LS 146 - The Pharmacutical Secret that May Keep You Sick with Maggie Hadleigh-West

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Hello everyone, this is your host, Fernando Aries in partnership with the Hartman Media Company. Today I have the pleasure to welcome Maggie Headley West. Maggie is a medical justice filmmaker who has completed five different films. In her latest film called Sick to Death, she exposes the medical corruption that is shredding the fabric of American longevity and life. In this movie she explores the testing, diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease. This movie explains why our own health and well being is being obscured by systemic medical corruption, pharmaceutical greed and physician negligence. Sick to Death has received the influential Guggenheim Award and three Impact Docs Awards. Check it out at impactdocsawards.com welcome Maggie. How are you today?

Hi Fernando. I'm really good. Glad to be here with you.

So Maggie, where are you located? Give us a sense of geography.

I am in New Orleans just on the heels of Mardi Gras.

Well that is awesome. Well Maggie, I'm really looking forward to talk to you in your latest film, Sick to Death. There's just so much to be exposed and talked about. But before we talk about that film, I want to put it out there and I want you to comment on this. The pharmaceutical industry is in a tough business. In a way, they owe it to their shareholders to produce constant and higher profits. A total patient cure would essentially kill their business. Of course there must be a balance between profits and the well being of patients if you are in that industry. And if I was to found a startup, I would have to look at these two areas and find the right point to be positioned. But what is your take? Are we completely out of whack on this? You know, how do you view that industry? How Would you, if you had a magic wand, how would you attempt to solve or make it better?

Well, I do think it's completely out of whack. And I think that you hit on the primary thing pharmaceutical companies should be working towards curative medicine. They should not even have stockholders. The stockholders should not be who are guiding the medical industry in this country. But that's true across the board. It's true of the pharmaceuticals, it's true of device industry, and it's true of the health insurance companies. And that idea completely negates what medicine and health is supposed to be about, because it's not about the patients, it's never about curative. And the pharmaceutical industry doesn't even try to cure any longer. They are often making what Marcia angel called me too, drugs which are just replication drugs that have come out of patent, that work on somebody's symptoms, negate the symptoms a little bit, but they don't get you well, because it's not profitable to get someone well.

Yeah, no, I agree. It's the best case scenario is to have you be sick enough to need drugs constantly, but not dead because that would, that would kill the profit margin and also, you know, of course, not not be cured. So what you're saying is they're basically out of whack. And in your movie, in Sick to Death, you exposed, essentially it's your own disturbing, disturbing 30 year struggle to regain your health. Walk us through what you went through and what, you know, what prompted you to want to tell this very heartening story, your own story on this movie.

Well, you know, when I was a child, I was sick all the time. You know, I have a fierce spirit, but my body was weak and I was constantly getting infections. So I spent an enormous part of my childhood on antibiotics. When I was in my early 20s, at about 21, I began to feel just unbelievably terrible. And at that time I was living in one of the six most hazardous waste areas in the country. I was living in a little town in Texas that had been built by Dow Chemical. And at night they would open up the factory stacks and they would asphyxiate people. But you wouldn't really realize it during the day, but nonetheless, we were all consuming these chemicals and I just fell off some kind of a medical clip. And from 21 to 32, I was running from doctor to doctor to doctor to doctor all over Texas, all over New York, where I moved eventually, trying to get help because I knew that something was wrong with me. But I kept being Told that I was fine, that everything was all right, and what was happening was all in my head. And then when I was about 32 years old, I had been having some really bad sinus problems, and the doctor called me in a panic and said, stop taking those antihistamines immediately. You are hyperthyroid, and that can actually give you a heart attack. So that scared me to death. And I was on the verge of what's called thyroid storm. And that's when your thyroid is running so rapidly that your metabolism is speeding at a very high rate, and you can have a heart attack or a stroke or die. And so I was advised to drink radioactive iodine. And this was pre Internet, and the iodine would kill my thyroid, and then I would be dependent on medication for the rest of my life. And I did an enormous amount of research, but I couldn't come up with another alternative to the radioactive iodine. And so I did it. My thyroid died a little death. I was radioactive for three days, but I was told it wasn't a problem, but to stay away from pregnant women. And then I started taking levothyroxine drugs, because that was what was prescribed. And because I had spent so many years trying to figure out what was going on, I thought that going into what's called Graves disease, which is the autoimmune version of hyperthyroidism, was something completely different than the thing that I had been experiencing for the last 12 years. And so I took my little thyroid medication. I thought my thyroid was taken care of, and I continued to be symptomatic. And, in fact, I got worse, worse and worse. And finally, I left New York City thinking that I wasn't going to survive what was happening in my body. And I came back to New Orleans, where my family is from. And now I'm 53 years old. So I was on the level of thyroxine drugs for 20 years. And I, on a fluke, walked into a doctor's office who knew everything about thyroid disease, and he said, you're on the wrong medication. You're still sick, and you have the autoimmune version of thyroid disease, Hashimoto's. So what I believe now is that I had Hashimoto's my entire life, that the infections that I had when I were young were asymptomatic of Hashimoto's, and that being in this hazardous waste dump basically made it worse for me. But because doctors don't recognize the signs nor the symptoms, they rely on a blood test. I was not diagnosed until I was in a life threatening circumstance.

It's interesting that a couple of things that come to mind as you're describing your condition. Number one, maybe we just step back and talk a little bit about the thyroid gland. You know, for the audience's understanding, the hormones, that the thyroid hormones deliver oxygen and energy to the body and they essentially drive metabolism, you know, the conversion of food to energy. This means that if your thyroid glands are not working correctly, basically you have an impact to every aspect of your health. And your website does a beautiful job in providing some of the science behind thyroid disease. And the number of symptoms of either hyperthyroid disease or hypo, which is a low function of the thyroid gland, is just astonishing. You have hundreds of symptoms that you list in your site, correct?

Yes, yes. Because as you said, your thyroid gland, you need thyroid hormone in every organ, every cell and every bone in your body. And if you are weak with thyroid hormone in any part of your body, that's why there can be so many symptoms. And the thyroid produces two primary hormones, T4 and T3. In a healthy body, you convert your T4 to T3, which is the active hormone that really works for your body. And in a person that has autoimmune thyroid disease, which 90% of people with thyroid disease do have the autoimmune version, you can't convert to T3. And that's exactly where the problem comes in with the drugs, because levothyroxine drugs and synthroid, they are T4 alone. You're putting into your body the hormone that you cannot change, that you cannot convert to T3, the one that you need it under treats, almost everybody that takes it, but they also own the business of thyroid disease because they've been in it for 65 years.

That is amazing. You're putting into your body the hormone that your body cannot convert to T3. What is the point exactly, besides selling the drug? It's just jaw dropping. When you were diagnosed with the hyperthyroid, the graves disease, that meant you were pretty much tired all the time and fatigued and cold and so on. So I imagine that everything that you did in your life was affected. I mean, if you don't have energy to do things, how can you perform?

Yes, you're correct. I mean, now I believe I had Hashimoto's my whole life, which is made me underactive and I was exhausted and it was very hard to function. And you know, I've done a lot in the world, but I don't believe that I have by any stretch of the imagination met my potential because I was hindered. But, you know, you turn things like that into assets because that's what, you know, the human spirit does. And when I became hyperactive, that, in theory, gave me a ridiculous amount of energy.

And.

And I was exhausted at the same time, and then consumed the radioactive iodine, which, at the time, the doctors told me that it would localize only in my thyroid. But I've come to learn that that's not true either. It localizes in your ovaries, in your breast. There's a direct link between that kind of radiation treatment and cancers. It's a kind of a barbaric way to treat. Treat thyroid disease.

Now, the doctor that you, as you said, by chance, walked into this doctor's office, what information did this doctor have that was able to diagnose you properly? How did that come about?

Well, it was really an absolute fluke. I was working with a doctor that was working under the American Thyroid association guidelines. And I had already requested that I be put on natural, desiccated thyroid, which is made out of pig hormone. And I knew instantaneously that my body felt much better in it because it already has T3 in it. But she wouldn't give me more. She told me I didn't need more, and I know I did. And she said, I'll refer you to somebody that will give you more. And so that's the only thing I knew about this doctor. And I didn't care. He was going to be the last doctor I ever saw in my life. That was my plan. But his father had taught him, and his father had been mentored by a guy by the name of Dr. Broda Barnes. And you can find Broda Barnes book On my website, sickthenumber2death.com and Broda Barnes, from the 50s to the 1980s, was 100% convinced that we were at a tipping point with thyroid disease and that it was at epidemic proportions. And I also believe that now he was very familiar with the signs and the symptoms of thyroid disease. He looked at my palms. His name is Dr. Chuck. And he looked at my palms, and he said, you, palms are yellow. And I didn't even know my palms were yellow. And that was a sign that there wasn't enough thyroid hormone in my body. He showed me that my little finger was smaller than the finger next to it. Well, obviously smaller. It didn't go up to the. The crease of the finger next to it. And that was an indication that my thyroid hormone was not talking to my growth hormone. When I was growing up. He told me about the not having hair. Growing on the latter third of my brows is something that's called hertog syndrome, and it's an indication that you're not getting enough thyroid hormone. And then, of course, there were my symptoms. You know, I was sick all the time. My hands and my feet were cold. I was exhausted. I had insomnia. I was prone to allergies of all kinds. And it sort of went on and on. I was having heart palpitations, I had leaky gut. It was a sort of an endless stream of things, you know, symptoms that I was always trying to manage.

What strikes me as you're describing this in looking at the color of your skin or the size of your finger compared to another, these are not difficult. You don't need a specialty type test.

You're so right.

I mean, how long did it take you to get diagnosed? Over 30 years, right?

It took me 32 years to be diagnosed, yes.

That's just jaw dropping is out there. Obviously, if he knows that information, it's been documented in studies. Where are these studies? And why aren't these studies taught to students in medical school? Is it all profit driven?

It is profit driven. And the thing is, what really tipped me over an edge is when Dr. Chuck showed me a medical book after I'd been seeing him for a few months. And I had had carpal tunnel in my arms for 15 years, and when I started taking the natural deficated thyroid, the carpal tunnel disappeared. And I told him that, like, I couldn't believe that this, like, really long symptom just went away. And so he shows me this medical book, and it was just tables from bodily functions, basically like your cardiovascular system, your bones, your muscular system. And underneath each section was the list of thyroid disease symptoms. And it was like a roadmap of my life. And I was absolutely floored because it's not even the studies, Fernando. There are medical books where everything is there, all of the information pre existing, but it's not taught anymore. And doctors don't recognize the signs and the symptoms because they rely on a blood test, which is called the TSH test, that misses 85% of people and they don't touch us anymore.

Why is that death lab test so ineffective?

Because it only measures the thyroid hormone in your pituitary gland. And because you need thyroid hormone in every part of your body, it does not register the circulating hormone in your body. It doesn't even touch it. So if you're not having problems with your pituitary you're not going to get diagnosed. And that's exactly what happened to me. Because it's often women that are more symptomatic. So it's very easy for a doctor to say, oh, honey, it's all in your head.

I was just going to comment on that because there's so many symptoms. And as we were talking earlier, when the thyroid is not working quite right, it will affect pretty much everything in your body. If it has to do with energy production. Every cell in our body, every cell has hundreds to thousands of mitochondria, you know, these ancient bacteria, and that's what produces energy in our bodies. If that's not working right, everything is impacted. So you're gonna have a whole host of symptoms. And I can see where a doctor that is not well trained and, you know, play it back to you. And like you said, it's all in your head. Obviously, you can't have all these problems. It has to be localized. You know, it has to be localized somewhere. But that's not how it works. You know, if you have something that is just central to life, it will affect everything. And how do you. I mean, it must be so tiring to go through the list of issues that you were having when you meet a new doctor. And I imagine that psychologically, it must have been very tough to just go through the explanation and make the guy understand and at times believe that this is actually happening. Don't dismiss all that I'm saying. I'm not crazy.

Yeah, you're absolutely correct. And it was very hard. And it was usually a male doctor. I persisted because I was in my body. I knew that something wasn't right. There was no. I could see that other people felt differently and could function differently than I could. And, you know, after I met Dr. Chuck, everything would have been fine. And this is really where the movie begins. Everything would have been fine. If it was just my experience, I would be like, okay, I'm 53. I'm just going to keep it moving. I'm going to take care of my health. But when I realized that there were actually hundreds of millions of people having a similar or identical experience, then I was enraged. And I just thought, this is outrageous, it is criminal, and I am going to make a movie about it, and I am going to expose the big picture. So the movie begins, Sick to Death begins with me telling my story and then interviewing a number of other patients and talking to them about how many years it took them to be diagnosed. And one of the really compelling stories for me Was young woman said, if you consider the fact that I got my first period at the age of 6, but I wasn't diagnosed till my 30s, it took almost 30 years for her as well. And I mean, that's just ridiculous. You know, your menstrual function is absolutely impacted by your thyroid. You have a light menstrual. Menstrual cycle or if you have a heavy crampy, it's usually impacted by your thyroid.

Now, Maggie, we were talking prior to an interview and you told me this very ironic story about how sick to death was partially funded. Do you mind sharing that with the audience?

No, I would love to. I have been very lucky in the last few years of my life that I have inherited some money from my family. And I inherited it in the form of stock. And so I had been fundraising for my movie through various ways, grants and Kickstarter. And I woke up one morning and I thought, oh my God, they gave me blue chip stock, which is the safe, reliable stock. And I thought, I bet you I have stock in Abbott Labs or AbbVie. And sure as can be, I did. And I was so angry. But did you know, I did what I felt was the right thing to do and I divested myself of all of that stock, which I've done with Pfizer as well. They make the love of thyroxin drugs too. And I used that money for the movie, which is for the greater good as opposed to the big evil, that.

Is sweet revenge in a way. You know, you're using pharmaceutical money to fund a movie, a documentary that explains, exposes, you know, this, this literally sick industry that is. That is awesome to hear. Now, Maggie, I wanted to ask you, what can people do? Of course, you know, they, they can go watch the movie. But by the way, how do people watch the film? Is it distributed through your website, sictodeath.com or yomaggie.com or is it available on Netflix or Amazon Prime? How. What's the business model?

Well, I've decided to self distribute it myself because there are a lot of people that have been waiting for a very, very long time for this movie. And most of these people are patients that have been suffering and they needed a voice. And so I decided to self distribute. So it's going to be available through Amazon sometime very soon. It's now available on Vimeo. But the easiest way to find it is through my website, which is sixth, the number two death dot com. And I hope that people will share it and bring other people to the movie because the more word of mouth there is about the movie, the more people we will actually be able to help. And yes, it is also available on yomagie.com and that's yomaggy.com.

Now, Maggie, I know that for the person that is listening to this and might relate to some of the symptoms and relate directly to your story, is there a way for them to test themselves? Is there something that they can do on their own besides watching a movie? I'm sure. What can you help them directly with?

Yes, you're absolutely right, Fernando, because I made the website first, because I wanted the people like me that were out there floundering to have a resource. So you can go to the website sick, the number two death.com and look under test yourself. And this is what's so ironic about the TSH test. You don't need the TSH test. All anybody has to do is test themselves with a thermometer, put it next to their bed at night, wake up in the morning, put it under your tongue before you get out of bed. Monitor your body temperature for four or five days. If the thyroid is underactive, your temperature will be low. If it's overactive, your temperature will be high. I then suggest that people take that information not to an endocrinologist, because they rarely know anything about thyroid disease, but to a doctor that actually understands the complications of thyroid disease. And there's also a doctor finder on the website and tell that doctor that you have a thyroid problem. You don't ask because if you ask, they're gonna tell you no.

Just tell them, here's what I found. Let's do something.

Exactly.

That is awesome. Well, very good, Maggie. I know we're running out of time. And once again, talking to Maggie Hadley west sicktodeath.com you can check out her movie and also you can go look at her other projects@yo maggie.com that's y o m a g g I e dot com. Maggie, it's been a pleasure to have you in the show, and you have a great day. Okay?

Thank you so much, Fernanda. And you as well.

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