Advice for a pro runner who has run herself into a state of chronic exhaustion

I am a retired competitive athlete aged 55. When I stopped competing about 15 years ago I was pretty much exhausted and had pushed myself hard for several decades pursuing my goals.

The break from daily exercise was welcome and I pretty much cold-turkeyed the daily exercise routine for quite a few years. However I have never quite been able to establish a fitness routine since, often just too tired to make the effort. But I do know how to rally, mind over matter is my MO.

In the past few years I have steadily put on the weight, not fat but from skinny to solid, and am surprised at the extent to which I have lost my lungs. My muscles get very sore the next day after I exercise. I also have bouts with insomnia, itchy dry skin and feelings of lassitude/apathy.

Most of this I put down to the hearsay of menopause, except that I have no symptoms in that area and still get a normal regular period every month.

Just recently a doctor told me I had a swollen thyroid and sent me to get a TSH test, which I have not done yet. I don’t like the idea of being coerced into using synthetic hormones and risk creating another set of problems that people will then tell me I have to accept as old age.

Having been an athlete I still believe in the wisdom and resiliance of my own body given the right conditions and some good guidance. Have I burned myself out and if so how do I use this great mind over matter skill to get back to a feeling of zest for life?

Best,

M.A.

____________________________________

Gary responds:

This question is my bread and butter nowadays: Hard working professionals, be they athletes, working mothers or CEO's struggling with exhaustion and all the negative health and quality of life issues that go with it. Professional athletes, at or nearing the end of their careers, consistently take first prize for the most depleted and exhausted states. hardly surprising really.

Runners don't retire: They slowly grind to a complete standstill

Have a look at the Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) charts to the upper right. These are of a woman several years younger than MA, extremely fit but complaining of most of the same items as MA, including extreme fatigue, insomnia, cold hands and feet, PMS, poor concentration and food cravings.

With reference to these charts, here is an explanation of what is going on with this younger athlete and what may also be going on with MA (Of course, we would have to do the testing to be more specific).

• Fatigue: High calcium to potassium is associated with an underactive thyroid. Foods like yogurt that are fortified with calcium are root causes of the epidemic of thyroid dysfunction in women.
• Depression: High calcium relative to potassium is associated with depression. The low fat, low salt, high calcium diet is a root cause of the depression epidemic.
• Cardiovascular irregularities: An imbalance between the normal calcium to magnesium relationship can lead to cardiac irregularities such as arrhythmia, bradycardia and tachycardia. This is especially true if potassium is disturbed as can be seen in the 2nd chart (ratio should be 4:1 - actual is 89:1). Correct this imbalance and there is usually no need for heart medication and even pace makers.
• Hypoadrenia: Low tissue sodium and potassium relative to magnesium and calcium is associated with adrenal insufficiency. This may result in low blood pressure, postural hypotension and fatigue.
• Premature ageing of the skin: High calcium relative to magnesium in the presence of low B6 may cause calcium to precipitate out of solution into soft tissues, including the skin. This may be seen as premature aging of the skin, loss of elasticity, dryness and itching, including dermatitis and infection. Get excess calcium from the diet and it is beauty therapy from the inside out.
• Muscle and joints disease: The process of calcium deposition into soft tissue that causes skin ageing will also cause muscles, tendons and joints to ache, hurt and tire quickly. Early onset arthritis is often the case.

This pattern of elevated calcium, low magnesium, sodium and potassium is repeated time and again in the hair tissue mineral analyses of hard working over-achievers who are showing signs of running out of gas.

From Hero to Zero in a single race

The chart to the upper left is of a former world class female cyclist. To use her words, she "went from hero to zero" in the time it took to ride just one race. The profile above is from her hair almost one year later. The chart shows the typical patterns of endocrine exhaustion and nutrient depletion which is further complicated by significant levels of the toxic metals arsenic, mercury cadmium, lead and aluminium. Her road to a full recovery is proving to be complex and slow.

Both of these women have nutrient profiles of depressed metabolism, often referred to as "slow metabolisers". The tendency upon retirement, will be to gain weight, principally about the waist and hips (A sign of adrenal and thyroid dysfunction in both men and women).

The Solution in these cases of chronic exhaustion is

a programme of nutrient supplementation tailored to correct the imbalances that are found in their hair tissue mineral analysis and as indicated by individual signs and symptoms. There are dietary changes to be made as well. Investigations (if warranted) may identify external sources of heavy metal contamination, such as exposure to treated timber or corroding water pipes. There has never been the need for medication such as thyroxine or HRT.

Body: Heal thyself!

What we can expect from a nutrition based intervention are subtle improvements over several months in measures like energy levels, mood, sleep, smoother skin and stronger hair and nails.

Oh! - and back to running and cycling fast as!

If they want to.

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Taupo Huka Challenge Mountain Bike Results are in

With the growing popularity of mountain biking, the Huka Challenge is an increasingly popular alternative to the boring grind that is the Wattyl Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge.

The Huka Challenge is 83 km of single track that is not for the faint-hearted, or should I say, the unfit.

I entered this year, finishing 2nd in my age category behind a bloke named Hilton Forlong who is known to be quicker than a rat up a drain pipe. Gosh, he's a rocket on a mountain bike! He beat me by half an hour (My time: 5hr 26min). I was 84th overall out of 287 finishers. I would say there were quite a few DNFs. It was not an easy race at all.

What really excited me about this race has been the speed of my recovery. This was by far my longest ever mountain bike race and I am doing less training nowadays. Despite this, I was walking around okay after the race and was ready to be on my bike again just two days later. The following weekend, we rode a three hour course that usually leaves me feeling quite wasted by the end. This time, I got round the course no problems at all, other than feeling pleasantly tired. This was alleviated shortly thereafter with a hearty feed of fish and kumara chips.

Healing and recovery tend to slow as we get older. I have definitely reversed this process over recent years. Please refer to the articles here for more information about how this was done:

Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis

Improving Healing

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My experiences doing the Inter Clinical Laboratory Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) - by Jonathan

I had a HTMA test carried out on me and have been following its recommendations for just on 2 months. This is my experience of it, although first I will need to explain at least my recent past.

Image left: Jonathan during the Wild Coaster which was about two weeks into the start of the HTMA, "struggling like buggary up a hill".

I am 30 and have been increasing my time on the bike over the last few years to a point where this time last year I had what was probably my best race to date (Source 2 Sea) where I felt I did well in. I had trained hard and found the 160km race easy (I blew away the bunch that I was riding with easily and beat my cycling buddy who I train with all the time). I was down to about 98kg from just over the Clydesdale weight range (100kg). Things were good.

But then over summer I kidded myself at the endless BBQ’s parties and quickly put on weight till I rose to a hefty 108kg easily. I rode in the Around Brunner and had the second worst cycling experience of my life. I was cramping on every tiny “undulation” of the ride for the last 50km of the 130km race. It was horrible!

Image left: Chart from Jonathan's HTMA. Excess calcium relative to all other nutrients. Majority of nutrients are low. This is indicative of adrenal and thyroid insufficiency with tendency to gain weight, poor sleep, poor digestion and fatigue among other things. This sort of pattern is common in athletes.

I then realised my mistakes and trained as much as I could over winter but I was still not losing weight. I was doing a 3.5hr ride on the weekend plus at least one more hr ride during the week and maybe a swim. I stayed at the 107kg to 108kg weight range regardless of what I did. It made no sense to me either as I knew that I did not eat ridiculously unhealthily. I knew other people who would eat chips and chocolate etc and not put on weight but with me I was struggling to lose anything and easily putting it back on. Sometimes I would binge a little but this was usually after a large ride. I was feeling like crap going up the hill at the end of winter. I was getting smashed by my riding buddy as well.

I mentioned this to Gary as I had already been following a vitamin plan and it wasn’t noticeably working. He noticed that I was eating about the same as him per day (he weighs buggar all!!!). He suggested that I do the HTMA and I was more than happy to as I was desperate to find out what was wrong.

The results that came back were shit! They showed that I had been leading a modern lifestyle with far too many dairy foods in my diet (which I never suspected as I don’t drink straight milk and the media/advertising go on about all the Calcium we are “supposed” to need). I was getting it from too much cheese, yoghurt and milk from take away coffees. I also had really high (as in way off the chart) ratios between Calcium to potassium and magnesium which balance each other as nutrients along with a slow metabolism.

The HTMA suggested a change in eating habits, change in foods and a crap load of vitamins to correct the imbalance over the next 3 months. Gary said that you can just do it by nutrition alone without the vitamins but it will take much longer. I thought “if I am going to take some persons advise, I may as well do it properly and to the letter so that if it doesn’t work then I know I did my best". I know for sure that it doesn’t work (you will always have that doubt in the back of your mind if you don’t do something in its entirety as to if it works or not).

I knew it would be hard as I used to eat 3 large meals a day. If I didn’t feel full after a meal then I would be hungry till I did fill up. The HTMA suggested that I change to eating 5 or 6 small meals a day and change to a low calcium diet with at least 40% lean protein and the rest natural unprocessed foods etc (stuff Gary preaches often but I had never implemented… sigh).

My stats were 107.3 kg, 30.7% body fat, 2.9% Bone density 53.8% Water ratio and 43.4% Muscle mass.

This meant that for the first 7 days it was sheer will and determination that kept me going as I was hungry all day every day. However I dropped like 3kg and 2% body fat in 2 days!!!!!

The results were staggering in the beginning. The flab was just dripping off me. I found that you really had to be prepared in advance for your day by ensuring that you would have adequate food for the whole day. If I didn’t prepare and make my own food then there are virtually no quick options to buy suitable food elsewhere. It took a lot of will power because when you make a major decision such as this it seems that all the wrong food is shoved in your face on a regular basis. Even your mates seem to conspire to force you from your diet by trying to get you drink with them or force some ridiculously bad food on you.

Anyway after a month I was down to 99.6kg, 25.6% Body Fat, 2.9% Bone Density, 57.6% Water and 43.2 Muscle Mass.

This is when it actually got harder as the fat didn’t fall off as readily. I actually had to be more disciplined to lose the weight and by this stage my mind was playing tricks by trying to tell me that it was alright to eat that thing that isn’t on my diet as I had lost so much weight anyway.

By now 2 months into the diet I have made it to: 95.5kg, 23.1% Body Fat, 3.0% Bone Density, 59.4% Water, 44.5% Muscle Mass. So things have become harder which is frustrating.

I have found now though that I am riding faster and further than ever before. I am easily riding with much larger cogs going up a hill and easily recording faster times. I have not quite caught up to my riding buddy as he has been putting in a lot of hours and he has shot off. But I am still riding faster than I have ever before. To let you know how far I have come, just before I started this diet I was about 1.5 minutes behind my riding buddy up a hill that takes about 10 minutes to climb. That is a huge margin. However a couple of weeks ago I raced him up the same hill and beat him!!

The next month I want to get as close as I can to the 20% body fat mark or under if I can. Then relax the strictness in my diet a little and aim to rip up some cycle races during summer. I have to say that it feels great to shed that weight and I do not feel nearly as self conscious already. Can’t wait till the 3 month mark and I will feel any better. If you have been thinking or trying various diet fads then instead of that try the HTMA and get a scientific report of where your health is at so that you quickly correct any problems that you might have.

_______________________________

Gary comments:

Jonathan's metabolism had been steadily shutting down, mostly as a consequenceof relentless stress and poor eating habits. Welcome to the modern workplace! And then we are urged to go to the gym, run a half marathon etc in our free time. Bit like a double beat-up if you ask me!

The mechanism of this metabolic shut down centers about the adrenals. As they shut down, so does the thyroid gland. The consequence is feeling tired and depressed and the fat piles on while muscle is lost and they hurt. Once in this metabolic hole, the spiral is downwards as the person becomes increasingly depressed and desperately resorts to all kinds of crash diets which only makes matters wose.

Jonathan is using Salter 9106 Body Composition Scales to track his changes in wieght and composition. Weight changes alone tell only part of what is happening inside his body. He is a big boy, so once he is down to about 18% that will be enough fat loss. The emphasis should then go onto gaining more lean muscle by percent. Less than 12% fatness for a male is getting too thin.

The combination of the ICL Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (Profile 2), the Brett Elliot Herbal Detoxification programme and a set of body composition scales are powerful tools for bringing about lasting weight losses and improvements in health and fitness. It frustrates me that millions are spent on unhealthy, invasive and risky weight loss measures, such as stomach stapling, yet there is no funding for simple and effective measures such as the programme being followed by Jonathan.

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Weight loss and performance gains by applying hair tissue mineral analysis recommendations

Great!!!!!!

I have halved the time between me and my mate up a hill and I have lost about 5kg and 3.5% body fat. Couldn't be happier.... only problem is now that my mates want to do the HTMA........ dammit!

22/09/09 107.3kg, Body fat 30.7% Bone 2.9% Water 53.8% muscle 43.3%

08/10/09 102.4kg, Body fat 27.2% Bone 2.9% Water 56.2% Muscle 43.4%

All in a shade over 2 weeks. I have a lot more energy and need less sleep (which is great as sleep is boring).

All I can say is keep it coming!!!!

Jonathan

______________________________

Gary comments:

While it is still early days for Jonathan, the Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) indicated depressed metabolism from chronic stress and the need for a number of nutrients and changes to diet. These he has done and all indications are that his metabolism is perking up nicely.

As an aside - he has youth on his side: Older people tend to take longer to begin responding to interventions.

The body composition results are from a Salter 9106 Body Composition scales. These are very accurate as can be seen from the consistency of the bone mass measure. These sell for up to $150 in the shop. I am as good as giving them away because I want my clients to have them to provide me with progress feedback no matter where they live.

Athletes, like cyclists and runners usually have sensitive measures of performance, like a 5km time trial course, a regular hill climb or set of weights lifted weekly. Any changes to health and vitality will show in these performance measures. I, for example, have spectacularly knocked about 20 minutes off my 2 hour mountain bike racing times as compared to 2 years ago.

With non athletes, the measures are usually more subtle and we have to look for slight changes to hair, skin and nails, sleep and digestion, pain, ankle swelling and so on. We usually do not expect to see much of a change in less than three months. Sometimes it is a bit like watching grass grow - in winter! Unlike the big hit of the pharmaceutical drug, natural health approaches do take time and loads of patience.

The HTMA has been an interesting experience for me. I was first introduced to the Interclinical

Laboratories HTMA service about three years ago. I was cautious at first because there have always been concerns with this test and the interpretation of results. I was the first to do the test and I worked on the results for two years before repeating the test. My health has improved significantly over that period.

The Interclinical reports have been consistently right on the mark and always interesting.

What I like about the Interclincal HTMA is it helps us to see what is going on inside your cells and it tells us what we need to take in the way of supplements, what foods to eat and avoid and what lifestyle changes to make. Of course, these tests are only as good as the person interpreting them. I have now interpreted over 100 HTMA in the last year and am getting a very good feel for them.

If you want to get a HTMA done, email here and I will send you details about how to get this done.

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