D-ribose - can it make you feel bad?

[Sasha]

Because I've been taking it for about four days and I feel like death.

Don't know if this is coincidence - maybe I've got a bug (always hard to tell the difference).

But I've been taking about 3tsp/day and I'm just exhausted, particularly the last couple of days - having to lie down for hours at a stretch, am sleeping during the day (not normal for me).

I would have thought it would either have helped or done nothing. For the last two days I've been dissolving it in coconut water and an electrolyte solution (following someone's recipe I saw on the 'net)..

 

[snowathlete]

This is interesting!
I just ordered some a week ago (should arrive later this week) and I'm doing it as a test. I think that it could makes me feel better, but more likely i think that it will actually make me feel worse. If it makes us worse then i think that tells us something about what's going on with our mitochondria.

 

[Sasha]

This is interesting!
I just ordered some a week ago (should arrive later this week) and I'm doing it as a test. I think that it could makes me feel better, but more likely i think that it will actually make me feel worse. If it makes us worse then i think that tells us something about what's going on with our mitochondria.

Argh, I just swallowed another 10g before I read that! Maybe I should stop and try again after a week.

I thought that if our mitochondria weren't functioning then D-ribose would help but I haven't really done my research on this - decided just to crack on and try it.

 

[MeSci]

from Erica Verrillo's e-book:

"Dr. Cheney has observed that fully one-third of his patients cannot tolerate D-Ribose. To test for sensitivities, an initial small dose (1 to 2 grams a day) is recommended. PROS. D-Ribose appears to be generally well tolerated by people with CFS/ ME. Patients usually notice improvement in energy levels within two or three days, although one patient commented that “within an hour, it was like a super thick fog bank had dissipated.” D-Ribose works particularly well with brain fog, daytime sleepiness and hypersomnia. CONS. Some patients report that D-Ribose makes them sleepy, and that it saps them of energy. Those who take high doses (15 grams a day) have reported diarrhea, nausea, and headache."

Verrillo, Erica (2012-09-14). Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide, 2nd Edition (Kindle Locations 12956-12962). Erica Verrillo. Kindle Edition.

I could not tolerate it. I didn't feel tired, but like there was a war going on inside me. Most unpleasant.

 

[Sasha]

"Dr. Cheney has observed that fully one-third of his patients cannot tolerate D-Ribose. To test for sensitivities, an initial small dose (1 to 2 grams a day) is recommended.

I took 30g yesterday!

Well, that's interesting. Weird that some people (possibly including me) don't tolerate it, given that it's basically sugar and some sort of thing that our bodies normally produce (?).

Wish I hadn't just had 10g...

No more for me for a while then...

 

[MeSci]

I took 30g yesterday!

Well, that's interesting. Weird that some people (possibly including me) don't tolerate it, given that it's basically sugar and some sort of thing that our bodies normally produce (?).

Wish I hadn't just had 10g...

No more for me for a while then...

Maybe not that surprising given that many of us (including me) improve after reducing carb (especially sugar and grain) intake, in line with the lactic acidosis theory of ME and other autoimmune conditions. Abnormal carb digestion makes the colon acidic, and we also make too much lactic acid in our muscles and presumably also our neurons.

 

[Sasha]

Maybe not that surprising given that many of us (including me) improve after reducing carb (especially sugar and grain) intake, in line with the lactic acidosis theory of ME and other autoimmune conditions. Abnormal carb digestion makes the colon acidic, and we also make too much lactic acid in our muscles and presumably also our neurons.

Can't say as I've noticed any difference with more or less carb but that's not to say that there isn't one - these things are hard to pull out against background noise.

Nothing's simple, is it...

Thanks, MeSci - doubly convincing that I should lay off the D-ribose for now.

 

[snowathlete]

I've been reading up on mitochondria lately, an area that I have intended to look at closely for some time. I still have a lot more research to do.

ATP production can happen by various means, the most signficant being cellular respiration, but any of these pathways may be broken in a multitude of ways, or not even broken but downregulated either as a consequence of a problem elsewhere, or as a preventative measure. Cheney thinks it is a preventative measure, and he may be correct. D-Ribose, in theory may help you create more ATP, but that would also create more superoxide which is bad if you don't have the right enzymes to clear them up. (Superoxides can cause damage because they are very reactive). Unavailablity of these enzymes may even be why it is downregulated in the first place.

I'd say go easy. If you get a negative reaction I wouldn't try to keep going, in the hope that it will get better. I don't think that will be likely to happen in this case. But even a negative reaction would tell you something, and that's why I am goinng to guinea-pig myself with it, but I don't reccomend anyone else tries that! Unless I get a positive reaction quickly, I will be stopping, and there is even a possibility that having heard your experience Sasha, I may even forgo the trial altogether.

 

[jeffrez]

Small amounts in the AM give me a little boost in energy. If I take a second Tbsp later in the afternoon, I get a severe headache all evening until I sleep it off. I guess it stands to reason that if our mitochondria can't handle it there will be side effects. Might be best to start with very low doses and see if you tolerate any of it. Then increase only very slowly until you notice negative symptoms, then back off to the tolerable levels again.

 

[snowathlete]

Maybe not that surprising given that many of us (including me) improve after reducing carb (especially sugar and grain) intake, in line with the lactic acidosis theory of ME and other autoimmune conditions. Abnormal carb digestion makes the colon acidic, and we also make too much lactic acid in our muscles and presumably also our neurons.

Your cells can produce ATP via lactic acid fermentation which is what happens when there is not enough oxygen present for cellular respiration, and this creates ATP, but is less efficicent at it compared to cellular respiration that the mitochondria do. This alone might make you feel like crap and of course it produces lactic acid. This is what happens when you exercise and you go into anerobic respiration and why you get lactic acid in your muscles. Of course there seems to be more to it in ME/CFS that we dont fully understand yet.

But, importantly, an excess amount of sugars could cause lactic acid fermentation to occur anyway, even if there is plenty of oxygen for cellular respiration, so that may also be a factor here.....you know, the more I type this the more I think taking D-Ribose is probably a bad idea. But my guess is that if you stop taking it you wont get any lasting harm from it for just a few doses, so I hope that reasures you Sasha!

 

[Sasha]

But my guess is that if you stop taking it you wont get any lasting harm from it for just a few doses, so I hope that reasures you Sasha!

I hope so!

Pity it was £18.

 

[Dreambirdie]

I did not do well with d-ribose. I took it for only 2 days and it made me very wired, so I stopped.

This is why I hate buying new supps. I end up throwing half of them out.

 

[Sasha]

I did not do well with d-ribose. I took it for only 2 days and it made me very wired, so I stopped.

This is why I hate buying new supps. I end up throwing half of them out.

Sorry you had a bad time with it too - how long did it take you to get back to baseline?

I feel like

 

[snowathlete]

hope you feel better soon Sasha, and sorry about the expense. Looks like I am in the same boat. *sigh*

 

[Lotus97]

I've heard people talk about not overloading the Krebs cycle. I forget the reasons why, but maybe the suggestion of taking ribose at lower doses (or at least starting at a lower dose) would be a good idea for similar reasons.

 

[Dreambirdie]

Sorry you had a bad time with it too - how long did it take you to get back to baseline?

I feel like

Not long... maybe a couple days. But I only took one capsule/day for 2 days. You took much more than I did.

Whenever I get whacked out by a supplement, I stick myself with little acupuncture needles in several of the main liver points. That helps it clear quicker. You can also massage these points if don't have needles. (Liver 2, 3, and 5 specifically). Drinking plenty of fluids can be helpful too.

Hang in there! It's rough for now, but this too shall pass.

 

[PhoenixDown]

Don't know about feel bad, but it made me smell different. I read somewhere it can feed untreated yeast overgrowth, that's kinda what it made me smell like. It was repeatable so not a coincident, of course I don't know for 100% sure why this occurs.

 

[Allyson]

Can't say as I've noticed any difference with more or less carb but that's not to say that there isn't one - these things are hard to pull out against background noise.

Nothing's simple, is it...

Thanks, MeSci - doubly convincing that I should lay off the D-ribose for now.

Sash for me it totally stopped my muscle aches in a few days after years of aching - so that was wonderful

the i stopped it after 2 years of 2 tsp a day or more

after about 2 weeks the aches came back so i am back on it now

i nnoticed a ccorrelation betweeen taking it and feeling bad

it is only a type of sugar derived from corn so i do not see how 2 teasp a day could have a serious effecct - but i have not looked into the biochem at all

for me it is great though- for my aches and i cannot say if it has made me worse or not

i would try it again a few times and see how you go - it takes up to 2 weeks to work acording to Dr teitelbaums book where i read about it first

best

Ally

 

[Sasha]

hope you feel better soon Sasha, and sorry about the expense. Looks like I am in the same boat. *sigh*

Thanks - actually I feel a bit better this morning for not having taken the 'first thing in the morning' dose! I hope the effects will wear off over the next few days.

I suppose in the big picture, £18 for an experiment isn't that much.

 

[Sasha]

Sash for me it totally stopped my muscle aches in a few days after years of aching - so that was wonderful

Glad you had good effects - having seen Amazon reviews of D-ribose and read Dr Myhill and others on it, a lot of PWME seem to do well on it.

Maybe I pushed it too fast - I'll keep the highly expensive jar in the cupboard and maybe have another go in a couple of months.

snowathlete - looks like it's maybe, 'start low, go slow'...