Yup, just another strange aspect of Ch's. I'm your opposite, once I feel a hit coming on I jump on a cross trainer and the physical exercise can help me abort some attacks immediately.

Physical exercise...Abortive for some and trigger for the rest.....


Lefty...!

Elevated body temp/continued cardio-vascular exercise - sustained for me past 45 minutes is about as accurate a description of trigger as can be. This is my biggest trigger. I can shorten the exercise and avoid being hit most of the time.

I tip my hat to u my friend!!! Sounds to me like u have it down to a science! Im new to the "beast" so takes time to take control i guess!! thanks again!!

Over the years we have gone thru this discussion regularly. BOTH extemes of temp have a impact--just for different people.

Some use heat (as in a hairdryer) to abort an attack; heat triggers for others. Ice packs used to abort for some, not others.

I get hit all the time when trying to attend classes...after walking in -10 celsius to class once i get to the class i get so warm from the heated room (i think the flourescent lights play a role too)  that i get hit almost 80% of the time.
Is ergotamine the best way to treat this? Anything else I can do?
thanks

Back before oxygen, my best results came from simply brisk walking.  (a)I couldn't stand still or sit anyway, so why not?  It helped take my mind off the beast. (b)the breathing seemed to be beneficial.

Jon

(first post)

Man, am I ever glad I decided to browse the internet to see if there was any new info..

I am episodic and just started a cycle 6 days ago (had my first cycle in 1996).  I had also started taking some creatine for the first time in something like 10 years.  I bought it a month ago, but didnt get around to taking it regularily until a little more than a week ago I think.

I totally hadn't heard in the past that it was a trigger, but it sure looks suspicious now.  When I took it 10 years ago, it was for about a month and I didn't recall any correlation with CH, but it likely between cycles that I was taking it.  (my cycles are usually about a year between and last only a week or two, so it sounds like I am one of the lucky ones)

On an exercise note, intense cardio helps me a lot.  I generally find that I have to get my heart rate over 160 beats and keep it there for several minutes to help abort an episode.  I don't think lower intensity helps much, but its hard to tell, as I kind of naturally go into a bit of a frenzy when I am trying to kill an episode.

Today one hit me at work (they are less common for me during the daytime so I was a bit surprised.. could have been the creatine), so I tried running stairs up the office tower, however dress shoes and running fast up narrow concrete stairs aren't really a good mix.  I was also having trouble doing stairs because my legs kept cramping up (I think this is due to all the CH related biking I have been doing during the night at home, where I haven't been warming up or stretching).

I ended up giving up on stairs and ran down the street to my gym, quickly changed and hit an elliptical trainer.  After 15 minutes of that, the episode was over.  My trainer saw me and said "wow, you were really going hard", lol..  (she doesn't know anything about CH, or that I suffer from them). 

Usually I can end an episode with 15 minutes (total) of intense cardio, but this attack was more like 45 minutes (including stair climbing, running down the street, and the elliptical).  For some reason, cardio on a machine seems more effective (for me) then exercise forms where I have to think about where I am going.

I am a big fan of elliptical trainers for CH relief, because you can distribute your effort into either your arms or legs.  If I have too many episodes over a short duration, I start getting pretty worn out from using something like an exercise bike (plus it feels a bit better to be moving my arms, so an elliptical is more natural).

I also try guzzling coffee, and I think that helps a bit.  I am curious to try out this red bull trick that people have been talking about, I am going to pick up some tommorow on the way to work.  The creatine is going in the garbage.

Lefty wrote on Jan 18^th, 2010 at 8:46am:


Same here. Working out or good physical activity actually makes an episode subside for me. Good thing I workout at night when my episodes are the worst in Cycle lol.

krojo wrote on Feb 12^th, 2010 at 10:02pm:

Don't expect that to improve with Verapamil.  The low HR makes me adjust my target HR for cardio.  The low BP can make it downright dangerous if you're not careful.

I have a regular yoga practice.  It is normal for me to experience some dizziness moving from inversions back to stand postures.  Verapamil makes this much more profound.

It's all about tradeoffs.  You have to make modifications to deal with CH.  But I refuse to stop living my life.

-Dennis-