dsrunner wrote:
Endurance training produces differences in thyroid levels which can look like hypothyroid. If you are an endurance athlete who trains hard enough and looks hard enough you'll find a doc who will call it hypothyroid. Bottom line is normal values /ranges dont apply to endurance athletes. Body adapts to protect itself from overuse and to maintain weight.
Though it may be these athletes are encouraged to use thyroid med for it's effect on EPO and as such, a PED, I doubt this was Hall's intent as he was overtrained for some time.
That is 100% false. This was posted on the Fam thread, but I'll post it now:
"Is it really that simple? Get "overtrained" and then your TSH will go up so you can magically get on thyroid to correct overtraining?
If this was true, then we'd need to see a huge spike of your TSH when you are overtrained.
The issue with that is it just doesn't happen.
If you go run a really hard workout, your TSH will be elevated by .2-.4 or around that IMMEDIATELY after.
Well most people can't go from track to doctor immediately, and it's debatable if a .3 increase would even get you out of the normal zone.
What about overtraining, like Fam claims?
Let's go to the research:
In this fancy little study, they took middle distance runners and either overtrained them via volume or intensity.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/26/4/233.full.pdf+htmlThe volume group increased from 85 kilometers to 176km in 4 weeks...
The intensity group went from 9km of speed work per week to 22km. With interval training 3 days a week of:
Mondays-6-10x400 in 70sec
Wednesdays- six to 10x 1000.d.)
Fridays- 8000-10000-m speed endurance run
Results:
TSH-
Volume group-
baseline avg- .97
end of study- .87
Intensity group-
baseline avg- .74
end of study- .80
What does that mean?
The normal range for TSH is .5 to 3.0 with some ambiguity at the top end because the Endocrine society recommends 2.5 and considers .5 to 2.0 "normal". If your TSH is above these numbers or near them, a doctor orders follow up tests to confirm. For hashimoto's it is a Thyroid antibodies test to see if your thyroid is essentially attacking itself.
So, if you over-train yourself like crazy for a month, your TSH doesn't change...
Let's acknowledge that some people use thyroid inappropriately, but lets also realize that doing a hard workout won't make your TSH look hypothyroid.