It's been over two years since I've had an appointment with Dr Myhill, so having recently had some up to date blood tests done by my Gastro doctor I thought it might be a good time to have another chat. I sent the results and some of my more recent correspondence from my heart and gastro doctors up to her office and yesterday we spent half an hour on the phone talking through them.
Dr Myhill's first comments were about the fact that she thinks my thyroid is underactive as my TSH levels are borderline high. This is important because if the thyroid is underactive then the mitochondria cannot work fast enough. The thyroid also controls the number of mitochondria, so it might be that the mitochondria are working properly but there might not be enough of them. The idea is that if you can improve how the thyroid is working it will give energy production a boost. There is however a problem with treating the underactive thyroid as the medication normally raises heart rate - something I could do without. So, it would have to be given in very small doses. It's not an issue yet, as before you can treat the thyroid, the mitochondria need to be working properly in terms of how they are converting energy, if that's not happenning then there is no point boosting the thyroid.
We talked about the POT syndrome. Dr Myhill thinks it would be better not to take the Ivabradine. This drug will just treat the symptom, but not do anything to help alleviate the cause. She is sure my heart is beating too quickly because it is not beating strongly enough (due to mitochondrial malfunction) and therefore it has too beat more frequently to do the same job. Once the mitochondria are repaired, it should return to normal.
We had an interesting discussion about exercise. I have been feeling very pleased with myself when I have had enough energy to go for a swim at the hydrotherapy pool, but Dr Myhill says it's not a good idea - I'm just wearing myself out - and it's not the right sort of exercise. The sort of exercise that will help is very short bursts of raised heart rate, so 60-90 seconds of 160 bpm for example, but she also thinks my body is not quite ready for that just yet. So, swimming might not be the best for me at the moment, but it does give me some sort of psychological boost, because my body feels like it's actually doing something and I like that - even if it is just wearing me out, I might still do it.
Going back to the blood tests, there were a few other things of note. My C-reactive protein (CRP) was high. The CRP level is a marker of inflammation in your system. I did have a bit of an infection around the time the blood was taken and this may have been the cause of the raised levels, but Dr Myhill thinks it would be a good idea to have it retested.
My Creatinine levels were low. Low creatinine can relate to low muscle mass, which I guess is hardly surprising after 4 years of no real exercise other than day to day activity.
I also had high levels of Eosinophils, these are produced to fight off allergic reactions or parasitic infections, so when the feacal elastase test that I'm waiting for is done she has suggested that I ask to make sure its also being checked for parasitic infection. Lovely. I'm also definitely going to have some sort of food testing done too although I'm not quite sure where or how yet. Dr Myhill has suggested a RAST Test.
On a positive, my vitamin B12 levels are high which is really good for energy production, so it looks like supplementation of that is working well and all the readings for my kidneys and liver were normal.
We also talked about Perrin technique and I told her that i thought it was the single thing that had made most difference for me in terms of how well I feel on a day to day basis. Dr Myhills view is that on working on the lymphatic system, Perrin technique is helping to clear away all the debris created from the cell damage taking place and that that is making me feel better. It sounded like she thought, although it's helping, it is not going to ever get to the root of the problem. As it is helping, I will continue to use it.
So, I think that was everything, she has written to my GP and Heart consultant and I am going to go ahead and have my mitochondria retested. I am very nervous about that, I will be very disappointed if there has been no improvement in the last three years since my previous test. Hopefully, all the supplementation, treatments and sensible activity levels since then will have helped to improve the way energy is being created within my cells. I hope so.
Dr Myhill's first comments were about the fact that she thinks my thyroid is underactive as my TSH levels are borderline high. This is important because if the thyroid is underactive then the mitochondria cannot work fast enough. The thyroid also controls the number of mitochondria, so it might be that the mitochondria are working properly but there might not be enough of them. The idea is that if you can improve how the thyroid is working it will give energy production a boost. There is however a problem with treating the underactive thyroid as the medication normally raises heart rate - something I could do without. So, it would have to be given in very small doses. It's not an issue yet, as before you can treat the thyroid, the mitochondria need to be working properly in terms of how they are converting energy, if that's not happenning then there is no point boosting the thyroid.
We talked about the POT syndrome. Dr Myhill thinks it would be better not to take the Ivabradine. This drug will just treat the symptom, but not do anything to help alleviate the cause. She is sure my heart is beating too quickly because it is not beating strongly enough (due to mitochondrial malfunction) and therefore it has too beat more frequently to do the same job. Once the mitochondria are repaired, it should return to normal.
We had an interesting discussion about exercise. I have been feeling very pleased with myself when I have had enough energy to go for a swim at the hydrotherapy pool, but Dr Myhill says it's not a good idea - I'm just wearing myself out - and it's not the right sort of exercise. The sort of exercise that will help is very short bursts of raised heart rate, so 60-90 seconds of 160 bpm for example, but she also thinks my body is not quite ready for that just yet. So, swimming might not be the best for me at the moment, but it does give me some sort of psychological boost, because my body feels like it's actually doing something and I like that - even if it is just wearing me out, I might still do it.
Going back to the blood tests, there were a few other things of note. My C-reactive protein (CRP) was high. The CRP level is a marker of inflammation in your system. I did have a bit of an infection around the time the blood was taken and this may have been the cause of the raised levels, but Dr Myhill thinks it would be a good idea to have it retested.
My Creatinine levels were low. Low creatinine can relate to low muscle mass, which I guess is hardly surprising after 4 years of no real exercise other than day to day activity.
I also had high levels of Eosinophils, these are produced to fight off allergic reactions or parasitic infections, so when the feacal elastase test that I'm waiting for is done she has suggested that I ask to make sure its also being checked for parasitic infection. Lovely. I'm also definitely going to have some sort of food testing done too although I'm not quite sure where or how yet. Dr Myhill has suggested a RAST Test.
On a positive, my vitamin B12 levels are high which is really good for energy production, so it looks like supplementation of that is working well and all the readings for my kidneys and liver were normal.
We also talked about Perrin technique and I told her that i thought it was the single thing that had made most difference for me in terms of how well I feel on a day to day basis. Dr Myhills view is that on working on the lymphatic system, Perrin technique is helping to clear away all the debris created from the cell damage taking place and that that is making me feel better. It sounded like she thought, although it's helping, it is not going to ever get to the root of the problem. As it is helping, I will continue to use it.
So, I think that was everything, she has written to my GP and Heart consultant and I am going to go ahead and have my mitochondria retested. I am very nervous about that, I will be very disappointed if there has been no improvement in the last three years since my previous test. Hopefully, all the supplementation, treatments and sensible activity levels since then will have helped to improve the way energy is being created within my cells. I hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment