Oprah Revisits Battle of the Bulge

Wed., Oct. 17, 2007 4:35 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

After the scales tipped decidedly out of her favor this year, Oprah Winfrey sought answers and found out that her thyroid gland had declared war on the rest of her body.

"My body was turning on me. First hyperthyroidism, which sped up my metabolism and left me unable to sleep for days," the talk-show maven wrote in the October issue of O, part of the multimedia empire that helped the magazine's namesake bank $260 million over the past year. "Then hypothyroidism, which slowed down my metabolism and made me want to sleep all the time."

The thyroid gland, located at the base of a person's neck, regulates growth and metabolism. The two opposing conditions—hyperthyroidism, which speeds up the heartbeat, and hypothyroidism, which causes fatigue, weakness and, often times, weight gain—had packed an additional 20 pounds on Winfrey's frame and left her feeling completely run down by the time the 21st season of her eponymous chat fest wrapped in May.

"I craved balance. I was desperate to be somewhere in the middle of hyper and hypo—where, obviously, I'd been my whole life, taking it for granted because I didn't know any better," said the 53-year-old, whose struggle to stay in shape has been the stuff of tabloid legend. "We often need a malfunction to appreciate all the things that function."

Recounting her experience during Tuesday's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was dedicated to women's health: "I ended up going to Africa and spent a month with my beautiful daughters [at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa], was still feeling really tired, really tired, going around from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was wrong and finally figured out that I had literally sort of blew out my thyroid."

After her trip to Johannesburg in June, Winfrey decided that a month-long Hawaiian vacation would do a body good.

"Yes, the whole month—dedicated to myself, for myself," she said in O. "To regroup. Rejuvenate. Restore my soul."

"I may have lost a few friends," Winfrey recalled, noting how she had to turn down quite a few invitations that would have required a tiring amount of travel, nor would she let anyone come to Hawaii to do business, "but I know for sure I saved myself. And learned that making the decision to look after yourself is the ultimate in health care."

And just as she had with a host of other causes ranging from African poverty to politics, Winfrey took it upon herself to educate her loyal followers about not only thyroid issues, but also the importance of paying close attention to our bodies, especially as we get older.

"I wanted so many other women who are going through the same thing to check on yourself and recognize that, first of all, it's an issue that we all share in common, especially if you're of a certain age," Winfrey said Tuesday on her syndicated talk show, which tapes in Chicago. "It was hugely, hugely, hugely important for me to get that in balance.

"So many of us wait—we don't take the wake-up call," she said. "So, use the example of all the other women who have broken down, me included, and use that. What will it take to bring yourself into balance? What will it take for you to care enough about yourself? Don't wait until you have caused harm to yourself before you realize that balance was what you needed to give to yourself."