TAC wrote:
Quote
She blamed her doctors for not knowing it was her thyroid.
Well, how did Oprah find out it was her thyroid, without getting this confirmed by specific medical tests (lab tests for levels of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone ((TSH), lab tests for the amount of free (active) thyroid hormone?
How can the doctors NOT know its thyroid, unless a physician has confirmed the low thyroid condition by ORDERING THE RIGHT LAB TESTS???
You cant be sure its low thyroid unless the right lab tests have been ordered and the numbers evaluated by an endocrinologist.
If O's excess poundage is really due to low thyroid, and not a combo of excess caloric intake and too little exertion to offset the intake, medical treatment and correction of the low thyroid condition would remedy her situation and shed have cause to be
grateful to the medical establishment, not blame them.
(Scratches head in puzzlement).
In any case, even one happens to have low thyroid, and has it corrected, one still is not home free.
During my time as a serious athlete, walking, long distance bike riding, doing weight training, I made the mistake of thinkig I could eat anything and burn it off.
Wrong. I grew a pot belly. I had muscles everywhere but one day at the gym, I looked sideways in the mirror and could not deny what I saw.
And heart disease killed a few too many family members and I knew I could not afford to take chances.
No problems with my thyroid. I was eating more food than I could burn off, despite my being blazingly active. My ancestors survived famine conditions in Eastern Europe and I apparenty inherited their fuel efficient genes. What can save your life in famine conditions will set you up for early heart disease and Type 2 diabetes if you live in the calorie rich USA.
So I had combine staying active while relearning to eat less and eat leaner, like my ancestors, rather than eating the typical US diet that had made me fat, despite my being an athlete.
When I learned to combine activity with budgeting my food intake, (aka eating like my ancestors) the excess weight came off. A Dr Shintani in Hawaii has come up with a similar approach in caring for his native Hawaiian patients who come in overweight and with heart disease and diabetes. Shintani knew that in old Hawaii the people were lean and wiry. He and his dietician trained their patients to resume an ancestral diet of vegetables and fish and breadfruit and it worked. The Native Seeds Search Project has been combating type 2 diabetes and heart disease among tribal peoples in the American South West by teaching how to grow and cook heirloom vegetables and grains. It works.
This was not a one shot diet.
No special foods or supplements had to be purchased. I just had to stay active--but change my eating habits for the rest of my life.
It hurts to have to walk past some of my favorite dessert places and restaurants, but the increased energy I enjoyed after losing the weight was sufficient compensation.
And its cheaper than using a glucometer. A diabetic pal told me that the cost of one Accuchek test strip is 85 cents. If you test 4 times a day, that adds up to serious moola.