Question:
Why can't Drs. disolve our thyroids to lose weight?

   — Toni D. (posted on June 14, 1999)

June 14, 1999
a person cant LIVE without their thyroid (when it stops or slows down its called HYPOTHROIDISM..and you STOP burning calories and GAIN weight) one of the weight reduction meathods used for years by weight loss quacks out there was to artificially produce HYPERTHYOIDISM...which makes you loose weight (they would have you take extra typroid even though you didnt need it) the problem was..that eventually, your body adjusts..then you need to increase the artificial to get back into a hyperthroid situation..and it goes on an an..then if and when you reach your "goal weight"...you would stop the thyroid..and your OWN thyroid wouldnt funtion..so you would gain all the weight back..and then some..before it would kick back in to functioning again...
   — Deanna D.

June 14, 1999
Hey Toni?? I really needed this question. My surgery scheduled for June 18th is not for sure like I thought it was. When I read your ? it made me laugh outloud. So thanks for the smile on my face. If this was a serious ?. I have no idea why they can't find an easier solution for obesity? But maybe a scientist or researcher out there may hear of our plight and actually take our disease seriously and find a cure. But for now WLS is the only hope so if I don't have my surgery on the 18th I will be upset but I know sooner or later it will happen. I am so tired of all the red tape in the medical and insurance Profession. Someone told me this," If you share your joy with someone it doubles, If you share your sorrow with another it cuts it in half." Thanks again for the laugh. Carol Taylor
   — Carol T.

June 14, 1999
Dear Toni, The reason Thyroid Glands help us stay FAT or get FAT is that they are not working properly. they are slow or sluggish. This is called Hypothyroidism. So, we really need our thyroid gland that is why so many FAT people take a thyroid replacement medicine. Hope this helps! I send you light and love. JC
   — Jeannette C.

June 14, 1999
Your thyroid gland sort of sets the pace for metabolism in your body and this is a delicate balance. Obesity is rarely due to a thyroid problem; therefore, for most people "adjusting" the setting of the thyroid is not feasible
   — Chris S.

June 14, 1999
The endocrinologist that I had to see prior to surgery told me that although doctors love to blame the thyroid for obesity, it usually has absolutely nothing to do with the problem.
   — dboat

August 22, 1999
For a period of time back in the 1800's the treatment for goiter (enlarged thyroid) was complete removal of the gland. Looked like a success quite a long time, until they followed up the patients a few years later. What they found with ALL the patients who had the gland removed with no replacement hormone provided (not available)was skin and hair texture had changed, mental abilities were now sluggish, and a variety of other things were altered. Eventually the procedure changed to removing only part of the thyroid, and the dramatic changes no longer occured. Thankfully we have progressed dramatically from that time.
   — Cynthia B.

August 22, 1999
A thyroid gland producing too many hormones makes you lose weight. Losing the thyroid gland makes you gain weight. I went to a diet doctor in 1985 who gave me "pregnant women's pee" shots, thyroid pills and ionamin diet pills. When it was all over and done with I lost 100 pounds. When I stopped the thyroid, I gained it all back. Taking thyroid pills to lose weight is dangerous... can cause FATAL HEART ARRHYTHMIAS. Doctors have abandoned the practice of giving thyroid replacement to lose weight. The eventual solution to obesity lies in gene therapy. There is absolutely no question about the genetic relationship to obesity. It has been proven over and over in DNA research... They just don't know how to use that information yet, but I believe they will someday. Until then, obesity surgery is our only option. For hundreds of years before researchers "discovered" that obesity was related to DNA, farmers KNEW it. You won't catch a beef farmer breeding his Charlais cattle to a Holstein bull! No matter how much food you shove into the calf's mouth, they won't gain weight and won't make muscle. You can feed a holstein until you're blue in the face and you will always have a skinny cow. You can feed a Charlais next to nothing and they will put on weight and look "fleshy" all the time. I guess that's why farmers never complained that their wives were too fat.
   — Deborah L.

February 14, 2000
I have HYPERthyroidism. I have a BMI of 60. Just as part of the flip side... many of the same syptoms occur for HYPO as HYPERthyroid. My endocrinologist paraded me in front of his interns to show them what happens in 2% oh Hyperthyroids. I gained and gained and gained. Turns out.. I produced so much of T3 (part of what the thyroid stimulating hormone churns out), that I was suffering from toxicosis (when the body literally poisons itself. I am going to have my Thyroid (goiter) removerd after recovery from WLS, and then will go about trying to regulate my body with synthetic hormone.
   — lisadiehl