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Hi, I wanted to be sure to briefly answer your posts tonight. There is a lot of conversation about the amount of exercise you should do when you are hyper. Being hyperthyroid impacts muscles, and your whole body is exceptionally stressed.
Generally, strenuous exercise is discourage at this stage. I KNOW you will hear more from the facilitators on this subject! In the meantime, try putting exercise in the search box, see what pops up. I also understand that exercise is good for physical and mental health, and sleep, so it really is a slippery slope. I was so hyper when I WAS hyper, that I was moving ALL THE TIME!
I am sure you’ll hear from more people tomorrow.
Shirleyhi!
i was diagnosed with graves in sept of 2010 ~ i am currently trying to get my levels under control with tapazole. i would like to start working out ASAP i am hoping it will help eliminate the emotional stress this has caused as well as helping with energy levels during the day and sleep at night. is jazzercise suitable for me at this time or would you suggest something else? i have not been on a betablocker since November.
this is all very new to me and i have hundreds of questions, so you will be seeing alot of topics from me ” title=”Wink” />
thank you!!!The only person who can tell you what level of exercise you may do at this point in time is your doctor.
There are a variety of reasons why exercise while hyperthyroid is problematic, if not downright dangerous. First, the dangerous part — while we are hyperthyroid our hearts are stressed. If you ever did aerobic exercises you may remember how we checked for our heart rate during the course of the program, to make sure that we were exercising at the proper level, the target heart rate, and not too high. It involved taking the pulse for ten seconds and multiplying by six (to get beats per minute). Anyway, while I was hyperthyroid a slow walk out to my mailbox on the street put my heart rate in the target zone. So, slow walking (not even boogying) was doing the job that exercise had previously done while I was hyperthyroid — at least as far as my heart was concerned. In addition, however, and worse, too high a level of thyroid hormone has been shown to cause heart arrythmias — i.e. excess thyroid interferes with the proper beat rhythm of the heart. Exercise can increase that danger. So, only your doctor can tell you when it is safe for you to exercise.
Once your doctor has given you permission to exercise again, you must start very slowly. Baby steps. We lose actual muscle while hyperthyroid. And trying to go back to previous levels of exercise too quickily can result in strains, pulls and tears, not to speak of shin splints.
Try to keep in mind that this, too shall pass. We do get well again. And we get well the quickest by working at whatever level is appropriate at the time. My "exercise" until I got my thyroid levels under control was rocking in a rocking chair (it utilizes muscles) and doing gentle, thorough stretching exercises on the floor. That was a bit of quasi-yoga. I had lost too much strength to do yoga poses, but I could do the breathing and some gentle stretches, and it DID relieve stress.
Wishing you good health again and soon.
I’ve been doing yoga for about 7 months now. I found it was very helpful (ecspecially in the begining when I felt so out of control) it helps with my energy level as well as helping me rest at night. It’s also a great way to calm down which I also found very hard in the begining. I hope you have all your questions answered, this site has been a lifesaver for me.
Jessica
I too will put in a plug for yoga. I had only been doing yoga for 3 months when I was diagnosed with GD last year, and I kept doing it (power yoga, so fairly strenuous, but not the same thing as running on a treadmill) while I was ill and am practicing it to this day (in fact I am fairly addicted to it at this point). I actually credit it with keeping my muscles in good working order while I was dropping weight etc., and with helping me to recover more quickly after surgery (I did take a 3-week break from yoga after surgery, or maybe even a little more). That said, I absolutely agree that you should do *nothing* without checking with your doctor. (My doctors never said a word to me about exercising while I was ill, which, looking back, seems pretty irresponsible to me–but I instinctively didn’t want to go running or do other high-powered aerobic workouts at the time).
lhc11
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