no i'm serious. how does being overweight affect lyme?
i know of all the other problems it causes but how does it affect the ketes or does it? or does it just make everything worse? breathing, walking, etc. do slender people fair better with lyme than overweigh people???
i'm not making sense am i? but you get the point right???
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
Yes, you are making sense. Good questions. Sorry I don't have the answers. Hopefully someone else will come along with some answers.
I think the people who gain a lot of weight may have gained it because they can't get rid of the toxins created by borrelia. According to Dr. S and Dr. Shoemaker, if you can't get rid of the toxins, this means you likely have insulin resistance and leptin resistance and other hormones are messed up. Both leptin resistance and insulin resistance can cause weight gain.
I suppose being overweight could make tissue saturation of abx harder? Maybe gives more food to the ketes since they use the tissues for their food?
Pure speculation on my part but something I've wondered about myself.
Terry
Posted by ByronSBell 2007 (Member # 11496) on :
Overweight people are about 99% of the time less healthy than your average size human. Also seems the more body mass you have just gives the ketes more places to go. I would rather treat a person that loooked like a stick as apossed to someone that is so fat they need a chair all the time.I dunno this one is kinda up in the air Posted by just don (Member # 1129) on :
I am "NOT" fat!!!
I am just too "SHORT" for my weight!!!
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
well, i guess you could say i'm sort of like jabba the hut!!!
i am 5 feet one inch and weight 200 -- ouch!! yep, fat...
but i am loosing and will keep pursuing it....
the meds don't help either....
i'm one of those gainers with lyme
i'm not overweight, i'm undertall.......
Posted by mrsdizzy (Member # 11690) on :
quote: I would rather treat a person that loooked like a stick as apossed to someone that is so fat they need a chair all the time.I dunno this one is kinda up in the air
what??
Posted by robi (Member # 5547) on :
I would think that the food choices that increase your weight are not great for healing and getting over lyme. Generalization? Yes....... I know. It is true you can eat very healthy and still be overweight but it is not usually the way it goes. Folks that eat high quality, non -processed foods tend to be healthier all around.
Than said I eat very healthy and still carry about 25 extra pounds.
robi
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
quote: It is true you can eat very healthy and still be overweight but it is not usually the way it goes.
It seems that many people with lyme gain a lot of weight without changing eating habits. Weight gain or loss is listed as one of the symptoms. Weight gain certainly happened to me. I cut my calories waaayyyy down because my doctor was telling me I was eating too much. I continued to exercise and continued to gain huge amounts of weight.
Anyway, my point is that a LOT of lyme folks gain weight that is not actually connected with over-eating. That said, I agree, eating healthy helps many people but I have to say, it has not helped me lose weight.
Terry
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
don, hehe!!
there are advantages to being overweight,
on windy days, we don't blow away! Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :
Overweight people are about 99% of the time less healthy
hahahahahahahahahahaha
yeah right
Fat isnt unhealthy being fat and no exercize that makes you not healthy.
Posted by janeymae (Member # 7018) on :
Being overweight is a big problem in many ways, especially in the way doctors view you. When a middle-aged woman comes to a doctor with symptoms of arthritis, knee problems, extreme fatigue and all the other myriad complaints of a typical Lyme sufferer, their answer is to take off some weight and you will feel better. People who are overweight are probably more discounted from treatment than those who are skinnier.
My orthopedic doctor wants me to consider bariatric surgery to enable me to lose weight, so I can have knee surgery, so I can exercise more. However my biggest Lyme problem is my back, which pains so much that I can't stand up for more than 10-20 minutes and nobody knows why.(Could it be Lyme? Yes!)
My feelings are that I need better pain managment to enable me to stand up and move more, enabling me to exercise, enabling me to lose weight without going through major surgery, not to mention the major, major life changes that goes along with that surgery. And try to beat Lyme at the same time. I feel like I am running around a hamster cage.
I might add that I try to eat healthy and usually do, but am not always successful there.
Posted by kelmo (Member # 8797) on :
My daughter was a 98 pound sprite before she got sick with this disease. She gained 80 pounds within a couple of months (the ducks didn't think this was unusual).
This was not in her control. She started losing weight when the treatment started working. She has lost 50 pounds over the past seven months. It came off very quickly, at first, and she looked less inflamed. Now it's slowly coming down. She's losing about three pounds a month.
It's like the Outer Limits, "we control the horizonal and the vertical". The bacteria make every system in your body whacky.
Our LLMD says that all his patients who gain weight with the disease lose it, and those who lost it, and need the weight, gain it back.
I'm hoping that's been my problem, but I really think it was the cookies.
Kelly
Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :
The only effect of being overwieght that really has a effect of outcome maybe that the spirochetes have more area to hide.
Posted by shelly05 (Member # 12151) on :
I actually had a doc tell me to lose 10 lbs and come back in a year and "he'll see where we are at". Never went back there! I do wonder if I was thinner if I would have been treated different medically all these years.
Posted by robi (Member # 5547) on :
There are degrees ovf overweight. 10 to 20 even 30 lbs. overweight is one thing. Fifty to 100lbs. is a whole different story. Again, I rally would stress that food choices do play a huge part in not just weight, but overall health.
I do not think it is just a matter of places for spirochetes to hide.
robi
Posted by Vermont_Lymie (Member # 9780) on :
Being overweight or obese is itself associated with adverse health outcomes -- such as being at higher risk of adult onset diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc..
The lyme fatigue sure can make it harder to get exercise, but it is very important to try in my opinion. Push yourself to get to the gym, even if your workout is only 10 minutes at first! Walk, ride bikes, try anything to get moving.
I know folks have different opinions on exercise for lymies, but it is important for health if one is overweight.
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
we have a gym room in the house with a nordic track and gazelle, plus weights and hubbie is ordering a bow flex.
i'm using the gazelle as i have a a problem with a torn cruciate ligament in my left knee.
on doctor told me to "just keep your mouth shut and not eat" and i wouldn't have all these problems.
you're absolutely right in how doctors treat you depending on your looks.
Posted by Carol in PA (Member # 5338) on :
"Does being fat affect Lyme?"
I think that having Lyme affects the metabolism, and can cause one to put on weight.
Lyme Disease disrupts the HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands.)
Everything gets "out of whack."
So when a middle aged woman comes in to see a doctor with migraines, fatigue, insomnia, joint pain, and is also fifty pounds overweight, the doctor looks at the extra weight as being something the patient can control.
When, actually, the extra weight is one of the symptoms of the system going haywire.
Treating an underactive thyroid would help many symptoms, but I believe the tick borne infection is the underlying reason for the thyroid problems.
Until family doctors get into the mindset of recognizing these symptoms as pointing to tick borne infection, their attitude towards overweight is not going to change.
Carol
Posted by KaitlinB (Member # 11718) on :
Treating an underactive thyroid would help many symptoms, but I believe the tick borne infection is the underlying reason for the thyroid problems
Carol is right (above is her quote-don't know if done this correctly).
Lyme disease does affect hormone levels in the body, including thyroid. Low thyroid hormone production is common among Lyme sufferers, but it is hard to get properly diagnosed as most doctors aren't aware of the new AACE guidelines for identifying the problem.
As the link below discusses, if TSH level is above 3, patient should be assessed for hypothyroidism.
I've been treated for low thyroid for a year and it has made a significant difference in my health. I have more energy, have lost weight and have more "ambition" than have had in years.
The Lyme disease tx has also helped, but if I miss a dose of thyroid med, I see a real difference in my energy level.
![[bonk]](graemlins/bonk.gif)
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hehe!!