Two health topics started by FlyInTheOintment and tanstaafl

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

My main problem is that I had a bunch of atrophy in and around that shoulder thanks to the issues I had while other muscles were stuck in a constant state of spasm. Now that the joint itself is more or less back to where it should be, the two shoulders are lop-sided in strength. What challenges the left, kills the right, and the right tends to just go straight to spasm since that's what it spent a year doing while it was messed up.

I need to bring it along to catch it up with the left, and it sometimes catches me by surprise in unpleasant ways when I push it too hard.

a reply to: ketsuko
I have exactly the same deal with my lower back,one side atrophied,other spasm all the time.(Another injury)
I know its never gonna be 100% but through daily yoga stretches and excercise its gradually become so its almost unnoticable.
Way I see it,its not as bad an injury as what happened to Bruce Lee/Bear Grylls,and they came back through sheer force of will and training.

What one person can do,another person can do.


Injuries can be a great tool to force your mind to overcome.

a reply to: CopeLongCut

I've always joked that there's nothing wrong with me physically, just mentally, because I've never struggled with my weight or health. I do have adhd and learning disabilities that, until diagnosis a couple years back, kept me sliding backwards in life.

2020, initially hit me hard upside the head. I am normally pretty contrary and defiant inwardly so the idea of lockdowns and regulations...grrrr... then I got deeply sad at being the seemingly only person feeling this. Coming back to ATS helped me through that loneliness which was unusual because I'm a loner at the best of times.

Physically I have only one thing that needs done for my health and I keep putting it off.

I had a simple blood test that needed done, well over a year ago, that I put off because I'm chicken. (Years ago a nurse totally scratched up the vein in my arm) The test isn't super urgent so due to my delay the paperwork expired. Got new paperwork and lost it. Went back to the doctor at the beginning of 2020. Got paperwork number 3 and covid showed up. We were told to avoid unnecessary medical care so I had the perfect excuse... now that paperwork is expired.

I really need to get on this.

Thanks for the thread. It helps to write it out.

a reply to: CopeLongCut

I would sure like my eyesight to stop deteriorating. By the day, it seems. Had perfect vision my whole life, and it seems the day I turned 42, it started going to crap. Need stronger and stronger reading glasses, and my middle distance vision has started to go! For example, I do some recording gigs around the same time every year. The first year I started wearing reading glasses, I didn’t need them for reading the music on the stand; that was far enough away. The next year, the music on the stand was a little uncomfortable to read. Now, I flat out need another pair of glasses for reading music on the stand. Or playing cards: this year, I can’t clearly see the cards in the middle of the table, with or without the reading glasses. 😢😢😢

My 77 year-old mom though- any advice? This past year she has started having trouble getting up from a sitting position. It started out that it took her some extra effort on her own to get up, and has progressed to her flat out needing big help to get up from a seated position, anywhere. She’s fallen a couple of times. I’m thinking I need to take her to the gym with me and get her on some strength training. Anyone dealt with this and have some advice for me?

a reply to: KansasGirl

Try seeing if you can get her referred to physical/occupational therapy. They will be able to assess her and find out what's going on, and that's after the doctor makes sure there aren't any health issues. But the therapists will be able to isolate and target the areas she needs to work on and come up with specific exercises that will meet her where she is at to get her where she needs to be at.

a reply to: CopeLongCut

Hey I lost 20kg (around 40 pounds) after a pregnancy and lazyness. It was surprisingly easy. Expend more energy than you take in, plus expend some more. Now I'm 160cm@59kg.

First, I didn't change a lot in my diet but I used smaller plates and listened to my body feeling differentiating between not hungry anymore and no more room left. For me it was also eating the leftover from my daughter to not throw food away. Solved that by being more cautious about the portions and rather have her ask for more if she is still hungry.

Then I started jogging each day. Bicycle or jogging. After I lost the first 15kg I started training self defense again but then Corona hit. The most important thing is that you do it healthy. I wish you good progress and joy! Seeing results can get addicting so reflect on yourself and set yourself a realistic target.

a reply to: CopeLongCut

The journey begins with realizing that you are missing out on a ton of positive and helpful benefits from being a normal weight. That should be motivation enough, but most of the time it's not. The mind is a powerful tool and can be your number one enemy when approaching weight loss.

Some say eat once a day. Some say Intermittent Fasting.
I say do what works for you. Move more and eat less.
You have the strength and the will and I know you can do it.
No one will ever force you, until it's too late.

Don't ever let it be "too late".
There is your motivation.

It is also true what they say -- there is a point where it does actually start to feel good to exercise. You can begin to look forward to it instead of just always feeling like death warmed over. It is true that some things will always feel like physical challenge, but there will be pride in the accomplishment of meeting and overcoming that challenge which feels good.

It's really inspiring to read all of your stories (I read them all) - I truly wish I could follow your examples & steadily smash my weight back to the correct level. I'm not massive, but definitely way over ideal.. I weigh 17 stone (238 lbs) when my ideal weight is more around the 12-13 stone level (175 lbs) as a male at 5'11" with a fairly balanced lean/bulky muscle type.

It's ironic as I posted one of the two threads which inspired this particular thread - but I suffer from central pain syndrome, which afflicts me with frequently severe neuropathic, arthralgic & fibromyalgic pain (nerve, joint & muscle) on a literally constant basis. Every step causes significant pain. At one level I've learned to ignore the lower levels of pain (such as the pain in my hands & all fingers when typing this reply) - but the heavier stuff (such as the seriously agonising deep ache in my left hip & groin right now) is simply impossible to ignore. At this moment in time I also have neuropathic pain in my left leg, my right foot, my left arm, my lumbar spine & my cervical spine. I have muscle cramps & nociceptive/myoclonic spasms going off all the time.

What this has amounted to as the condition worsened, is that I find any activity, any attempt to mobilise, as extremely painful, and unfortunately I spend 90% of my time in bed as I can't even sit in a chair for more than 10 minutes without seriously medicating first. This is the worst it's been over the ten years I've had the worse symptoms (problems started in 2005) - the condition has been degenerating with step changes every few years. However, I'm determined to make a change, and I'll be working on a treadmill (purchased) to develop my general muscle tone in the lumbar, sacroiliac & hip regions, to reduce the number of joint sublux events which come with hyperalgesia lightning bolts (severe neuropathic shock) due to the joints slipping out of place/ cracking back into place at random.

I'm optimistic that maybe I can get the mobility up despite the pain, and I'm hopeful that I'll trim a bit of weight in this manner. My diet isn't great, there are definitely changes I can make & indeed I'd been trying to do so for a few weeks up until Christmas, but I lost my way a bit over the holiday season. Bearing in mind that the depressing fact of being stuck in bed most of the time has had me comfort eating quite often in the past. I've got a long way to go.

Knowing that quirky little fact about our bodies retaining the exact same number of fat cells through our adult life, with mass added to or subtracted from them depending on how we eat & exercise (the topic of my thread), has given me a bit of a boost, it's almost like the fear of runaway fat cell accumulation has receded somewhat with that knowledge & related potential insights.

I'm being assessed for a new type of spinal stimulation therapy too, which may have an amazing effect in reducing my pain experience, as it has been known to completely resolve severe neuropathic pain. If it works, you know I'll be out doing park-fit assault courses once the damn lockdown is over.

That is, if SkyNet doesn't launch an all-out transhumanist, dystopian nightmare, a war to end all wars, before then.

Stay frosty ATS..


Stay healthy ATS!