Monday, January 24, 2011

Medical report and explanation

I don't expect many of my readers to understand this post but here goes:
My current best times of the year are as follows:
400: 73.56/ Mile: 5:53.2/ 5K: 21:55/ 10K: 44:56/ Half mary: 1:42:12.
A lot of runners would take a look at those times and say: "That doesn't look so bad to me. I'd love to be able to run like that and I don't have any significant health problems." However, if you take a look at my PRs, you will see that I am well below my standards. I'm 30-45 seconds slower per mile across the board or roughly 15%. If a world class miler had the same chemical imbalances that I have, he would slow down from a 3:50 to around 4:20. That's still better than 99% of runners out there but in a world class race, he would finish dead last and more than a half lap behind the rest of the field. Obviously, the first reaction would be: "What's wrong?"
I need 8 pills of a particular supplement to control my symptoms and yes, that is the dosage that my doctor recommended based on my last report. I tried cutting back to 6 but Sunday's debacle in the last 3 miles told me clearly that 8 is necessary. Every morning, I wake up feeling exhausted with very stiff muscles and rest from running doesn't help. The reason is that I have just gone 7-8 hours without any pills while I was asleep. I pop 4 in the morning and before too long, I am feeling better then the cycle repeats itself.
Here are my results:
Adrenal fatigue ratio (also known as life/death ratio)- NORMAL! Right where it should be.
Blood sugar: Ideal is 6.67. Mine is 14.00. Anything below 3 or over 12 is considered to be trending diabetic. This value was worse than last time (11.5). MUST stay off sugars and take Ca/Mg supplement religiously even though nothing bad will happen if I miss a few days.
Thyroid: I showed the greatest improvement in this area as my ratio came up from 0.66 to 1.00. That's still 4 times faster than ideal.
Adrenal: I suppose scant improvement is better than none at all. This ratio improved from 43.50 to 40.00. Ideal ratio is 4.17 so instead of being 10.4 times faster, I'm now only 9.6 times faster. I suppose a football record of 2-14 is better than 1-15 but it's nothing to celebrate. This ratio is better to be a little high than low but my number is beyond extreme.
My goal:
I'm really not too worried about the blood sugar. I can fix that if I'm disciplined enough. I really didn't expect to see much improvement in either the thyroid or adrenals. It was pretty much what I expected given that I could not tolerate more than 2-3 pills during the time reflected in this report. The fact that I am now taking 8 will be reflected in my next report. Before the fleeting period of glory in which I didn't need anything for a month, my thyroid was consistently around 1.6 and my adrenal was around 15-16. If I can't break those barriers by the summer, it will be as good as it will get. I don't have to be free from pills to declare myself healthy but I need to be to the point in which if I miss a day or two, there will be no serious adverse effects.
My ratios don't have to be perfect but they've got to be no more than 1.5 or even 1.75 times the ideal value.
Current thyroid ratio is 1.00, Target is 2.67
Current adrenal ratio is 40, Target is 7.00
If I can get to those numbers, I can pretty much guarantee that I will beat all of my lifetime running goals. If not, I have no chance. Simple as that.
Being unbalanced will also hold me back at work and can harm my relationships with others. The latter is far more important to me than running.

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