While I've been out
Here it is Thursday morning, fully a week since I woke up feeling like I'd been dragged through the proverbial knot hole. I'm happy to report that I no longer feel quite that bad. I'm also sad to report that some of the symptoms linger on.
I can't bear to open up WKO+ TrainingPeaks or my workout log spreadsheet and look at what's become of my fitness. Ah, well, it's better to focus on getting better and not worry about those things until I do.
One cycling-related thing I have managed to accomplish in the past week, however, was getting my front wheel repaired. The guys at the shop were impressed at how the spoke had torn nearly completely out of the wheel and yet somehow still held strongly enough to bend a Mavic Ksyrium so far out of true.
I'd just dropped it off and returned home when they called me back to report they didn't have a black replacement spoke, that they'd need to use a silver one instead. I replied that they should use whatever color they had on hand. My thinking is the color of the spoke will make little difference in the wheel's performance. Even if it does, will I feel it?
I photographed the end result. Here it is, back on my bike. It's a unique look to be sure. I also just realized I've never nipped off the tail end off that zip-tie holding my SRM sensor. I replaced the old one months ago. I wonder how many guys have looked at that and just shaken their heads.
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What did you do?
So what strategy did you use for this illness? Over the counter drugs?
Here's a blog entry that I found very informative. Do you think vitamins can have any effect on preventing and treating illness as the author suggests?
My strategy for recovery from illness
I don't know whether this strategy will work for others, but it has proved to be reliable to me over the years. My strategy for recovering from illness is to lay around doing as little as possible, eating as much as possible and trying to remain as comfortable as possible.
In general, I stay in pretty good shape. My body knows how to take care of itself. My philosophy is that when my body is under attack from a virus or whatever it might be I picked up on my last flight, my best strategy is to get out of my body's way and let it do what it does better than I know how.
That's it. My strategy is simply downtime augmented with a relative increase in available nutrients - nutrients which are not otherwise called upon to maintain my training schedule.
Did you pay MORE?
I remember when they were selling those wheels and then one day, they started offering the same wheel (or what seemed to be the same wheel) only it had a single yellow spoke.
I think that yellow spoke boosted the price of the wheel set by like 400 clams.
By the same logic, your wheels ought to be worth a bunch now!
Listening to your strategy for recovery, I can not help but be reminded of the many follies of man in his attempts to "better" nature through use of chemicals (carcinogenic pesticides and fertilizers spring to mind). I like your strategy, and feel compelled to point out that it worked well for me during my last round of illness (thanks BTW).
There are probably better remedies out there for recovery. But yours certainly is well aligned with modern medicine, "do no harm", or in other words, if you are not sure what will repair the situation...do nothing.
Ignore Evidence?
...well aligned with modern medicine? What has modern medicine done about heart disease or cancer (or the common cold for that matter)?
Sorry but I will continue to be a skeptic while I see all the pharmaceutical adds in the doctor's office and see the lying Lipitor adds on TV.
Not to be gloating at all but no flu in my household this year and colds are nipped in the bud quickly using relatively large amounts of specific "available nutrients."
Lose your book?
Dude what happened did you lose your copy of Catcher in the Rye or something?
Maybe
Maybe. What's Catcher in the Rye all about anyway?
Sparknotes Bobber
That's the place to find all that is holy about books. It's like reading the whole book in a matter of minutes. Or finding the answers to the questions in your homework about the book.
But really, I was taking a large amount of Vitamin C every day. Something like 2000mg or 3200% daily values worth. I haven't been sick at all this winter, except for this little heart problem. So lately I've stopped taking that much. I take a pill every other day or so, which is only 1000 mg. I've also laid off the drinking, and started yoga for the daily stresses. Point being that I've been feeling better, but still have bad moments. The vitamin C may not have been the culprit but I know it was getting to me. I just went to the docs today, and he's got me on a beta blocker, so hopefully that'll take care of it.
My step dad also told me about when he was about my age and took a bunch of Vitamin C. He started feeling weird, with chest pains and such, and also stopped large dosage intakes. He said it made him feel better.
I know you pee most of it out, but I wonder the longterm side effects of taking different nutrients for a very long time. I take a multi-vitamin everyday also, so that's even more vitamin C I'm taking. But hey, if you think that laying around, eating, and doing nothing is going to make you feel better quicker, then more power to you. I think we all know our bodies better than anyone else ever will, and we know what to do when it doesn't feel quit right.
I'm glad to see your about back to normal 2-old. This year has been a rough one for everyone. Pretty soon we'll all be getting together to tear up some sweet singletrack. Sometime soon...
Good Response
G-wiz,
Thanks for taking the time to discuss your thoughts on this. I respect your opinion and of course, it's your right to do what you want with your own body. Sometimes I think I am just being politely ignored and that is more insulting in some ways than a blunt statement of disagreement.
There are a couple of things that I think are worth pointing out about vitamin C. First, the daily value. In the US it is 90 mg for adult males. But all these FDA values guarantee is that you will not suffer an extreme deficiency condition. For vitamin C, that condition is scurvy, a terrible disease which causes your internal organs to waste away. But 90 mg is not a target that you try to hit and maintain. The optimum value is seldom discussed and is not part of the FDA RDI. So what is the optimum value? How do we determine it? Did you know that almost all mammals except primates and humans (and just a few others) make vitamin C within their own bodies? Did you know that this amount varies depending on the amount of stress the animal is under? The normal amounts these animals make is pretty well known. For example, dogs and cats make about 2000 to 3000 mg when healthy. When sick or under stress, they make more. For larger animals, it's even more. Goats for example make around 7000 to 8000 mg normally. Did you also know that humans have a defective gene which prevents the synthesis of vitamin C? This is why humans can get scurvy. So how much would we make if that gene were not defective?
If vitamin C is dangerous and can cause heart problems, then where are the bodies? Do you know how many deaths are reported from vitamin C every year to the CDC (centers for disease control)? Well, I think there were a couple unconfirmed reports back in 2003. Do you know how many deaths are reported from acetaminophen each year? It's typically between 100 and 200. That's right, the active ingredient in Tylenol and other cold medications causes a hundred or so deaths every year! So you can see that vitamin C has an excellent safety record. And also, contrary to popular believe, supplements are regulated by the FDA. If there were a lot of people dying, they could yank the supplements off of the market.
Now about peeing most of it out. This is the thing you hear so often and it is a very uninformed comment. Under normal circumstances the half life of vitamin C in the blood stream is about 30 minutes. Under stress it is even less. The amount that passes through to your bladder varies with your condition. The animals that synthesize vitamin C also pass some out through their bladder. When you drink a lot of water, quite a bit of it passes through and out of your bladder. Does that mean you shouldn't drink much water? The other animals have a dynamic flow of ascorbate (vitamin C) going through their blood stream. It is there and ready to respond and be used when needed. The amount that passes through to the bladder varies depending on the amount of stress and disease the animal may be dealing with.
What is the right amount for specific nutrients to take on a daily bases? It depends and it varies as you can see with vitamin C. Be sure to read the link in my first comment above. The other thing to take note of is that medical science in the US is influenced by the pharmaceutical industry and they see nutritional supplements as competition. They can't make much money from vitamins because they cannot be patented. So there is not much incentive to study these things or to even make specific suggestions other than to avoid the extreme deficiency conditions.
So for vitamin C, I determine the proper amount to take by looking at other animals who do synthesize vitamin C. Goats which have a mass close to that of humans create 7 to 8 grams per day. That is a good starting point. Linus Pauling followed this strategy and he was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. Many of his ideas on nutrients have yet to be tested or disproved.
The amount of vitamin D to take is even more clear cut. We have a very clear understanding of how much vitamin D our bodies will make in direct sunlight during mid-day in the summer. If you stand out in the sun at noon (say for 15 minutes) in the summer, your body will create between 10 and 20 thousand IU! Do the same thing in the winter and it will be almost none! Taking 2 to 4 thousand IU of vitamin D daily in the winter is a no brainer for me.
Does all of this make sense? Does it change your mind at all or cause you to want to look into this more? I hope so. It is well worth it to study these things in my opinion.
Spokes
The spoke idea could look sweet if you interchanged them. So one silver one black. Pity they don't them in white, I see this is the new trend;)
Avoiding Illness
My strategy for AVOIDING illness has been to avoid shaking hands.
Frankly It's an archaic tradition that should be retired.
Go to a big meeting, party, etc. in winter and shaking hands is the best way to get sick.
My strategy? I apologize and say "I" am sick.
My wife uses a bacteria hand wash thingy in purse.
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