Do Hot Baths Make Your Symptoms Worse?

it may be adrenal issues as well..hot baths played me out when my adrenals were low

muscle weakness may be something like potassium..and the theory is you must have adrequate stpores of magesnium to be able to metabolize both calcium and potassium. Magnesium relaxes muscles and potassium and calcium work to do the reverse..make muscles be in a position to work

adrenals are said to be responsible for blood pressure, so people with low adrenals often get light headed when standing and feel better when laying down.ie this could be your heart thumping

I have Adrenal issues and because of it I also have Hypoglycemia ..If I take too hot of a bath that happens to me also.. I just make sure that the water is never above 98.0 ... I still do detox baths and they help alot just not with real hot water..... and when its real hot outside I have to stay inside where its cool .., I am hoping as the Lyme gets better the Adernal issue and the hypoglycemia will clear up as it is very annoying ...

few other adrenal tidbits and a great book is James Wilson Adrenal Fatigue

* you must treat adrenals before treating thyroid (low body temps) If you plan to treat both; otherwsie treating thyroid will crash adrenals..thats just how the body seems to work

* a good test is drs data, saliva test which measures cortisol 4 times during the day..you do need a dr or nurse practitioner to order. Its pretty cheap though, under $100

* treatments include everything from Hydrocortisone (r/x) to isocort to sometimes pregnenolone and progesterone helping...B5-Pantothetic Acid is also supposed to help

* salt water drinks in the am also help.a good organic sea salt. IN wilsons book, he says the cellular erlationship between potassium-sodiumm is I believe 14 or 16 to 1; and he suggests sodium as a way of balancing the cellular make up. he cautions against taking too much potassium especially in the am; and managing your blood sugar carefully. However i do think potasium is important as the RDA is 5 GRAMS which is the equivalemt of 10 bananasa or potatoes which not too may of us get as these are high sugar. I use a potassium choliride from purebulk which is very cheap

* protein is suggested for am meals...

* for me , HC-hydrocortisone was a life saver BUT Cutler in Amalgam Illness book says if you have high levels of yeast, Hydrocortisone can make it worse and not work..this is where i believe i am at now. Shoemaker says you cannot take if you have mold for possibly same reason as mold-yeast are similiar

The book is very good-by James Wilson

the adrenal cascade includes everything from dhea to testosterone

low testosterone is a problem for both men and women and is actually a feel good hormone. Most anti aging drs and soem hormone drs are aware of this and can precribe testosterone cream

its interesting and peculiar that your dhea is high...that may give you i am only guessing a similiar issue to high cortisol..Adrenal fatigue is primarily asociated with cortisol, but these hormoanl things can be comlicated for both men and women

my understnding is as follows
Cholesterol is the buildin block for all of these hormones below

A: pregneolone and progesterone create aldosterone, a hormone that is sort of like a mini me- cortisol

B: then cortisol is produced in the adrenal cascade

C: Then DHEA gets produced
I would google causes for high DHEA. and see if you can find a good hormonal specialist if funds permit

D Whats left over gets produced into testosterone and estrogen, with help from the ovaries and testes in pre-menopausal and pre andropausal women and men

D1: Both men and women as we get into our 40's often produce less testosterone and even worse, what testosterone is produced often gets turned into estrogen by too much of another hormone..cannot remember that one right now
You can block this conversion by taking one of two things
- DIM which is a concentrated supplement mix of cruciferous veggies..i do not do well with this supplememt
-OR you can take another supplement Calcium D Glucarate. I use source naturals and you can google this product to see the other glucordinization benefits (liver detoxing-phase 2) in cellular detoxing
so I would check your estrogen levels as this may be whats happening

D2: It may be a case of just not producing enough testosterone and super miraforte a herbal supplement is aid to help with this. Life extension has a good product I believe www.lef.org..great organization. Zinc also assists in the production testosterone and I believe potassium plays a role too. failing that a good ND or hormone dr should be able to prescribe some cream

as well, womens testosterone is primarily produced in the adrenals and ovaries, so some type of adrenal dysfunction is often associated with low testosterone in women. After menopause, testosterone gets produced in only in the adrenal glands,

In men testoterone is mostly produced in the testes, although not much reserach has been done to determine how a man's production is affected by andropause, the male equivalent of menopause

peeper; its most likely 1 of 2 things; low adrenals and/or low sulfation, the latter of which is a phase 2 liver detox function. You can google improving sulfation as a liver detox pathway

sulfation can be increases by supplementing with such things as molybdenum and glucosamine sufalte, magnesium sulfate. if you supplement any sulfates, start low as paradoxically takimng sulfates may cause a bit of a herx, even though you are low

laying down and feeling better/having things improve is often a sign of adrenal issues

the significance of your reaction would lead me to believe both were at play. i have gone through periods when epsom salts bath had this very bad reaction

adding sulfates is helpful in detoxing. MY NP suggetsed i eat epson salt sulfates for the sulfates when i was low, but that made me literally gag, which she said was a sign that i def was low in sulfates,

The sulfation detox pathway is said to balance cortisol, estrogen testosterone, bile acid and melatonin, so its a pretty important pathway

I think you guys are partially right about hot baths and the adrenals but don't forget that hot baths raise the body temperature and kill-off the organisms! The die-off will cause a herx too. It's the Lyme that has compromised the adrenals most likely so, you get rid of the Lyme, your whole adrenal and other HPA axis systems will recover on their own. I had/have low testosterone and high corisol but nothing supplemental seemed to work until I began to get a handle on the Bb load. In fact, testosterone supplementation (Androgel) almost whacked me out and bovine-based adrenal supps are many times contraindicated due to the extra strain in can cause on your system. I did start taking low dose DHEA a few months back...I am getting much better but I cannot say the DHEA helped as I did a multitude of things. The very BEST thing you can do for your adrenals is sleep - get to bed before 10 and sleep as long as you can in the AM. Generally, the malfunctioning adrenal system is caused by somethign else and not a problem with the adrenals themselves - therefore, trying to correct the adrenals may not work before you correct the causative problem - in this case, Lyme!

Here's my take on this issue.  I drove myself crazy (as if I wasn't crazy enough) trying to figure out what caused what before I knew I had lyme and even after.  I really thought I had adrenal problems and even bought a book on it.  However, I didn't.  Lyme will do unbelieveable things to your body.  It is a whole body infection.  Think of strep throat is to the throat what lyme is to the whole body.  It is constantly trying to do its regular jobs of regulating every system in our body at the same time as it is trying to fight the infection and it doesn't multitask well. 

The nervous system is greatly affected which is in charge of regulating body temperature which is why heat and cold will bother you.  Your adrenals are working overtime but that doesn't mean you have adrenal issues.  My stress hormones were so through the roof they thought I had an adrenal tumor which I did not.  It was my body's way of saying - whoa slow down, there is too much going on. 

You have to detox.  There is just no way around it if you want to get well.  So you have to take it easy at the same time.  That's my take and what worked for me.  Hope it helps. 

Hi jr991,

People with lyme should "not" take hot baths.. The bath should just be warm and it's really healthy to add the epsom salts and hydrogen peroxide to rid your body of toxins..  Dry skin brushing before the bath is important as well to get rid of the dead skin that is keeping the toxins inside...  Our skin is our largest living organ..

I hope this helps!

Denise

this is an excellent thread

Yes, I feel worse the next couple of days if it is truly a hot bath. I tend to sweat in the bath, then shower off. I actually feel better than night, then mega joint pain/fatigue/neuro symptoms the next couple of days. I'm assuming it's die-off. I feel the same way when I work out and break a sweat. Personally, I feel it's helpful to kill off some of the bacteria. In our society we sit a lot, and we're not supposed to. So, I like to detox through sweating as I would before the technology age.

You need to read the lyme guidelines for detoxing. The baths shouldn't be much warmer than body temperature. For one thing, the heat increases your heart rate, and decreases your blood pressure.

You also shouldn't stay in it longer than 20 minutes. Noone with fibromyalgia or Lyme should take hot baths, especially if you have orthostatic hypotension.

And yes, there is a die-off reaction.

SLML, I'm glad it worked for you. I like ginger tea in the bath.

Margaret