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Glycogen Depletion, PEM, and Cold after exercise

Mya Symons

Mya Symons
Messages
1,029
Location
Washington
I was able to exercise today. I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. However, about 2 hours after exercise I am always so cold. I have the heat up to 80 degrees and am wearing a sweater. I am wondering if this has anything to do with glycolysis, and glycogen depletion. I am looking it up and it seems to be a symptom of glycogen storage issues. I am assuming with us, it has to do with dysfunctional mitochondria and lack of oxygen. I can't find much information on this. I have forgotten why it is we get cold after exercise and I am wondering if someone can please refer me to an article about this.
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
I have this as well. A noticable drop in body temperature after physical exertion, as soon as I start resting.
 

Martial

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Location
Ventura, CA
Could be bloodflow too, exercise stimulates the flow of blood to muscles and fibers, and loosing the pump and oxidizaton with underlying issues may exaggerate the change from full blood filled muscle fibers, to a normal state, thus feeling much more cold, maybe more sore, achy, etc..
 

Legendrew

Senior Member
Messages
541
Location
UK
It's not unusual for anyone (healthy or otherwise) to feel cold after exercise, it comes as a result of increased perspiration (sweating). This occurs during exercise to cool the body as the exercise stimulates an increased metabolic rate which creates a lot of heat as a byproduct. After stopping exercise it takes a while before the body stops perspiring, during this period you are losing more heat through sweating than is being created through the increased metabolism (which slows much faster than the sweating stops) so you may feel cold for a while afterwards. I don't think feeling cold after exercise is the problem, for me I think that ME/CFS patients likely experience more sweating during exercise due to autonomic problems, the increased sweating following exercise then simply results in people feeling much colder following the exertion.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
I stopped sweating over a decade ago but I still get this feeling of being very cold as part of the post exertional symptoms.

It is so different because I feel much too hot normally. I wear summer clothes all year and have the window open. Feeling cold for me to a huge red flag that I am about to get viral symptoms after some exertion that is enough to start the PEM cycle.

What happens for me is first the exertion (I'm not well enough to actually exercise) then a whole evening of feeling bitterly cold, very hungry (could maybe fit in with what Mya is saying above?), then the viral symptoms and pain set in after that.
 
Messages
15,786
After activity, I would be cold for hours. Intense chills and unable to warm up even after hours under a thick duvet or a hot bath. I wasn't perspiring.
 

Sidereal

Senior Member
Messages
4,856
I feel very cold after exertion. It's a big part of PEM for me. It's not related to sweating as my body stopped doing that some time in the late 1990s.
 

zzz0r

Senior Member
Messages
181
Well that makes 3 of us. We all have in common that we are not sweating!!! This is closely linked to PEM. I just hope there was someone to research on this one