An Elite British athlete claims her health was damaged by large doses of Thyroxine, she was born without a thyroid gland. It goes on to say about several British athletes' widespread fear that Thyroxine is being used by rivals to gain an unfair advantage.
Mention is made of several Professors of Endocronology, including Mark Vanderpump,, who claim that her results suggest she was taking too much. Well they would say that wouldn't they.
Almost a half page article on this 'turbocharger' medication.
Excerpt: - Thyroid dysfunction was noted in one female athlete, and this was not associated with amenorrhoea, which is a common cause of thyroid disorders in female athletes. The thyroid dysfunction consisted of slightly raised thyroid stimulating hormone and low thyroxine with high to normal tri-iodothyronine, in conjunction with a family history of thyroid disease.
I think if athletes who are not hypothyroid would probably take T3 rather than T4. Some do to increase muscle mass. I certainly wouldn't if I didn't have a thyroid dysfunction.
shaws - as she was born without a thyroid gland then she had no choice but to take Thyroxine. However, it obviously doesn't state in the article what dose she was taking so the comments made by Vanderpump et al are rubbish, again.
For people who have a dysfunction of the thyroid gland, the have no alternative to take thyroid hormones. It's a pity it's only levo they probably get prescribed, especially being an athlete where they will use a lot of T3.
For some pronouncements we have to take them with a 'pinch of salt', as many don't make sense. We only realise this when we cannot get well with the 'routine' medication.
I think a lot of amateurs do take T3 - and some T2 - but Don't know about professionals. You can find T3 on body-building sites, but grossly over-priced!
C-G, I can believe a dumb sports coach/doctor might think there could be some advantage in overmedicating her but I would have thought overmedication would cause pain and other adverse symptoms within a few weeks and would make her underperform.
Does the print article say how much she was taking?
Clutter - I would say that when performing at Elite level together with its pressures, it would be easy to ignore symptoms and just tough it out. This does throw up all sorts of questions though regarding the medical advice she was given by UK Athletics when the condition is normally monitored by a GP. No mention made of her dosage.
Surely there's potentially huge implications for sport generally and hope to hear more about this. It's a shame that the Sunday Times is behind a paywall.
C-G, there was discussion about thyroid replacement and sports athletes in a post a while back. I think it was Helvella who found that Levothyroxine is not on the list of substances banned for athletes. I'd have a look for it but until HU fix the Search Function I'm not using it.
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