Hi
I have had a total thyroidectomy and take Levothyroxin as a replacement hormone.
I would like to know if over exercise or unusual amounts of activity/exertion can effect the TSH levels and consequently produce symptoms of hypothyroidism?
Any facts and sources would be greatly appreciated!
Nadenud, if you post your last thyroid results with the lab ref ranges (the figures in brackets after your results) members will advise whether you are optimally medicated.
T3 levels can drop when you over exercise or increase activity and this may cause TSH to rise and require an increase in your Levothyroxine dose.
This is an excerpt from a paper:-
CONCLUSIONS
: Maximal aerobic exercise greatly affects the level of circulating
thyroid hormones.
nel.edu/26-2005_6_pdf/NEL26...
Thank you very much for the link to this paper, Shaws.
This is a subject area that I am very, very interested in. Although I was found to have hypothyroidism in 1993 and began taking thyroxine, my ongoing illness was put down to M.E.. Over the last few years I have discovered that all/most of my M.E. symptoms can be relieved by a fraction more thyroxine -- in other words the M.E. thing was untrue. I was, I believe, on an exertion-limiting dose of thyroxine, forcing me to live a very inactive life which had huge consequences.
There is something on this subject in "The Thyroid Paradox" by Rone M.D. though I can't provide the page reference here because my book is out on lone to someone. Dr. Rone found he needed a little extra thyroxine when doing weight training plus running daily, as compared to what he needed when more ordinarily active.
oh this is so good!!! i think you should make a page where you would collect all those usefull links, but only researches published, so there doesnt come to too many "opinions", but only good facts around most important topic, many hypo people love to do sports! probably becasue this effect on rising ft4.....so i concluded ft4 is resposnible for feeling warm after exercising,......ft3 is for energy
i think this explains my low ft3 numbers :
Compelling evidence also suggests
that, if exercise-related energy expenditure exceeds
calories consumed, a low T3 syndrome may be induced.
In female athletes, four days of low energy availability
reduced T3, fT3, increased rT3, and slightly increased
T4. Since an adequate amount of the prohormone T4
was available throughout the study, an alteration in the
peripheral metabolism of T4 was likely. The increase in
rT3 and decrease in T3 are consistent with a decreased
activity of hepatic 5’-deiodinase activity, since this
enzyme is responsible for the production of T3 and the
clearance of rT3
------again i can not understand doctors not aware of this ----and i asked my doc about exercise.......the thing what is a lot to one body can be nothing to another, for me running more then 6.5 km is too much
Thank you Shaws for this link. I will show it to my Dr. I think I will have to stick to yoga or Pilates until my levels are optimal. I wonder how long I need to be at optimal before being able to resume maxim aerobic exercise and not have it knock me out for several days to a week?
Jennifer
Isn't this what I've been saying for a long, long time?
This study was done on healthy people, as far as I can gather. The TSH rose to stimulate the thryoid gland to make more hormone. In hypo people the thyroid cannot comply, hence why they feel bad for several days after. Well, it's good to be validated. I hadn't actually read this study. It's just something I learnt a long time ago from... whatever.
Do you think we know more than more Endos now? I didn't even know what the thyroid gland was or its function.
I'm certain we know more than your bog-standard endos! And certainly more than the average GP. There are some that know more than average because they take an interest in the subject. But that isn't the case with most endos/doctors because - as someone once said to me - thyroid isn't 'sexy'!!! (Although what's sexy about diabètes, I have no idea! (I mean the disease itself, not the people that have it!))
But the doctors that know most about it aren't even endos, Drs S and P, for example. But they are rare.
In Dr Weetman's presentation he did point out about Dr P deeming him (in my view) and making a joke about a doctor diagnosing "Without Blood Tests". He obviously thinks he has more know than someone who has hypothyroidism, keeps himself well and functions even well past retirement age. Did you read my post yesterday re Dr W's although I know you didn't want to have anything to do with Dr W but it definitely shows a bias towards the TSH alone and anything else is a somatization disorder (even if it is very painful and they don't know what it is). He does have a cheek. He got a big applause from the audience at the end and also held up a book of STTM.
Well, of course he got a big applause! He makes it all so easy for them. They can just dismiss their patients as crazy with his blessing, instead of working to find out whats really wrong and Learning how to treat it.
Oh, I know all about Dr. W!!! As i said somewhere here, I wrote to him after he published his opinions about somatization disorder and told him just what I thought about him and his crazy ideas. Didn't do any good, of course, but Mary Shomon asked us all to write to him with the idea that if he realised just how many patients are suffering due to his dissmissive ideas then he might just listen. But you can't tell people like that anything. They've got their heads stuffed so far up their own derriers that they wouldn't notice if the whole world collapsed.
And that's the awful thing. 'They' think we're so stupid that we can't possibly know our own bodies and what we feel. The phrase I hate the most (well, one of them) is : oh, you shouldn't be feeling like that. Well, I b****y well am! And I'm not senile and not having phantom pains, I. AM. ILL!!! But it's impossible to get through to most of them.
I think I heard somewhere that they learn in med school that all patients are stupid and liars. But I may have imagined the stupid bit. lol
Hi thank you for posting this question - I am on levothyroxine and I ran a half marathon a few weeks ago with great difficulty. During my training, I presented myself at the GP twice complaining of feelings of being hypo. He sent me away with a flea in my ear saying my T4 was 18 and if anything I needed to reduce my dose! I refused and agreed to take another blood test in 3 months time.
I am still concerned that my GP will still want to decrease my levo despite me still wanting to run another half marathon later in the year. I would like to take the book and stick it under his nose! Good look with your exercise and new you
I believe it is your T3 that reduces and that' what we need to be at near optimum. He shouldn't reduce your dose. If he insists get new blood tests and get a copy with the ranges and post on a new question. If they reduce the dose only due to the TSH level it can mess up your metabolism.
Hi
I had same thing
Hard to regulate the meds. Takes time
But levothyroxine doesnt work as well as synthyroid. But S is more $$
Also. Exercise is good, standard diet is not
Try a plant based diet for ten days and you will be amazed
Free info and recipes at drmcdougall.com
No oils no animal products no processed foods
Good luck
You may find this article of interest:
scienceofrunning.com/2013/0...
There is a section covering your question if my memory serves me well. It is very fascinating and well written
An exercise in futility - Levothyroxine dosing
over prescribed levothyroxine
Query over amount of levothyroxine?
Over replaced on Levothyroxine?
A safe place to vent while crying over Liquid Levothyroxine brand change. 
