I am putting this in alternative therapies, though it is not regarded as alternative in Germany, but completely mainstream.
I was given this therapy for 2 weeks as part of my Lyme treatment in Augsburg.
First I was put on an exercise bike and given a mask of oxygen to breathe for 20 minutes. There was an ioniser attached, and they said ionised oxygen has a different effect from normal oxygen.
They said I could pedal if I wanted to, but NOT if I felt tired or if it made my legs hurt.
After ten mins I tried pedaling and after 4 minutes ached a little bit, but carried on (naughty!) and the aching went away again. I managed ten minutes.
Next day I did 18 minutes and from then on I did the full 20 minutes every day except 2 days, when I was a bit low on energy. The trainer let me do up to 60 revs a minute with resistance on the lowest setting and would not let me do more than this. (This is just about enough effort on a real bike to avoid tipping over sideways).
The 20 mins of oxygen was followed with normal exercise in the afternoon, which was slow walking, gently stretching out my poor old muscles, toning by pulling on a giant elastic band (evidently in the world of fitness they are the new thing) and balancing on a wobbly rubber cushion to improve my atrocious coordination. The trainer stayed by me the whole time telling me to slow down, not push myself, did it hurt?, if so stop etc.
The longer I had been doing the exygen, the better I was at the other exercises in the afternoon.
Apparently the oxygen with exercise makes the mitochiondria heal and increase in size.
Also, as we know, there is nothing more effective than exercise to stimulate the immune system. There was one patient who could not do any exercise at all, so after her oxygen she would go in the shower and turn the water cold, then hot, then cold, then hot for as long as she could stand it, which is the next best thing to exercise for stimulating the immune system.
Oxygen rich blood creates a hostile environment for borrelia bacteria,.. I wonder if it does so for other various pathogens? Must do.
The other great advice was dealing with OI and POTS.
I got on the cross trainer and they made me go in slow motion for exactly one minute, then stop for one minute. This pause gave the autonomic nervous system time to realise that I was exercising, and that it needed to adjust all the settings. If you don't pause, your heart cannot do what it needs to and your legs and arms end up respiring anaerobically, fill with lactic acid, and then after two minutes you cannot do any more exercise for a day or more. In my case, you also get tachycardia and your head starts spinning.
After the minute pause, I did two minutes motion, then another stop for a minute, 2 minutes axercise, one minute pause etc etc. for as long as it felt good. The successive stops were to allow my blood flow to catch up with the oxygen requirement. It cannot supply sufficiently oxygen rich blood for continuous exercise, but giving it time to catch up at 2 minute internals meant I could actually keep going for about 20 minutes or more without getting lactic acid build up.
If anyone decides to try this, the main thing is that you must exercise really slowly, and if the minute pause does not feel like enough, then make the two minutes of exercise shorter. And above all you must never think that, because you could do ten minutes yesterday, you should be able to do ten minutes today. Energy goes up and down every day and some days you may be able to do nothing, just accept it. If you do what you can, the general trend over the long term is upwards.
I hope I have explained all this clearly. It was really fantastic to exercise and feel that benefit that exercise gives. It was also really amazing to have a trainer there constantly telling me to slow down and stop if it hurts. One patient who had been subjected to graded exercise therapy actually cried to find someone being nice to her and actually HELPING.
Athene.
I was given this therapy for 2 weeks as part of my Lyme treatment in Augsburg.
First I was put on an exercise bike and given a mask of oxygen to breathe for 20 minutes. There was an ioniser attached, and they said ionised oxygen has a different effect from normal oxygen.
They said I could pedal if I wanted to, but NOT if I felt tired or if it made my legs hurt.
After ten mins I tried pedaling and after 4 minutes ached a little bit, but carried on (naughty!) and the aching went away again. I managed ten minutes.
Next day I did 18 minutes and from then on I did the full 20 minutes every day except 2 days, when I was a bit low on energy. The trainer let me do up to 60 revs a minute with resistance on the lowest setting and would not let me do more than this. (This is just about enough effort on a real bike to avoid tipping over sideways).
The 20 mins of oxygen was followed with normal exercise in the afternoon, which was slow walking, gently stretching out my poor old muscles, toning by pulling on a giant elastic band (evidently in the world of fitness they are the new thing) and balancing on a wobbly rubber cushion to improve my atrocious coordination. The trainer stayed by me the whole time telling me to slow down, not push myself, did it hurt?, if so stop etc.
The longer I had been doing the exygen, the better I was at the other exercises in the afternoon.
Apparently the oxygen with exercise makes the mitochiondria heal and increase in size.
Also, as we know, there is nothing more effective than exercise to stimulate the immune system. There was one patient who could not do any exercise at all, so after her oxygen she would go in the shower and turn the water cold, then hot, then cold, then hot for as long as she could stand it, which is the next best thing to exercise for stimulating the immune system.
Oxygen rich blood creates a hostile environment for borrelia bacteria,.. I wonder if it does so for other various pathogens? Must do.
The other great advice was dealing with OI and POTS.
I got on the cross trainer and they made me go in slow motion for exactly one minute, then stop for one minute. This pause gave the autonomic nervous system time to realise that I was exercising, and that it needed to adjust all the settings. If you don't pause, your heart cannot do what it needs to and your legs and arms end up respiring anaerobically, fill with lactic acid, and then after two minutes you cannot do any more exercise for a day or more. In my case, you also get tachycardia and your head starts spinning.
After the minute pause, I did two minutes motion, then another stop for a minute, 2 minutes axercise, one minute pause etc etc. for as long as it felt good. The successive stops were to allow my blood flow to catch up with the oxygen requirement. It cannot supply sufficiently oxygen rich blood for continuous exercise, but giving it time to catch up at 2 minute internals meant I could actually keep going for about 20 minutes or more without getting lactic acid build up.
If anyone decides to try this, the main thing is that you must exercise really slowly, and if the minute pause does not feel like enough, then make the two minutes of exercise shorter. And above all you must never think that, because you could do ten minutes yesterday, you should be able to do ten minutes today. Energy goes up and down every day and some days you may be able to do nothing, just accept it. If you do what you can, the general trend over the long term is upwards.
I hope I have explained all this clearly. It was really fantastic to exercise and feel that benefit that exercise gives. It was also really amazing to have a trainer there constantly telling me to slow down and stop if it hurts. One patient who had been subjected to graded exercise therapy actually cried to find someone being nice to her and actually HELPING.
Athene.
