Exercise and blood results

[Phoenix605]

For anyone who has wondered why they feel rubbish if they over exercise, these results might help explain it .....

TSH T4 T3

(0.3-4.2) (12-22) (3.1-6.8)

22/03/17 0.051 21.8 4.8

28/06/17 0.35 14.1 4.4

03/07/17 0.82

I was on 125mcg levo for all tests. In March I finally felt reasonably well and approaching optimal but discovered some vit deficiencies which I have been addressing with loading doses of Vit D and B12 since. I have always found that a small amount of exercise daily made me feel better but crashed if I missed a day, so not an ideal 'treatment'. Due to an adverse reaction to TEVA and/or Wockhard levo in April which b******ed my joints and tendons I did virtually no exercise from the begining of April til the challenge started.

On 24 May I joined the Virgin Pulse Global Challenge. This aims to get office workers moving and doing at least 10,000 steps a day to improve health. I have been averaging 12,400, a day with a two well spaced 6 mile team walks which bumped those days up to about 20,000.

Well as you can see it appears it has absolutely tanked my FT4, my FT3 has dropped slightly and my TSH is on the rise, they did another test on 3rd due to 'odd' results but lab only did TSH that time (jerks).

My GP is very good, she has redone the vits and vit D still needs some work but B12 is now very good. She also speculated that the low FT4 was due to the exercise, and SUGGESTED an increase to 150mcg with retest in the minimum 6 weeks to compensate. She did recommend dialing back a bit so I am going to try an average of 9000 for now, a) because I feel c**p again and b) I do not want to alienate her!

On the plus side my conversion must have improved with addressing the vits or my FT3 would be tanked too. I am guessing the slight FT3 drop is simply because my body is struggling to find the FT4 to convert and also why the fatigue and fog are back😒

PS all early morning fasting tests etc

Any other conclusions to explain these results are welcome 😁

[bluebug]

Thanks for that.

BTW The 10,000 steps a day thing is a myth. They do want people to move more but apparently anything above 7,000 steps is good. 10,000 was chosen because it was a nice round number for marketing. There is nothing stopping you going swimming or doing yoga as part of your exercise routine rather than walking loads.

Oh and regardless of the state of your health - if exercise makes you feel crap afterwards then you are doing too much.

[Phoenix605 in reply to bluebug]

To be honest going to the gym etc has helped with fatigue levels and stopping further weight gain whilst getting optimised over the last year and a bit (the caveat being I have to do it every day, cant do it slapdash or it floors me)

The challenge started just over a month later when I was feeling really well and I decided to give it a go partly as motivation, partly because I do better in most things if I have a fixed target and to hopefully shift some of the 6 stone excess (all gained in last 3-4 years). It also allows me to have a decent amount of calories without immediately gaining.

The challeng does take into account biking and swimming and gives a step allowance to load in compensation so my steps are not just from walking, I love my bike (in the summer at least😇) but hanging fire on the swimming as still sorting hair and skin issues so im not willing to soak in chlorine just jet .....

Im going to give 9000 a go and see if things improve inc next bloods, if not I will have to look again ☹️