REVEALED: UK Athletics chiefs' held mystery meeting on controversial use of thyroid medication in 2014

[helvella]

This post is just of general interest and does not have much relevance to our day to day thyroid issues.

Sorry to quote this paper but I couldn't readily find another source of the story.

REVEALED: UK Athletics chiefs' held mystery meeting on controversial use of thyroid medication in 2014

• In 2014 UK Athletics called a special meeting with the English Institute of Sport

• The key topic was the controversial use of thyroid medication on elite athletes

• At the time Alberto Salazar, now banned for doping offences, was a consultant

• Thyroxine is not banned and does not require a therapeutic-use exemption

By Rob Draper for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 22:30, 30 November 2019 | Updated: 23:31, 30 November 2019

dailymail.co.uk/sport/other...

Goes on to mention:

… prescribing excessive and dangerous levels of prescription vitamin D…

Is this going to be another reason to clamp down on thyroid hormone prescribing? (Article mentions Cytomel by name as well as thyroxine.) I imagine: "You don't need it because you are not, and never will be, an elite athlete."

In part of the same story:

Tygart told the Mail on Sunday in October; 'One athlete [previously coached by Salazar] has to stay on thyroxanol [a thyroid drug] for the rest of their life because they were put on it wrongly and it altered their thyroid system and they now can't ever be off the drug. We have to ensure that the medicalisation of sport does not become commonplace.'

I checked Thyroxanol and found this description of its contents.

Wellmates Thyroxanol Natural Thyroid Formula

One serving (two capsules) is claimed to contain:

Vitamin B-12 100 micrograms

Iodine (kelp) 150 micrograms

Magnesium (oxide) 8 milligrams

Selenium (amino acid chelate) 200 micrograms

Copper (oxide) 200 micrograms

Manganese (amino acid chelate) 2 milligrams

Molybdenum (amino acid chelate) 50 micrograms

L-Tyrosine 300 milligrams

Schizandra (herb powder) 240 milligrams

Ashwagandha Root (herb powder) 200 milligrams

Bladderwrack (herb powder) 50 milligrams

Cayenne Pepper (herb powder) 30 milligrams

Kelp 15 milligrams

[ I am NOT going to effectively promote this product by putting a web link to it here. ]

Looks to me as if someone has mis-reported something. It reads as if Thyroxanol is a thyroid hormone - which it is not. I can't see any ingredient (or combination) which would require taking it lifelong. I'll not speculate what is the real story.

In common with so many so-called thyroid formulas, the actual iodine content is not clear. Although it appears to say how much iodine there is, it then qualifies that as being from kelp - but there is bladderwrack as well (far more than there is kelp). So it simply does not add up.

[linda96]

This is really odd journalism. Did none of the journalists reporting in the article actually check out that they had the word 'thyroid' connected to the thyroxonal word totally wrong?

I don't think that Salazar was convicted of wrongly dosing with 'thyroid' so why are they trying to make out that the two are connected?

It doesn't make sense, perhaps there is more of this type of 'wrong' thyroid journalism to come? Trying to plant 'seeds' in people's minds that there is something wrong with 'thyroid'.

We should be vigilant, and thank you so much for finding this.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to linda96]

It looks like there were thyroxine concerns:

Rogers was said to be particularly concerned that Salazar had been making “off-label and unconventional” use of the prescription medications calcitonin, which can help prevent stress fractures, and thyroxine, which can boost testosterone levels, as well as high doses of vitamin D and the iron supplement ferrous sulphate.

theguardian.com/sport/2017/...

[linda96 in reply to helvella]

Thyroxine, not liothyronine? I remember reading bits at the time about Salazar, that he was doping with more exotic blood enhancing products, goes to show how we are influenced by 'bits' of news.

[TSH110]

Would it actually improve performance if you already had the right hormone levels for you? It would make you feel pretty unwell, surely and ought to be detrimental in the long run. The things people do for golden medallions 🙄 when people like us who really need the stuff have to fight to get a reasonable dose to keep us well or we are denied T3 when we need it.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to TSH110]

I think Angel_of_the_North might be a better person to respond on that question.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to helvella]

Don't know about performance, but taking T3 for a few months when you don't need it, coupled with low carb diet and heavy training, certainly decreases body fat and enhances muscle definition (which is really the same thing).

[BadHare]

Perhaps the supplement was blamed for erroneous test results rather than something the athlete took to enhance performance. I vaguely remember an OTC cold or flu medication being blamed for a doping offence a while ago.