Excercise and Lyme

[carrie235]

Hi everyone:

I have a question.  When I went to the lyme conference in Santa Rosa last week, Dr. Burascanno (sp?) was the speaker.  He recommends weight lifting (light and many repetitions) but NO AEROBICS.

I also know that part of beating lyme is to increase the immune system.  Cardio/excercise does this.  I've been doing about 30 minutes of fast walking on an incline about 4 days per week (plus weight training).  I do work up a good sweat.

I see others who post that we need to excercise.  I just don't understand the theory of all of this.  If heat is good and causes lyme to die or whatever, then excercise should be good since it heats the body and you release toxins through your sweat....

Anyone???

Carrie

[wonko]

I have been aware of the Dr. B. guidelines to not engage in rigorous exercise, and based on my personal experience I have ignored them.  

My first year of treatment I barely worked and spent a lot of time resting, but I attempted to exercise daily.  At the time I was living in an apartment complex with an exercise facility on site.  Some days I would be so exhausted by the time I walked over there that I would just turn around and go back.  However, on many days, I was able to work out for about an hour, broken up between treadmill and ellipitical or stepper machines.  

I found that while there was a big barrier to get started exercising (barrier = symptom load + pain + low energy) once I got started, I would feel a lot better.  While exercising I felt more normal, even if only for fleeting moments.

Again, I was only able to exercise as much as I did because I was hardly working.  Often my workouts were the only time I spent off of my couch or bed, and often I felt "payback" afterwards.  But I felt it helped to be active, even if only on a part-time basis.

Once I started working more again, I actually had to cut back on working out, because I didn't have the energy for both.  Last fall I stopped working out altogether for months, because I went into a serious flare and was starting a new job.  So all of my efforts had to go into work.

The last couple of months I've been doing better at managing both work and exercise, though another moderate-severe flare early Feb. challenged that.  

Overall, I think the benefits of conditioning and the impact on my mood made exercising worth it, but there have been times when I was reckless about it and probably should have used more moderation.  One should also be careful about heat sensitivity.  I had issues with that in the past that are now much improved, but anyone with this symptom should use caution.  For example, while exercise helps with my stiffness and pain, the hit kicks up my neuro symptoms, so I tingle and buzz a lot more during and right after a workout.  My vision can also blur from heat/exercise, so I need to be careful since these days I drive to the gym.  I've been treating for about 2.5 years, so I feel that I know my limits and don't panic over my symptoms as much as a I used to, but one should definitely ease into exercise and not do too much too fast.

Oh, and as noted above, different details of one's illness may influence if exercise works for you or not.  My doctor has long said that Bartonella is my major issue, though I have/had some Lyme in there, too.

[JackieCalifornia]

Hi

I have also previously heard from someone else that strenuous exercise helps them too, and they have bartonella.  

Everyone is different, and a blanket statement from Burrascano may not apply to everyone.  Dunno.  

And of course, everyone and every doc is entitled to a different opinion in this wacky wild world of Lyme!

[carrie235]

Hi Soanxious:

Yes, that would include running on the treadmill I believe.  Anything that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat, I would consider cardio like....

I do walk on my treadmill four days a week, but walk at an incline.....I do work up a sweat but I feel fine after doing it.  But, like Jackie said above about Burrascano's "hints" which is posted on another posting on this forum.

Not really sure what to do about this, so I am choosing to continue excercising for now. I asked my LLMD about this and he said just don't "overdo" it.  Do what you can, but don't push yourself too hard and run your body down....

[soanxious89]

So when you say aerobics, does that include cardio? Like running on the treadmill and stuff like that? Because I thought that was good for Lyme disease.

[JackieCalifornia]

PS I just looked at Burrascano's 'Hints' and he says exercise is good but aerobics are bad because after exercise, the T-cell count goes down, meaning part of the immune system gets suppressed.

More explanation is at the link mentioned in my previous post above.

Carrie, would be interested to hear more about what you learned from the famous Dr B!

[JackieCalifornia]

You might find some explanation at ILADS [dot] com where Burrascano's 'Diagnostic Hints ...' are posted under the 'About Lyme' tab.  I don't know the answer to your question.