Real medical doctors comments from the Wall Street Journal Article. They even sign their name!
As a retired pediatrician, I was trained to think for the long haul, to encourage behaviors that get you safely into old age. Elite athletes routinely do things that will make old age a living hell: the abuse their bodies beyond belief for short term gain, either financial or emotional.
When you give the body extra thyroid hormone, the body automatically decreases its own production, hoping to keep your levels "normal." If you override that with way too much synthetic thyroid, you WILL feel pumped up, but it is not a pleasant feeling. It is like having the idle on your car set way too high. It might improve your time off the blocks, but it might also induce a fatal heart rhythm.
Athletes are always looking for an edge and there are always people willing to sell them something to do that. Indeed the term "elite athlete" is sometimes a patient with a problem: a person in denial about what is appropriate for the human body. They are enabled by people who share their view of higher, faster, longer.
Want the evidence? Go look at retired professional athletes debilitated by arthritis. I know one orthopedist who waves to runners on his way to the office and says to himself, "See you for new knees and hips."
Indeed, the most physically fit man I know, a life-long clean living, daily exerciser ended up with two new hips and two knees in his 60's.
Exercise and athletics are great -- to a point. Beyond that it is abusive to the human body. If God wanted us to run 26 miles, he'd have wild animals chasing us. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go do my cardio (walking/reading on a treadmill) and my weight training (with wimpy weights).
Dixie Swanson MD