overactive thyroid-anyone?

[Former castleva]

This is not the most correct medical expression,what I´m talking about is too heavy thyroid hormone production (as in Basedown disease)
If you don´t know anything of it yet,I´ll give you my mature and politically correct description:it sucks.;)
Here are some of the known influences of it:
feeling too hot when others are comfortable

shakes and tremors of your hands

feeling nervous and irritable

sweating more than you used to

fingernails growing faster

muscle weakness, especially thighs and upper arms

faster heart rate, sometimes irregular rhythms and an erratic pulse

more frequent and looser bowel movements

for women, lighter periods, as well as difficulties in becoming pregnant or in carrying the child to term

for men, loss of interest in sex, erectile dysfunction

eyes that appear larger than normal

There may and can be more though,such as eye problems.

I was thinking if anyone else here is enjoying from this same disease and then has something to say about it?
Or only has something to say about it?

[fa_jing]

Hang in there bro! Yoga seems to pay special attention to thyroid disorders. Perhaps Shoulder stand would help? Look into it and good luck.

[IronFist]

I had my thyroid tested two summers ago because I was always hot and sweating and stuff. I'm an ectomorph, so I'm skinny anyway. My tests came back normal, so we just concluded that I was always hot because I ate a ton and because of stress. I guess college makes me high strung or something. I dunno. I'm usually such a slacker :)

IronFist

[PLCrane]

Basedow's Disease (I had to look it up)

It's also known as Grave's disease, or thyrotoxicosis, and several other names. You can read about it here: http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section2/chapter8/8d.htm

[{i^(]

I hear ya!
I have/had something similar (hyperthyroid) going on, though not to the degrees mentioned (my eyes are smaller, so no bulging. ain't that grand?). Growing up, I'd sometimes collapse on the floor, gripping my chest as my heart skipped LOTS of beats, rapidly.

I should say it was never diagnosed/spotted (or maybe just not considered 'bad'), partly because of the eyes, partly because the whole family is thin, and partly because this was the early '70's when all docs were quacks. I'm much older now and things seem to have calmed down

Never did gain any weight, despite heavy beer drinking, steroids, weight lifting, eating pints of ice cream EVERY day for MONTHS on end, etc. etc. (and sometimes all at the same time! whoopee! who needs health?) So, I gave up and decided to go along with it.

You forgot 'hair loss'! 'Thyrotic storms'!

[Former castleva]

At first,thanks a lot everyone.
I have not checked this thread out since I posted it so my apologies for not replying/thanking.

"Hang in there bro! Yoga seems to pay special attention to thyroid disorders. Perhaps Shoulder stand would help? Look into it and good luck"

There is a possibility that I´d be able to practice it here,I might do that in future.I started qi-gong a small while ago,I wonder what it does for thyroid.
When it comes to shoulder stand,do you mean the movement where you start from the position of lying on your back to holding/standing on shoulders with arms on the ground behind the head and upper torso and legs pointing high in the air?
Quite hard to explain,I use that move at times.

"I had my thyroid tested two summers ago because I was always hot and sweating and stuff. I'm an ectomorph, so I'm skinny anyway. My tests came back normal, so we just concluded that I was always hot because I ate a ton and because of stress. I guess college makes me high strung or something. I dunno. I'm usually such a slacker "

I may have had this for a long while,I´ve read that 10 million americans do have some sort of thyroid disorder but only 2 million of them finds that out,or something.
Anyway,that´s good for you.

" Basedow's Disease (I had to look it up)

It's also known as Grave's disease, or thyrotoxicosis, and several other names. You can read about it here: http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section2/chapter8/8d.htm"
That´s me! :) Thanks for the link.I might check that out later,I´ve read quite a bit.

"I hear ya!
I have/had something similar (hyperthyroid) going on, though not to the degrees mentioned (my eyes are smaller, so no bulging. ain't that grand?). Growing up, I'd sometimes collapse on the floor, gripping my chest as my heart skipped LOTS of beats, rapidly.

I should say it was never diagnosed/spotted (or maybe just not considered 'bad'), partly because of the eyes, partly because the whole family is thin, and partly because this was the early '70's when all docs were quacks. I'm much older now and things seem to have calmed down

Never did gain any weight, despite heavy beer drinking, steroids, weight lifting, eating pints of ice cream EVERY day for MONTHS on end, etc. etc. (and sometimes all at the same time! whoopee! who needs health?) So, I gave up and decided to go along with it.

You forgot 'hair loss'! 'Thyrotic storms'"

I do have a medication for mine-Tyrazol.
It slows down the production.
I think hair loss is a part of lazy thyroid problem.
Good thing it worked out for you.

BTW,I might release a similar thread at TCM&QI-gong forums.
I´ll begin here by asking what you think about qi-gong and this disease? Would it help? Could it be counterproductive as I already have a medication?
I´ve already heard that TCM has had some great results when healing this disease? How does TCM view this disease?

[{i^(]

I am not a TCM doc, nor do I play one on TV. So I can't say how they view it. I do know that I get all sorts of corrections to my form & structure that sometimes set off reactions, sometimes not. don't do things that set you off and don't 'press through' things that do it, even if others think you're some kinda wimp for that. The tradition of 'eating bitter' doesn't apply when it means 'hurt yourself'. it just means 'work hard and learn'.

You need to be careful with Qi gong, taking it slowly and being sure to find a good teacher. It does involve, whether it's acknowledged or not, fine-tuning on the nerve pathway level, often with the intent to alter the signal/noise ratio. Done wrongly, you're in for a world of hurt- and it'll show much faster when you've got these kinds of problems. Ask about problems that the teacher has encountered and how he/she solved them. If you don't like the answer, go elsewhere. Neurasthenia (degeneration/irritation of neuromuscular fibers) can result, and you just won't heal as quickly as some. Go for a 'yin', not hard, version, at least until you build up some internal strength.

[sticky fingers]

I have a friend who has hyperthyroidism. When it first happened (early 20s) we all thought he had become a drug addict because of the sudden loss in weight, bulging eyes, shaking hands, the rapid and sometimes unintelligable speech. He now takes pills to remedy that and is doing fine. He practices Choy Lay Fut and once even fractured his sparring partners forearm with a sow-choy ( he tried to block it instead of getting out of the way)
His sister has it too but she doesn't take any medication because it keeps her slim :rolleyes:

On the other hand, my mum recently went to the doc because of frequent nosebleeds and was diagnosed with hypothyroidism ( not enough thyroid hormone being produced by the body) She now has to take thyroid pills every day. Something I might have to look forward to in the future:(

[Former castleva]

Thanks for the new replies.
I do plenty of soft qi-gong at times of training season but try to balance it with hard when I can.

I take medication and as far as they say it should keep the symptoms away,it seems it has helped some.
Besides that,doctor(s) did not give me any information on what to do and what not to do,so I don´t know if I should handle that as "don´t you worry,do what you want"? But then again,I´m not sure if local doctors know how to spell qi-gong.
It helps me to feel better...

[Stranger]

What would getting your thyroid tested entail in terms of procedure and cost?

[{i^(]

Howdy, Stranger!
Seriously though, it depends on the doctor, as far as costs go. Get a physical first (to rule out other things), with specific mention of thyroid. Go from there. The tests are not lengthy (lab work, really) but might involve specialists if there are weird problems. Thyroid is now treated fairly commonly and mostly by meds.