Oprah Winfrey Has Thyroid Disease: "I Blew Out My Thyroid" Says the Daytime Diva
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She Has Thyroid Disease |
Oprah didn't elaborate further on her admission, but this revelation of a thyroid problem is major news for the thyroid patients of America, and frankly, the world.
Some experts estimate that as many as 59 million Americans have thyroid conditions. Most are women, and most are undiagnosed. Oprah, at 53, is at the age when thyroid problems become increasingly common, and yet are frequently overlooked entirely, or misdiagnosed as perimenopause or menopause.
In my recent article Why Isn't Thyroid Disease Front Page News? I asked the question: "What would likely bring thyroid disease into the spotlight?"
And here we have our answer. Oprah, a woman frequently referred to as "the most influential woman in the world," has publicly acknowledged having some sort of thyroid problem, like millions of woman across America, and many millions more who do not yet realize they have the condition and haven't been diagnosed.
This situation presents a unique opportunity for Oprah, not to mention women everywhere -- and is unprecedented in the history of thyroid disease. If Oprah turns the powerful lens of her media empire -- television program, radio shows, web site and magazine -- toward even a small amount of coverage of thyroid disease, thyroid awareness in the U.S. and around the world could be vastly increased.
I would never wish a thyroid condition on anyone. Yet, in my own case, my own thyroid disease did lead me to discover that one of my life's missions is to serve as a voice for other thyroid patients, and to advocate for better awareness and treatment of thyroid patients.
Should Oprah's thyroid concerns ultimately lead her to launch even a small effort to raise thyroid disease awareness, she holds in her hands the precious opportunity to have a profound and lasting effect on the health of generations of women.
Will there be an "Oprah effect" on thyroid disease awareness and treatment? I know I speak for most of us when I say that I hope there will be.
Read all of Mary Shomon's About.com Thyroid site coverage of Oprah Winfrey's thyroid condition here.
Photo of Oprah Winfrey, June 2007: Peter Kramer / Getty Images
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Comments
It makes sense. She is at menopause and I would not have wasted 20 years of my life, if I was told that progesterone has a direct effect on thyroid. Her progesterone is low now. That is probably all that she needs.
Mary, can you translate that into English? What the heck does “blew out my thyroid” mean?
Oprah didn’t elaborate what was meant by “blew out my thyroid.” Trying to find out if possible. But, my assumption, since she tied it to stress, is that she may have had a period of hypothyroidism.
Aloha Mary,
Is it time for another Oprah Thyroid Awareness letter writing campaign? I found an old link to our campaign in 2001.
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-thyroid&tid=18115
This time, instead of using email, we should do it snail mail. Imagine bags full of letters on her desk?
Leslie
it took months to discover my thyroid condition. that was over 25 years ago when it was not very well known or the rich and famous had not come out of the thyroid closet. during those months i was told he only knew drunks who shook the way i did, that’s when i looked for a new doctor.. it took him one blood test to find the problem and a week in the hospital under close eyes because of my mental condition brought on by the thyroid desease..
now i am on medication and doing fine but will never forget the way i felt before it was discovered..
Hello my name is Yuarnell and i have graves desease ..Iam a 45 year old african american woman and i have had it now for 4 years. I was not treated for the first two years due the fact that i thought it was stress. i later learned two years later it was in fact hyperthyroidism .. i am currently still under treatment and my condition is not under control at this point. i have had two iodine radition treatments that has not worked. the next option may be to have my thyroid surgically removed. I strongly feel that there should be some type of awareness to all minority women and women in general about hyperthyoridism / graves desease,etc….
I am sorry that she has to go through some of the pain and emotional issues that I have had for the past year. I was diagnosed with Graves May, 2007 and was treated with the Radioactive Iodine. By August, I felt the symptoms of hypothyroidism and began taking Levoxyl.
I feel a lot better now, but if I had been better informed or educated, I am not certain that I would have opted for the RAI, and might have tried an alternate treatment before going with permanent destruction of my thyroid.
It cannot be undone, so I have to adapt, but I have been unable to lose weight, have frequent debilitating headaches, and irritability.
I hope this will be an opportunity for women in particular to become informed about hyperthyroid and hypothyroid conditions and for others to learn that the weight and lethargy are symptoms and not the cause.
GeekLady in NC
I hope Oprah can put thyroid disorders in the spotlight because 70% of women I know (ages 26-35) have had some sort of thyroid issue… many resulting in the thyroid being removed partially or entirelly. Why are thyroid disorder so common now??? Is it due to birth control pills? Better awareness/better medicine? Or do we need more research on thyroids to better understand them? It just seems too common these days.
Goodness, I remembered watching Oprah’s Show some months ago, and I commented to my daughter how swollen Oprah’s throat and said that I wouldn’t be surprised if she has an abnormal thyroid.
At age 21, when I gave birth to son, I developed hypo-thyroidism, but it went away. Then, ten years later, I gave birth to my daughter, and again, I developed hypo-thyroidism. I got very skinny, bulgy eyes, sweaty palms, sweaty a lot and hands got shaky. I was on Synthroid medication this time, and I was told that I must take my medication for life. I couldn’t accept the idea that I must have drug/medication in my system so when I travelled overseas, I convinced myself that there is no way that I will keep feeding my body with the Synthroid as it cannot be all that good for me. I decided that I must throw them away, and I must allow my system to repair itself, and should my system not able to do so, then so be it. Well, for seven months without the medication, I finally return to US, saw Dr. Ling again for a follow-up appointment. I told her that I did not take my prescription she gave me for the reason stated previously. She ran another test, and she was very surprised that my thyroid is back to normal. She told me that my case is unusual. She was very shocked.
Today, my thyroid is still normal, but I wonder if it will ever go hypo again as I get older.
I sincerely believe that Oprah’s thyroid disease will be back to normal because she has a very healthy mind, and she can restore her thyroid disease just the way I did with mine.
It took me ten years, ten years, to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism, all the while becoming sicker and sicker. Ten years of hell and “doctors” refusing to listen to me as my bloodwork was “normal”. I even had to order my own ultra-sound to prove nodules as no one was willing to order it for me. I finally saw Dr. Hipps (no longer seeing patients) that I found here on the Top Docs list and was put on Armour Thyroid. I thank God every day for that compassionate man. He gave me my life back. I now see Dr. Barbara Hoffman (also on the top docs list) in Hershey and she’s wonderful. She’s off network for me and I travel 2 hours one-way to see her. She’s worth every mile, and then some.
Someone wondered why thyroid disorders are becoming so prevalent today. I can anser that with one word: SOY. Whereas in Asia soy is considered a condiment and is usually the non-damaging fermented type (2 tsp/day), in the West people are easily ingesting more than 25 oz. daily of this toxin. That ammount daily will eventually blow out your thyroid. It’s in almost everything we eat. Be aware, read labels. Soy can masquerade as “textured vegetable protein”, boullion and other various aliases. Be especially vigilant not to feed children soy. There has been documented fatalties from allergic individuals eating hidden soy. IMHO, this Frankenfood that should not be consumed by neither human nor animal. Eat whole foods instead.
Do your own research. Googling “soy is bad” for instance will get you more hits than you care to read…
http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/ is a good place to start and also
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html
Did Oprah eat a lot of soy while dieting? Would be interesting to know…
I battled for 3 years to get the testing needed to diagnosed my thryoid. Three very miserable years. While I would never wish a thyroid problem on anyone, if Oprah does indeed have a problem, what better woman in the WORLD to be the voice of this underdiagnosed problem?
can’t sleep due recently diagnosed Hyperthyroidism. Noting the times of some of the other comments, I am not alone: nice to know that. I wouldn’t wish the past few out of control months of my life on anyone, but currently each day seems alittle better. Yes, I hope Oprah brings to light Thyroidism. However perhaps we need to present the concept to her to get the ball rolling and make others aware.
I am probably preaching to the choir, but approaching 50, most/all of my symptoms fit with early stages of periomenopause. Therefore I just assumed the way I was feeling was “normal”. I didn’t think differently until my life suddenly came to a complete standstill.
Yes, a simple campaign to inform women to have a thyroid workup every 2 years starting at age 45 along with their mammogram, pap smear. I’ve had my thyroid tested once in a while with standard blood test, last time being 4 years ago and everything was A OK. Had I tested it more frequently, on a regular 2 year cycle, I could have at minumum “controlled” my hyperthyroidism sooner? Avoiding the worse side effect. Any thoughts?
I can’t see why medically this would be a bad idea, but I am not a doctor. Mary Shomon, any thoughts? I only know my case. Create a (doctor backed) campaign of Thyroid Awareness so Oprah can run with it: Meet Thy Roid!
I, too, hope that Oprah’s thyroid issue can lead to changed lives for “generations of women,” and men, too. (My 7yo. son has hypothyroidism!)
To Rosalia: I’m so thrilled and happy that your thyroid problem is gone. It sounds as though you had a transient hypothyroid problem, and that it resolved on its own and this is why your Synthroid began to make you hyPERthyroid (not hyPOthyroid, as you stated).
However, your implication that anyone who is “mentally healthy,” as “[you] are,” can throw away their medication and heal themselves, is judgmental and to be frank, false. You may have had a temporary thyroid problem due to temporary stress, etc. But many of us have permanent thyroid problems due to pesticides, perchlorate and other contaminants in our lives, permanent genetic damage to our cellular mitochondria, lack of enzymes required to convert T4 to T3, and other factors that we cannot change. I found your implication to be highly offensive and emotionally charged, and even dangerous. No one should throw away their thyroid medication except under the direction of their physician. Perhaps you should study more about thyroid disease before you advise others to take this potentially very dangerous action.
But, again, I’m very happy that you are all better. Please just don’t be so prideful in attributing this positive turn in your health to your terrific mental health. It could have gone the other way for you. You are just lucky/blessed. Enjoy your new health!
“Blew out her thyroid” Well, that’s certainly different. And stress caused that? Very interesting….
I went almost 20 years before a doctor even was willing to consider that I might be “subclinical” hypothyroid in spite of a long family history (I’m the fifth on the maternal side with thyroid issues. I won’t wish my ordeal on anyone. Lucky Oprah to have someone notice sooner rather than later.
What rosalia is describing is probably a condition known as post-partum thyroiditis, where you have a temporary bout of thyroid disease after pregnancy and delivery. Those women frequently find that the thyroid resolves itself, and treatment is no longer required. While I am sure that having a positive attitude is definitely a part of getting a staying well, I would likely attribute most of Rosalia’s recovery to the fact that both of her thyroid episodes came after pregnancy and were temporary conditions. For women who have chronic thyroid disease, giving up the medication is usually not an option, and to follow such advice would result in worsening health.
Mary
Rosalia is indeed lucky. I had a bout of postpartum thyroiditis some time after the birth of my third child (my son is now 21 years old). My hyper was controlled with medication for several months. I was told I was cured! A year or so later, still not feeling better, I was diagnosed with hypo. What followed was about 16 years of misery! Thank you Mary for this site! Armed with the valuable knowledge I learned here, I managed to get my doctors to take my concerns with Symthroid seriously enough to prescribe natural thyroid (no Armour in Canada). I see much hope, but haven’t got the dose right yet (it’s been almost a year, but TSH is still the guiding point to these doctors). The only way Oprah will give this disease its due is if her life becomes a living hell, like it has for so many of us. Meanwhile, Rosalie, keep an eye on your thyroid, it may still kick up and give you trouble.
Thyroid functions blood tests for all women periodically, along with blood glucose testing to avoid serious health issue that may crop up undiagnosed for years.
Oprah thinks it was stress, I’ll bet you she’s eating soy and probably hydrolyzed soy. I think Bob Greene has some connection with her training & he’s recommending SLIMFAST products. Soy is bad for thyroids IMO & monosodium (msg) even worse IMO. Only good that will come out of this is if she realizes the soy connection. Hope springs eternal.
Hello. I have had thyroid disease for about 22 years. I felt as if I was shaking all over inside my body. I went to the doctor. My level was so high that it was off of the chart and so the doctor took another test just to be sure. He said he had never seen one as high as mine before. I was also having trouble swallowing, but no visible signs of a goiter. He sent me to the hospital to take a radioactive iodine pill, but they gave me two. I wish they hadn’t of. It ate all of my thyroid away and I immediately went into a deep depression in a matter of days. I drove myself to the hospital and had them to run another test which showed my levels extremely low. The doctor put me on a low level of Synthroid and a nerve pill. It took about a year for me to get straightened out. I was very depressed and very paranoid. I had two small children to take care of, also. My husband was helpful, but I didn’t let him know EXACTLY how I felt, for fear he and everyone else would think I was crazy. I kept a lot to myself. Throughout the years I have felt pretty normal, just tired a lot, but I have had a fluntuating level and had had a few more bouts with low- thyroid levels and depression. I handle it okay with the Lord’s help and also because I know it’s a medical condition. I now am to go to the doctor to keep tabs on my levels every three to six months. She keeps me pretty regulated and I feel good. It is a very serious disease and one that I do not wish on anyone. God has been so very good to me throughout the ordeal and touched and strengthened me. I would not have made it without His help in my life, and touch on my life! Praise Him!!!
hi,i was diagnosed with graves disease in 2004,i thought i was going through the change,my periods stopped,had terrible palpatations and sweats,tremor to the hands.i was put on carbimazole,they recommended i stayed on it for 2 years but i was so ill from the medicine that i took the decision to come off it after 12 months,my thyroid was in range,(a little under if anything)my doctor supported me in my decision and thankfully i have stayed in range ever since.i now have yearly blood tests to monitor it.i dont advise people to stop taking their medicine but i personally found the medicine worse than the actual disease.i do get tired easily and have gained a stone in weight,but i feel im learnig to adjust my lifestyle to work with the disease.just take each day as they come and apprieciate the good ones.!
Why is the emphasis only on women & why is it that the “tests” to “determine” if you have a thyroid problem are all “female-based”—-men CAN have a thyroid problem. My three sisters & I have a thyroid problem—mine is the worst—I had a reading of 263.256. A thyroid problem can be anyone’s problem regardless of gender. I do HOPE that Oprah does take the issue to heart & has a program on it.
Oprah wrote a piece in 2002 about her heart palpitations. She consulted 5 doctors, including a heart specialist, who couldn’t find anything wrong. After reading the “Wisdom of Menopause”, she concluded that the heart palps were due to perimenopause. Oprah’s article about her heart palps is at http://www2.oprah.com/health/omag/health_omag_200208_menopause.jhtml
I remember this clearly because I was having heart palps too about that time. My doctor ordered an EKG, which was normal. After that, I didn’t worry about the heart palps too much because Oprah said it was just perimenopause.
I was severely hypo by the time I was diagnosed last year with Hashimoto’s. Looking back, my heart palps were an early warning sign of thyroid problems. I suspect Oprah’s heart palps were caused by thyroid problems too.
Donna
Like everyone else here, I am very happy that Oprah has opened the door to the general public about thyroid disease. I hope that she researches the topic thoroughly and presents a full range of options…like, not just synthroid! I agree that it would be helpful to contact her, encouraging this.
Has anyone here had any experience with Wilson’s Thyroid Syndrome, now renamed Wilson’s Temperature Syndrome? I had all of the symptoms of hypothyroidism: depression, weight gain, cold, lack of energy. Someone told me about Wilson’s and I found a dr. who put me on that protocol. I tried it for several years, did lose some weight, but was never able to “capture” my temperature. My dr. blamed my failure on my diet; he recommends a very strict diet–no oatmeal, no brown rice, no corn…not much of anything, which I found difficult to keep. Finally I gave up on the Wilson’s treatment…it is extremely difficult to do, I found, and expensive. I tried some alternative therapies, that mostly used supplements, selected by muscle testing and some energy work. Also acupuncture. I suppose everything helps somewhat but I still have the basic problem of lack of energy and cold. Finally I went back to my dr. and asked for Armour Thyroid, having read about it here on this website. He agreed, but gave only the minimum dosage…15 mgHe said that my tests indicate that I am only borderline hypo. After several months of that, with very little change, I finally got him to bump it up. He just gave me a new Rx for 1/2 gram. I am eagerly watching for its effects.
Has anyone else here had experience with the Wilson’s protocol, comparing it with Armour? Thank you for this forum!
Oprah will have to change the world now and voice it about thyroid disease as she will suffer with the disease so so many women around the world
I just picked up a copy of Oprah’s latest magazine. On the back page she details a little of her thyroid struggle. As part of her self care routine she mentions drinking soy milk. Is this a good idea considering the dangers of soy to the thyroid? At least she is making a public announcement, so I am optimistic that she’ll eventually get Dr. Oz to cover the topic on her show.
According to the book “The Paleo Diet” by Loren Cordain, soy is one of the worst things you can eat, and that is also scientifically proven. One of the reasons is that lecithin in the soy make the walls in the cells easier to break through for bacteria etc to enter into the blood. A lot of wrong information on soy’s inpact on health, and soy also interferes with the thyroid hormones.
First I want to thank Mary for a wonderful website and all the efforts that she puts in it. I was diagnose with hashimotos 5yrs ago and thank god for Mary’s website I will still be suffering with all of the symtoms of the desease if it were not being for Mary. I do think that if Oprah has a thyroid problem it may help all of the people out there that have probles with thyroid not everyone has the patience to go searching in the web to try to find help.I believe that Mary should try to contact Oprah to see if she become an advocate of thyroid desease. If anyone out there know how to send her mail were she will actually see, maybe it should be post to this website so we can all write to her to encourage her to bring this deasease to the front line. Again my gratitude to you Mary for the great job you do.
I noticed that Oprah’s neck was enlarged and I mentioned this to several friends and my husband. I look back at photos of myself and wonder why the Doctors didn’t figure it out much sooner,one side of my neck was noticeably enlarged. I tried to have another baby for 8 years,went through much testing to find out why I couldn’t carry a child and nothing came back to say there was an issue. I finally changed Doctors and he said I was “low-normal” with a small goiter and I should try taking thyroid medication. I conceived that month and he is 26 years old now. I didn’t take my medication as directed at the end of the pregnancy and after delivering my son at the end of my six week checkup, I was having trouble swallowing and sometimes a little trouble breathing at night. They surgically removed half of my thyroid and I had Hashimotos thyroid problems. It’s an autoimmune disorder. After 9 years the other side of my neck,the thyroid enlarged as the other side had and they removed that side also. I was put on Thryolar medication,great medication. I did fine until a Dr. changed my medication to Synthyroid,I gained 50 pounds,felt terrible, never had any energy and no one listened until I made a big issue that I needed to be put back on my previous medication of Thyrolar. I feel great now. Oprah,please help the Dr.s in this country to understand that you need T-3 and T-4 to feel great and function as a normal person again. Good luck.
I have a very high stress job working in a hospital clinical lab on the evening shift. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, growth hormone deficency and my TSH is always 0. I take Armour thyroid and my free T3 and free T4 are in the very low range of normal. Stress does a lot of damage to the body and the crtical hormones we need to survive in our stress filled lives. Maybe that is what Oprah meant when she said her “thyroid crashed”. She should also have herself checked out for other hormone deficiencies, since they all work together. I hope she does do a show on this. Fibromyalgia has a lot of the same symptoms that hypothyroidism does. I also have to take growth hormone injections every night since I no longer produce it. Anyone else out there with the same problems? I would love to hear from you!
Tell the world Oprah we need u now to tell the drs so there can be more research done on this disease
Thank u
After having many symptoms, my thyroid antibodies were found to be out of whack. TSH upper normal limits. This journey started over a decade ago. Was treated with thyroid meds. Became very depressed. Needed 3 antidepressants to come out of that. Meanwhile pounds coming on and on and on while not changing any eating habits OR exercise habits. Changed doctors three times, giving them each about 2 years. They all wanted to get me in the middle TSH to lower TSH range. But I become very hypo then. Just last year having problems swallowing, could feel thyroid enlarged, but was told TSH was very normal. I started to listen to my body and what it was telling me. Cut the pills in half! I did so and wow! Feeling much better! Sleeping better, have lost 8 lbs without trying, no more shortness of breath on my walk, water retention much better, no hypoglycemia, no mood swings or irritability.. what a big mess. I still have 50 lbs to lose to get me back to where I was 10 years ago. I look at a picture of me from just last year and my face is as round as a full moon! O but your TSH is normal! ha! The pictures from 3, 4, and 5 years ago my face was even rounder and the weight makes me sad! I have never ever been overweight in my life until being on Synthroid first, and now Levoxyl. I still take a low dose, but very low. Doctor now says I can run up to 7 TSH level if I feel good. He has others too he said who feel better with a higher TSH. I am just happy to finally have listened to myself and to find a doctor who listens to me and how I feel and not a lab test! The thyroid is a very complex gland and I hate to see so many people being encouraged by their doctors to have their thyroids removed and be on the synthetic hormone. There is NO way it is identical to what our body produces… no way. Perhaps it takes someone like Oprah to experience what many of us have had to go through to finally get some more research in this area and come up with better alternatives for treatment than the standard Synthroid/levothyroxine handed out by docs as the miracle wonder hypo drug!
I have had thyroid problems for 30 years and the Dr.’s will only do a 2 part panel for the blood test. they should do the whole panel, I have gained weight and the Dr says it’s your thyroid,why does the weight stay on while taking the pill? Knowing Oprah she will bring out the truth and get us all help we need!!
I feel like my mental state was so out of whack when I went to be treated for my hyperthyroid that I let the doctor’s convice me to have the RAI treatment because I was desperate for something to make me feel better. Since then, I can’t shake the feeling that I have something “missing”, that I messed myself up.
Several years ago, at about 50 yrs. of age, I went to my Gynecologist with menopausal systems. I had found myself very emotional, tired all of the time (actually falling asleep at my computer at work or whenever I sat down), night sweats,no libido and unexplained weight gain. I would just look at my husband and cry stating “I am really not crazy!”
My Dr.immediately ran horomonal blood tests. When he received the results, he called me at work to inform me my thyroid had stopped functioning. He was very concerned about my well-being. He had me make an appointment with an endrocologist to provide care for my hypothyroidism.
My gynecologist put me on synthetic hormones and the endrocologist put me on Synthroid and Vitamin E. I noted alot of improvement in my basic well-being, but not completely content with my overall feeling. I did not care for the use of the synthetic hormones.
I have since switched to a compounding pharmacy and had my hormones changed to bio-identical. (Thanks to Suzanne Sommers book)The pharmacy also suggested I add DHEA to my daily regime.
My daily perscriptions now include; Synthroid,low dose of Altace(High blood pressure,Vitamin E, bio-identical hormones compounded specifically for me and DHEA. I have a blood test ran every 6 months to monitor my thyroid levels and visit my endrocologist every 6 months.
I finally feel like I am back to normal. It took alot of research on my own. I tried to read just about everything I could find on Hypothyroidism, but there was not a whole lot out there explaining what had happened to my thyroid. I needed to know what had happened to my body and why me?
Perhaps now with all of this public attention from Oprah, more info and studies will be available.
Hi. I not happy that Oparah has this condtion. I must say it not the best diease to have. I been struggling with this disease since I was around 15. Acutually, when I noticed ths enlargement n my neck region. Although the time I notice something differnt about myself as well as fily and peers. I felt different from normal. As a little girl i could remember feeling very anxious, much and uncontrollable energy, depression, heart palpations, cold feet and hands, and the like. As i grew into a teenager, it was hard to go to highschool with these feelings I felt like people wouldn’t understand. Hyperthyroidism was a new term to me the medical industry, and doctors. In my (African American) community and family the word crazy was used for people who act a little different or was health conious. However, as time progress my systms got worse and I mangage to finish college and supress or shall i say deal with this feeelings because I didn’t have any health care. Still, I test normal since all the radio active Iodine and other drugs to slow heart rate. 12 years ago I thought I would be good today…But i feel those symtoms of and on. I feeel as thought so part of me has been damaged. This is a disease that we shouldn’t take lightly siince affects a person whole well being……Now I’m currently undergoing more test…so wish me luck I still have hope…..Oparah I hope that this can spark a whole new awareness in the African American Community and more…Thanks