Overactive Thyroid

Pumpkin Positive

I've just been diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid).

I've been off the bike for the last two weeks and I've been told not to exercise until they can get the situation sorted out.

Do any others here suffer from this condition? I'd be interested to know what the long term impacts are likely to be, particularly as far as cycling is concerned.

slowbike

Sorry to hear the condition ... don't worry, now it's been picked up it won't be life threatening.

Not sure why you shouldn't exercise - unless you're massively overactive - you do need to keep an eye on your heart rate and not push too hard. If you do have a HRM then perhaps go back to the docs and get another opinion?

Longer term I believe the common way to resolve it is to chop off a bit of the thyroid gland - they normally overestimate how much to take off and then top up the hormone levels with levothyroxine. There is no reason at all why you can't ride once settled - you should be able to lead a perfectly normal life (with the exception of having to periodically pop pills).

Pumpkin Positive

Thanks slowbike.

I think I'm just off exercise until I can get the thumbs up from an endocrinologist (hopefully next week), but I'm not feeling up to much at the moment.

I did the 212km Dragon Ride a few weekends ago before I realised what was going on and I haven't really recovered.

Mettan

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

Do any others here suffer from this condition? I'd be interested to know what the long term impacts are likely to be, particularly as far as cycling is concerned.

Yes, I was diagnosed 2 years ago with an overactive thyroid (I had a Free T4 over 100 and was in a thyrotoxicosis crisis - I 'd left it for far too long..) - I'd lost 2-3 stone was passing out regularly, eyes and neck bulging, couldn't get up the stairs, heart-rate through the roof, itching all over and was really quite ill.. - the Endocrinologist put me on 40mg Carbimazole, and over the last 2 years they've brought it down to a maintenance 5 mg - when you eventually get put onto Carbimazole you'll start feeling better - it might take a month or two but eventually it kicks in - regards cycling and fitness etc, when the medication kicks in you won't feel any negatives regards your cardiovascular fitness - it hasn't stopped me Racing this season for example - eventually after going into remission and withdrawl of the medication, you might find that you go overactive again - if so, they'll then suggest RAI treatment to kill the thyroid completely - this leaves us underactive indefinately after that unfortunately - upsetting, but underactive is much milder and much easier to manage than being overactive.

Iwantmebike

Hi all...I was diagnosed 6 yrs ago with hyperthyroidism. It took a couple of weeks to actually diagnose..the GP wasn't so sure at fist. It was a nightmare ..no sleep ..sweating so bad that I was having to change my tshirt 3 times a night, lost 2 stone..hr 130 on going to bed ..(resting pulse at the time would have been about 36-38) and mega mood swings . So I stopped riding the bike. To get some sort of control took about 2 yrs for me taking both carbimazole and levothyroxine . I eventually had radioactive iodine treatment and the enviable happened I became under active , my worst nightmare. I was all about the bike ..the prospect of putting on weight and lethargy was a nightmare..so I just gave up.
I take 150mg levothyroxine every morning (have been for last 4yrs) and will continue to do so for the rest of my life subject to slight variations in dose. I also put on loads of weight ,racing weight was around 71.5kg , at one point I nearly 100kg!!
But after having a midlife crisis ..and thinking I am so unfit and fat I had to do something. So it's taken about 14 months to lose 21kg and the last 6 months I've managed to maintain my weight. The bike is back ..it's been horrible battling the elements through winter ..but I'm now doing 100milers that I thought I would never do again, been on the local chaingang with no problems ...I'm even going to get a racing licence again !!

Mat

Mettan

Iwantmebike wrote:

Hi all...I was diagnosed 6 yrs ago with hyperthyroidism. It took a couple of weeks to actually diagnose..the GP wasn't so sure at fist. It was a nightmare ..no sleep ..sweating so bad that I was having to change my tshirt 3 times a night, lost 2 stone..hr 130 on going to bed ..(resting pulse at the time would have been about 36-38) and mega mood swings
Mat

For a while I thought I was going to end up looking like Marty Feldman





heheh... after a while on Carbimazole my eye bulging/swelling (and neck) started to reduce - lucky escape in some repects for me - I'm fine now looks wise 8)