Has Thyroid Med Abuse Made Its Way to College Ranks?

I currently run at a school in Texas and have friends who run at almost all of the D1 schools. I can say with utmost certainty that Thyroid medicine abuse is not a thing here. Most of the schools here aren't on the same level though as the prominent schools of either coasts.

Can someone explain the thyroid med issue to me? My understanding is that it is problematic to have thyroid levels that are too low OR too high. If people who aren't deficient are taking thyroid meds, wouldn't that just give them hyperthyroid symptoms, and wouldn't their performance suffer as a result?

Sports Illustrated:

"A 2013 Wall Street Journal article noted that Brown was known for diagnosing several track and field athletes with onset hypothyroidism. An underactive thyroid can lead to weight gain and fatigue. Other doctors have noted that if an athlete that does not have hypothyroidism takes medication to treat it, it could be seen as a stimulant. The World Anti-Doping Agency does not have thyroid medication on its banned substance list for 2016. "

Science Based Medecine:

" Setting aside whether or not these athletes actually do have “low” thyroid, we can ask if thyroid treatment is actually offering a performance benefit when administered to patients with a TSH between what appears to be Brown’s cutoff of 2 and the standard cutoff of 4 or 5. Certainly Brown thinks so, or he wouldn’t be prescribing thyroid replacement. Given the extent to which these athletes push their bodies, even a subtle amount of fatigue, if ameliorated, could potentially improve performance. And overtraining leading to fatigue is likely a risk for athletes training at this intensity. From this perspective, it raises the question of whether thyroid replacement can be considered a form of doping – a recovery-enhancement or fatigue-deferring boost not available to athletes who didn’t go see Dr. Brown. T4 is a hormone, after all, and it will have effects on fatigue and recovery from exercise."

SBM is bunk

i'm in the amazon wrote:

SBM is bunk

You have been imbibing too much banisteriopsis caapi

The operative word here is "potentially". Whether lowering the TSH to 2 or under to my knowledge has not been studied. And the other issue is whether the "fatigue" that may be present under normal resting conditions is as a result of normal training, and if lowering the TSH would even be of any benefit there.............another question is whether lowering the TSH actually improves training and/or race performance. None of these will likely ever be studied, so any benefit is conjecture at best. In my mind the issue that should be addressed is whether hard training actually depresses thyroid function and if so, how is this manifested........undue fatigue and higher TSH in reference to a control group? Then if we do see a higher TSH as a result of training, what effect does Synthroid supplementation have? In any event, likely will never be studied.

Not sure about thyroid, but several men and women on my team use inhalers.

I always thought iron supplements were being abused.

Mr. Well Connected wrote:

Sources are saying two prominent DI teams in the northwest (roughly) are now guiding their athletes into thyroid med use...I'm not naming them so this thread doesn't get immediately deleted (maybe it will anyway), but no, to my knowledge, Oregon is not one of them. But former athletes of theirs (the two referenced schools) now in the pro group ranks are talking...or at least these groups' connections to these programs - are. Anyone else know how common this is becoming at other schools? No need to name names or point fingers if it means we can keep this thread going...Brojos - maybe an investigative piece at some point?

Kate Grace's vast improvement this year must have encouraged Yale to take the same approach.