I have a strange problem at the moment thats bothering me, I became progressively more ill in the past few years with new symptoms that seemed outside of my normal ME/CFS, at first it started with periods of stomach bloating / gas, and a subtle cognitive decline or difficulty learning, progressed to dehydration and strange neurological sensations, at which point I suspected mold toxicity / CIRS but couldn't prove this.
Eventually ( this year ) it progressed to multiple chemical sensitivity, food intolerance / allergies and general mold hypersensitivity, random face and neck flushing with a burning sensation, tingling hands and itching, red eyes. I suspect candida could be a big factor but i'm still exploring that idea. Well back in December when things started to get really bad all of a sudden ( after I gradually became more and more sensitive to air fresheners / cleaning sprays, general perfumes and specifically our Surf laundry detergent, my physical function and energy level had not yet dropped.
At that time, around Christmas ( which is consistent with my lifestyle of the 2 years prior ) I could go to a woods in December on my DIY e-bike ( sometimes pedalling a little but not too much ), on a rainy day, clear a spot and slowly build the starting materials for a campfire, then start the fire and continue to feed it large branches and logs and whatever I could find ( pulling down big dead trees and things ), while drinking alcohol, ride back to my house to get more alcohol, come back, rescue the fire, all in all keep it going for about 6 hours ( on one occasion I stayed until dawn ).
So this is why my problem is strange because its not just a progression of my CFS severity, these hypersensitivities started when I was still quite physically capable, but in the time since christmas my function level slowly dropped, sometimes when I rode off road and went over too many bumps, or got stuck in a wet field full of clay and had to use a lot of muscle power to get out of there, I would crash and this seemed to exacerbate my hypersensitivity problems / leaky gut, so I started avoiding off-road.
By around March I was still riding but I was so constantly fatigued and my mental function was terrible, it seemed worse if I ate certain foods ( cereals with sugar / oats etc ). I was making cycling mistakes that i'd never usually make, but after a few hours away from home my brain function seemed to improve. Anyway there was one point where I tried activated charcoal for the first time and it put me into a 'detox' for a few days, I felt way better and I went to the supermarket for the first time in months, possibly since Christmas, I rode my bikes 3 or 4 times over a few days, my stomach motility had started to slow right down by that point so I intentionally went fast off road to try to encourage it to start moving, well 2 days after that I did a medium length casual ride on the road, about 25 to 30 miles, and an hour or 2 after getting home I ate chicken.
When I ate this chicken after this period of being very active and using my leg muscles a lot, I had a bad reaction ( leaky gut probably ) and it felt like a stomach ache and also inflammation throughout my body but especially my leg muscles. Since then I became 'allergic' to chicken and can't eat it, but its not a typical allergy reaction, its hard to explain the symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, feeling generally unwell, perhaps a stomach ache. I've also barely rode my bikes since then.
I rode 2 miles on Sunday, carefully and avoiding bumps / shocks as much as possible and my thigh muscles still became quite sore and sensitive, I basically crashed and chemicals seemed to start to effect me more, and I felt more reactive to food, but not quite enough to create a new sensitivity. I checked my GABA sensitivity with around 200mg of GABA and it made me fairly sleepy and relaxed, whereas 7 to 10 days prior the same test at about 350mg had no noticeable effect. ( This is the 4th time i've done the GABA test ). So my Blood Brain Barrier is obviously compromised during this crash, and my gut probably became more leaky than usual.
What I don't understand though is why its my quad muscles specifically that are becoming sore ( it also happens sometimes rapidly when I wear a respirator thats a few weeks old and low levels of bacteria or mold are present which triggers my immune system ). If I do any other activity that uses other muscle groups e.g. lift a 2 litre milk container repeatedly, this problem doesn't happen, yes my exercise tolerance is very low and I can get exhausted just from shaving, but it doesn't create this problem within my arm muscles etc, though they do get a bit sore and fatigued sometimes when typing / mousing etc.
I'm going to do a stomach function test to keep looking for my underlying problem, it will show candida, bacterial species and other things, I have heard that leaky gut can be related to exercise especially in ME/CFS, though that was never noticeable for me prior to this year. I just wonder did I damage my leg muscles or did some sort of autoimmunity process start ?
Eventually ( this year ) it progressed to multiple chemical sensitivity, food intolerance / allergies and general mold hypersensitivity, random face and neck flushing with a burning sensation, tingling hands and itching, red eyes. I suspect candida could be a big factor but i'm still exploring that idea. Well back in December when things started to get really bad all of a sudden ( after I gradually became more and more sensitive to air fresheners / cleaning sprays, general perfumes and specifically our Surf laundry detergent, my physical function and energy level had not yet dropped.
At that time, around Christmas ( which is consistent with my lifestyle of the 2 years prior ) I could go to a woods in December on my DIY e-bike ( sometimes pedalling a little but not too much ), on a rainy day, clear a spot and slowly build the starting materials for a campfire, then start the fire and continue to feed it large branches and logs and whatever I could find ( pulling down big dead trees and things ), while drinking alcohol, ride back to my house to get more alcohol, come back, rescue the fire, all in all keep it going for about 6 hours ( on one occasion I stayed until dawn ).
So this is why my problem is strange because its not just a progression of my CFS severity, these hypersensitivities started when I was still quite physically capable, but in the time since christmas my function level slowly dropped, sometimes when I rode off road and went over too many bumps, or got stuck in a wet field full of clay and had to use a lot of muscle power to get out of there, I would crash and this seemed to exacerbate my hypersensitivity problems / leaky gut, so I started avoiding off-road.
By around March I was still riding but I was so constantly fatigued and my mental function was terrible, it seemed worse if I ate certain foods ( cereals with sugar / oats etc ). I was making cycling mistakes that i'd never usually make, but after a few hours away from home my brain function seemed to improve. Anyway there was one point where I tried activated charcoal for the first time and it put me into a 'detox' for a few days, I felt way better and I went to the supermarket for the first time in months, possibly since Christmas, I rode my bikes 3 or 4 times over a few days, my stomach motility had started to slow right down by that point so I intentionally went fast off road to try to encourage it to start moving, well 2 days after that I did a medium length casual ride on the road, about 25 to 30 miles, and an hour or 2 after getting home I ate chicken.
When I ate this chicken after this period of being very active and using my leg muscles a lot, I had a bad reaction ( leaky gut probably ) and it felt like a stomach ache and also inflammation throughout my body but especially my leg muscles. Since then I became 'allergic' to chicken and can't eat it, but its not a typical allergy reaction, its hard to explain the symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, feeling generally unwell, perhaps a stomach ache. I've also barely rode my bikes since then.
I rode 2 miles on Sunday, carefully and avoiding bumps / shocks as much as possible and my thigh muscles still became quite sore and sensitive, I basically crashed and chemicals seemed to start to effect me more, and I felt more reactive to food, but not quite enough to create a new sensitivity. I checked my GABA sensitivity with around 200mg of GABA and it made me fairly sleepy and relaxed, whereas 7 to 10 days prior the same test at about 350mg had no noticeable effect. ( This is the 4th time i've done the GABA test ). So my Blood Brain Barrier is obviously compromised during this crash, and my gut probably became more leaky than usual.
What I don't understand though is why its my quad muscles specifically that are becoming sore ( it also happens sometimes rapidly when I wear a respirator thats a few weeks old and low levels of bacteria or mold are present which triggers my immune system ). If I do any other activity that uses other muscle groups e.g. lift a 2 litre milk container repeatedly, this problem doesn't happen, yes my exercise tolerance is very low and I can get exhausted just from shaving, but it doesn't create this problem within my arm muscles etc, though they do get a bit sore and fatigued sometimes when typing / mousing etc.
I'm going to do a stomach function test to keep looking for my underlying problem, it will show candida, bacterial species and other things, I have heard that leaky gut can be related to exercise especially in ME/CFS, though that was never noticeable for me prior to this year. I just wonder did I damage my leg muscles or did some sort of autoimmunity process start ?
