Oprah on a recent show said she was off "all medications". I thought this was strange because according to doctors observing the media coverage of Oprah's case, they believe she has Hashimoto's thyroiditis and treatment is usually life long when hypothyroidism develops. It makes more sense to me if she has switched to bio identical replacement (as she mentioned on one of her recent shows) which some don't view as being the same as drugs or medication. She is likely on desiccated thyroid hormone (animal derived) because some animal sources are bio identical to human in both thyroid and adrenal hormones.

Women experience many more hormonal problems than do men, plus have thyroid disease at least five times more often than do men. These are points I've made often in articles. This means that of the 30 to 60 million thyroid disease sufferers in the U.S. alone, about 6 to 12 million are men, which is still a very high number, especially when you look at worldwide statistics in the 100s of millions.

Health conditions such as IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) have about 2 to 3 times more women sufferers than men and for almost all diseases you can name, the statistic-ratio has more women sufferers than men. I place as much and more importance in helping educate women generally with thyroid disease information than I do in educating men, for this same reason of their being more female thyroid patients out there. I absolutely adore women, my wife, daughter and mother are women. My mother has hypothyroidism and both my son and daughter are already displaying signs of thyroid disease (son has a goiter at age-24). Both men and women with thyroid disease can benefit from information campaigns that help them recognize when they might be experiencing thyroid conditions. This demonstrates the great value in people like Oprah Winfrey coming forward with their own diagnosis and treatment details. There does however need to be balance added to informing the public, so that it is understood that men also experience thyroid disease.

What's the best way to get the information out on these diseases in addition to that being done by the medical community? The only way is for people like my self who suffer thyroid disease, Oprah Winfrey and whoever else is willing to jump on the campaign, to help out. I'm actually hoping more men will become advocates and not feel suppressed in doing so due to a stigma that these are women's diseases. I had a man say to me shortly after I was diagnosed, that he thought my Hashimoto's-hypothyroidism was a women's disease (I had to bite my tongue & resist the urge to lift him in the air by his shirt collar). Shortly after that I met several men in my own town who have both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism conditions and an uncle with Grave's Disease (same as was experienced by Pres. George Bush Sr.). All of these factors are what brought me into this thyroid patient advocacy I'm involved with.

About 2 months ago, a man in the UK started a thyroid disease forum and invited me to become a moderator there, which I'm also doing (ThyroidHelp.Org). They love having women on the forum as well but felt it was important for men to feel freedom to be involved in the support and advocacy. Mary Shomon began a campaign in 1998 to inspire men to come forward more about their thyroid disease, for the same reasons I stated above.

Oprah has already come forward about her thyroid condition in also gaining more public awareness for both male and female thyroid disease sufferers. What we in Thyroid Patient Advocacy have actually been saying and hoping for, is that with her already letting the public know about it, we would love to have a bit more detail. As I said in an earlier article, she's not obligated but it's already out and we would just be pleased to see more info like the basic question of what caused her thyroid condition. If it's female hormonal imbalance, I'll step aside and leave the further commenting on that aspect to those qualified to comment. If thyroid autoimmunity or other thyroid disease/condition is the cause, this would be something I could comment on. We do also wonder however if part of the reason Oprah hasn’t given more detail, is ‘possibly’ because she is not being as fully or properly advised about her thyroid disease as she should be.

SEE PART TWO>>  http://hubpages.com/hub/Is-Oprah-Winfrey-Advised-Well-on-Her-Thyroid-Condition-PART-TWO