Trial of therapy for CFS as mitochondrial dysfunction at Columbia November 19, 2011

[biophile]

eric_s wrote: Any links to Pacific Fatigue Lab exercise related content would be welcome...

This is from a related blogpost I've been drafting for months: "The PACE approach never worked for me, but it has been proposed by Pacific Lab researchers that CFS patients who cannot handle aerobic exercise may be able to train their anaerobic system to tolerate brief (under 30 seconds) sets of low levels resistance training to make a gradual and mild improvement in function and maintain it (see the article here http://www.cfids.org/sparkcfs/working-out.pdf and the discussion here http://forums.phoenixrising.me/show...rotocol-(Staci-Stevens)-Can-anyone-explain-it). For several different reasons I decided to test this out in a more general sense but I'm not claiming to be testing the exact same approach of the Pacific Lab researchers."

 

[xrunner]

I agree with those drs (who don't belong to the nice/cbt/psych camp) who say exercise is absolutely necessary to recovery. I also agree that exercising in aerobic mode will just add to the existing damage whereas anaerobic exercise is more suitable.
However, that is fine when one has sufficiently recovered and is well enough to do it. If one, say suffers from pots or has palpitations just by standing (as I used to) I can't see how exercise in whatever form is going to help. First you need to sort out such problems then, if the body agrees, start anaerobic exercise.
Regarding the type of exercise, I disagree with the article which advocates low level resistance. High level resistance (weights) and short bursts are what I found most helpful. I have been following the "Body by science" program mentioned on Dr Myhill's website and its been great for my muscle strength but also my aerobic tolerance.

 

[eric_s]

Thanks for the link. It's not so bad, but i still don't like it too much if ME/CFS organisations or doctors want to get us to exercise. If i do a VO2max test, i will be able to try if this approach works for me, but i can't afford to give up or reschedule other activites in order to have energy for exercise as they say. Also i don't care about managing ME/CFS so much, what we really need is for somebody to find a way to treat the actual illness.