How I Felt After 70 Days of Lying in Bed for Science

[A.B.]

Interesting article on the NASA bed rest study. I'm sure some will be tempted view this as supporting the deconditioning model of ME/CFS... but the rapidity at which the participant returned to normal functioning after serious deconditioning is very different from what is seen in ME/CFS. A course of GET should have people returning to full health in a few weeks if deconditioning were the only problem.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/read/nasa-patient-8179-200?utm_source=vicefbus

 

[Simon]

End of the deconditioning myth​

Interesting article on the NASA bed rest study.

I'm sure some will be tempted view this as supporting the deconditioning model of ME/CFS... but the rapidity at which the participant returned to normal functioning after serious deconditioning is very different from what is seen in ME/CFS. A course of GET should have people returning to full health in a few weeks if deconditioning were the only problem

Thanks. Yes, this blows the deconditioning model away. After 70 days bed rest this person would have been considerably more deconditioned than a CFS patient seen at an outpatient clinic (the only way a mecfs patient ever gets seen in the UK) - at least according to many other bed rest studies that provide hard data on levels of deconditioning (once, I planned to blog on this, but never got round to it).

Within a few days of casual strolling and formal reconditioning exercise, my balance returned and my endurance began to recover. By the end of the two-week post-bed-rest period, I felt 95 percent physically normal. I was ready to go.

Now, this guy had some exercise in bed - it doesn't say how much - but the point of the blog was how weak he was after ten weeks so I guess not too much. And in other studies even after 3 months bed rest with no exercise (xtreme deconditioning), healthy volunteers recovered in a few weeks.

Andrew commented how incredibly dull it all was

I made phone calls to family less often. I often felt I had nothing to share.
"Hey, Drew! What have you been up to?"
"Not much. Still in bed..."

Guess most of us can relate to that. Not the sort of thing any sane person would choose for themselves. And even if they did, recovery through physical rehabilitation would be swift and effective.

It turns out that when people have become deconditioned due to enforced bed rest - such as comas, or when recovering from serious accidents, once they are able to exercise they recover pretty fast. In fact, there are protocols specifically for promoting fast recovery. It's a completely different story to how deconditioned people with mecfs respond to exercise.

For a more thorough critique of the deconditioning hypothesis based on PACE Trial data, see Rober Courtney's letter:
Doubts over the validity of the PACE hypothesis - The Lancet Psychiatry

 

[MEMum]

I was deconditioned once. I had two major spinal surgeries aged 18. I was in hospital for 3 months. The first eight weeks I was immobilised in a plaster shell - bottom half only lying down and turned over for a few hours once a week to wash hair and help prevent bed sores. I then gradually built up leg muscle with the help of a tilt table till strong enough to stand for long enough for a plaster cast to be constructed round me. I had minimal leg muscles - me legs went in above the knees.
The consultant said that there was little point in trying physio once home as sitting in drafty corridors/transport would do me more harm than good. Just gradually getting back to normal activities would be best. After a couple of months I was pretty much there. Obviously there was more damage/injury to recover from than just being in bed.
My daughter's situation is so far from this.
I fear I may have come into contact with Ms Chalder a few years ago at GOSH. She was just sitting in on a 'session' and it was v early days in our ME journey. At that stage we thought GOSH had some treatment to offer. I do remember her talking about a study about some men having become deconditioned due to being in bed. I wondered why she'd mentioned it at the time - but paid no attention to it as she was just observing.