redtoffee @ 01:33 am: Low Carbon Dioxide levels and how i overcame them. It could help you.
This and Low Dose Naltrexone is the two things which have helped me the most. I spent 18 months in bed until May this year and am a lot better now. I have both ME and Crohn's disease.
I had bad sessions where I would get myoclonic jerks where your whole body or parts of it have big jerks, sometimes I would end up 6 inches off of the bed or throw myself on the floor etc...At the same time it happened I would become paralysed, noise and light sensitive, blurred vision, slurred speech, pins and needles etc...at my worse during some of the 18 months when I was mostly bedbound, I would have these episodes all day. During a collapse my body would basically shut down and my hands feet would get colder and go blue, my fingers would go numb, nobody could draw blood from me when like this either as my veins shut down.
I kept a journal through most of this which you can read here. Also about the treatment I was receiving at Breakspear Medical Centre in Hertfordshire.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lauradunks (I am about to update it again with all my latest news.)
I went to a private hospital and was found to have low levels of carbon dioxide due to tests by a neurologist and I know people with ME who had similar issues who have improved since raising their CO2 levels. And I have improved so much too for the same reason. I only get them rarely now, when I'm too hot/cold/hungry/stressed/or over exert myself I haven't had one in 3.5 weeks. I have had my CO2 levels retested and they are pretty much normal now.
If you think you have this then I can talk you through something called Buteyko breathing which raises your CO2 levels. It is not the quickest method of improving but it obviously costs a lot of money to go to this hospital. The breathing is free and it helped me a lot.
Let me know if this sounds like what happens to you. Do you also find you are air hungry. Like you cant get enough oxygen? This is also part of the problem. Although it is false because your body thinks it is oxygen you are low on, so you breathe faster and are lowering your CO2 levels. You end up with something called Chronic Hyperventilation syndrome.
The trick with the Buteyko breathing is to breathe in quickly and out as slowly as you can. At first it feels like you are starving your body of oxygen. You want to hyperventilate but you shouldn't. Eventually as your levels of Carbon Dioxide rise it gets easier. Your body doesn't panic so much as you are doing it. And you find you can hold onto the breath for longer and longer before breathing out. You can find out about it on the internet and seeing how long you can hold your breath for is a good measure of your improvement. You should practice this daily increasing the time you do it for as often as possible. Eventually it becomes second nature and you can do it without even thinking.
You can google to find out more about these things. It is a real situation which basically can happen to people with infections (M.E.) and valid medical problems. I had ME a long time before I developed the CO2 deficiency as a result.
This is the best explanation I have found about both the C02 deficiency and Buteyko breathing:
http://www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/our-services/a-to-z-of-services/diagnostics-and-pharmacy/pathology/immunology/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/patient-information-leaflets/?assetdetesctl515399=20146&categoryesctl515399=289I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas anyway,
Laura
~X~
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