Mary Shomon

Mary Shomon (born 1961), is an American health activist and author whose primary focus is thyroid disease.

Shomon is a 1983 graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in International Finance from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She worked in advertising and marketing for a number of advertising agencies and grassroots outreach companies, developing advertising and outreach campaigns for commercial and non-profit clients.

Shomon was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an auto-immune thyroid condition, in 1995, and this became the impetus for her involvement with online thyroid support groups, and ultimately, the creation of her thyroid-related web sites and her work as a patient advocate. In 1997, she joined with the Mining Co., (now, About.com) to create the Thyroid Disease web site, and her site went live when the company was launched in April 1997. She continued as Thyroid Guide for About.com as of February 2007. In June 2008, she led a workshop called Living With Thyroid Disease: Creating Your Wellness Plan at the New York Open Center [1]. She also writes, edits and maintains a number of other thyroid and health-related web sites.

She is the author of one New York Times best-selling book, The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss, published by Harper Collins in 2004, along with a number of other consumer health books on thyroid disease, weight loss, auto-immune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. Shomon is also the original Guide for the About.com (formerly the Mining Co.) site on thyroid disease. She has also maintained other patient-oriented websites and email newsletters on thyroid disease since 1997.