Chronic fatigue/ post viral infection

da goose

Anyone out there experienced this...how long is the recovery period and what if anything helped.....

markjohnson-coaching

Hi,

Without fully assessing you I can only offer a general reply, but here's a few pointers;

As a rule of thumb, the longer your body has been out of balance the longer the recovery will take.

It's also important to establish how your body become unbalanced to prevent the same thing happening again in the future.

Regarding recovery time, this is highly dependent on your your diet & lifestyle, other factors such as sleep, hydration, any medical drugs, etc etc also play a huge factor in your recovery.

I'm sorry if it all sounds a little vague but you are an individual & it's not possible to give an accurate reply without comprehensive individual assessment of your total physiological load.

There a a number of good videos to watch on my website that will help, I also recommend reading Paul Chek's book How To Eat Move & Be Healthy - there's a link on my community page to buy the book.

Regards

Mark Johnson

www.markjohnson-coaching.co.uk

Edwin

Yep, sorry that's really like asking the length of the proverbial piece of string.
I had a chest infection last August, which had some weird effects. It seemed to cause a sort of total weakness in my legs, which caused them to just buckle when I was trying to play football one night. I could hardly walk, and if I tried to run it would feel like I was pulling a muscle straight away. I think I had about two weeks off the bike completely, and then started building it up again with slow recovery pace rides. It was probably about six weeks before I was up to speed again.
The only advice I can give you is to not try to do too much too quickly. Eat properly, and try to get your strength back slowly. It's rough, but there's not much you can do about viral infections.

da goose

Thanks guys taken a month off and realize it could take a lot lot longer luckily my Dr has been really helpfull and referred to a specialist locally who is the biz i`m told....just the wait till then....a good time for more recovery.....
Managed 20miles very slow the other day but whacked the next day and forced to rest so thats a good pointer.
An interesting subject as runners/cyclists appear to suffer but minimal information probably as you stated each individual circumstance is different.

smithy1.0

How long is a piece of string?

I started this year in good shape. Turned up at the first race and crossed the line in 2nd, beaten by a pro rider. Then I picked up a virus, which completely floored me, and my enthusasim for almost *everything*, having not even had a cold for over a year - it was a fairly depressing time. I just wanted to sleep all the time, and had zero energy. I continued training at a reduced level but my performace was just a joke, so I took a couple of weeks off and then some easy miles to keep the legs turning. That was in April. I'm only just now getting back to normal. Also had a strange cough which just wouldn't shift - that's pretty much gone now.

Hopefully you won't suffer as badly as I did My advice - take it as easy as possible, keep your diet healthy and clean, avoid stimulants like caffiene/alcohol.

bikerZA

Read up on the Epstein-Barr virus. Lot's of pros go down with it too, it takes a good month or more total rest to recover from.

da goose

Ref epstein barr....I thought (probably incorrectly) that it would show up in blood tests yet mine are all negative thus i have been officially declared as having chronic fatigue syndrome...interestingly I have resumed some very light pootling on the bike and walking my hrm struggles to pick up a signal and even when it does the heart flasher (Polar) goes like the clappers as if its picking up electrical interference? My older Polar does same thing...irratating as I want to keep it all low and slow at the mo!
Hrm even does this sitting down inside away from cars and voltage lines etc...
Will research epstein barr anyway anything to start recovering...
I should add i visited Docs to confirm pulse etc is okay which it was on there kit but still fluctuates on Polar?

derekwatts

Re your HRM problems, I often get this with my polar in the first few minutes of a ride before I have built up a sweat. It will jump from 100-110 bpm suddenly up to 220. I find if I soak the strap in water before putting it on, or moisten the chest area with a gel, it works fine.

sward29

Richard Budgett, chief medic at the BOA is something of an authority on post viral fatigue or 'unexplained underperformance syndrome' as it is also known (great name!) He has written at least one paper on the subject and was very helpful when I went to see him with the same issue. He advocates short bouts of intensive exercise rather than endurance rides as they are shown to improve the speed of recovery. It took me about a year to recover but even now 6 years later I seem to take longer to recover from training.

RRPHOTOGRAPHIC

I had M.E. Post Viral Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or whatever you want to call it for 3 years.

This is not a new problem its just that it has been called so many things in the past people think that YUPPIE FLU was the start of it but infact there are loads of case of people suffering form a post viral or unexplained fatigue symptoms. like icelanders disease, which Florence Nightingale is said to have suffered from.

So is the illness that new? NO, Despite this popular belief, it would seem that conditions similar to ME/CFS have been around for considerably longer than is generally assumed. The mixture of a broad array of neurological and muscular symptoms that can occur after an infective illness can be traced back into history. For instance, as far back as 1750, Sir Richard Manningham reported a syndrome referred to as 'febricula' (or 'little fever') that had a large number of symptoms but was hard to objectively diagnose.[1] In addition, there have been suggestions in recent well-regarded medical journals such as the Lancet and British Medical Journal, that historical figures such as Florence Nightingale,[2] and Charles Darwin[3] may have suffered from a similar illness. In the case of Florence Nightingale, her illness began after she returned from the Crimean War and spent years housebound, too fatigued to talk to more than one visitor at a time (Wessely et al. 1999; Shepherd, 1999; Macintyre, 1998).
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Iceland disease

First of all one of the problems with this condition and why many doctors still don't believe in it is that it affects people in different ways and in different degrees of the suffer to cope.

I had M.E. really bad to the point that I couldn't get out of bed for 8 months, not because I didn't want to get out of bed but because I couldn't move. It was like I had had a stroke and the signals from my brain to move my limbs weren't working. Oh loads of horrible symptoms which I won't bore you with here.

But here is one story
I live about 1 mile from a hospital and was asked to visit the hospital to see a specialist. I decided that I would walk to the hospital as I was having a better day.
It was a big mistake it took me nearly an hour to get to the hospital and I got there I had missed my appointment but the nurse said that they could fit me in if I could wait.
Waiting in a waiting room would seem pretty straight forward but I was warn out and could hardly sit up. (the fatigue was equal to doing 3 marathons where you didn't drink or eat) Anyway after about an hours wait I was seen by this specialist that said to me after looking through my medical notes.

"Have you ever thought of doing some exercise?"

I didn't have the energy to talk (literally) to explain to the doctor that I was warn out walking a mile let alone doing exercise I just shook or nodded my head to answer him, needless to say nothing positive came of meeting the alleged specialist.

So why am I telling you this.

The fact that you might still be riding your bike means that your Fatigue syndrome is not that bad. What you don't want is to get as bad as I got or worse.

I would whole heartedly say rest rest rest don't do to much exercise until you can be sure that you are going to fully recover from the exercise. I didn't get better until I stopped fighting the illness and just relaxed and looked after myself properly. ie diet rest and more rest.
Be very strict with your diet only eat fresh food and make sure it is free of any pesticides, keep away from sugar and bread.
If you have any other symptoms like blotchy skin or internal stomach problems make sure your doctor knows about them so he/she can get blood test to see if you are allergic to anything.
Everybody is different you just have to find ways for your body to readjust itself.

It has been many years now since I suffered and thankfully I have not had a relapse as such although I do have to watch what I eat and still don't eat bread or too much wheat based stuff.
I ride the bike and have even taken part in a few races but not to the level I was at before the illness.

Check out the internet for advice but in reality eat well, sleep and keep away from stress both physical and mental is a good starting point.

Listen to your body, Good luck.

da goose

Thanks for the input especially RR for that informative last entry respect to you for getting through what is certainly far worse than my current situation,I take on board what you are saying and think I will rest up as much as possible...cycling is something I manage maybe once/twice a week at very very low levels and only if I feel good I always have plenty of rest in between but think the postive endorphins and feel good factor makes it worthwhile....interesting point ref bread/wheat/yeast have seen this about and a good call.
Trying to stay positive ECG was fine not sure what was wrong with Polar but somehow its picking up signals (apart from usual cars/electric lines etc) tried it today and was much better..could just be the stress etc.
Thanks again.

Blonde

Hmm, this is interesting - especially RRPHOTOGRAPHIC's story, because this is what happened to me in 2005/6: I was initially getting one virus a month for about a year, but then I got the noro virus, which left me weak and tired after the initial 10 day illness, for about 4 weeks afterwards, so I ended up just feeling terrible for months. I was still getting colds nearly every month and felt like I was hung-over every day even though I didn't drink. In total I was ill for about 18 months with fatigue, aching joints, low blood sugar, stomach problems (and jaundice) before I went to my GP. The term post viral, or, chronic fatigue syndrome he suggested to me, doesn't really mean much though. You need to find out the root causes and address those. My problems were due to life stress, coupled with poor diet (whch was due to low income) on top of massive audax mileage (over 10,000 miles a year). I went private for nutritional advice and ended up avoiding yeast and all sugars (including, sadly, fruit - for three entire months) which seemed to start the process of general recovery - not just solving the stomach problems. I significantly changed my diiet (I still don't eat bread) and also stopped doing the really long audax rides. My overall mileage is not far off the audax days, it's just that I now get more rest in between rides, as the individual rides are not as long, but I do more riding during the week, not the entire 200 miles a week in one weekend. It's taken about 2 years to recover fully, but I'm now fitter than before - average speed is well up and now I'm able to race (I wasn't anywhere near fast enough before the illness) as well as still being able to comfortably do the 200km audax rides (and at a faster pace) so that shows you really can recover fully even though it may take some time.

Unlike in the past, I now do not ride in the rain (unless I get caught out in it), I do not ride when I feel very tired or have a cold (thankfully, a rare occurance these days). I now know that I don't need to do those things to ride fast and ride well. Basically, part of maturing as an athlete is that you mature mentally as well - you build your self awareness so that you do not over train by ignoring warning signs. You find that you are able to let go of dissapointment better and move on, you find that you are comfortable with a week off the bike, knowing that a week off the bike will not harm your performance - quite the opposite, especially if you are ill. You've got to look after yourself, because no one can do that for you!