Over Training and Chronic Fatigue

GIH

How is your appetite? Its probably a red herring, but who knows.

howierart

My appetite has been fine all the way through, but now my doctor is talking about M.E and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - really scary stuff for an endurance athelete...

kopride

CFS is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. In other words, all organic explanations for the ongoing symptoms have been exhausted. I would get a good workup from a neurologist and, if it is negative, seek treatment with a pysychiatrist who has exerience treating well conditioned athletes. Again, most of the literature suggests a very strong emotional component to this syndrome (I already provided some cites). I am not suggesting you are crazy, but most medical based psychiatry accepts that chemical imbalances can cause profound effects on mood and energy levels. Certain antidepressants can help adjust this balance. It can be a viscous cycle. The chemical balance causes fatigue, which affects your typical coping mechanism which may be exercise (which increases endorphins, etc), and depression compounds physical symptoms and fatigue. Good luck.

seven-22

I'm sorry this happened to you. It has been nearly a year since you first posted about your condition. How are you feeling? Were you able to recover from this? Is so, how long did it take you? Did you ever get a solid diagnosis on your condition? Were you able to fully recover?

I'm 2.5 months into a deeply fatigued state and I'm loosing my mind.

rwinthenorth

I'll add something to this discussion. I too have suffered from this for 2 winters. Winter is the key. I don't get sick when it's warm or even scorching hot. For me, I had been dealing with CFS and a large bacterial lung infection that was aggravated by the cold. This only showed up on an X-ray.

I am one of those people who also define themselves buy the amount of self induced, high energy exercise. It's the addiction to endorfins or something? But I will tell you low levels of excercise for enjoyment only, mixed with a healthy diet has brought me back to life. I also am starting to recognize the onset signals of overtraining and will back off and let my body rest. I have learned to enjoy and achieve the high of high intensity exercise, but I also make sure I rest in between. It's like meditating, it takes a lot of slow, careful attention to the body and the mind. Your CFS retreats when you recognize the triggers and don't stress to much about it.

john979

I like this article and I have it in my collection. I don't necessarily agree with your commentary which seems to assume psychological issues drive psychiatric when often the reverse is true, meaning that neurological and/or endocrine issues are the underlying cause of psychological problems as well as physical ones.


I also don’t like classifying exercise as a coping mechanism. Exercise is a necessary component of human heath and well being, both physical and mental. However, I do agree that many turn to exercise in an attempt to correct an underlying neurological/endocrine issue or as a coping mechanism when life issues cause emotional problems.

I have a history of “CFS” and what was misdiagnosed dysthymia. Ultimately, I came to the realize that the root cause was a little more complex, and my "CFS" was really a form of seasonal affected disorder wherein I experience profound mood and physical issues in both the winter and summer. In a nutshell, I feel fine around the equinoxes and miserable around the solstices. In addition, I have HPA issues that are linked, with ample physical evidence that my body does not handle stress well. Interestingly, it was the Performance Management Chart in Cycling Peaks Software that enabled me to realize that I had a clear and obvious pattern to my physical activity that was strongly correlated to my mood.


Winter SAD is easy to treat with a light box and/or with one of several prescription medications. Wellbutrin is effective and when combined with a light box, quite effective. Summer SAD is more difficult to treat as sensitivity to heat seems to be the underlying cause and I found Wellbutrin only partially effective and not effective when temperatures are very high. Heat avoidance seems to be the only fully effective treatment – a difficult option when one likes cycling as much as I do.


I still don’t know quite how to approach my HPA problem. Certainly I must be careful of stress, but I live in a stressful city employed in a stress occupation. Fortunately, stress is easier for me to deal with during my “good” times of the year such as now – fall and spring. During these times exercise is an effective means of stress management. However, when the exercise is interrupted my mood falls, indicating the underlying neurological/endocrine are not cured.


I do agree that exercise itself can be part of the problem. Too much exercise leading to overtraining, then exercise withdrawal and crashing. However, I have a talent that my system has not allowed me to full develop and I am not about to give up. I don’t train to escape. I train because I enjoy cycling and have goals I want to reach.


To this end, I am going to focus more on the monoamine aspects of my imbalance. Next week I am going to meet with my doctor and suggest a medication switch. Give me a couple months and I will report the results.

weedvspeed

Just as a matter of interest whats your job?
Some days/weeks I feel very CFS but as I have a heavy manual labour side to my work I have no option but to grit teeth and get on best I can.
This can lead to very uncomfortable times esp. when I get in from work then have to deal with all the other life stuff, cooking, kids/wife, D.I.Y, housework etc..

weirdly tho I feel utter crap when I start a task, once the blood flowing then I'm not bad its the time in-between when I just wanna curl up and seek oblivion

Have found diet helps, NEVER run out of fuel. High quality home cooked food and lots of it. Watch the weight but eat a little extra. I often don't feel hungry but munch something protein rich, low fat, medium carb and feel better 1/2 hour later.

Luck anyway.

john979

I have a Wall Street job, but that is only recently. I come from an aerospace background and I also studied biomedical engineering. Let me say this and I will leave it -- I was utterly unprepared for the evil, back-stabbing, money hungry people that now surrounded me.

Exercise does boost mood through several channels: it increases noradrenaline and endorphin levels directly and serotonin indirectly. However, the effect is transitory and in the case of endorphins, increased exercise is required to maintain the desired effect, just like dope...

Food affects mood as well. Carbohydrate ingestion increases serotonin; caffeine increases noradrenaline, dopamine and glutamate. Alcohol produces a short-term dopamine increase and affects GABA receptors. In essence, you are what you eat. Those who crave carbohydrates have a serotonin deficiency, caffeine fiends low energy levels due to a noradrenaline deficiency and those prone to alcohol and other vices such as gambling, smoking and pornography have low dopamine levels. Of course, this explanation is highly simplified. All deficiencies can all be interrelated or as in my case with serotonin manifested at only certain times of the year, in this case low light levels. This is why Wellbutrin is only a moderately successful treatment for SAD, but highly effective when combined with light therapy.

Is there a seasonal pattern to your feelings?