Re: New on board

September 29, 2004

Amie,

You wrote:

> I've stopped triathlon training due to my insomnia with the medication. ... I

know

> there have been

> world class athletes who have been hypo - Smyers (thyroid cancer) and

> Carl as well.

Having run a couple of 10 km runs and stumbled through a marathon once

in my misspent youth (long before I manifested hypoT), it is my

considered opinion that triathletes are not members of the same species

as those of us that are mere mortals. I cannot imagine a person with a

normal thyroid doing these races, let alone someone on this list.

So, about the best I can do is offer sympathy. You will need to make

careful adjustments when you change activity levels. That means lots of

tests and doctor's supervision. Don't change anything suddenly, if you

can avoid it.

Best of luck,

Sedentary Chuck

September 29, 2004

Thanks for the answers- makes sence now especially as

I have been under physical pressure (aqua aerobic) and

emotional pressures (youngest son just started uni) oh

well will have to tamper with dosage to compensate.

Any advice Chuck ????

Many thanks

Lyn

--- Sutherland <scorpiomks@...> wrote:

> i feel that way quiet often,i am hypo plus have

> constant sweating epesoides.anyone has this

> probelm?Necie

> Chuck B <cblatchl@...> wrote:evelyn tombs

> wrote:

>

> > Can exercise make you feel really ill if you are

> > hypoT? ...

>

> Absolutely. Exercise increases the rate at which you

> use up T3. If you

> are on T4 medication alone, this can even cause a

> temporary onset of

> symptoms when usage gets ahead of T4 to T3

> conversion. You also feel the

> effects for several days while the T4 level

> rebounds.

>

> I did this myself last Saturday when I helped move

> some flagstone into a

> garden for just two hours of heavy lifting. After

> overdoing it, I had to

> just sit for several hours, took a long nap, then

> went to bed very

> early, around 6:30 p.m.. I'm just starting to feel

> normal again today.

>

> The problem is that we fine tune our dosage based on

> the level of

> exercise when we are sick, i.e. symptomatic of

> hypoT, which is probably

> not very active. Then, when we feel better, we try

> to resume a healthy

> active lifestyle and discover that our fine tuning

> is no longer sufficient.

>

> We do best with a steady, predictable level of

> exercise, and dosages

> adjusted to that steady state. An excursion in

> exercise level can really

> be punishing.

>

> Chuck

>

September 29, 2004

evelyn tombs wrote:

> Thanks for the answers- makes sence now especially as

> I have been under physical pressure (aqua aerobic) and

> emotional pressures (youngest son just started uni) oh

> well will have to tamper with dosage to compensate.

> Any advice Chuck ????

If you do it yourself without testing, adjust in very small increments.

Hyper-T can be fatal or at least seriously harmful.

Chuck

September 29, 2004

Thanks Chuck,

Well in reality there are several reasons why I am not training. The primary

reason at this point is fatigue. Both fatigue in the sense of the energy it

takes to train, which I don't currently have, but also the fatigue brought

on by the insomnia - I can't train for even two hours if I've only slept

three. In my younger days, I would have said, 'oh well' and just trained

anyway, but now that I've been diagnosed with many of these endocrinology

problems, I'm trying to be more careful. Also, I'm getting physical therapy

on my hip for a bike accident I was in this summer, so perhaps things work

out this way for a reason in the end.

This brings me to the 'other' reason I am not training right now. My doctor

gave me some handouts and showed me a video before talking to me about the

hypothyroid he found. Well, I saw that extreme dieting can bring this on,

which I resorted to in the past - but it's kind of like the chicken and the

egg there - who knows if being hypoT led me to have to extreme diet or if

extreme dieting led to being more hypoT. So after diagnosis I slowed

training and stopped dieting. I still want to lose now but am scared to diet

at all, at least for now, so just try to maintain, although sometimes I get

so hungry, I feel like I have to just eat and eat.

Also, he mentioned that my extreme training could be whipping the hell out

of my endocrine system. I previously told him that I over-trained when I

started distance running several years ago, both in a sense that I trained

too long and added distance too fast, and also that I didn't give myself

enough recovery time. Well I am not so bad anymore, but still tended to

overdo it - especially when work and school didn't allow enough rest for me

to recover, I just said 'oh well' and kept on keepin' on. Recently, I joined

another forum - 'workaholics anonymous' - so you can see my whole lifestyle

leaned toward 'TYPE A'.

I did some research and reading on hypoT and saw that a lot of it could be

heredity as well, so I am not completely blaming myself anymore. I've taken

up Hatha Yoga, and have been trying to lower my schedule to what most people

would still consider somewhat 'busy' but for me is dramatically reduced. I

still teach group exercise 5 days a week, weight train 2x a week and do yoga

2x a week, but the aerobics is a beginner class so for me the intensity is

not high.

I desperately want to return to triathlon and marathon training, but now I'm

really scared to do it, because a part of me still blames myself for what is

messed up. So yes, will need to return to it slowly and gradually - that is

definitely not my style but will do what I can.

At any rate, I will not return to full on training until things have leveled

off with my energy levels - to where I don't feel so dead, I have ample

energy to deal with my daily activities, and when I get up I feel energized

rather than dragging myself out of bed. Right now that seems like a dream -

occasionally I get glimpses of this but not more - and I don't know when

that day will come but hopefully, soon.

Thanks!!

-Amie

Re: New on Board

Amie,

You wrote:

> I've stopped triathlon training due to my insomnia with the medication.

.... I know

> there have been

> world class athletes who have been hypo - Smyers (thyroid cancer)

and