Jogging makes sick?
1996 October, a mild Saturday morning sun wakes me up early. A good
day to finally start exercising again. The body pushes 39 and everyone
says it is good for ya. Up, up, and before breakfast I run a mild pace
through the bamboo woods nearby. Pretty well, ol' boy, for so many years
of mostly walking to the subway, to and from the office and the occasional
stroll with the children through the parks.
As I jog uphill, I slow down, walk, enjoy the fresh morning air and
meditate about the prickling sensation under the skin. They say it is from
the burning of fat, when the stored toxins get released. I have had that
prickling before, years ago when I speeded the long walkways up from the
subway tubes towards the rainy city air. At that time I had my first motorbike
and on fair days did not pedal 20 minutes to the office by bicycle any
more. Must have been a half year or more without the exercise when the
prickling came up.
Slow now, the path is damp and the profiled soles seek for traction.
There is the top of the slope . Enough for the moment. I stop and enjoy
the environment. Actually, I had this prickling before, after some 2 years
of working as a salesman. Four days a week, I had been on the road with
expensive electronic measuring equipment in the trunk. One day on the phone
in the office. Beyond the four flights of stairs, no exercise. During vacation,
I had taken up sauna and jogging and I remembered the prickling when I
began with the jogging part. It had gone during the vacation, and of course
my endurance had come up.
I turned back down the slope, slow first, then at a mild pace through
the bamboo. Through the street and around the bend, the last block I walk
again. Some indefinite pressure in the bowels slows me. It must be about
toilet time. Back home a quick shower and - finally, breakfast. I only
eat a bite. There is a definite dull sensation in the bowels and later
benign diarrhea. Small pain, which recedes when I stand on my head. I remember
the teacher saying in biology class, "in the bowels, you only feel pain
if there is a major problem".
Seven o'clock, I find myself on the toilet with cold sweat and nausea.
It passes. This is not major, I think and try to sleep. No good. It is
fever (36.9) and severe pain. I can barely walk, but I can drive to the
emergency room. After only one and half hours of patient waiting, I see
the doctor (This is Japan). A short examination, pulse and blood
pressure OK. "I prescribe you antibiotics", he says, "come back tomorrow
if it is not better." Another half hour later the assistant calls me up
and hands me a small paper bag with my name, the date and a "3" next to
the Japanese character for day. Three times a day, and with meals. In it
are 4 blisters of pills broken off a larger unit. "What is it?" "Antibiotics."
"Which name?" She looks at some paper on her desk below the counter top,
then scribbles on the bag, Cravit 100.
At least the pain in the abdomen is endurable now. Back home I take
one pill, one more at four, one at seven. No lunch, dinner, I don't feel
like eating. Only few bites of an apple or banana. At 10 that night, the
pain grows, and headache starts. I measure fever, 38.0. Barely Sunday,
1 a.m. I tatter to the toilet. Diarrhea. Two more times that night. Then
I get some sleep.
Morning at 8, the pain is better, and off to the hospital again. After
1.5 hours of patient waiting and measuring pulse, blood pressure and fever,
I see another doctor. She looks over the records, "oh, you were here yesterday",
listens to what I say about the night and examines the abdomen. It feels
hard, but no particular point of sensitivity. "Your appendix does not have
inflammation." Relief, no immediate surgery needed. "I prescribe you the
same antibiotics for a week."
"Doc, can we find out what this is, why it happened?" "OK, we take
a stool specimen. It takes 14 days for the laboratory." Well, I want
to know the cause and agree to do the lab analysis for some $120. I leave
the sample with the emergency room staff, wait another half hour, pick
up my package of medicine and pay like the day before. I go home. It is
not life-threatening, but it feels serious. We'll see how the antibiotic
works. On the way out, my attention rests on a poster that says no information
by telephone. That means I have to come in and wait patiently for one
and half hours.... Such inept logistics.
The Fever Curve
I decide to track the temperature and measure every 2-4 hours just before
taking the antibiotic to make sure it works. I apply the rule that fever
goes down if enough of the right antibiotic is administered and that the
fever must go below normal and come up to normal while the antibiotic is
taken. Fever
data
Once I was sure the antibiotic was working, I increased the dosage (on
my own responsibility) and monitored the temperature closely. I did not
seek medical advice for this change.
Do not try this on your own, seek competent medical
advice.
Why could a short jog make
me so sick?
Honestly, I don't know. I don't even know the result of the lab analysis.
After two days of sick leave, my job requires my full attention. I simply
don't have the time to wait hours in the emergency room for a 10 minute
consultation with a doctor on duty I don't know. After all, the antibiotic
killed the sickening bacteria, I ate yogurt to restore the intestinal micro-flora
Western medicine habitually forgets to fully clean up the side effects
of is treatment. In case antibiotics are given, the micro-flora in the
intestines is killed, too, and it needs to be restored. If not, you invite
yeast overgrowth (candida albicans, etc.) and other secondary effects.
These problems are minor, compared to the illness just conquered by antibiotics,
but the effects accumulate and later in life, you need to see the doctors
for chronic diseases which are much harder to cure.
Until just a day before I start writing this, I was musing about the
strange coincidence that I get a colic just on the day I resolve to start
exercising and do some jogging. Shit happens, quite literally. Yet, I have
this unrelenting urge to find out the cause so it can be corrected and
prevented from happening again.
For a few days, I have been studying texts on bowel ecology on the Internet.
Just yesterday, I read an oriental view about the positive effects of fasting.
And today I realize with a shock going through my solar plexus that...
Don't read any further if you have a weak stomach.
Read about fasting and healthy colon first.
You have been warned.
... most likely the jogging jarred loose a piece of nonmoving matter
festering in the intestines and poured out bacteria that may have been
sealed off before. That may be hard to digest, but it makes perfect sense
to me. If the statistics are true, my body's condition is like that of
many people in the industrialized nations, 95% of whom who live on a
diet of processed food without knowledge of harmful food combinations.
Unsuitable combinations are not digested, they rot in the bowels. No
wonder there is gas and general malaise. I feel like I had a volcano under
the belt, just waiting for a jog to shake loose the thin cover for an eruption.
How come doctors don't see the connection, don’t even ask the patient what
happened before the illness?
CONCLUSION
If it is mechanical injury: doctors are great. If it is more complex
than mechanics, I am better off by taking my health in my own hands.
All responsibility for prevention is with me.
Thank you for your attention.
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