The health and fitness thread about random things

[Auntie Helen]

I am a normal colour and my pee is normal too (except in the night when it's a bit dark which I took to be dehydration). I had one very light-coloured poop a few days ago that I put down to my poor appetite mucking things up but otherwise normalish. I don't feel sick. I do feel tired though but it's all consistent with post-flu. I hope that this is a reaction to the virus and will be improved next week.

I have a three page form from my health insurer for my doctor to complete. I bet I have to pay for that too.

[barakta]

(I'm now under standing orders to query the colour of suspicious bodily emissions with barakta.  She gets all the fun jobs.)

I'd take that over the week of hell we had with your gallstone any day. It's a reasonable adjustment for your colour-perception, just like you get to poke the headholes (BAHA abutments)...  It's *only* bodily fluids, we both come from families where medical things inc bowels were dinner table discussions  

[rafletcher]

I went to a gym last evening for the first time in a couple of years. She started me off gently - 2 sets of 15 squats!! What happened to sets of 10 or 12? That, coupled with lunges has me hobbling about on jelly legs today 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Utterly out of the blue, no warning, massive puking session. Actually 3 of them. Spent most of last night hanging on to the porcelain god.

That was last night. Managed to nibble a single oatcake just now.

Very very sore back from cramping convulsions. Nobody else in the house is ill at all so it must have been something I ate at work.

Of course the puking session meant I lost the cinarrazine I took yesterday, didn't take any last night, today, etc. I'm living on 90mg a day of the stuff atm.

So the giddies are back as well, joy.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Since about mid-December
- no motivation at all to do anything. My usual exercise regime of swimming 3-5 times a week plus 1 session of pilates has been reduced to swimming class once a week (and I think I only struggle to that because I don't have to talk to anyone while I'm there). Apart from class, I've swum it once this year and one session of pilates. I've made it to one of my silver classes and every other Tuesday night I've got home from work and been utterly unable to go out again. I'm spending every weekend in my pyjamas doing nothing, not even cleaning my teeth until bedtime. On Saturday I was really thirsty and it took me 40 minutes to work up the oomph to walk five paces and get a drink of water
- bad thoughts. No thoughts of suicide or self-harm, but constant thoughts about bad things happening to loved ones, like daydreams of awfulness which eventually bring me to tears unless something external gets me out of it, like a phone call or a cat jumping on my head
- really tired all the time, but no changes to my sleep pattern
- joint pain, especially really sore elbows in the morning
- the elbows might be because the 2+ stone I have lost over the past 2 years has all gone back on in the past 3 months and lying on them hurts. Not motivated to cook properly for myself, living on delicious chocolate and biscuits. All I want is sugar
- no desire to socialise at all, just want to be left alone in silence
- all my work paperwork is up to date, for the first time in ever, because I'd rather sit at my desk typing than make phone calls or visits
- all of the things that I should do to combat it all, like exercise and eating healthily, are utterly beyond me
- I can make an effort and put a front up in front of other people, but as soon as I'm on my own I turn into a big schlumping human beanbag. I'm trudging through a sludgy brown world instead of skipping (or at least ambling) through a world of colour

Saw the GP today and agreed that we would do blood tests to check for thyroid problems etc and if that's all normal then we'll start antidepressants. We also agreed that there was no point telling me to eat healthily and do regular exercise, cos I was doing all that when it started, and if I could do it now I wouldn't have gone to the doctor in the first place.

[barakta]

Sounds utterly rotten EG, glad doc was sensible and hope whatever it is, is nobblable soonest!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Getting bloods done on Monday. My colleagues, who were endlessly entertained when I was on the strong cocodamol, can't wait to see what I'll be like on antidepressants or thyroxine.

[rafletcher]

Best of luck EG, the mind can be a treacherous thing 

[barakta]

They don't let you have interesting amounts of thyroxine, just enough not to be low if you are low iirc.  Watching colleagues intoxicated either on boozahol or opiates is funny though!  Shared office will be interesting come August with our lot.

[Auntie Helen]

I am turning very German with my inspecting of the contents of the toilet bowl but I think the colour of my morning poop is slightly improving. I hope this is a sign my liver is repairing itself. Monday is my blood test with results on Tuesday so still a while to wait yet to know for sure. I am taking it easy still and drinking plenty of water.

[hellymedic]

Went to a university Jewish Society reunion last night and saw many folk some three decades on.

Almost all were fatter, the slimmest was still slim but seemed to have gained about 10lb in weight and was very shapely. She had been very light in her first year. Two of the men appeared to be about 100% overweight. One of these had been fat-pretty portly but not  really gross, as he was now, as a student. I don't really remember the other.

Those who seemed in best shape had, unsurprisingly, worked on their fitness.

The ravages of Old Father Time...

[T42]

@Helly: any idea how quickly mitochondrion population in skeletal muscle declines when we break training?  Or in cardiac muscle, come to that, if it does at all?

I just started again after 10 days off for my eye op, and it feels as if I'd done zero km this year.

[hellymedic]

Sorry, no idea!
My own experience is that once my weight and eating were up to near-normal, there was little problem.

I'm surprised an eye operation has had this effect; did you have a general anaesthetic?

[T42]

No, but they told me not to get into cold draughts and not to get sweat into it for 10 days, so I was just lying about the house and suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Fascinating procedure, cataract surgery. Everyone should try it.

[L CC]

Top tip : Heart Rate Monitors only actually monitor if you attach the transmitter to the chest strap. Otherwise it's just a really bad bra.

There's no need to ask how I know this, is there?
 

[simonp]

@Helly: any idea how quickly mitochondrion population in skeletal muscle declines when we break training?  Or in cardiac muscle, come to that, if it does at all?

I just started again after 10 days off for my eye op, and it feels as if I'd done zero km this year.

I read in 'faster' that it's the drop in blood volume when you stop that causes the initial loss of fitness. This returns quite quickly when you start training again.

[T42]

@Helly: any idea how quickly mitochondrion population in skeletal muscle declines when we break training?  Or in cardiac muscle, come to that, if it does at all?

I just started again after 10 days off for my eye op, and it feels as if I'd done zero km this year.

I read in 'faster' that it's the drop in blood volume when you stop that causes the initial loss of fitness. This returns quite quickly when you start training again.

Hum.  "Exercise training-induced hypervolemia appears to be universal among most animal species, although the mechanisms may be quite different. The hypervolemia may provide advantages of greater body fluid for heat dissipation and thermoregulatory stability as well as larger vascular volume and filling pressure for greater cardiac stroke volume and lower heart rates during exercise." - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1798375

I'd view that as just one of the adaptation mechanisms.  But mitochondria are directly involved in intracellular metabolism and their population increases to about 200% of normal with regular training, so that the cells become twice as efficient as untrained cells. When you stop training the population drops towards normal again.  I know that population rebuild is faster than the initial build and, I believe, faster than the loss, but beyond that I have no idea.  Although my cardiologist did tell me not to lay off more than three weeks, so maybe that's the time for the pop to drop to normal.

[simonp]

@Helly: any idea how quickly mitochondrion population in skeletal muscle declines when we break training?  Or in cardiac muscle, come to that, if it does at all?

I just started again after 10 days off for my eye op, and it feels as if I'd done zero km this year.

I read in 'faster' that it's the drop in blood volume when you stop that causes the initial loss of fitness. This returns quite quickly when you start training again.

Hum.  "Exercise training-induced hypervolemia appears to be universal among most animal species, although the mechanisms may be quite different. The hypervolemia may provide advantages of greater body fluid for heat dissipation and thermoregulatory stability as well as larger vascular volume and filling pressure for greater cardiac stroke volume and lower heart rates during exercise." - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1798375

I'd view that as just one of the adaptation mechanisms.  But mitochondria are directly involved in intracellular metabolism and their population increases to about 200% of normal with regular training, so that the cells become twice as efficient as untrained cells. When you stop training the population drops towards normal again.  I know that population rebuild is faster than the initial build and, I believe, faster than the loss, but beyond that I have no idea.  Although my cardiologist did tell me not to lay off more than three weeks, so maybe that's the time for the pop to drop to normal.

Most of the decline in cardiovascular function (which almost all occurs within the first 12 days of detraining) is reversed by simply restoring blood volume with saline. VO2max increases to near trained levels, as does heart rate during submaximal exercise.

Effects of detraining on cardiovascular responses to exercise: role of blood volume
EDWARD F. COYLE, MAR1 K. HEMMERT, AND ANDREW R. COGGAN

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3944049

[numbnuts]

I'm just home from a three day stay in hospital having L4/L5 decompression surgery now on the road to recovery, could be off the bike/trike for a while

[hellymedic]

GWS, numnuts!

[mrcharly-YHT]

Hell - that sounds like it will take a while to get over.

[barakta]

Ouch numbnuts, hope you recover well from that!

[Ruthie]

I'm just home from a three day stay in hospital having L4/L5 decompression surgery now on the road to recovery, could be off the bike/trike for a while

Here's to a good result from your surgery numbnuts, and a big improvement in the long term.

[Si_Co]

Well after yesterday's visit to ENT, I have a BIG bag of steroids.

[Valiant]

I's been diagnosed with pre-diabetes I had a hba number of 46/47

Have adjusted my diet accordingly and increased my activity. I'm loosing weight already and feeling less tired etc so I'm hoping I might be going in the right direction to get the all clear. Both my dad and grandad had diabetes so I'm more prone to get it. Of course being a fat git ain't helping.