Avoid These Thyroid Scams (Stop Wasting Your Money!)

There’s no shortage of people on the internet who are trying to separate you from your hard-earned money. 

And thyroid patients are an easy target for one big reason: 

They are suffering and it’s hard to get help from the conventional world. 

Because they are so desperate, they are more likely to drop thousands of dollars compared to people with other diseases. 

To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, I’m going to be going over the most common thyroid health scams that exist so you can make sure to avoid them. 

The word rip-off may be more appropriate for some of these tactics, but I think it’s fair to say that many of them have an element of dishonesty. 

Without further ado, let’s jump in: 

#1. The Social Media Video To A “Free Training” Rip-Off

The first is what I call the social media to free training rip-off. 

Here’s how it works: 

While you’re minding your own business scrolling through your social media feed, you’re hit with a couple-minute video from an “expert”. 

This video will be very compelling and will hit on major pain points especially common among thyroid patients like fatigue, weight gain, or hair loss. 

You’ll then be told that there’s a “free training” available for you with the promise that you can truly solve these problems once and for all. 

You’ll probably even be told that the person in the video has a special way of treating these problems that no one else knows about. 

If you click through to the free training you will be sent to a pre-recorded webinar that is usually constantly playing on loop. 

Sometimes this webinar will be made to look like it’s live when it’s not. 

At the end of this webinar, you’ll be asked to sign up for a free consult or “strategy session” with someone to see if you are really a good fit for the program. 

Look for language that suggests they need to make sure that YOU are the right fit for THEM.

This language triggers a psychological pathway in the brain that makes you want it more.  

If you make it this far, you’ll end up with a 1 on 1 phone call which ends with a pitch for a several thousand dollar program designed just for you. 

Now in reality, what you are getting is just a glorified cookie-cutter group coaching program for your hard-earned money. 

Depending on how good the person is at marketing, you’ll probably just be 1 of 20 or 30 people all receiving the same information with very little if any personalized advice. 

Unfortunately, these programs rarely offer trial periods or refunds so if you don’t get the results you’re looking for, you’re out of luck. 

It’s not that these programs are all bad, some have decent information, but the biggest issue is that almost all of the information you’re receiving can be found on the internet for free. 

So if the big selling point for you is accountability, you can get that with just a regular health coach at a fraction of the price. 

There’s no need to spend 8 thousand dollars on a “fix my thyroid” program when you could get similar results using a combination of a hormone doctor plus a health coach for a lot less. 

And this method leaves you with access to prescription medications that you can’t get with a coaching program. 

This rip-off has changed a little bit over the years, but the basic premise is always the same: 

A social media video to a free training to a 1 on 1 consult to a pitch for a several thousand dollar coaching program. 

#2. Cookie-Cutter Treatment Plans

Next is what I call cookie-cutter treatment plans and to explain this one, let me share with you a story. 

Years ago when I was practicing, it wasn’t uncommon for patients to come into my office and share the experience they had with other doctors. 

It was through these patients that I learned a lot about what other doctors were doing, mostly because it obviously didn’t work which is why these patients were seeing me. 

The experience that I kept hearing all of the time was this one: 

A patient would go see a doctor that specializes in treating “hormone” problems. 

This doctor would order tons and tons of expensive tests which would then be used to make recommendations for several medications and treatments (check out this article if you want to see which lab tests are actually necessary). 

It all sounds pretty good, but here’s the issue: 

The treatment recommendations that these doctors made were ALWAYS the same.

No matter how old the patient was, what was in their personal history, or what their labs showed, they were always recommended the same treatment. 

Back in the day, it used to be what some people referred to as a triple cocktail which was really just progesterone, Armour thyroid, and metformin. 

The unfortunate truth is that this method can kind of work.

Even if I didn’t know anything about you, just knowing that you have a thyroid problem is enough for me to say that you probably have low progesterone, you are probably being undertreated, and you probably have issues with insulin resistance and weight gain. 

This is why, 50-60% of you would experience some benefit from taking those three medications. 

And this is also why these shotgun treatment approaches work in a lot of cases. 

But the problem is they are often sold as “personalized” recommendations when the reality is this doctor prescribed the exact same treatment to the last 100 patients that walked through their door. 

And they often don’t have any tricks up their sleeve to help the other 40-50% of patients that these treatments don’t work for. 

But to them, it’s just a numbers game. 

It’s far easier to help 50% of people using a simple cocktail than it is to truly get at the root cause of someone’s disease. 

The latter takes a lot more effort. 

Nowadays, you can substitute metformin for a GLP-1 agonist, but the progesterone and Armour thyroid recommendations still remain the same. 

#3. Advertisements For Free Dinners

This one is similar to #1 but with a slightly different flair. 

Instead of getting an advertisement for a training session, you’ll be offered a free dinner with a presentation. 

This presentation will be similar to the webinar that the experts use in #1, but it’s far more powerful for two reasons: 

The first is that you are physically with them. 

It’s well known that it’s far easier to build a relationship with someone if you see them physically versus virtually. 

This means you’re much more likely to trust the information they present to you because you can catch more of their personality and humanity. 

And the second is that they are paying for your dinner or providing you with some sort of monetary benefit. 

By buying you dinner, they are tapping into your psychology and triggering reciprocity (1). 

This is the exact same playbook that pharmaceutical companies use with doctors. 

Every doctor I know has been invited to an expensive steak dinner hosted by a pharmaceutical company that includes a presentation of their drug. 

And they’re not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. 

They know that if they buy doctors expensive dinners they are more likely to prescribe their drug. 

And just like these pharmaceutical companies, these doctors know that if they give you something, you will feel obligated to give them something in return. 

And that something they will ask for will be a free or paid consult. 

From here, they will then pitch you that same several-thousand-dollar program which more than makes up for the money they spent on dinner. 

Now, again, some of these programs are pretty decent and may even help some people. 

But the reason I don’t like them is because they are taking advantage of human psychology and manipulating it for their own benefit. 

If you’re going to sign up with someone for a treatment plan, it should be under circumstances that put you in control, not them. 

So make sure to watch out for this free dinner with a presentation rip-off. 

#4. Unrealistic Marketing Or “Too Good To Be True” Claims

This one is pretty straightforward but, to my surprise, people still fall for it. 

I’ve said it before, but let me reiterate it here: 

There are no secret thyroid remedies or treatments that only a few people know about. 

There isn’t a special set of supplements or peptides or fancy new medication that will solve your problem. 

There are only a handful of things that are guaranteed to improve your health and those include: 

• Changing your lifestyle to reduce stress and get more sleep
• Eating whole foods
• Exercising regularly
• Replacing nutrient deficiencies
• And taking thyroid medication when/if you need it

Other treatments like red light therapy, PEMF, and off-label medications have their use and can help, but they aren’t replacements for any of the things I just mentioned. 

Trust me when I say, that if there was a magical thyroid treatment out there, I’d be the first to evangelize it. 

I wouldn’t shut up about it and I’d make video after video about it. 

So if one ever pops up, I promise you’ll hear about it. 

4 Tips To Help You Avoid Being Ripped Off

Back to the rip-offs and scams for a minute. 

I’ve just listed some of the more common ones, but since they are always evolving, you’re bound to run into more than those we’ve discussed. 

For that reason, I want to leave you with a few tips to help you differentiate between honest people who can probably help you and the people who are really in it for themselves. 

How to avoid these rip-offs: 

#1. Transparency In Business Model

When you go to someone’s website, you should be easily able to see and find how the business operates and how they make money. 

If any of this is hidden, that’s usually a red flag. 

#2. Transparency In Pricing

Again, when you go to someone’s website or profile, you should be easily able to find how much they charge for any given therapy. 

If they aren’t willing to disclose their pricing unless you get on a phone call with them, run in the other direction. 

#3. Transparency In Refund & Return Policies

Whenever you spend money, make sure you have a solid understanding of what happens if what you are paying for doesn’t work. 

If someone wants you to pay $8,000 for a non-refundable program that only has the potential to work, it’s time to find some other options. 

#4. Look For Unincentivized Reviews 

It’s probably not hard to imagine, but the internet is full of fake reviews. 

Before you spend money on a doctor, look for reviews from real people or from third-party or unbiased sources. 

It’s tempting to think that there’s a quick and easy fix for your thyroid but the real benefits come from simple things like changing your diet. 

And if you want to learn more about how to do that, I’d recommend checking out this article next.