Oprah fans rest easy: she probably has more than three years left to live

enquirercover
The new cover of the National Enquirer has some upsetting news: Oprah Winfrey has just three years to live and needs surgery to save her life. For those of you who are deeply upset by the news that will confront you at the checkout aisle this week but don’t want to shell out the money to learn about Oprah’s life-threatening illness you can rest assured because the talk show queen probably isn’t going away any time soon. The “three years to live” quote is just from some doctor who estimates that she’ll die soon because of her weight and thyroid problems. The “secret surgery to save her life” just means that she may needs to get her thyroid removed, which can be serious but is hardly as bad as they make it out to be. The gist is that Oprah is probably fine and that the Enquirer dug up quotes from some doom-sayers to make a more compelling cover:

At this point, surgically removing Oprah’s thyroid – a small gland at the back of the neck – may be here only option to correct her metabolism and control her weight, experts say.

A general surgeon or an otolaryngologist would perform the operation, called a thyroidectomy, in a hospital while Oprah is under anesthesia. All or part of her thyroid gland would be removed, experts say.

She’d spend up to four days in the hospital recovering and could resume normal activity within two weeks.

If she doesn’t have the surgery, Oprah could died within three years, a leading longevity expert tells The Enquirer.

Dr. David Demko, gerontologist and creator of the patented Death Calculator, calculated in 2007 that the talk-show queen would not live to see her 60th birthday. He predicted that Oprah, then 53, had only six years to live based on her history of yo-yo dieting and weight gain.

Now, two years later, one of America’s top authorities on thyroid issues tells the Enquirer that based on Oprah’s current thyroid problems and Dr. Demko’s calculations, that gap has been trimmed even further – reducing her lifespan by at least another year.

“The thyroid condition could take another year off Oprah’s calculated life expectancy – giving her three years to live – unless she gets optimal thyroid care and changes her lifestyle to include more healthy eating habits, exercise and relaxation,” Dr. Richard Shames, co-author of “Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled?” told The Enquirer.

“If she does not have he operation and continues to gain weight, her blood pressure and cholesterol levels will rise, putting her at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 11, 2009]

The Enquirer is my favorite gossip magazine and many of their stories are spot on. They get a lot of scoops before the other magazines and while they can be deceptive like this they don’t often make up stories like some other rags. I don’t blame them for running with sensational covers that sell copies, but it’s kind of annoying to learn that they’re so misleading. Most people don’t read the articles and just assume that the headlines are true. Look for Oprah to release a statement saying she’s fine and doesn’t need any kind of surgery. Even if she does get her thyroid removed it’s not like it’s such a serious operation that she runs the risk of keeling over tomorrow. She already looks like she’s been losing weight and I bet she’ll be fine. Hang in there Oprah!

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17 Responses to “Oprah fans rest easy: she probably has more than three years left to live”

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  1. JohnnieR says:

    “For those of you who are deeply upset by the news that will confront you at the checkout aisle this week but don’t want to shell out the money to learn about Oprah’s life-threatening illness…”

    LOL! So true! Count me in as a nosy
    cheapskate.

    You know, I was just telling someone the other day that, of all the “rags” out there, the Enquirer does in fact seem to be spot-on about a vast majority of their “reporting”, for lack of a better term.

  2. HEB says:

    Since I don’t want to buy the Enquirer either–try to get some scoop on that Jon Gosselin story in the lower left corner.

  3. Arvedia says:

    Contrary to what many people believe, fat doesn´t kill you, and a thyroid problem doesn´t kill you either. The doctor that was quoted was talking about statistical life expectancy, which say nothing about how healthy a single person might be. If it wasn´t Oprah, but any of the other millions of people with the same kind of problems, no one would even talk about it.

  4. ash says:

    HAHA @ being a nosy cheapskate. That’s why we come get gossip news here! Holler.

  5. raven says:

    Whoever told them she needs her thyroid removed to help her control her weight clearly failed med school. If she had the condition called Graves disease where she needed her thyroid removed, she’d have problems gaining weight, not losing it. What she needs is to be on the proper medication now and she’s not. Her health counselors are giving her bad advice.

  6. kiki says:

    the women in my family have thyroid promblems. and I dont beleive Oprahs “problem” is her thyroid. She wont admit her weight issues and that perhaps shes going thru a rough menopause phase in her life. Her ego wont let her admit shes ageing and sometimes your body changes due to that.

  7. JohnnieR says:

    Well, perhaps the Mighty O could shed 125 pounds pronto by ditching Gayle?

    By the way, I dunno about the rest of you, but THIS GUY was stunned to see that the Big O (no pun intended) made the cover of “O” magazine again!!

  8. blind item reader says:

    Thank you raven. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Oprah needs thyroid medication, though.

    On a side note, it never fails to amaze me at how medically inept most gossip magazines are. I mean, use some common sense! The only time I could see Oprah needing surgery to remove part of her thyroid is if she had a tumour on it. And TV audiences would probably have already noticed if she had a goiter.

  9. Zoe (The Other One) says:

    Yuk, blatant sales grabbing technique FAIL for Enquirer headline writers. Thanks to CB we aren’t gonna be buying it!

  10. c says:

    Gah. my mum’s got the thyroid issue and is on meds. Didn’t need to have it removed. However, the condition (and/or the meds?) WILL give you weight issues. Very difficult to deal with.

  11. brista says:

    HEB — check out ONTD’s Jon + Kate posts:

    http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/tag/jon+and+kate

    They have the Enquirer article and a couple others on the Jon Minus Nine ‘situation”.

  12. Blahhblahblah says:

    The Enq doesn’t make up stuff usually? Uhhh. Okay. What kind of deal do you have with them?

  13. jaym says:

    i smell a lawsuit…

  14. mae says:

    I have a thyroid problem,graves disease.(also thyroid eye disease) You don’t have to have surgery, there are other ways to deal w/ it.I had radioactive iodine to destroy my thyroid. I have to take hormone replacements for the rest of my life. The Dr.s will say after being on the med.s for a week or two you will feel normal again. They are full of it,on that . I have been on the med.s for 15 years & still have symptoms,and the weight issues. No matter what I do I cant lose the weight.She will have a lot of health problems if not treated. Actually if her thyroid is over active you can die b/c it causes your heart to race and you will have palpation’s. That is scary.It could cause a heart attack.

  15. ? says:

    I always thought her weight fluctuated due to periods of overly restrictive eating following by binging, followed by a renewed vigor for weight loss and more overly restrictive eating. It’s a terribly nasty cycle common in most eating disorders and almost all yo-yo dieters.

    I never considered the fact that she has Hashimoto’s- where you switch between hypo- and hyperthyroidism. That would explain her crazy weight changes if it were true!

    And Mae- I feel your pain! I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum (hypothyroidism) and I’ve been on meds for 9 years and still have trouble controlling my weight. You’d think I’d have it under control but even with a degree in nutrition and tons of exercise I’m still chunky and my energy levels suck.

  16. mae says:

    ?: I am hypo also, usually the thyroid goes under active after radioactive iodine. Do you also have a problem when it’s hot out? I can’t take the heat.Sometimes I am hot when everyone else is cold or vise versa. It can be maddening. Do you do myspace? Mine is myspace.com/heyjudymae65. If you want contact me.

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