exercise make it worse?

[oliviamarie12345]

I do cardio everyday for 30 minutes. My face and head hurt so much worse both immediately and hours after I exercise. Does exercise make lyme symptoms worse?

[MidniteM]

Hmmm makes sense to me...maybe I'll just stick to weights from now on.

[JackieCalifornia]

PS that quote is taken from a chapter by Steven Harris, contained in Connie Strasheim's book 'Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment'.  

[JackieCalifornia]

Steven Harris, one of the well-known and respected LLMDs, has this to say on exercise (copied from http://www.lymebook.com/steven-harris):

"I think that Dr. Burrascano’s approach to exercise is right on. He advocates weight training with lightweights, as well as stretching-type exercises, but cautions against doing too much aerobic exercise. I agree that people with Lyme need to stretch and do gentle exercises, and that too much aerobic exercise, too fast, will deplete the adrenal glands, decrease T-cells, and open up the blood-brain barrier so that more Borrelia can get into the brain. Anaerobic-type exercises are more important, especially when people are just starting on a new treatment protocol."

[MidniteM]

Yeah. I was in pretty good shape to start with before Lyme blindsided me. I feel you, most days I feel much more like laying around in bed than exercising. Gotta try to lead as "normal" a life as possible though. Baby steps...

[Ricobord]

Wow.  You can do 15 mile rides? That is terrific!  I look forward to being well enough to ride a mile. :)

[MidniteM]

The same thing happens to me!
It doesnt happen every time I do cardio...but maybe half of the time. My cardio sessions are usually 15 mile rides. Im a personal trainer+lucky to be able to exercise as strenuously as I do feeling as sick as I do a lot of the time...but if I dont exercise I feel wayyyy worse.
So yeah, it feels like your heart is racing/pounding and kind of keeps on for a while even after you stop the activity. It freaked me out, so I went to a cardiologist where he ran a battery of tests:everything came back better than normal. I think its just a kind of herx from bacterial dieoff because of the extra heat and oxygen in your system. It gets better...Im on month 5 of treatment(2 oral abx 2x daily+bicillin shots 3x per week) and the episodes are less and less common.