training & illness ??

[latelatebloomer]

O my invisible but wise women friends, riddle me this!

In this last year of discovering spinning, serious weight training, and now riding on the road, I am also getting sick a lot more often. Instead of an annual headcold as my only malady, I seem to be always getting or getting over some sort of respiratory infection and now sinus infections are getting added to the mix. This is alarming!

It is true that I am now working at a healthcare facility, but I am really careful about handwashing, and I'm getting sick more frequently than my coworkers who have poor diets and no exercise.

Any ideas? I have started to take an enormous multivitamin, echinacea, and oil of oregano. My life IS pretty stressful right now - my husband just finished grad school, debts are high, income low, and I'm working full-time, plus trying to promote my first children's book that came out this spring, and continue to write, and keep our little homestead with goats, chickens, and gardens together. I don't have much leisure/downtime. The bike & the country roads are my refuge.

To the good, I just had to exchange my new 2X Terry shorts for 1X, the hills around here are getting smaller, and so is my tummy.

Thanks for your help!

[DirtDiva]

Obviously, the first piece advice anyone would give you here would be to make sure you are eating and sleeping properly and generally taking good care of yourself to ensure your immune system has a fighting chance. However, I wouldn't underestimate the impact that working in a healthcare facility may be having if you have not been working there terribly long and given your immune system a chance to adjust. Although you may be fastidious about hand-washing, cold and flu type viruses survive for a considerable amount of time ouside the body (and on things like doorhandles) before they dry out and loose their infectiousness. (I doubt "infectiousness" is a real word, but y'all know what I mean.)

[swlsue]

Have you been to a doctor and had them look at your bloodwork?

[latelatebloomer]

Thanks, swlsue & tlkiwi - I did have a mess o' bloodwork done late last year that came back just fine, but you know, sometimes reading over one's message is rather enlightening. I'm going to get serious about giving myself a little more rest and relaxation. Clearly my body is insisting on it. I made a joke to a friend recently that the last time I saw my soul was Thursday last and it was headed south. Maybe that wasn't a joke. Thanks for the help.

[Dogmama]

Frequent illness is a sign of overtraining. You can overtrain easily when you add life stressors onto a heavy workout schedule. And, it sounds like you have a pretty stressful life right now. How about gearing down a bit - giving yourself a couple of days rest or active rest each week?

[bounceswoosh]

Frequent illness is a sign of overtraining. You can overtrain easily when you add life stressors onto a heavy workout schedule. And, it sounds like you have a pretty stressful life right now. How about gearing down a bit - giving yourself a couple of days rest or active rest each week?

I definitely second this. I had a goal of riding every day last year, plus some ice hockey and some martial arts and ... well, I had all sorts of symptoms of overtraining. Poor sleep. Frequent illness and injury. Constant fatigue. It sucked.

Here's a list of symptoms:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/i.../aa040600a.htm

[LBTC]

This spring I thought I was overtraining, too. The jury is still out, but I did find out one thing....

It seems I am allergic to ginger. Each time I got sick, I took more ginger to try to kill the bug....but I think I was just poisoning myself.

I had a mess of bloodwork done, which all returned normal.

Now, I said the jury is still out because I haven't actually gotten back to serious training yet, so I don't know for sure. But I sure do feel better now that I've cut ginger out!

How this relates to you?....maybe you have an allergy instead of or in addition to overtraining or being stressed...

Regardless of what's causing the sicknesses, you do still need time for yourself and for relaxation! Good luck, Late! You'll be okay!

Namaste,
~T~

[bikerchick68]

LBTC- that's the first thing I thought of too! I developed allergies at 29 yrs of age and couldn't figure out what was wrong with me all of a sudden... just kept getting "sick"... finally it got outta control and I went to get checked... allergies! Bloodwork all fine so no indicator there either...

my doc said it's very common to develop allergies... appears to go nicely with my gray hair... sheesh...getting older blows!

[neuroticcyclist]

Overtraining is a culprit. I can do cold, wet, etc. and am normally fine, except when overtired.

Allergies also crept on me in the early 40s. Don't know where you are, but... they hit you and you don't expect them. At the same time, I got all these respiratory infections and was sent to ENT, Pulmonary Function docs, asthma guys, etc. Turned out it was reflux and with a change in diet, tilt of the bed and proper medication, that symptom cleared up. Turns out lots of the throat and lung and cough was reflux, which even got sinus involved. Make sure they look at that.

[latelatebloomer]

You have all been such a big help! I AM 45 (Holy Hannah!) and I do believe some allergies are creeping into my life. For instance, I never used to get poison ivy, didn't even need to know what it looked like, and now I do need to know.

But when these symptoms (congestion, headache, fatigue) come with a fever, it's gotta be something else. I did take it easy the long weekend (no choice), and will add some training back in GENTLY when I'm fever free! A friend reminded me today that though it seems like it's been a long time to me, this lifestyle change is still pretty new to my body and a body needs time to adjust to changes. It's really easy to get over-ambitious when you discover the joys of challenging yourself physically - I have to remember that balance is the key. No matter how much I do, I tend to beat myself up over not doing/achieving more. I think the mental exhaustion might be taking it's toll even more than the physical.

Thanks again - and I will forever be interested in your insight and advice. This is a strange new world for me. Despite this blip, I'm loving the change.

[chick on a bike]

Hello latelatebloomer! ^^

I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems getting sick all of a sudden; that just sucks beyond all reason! Have you ever considered taking prenatal vitamins??? It may sound silly, but if it hadn't been for my prenatal vitamins, I would have been much worse off while I was sick with Chron's had I not had them. For as physically sick as I was, I was somehow suprisingly healthy at the same time. I only had just a few colds over the 4 years of being sick, and I was expossed to bronchiteous (sp?), strept throat and the flu, and never got sick with any of them-and Chron's is an autoimmune disease too; go figure!

I know it's one more pill and believe me I get tired of talking a bunch of pills too, but the prenatal vitamins are great; they've got a little bit of everything in them but it seems to do the trick! Plus, they help to make your hair grow and nails grow longer! Nice perks! ^^

And congrats on loosing weight!!! I'm going to need a new par of shorts my self as mine are getting so loose that they're riding up and slinking down! *lol* They're not supposed to do that!

Anyway, I hope you get better and that you're system adjusts soon, it's no fun always feeling under the weather! :P Hugs to you! ^^

~Liz

[CorsairMac]

actually allergies Can cause fevers. After all your body is trying to fight off something it sees as a foreign body so it'll call everything into play to fight it. The biggest problem with allergies is the symptoms can be very vague and nebulous: you may not feel "bad" but you sure don't feel "good". If you do in fact have some allergies And you're overtraining you are now taxing your immune system beyond it's abilities to fight back. So along with everyone else - take some time off. Or if you just can't stay off the bike (seems to be My problem! ) do what they call "active" recovery. The best description I read was: where you ride so slow kids on Big Wheels can pass you!!

[RoadRaven]

I get hayfever ... caused by allergies to pollens ... every summer

I have found that antihistimines aren't always necessary, because sometimes the most distressing part is the temperature my body reaches. Sometimes a couple of panadol is all I need to lower the fever... and I can 'manage' the other symptoms

[latelatebloomer]

Thanks, everyone, for the input and hugs. I am feeling better, I did have to take a second course of antibiotics and I really didn't do much during that period. I've slowly added some morning yoga and my little core workout, and will try the bike this weekend - but just a little. Boy, do I miss it.
ChickOnnaBike, what to the prenatal vitamins provide that the others don't? If I take them and they provide a baby, you're gonna get a basket on your doorstep (just kidding, my partner's been snipped.)
CorsairMac (whose name always makes me imagine part woman/part eagle), I had no idea about allergies bringing fever. Well, that bites.
During this last bout, when I went to the holistic clinic, I got to see the 90 year-old doctor. (I love this place, the doctors are never in a hurry) and he said, "The question for me is not really about the sinus infections, but why your body is suddenly allowing them to occur."
I think it's stress. We are really struggling $$wise - my husband went to grad school at 39 and took out massive student loans. He's now in adjunct professor-gypsy mode, also just got representation from a NY gallery for his paintings. (Yeah, he went for his MFA in painting). He's doing great, but a lot of money is flowing out - studio space in NY, photography, etc) and very little comes in from all that. Meanwhile, I'm working fulltime in a TBI rehab (helmets all the time, folks) just when my first book has come out and needs to be promoted. And I need to keep writing, and then there's my little bit of land and animals - which are my loves and my spiritual connection. I've often been poor - but it was a conscious choice to allow for creative time. These days, we have constant money stress and I just feel like my life is all bent out of shape. I have always been a person of deep calm - and now I always feel like my inner Scotty is shouting, "Captain, she's going to blow."
That can't be good for the immune system!
So thanks for the support and information. Love -latelate

[LBTC]

<big hugs>

Late, you've made some very brave choices! I admire you! I wish that life didn't require so much money in order to survive, so that the stress of needing it wouldn't be there for you!!

Find your deep calm, again. You'll get the answers you need...maybe while you ride your bicycle this weekend!

Loads of positive energy going your way...

Namaste,
~T~