Exercise and T3

[looselywoven]

Hi all. I'm sure I remember reading that exercise uses up T3. Is it advisable to take extra medication when doing more physical exercise than usual? Thanks for your help.

[Baobabs]

When I began taking T3 with my T4 meds my T4 began to plummet. I continued gym exercise regardless and used to feel exhausted very quickly, like someone had taken the batteries out of me. The energy loss happened quite quickly. I was then advised to take additional T4 to get my levels within the normal range and since having achieved this, my energy is much more constant. Having said that there are folk on this forum who take T3 only and feel good on this.

[looselywoven in reply to Baobabs]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. When I started to do Fitness February for Cancer Research I started walking to work (a little over a mile). I very soon felt dreadful - far more so than one might imagine for such a small amount of extra exercise. After two weeks I started to increase my dose of Levo by 25, and this helped enormously. However, I hadn't enough extra Levo to continue, so I have gone back to driving. I have an appointment at the Dr next week - see if I can have a bit of leeway.

Would it be ok to take a little extra just on odd days here and there, where I know I'm going to be doing a bit extra?

[Baobabs in reply to looselywoven]

I am not an expert but I don’t think this would be a good idea. Explain your situation to your doctor and he will advise. I believe it is usual for FT4 to drop considerably after having started T3 treatment. Do you know what your current FT4 level is now? I think the tendency is to raise Levo rather than T3 meds in a situation such as yours.

[looselywoven in reply to Baobabs]

Oh yes, I think there's a misunderstanding - I take Levothyroxine. When I asked about exercise using T3, I meant T3 reserves in the body. I took a small increase of Levothyroxine (T4) after the first two weeks and felt lots better. Thanks.

[jgelliss in reply to Baobabs]

From my personal experiences T4 was what I need for intense workouts . I found nutrients and exercising helps T4 convert to T3 . Higher doses of T3 I found less helpful in my situation .

[radd]

looselywoven,

For some people T3 offers an immediate lift but because in the long term the body’s response to T3 is complicated involving other feed back loops, etc, would this extra allow immediate adjustments and then for synergy to continue.

Healthy adrenal hormones respond to stress, whether physical, mental, etc. I have NDT thyroid hormones working well and a good level of activity and fitness but if I over do it, I feel drunk. However, I don’t consider this to be the result of depleated T3 but the result of using too quickly the supplied energy provided by a complex system, and possibly still weakened adrenals.

I would say a steady supply of thyroid hormone has to be better long term but if you are going to medicate a little bit extra T3 in order to accommodate extra exercise, it would probably be better to take it so the peak circulating concentration coincides with the height of activity. This way maybe the synergy will replenish more quickly by providing better support to the adrenal glands.

[looselywoven in reply to radd]

Hi. Thanks for replying. In a normal healthy thyroid, the hormone production would increase and decrease as needed, wouldn't it? So it seems a little strange that we should be sticking so rigidly to a 'metered' dose. I would like to continue with the exercise, but don't feel able to without increasing my medication - a bit of a catch 22 situation. I'll see what the Dr says next week.

[radd in reply to looselywoven]

looselywoven,

Some on this forum do take extra T3 before intense exercise. Type something like "exercise & T3" in the search box at the top of the page for other members experiences.

I can’t see the point in taking extra T4 as the half life is long, unless you are exercising regularly and so in need of an actual dose raise.

[silverfox7]

My logic is slightly different. I think I would look into increasing my Levo dose and see how that works out. After all when we had a perfectly working body we just got on with it and any problems we tended to think we must get fitter so did things to address that. So I would look at your meds first and get them spot on and then see if moderate exercise does not wipe you out then take it from there.

[looselywoven in reply to silverfox7]

Thank you Silverfox - much appreciated x

[LAHs]

I noticed that I used up my T3 when I rode my bike, the cycling wiped me out at the end of a ride instead of my running out of energy about 9:00pm. I decided to try just a little T3 extra to see me through this but noticed a huge spike in blood pressure (BP) until the T3 had worn off. I therefore stopped this practice. So a word of warning, if you are going to take extra T3 for exercise or some other stressful event (a job interview), don't do it if it sends your BP up.

[looselywoven in reply to LAHs]

Thanks, I'l certainly bear that in mind. I had been thinking of getting a BP monitor so that I can keep an eye on things. x