LOS ANGELES -- Muhammad Ali was taking large doses of a thyroid drug to lose weight for his unsuccessful heavyweight title bid last Thursday, a source in Muhammad Ali Professional Sports said today.
The drug, thyroxine, has many side effects, including influencing appetite, weight loss, fatigue and weakness, sensitivity to heat, bulging of the eyeballs and personality changes. It also can affect blood pressure.
The source in Ali's fight-promotion outfit, who asked not to be identified, said only that the amounts of thyroxine the former champ was taking were large.
He said Ali's doctors and professional associates would elaborate on the subject at a news conference later today at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Ali went to that hospital Monday night for tests, but no details of his condition were released.
The former champ's weight dropped from a reported 265 pounds five months ago to just 217 ? pounds last Wednesday.
In his unsuccessful bid to win an unprecedented fourth heavyweight title against World Boxing commission Champion Larry Holmes on Thursday, Ali appeared sluggish in the ring and was pounded repeatedly by Holmes.
Finally, Ali's chief second, Angelo Dundee, refused to let him leave his corner for the 11th round.
Ali reported extreme fatigue after the first round of his fight with Holmes and was worried that he was not sweating during the fight. He was warned after the eighth round by referee Richard Green to 'start fighting or I'm going to stop it.' He resumed the fight but hardly landed a punch in the ninth and 10th rounds.
'I went back to my corner and I felt just so tired,' he said Friday. 'I could barely lift my arms. All the strength was gone from me. My reflexes ... there was just nothing working. I wasn't sweating a drop.'
'Physicians Desk Reference,' a widely used doctors' guide to prescription drugs, reports the following about thyroxine:
'Excessive dosage of thyroid medication may result in symptoms of hyperthyroidism. Since, however, the effects do not appear at once, the symptoms do not appear for one to three weeks after dosage regimen has begun.'
The drug is usually given in cases where the thyroid is either not producing enough thyroxine or too much. Drug journals warn against using the drug for weight loss.
