This is
exactly how it feels for me, too, with both exhaustion from fibro and from the post vac type of Long Covid I have.
And seems to confirm what I've long suspected, no surprise to me.
I like reading this stuff put in context by Cort Johnson on healthrising (he sent it in his newsletter on Tuesday).
Two interesting comments of his:
"A small but stunning Dutch study" and "A similar ME/CFS muscle study is underway."
My summary of Cort Johnsons' explanations of what the researchers found, with less scientific terms:
- 25 Long CoV vs. 24 recovered people (with same virus levels). Muscle biopsies before and after exercise.
- Lungs: "problems moving air in and out", so too low CO2 in blood and too little O2 for muscles (similar in ME/CFS).
- Perhaps slightly thinner muscle blood vessels.
- More "fast-twitch" muscle fibres that don't need oxygen ("anaerobic") and are good for short spurts, but not for endurance, they can't produce as much energy, but leave behind lactate causing "muscle soreness".
- Thinner fatigue-resistant muscles fibres in females (he doesn't go into this though, cos the study doesn't either).
- Less of an enzyme (SDH) in the energy part of each cell (mitochondrion) as opposed to more in recovered people.
- Less substances for the energy production type that uses oxygen, even at rest, e.g. citric acid and creatine.
- Microclots (amyloids) aren't clotting blood vessel, but the amounts increase, compared to pre-CoV/healthy.
- More wasting or dead muscle fibres after exercise in 36%! (autoimmune response? But why? Same virus levels in both groups mean it is not the virus! Step counts showed it wasn't from de-conditioning). Likely means exercise is bad.
- All with Long Covid had this post exertional malaise, but the patterns varied with the same end - likely same in ME/CFS.
- For what we can do, Cort says "exercise does not fix the problem", only after something else has helped, and
- Some people with ME/CFS get help from creatine, and it's been recommended for Long Covid too.
If this small study and similar ME/CFS ones before can further be confirmed, the main points I assume are - ME/CFS post exertional malaise and perhaps even fibro fatigue might also come from:
- too little oxygen somehow decimating endurance and causing short spurt muscles to increase, to compensate.
- certain energy production mechanisms are askew,
- decreasing usable muscle fibre by forcing exercise, this is "tissue damage", "severe exercise-induced muscle damage".
- possibly microclots causing problems somewhere, even if they didn't stop blood flow.
For Long Covid incl. post vac: It isn't the lingering of the virus / spike protein, as the levels were similar in both groups.
My main questions:
- How come oxygen in muscle cells was not found reduced, but oxygen wasn't being used/taken into muscles properly? (that seems one of the questions for the researchers too).
- What about the 64% where wasting/dead muscle fibres wasn't found? Reading the study however answers that 36% got dead muscle fibre alone from exercise (10% before), whilst 80% got wasting muscle fibre (50% before) (necrosis vs. atrophy).
Creatine I've had sitting on my desk for over a year, maybe time to use it. If the HCl doesn't work well, praps the malate form.
Interesting offshoot: My creatine kinase increased in 2022 to over the max., which means muscles are injured from exertion, too little oxygen or a fall. But this study didn't show increased creatine kinase.
Edit: Cort has now put the 80% atrophy into the article, too.
