I started exercising 4 weeks ago after being taken out of the exercise arena after thyroidectomy which left me with a horrific psoriatic arthritis flare that has been ongoing for 5 years now and I finally feel like some of my pain is starting to alleviate however during my exercise (walking) at times causes leg/feet fatigue so Im curious do you need more or less medication when you start to exercise fairly steady? Or could it just be the way its going to be for now?
Yes I realize Im starting over with exercising and its going to take time but the leg/foot fatigue is annoying and hasn’t gotten even a little better over these past 4 weeks and seems random. I don’t want to mention it to Endo since he is brain dead and only considers reducing meds every time I mention anything so I remain silent.
I did have one episode of extreme fatigue that threw me into panic mode thinking about the time 4 years ago when I collapsed 5 miles away from my house in the middle of the woods alone laying on the freezing ground for 2 hours and no cellphone….Absolutely scary it took me 5 hours to walk home after I peeled myself off the ground and I was fit then and I shudder to think if that happened now (fatigue feels the same as 4 years ago). I currently don’t walk alone but eventually I would like to.
I know I will need another thyroid test which I will do in 6 weeks.
Does anyone have good reliable articles on exercise and thyroid meds? I can’t find much.
Thanks in advance and hope this makes sense.
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Batty1
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I am not medically qualified but would not begin to exercise until you have your dose at an optimal level (you feel well and symptom-free). Some people gain weight when hypo and that's due to having hypo(slow)thyroid .
If we exercise before we're on an optimum dose it would probably be insufficient. A very gentle exercise - like a walk would be o.k.until you feel really well and your dose of thyroid hormones might need to increased gradually.
Shaw I don’t have a choice its either get up and move or live my life stuck in the house and I have done the stuck in the house for 4 years and Im over it and over waiting for some kind of thyroid miracle that never comes.
You can begin with a gentle walk (or walks throughout the day) and gradually increase without puttingt pressure on your whole body. If we are hypothyroid, our system has slowed down anyway so it is 'slow and steady. to build up our health/stamina/
I do walk pretty slow and it’s taken me 4 weeks to just walk 4 miles and that distance is definitely not on every walk some day maybe and I do walk around off and on during the day and this off and on doesn’t cause me grief.
Ok SS this is exactly the kind of information Im searching for… would I need more or less thyroid medication? Do you have reputable articles I can look through?
I believe based on past experience with exercise fatigue and my fatigue now during my walks are hormone related just need to understand it better and figure out how to work around it. Im only walking on very flat terrain and slow.
I feel like this is the case but my (excellent and very experienced, but very by the book) surgeon says it's not. I was wondering/ hoping you might have a reference for this?
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3
Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 at least once year minimum
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially when under medicated
Low vitamin levels common as we get older too
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
On day before blood test, split T3 into 3 smaller doses, at roughly equal 8 hour intervals, taking last 1/3rd of daily dose approx 8-12 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Im on 10mcg T3 / 100mcg T4 and Saturday and Sunday I take 150mcg each day plus the 10mcg T3 and if I used the calculator for weight and medication Im very under treated but I feel good except when I go out for my walks which Im only walking 4 times a week can’t do more then this right now especially with the leg/feet fatigue.
My TSH was pretty low at that time because I was having a horrible reaction to Acacia in that manufactures pill and Im going to guess that my TSH will increase because Im back on the manufacture pill from my Aug test which I don’t feel is strong enough… but I will know for sure when I retest again.
Yes, I need to test vitamins but as everyone on this site knows its a battle to make this happen and paying for them is out of the question because they are expensive Vit D alone is over $100.00 and I know I lack this because of my psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis its pretty common affliction my whole life and B12 and Iron is also pretty expensive to test along with D3 and B12 and one other thing can’t recall it was close to $400.00 as a bundle.
I take D3 and K2 (winter months only) and Igennus Super B Complex.
Yes u make perfect sense. I’m afraid I don’t have any information about exercising and thyroid meds but I had Graves in 2012. I managed to get over my Graves and keep my thyroid so my case isn’t the same as you but I found getting back to exercising really tough. I was SO weak. Exercising was the thing my Graves affected most and I hated it - it took a long time to get back to normal but I got there in the end.
Before I got ill I used to do a lot of long distance walking which I loved - and was also going to a gym a few times a week and I wanted to keep going there because I liked the people who went besides I just didn’t want Graves to destroy absolutely everything I enjoyed in life so I turned all the machines down until I was just ticking over really - but I was still going!
I also kept going to my Pilates class but my teacher is a qualified physical therapist who had experience of thyroid problems - a family member had Graves - so she worked with me but I felt good being able to keep doing Pilates which I love.
So you could try that sort of thing to help you get your strength back in a controlled sort of way. I think there’s a fine line between getting fitter and killing yourself off with exercising too hard but I can imagine how desperately you want to get back to pre thyroidectomy
Eventually one day I just had the urge to go do one of my favourite walks - well it took a couple of years - and gradually I got back to walking longer distances with no problems but I have to say it took a while.
I’ve since developed osteoporosis and picked up a sacral insufficiency fracture which is a bit of a pain - well a lot of pain really - and that brought my exercising life to a very painful halt for a while but I’m back exercising again. I use Nordic walking poles - I did Nordic walking in the past - the poles really help, they take the weight off your hips, knees and back and provide a lot of support, I use them all the time when I’m walking ‘off road’ at the moment. You might find that helps.
After yur awful experience you really could do with taking a phone with you - I did because I walked alone - or at the very least buy yourself a good whistle - I bought one for my husband when he disappeared when we were on a walk, I asked where he was - he said he fell in a ditch and couldn’t get out and I asked why he hadn’t shouted - seems he did but I didn’t hear him so I bought him a whistle.
Once you get walking again there are a lot of things you can get that will let you summon help so it might be worth finding something like that. My Apple Watch has an SOS button but there are other devices out there.
We can’t have one of our group lying in a heap somewhere. Hopefully you’ll be back walking again soon 😉
Wow you sound a lot like me and yes I use trekking sticks when I walk honestly without them I would be mess between the lack of thyroid and PSA my body is a mess but I feel happy when Im walking and your also right I will NEVER walk without a cell phone absolutely worse thing I ever did but in fairness I didn’t know my issues were as bad as they actually were.
I have been able to resume exercising since I increased my levo last year and finally felt normal again. I began with walking, which I did daily for around 5/6 months, then did the Couch to 5k program. I now run 3x week, for up to 90 mins on a long run. I've been super careful not to overdo it and so far, it's all been fine. I've lost 2 stone and feel much better: fitter and my old self.
I think as long as you are optimally medicated, you can exercise, but you have to take it slowly and include ample recovery time. I never run on consecutive days and I eat healthily. Begin with walking and try increasing your daily step count to see how it feels. 👍
Your lucky but Im not just dealing with thyroid issues but also psoriatic arthritis that has destroyed my joints so sadly running will never be an option I would be happy to walk without fatigue.
I remember reading a story in Thyroid UK magazine about a very sporty lady who loved mountain climbing and was really finding it difficult to get back to the level of exercise she was used to. She was on NDT and upped her dose to a point she was able to manage it.
I wonder if the problem might be doing intermittent exercise. When we're not very active, we only take enough meds to feel well with moderate activity, then run out of fuel when pushing the bar a bit. Whereas maybe if we are frequently active or sporty we would naturally fall into taking a higher dose all the time? Just a theory.
I lift weights 4 days a week so I have to keep my thyroid meds on the upper ranges my t3 and t4 are just barely in range from going over the ranges. I can’t do both weights and cardio it’s to much energy expenditure so I have to pick one so I do weight lifting because the muscle seems to help me with every day activities I also eat a lot of protein to help with muscle recovery. I am not a doctor but the more energy I use the more thyroid meds I seem to need.
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Long time member advice required on recent thyroid blood test after starting HRT.
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