I'm a bodybuilder and recently had a blood check done to check things like testosterone, estrogen etc. I also had my Thyroid checked on this occasion and came with the following levels:
Serum TSH - 2 mu/L (0.3 - 6)
Serum free T4 - 21.6 pmol/L (10.0 - 22.0)
I currently only take multivitamins, cod liver oil, creatine and l-tyrosine
Is it something I should follow up?
Thanks in advance
Written by
itszooce
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That's not high Free T4, that's euthyroid aka normal. Ideally, you want a full thyroid panel Free T4 Free T3 TSH, TPO and TG antibodies, plus ferritin, B12, folate and D3. As a bodybuilder, you are most likely to damage your adrenals, if anything. I did! So not a bad idea to get Genova's saliva cortisol test done. Thyroid tests should be done fasting (whatever the doctor says) as early in the am as possible. Tyrosine may affect thyroid function (probably in a good way) as it is the amino acid which is used to manufacture thyroxine in the body. Training tends to deplete T3, which is why you may have a slightly higher TSH than some people with the same Free T4.
Your Ft4 is good (plenty of energy in the tank). TSH is slightly raised at 2. Ideally you want TSH around 1, but the better figure to look at is FT4 and Ft3. The NHS won't do an FT3 reading, so maybe do a test with blue horizon blood tests. They can do a lot of tests locally and it isn't that much.
Body building can be very intensive and so this will suck up a lot of T3 and may lower testosterone. As you age body builders seem to complain of failing health. The reason is the fact they are hammering their bodies as hormone processes slow down.
Longer term weight lifting done in a certain way is a great way to keep hormones topped up, but it is the balance between too much and not enough which has to be watched.
What were the other results (testosterone and estrogen) ?
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