Muscle Atrophy in thighs and shins??

I had that happen, and it scared the heck out of me. I was asking myself, was the lyme actually "feeding" on my muscles?!! Seemed that way, although I did research I couldn't find anything answering this question, and I always forgot to ask my Dr!!

In my opinion, I was so weak, I couldn't use my muscles like I used to, so I just think they "wasted" away as time went on. I treated for 8 months and finished treatment in September of 2014. I started to exercise with weights again in January - and I have great news - I am growing them back! My biceps, calves, and thigh muscles are super strong. The only thing I still have to work on are my triceps. I was really fit before I got sick (thank God bc I don't know how much worse I would have been otherwise), so I am working my way back.

So I would say in your case, once you are well enough, you will be able to work towards getting strong again, but it is not an easy road. Maybe someone else will have different and better advice? so sorry you are going thru this, I know how tough it is.

I lost a lot of mass as well. I haven't tried to get it back yet but I believe I could. Muscle breaking down is acidic by nature and I don't want that level of acidity until my GI tract gets better.

It changes the chemical balance of muscle. Getting blood flowing again should help with the disturbed ATP muscle chemical process.

Try a foam roller, they help. I realize not everyone knows what these are, google it. All sporting good stores sell them.

Most of my muscle loss wasn't from inactivity.

Some was from quick weight loss...and then after that...I guess the lyme .

My leg muscles not only shrunk, but the muscle that was there was soft/flacid. I am exercising just about daily....and it's not firming up yet.
I guess it may be like this until I've irradicated more bugs..and then time to heal and rebuild.

Interesting Astro - Are your tendon issues - all because of lyme? Or have you some old injuries?

It is of my opinion that most of us have more issues than just borrelia. Muscle breakdown and regeneration is an acidic process and this can be one of the contributing factors to our problems.

When I was young, I was a math guy. (34 on ACT) In math, if you take the variables and put them into an equation, you get an answer. Body building/weight loss is the same. You have an equation and you put in the variables (what you eat and how you lift) and you get an answer. Health is exactly the same and I have been studying the equation for several years now. Unfortunately with health, there are a lot of variables. One of these variables is our acid load. Our body will do whatever is necessary to keep our blood pH at 7.4. If we deviate from this, we won't be around very long. Almost all of the food that we eat is some kind of acid. Even the good oils like EPA, DHA, coconut, olive, etc, they are all acids. They are good for us. But with Lyme, chronic inflammation causes excess quinolinic acid formation and the depletion of intracellular polyamines. IMO, this is extremely important because the pH in the synovial fluid and the pH in the extracellular spaces are buffered differently than they are in the kidney.

Acids in our body are simply hydrogen ions (a proton) depending on the pKa. If the periphery, one of the reactions is for acid to join an -OH (hydroxyl) either ionically to form water or covalently to form with a substance. When muscles breakdown in someone with chronic Lyme, I believe that there too many hydrogen and not enough hydroxyl groups. The pH of the synovial fluid and interstitial fluids drop. Since pH is measured on a logarithmic scale, a 0.1 drop is huge. This happens in cancer patients and in hyperglycemia and I correlate it to chronic infection patients. A drop in pH decreases the entire function of the body, Kreb Cycle, methylation, Kennedy Pathway, everything.

Polyamines play a major roll in they are the proteins that are directly responsible for the proliferation and hypertrophy of muscle. In a normal weight training person, they move freely into and out of the cell with the help of polyvalent substrates. In chronic infection patients, these substrates are depleted and can't reenter the cells. If you weight train too aggressively with chronic inflammation, muscle wasting can occur due to the inability of the polyamines to cross the cellular membrane. A happy medium must be found. When levels of inflammation decrease, then more aggressive training can resume.

If you'll notice, one day after working out heavily on your legs, your weight will go up. This is due to the inflammation and the excess water accumulation from the pH buffering.

Sorry if this is too technical, but there is really no way to dumb it down and you took 4 years of chemistry like I did. :)

It's not just borrelia causing acidic issues. I think when we get the borrelia bacteria, it makes our entire microbiome change. The bacteria in our GI tract change concentration and type and not for the better. Unless you have the bacterial GI set to handle the acid (var. lactobacillus species) then you have a greater chance of having a problem. When you weight train, you need more protein to regenerate the muscle. That protein is acidic.

I believe that unless you increase your levels of depleted cations in addition the correct GI flora, then yes, the problem will reoccur.

Borrelia doesn't break down muscle, but it can affect how the muscle regenerates and with aggressive weight training, you may not be able to recover from the inflammation. Aggressive weight training causes massive inflammation of the muscles.

GH's quote - "but it can affect how the muscle regenerates and with aggressive weight training, you may not be able to recover from the inflammation. Aggressive weight training causes massive inflammation of the muscles."

- for those readers who have not read much about lyme muscle recovery : many of the more detailed sore muscle posters/comments here in the past (last year), brought up slowed muscle recovery (days long), and the need to not over do it. So this seems pretty universally noticed in the "athletic" lyme community. This might not be so apparent in non athletic individuals who are not used to thier past muscle recovery patterns.
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Girlie- I used to get all kinds of repetetive motion injuries from simple things during the two decades of my varying lyme symptoms. I was also very athletic during that time period (endurance athletics, not stick and ball sports). No major injuries though.

Most hard core athletes are very stuborn and go over the limit no matter what. If you do this WITH lyme (it is possible, mind over matter + desire to win) , you pay the price in the long run. Plus pushing endurance lowers the immunes strength.

Girlie- another thing. Chronic lyme bacteria is said to hide from the immun system killer cells ect- which are in the blood. White tissue (tendons cartilage)has much less blood, as well as certain organs, so this is where the lyme hides out.