Health Articles in Magazines Often Get Thyroid and Hormone Information Wrong
Updated August 18, 2014.
We see the headlines as we're standing in the supermarket checkout line: "Amazing Thyroid Cure!" "Thyroid-Boosting Foods!" "Hormone Health Secrets." But do these magazines -- whether they're weekly tabloids at the checkout, monthly women's magazines, or even health-focused publications -- get it right when they're talking about thyroid disease and hormone health?
The truth? Don't count on the information you get in magazines to be unbiased or balanced -- or even accurate -- when it comes to thyroid, hormones, and health information.
Magazine writers often have little to no knowledge about thyroid disease or hormones, and typically go to easily available sources such as official spokespeople for major medical groups, and PR firms for drug companies, to obtain quotes and information. This means that many articles end up being little more than glorified press releases from conventional medical societies or pharmaceutical companies.
A good example was the August 2011 article in Good Housekeeping magazine, titled "Understanding Thyroid Problems." The piece, written by Susan Carlton, dismissed thyroid disease derisively as a trendy "disease du jour," and the author interviewed only traditional, conventionally-oriented endocrinologists, and represented their opinions as facts and official medical knowledge.
In the end, after talking to doctors, getting her thyroid tested and having borderline hypothyroidism, Carlton concluded that: "Given my family history, my doctor recommends I check again next year. With all I'd learned about hypothyroidism, I had already decided that even if my levels had nudged up a bit, I would opt out of treatment.
In the meantime, I'm drinking more java (for energy) and honing my crossword skills (for focus). As for the unwanted pounds, there's a spinning class on Saturday with my name on it."
Hundreds of patients, and dozens of the nation's leading thyroid practitioners, sent in rebuttal letters, emails, and online postings, expressing serious concerns that such a cavalier dismissal of subclinical hypothyroidism could be dangerous to readers. Good Housekeeping eventually published my response letter online and a shorter version in their print magazine, to help mitigate the negative impact of their article.
To date, however, the magazine has not published an article on thyroid disease that corrects the massive amount of misinformation featured in their August 2011 article.
Another recent example: the December 2011 issue of Health magazine, which features thyroid cancer survivor and Modern Family star Sofia Vergara on the cover. In an article titled "Dying to be Young: The Risks of Anti-Aging Medicine," the writer consults with a number of conventional doctors and dogmatic endocrinologists, who proceed to disparage all doctors who focus on "anti-aging" or hormone balance, calling them "one step above snake oil salesman."
The article features a list titled, "Beware of any doctor who" -- and then goes on to warn patients to beware of doctors who prescribe compounded bioidentical hormones, or who use saliva tests. This is again controversial, and reflects a very conventional perspective, because thousands of doctors across the United States regularly prescribe compounded bioidentical hormones, and millions of Americans benefit from these medications. As for saliva hormone tests, they are FDA-approved.
They also refer to adrenal fatigue as a "fad diagnosis" and as a "bogus diagnosis," a position that is controversial, and is considered outdated and wrong by many cutting-edge practitioners. It may also reflect a bias toward conventional physicians and drug company benefactors.
Looking back, there is the October 2007 issue of Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine. In the "What I Know for Sure" column in the October 2007 issue, Oprah wrote about her health during the previous spring:
"My body was turning on me. 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!)"Oprah described being exhausted and numb by the end of her show's season, but she needed to spend the month of June in South Africa with the students at the girls' school she founded. She then cleared her schedule and spent the following month of July in Hawaii, where, as she puts it, she "actively worked at doing nothing."
She described her health regimen during that time. "I took vitamins. Drank soy milk. Munched on golden flaxseed. I ate only fresh foods..." According to Oprah, after 14 days, she started to feel her "self" returning, and by the end of the month, she was feeling better, and said her "physical health improved..."
(For the record, soy is a goitrogen and thyroid disruptor that may slow thyroid function and worsen hypothyroidism. Flaxseed is also a phytoestrogen that may interfere with thyroid function.)
This very misguided description of how she handled her thyroid problem that summer was only the beginning of Oprah's long and torturous thyroid saga, which involved her claiming to be cured, then saying she wasn't cured, and starting and stopping thyroid medication, and finally turning to actress Suzanne Somers for medical advice, and to go on a regimen of hormones for menopause.
In recent years, I've seen magazines present the following controversial statements as facts:
- Everyone with a thyroid problem needs iodine
- Being convinced you have a thyroid problem when tests are "normal" means you're mentally ill
- Coconut oil can cure your thyroid
- Armour Thyroid is made from cow thyroid, and is available over-the-counter without a prescription
- Hyperthyroidism symptoms feel like "being in love"