Supplements and activity designed to improve circulation - an experiment.

Does anyone have any experience with ginseng powder; does it do anything useful, how to make the powder taste less revolting, that sort of thing.
Or Maca root.

Neither of them are being taken specifically for ME, more to counter depression, particularly the maca, to try and persuade my body to feel something, anything, to notice it's environment and give a ^&% about it.

But in looking at the alleged benefits it seems there may be some benefit re: ME.

They are such an obvious thing to try, it's only taken me 33 years to notice them, that surely someone else must have tried them, and if so.....

 

I would suggest you don't buy ginseng powder. In Chinese medicine they use the root, chop it , and make a herbal tea. It does not taste great but can be sweetened. Then you eat the stewed ginseng. Panax ginseng is the most common variety.

Having said this I have never had a good reaction. However on one single occasion I had a big reaction to Siberian ginseng, which is a different plant.

One of the big issues here is the quality of the product. So much is low quality. At least with raw root you know its not adulterated.

 

I tried maca a long time ago, and it gave me terrible insomnia that night. I did have some good energy during the day, though.

 

It does seem to have something, insomnia isn't really an issue for me as I have a tendency not to sleep much anyway.

I've only been on it for 2 days yet today I was able to comfortably walk into town and back, around 6000 steps, using a crutch, with nothing other than a few slightly damaged muscles as a result, so far anyway.

I feel happier, or at least not terribly unhappy, around people, at least right now, they aren't a strain, they don't concern me. Which was part of the point of taking the maca root, I need to de-stress, this depression has been going on too long and any positive benefits have more or less evaporated now.

Last week I had a ceiling of around 1200 steps every couple of days, on Tuesday I went to see someone, a round trip of 846 steps. I was there for an hour or so, most of which was just lying down talking. I felt strong enough not to feel I needed to take a crutch before I left, but I did anyway. Just as well, I had to stop 4 times in the just over 400 steps on the way home. Just an idea of where I was and the direction things were going before I started.

Now this.

Don't get me wrong, I am under the impression that maca root has a very short lived effect on increasing energy levels, and that the effect is mainly placebo/psychological. A few weeks from what I gather. Just like everything else seems to.

But it hopefully buys me a little more time, things were getting too close to becoming totally pointless, and I still have things I want to try and do.

I can live, for a while, with ME shutting me down physically, what I can't live with is ME dropping my energy levels down and both impacting me seriously cognitively and removing my ability to override my aspergers. If I can't talk to or interact with anyone then I can't find any answers to the questions I am am driven to understand. If/when that happens...there are things I need to know, about myself, about who I was.

I'm not going to get another chance.

 

Well I've at least found a way of making panax ginseng powder more or less palatable.
1/3rd level teaspoon of it (2/3rds of a gram allegedly), mixed with milk and an instant porridge sachet. When cooked add maple syrup to taste.
It's acceptable - of course it's probably a complete disaster if you're diabetic like me, but ATM my blood glucose is under perfect control so it will probably cope with 2 lots of that a day.

One downside with ginseng is at low doses, such as I am taking it, it can raise blood pressure. My blood pressure is already considered too high by my GP (145/97) so tomorrow I will start some Citrulline Malate, converted by the kidneys into l-arginine, one of the things that does is lower blood pressure, allegedly. It's apparently more efficient than just taking l-arginine itself.

It's got to work better than the medication my GP insists I take (amlodipine), which despite my being on it for 10 years now, and having the dose increased, does sod all to bring my blood pressure down. Although if I double the dose again I end up nearly falling over a lot, presumably due to my brain having no actual blood in it, but a reading taken from my arm says my BP is unchanged.

Several other things to try and improve energy levels and various markers that seem important to the NHS are turning up next week.

In the 30 years I've been going to see people in the NHS they've only ever given me one medication that actually does what it says in the tin without serious side effects, it's time to try other things, things that get good reviews.

 

I did another 6000+ steps today. Slower and more difficult than yesterday, but I expected that. Not quite as comfortable around people and traffic, I had difficulty, I had to push myself, to look at anybody, but I also expected that.

I started the Citrulline Malate, two lots of 7g mixed with squash, perfectly drinkable, citrusy. Appears to do squat, at least so far, and given it's used in BB before a workout I would have expected a more immediate result if it was to do anything useful.

I was 'tired' and have fallen 'asleep' on a few occasions this afternoon, not a shutdown as I would normally expect if I'd overdone it, but actual sleep, just not very voluntary.

I also have mild PEM, with definite cognitive limitations, not unexpected but again the Citrulline Malate is supposed to aid recovery after a workout so I hoped it would help mitigate PEM a bit. It seems not. Combining it with some TMG would help, I know TMG can rapidly bring me out of a crash, at least if that crash was the result of cognitive exertion, but I am planning on going to see someone tomorrow, and TMG causes erm.....emotional control issues. aggression and rage, largely uncontrolled as I don't see it coming, which is why I don't generally use it, even though it works.

So TMG, when I might have to interact with anything that's alive, or expensive, nah. It's a supplement of dire need, not of choice, at least for me. The somewhat extreme reaction I have to it does mean something, I looked it up, but cognitive issues and such things, I currently have no real idea other than it suggested which pathways, and at what point on them, things were defunct. I decided that was probably unfixable given my extremely un-sophisticated understanding of such things, s stopped taking it.

Of course if the NO theory of ME is correct then taking anything that increases it is asking for problems, but it's been a while since it was proposed and it has nothing other than a footnote in MEpedia, and a couple of speculative papers, so I'm guessing nothing has ever been discovered that would support it.

 

If you try Maca, make sure to cook it first (I put it in porridge). Otherwise, if taken raw at sufficient dosage it will cause gut pains. Even when cooked it caused me gut problems and I had to stop. However, it certainly was energising while it lasted, don’t take in evening or you won’t be able to sleep.

‘Dragon herbs Ginseng sublime’ is the best I’ve tried. Not a cure obviously, but increased energy and resilience. I think best used intermittently, as efficacy fades over time. For me that is 1 or 2 weeks.

 

I can now confirm that none of what I am currently taking has any anti-PEM effect.

It does give more capability, at least for a few hours, but the price still has to be paid. This is extremely 'uncomfortable'. I should really have taken some oramorph several hours ago but I'm out of the habit, it may be best that I don't bury this and instead remember it, at least until that becomes impractical.

Possibly best abused sparingly, try and maintain the supplements for a while to see if there are any more useful longer term benefits, e.g. blood pressure, but try and rein back on actual activity, coz despite what my body tells me it ain't up to it.

 

At least something seems to work. My blood pressure is down to 134/84 (from 145/97), in only a few days. Promising.

 

Taking this many supplements a day, 3 times a day, on top of my other medication, is rapidly getting tedious.

Not to mention I found out this morning that the original information I uncovered is wrong, that I still need to take l-arginine as well as l-citrulline, coz I'm old, well older than 40, coz taking either on their own isn't that effective once you get above 40.

The dosages and timings I was given are also wrong, I need to be on at least double the doses and timings i.e. instead of a total of 1.5g of l-arginine a day I should be on at least 3g, but because it degrades within a few hours I should be taking it twice, maybe even 3 times a day, and the l-citrulline dosage also needs to be at least doubled, going from 4-5g to 8-10g a day, again split doses.

I'm also taking DHEA, 25mg twice a day, I've suspected for years that my testosterone levels were a little on the low side but I've never been able to get ahold of DHEA before, and didn't fancy running around for months trying to get the NHS to do the required testing to get testosterone injections. Or, more probably, to be told they were the low end of range, that for a 98 year old they were absolutely fine so no injections for me.

And a few other supplements to improve kidney functions (my ACR is out of whack, not by a lot, and it mainly always has been, but maybe time to have a play and see if I can get it in range).

and of course mag, ionic zinc and boron, potassium, CoQ10, vitamin B complex, and god know what else. It's all getting out of hand.

Some of which needs to be taken with food, some not. I can't eat enough to go with all the pills at the timings required, given some things are to be eaten with fat, and some not etc.

On top of which a significant dietary change may be advisable, to further reduce my already below range cholesterol levels.

What is the point of all this? I'm trying to get my circulation to work, make my blood vessels flexible again, reduce the impact of the gunk that's built up over the last 52 years, 30 of which were spent smoking. It appears the only ways of doing that are increasing NO levels, moving, and keeping cholesterol levels absurdly low. Of course a payoff of that will almost definitely be that the weight will drop off again, no fats, reduced protein, limited carbs, not far from a healthy vegan diet in fact. The downside is there doesn't seem to be any way of doing that without large amounts of expensive supplements. Calcium, B12, and lots of other things, mainly come from meat, fish and diary.

So it's going to get tedious fast.......and of course, if I up the 'exercise' then lots of PEM.

I really can't see this working, but what else have I got to do.

I'm already the oldest male in my father's line, heart disease normally gets us around 50, and now I have indications that my arteries are a little more gunked up than they should be at 52.

 

Just had my blood pressure officially checked, 132/74 - which is a hell of a drop (15/25) in not much more than a week. At this rate in a couple of months it'll be low enough for a singularity to form, of course that's unlikely coz once it drops below 0/0 it's unlikely I'll be taking enough supplements to continue the drop.

Yet another thing to keep an eye on.

 

This morning;

32 pills/tablets, washed down with 7g of citrulline malate in suspension in orange squash, with added ionic zinc and boron. Followed by 1.4g of panax ginseng mixed in with milk, instant porridge and some maple syrup to make it edible (most of the supplements require food, and fat, for proper absorption - although this is debatable in some cases).

That's just the morning lot, 2 more lots of most of them, and 3 more of some (magnesium, potassium, that sort of thing).

In an hour or so I'm off out, for a 5500 step walk, to buy some 85% dark chocolate, and possibly a few other things, apparently dark chocolate is good for the linings of blood vessels, although it seems impossible to determine how much is needed. As despite being largely sold on the 'health benefits' no manufacturer seems willing to disclose just how much of a particular flavonol is contained in their products, and thus how much needs to be consumed to achieve the 'health benefits'.

I know the chances of any of this lot doing anything useful are slim, I've had ME for well over 33 years and tried this sort of approach before - but then my aim was recovery, now it's not. My aim this time is simply to buy a little more functionality, more time before I hit the moderate/severe boundary where I normally live. To buy more life.

There are definite changes occuring, in mood especially, I would no longer classify myself as depressed, but nothing really out of range of normal variability. The only thing I can point to and say something is definitely happening is my blood pressure dropping down to more or less normal range. It's never been in normal range since they started testing it. Got to be a positive sign.

I just wish I wasn't PEM'd (lol), and that other important things, semi urgent things, were actually being done. Everything is going into this. Limited resources, inability to do more than one thing at once, that sort of thing.

 

Nearly 9000 steps today, I intended more but just ran out of steam and seriously struggled to get home. For the first time since I moved here, over 16 years, I'm walking around a local estate, just trying to gauge distances so I can, when able, do a walk f a set distance that doesn't involve shopping. Well..walking is a bit of an overstatement, strollin, ambling, lurching.

It looks like 1.4g of ginseng in porridge only provides energy for 7500 steps, if I want to be able to go further without walking into things, or staggering into traffic, then another solution needs to be found, or some way of taking more of the disgusting stuff.

Physical PEM is manageable, cognitively, more of a problem. I seem to be back at the stage I ended up with when I was weight training. I can either do this, and nothing else, literally nothing else, or I can do other things but abandon this.

For the time being I am choosing this.

 

This is odd.

Nothing, other than eating, has occurred since my last post, too much cognitive PEM.

But last night I realised that not only was I not depressed, I was no longer in a near continuous state of fury and anger.

Probably the maca root dropping cortisol levels.

I've had several occasions today when I've been in a state of what could only be described as contentment, despite the fact that nothings happening and I still have both physical and cognitive PEM, and I now have things that urgently need doing. I have phone calls to make, stuff to pack for return to amazon, hoovering, cooking, despite wanting to get a bath for the last 4 days that hasn't happened, that sort of thing.

The only new thing that's been added, yesterday, is testogel, as the name suggests a topical testosterone gel, it seems I may have been a little low in it, the online doctor who prescribed it certainly must have thought so.

Either that or it's a cumulative effect of the last few weeks of supplements.

So so far;

Pro's;
Depressions mostly gone, apart from the odd few minutes a few times a day,
Significant mood alteration re anger, rage, fury and hatred, no longer a continuous state I have to consciously oppose, just occasionally now and no longer anything like the intensity they were, I doubt I'll ever be able to accept or forgive but I should be able to live with what happened,
Significantly lowered blood pressure,
Something that's probably occasional contentment,
Some things taste nice,
I can feel things again, as more than just pressure. (that one could backfire big time),
My aspie side remains distracted and fairly easy to control, it now having 2 projects, things to study, test, understand and solve. Of course my brains f%%ked so they should keep it busy for a while, given that anything involving fluid dynamics was beyond me even when I was fully functional.

Cons;
PEM'd constantly;
I don't seem to be able to control what or how much I eat - planning on grabbing ahold of that one next week, as I've put on close to a stone in 2 weeks, at least according to my bathroom scales.
Most of these supplements appear to be pure hype, the mechanisms of action, if they have any, doesn't appear to be as described, but some, it appears, may work. Or it's all placebo. I don;t care at this point. I'll take what i can get.

Next week, sort out diet, sort out a 'routine'. Do better.

And some other stuff, until I get PEM'd enough so I am unable to do sod all, probably about Thursday. Me and 'routines' don;t get on, which is odd coz my aspie side insists on them. Gonna be fun.

ETA - yep, I can definitely taste again. I had a can of abbot ale (beer) in the fridge, left over from a 4 pack used for cooking before christmas. Fancied trying it just now, tastes wonderful. I was never that fond of abbot, it was just the best of what sainsbury's sells, to my taste, when I bought it. Drinkable if i fancied a drink but not actually very good, which is why it's sat in the fridge for a few months.

Lasted about 5 minutes, want more, lol

 

I'm dropping some of the supplements (it's restocking time for a few so only doing that for the ones that seem to do something for me)

I'm continuing with a maca root/l-arginine supplement at 4g maca, 2g l-arginine a day, doubled on days when I am actually doing something.

I'm switching to ginseng in a capsule form, it seems to have short term energy benefits but the taste and the inconvenience of having to mix it up with sugar rich porridge - not for regular use. This means that the dosage of ginsing I will be taking will drop down to 300mg a day. Worth a try to see what happens.

I'm switching to mixed nuts to gain some of the trace elements/minerals like zinc, boron, selenium, a few vitamins, etc. I have also added tiger nuts for the fiber and a few compounds they allegedly contain.

Things like magnesium will still be taken in supplement form, even though I should be getting enough from diet.

Even though I'm trying to drop LDL I will still be eating half a dozen egg a weeks, I've just upped the quality of the eggs, for the B12 and coz I like eggs.

Testosterone, DHEA, things that affect that system, will be dropped, for now, to see what effect that has on how I feel.

More vegetables and pulses, less carbs, less meat, less processed fats.

I'm going to try and achieve 6000 steps a day, 3-4 days a week, with one of those days being a bit more, and see how it goes, spend more time outside (both to try and increase my tolerance of people and because if I'm outside i'm not just lying on a sofa, bored, eating things that are bad for me), coupled with slightly higher activity levels at home.

Vaping will be cut down as nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, at least at certain concentrations, the constant cycling between vasodilation and vasoconstriction may not be good for me.

I may even pick up an empty bar on occasion, before putting it down as it's far too bloody heavy, which is what normally happens when I get enthusiastic enough to consider using it lol.

Along with a few isometrics, switch to hypotonic drinks (homemade) to try and combat what may be a small hypovolemia issue, if being slightly more active doesn't do that.

"Little" things like trying to ensure I get enough sleep, going to bed before midnight, getting tidied up in the morning (rather than before I go out, if I go out), and at night before bed. Trying to set up and stick to a routine. Look after myself a bit better. Very, very, difficult to do consistently with ME, as I'm sure some of you will know.

Basically i'm throwing the kitchen sink at it, lots of odd scraps of things that seem to have helped in the past, all at once. To see what happens. I think everyone knows that just trying one thing doesn't work very well with ME, that even if it appears to work initially that there is always a rebound, or we'd all be better. I'm not after getting better, I'm just trying to improve one small* component that's not even directly tied to ME, for that I need data, to try and understand the system.

* I say one small component, but in reality it's approximately 100,000 miles (or maybe kilometers) of blood vessels, so maybe not 'small' lol.

Lot of plans, the question is, what will actually occur

I'm still PEM'd from Friday, but I am hoping to cook some lentil and kale soup, and some bolognese (so I don't need to worry about cooking for a few days, to be served with courgette not pasta), get the damned rubbish out, hoover, cut my hair and get a bath, so I'm ready to start tomorrow morning.

I expect to be significantly PEM'd this and next week, there is no way around that, the trick is going to be to manage it, stop it from going too far, when the first thing that gets affected is my cognition. It's going to be tricky. I've done it before, but it always gets out of hand, but this isn't a lifestyle change, an attempt at recovery. This is just an experiment, to gather data. A badly thought out one, too many variables are being changed, but an experiment none the less.

ETA - just did the hoovering, damn that things heavy, a lot of work to push. exhausting, so maybe a little more PEM'd than I thought. I will try and get the cooking done, but today is not a day for a bath, which means the haircut will also be postponed, and probably the rubbish.

Cook, rest, eat.

 

Keep going Wonko. Good luck.
On food related stuff, fermented food is very good for the heart and the gut. It's dead cheap to make kimchi, lovely as pancakes or stir fries. It is filling but not in a horrible way, very light in the gut. I use Dr. Ben Kim's recipe as it is sugar free and tastes great.

 

Monday;

Got 7 hours broken sleep but still quite PEM'd so slow start.

Done a very small amount of non essential housework (washed and refitted bedding, cleaned the bathroom sink and toilet, that sort of thing, stuff that needs doing but is hardly ever urgent), haven't cut hair yet or had bath. Found a small flaw in my bolognese lasting for a few days plan, no pasta, no courgettes - so decided to go on a small shopping outing as my walking for the day

300mg of ginseng lasts under 1280 steps, at least that's the point where I started walking through thigh deep water. Total journey distance of just over 7000 steps. Left calf feels like it either has a tear or a small DVT, the additional, instinctive, effort put in to cross a road caused failure in that leg, mid road, on 3 occasions. If I hadn't had my crutch I would have fallen and not been able to get up for a while, and dragging myself out the path of traffic...so 10 years ago.

I am absolutely fine, provided you remove the words absolutely and fine. I have ME, there is no absolutely, or fine. Apart from that my body has behaved slightly better than expected. Yes it's grumpy with me, but it's basically mostly done what was asked of it - can't complain.

However I had significant difficulty noticing people, if it happens again I'll increase the maca root in the morning, if that doesn't fix it then I'll add a small amount of testosterone and see if that helps. Those seem to be the 2 big players in my ability to tolerate people around me, or notice them as more than navigational hazards.

That's probably it for the day, just a meal (technically 2 as I've only had an egg muffin so far today), some fruit and nuts, some more supplements and rest.

No idea what tomorrow's going to be like but hopefully not too bad.

 

Tuesday;

Not going so well today.

I got 4-5 hours of broken sleep, I couldn't keep trying because of an idiot neighbour with music far too loud, always the same damn song on repeat.

I eventually, around 12.30, trimmed my hair and got a bath, finally. I've had breakfast, supplements and medications. I've had a bowl of lentil and kale soup, very filling but for some reason an hour later I was hungry again so had 2 slices of dry wholemeal toast with a small tin of pilchards on top - followed by a few tiger nuts.

After 4 attempts, so cognition is a little down from what I need today, I managed to get 2 items that need sending back to amazon packaged and ready to go. Amazon have changed their return policy, you can no longer send back multiple items in one box, they won't give the paperwork for that, so each item must be individually boxed and labeled.

I'm now stalled, I feel broadly speaking okay but I should have gone out to send them over an hour ago, and I'm still here. Given that the 2 boxes won't fit in my backpack I'd even decided to catch a bus to the post office and walk back if i feel up to it, so it's not that it'll be difficult or awkward to carry them.

Now aiming for 4pm, if I go earlier I'll get caught up in school rush, it's not urgent that they get done today, but I am trying to get out more, do more, and on only the second day of the week not managing that, bad sign.

ETA

I left shortly after 4pm, caught bus into town and posted stuff to amazon. I felt okay so decided to walk home. All went fine and when I reached the turnoff to get home I decided to continue to the park instead.

At roughly 4000 steps my left ankle became unstable, probably because I'd been protecting my damaged left calf muscles all day. At roughly 5500 steps the ligament at the back of my left ankle decided to complain, making my entire lower left leg useless.

So I hobbled to a bench and rested for 10 minutes. This helped but my left leg was still not very useful. I was going to go home at that point, it was approximately 2000 steps back so I would have more than beaten my steps target, but not my time outside target.

Somehow, and don't ask me how as I'd decided to go home rather than risk buggering my leg up further, I ended up walking to sainsburys, with the intention for buying some chopped tomatoes and catching the bus home (less steps to get home that way).

Things didn't work out that way, I ended up with about £7 worth of shopping, weighing a little over 5Kg, in a carrier bag. Not fun to walk with with using a crutch. The damn bus stop said the bus was going to be 29 minutes (it's a bus every 12 minutes service), so I started walking home.

By this time it's 6pm and I'm hungry, knew it would probably take about another hour to travel the 500-600m to get home, so I got a small fish and chips. And ate them, in the park, in the dark, in the rain.

Not exactly in keeping with my dietary aims right now, but on the plus side it's progress re my aspergers (I wasn't alone in the park, that park has a bad rep after dark, it's not somewhere I would normally feel comfortable being let alone sitting down and eating/resting).

I got back around 7.15pm.

Today I managed approximately 10000 steps. was outside for 3 hours and, apart from the pain, iffy leg, seemingly upsetting my lower/mid back and lower intercostal muscles (I can barely stand, and can't stand upright), I've enjoyed it.

It's rare for me to enjoy things, the best I normally do is not hate them too much

So not too bad of a day, despite the iffy start.

I found out how to look back over my steps log whilst having a rest in the park, it seems, that for the last couple of week, this isn't that unusual, i.e. it's not progress, at least for the more active days. There have however been gaps of 3-4 days after days like today, that i wasn't aware of, so I'm going to have to watch that.

It may look like I'm using a GET like approach, but although I aim to increase time outside, and probably as a consequence of that, steps, it's not. I'm setting and adjusting targets based on how I feel, what i think my capabilities are that day, in the next 20 minutes, that sort of thing, not as part of some arbitrary scheme.

 

Wednesday;

Perhaps i should mention that these posts are primarily a log for me, something to look back on so I can see where I went wrong, I'm not really expecting anyone else to be interested

I got about 6 hours broken sleep.

Took meds and supplements, with cituline squash drink, cup of tea.

I put duvet cover in washing machine, got tidied up, left around 12.20 for outside time.

Lower left leg still virtually useless but it doesn't hurt much.

Slow walk up to park, slightly different route at end of park, through what seems to be a fairly nice, well planned estate. Satnav useful.

Took detour down a path that looked interesting, end up, down several flights of stairs, by the river. May be worth investigating once my leg heals. ATM it's a bit dicey, rough slippery path with largeish loose stones, be easy to turn an ankle, and ATM as I only have one working one if that gets mucked up then I'm pretty much buggered, in the middle of nowhere with no people around. So I walked to the second next turn off back to civilisation. Ended up considerably further away from home than I expected.

I got back after 3 and a bit hours having walked around 4 miles, 11,500 steps, mainly in the rain. Rested up frequently, being able to sit and rest in public seems useful. I'd like to be out for longer but that would involve more walking, and I'm not up to that right now. It seems that distance is slightly beyond maximum.

It was okay but not nearly as enjoyable as yesterday, I think the caution and focus needed for the river bit wiped me out.

Got back and ate, about 50-60g of mixed nuts, sultanas and assorted seeds. 30 minute slater still hungry so 2 fried eggs on my last slice of bread, followed by about 30g of tiger nuts. An hour later 30g (ish) of dark chocolate. That little lot was breakfast lol.

Round 6pm had a bowl, a large bowl, of lentil and kale soup. It was a large bowl coz despite only being cooked 2-3 days ago it was starting to be colonised, so it needed scraping, eating and the remainder fridging. 2 days worth of it left, if it survives.

Around 8.30 tea was bolognaise with 100g of pasta. The remainder will be sorted and frozen tonight and hopefully tomorrow I will cook chilli, or maybe burritos.

Tonight I will probably be trying again to make a hot chocolate from cocoa powder, and I have some fruit left to eat out of todays allowance.

Tomorrow is very likely to be a rest day, some cooking, maybe some washing, probably not much else.

It's still going quite well, provided I ignore coincidental bodily damage and a little pain. Of course getting something done in the morning, or actually completing everything I want to do, would be nice. But the outside time is wiping me out and I never really expected to get much done afterwards at this point. I've dealt with me before.

PEM is still mainly cognitive, although the whole feeling poisoned and sick thing is starting to get a little old it's not interfering much yet, and the head crush and overload stuff, that's just in the mornings now.

 

It would appear I may be yet again getting too enthusiastic.

I've figured out a different way of looking at my phones step count logs.

In November, when I first noticed something was different, that I wasn't being hit by PEM, or at least not as severe. I walked an average of 99 steps per day outside (i.e. with my phone).

In December, the month I did preparation for, and spent a few days up North seeing my sister, doing little but walking up there coz no vaping allowed inside, anywhere, I managed an average of 2046 steps per day mainly because of a few days were I walked a lot.

In January I managed an average of 1252 daily steps.

In February, 2648, mainly in the second half of the month, probably a combination of starting this and frustration. I always used to use walking to clear my head.


So far in March an average of 7198 steps a day. That's dropped down from over 9000 because not a step has occured today and takes into account 2 other days where no steps occurred, rest days, but it's a considerable increase over the last few months.

It may be time to rethink as it's unlikely this is sustainable. Apart from a few physical issues, and cognitive ones, it all seems to be going as expected, but a 3 fold increase being sustained, unlikely, it's more likely it would provoke either a full crash or simply wear me down, no one can put up with feeling like this indefinitely, for no real pay off.

So scaling back a tad may be something to think about.

I got around 7 hours half reasonable sleep, only stopped because the last hour or so I need the toilet and the kitchen tap was loudly dripping. I can ignore either one of them to get more sleep. but not both at the same time

It's now 1PM, I've managed supplements, 2 cups of tea and breakfast (instant porridge, ginseng and cocoa - seems to work okay but for some reason I forgot that the 2 minute porridge needs 2 and a half minutes in my microwave so it was undercooked).

Not much else has occurred, although I am considering moving the living room furniture around this afternoon (having the sofa by the window means I get cold if there is much wind and my diet is lowered carb), and some washing (I've been going out quite a bit and that means wearing outside clothes, which therefore probably need washing more often).

ETA - moving sofa ain't happening as too complicated and drawn out when I'm supposed to be resting and need cooking and washing done.

I've also washed up the pan I use for batch cooking, so hopefully a chilli will occur, magically, as not sure I feel like cooking, or eating, one - just fed up with bolognese so something needs to be done. The alternative is either something with chips, or pizza, or week old salad. None of which appeal more than chilli.

Or of course burritos, but I have a tendency to just eat them, until I run out of the flat bready things, and as I currently have 11 of them that's probably not a good idea. 4 used to be food for a day, now 3 is a meal, with trips to get another one or 2 whenever I feel like it, not healthy, burritos should probably be placed in the same category as ice cream, only have very occasionally, as once made they are so easy to eat.