Opinion: On Alternative Heath ‘Doctors’ and Thyroid Supplements

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This is going to be a different article then what we usually write about.

For all the daily visitors that wanted to read a 2000+ word article with 10+ references to peer reviewed studies about thyroid conditions, potential treatments, effect of a nutrient or chemical on thyroid health, etc. (who doesn’t want to read these by the way!), unfortunately it looks like you’re out of luck…

This article is a bit of a rant and a bit of an open-ended process of putting my thoughts on paper – or on keyboard in this case I guess – and trying to answer a question I have myself.

And that question, which is also the main point of the article, is: Why does everyone online doctor or “alternative health” physician seem to be pushing their own thyroid supplement onto everyone else?

Now let’s clear something up. Thyroid supplements can be very useful to a certain group of people. Well, let’s back up a bit and clear something up. Not ALL thyroid supplements can HELP – only the good thyroid supplements.

I received many emails and comments from people who were used to a lifestyle of constant fatigue and tiredness. They tried thyroid supplements out for their hypothyroidism and after a couple weeks, felt like a new person. This is not uncommon.

This is not a rant against those thyroid supplements – the good ones. (By the way we review thyroid supplements on this website to see which thyroid supplements are worth it and which supplements are not. See here on which thyroid supplements we believe in.)

OK, back to the main point.

I received an email from one of the readers of Thyroid Advisor recently, and she wanted my opinion on a supplement that we had not reviewed or seen yet.

She included a link to the website, so I opened it up and looked a bit around the website.

I’m not going to link to the website because I don’t want to get myself into any potential legal trouble that I know nothing about, but I’ll describe the website because I’m sure all of you have seen something similar before.

The first thing that pops up is a middle aged to old “doctor” in a white lab coat smiling at you from your screen.

The menu bar will undoubtedly include an ‘about’, and of course a ‘shop’ button taking you to their respective pages.

In his about page “credentials,” you’ll see a lack of actual certifications or degrees.

Medical degrees, Ph.D.’s? Real doctors don’t need those!

Instead you’ll get paragraphs about his “real world” experiences of having some sort of problem – such as being obese or tired all the time – and after years of trying to fix it through trial and error, this “natural doctor” finally figured out the secrets of a good life without symptoms and is now on a mission to share it with the rest of the world!!! (NB: This is not a knock against the actual proved naturopathic doctors that do great work.)

Sounds amazing, right? Yep, except you won’t get any answer to what the secret is!

You’ll get bits and pieces of it scattered around their products that charge exuberant amounts or have some sort of catch to it.

The “thyroid secret ebook” for $40 and your email that they can probably spam you with new products.

Or in the case of this email this person sent, the 30-day thyroid reset dietary supplement that costs… wait for it… 80 DOLLARS!

Or sometimes you’ll even see both in the same website!

Does any of this sound familiar? It does for me! I’ve seen countless examples of these in the past months.

Everyone seems to be a doctor these days. Literally.

Like I would think it would be difficult and hard to build a ‘celebrity’ doctor brand and following but for some reason there are hundreds, if not thousands, I have seen online.

And they all say the same thing: buy my thyroid supplement or product to fix your problems and not anyone else’s!

They might even include ‘testimonials’ with some impressively good-looking people talking in quite a lot of detail. They’ll talk about how great the supplement is and how it helped them so much!

I took a look at the supplement facts sheet in this ‘thyroid supplement’ that one of our readers sent…

I could tell right away that is was all bunk.

They included two actual nutrients that has the potential for helping thyroid health, but the rest was all fluff and calories!

It would not help those with real thyroid problems.

If anything, it would give a negative connotation to them when that ‘supplement’ doesn’t work and turn them away from trying the actual thyroid supplements that do work.

Using your advantages to promote products that simply will not do much is not right. For some reason, this just makes me angry.

Perhaps it’s because I was in a similar boat as many others are in.

Long story short, disappointment, lost time, and a lighter wallet was all I got before going back to square one.

So, back to the main question/problem I have with online ‘doctors.’

Why does everyone online doctor or “alternative health” physician seem to be pushing their own thyroid supplement onto everyone else?

I’m not sure I answered the question or even know what the answer is, but I definitely know it’s not something I like.

What do you think?

3 Comments
  1. Reply
    Mindy January 11, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    I would say it is devious and unethical to some degree. Especially the ones that push their ‘thyroid coaching services.’ It can’t be that helpful… its not like the online doctors know the secret to thyroid problems and need to charge everyone so much money for it… share it if your methods really work !

  2. Reply
    Linda October 4, 2017 at 12:32 am

    You nailed it. It’s all so annoying.

  3. Reply
    Kat August 28, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    Money. The answer has to be money. There is probably a lot of money these ‘doctors’ can make.

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