhaps that’s what you meant to say the lie was??
And Jenny McCarthy-what does that have to do with anything? She was on there because now SHE is starting her own show (probably backed by HARPO!)
People need to be their own advocate and that is the one thing I have heard Oprah saying repeatedly. So don’t listen to things that the “experts” on her show are saying. Do your own research and follow your intuition and what YOUR mind/body is saying. Take your health into your OWN hands and don’t rely on anyone in the media to give you the correct answers for you.
mary, i followed your link to oprah’s site, and his frat party “explanation” is still there, intact.
If Oprah did ANY half-way decent kind of thyroid research, she would NOT be THIS confused! She either doesn’t do research or she (for some reason — I don’t know why) promotes stuff that we KNOW is generally not effective for thyroid, specifically! Why doesn’t her show talk about things WE all know about? You would think people like Mary Shomon would be on her show! She needs to bring up ALL the ideas! I brought up Jenny McCarthy because she is a challenge to big pharma, and to be truthful, so are WE! I don’t see Oprah challenging big pharma the way she should!
Hi Mary,
I read your comment on Huffington Post about Dr. Oz re thyroid, and so have come to read your pieces on Oprah and Dr. Oz. I’m hypothyroid, since 1997. (I read your page on the internet back then.)
It has definitely been missing, on disease-of-the-month talk shows, that Oprah never had a show on thyroid conditions. She could have had as guests:
An Endo or two
You
4 or more patients who have various thyroid conditions.
I completely agree with you, about the soy being bad. And I know that from personal experience. I can’t eat soy or nightshade vegetables. Of course, I can eat modest amounts of these things, like one serving, but any more and it makes me exhausted, just like I was taking only half of the 75 mcg of levothyroxine.
Most doctors don’t know a damn thing about thyroid, and if it weren’t for the internet, I may have never made that connection between things like soy, broccoli or potatoes, with my hypothyroidism.
I think you are a good advocate, and have become a real authority. I never really blamed you for your too-short list of symptoms, and me missing my condition, when my doctor missed it for two years (and didn’t even give me a TSH) but it was because of your website, I crossed thyroid off my list.
I had over 20 symptoms after things got worse. I thought I was dying. I’d wake up at night, with my heart pounding very slowly, and all four limbs completely asleep. In retrospect, it is so OBVIOUS. Slower heart rate, causing bad circulation.
I had a red herring associated condition, that was dominating my psyche, and at the time (1997/1998) it was not on your list of symptoms, nor was it on the list of the few medical sites on the web at the time.
Just a few years later, a more expanded list of symptoms (including hypoglycemia as an associated condition) was on many lists, including yours.
So, I make mistakes. Dr. Oz makes them. Oprah makes them.
Before I was diagnosed, and lived for two years as a zombie, I had attacks of hypoglycemia so bad that I fainted once and bashed my head in the fall. And I’d never fainted in my entire life. I was mildly dizzy all the time, but scared at times when I’d feel like I was going to faint. I lived with that for nearly two years.
After two years, thinking I was dying with something rare that couldn’t be diagnosed, I saw a new doctor. He ordered a TSH on me after asking me questions for a three minutes. Got the TSH (13) and in just over two weeks, came back from my two years as a zombie, a time which I felt cut off from nature and reality.
I knew I had hypoglycemia, but I didn’t know what was causing it. Later, I would read in a book a doctor friend had given me, that there are only three main causes of hypoglycemia:
Hypothyroidism
Pancreatic tumor
Pituitary tumor
Here is my thinking on why Oprah didn’t do a thyroid program.
1. She doesn’t understand it or know much about it. She’s really busy, being Oprah.
2. She was afraid too many overweight women would blame their thyroids, and some might ordering levothyroxine over the internet, or get paranoid about it. My present doctor is okay but knows nothing about thyroid.
3. She was advised not to talk at length about it, because thyroid conditions are so complex, that there would be liability issues.
Before her problem with it, thyroid never became a topic because it usually isn’t fatal, presents no deformities, isn’t interesting or dramatic enough for audiences, and everyone’s experience is so different with it. Plus, audiences wouldn’t understand it. A show on thyroid would be earth shattering to maybe one in a five hundred people who would recognize symptoms within themselves, and go to a doctor for a TSH.
As you know, it is a travesty for it to be just overlooked the way it is, given that for a significant percentage of people (cancer, hyper, hypo) patients, the early symptoms can be dramatic.
I started out, with three very mild symptoms. I had mild hypoglycemia. I was oversleeping by an hour. And I felt ever so slightly detached, kind of weird or unreal. By the time my symptoms got worse, I was sleeping only about 4 or 5 hours a night and exhausted, dizzy, complete brain fog, detached from reality, felt like a totally different person. It was frightening not knowing what was wrong with me.
It is good to be well now. Keep up the good fight Mary. You were justified in pointing out Dr. Oz’s error.
Oh for Heaven’s sake. People are buying thyroid drugs over the internet without the Almighty Oprah’s voice backing any of it. Please, this goes way beyond the Golden Oprah and her fear of informing people of anything.
I think Doctor Oz has been the first “public” doctor on International TV that is finally putting the bug in global ears that Thyroid problems are NOT as easy as said! He stands with his voice and says that we need to be treated ONE on ONE to get welland live life right again.
He “politcally corrected” Oprah LIVE on HER show after the UPSET of her rediculous show stated she no longer has thyroid issues and is off her meds. I almost threw the TV off the porch after that terrible show. And….. about her “cure”, he ( Dr. Oz) bluntly told her LIVE she would never be cured!! – just in remission of her Hashi’s.
Her gland will die off and then most likely SHE will need to “re-establish thyroid medication.” He also informed her LIVE that her soy habit is harmful with her condition.
To-shay Dr. Oz!!
Oprah is absolutely clueless about her thyroid condition and whatever medical professional guiding her (like the personal trainer she has) is twisting her into believeing “hogwash” and keeping her ill.
She needs to look at people that are beating their hypo symptoms with good quality treatment. I too was a swollen, fatigued, bloated mess like her until I found my optimal levels with combo meds and I have absolutely no thyroid left from RAI!
Oh, and finally throwing the book out on a shotting TSH lab testing was the best thing I ever had done.
I look forward to Dr. Oz’s show and pray that he will finally shout the truth to the world that the useless TSH testing is not related to thyroid function and re-establish that the Free T3/T4 testing is the best way to go about eliminating hypothyroid symptomsand weight issues.
Good Luck Dr. Oz and I hope you invite Mary and ME to your new show to set the truth about thyroid disease.
The various comments regarding how Soy can aggravate hypo-thyroidism cause me concern. I’ve recently consulted with one of the “best thyroid doctors” listed on the link from Mary Shoman’s newsletter. This doctor has prescribed diet changes which include a soy based medical food. When I asked her about the soy, the answer was there was no connection between soy consumption and thyroid problems. I’m not convinced the doctor is right, especially after reading all the comments on this website. I would appreciate further clarification. Thank you.
What’s this about broccoli and potatoes? I believe soy is bad: my thyroid problems started in earnest after I learned to make my own tofu and ate it daily for a year. I thought it made a nice pudding for my type II diabetes which was diagnosed about a decade after a (relucant)testing and diagnosis of hypoglycemia (and another doctor said there was no connection between hypoglycemia and diabetes). Exhausted and dizzy. Complicated by systemic Candida. Are all these part of hypothyroid??? What about migraine? And severe severe severe chills????
Hmmm…everyone’s different perspective on Oprah is interesting. I too, saw the show where Oprah said she was no longer taking medication for her thyroid and clearly heard Dr. Oz adding a few “addendum’s” to what she was saying. I kept waiting for some revelation as to what to do for myself and was disappointed that more information was not discussed. As far as Dr. Oz saying Oprah was having a “frat party” in her thyroid, I believe he was referring to was is thought of as a “thyroid storm” that can sometimes happen if you have Hashimoto’s (and probably other thyroid conditions). I totally get the frat party analogy as I have lived in a college town! It may not have been the best answer he could have given, but I think it was on mark.
We really have no idea what Oprah knows or does not know. Every single one of us should understand from our own research (whatever the scope) how complicated the endocrine system is. Relying on a talk show to get valuable health information is not what should be happening. Talking about it is one thing, but for it to set the norm? No. I believe that is the role of our personal doctor or other health professionals and ultimately the institutions where they are taught. Many have failed miserably without even knowing it or meaning to!
When we say we have a thyroid problem, it isn’t really just our thyroid. The pituitary stimulates the thyroid to work, hence TSH for example. Really, we have a problem with our endocrine system, IMO.
Also, as far as Oprah “understanding” her condition (whatever it is)…..why is she more qualified to get a “real answer” than the rest of us? How many physicians did all of you see before you were diagnosed? Not everyone is gifted in understanding how the human body works and is able to self-diagnose accurately. I would bet Oprah does indeed get “expert” medical advice as in she sees doctors that are popular in their field or have done something to stand out in their field. But why are her Dr.’s more qualified than the one’s we may see? My feeling is that they are not (and should not be). She is still left to pick through the conflicting information and choose what she thinks is right. I also suggest that perhaps many of the people that are brave enough to tell Oprah “exact information” have very large egos and have a need to be right (even though they are not). It is often the “teller of the story” that makes it believable, not the story itself. Same goes for information that she is given.
Another thing I found interesting about Oprah was her interest in Starr Jones. I do not get to watch Oprah everyday, but from my perspective during her interview, Oprah was intently focused on Starr’s story. Perhaps Oprah is taking a similar route as Starr and asking all of those around her to keep whatever she is doing/going through under wraps. Time will tell.
For me personally, I am hypothyroid and have a child with Hashimoto’s. My hypothyroidism could have been diagnosed many, many years ago. A few doctors DID pay attention to my symptoms, but unfortunately, every test was “normal” within the old ranges. Those doctors’ instincts were correct….but they relied too heavily on the labwork AS DID I!!!
I also have CFS/CFIDS Chronic fatigue Syndrome/Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfuntion. I do not know which came first (the hypo or the CFS). But I do believe that whatever happened to me became like a snowball effect.
From the many books I have read, Mary has written one of the most understandable, and largest scope on the topic of CFS(thank you, Mary!). Check out Adrienne Dwello on About.com–she is great, too!
Dale, I also had/have systemic Candida. I am still muddeling through all of my problems, but Candida can be a big problem for some people. I suspect that your Candida, migraines and severe chils may be part of a larger role of what is going on with you. I would urge you to keep looking for a doctor who will address all of your issues (and it could be a CFS doctor).
As far as eating Soy: the best thing I have heard as far as diet is to NOT eat the same thing day in and day out. Variation and moderation are probably key…and I am still working on that one!!!
I have Hashimoto but my question is about my hands and tongue (occasionally) falling asleep at night. Has anyone ever had their tongue fall asleep? It’s a very weird feeling.