Comment by damienkatz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by damienkatz | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Wondering if you might have an undiagnosed medical condition.

I've been very a active exerciser my whole adult life. It's part of my identity.

Last year I started suffering from chronic fatigue. Exercise began to hurt. It hurt when I did it. It hurt afterward. I was tired all the time. I was gaining weight. I stopped exercising. It brought me no relief. Only resting did.

I knew something was wrong. Went to Doctor. Treated me like I'm a lazy ass who doesn't know how to care for myself. Fuck that dr.

I was on my own to figure this. I finally found out a treatment that works. Salt supplements and licorice root to address adrenal insufficiency. Day and night difference.

I feel bad for anyone who goes through something like that. It's not fair. And many people are dismissed by the medical establishment when they need help and compassion. It's awful how people get treated when they are sick but don't have the standard common diseases. The whole system sucks.

If it weren't for a long history of excellent health and fitness, I might thought I just don't like exercise. And never have the motivation to figure out how to get better.

Might be. I'm planning to do thyroid tests soon, because some of the things in my life could be explained by problems there, and my sister recently found out she has some thyroid problems. I understand the experience - for me, day-and-night difference was getting on SSRIs.

But it could also just be that I never started to like exercising in the first place. I have myopia since early childhood - so from the first years in school, glasses gave me logistical problems on PE lessons. It was especially problematic during team games - when I took the glass off, I was the worst player in class. When I left them on, I could play somewhat well, but I was risking breaking them when hit by a ball (it actually happened). So I ended up avoiding team sports as much as I could, and there a negative feedback loop starts (not playing made me only suck more and be less willing to play).

Anyway, thanks for the advice :).

The reason I wrote my long response was because you said exercise was painful. Sure, if you overdo it, it can be painful to anyone. But it's not supposed to painful. Uncomfortable sure, tiring sometimes yes.

But not painful. Afterward you should feel alert and relaxed. And in reasonable amounts it should feel like it is increasing what you can get done. Usually anyway.

If not, something is wrong. Hopefully something that can be treated.

Good luck to you! Health can be very tricky. In so many ways health and wellness is still in the dark ages. So many incomplete models and misinformation. I've been there and feel bad for anyone else bewildered because they don't fit into mainstream ideas of how their bodies are supposed to work.

>I was on my own to figure this. I finally found out a treatment that works. Salt supplements and licorice root to address adrenal insufficiency. Day and night difference.

How did you find out this is what you needed?

Trying many different supplements.

Thought maybe I had mold in my house. Tested that. Maybe I'm allergic to my bedding. Got s new mattress and beefing.

Thought it might be kidney related since I had back pain in my flanks. Thought it might be my gallbladder. Thought it might be my liver. Tried various foods and supplements. Nothing helped.

Thought it might be thyroid related perhaps due to iodine deficiency. So I started taking table salt that has iodine in it. Started feeling less muscle pain immediately. Then started iodine tablet supplements. Pain returned. Then tried just salt tablets. Found relief. Then researched and found adrenals regulate sodium. Then found out licorice root blocks an enzyme that metabolizes cortisol, which is produced by your adrenal glands. Tried that. Fatigue disappeared. Sleep improved. Pain gone. Started losing weight.

So basically trial and error over many months. I'm only mentioning a small number of things I tried. Doctor was no help. But a better Doctor probably would have suggested better tests and things to try. But how would a normal person know their doctor is letting them down? Shit is hard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com