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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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How to avoid a crash when you strained yourself
- Thread starter Hugo
- Start date
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- 78
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Thanks for posting this. Really helpful
Hugo
Senior Member
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- 230
In the thread i saw that one member mentioned this on bicarbonate "Potassium citrate tabs don't have that horrible laxative effect that bicarb does, and I can take it with food/drink while bicarb needs an empty stomach". With an empty stomach I suppose its just without food intake because if its on an completly empty stomach it could be hard to use since thats mostly in the morning.
I use inosine and that increases the uric acid in my body. I wonder if its the alcalic effect in baking soda that works as neutralizer of lactic acid and if thats the case if inosine could have a negative effect?
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JaimeS
Senior Member
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- 3,408
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- Silicon Valley, CA
A mild one, @Chocolove but I was really sensitive to a bunch of therapeutic sugars, not just D-ribose. 
actup
Senior Member
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- 162
- Location
- Pacific NW
I used d-ribose previously but switched to Coq10 after reading advice from several folks on PR incl: @JaimeS.
Definitely more effective for me. I use 1000 mg in powdered form (the brand is bulk supplements on amazon).
I also eat a small piece of cheese, cooked egg or chicken rolled in pepper with it to boost efficacy. Much much cheaper than Coq10 caps w piperine. It has no flavor so I mix in water ( doesn't really dissolve but forms small beads). Easy to get down.
Definitely more effective for me. I use 1000 mg in powdered form (the brand is bulk supplements on amazon).
I also eat a small piece of cheese, cooked egg or chicken rolled in pepper with it to boost efficacy. Much much cheaper than Coq10 caps w piperine. It has no flavor so I mix in water ( doesn't really dissolve but forms small beads). Easy to get down.
JaimeS
Senior Member
- Messages
- 3,408
- Location
- Silicon Valley, CA
Powdered sounds like a great idea! I am very fond of the brand I use, but yours sounds cheaper @actup !
Jennifer J
Senior Member
- Messages
- 997
- Location
- Southern California
Yes, very inexpensive!
I've been practicing mindfulness meditation for around 5 years now - so it predates my illness which started just over three years ago. One of the main drivers of PEM for me is sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity. My nervous system gets revved and my body can't settle into a restful state needed to recover from exertion.
I do not know if you are familiar with mindfulness, so just to give a brief summary: it is essentially the practice of becoming easy with everything exactly as it is. Typically in life there is a constant juxtaposition of how you currently are which is set against how you would like to be. That doesn't necessarily mean how you are in terms of the big questions like career and relationships - although those things are important - but how you in terms of how you actually feel right now in this moment. You're sad and you want to be happy. You're bored and you want to be entertained. You're uncomfortable and you want to be comfortable. You're receiving blame and you want to receive praise. You're sick and you want to be healthy. Typically the bigger the gap between these two things, the greater a person's suffering.
Mindfulness addresses that gap and suffering by coming to a place of ease about your current situation. So if you're bored, then boredom is okay. If you're sad, then sadness is okay. If you're angry, then anger is okay. If you're sick, then sickness is okay. If you're in a state of PEM, then PEM is okay.
Mindfulness originates from Buddhism, and depending on which school of thought you are following there are a few different ways you can practice this. One way is to simply watch the breath. You don't try to breath slowly or make yourself relaxed with deep breathing, but instead you just watch it exactly as it is and become easy with it.
Simple, but not easy. As I said above, I have been practicing for 5 years and I would say I am an intermediate or perhaps even still a beginner in some ways. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen monk who has been practicing for 70 years, and even he will continue to develop his practice and deepen his concentration and understanding. You can see benefit right away, but the real change takes a long time.
So, back to PEM: I can settle my nervous system and become more restful simply by watching the breath. It is not always a clear solution but it does work. When I am really focused and in a run of deep concentration my baseline ME will improve too, but that takes a lot of effort.
I would also add that meditation does not just help with PEM, but actually helps with the pressure of being ill generally. I am very severely sick and until very recently was so disabled that I couldn't feed myself. Even during that time I manage to remain fairly chipper and in good spirit. I sometimes think of my illness as Zen Master CFS because it provides me so much material to practice with.
JaimeS
Senior Member
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- 3,408
- Location
- Silicon Valley, CA
@Cheesus thank you for sharing in such detail.
I will tell you something I am not easy with: meditation, lol.
The whole mind-body thing is unsettling to me for the following reason:
I have always been able to 'switch off' my adrenergic system if I focused. I had my first and last panic attack in the second year of grad school by relying on this ability. (I told my friends in the program about this, wall-eyed, and they were all, oooh, she had her first panic attack, that's so CUTE!. I was the youngest in my program by a good bit.)
But I've never been able to cool down my PEM symptoms using this technique, because they cross that barrier between what my mind can and cannot make my body do.
If you can, more power to you!
-J
I will tell you something I am not easy with: meditation, lol.
The whole mind-body thing is unsettling to me for the following reason:
- I know that mind-body dualism is stupid, and mind-body holism is a thing
- I know that the ability of the mind to steer the body's functions is incredible; yet it also has its limits
- I know that people who preach in mind-body holism often have a series of unsavoury suppositions attached:
- People who aren't well 'just' need to meditate / eat right etc.
- People who are ill misbehaved (the healthier-than-thou mindset)
- Therefore people who are ill deserve it
I have always been able to 'switch off' my adrenergic system if I focused. I had my first and last panic attack in the second year of grad school by relying on this ability. (I told my friends in the program about this, wall-eyed, and they were all, oooh, she had her first panic attack, that's so CUTE!. I was the youngest in my program by a good bit.)
But I've never been able to cool down my PEM symptoms using this technique, because they cross that barrier between what my mind can and cannot make my body do.
If you can, more power to you!
-J
Thank you for that interesting reply!
It is not so reliable that I can do it every time. It depends on the extent of PEM and how good my concentration is at the time. At one end of the scale I might completely get away with overdoing, whereas at the other end I just prevent myself from overdoing even more (by virtue of the fact I am sitting still). But when I really hit the sweet spot - which is no mean feat - the impact can be remarkable.
- Messages
- 47
- Location
- Los Angeles
@JaimeS That is SO well put: 'That awfulness that masquerades as sleep when I'm crashed'. Exactly that. And why oh why? Why sometimes and not others? I've just woken up from 9 hours of tossing and turning and feeling hot then cold and drinking water and peeing and peeing again... when all I needed was a good rest to recover from overdoing it a bit yesterday. So unfair..!