| In: Health Risks
Oprah Reveals Thyroid Disease Led to Weight Gain
Oprah Winfrey discussed thyroid disease and its recent impact upon her. Story below after the jump.
Winfrey, 53, was feeling incredibly sluggish by the time her talk show wrapped up its season in May. She eventually discovered the problem: an out-of-balance thyroid.
“My body was turning on me,” she says in the October issue of O, the Oprah magazine. “First hyperthyroidism, which sped up my metabolism and left me unable to sleep for days. (Most people lose weight. I didn’t.)”
“Then hypothyroidism, which slowed down my metabolism and made me want to sleep all the time. (Most people gain weight. I did! Twenty pounds!)”
Hyperthyroidism can also cause a fast heartbeat, among other symptoms; hypothyroidism, the opposite condition, can result in fatigue and weakness.
Winfrey, exhausted and stressed, took a month-long break in Hawaii to regain her health.
Winfrey also discussed her thyroid condition on Tuesday’s “Oprah” show, saying she “wanted so many other women who are going through the same thing to check on yourself and recognize that … it’s an issue we all share in common.”
Mary Shomon, About.com’s thyroid disease expert, wrote a detailed response to Oprah’s program and the discussion about thyroid disease which Oprah had with physician and author, Christiane Northrup, M.D. Fat Loss Victory highly recommends it, as it sheds light on the disease and takes issue with some of Dr. Northrup’s philosophy. Here is a key excerpt:
Ultimately, in claiming to advocate for women’s health, Dr. Northrup and Oprah both have inexplicably embraced an extreme — and, frankly, quite unsympathetic — view that blames women’s lifestyle and emotional life for our health problems, hormonal imbalances, and symptoms.
Here’s what else Dr. Northrup has to say about thyroid disease:
“In many women thyroid dysfunction develops because of an energy blockage in the throat region, the result of a lifetime of ‘swallowing’ words one is aching to say. In the name of preserving harmony, or because these women have learned to live as relatively helpless members of their families or social groups, they have learned to stifle their self-expression….It’s no coincidence that so many more women than men have thyroid problems. Thyroid disease is related to expressing your feelings…”
Why Christiane Northrup Needs a Wake-Up Call About Thyroid Disease
While Christiane Northrup may be, as the Oprah.com site says, “the woman Oprah calls for help,” Northrup is the one who clearly needs a wake-up call. It is irresponsible of her to suggest that an inability to express yourself is somehow responsible for a woman’s thyroid condition. Christiane Northrup is doing a serious disservice to women’s health by trying to blame women for an already misunderstood health problem. Is it any wonder that doctors across America fail to take women’s thyroid conditions seriously? Because on one end of the spectrum, we have dogmatic doctors claiming that we women are just stressed, depressed and PMSing, in need of an antidepressant or tranquilizer to solve all our problems. On the other end, we have Dr. Northrup — with Oprah’s glowing endorsement — telling us our lives and emotions have run amok, we’re unable to speak out, we’re stifling our self-expression, and therefore we’re developing thyroid problems as a result.
Fat Loss Victory is in agreement. While identifying negative emotions and its impact upon health is crucial, such an approach does not obviate the need to take concrete action to solve one’s health problems. Read the rest of the article for more detailed information about thyroid disease, its origin, causes, and ways to treat.