According to the American Thyroid Association, one in eight women will reportedly develop a thyroid disorder in their lifetime. The butterfly-shaped gland located under the larynx can wreak havoc if not properly cared for when there is an issue; now more than ever it's imperative that we take steps to look into our overall health. And I don't just mean a visit the doctor when you've fallen ill. A simple physical exam could reveal an enlarged thyroid, and labs drawn can detect out of range TSH levels and potentially save your life.
January is Thyroid Awareness Month, and celebrities like Missy Elliott, Adrienne Houghton, Oprah, Hillary Clinton, and Sofia Vergara have all spoken out about their thyroid diseases, which can cause weight fluctuation and have fatal consequences.
Although thyroid disorders can be deadly if unchecked, with exercise, healthy eating habits, and determination, they can easily be managed. Here's what these celebrities had to say about making peace and overcoming the obstacles associated with their thyroid disorders:
Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott was diagnosed with Graves' disease after losing an extreme amount of weight in 2008. This caused her to have a hiatus from both the public eye and the music charts. Missy explained to Billboard Magazine how the disease used to affect her everyday life:
"I was [driving and] trying to put my foot on the brake, but my leg was jumping. I couldn't keep the brake down and almost crashed. I couldn't write because my nervous system was so bad – I couldn't even use a pen."
With the support of her family, friends, and healthcare professionals, Missy is able to enjoy life with her condition under control. Though medication plays a huge part of her recovery, exercising, avoiding stress, and eating healthy are all major components of staying healthy with a thyroid-related condition:
"I'm 30 pounds lighter because I've been exercising. My thyroid is functioning, so I haven't had to take medication in about nine months."
You go girl!
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah thought she put her weight issues to rest by dropping down to 160 pounds back in 2005, from her heaviest weight of 237 pounds. However, afterwards, her weight started slowly creeping back up, resulting in gaining 40 pounds and feelings of shame. The heart palpitations she experienced when working out led her to the hands of doctors, out of concern for her life. Oprah explained her uphill battle to Oprah Magazine in 2009:
"The thyroid diagnosis felt like some kind of prison sentence. I was so frustrated that I started eating whatever I wanted—and that's never good. My drug of choice is food. I use food for the same reasons an addict uses drugs: to comfort, to soothe, to ease stress."
After getting to the root of her issues with food, Oprah has been able to adopt a routine full of healthy eating and exercise that works for her:
"What I've learned this year is that my weight issue isn't about eating less or working out harder, or even about a malfunctioning thyroid. It's about my life being out of balance, with too much work and not enough play, not enough time to calm down. I let the well run dry."
We can all learn a lesson from Auntie O about the power of resilience because after all, you can't pour from an empty cup.
Adrienne Houghton
The onset of symptoms that come with having a thyroid disorder can often be mistaken as putting on a few pounds from the outside looking in.
The Real's Adrienne Houghton revealed that she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease at only 15 years old. Adrienne shared that her experience with the disease recently led to swelling around her neck and overall weight gain, leading to speculation of her being pregnant. She shared:
"If I'm honest, my weight gain in the last few years has been like a struggle for me where I'm like, I never looked at myself as being overweight. And it was weird to hear so many comments at one point that I was fat, and 'Oh my God, she let herself go!' I was like, 'Whoa.' So that was a little bit weird..."
Despite the criticism she received from the outside world, she understood that there was a change she needed to make internally. Adrienne said that increasing the healthy consumption of food and physical activity can certainly assist with slowing down the symptoms:
"I just did what I had to do to be comfortable in my own skin. And I think that's the most important thing. It wasn't necessarily to please other people. I actually, genuinely, didn't like the way I looked. And every day it's a work in progress. You know, girl get up and do some cardio. More than looking good, it's actually healthy for you to eat healthily and actually get a little workout in. So as I get older, I get that it's going to be harder and harder, but I'm up for the challenge."
With disorders attributed to the malfunctioning of your thyroid, other common symptoms include fatigue, depression, constipation, altered menstrual cycle, hoarse voice, and many others. So it is important not to shrug off symptoms and changes within your body when you notice them.
Instead, seek the input of your doctor when they occur. Not all thyroid disorders have symptoms that are noticeable to the eye like Graves' Disease or Hashimoto's disease and require further testing.
Make sure to read up on more information regarding common thyroid disorders here.
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A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis