It takes a lot of energy to make energy
Treating patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue syndrome can be at best daunting, at worst depressing.
There are many, many root causes involved in both these conditions.
But at the heart of both and indeed arguably all health conditions are inefficient mitochondria.
The number one source of free radicals/oxidative stress is your metabolism.
You have to burn glucose (or ketones if you are on a ketogenic diet) within the mitochondria to produce ATP.
This is essentially a breaking of bonds, which releases electrons.
Hence the last part of the energy cycle is called the electron transport chain (ETC).
Not only will inefficient mitochondrial producing free radicals make you tired, but the subsequent oxidative damage will also produce sustained low-grade inflammation.
And the second biggest cause of oxidative’s damage is…… inflammation.
And this sets up a vicious cycle drives many chronic conditions.
Now whenever possible I’m all about getting at the root causes of the system imbalance, which is producing symptoms.
However, sometimes patients want to feel better quickly and in some patients, we simply can’t resolve the root cause of their issues.
Therefore we need to put in place palliative care.
Enter D-Ribose.
When we have enough glucose and oxygen to make ATP and we can recycle it efficiently from ADP back to ATP we are in good shape.
But if we are low in the nutrients or high in toxins this can be compromised and we end up low in ATP.
So we have to find an alternative supply.
We could use glucose to make D-ribose and that becomes a new ATP very quickly.
But it takes 1-4 days to happen (via the pentose phosphate shunt if anyone is nerdy enough to care).
So the only other alternative in the short term is to turn glucose into lactic acid and make a meagre 2 ATP’s as a byproduct.
Plus in order to recycle lactic acid back into glucose, it requires 6 ATP’s, leaving us between a rock and a hard place with some seriously sore and weak muscles.
So we can use D-Ribose at 15 grams daily (5 grams x3 is best as it’s in and out quite quick).
I use it for CFS/Fibromylagia type patients, some athletes plus I use it personally for exercises to reduce DOMS.
There are also some supplements with D-Ribose aimed at heart issue patients to increase the output of the cardiac muscle.
It certainly not a cure and it’s not the cheapest supplement.
But for some patients, they can use it to get through days/events that will ordinarily be beyond them and that for some can be an amazing thing.
D-ribose is available on www.naturaldispensary.co.uk via Cytoplan, Biotics and others.
In other news…..I have been happily making sprouted seeds and beans with the “Easy Sprouter” via https://happykombucha.co.uk/
I’ve used tray sprouters in the past and because they are open to the air completely they tend to dry out which means rinsing the seeds twice daily.
The Easy Sprouter has a convection thing going on and whilst you can rinse very easily daily if wanted, you don’t need to.
Seriously low input and high output.
After a few days, viola.
Sprouts bursting with nutrients, anti-oxidants and enzymes.
Action to take today:
Buy some D-Ribose and try it for yourself. Take 5 grams before a hard workout and see how you feel during and the days after.
Buy an Easy Sprouter and get sprouting.
https://happykombucha.co.uk/
Buy a copy of Dr Sarah Myhill’s book – It’s mitochondria not hypochondria
As always, don’t waste those valuable adjustments.
Speak soon
Simon