Consultant said no exercise - but I only thought to ask him this when in the waiting room, and didn't clarify what this meant. I am on beta-blockers only that are generally manage the symptoms but am feeling a bit jittery today. Wanted to go for a gentle swim - if I don't exercise at all, my muscles get very tight and sore, and my circulation sluggish. Have read on internet though that even this may be a bad idea. Does anyone know?
Thank you
Pity you didn't have time to ask him why no exercise. We normally tell hypos to restrict their exercise to gentle walking or swimming, but that's because they don't have enough T3 to support anything more exerting. But, if you are hyper, you must have plenty of T3, so I can't imagine why you shouldn't go for a gentle swim. I'm probably missing something, here.
I think it's because exercise can stimulate the thyroid and you can produce more T4 and T3 - exercise will also use some up, and in hypo you can't replace it, but presumably any stimulation of the thyroid is not good if hyper - perhaps you produce more than you use? There are lots of reports online of people doing a gym session and feeling terrible after it with lots of hyper symptoms. It's also because of the increased heart rate - you may be further increasing your heart rate when it's already working really hard and potentially causing damage. There's also a (singular!) case reported of a condition where a man peed out his muscle fibres from gentle exercise with untreated hyperthyroidism, which sounds lovely, but unlikely I think.
I think I'm going to give it a go. My levels weren't too high when last tested and I wear an apple watch so can keep an eye on my heart rate. Obviously aerobic exercise is not a good idea, but a gentle swim isn't much different to just moving around, and he didn't say that I had to use a wheelchair or stay in bed! I tried to do a gentle gym session (walk, gentle bike and short row) and short swim just before I saw the endo and that didn't make me feel too well - I felt weak, shaky and exhausted afterwards. That was obviously too much, but I think a short bit of breast stroke is probably ok. I think I am going to go for it.
Yes, I think it's probably more to do with the heart rate than anything else. If exercise made you produce more thyroid hormone, hypos would be exercising like mad!
I can't imagine how that man got muscle fibres in his bladder - unless it was the bladder itself he was peeing out! lol But, what do I know!
I know! It was his thigh muscles, god knows how it gets to the bladder! Presumably it gets into the blood stream and is excreted like a toxin? It sound grim. It's called Rhabdomyolysis. LInk to article below:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Horrible!
Yee goodness, that’s grim! Thank goodness I didn’t find out about that when my thighs were a problem and my Graves was in full swing!