The More Exercise, The Worse Gets Brain Fog?

[Goschi]

Anybody experienced this connection? I mean especially over some days/weeks, not right after exercise.

[Katybug]

Yes, my POTS brain seems to have a cumulative effect....the more I do, the fuzzier everything gets over time. It takes days to recover.

[gjensen]

If I go too far (which I often do), I can pay for it for some time.

[Goschi]

Thanks Katy and Gjensen, for your responses - isn´t that a strange disease...?

Exercising definitely helps me with my overall physical fitness. I can do more without being physically exhausted (going for longer walks, Lifting heavier weigths, etc.etc.) - my muscles react "the right way", so to speak - this is at least something pleasant.

But my brain seems to suffer from my "physical recovery" - and that´s not fair!!

[sideofsalt]

I'm experiencing that along with body aches and pains, but allergies are contributing to this as well. So I'm trying lower impact exercise every other day to see if I can still get into shape without burning myself out.

[dancer65]

Yes I find straight after exercise I struggle to have a conversation as I cant find the right words, also my vision seems to get very blurry. However swimming doesn't seem to affect me the same

[Goschi]

Dancer, that's what I expected - worse brain fog right after exercise (sorry, you are experiencing).

But for me it's quite the contrary - right after exercising, my brain fog is always better! But if I continue to exercise regularly for a couple of weeks, my overall brain fog gets worse and worse... Not, as it should be, I guess...?

[Sunshinegirl]

Interesting that you mention that swimming does not do this to you. My neurologist said that he wanted me to tread water or swim only. I did not know why until I got tired of the pool and started other forms of cardio. Well, I didn't just get tired of the pool. I got too hot in the therapy pool and the lanes in the regular pool are always backed up with people waiting plus I cant breath chlorine gas that long. So, when I was doing the pool and overheating, I was pretty good to go but when I switched, I noticed the difference right away. I am a total waste after exercising. I try to keep in low or moderate in intensity but if I get carried away, Im done for. I think I feel an adrenaline overload that leaves me brainless after a while. I cannot be consistent on a week to week basis especially now that it is getting hot and every chore is more taxing. I struggle to match my words with affect as well.

Any other ideas as to why this may be? What is so different about swimming?

[dancer65]

I believe swimming has a compression effect on the body, cant remember where I read that though!

[Sheri Lynn]

Swimming also puts your body in a position that doesn't cause ortho static hypotension and blood pooling as badly. I'm guessing this is why it doesn't cause us so much trouble

[ramakentesh]

Classic pots. Rebound sympathetic mediated reductions in stroke volume.

best bet is to continue exercise in the hope it goes away or talk to your about midodrine

[Goschi]

Hey, rama! You mean that if I do always feel better in terms of brain fog right after exercise, but in general it gets worse step by step when I establish an exercise regime that I can maintain over a couple of weeks is typical for POTS...? Thats unfair! ;-)

I do take midodrine, just reduced my dosage (see other recent thread) - reducing midodrine recentyl actually reduced my brain fog, btw.!

[ramakentesh]

I think (personally) that the rebound crash the next day or hours after exercise (what they call payback maybe) is an autoimmune/inflammatory response or just the mechanism worsening after exercise for what ever reason.

I find that at first after a crash any exercise makes me worse but I do gradually get better if I persist. the best way to avoid the payback is to keep going before it comes back. For me its either complete rest or exercise. If i exercise and then take the foot off the pedal i go backwards.

that being said I am in no way implying that exercise is a 'cure' for pots or even that effective a treatment. When i was running 5kms three times a week, swimming 1 km twice a week and doing weight training Id still require licorice to get through the working day and I relapsed just as much.

For me at least exercise just seemed to improve my ability to exercise without getting worse. It increased tolerance - just like if there is a food that makes my pots worse I can avoid it or eat it constantly until my body gets 'over' its weird reaction

it all sounds crazy but after 11 years these are my conclusions.

[Chaos]

You might also look into PEM (Post-Exertional Malaise) which is very common for people with ME/CFS/SEID and which overlaps a lot with POTS.

Some people have more mental PEM and others have more physical PEM (or a combination). Studies have shown that people with ME/CFS do much worse on both physical and mental tasks after exertion. If you have ME/CFS, exercise may actually make you worse and can set off a relapse from which you may not recover.

Here is an interesting link on the topic. There's a lot more on this topic if you Google it.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/poll-do-you-get-pem-from-physical-exercise-are-you-sensitive-to-lactate-probiotics-or-prebiotics.37335/

For the first three years after I became ill with POTS, I kept exercising at a high level to try to "cure" it. It just made me worse and worse. Then I hit a place where I could barely walk to the bathroom. I still try to keep up some level of activity every day because I don't think staying down is good. Recently, with the combination of meds and new supplements, I am finally able to do some yoga again without crashing but any kind of aerobic activity still puts me back in bed.

[Goschi]

Thanks, Chaos, I know about the concept of different kinds of PEM. I already thought (actually feared....) that it may something like that, what I experience.

But in fact, it is much more "specific". In can build up my physical energy and fitness almos "indefinitely", if I don´t overdo it from day to day. And I will never "crash", als long as I am going ahea slowly but steady. (On some parts of my body, I already start to look like an athlete, right now ;-))

But in addition to this (I start to doubt whether it is at all related....?) my brain fog, which is always practically gone every time right after exercising, (very reliefung!!) seems to "aggravate" in general over the months...