Anyone trying to be an elite athlete w/ Hep C ?

[cyclist13]

Hi,
I am a new member.  I am 52 and found out I had Hep C in 2003.  I probably contacted it in 1974.  I am a Masters bike racer and do OK but having more and more problems w/ recovery and aches and pains, plus mood swings.  I am hoping that the new treatments due out soon(?) will be able to help me.  I also have Atrial fib that is under control w/ meds but hard training efforts are beginning to effect it.  My doctors are pretty clueless when it comes to serious athletes.

Are there any other people here that are trying to really push their body in sports despite their infections?  Any suggestions, diet, recovery, supplements???  Do the liver cleansing products work/help?

Thanks a lot!
Bruce

[T246]

cyclist, I am 57 and also an elite athlete.

Prior to TX I did a 100 K ride.  I may not have been as strong prior to moderate fibrosis, but i still finished in then top 15%.  During TX I have continued to ride, but cut back to 5 days a week and ride for less time.

I have two weeks left on TX and am starting to increase milage again.  I will begin to push for longer rides as soon as I am off TX.

Water, diet and supplements have been very helpful  

[yodennis]

Congrats on the telaprevir working and good luck on your tendonosis recovery. d

[banarep]

that round of tx did not, but the alst one did - with the help of telaprevir.  

it is not tendonitis,  it is tendonosis.  it is where the tendons start  breaking down from over use....not as treatable the whole RICE does not work...but two operations and 3 years of rest have worked a bit...I started running today on a tredmil.

[brianmo]

wow, good work on the sub 7:15, I am impressed. Wondering, did tx (for hep C) work for You? Also, tenonidtis is treatable and can go away, has yours??  

[banarep]

i was diagnosed in 1993 and after that continued to run  till '07.  Unless I was on treatment, I was consistantly putting in 50 miles a week or more.  The hep C did not slow me down, it was my own stupidity.  After my second treatment in 02, I came back to quick.  Stopped treatment in May and that October I tried to hun a half marathon and when my knees started hurting, I tried to run through it.  

In 06, I was diagnosed with tentenosis - tenonidtis gone real bad.  But up until then at 52 years old, I was still running a sub 7:15 mile for a half marathon distance.

So if you are not on treatment, I do not think this will keep you down.  

[yodennis]

Hi. All I was saying (perhaps too verbosely) was even with cirrhosis you can train (at least regarding weightlifting/bodybuilding) pretty strenuously and I'm a bit beyond the early cirrhotic stage. I understood your statement ("but unless you reach "cirrhosis", nothing I have read or experienced myself would effect training and performance.") to suggest limitations that are not absolute in my experience with cirrhosis. Well (shiver): At least not yet. Excuse any misunderstanding- I do wish there were more facts/studies/attention paid to "sports-liver diease", working out with advancing or cirrhotic hcv, etc. My best. d