Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – Is it YOUR fault? Oprah and Mary Shomon disagree

The quest for the root cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is very dear to my heart. It HAS to be. I have suffered many years with this disease. That’s why I think I have the experience to post on this subject. Mary Shomon has been a patient advocate and a thyroid patient herself for many years now. The problem I have and why I am writing today is to find balance in a bold statement she made in her latest article correcting Oprah Winfrey’s suggestion that somehow your thyroid disease can be your fault. Oprah admitted to working extra hard and being extremely tired before her diagnoses. Here’s the excerpt from Mary Shomon I am concerned about:

Here’s my wake-up call to women everywhere: Thyroid disease is NOT your fault. Thyroid disease results when heredity and genetics, autoimmunity, environmental exposures, viral infections, and hormonal shifts come together in a perfect storm to trigger a dysfunction. And while emotional and physical stress, as well as nutrition and lifestyle, can play a role creating a climate receptive for — or fighting against — most diseases including thyroid conditions, these factors are only part of a larger, complicated puzzle.

Women are more susceptible to thyroid disease, as well as most of the more than 80 autoimmune diseases, for a variety of reasons, including the balance of our hormones. Times of hormonal change — i.e., pregnancy, post-partum, perimenopause and menopause — are key trigger points for the development of thyroid disease.

Another factor that can affect your thyroid is overconsumption of soy. In an official letter of protest to the FDA, Drs. Daniel Doerge and Daniel Sheehan, formerly the FDA’s two key experts on soy, contradicted soy’s health claims — which were approved by the FDA — saying:

“…there is abundant evidence that some of the isoflavones found in soy, including genistein and equol, a metabolize of daidzen, demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid….Additionally, isoflavones are inhibitors of the thyroid peroxidase which makes T3 and T4. Inhibition can be expected to generate thyroid abnormalities, including goiter and autoimmune thyroiditis. There exists a significant body of animal data that demonstrates goitrogenic and even carcinogenic effects of soy products. Moreover, there are significant reports of goitrogenic effects from soy consumption in human infants and adults.”

Dr. Northrup, however, dismisses the opinions of these experts, as well as the many journal articles on the issue, and instead points to the soy industry’s own studies as evidence of soy’s safety for women.

Also from another article from Mary Shomon:

I can’t make it any clearer: Thyroid disease is NOT your fault. It is a result of autoimmunity, environmental exposures, genetics/heredity, and hormone shifts. Yes, stress and diet can play a part in disease— in fact, thyroid problems are, as noted, sometimes triggered by overconsumption of soy. (italics and bold mine)

In order to give her fair representation, I have quoted her full thoughts on what she believes causes thyroid dysfunction. In summary, she maximizes the environmental, hormonal and things “out of our control” and minimizes our own emotional and physical choices. Notice how she minimizes stress and diet – kind of just floats through the statement as though it isn’t there? Is it wise of her to use such a bold statement as “Thyroid Disease is NOT Your Fault” given her admittance that “emotional and physical
stress, as well as nutrition and lifestyle, can play a role”? Doesn’t the bold title convey we absolutely have NO control over this disease? I beg to differ. Here’s an excerpt from her OWN book “Living Well With Hypothyroidism” (2000), suggesting her OWN thyroid problem could have been jumpstarted by none other than a severe pushing of her body to the max during a certain time of her life:

Looking back, I’m fairly sure the onset of my thyroid problem occurred in early 1993, when I was thirty-two… I had about a ten pound weight gain from age thirty to thirty-two, I grew from a size 6/8, to a size 8/10, but didn’t worry much about it. Then in the winter of 1993, I published my first book. I was working an intense fulltime job, then coming home and working late into the night on the new book. I had a new boyfriend. It was a period of several months of intense work/book/life excitement and stress, coupled with too little sleep, poor eating habits, and lot of cigarettes and caffeine… (bold and italics mine)
Page 6

Does this sound like someone who had NO fault in her own body’s decline? Hmmm… does this not sound strangely familiar to what Oprah was saying might be related to her thyroid condition? Then she writes at the end of this article:

P.S. And Oprah, if you’re reading — my wish for you is that someday, you realize that your thyroid condition is truly not your fault. And please reconsider all that soy!

So let me get this straight – I have NO control over my thyroid disease BUT stop using all that soy? Doesn’t that imply I have some control? I hope Mary Shomon considers revising her strong statements about having no control yet publishing many books and articles about how we can actually control our Hashimoto’s Disease! Her statements are confusing in that they give the impression that there’s nothing you can do for your thyroid disease, and yet gives testimony to the positive effects of avoiding soy.

I understand the role I played in the disease that eventually was diagnosed in my body. I was even warned by someone early on that if I didn’t control my stress, I would make myself sick. Even though the event was beyond my control, my emotional response could have been much better. Referring to her sudden weight gain, Ms. Shomon stated, “I didn’t worry much about it”. I reacted the same way when I was warned about my stress. Is it possible that the body was warning her earlier about some stress it was going through but she did not connect the symptoms to change her lifestyle? I think so. But of course, this is just my opinion.

Regarding the other culprits she mentions, environmental, soy, etc., I have no doubt they are likely contributors to some people’s thyroid problems and I am not here to blame all cases of thyroid disease on the person. I am mostly concerned with the bold statement that there is NO fault to be contributed to any thyroid patients in any way!

I am not trying to write a technical story – those of you that have read my articles know I am writing from a patient’s viewpoint and steer away from the technical. However, having lived many years in a body that shows response to my “moods” and my lifestyle choices, I can tell you FOR SURE that we do have some control over the body and it’s function. I have kept journals on how my choice of foods and lifestyle effects my thyroid condition. It always does! That tells me there is control there. Having that information may not solve the problem at this time, but it indicates to me that there may eventually be a way to use this information to help reverse this condition. The body seems to react to stress and asks for changes by alerting us to it in ways that manifest as unusual symptoms. If we don’t “listen” to the body when the symptoms are small, I suspect disease is the outcome.

In my own life, I am aware of traumatic events that came prior to my diagnoses. I am aware of my decision to take medications that are now known to suppress thyroid function, like steroids for my asthma, birth control pills which could have easily made me estrogen dominate, eating high amounts of soy products (buying into the soy hype) and although difficult to control, many stressful events that I hadn’t any idea how to handle. And finally, eating the Standard American Diet which I have now begun to replace with a traditional diet through this great online eCourse I encourage everyone to take. Maybe I wasn’t aware of the damaging effects they might have but I need to admit that I made these choices. I might have been a victim in some ways but nevertheless, I am the one that chose the course. Could it also be that I can also help turn that around? Why wouldn’t that be a positive goal? What would I be losing if I was to make positive changes to my lifestyle that might alleviate or possibly reverse my condition? When should a person “give up”? Or should they?

I am very encouraged by the stress management programs popping up presently which would have been a very important asset to my life years ago – perhaps teaching me how to release pent up emotions for years. I am confident this act alone is a major contributor to thyroid disease. So, in that statement alone, I emphatically disagree with Mary Shomon’s strong statement that there is no blame to be found in the patient. The sooner we admit to any misuse of our body, the sooner we will be in position for healing. It goes both ways. It’s admitted that we can be predisposed to illness (when extra stress is given to the body). Could it be that we are also predisposed to healing (given the right support to the body)? I encourage you to think about the implications of such a possibility.

In an effort to ease your mind however, I want to make it clear that I am NOT trying to dismiss legitimate factors beyond our control (environmental, viral, etc.) that can result in disease, but to recognize ways you might be contributing to the problem yourself (ie. intense work or demands on the body, too little sleep, poor eating habits, cigarettes, caffeine, etc.) as Mary Shomon has previously admitted. Why would we NOT try to figure out what fault we might have in our own health? That is a troubling thought to me.

Let’s join together and admit any contributions we have made and support each other on correcting them. None of us are “perfect”. It also concerns me to read that Mary Shomon actually said that you can do everything “perfectly” and still have a thyroid problem. Have you ever met a perfect person? I haven’t and that helps me admit my contributions to this disease. It does not make me feel guilty. It makes me feel empowered. I hope you’ll join me and take responsibility for your health.

None of
the information or personal testimonies on this blog are designed to take the
place of being under the care of a qualified medical doctor. Please make sure
you find a caring doctor to treat you for all your health concerns.

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Comments

19 responses to “Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – Is it YOUR fault? Oprah and Mary Shomon disagree”

  1. devin Avatar
    devin

    Hi Just found your blog. I wanted to respond to your statements as well as Oprah’s and Mary Shomon’s. I have been struggling with hashimoto’s for 2 yrs and it has only gotten worse. It has been a struggle to find proper care and be taken seriously by doctor’s. Their is story after story of women being dismissed and given anti-depressants. One told doctor told a friend of mine that it was because she was single. How about women get Hashimoto’s because there is gene for it. We never do this to men we never just say it was because of stress and ply them with anti-depressents. Men never take 100 percent resposnibility for things heart attacks and prostate cancer but hte burden is on women to say it was lifestyle and stress?! This is partly why there is such bad care for a common auto immune disease. My hashimoto’s was not my fault.

  2. linda silva Avatar

    i halve the same problem with hashimotos disease too. i notice i got anxiety and deppression when the symptoms started before i knew i had it. then i noticed changing my diet made me feel much better. avoiding dairy and wheat made my anxietys and deppression alot less. my docter said it might help improve my thyroid alittle. i did notice more energy and yes avoiding soy helped too. also you should avoid tap water the chlorine in the water faucets they put it in blocks the thyroid gland.

  3. Cathi McKeon Avatar
    Cathi McKeon

    What do anxiety, Hashimoto’s, seizures, arthritis, low back pain, gall stones, anemia, depression, vomiting, GI problems, ear glue have in common? Celiac disease. After years of tests on four of my now adult children and myself, the mystery is over. It is genetic and can be diagnosed by endoscopy. Please check out the celiac websites.

  4. hazyjane Avatar
    hazyjane

    Cathi is right in a way- it’s been found that 95% of Hashi’s are gluten intolerant and that gluten exposure triggers an autoimmune attack on the thyroid. It’s not exactly that most Hashi’s people have Celiac disease (I don’t have Celiac, but gluten induces an inflammatory autoimmune response for me which mainly affects my thyroid and reproductive organs).
    Gluten is the underlying trigger for both Hashi’s and Celiac, so many people have both.

    Please check out thyroidbook.com for more info. There are ways to balance the autoimmune response and address the REAL underlying factors in Hashimoto’s- not just treat TSH levels.

  5. Beatrice T Avatar
    Beatrice T

    I agree with your post.

    Autoimmunity is, according to the experts, 30% genetic & 70% environmental.

    I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis for 10yrs and Ménière’s Disease for 3yrs. I believe both to be autoimmune issues due to chronic stress (i.e. Psychoneuroimmunology).

    I watch my diet & try to exercise more but the MOST important thing I believe I can do for my health is to watch my stress levels. I do this by setting more boundaries, saying “no” more often, resting when I need to, being more grateful, being less perfectionistic, asking for help & most importantly actively seeking more JOY. All of these things are with my control.

    🙂

  6. Kris Avatar
    Kris

    Hi. I’m writing to you right now because I’m having some weird reactions to food as a result (I blelieve) of my hashi’s. It’s so sad that we all have such similar stories. It took doctors 15 years to figure out I had Hashi. I was 19 and suffered a cardiac bout of PSVT- benign, scary but all thyroid and they missed it! No one takes women seriously in the medical profession. After suffering 15 years- my new OB finally listened to me when I asked for either a psych. eval or that something was really wrong with me. My tsh was 11 and my antibodies off the charts. It really sucks- I’m glad there are more websites growing on this topic.

    All the best to my fellow Hashi’s Club members.
    Kris

  7. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Hi Kris,

    I would definitely check for leaky gut if you are having multiple food allergies as well as getting a functional medicine doctor to look at you. Check out my post Can Hashimoto’s be Reversed? You may get some good ideas on new ways to approach your situation. A simple over-the-phone consult with the right doctor could really make a difference in your life. It has for me. It’s gotten me on a more functional path – looking at test results to help me gauge my treatment. Hope you get the right help too. Thanks for your comment and please join us on the forum. 🙂 Mo

  8. lucylu64 Avatar

    I am so glad I stumbled on this website it already has been very insightful. I recently was diagnosed with Hashi and type 2 diabetes. This has effected my life drastically. I was also told I have leaky gut and that is at the root of these issues. I’ve become gluten and dairy intolerant, actually intolerant to many things now. I’ve been to several endocronoligist, dr’s and have been sorely disappointed by treatment and support. I get most of my help on the internet. I havent found any help or relief. I’m also looking into Natural means of medicine. Looking for a good suggestion out in the SOCAL area. I welcome all and any suggestions (help). Also like to know does anyone have a suggestion for Probiotic that is glueten, soy, dairy free? Can you get your life back??

    I appreciate any input!

    Lucy

  9. butterfly Avatar
    butterfly

    I have had Hashimoto’s for about 2 years. I know my Hashimoto’s is hereditary passed on from my Mother. I also believe is not our fault.

  10. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Our fault or not, gluten is very aggressively linked to Hashimoto’s disease and many autoimmune diseases. If we can see changes in our health by going gluten free, it proves we have more control than originally thought. I have a daughter with Hashimoto’s now too and although there are hereditary factors, she has seen reversal of antibodies just like I have (when I saw reversal, I am saying greatly reduced by going gluten free). This does not mean the disease is gone – it means it can be controlled. It always helps to look into ways to help ourselves and this new breakthrough proves we can find help through diet. 🙂

  11. Hmmmm Avatar
    Hmmmm

    Sorry but I don’t understand what Mary said that you disagree with. Everybody goes through stressful periods. Successful, healthy people push themselves to their limit everyday and don’t get sick….at least not with a chronic disease. Something can only be your fault if you know that there will be negative consequences. People unaware of their ALREADY existing hashimoto’s don’t sabotage themselves on purpose. I just don’t get your logic. I couldn’t get treatment for mine even with a history of thyroid probs. And there sure as he’ll wasn’t any instruction manuel even 10 years ago. I was to catatonic back then to read it any way.

  12. Hmmmm Avatar
    Hmmmm

    PS I first got sick as a child. It bloody well wasn’t my fault sweetheart. And the second time around when I started getting fat even though i exercised every single day? Well I didn’t give a crap because I could barely make it through an 8 Hr day let alone take extreme dieting measures to keep my model figure.
    We are not all the same. I don’t appreciate when patients like u think because something worked or didn’t in your case then the rest of us are stupid or in denial.

  13. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Thank you for your comment Tweeterton. I think you are misunderstanding my post. I agree with Mary in that we are not responsible for the pre-disposition of the disease and in most cases, even the onset of it, however, I disagree that there is nothing we can do to heal this condition. I also agree with you that years ago there was little to go on for research and healing but in the last few months there has been more and more research pointing to factors that can calm the immune system and slow the advancement of this disease. If a patient desires to move in that direction, there are certainly many good studies proving that certain steps taken can make a giant difference in their condition. I now know quite a few people who have Hashimoto’s who have seen their antibodies decrease from being in the thousands to just in the low hundreds (just by meticulously cutting out gluten and other known allergens). This is definitely a reason to rejoice in having some control. In the days ahead, I believe there will be more understanding on ways to help ourselves. I just feel that we should not be fed the line that there is nothing we can do to help the situation. I certainly respect your opinion and do not pretend to be right on everything. In my experience and of those around me, there are many ways we can help ourselves. I do believe I was fair in my post when I said:

    In an effort to ease your mind however, I want to make it clear that I am NOT trying to dismiss legitimate factors beyond our control (environmental, viral, etc.) that can result in disease, but to recognize ways you might be contributing to the problem yourself (ie. intense work or demands on the body, too little sleep, poor eating habits, cigarettes, caffeine, etc.) as Mary Shomon has previously admitted. Why would we NOT try to figure out what fault we might have in our own health? That is a troubling thought to me.

    The bottom line for me is this: (as stated in my post)

    It’s admitted that we can be predisposed to illness (when extra stress is given to the body). Could it be that we are also predisposed to healing (given the right support to the body)? I encourage you to think about the implications of such a possibility.

    And I am sorry if you took it that I think anyone is stupid for not doing certain things to help themselves. I am only hoping that medical doctors and those in the field of thyroid management admit to their patients that there IS something they can do. I was told point blank by many doctors until this point that I could diet till the cows come home but it ain’t going to change my antibodies. I bought the lie for years… I can now say with confidence, this is not always the case and a patient should be able to have hope they have some control over their symptoms if there is hope to be given. And I believe there is. I have seen more than one friend reverse their antibody count by diet which is a great hope for this disease. Thank you for your comment.

  14. Rebekah Avatar
    Rebekah

    I am glad I found this site. I am STILL curious about all the hype with soy. I know a LOT of people who have thyroid issues who eat soy and are healthy(by which I mean tofu, miso, and soy milk). I also read that cruciferous vegetables could decrease thyroid function and am BAFFLED by it. How could cabbage(one of my favorite veggies) be bad for me? Can someone please explain this to me?

    I would like to add that I decided to avoid gluten in hopes of it helping my Hashimoto’s…and it IS! In the first 3 days of gluten free I lost 8 lbs and felt wonderful!

    Thanks in advance for any help/explanations! 🙂

  15. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Hi Rebekah, That’s GREAT news that you are feeling a difference when going gluten free. I, unfortunately don’t understand the issues with the veggies well myself but on the soy, I think it more about proper preparation. You might want to check out the book Nourishing Traditions (I think I have a link on the right side of my blog to this book) which is a GREAT resource to have for the reason of proper food preparation. Things like oats used to be soaked ALWAYS overnight by our grandparents. They must have known this to be the healthy way to prepare these foods. We have turned to so many quick food preparations, we are likely missing a lot of wisdom from past generations by being such a fast food nation. Hope you continue to find the answers you need to get better fast! Take care and thank you for commenting! Mo 🙂

  16. WScott Avatar
    WScott

    I have 4 siblings, 3 have Hashimoto’s. Curiously, they feel that diets high in soy caused their Thyroid to fail. Interesting -because I’ve struggled for years with soy as well as wheat, and I know that soy creates havoc on my system, so I try to stay soy free. Is it genetic or could it be that my mom baked heavily w soy flour as we were growing up? I wish we could be tested to see if it is purely genetic, or situational that we had high soy diets through puberty, or both. Why isn’t there more medical research on this.

  17. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Wendy – thank you for your comment! There is research going on but we generally don’t find out about it in the traditional medicine field. It is through Alternative practitioners that these studies are taken seriously. We know however, that diet does play a role in disease, but exactly what came first, the chicken or the egg, is not yet conclusive – as far as I know. The exciting thing is that we can limit (most of the time) damage to the thyroid by choosing to eat foods that do not trigger an autoimmune response. If you haven’t read it already, check out the book on the right side of my blog called “Why do I still have thyroid symptoms? When all my tests are normal” by Dr. Kharrizian. Many of your questions are addressed in that book. His methods have helped so many people gain back their lives. Thank you again for your comment. Consider checking out my Facebook support group as seen also on the right side of the page. I attempt to post helpful articles and you will also be notified as I add blog posts to my blog. Take care!

  18. Jo Avatar
    Jo

    I think you do a disservice to all of us with Hashi’s trying hard to get better by saying we’re responsible for our disease state. I have a VERY strong genetic history in my family of thyroid, parathyroid, thyroid cancer, diabetes, etc. I DID NOT ask for this! Neither did my ancestors. I have been sick my whole life and now I’m 53 with a extremely long history of doctors throwing pills at me instead of actually treating and helping me to find info on how to treat my disease. I am broke for all my efforts with them. Additionally, there are stressors in life that people cannot avoid such as death of a loved one, divorce, taking care of special needs child, mother with Alzheimer’s. Further genetic testing has revealed mutations that I didn’t even know existed that have hampered MY EFFORTS to get well. I think you need to do further research into just how difficult it is to heal or even to just get better when you’re dealing with genetic mutations that prevent your body from absorbing essential nutrients and detoxing natural occurring body substances (i.e. ammonia). It can be a nightmare. In the future I hope you research more before you insist on blaming the victim…

  19. maureen Avatar
    maureen

    Jo – I appreciate your comment and understand your concerns. I, myself, have many of the same life stressers that you mention and know how incredibly difficult they have been over the years for me. I am not dismissing them as being legitimate triggers for disease, especially hereditary triggers. The reason I wrote the article was that the blatant statement that Mary Shoman conveyed that we have no fault, to me, appeared to give the patient no reason to consider their own life decisions when faced with autoimmune disease. It is becoming more and more understood that there are certain triggers for autoimmune disease – these triggers, once known, can be avoided and either reverse or minimize the autoimmune attack which calm the immune system and possibly minimize the effects of the disease. And now there are studies just coming out that the autoimmune process might even be able to be “turned off” with certain lifestyle adjustments. For further information on these important studies, see Izabella Wentz’ website where she speaks about having controlled her own Hashimoto’s and how lifestyle interventions have been the key factor. Some of these are completely in our control (not suggesting complete remission is completely in our control – although it is not out of the question) and that was what I was trying to express. I even followed up in the post with:

    In an effort to ease your mind however, I want to make it clear that I am NOT trying to dismiss legitimate factors beyond our control (environmental, viral, etc.) that can result in disease, but to recognize ways you might be contributing to the problem yourself (ie. intense work or demands on the body, too little sleep, poor eating habits, cigarettes, caffeine, etc.) as Mary Shomon has previously admitted. Why would we NOT try to figure out what fault we might have in our own health? That is a troubling thought to me.

    I recently wrote a post which included a personal video at the bottom on how these lifestyle interventions have significantly helped me minimize and reversed severe symptoms I was dealing with.

    I am not blaming patients for developing their disease (although I consistently hear of new scientific studies where we are learning more and more about triggers that could possibly prevent the disease in the future from being triggered and/or slow the progression in those who know they are at risk). What I was hoping to do was to put some balance on the blatant statement that Mary Shoman had made so patients would feel empowered to find healing through lifestyle changes and not give up. It was meant to encourage. I’m sorry it was not taken that way. I’ve made mistakes along the way too and recorded that recently in my latest article (just today) here. The fact remains that someone (me) that felt they might be dying, was able to recover to a functional state through non-conventional treatment protocols and has lived to tell about it. This happened even after this article and was posted earlier this year after a very strict healing diet that I would have never done if I had felt it was all out of my control. I am very happy I felt there might be answers and followed through with the search for lifestyle interventions. It was hard work, but a pill by itself never helped me. There are few I have come into contact with where the thyroid supplement pill has changed their lives long term. The underlying problem (the autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland) is the problem and the part of the answer is in finding a solution to that trigger and now, we know that a strict avoidance of gluten can drastically reduce this attack which is something we can control. Although we are not sure if these lifestyle interventions will “cure” the attack long term, it is a great start and one I am happy to have experienced thus far. My point here was to help patients take control of what they can so they can feel better and not believe that there is nothing we can do about it.

    I believe knowing our susceptibility to certain conditions (some know they are predisposed to diabetes through family background, etc) can drastically help a person avoid the development of the condition based on lifestyle interventions. We may have the gene and even the beginning of antibodies in the blood, but we don’t necessarily have to develop the condition. Here’s the science on this which can be very exciting for the not yet diagnosed patient. To be able to minimize the effects or even reverse the progression of autoimmune disease, this is very encouraging for many people. Again, I am sorry if it was taken in a way that was offensive to you. I hope this explanation helped a bit. Here’s the video I am talking about:

    http://youtu.be/ZiFlamGkIFc

    For further information, you can find it here.

    In the end, the hope is that we have some ways to minimize our symptoms in more ways than just the conventional model. My goal was to basically help the patient realize that there are some things they can’t control but there others in which they can. Those are becoming extremely empowering, day by day, year by year. That is the good news. Thank you again for your comment and I hope this helped clear up my intentions.

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