Walking More Enjoying It Less
Question: I had polio when I was 8 months old, it affected my right leg. More than 50 years later, I have started to feel the effects of PPS. I wear a brace on my right leg. I have stopped the kickboxing classes I used to do, and started water aerobics. It worked okay for a while but wasn't enough cardio and I gained 10 lb. I have started walking more and am using a stationary row machine.
My left leg (good leg) has started to get very muscular (calf areas mostly) and is often very stiff and painful. I can hardly stand on it sometimes. I have been using, biofreeze, magnesium and massage therapy, but nothing seems to help. Any thoughts?
Dr. Bruno’s Response: Your body is telling you that walking more and using a stationary rowing machine are over stressing the remaining polio-affected neurons in your left leg. Yes, I said left leg.
You may think that your "good leg" was not affected by the polio. But remember that polio survivors needed to lose 60% of the motor neurons in a given muscle for there to be any weakness at all. So your "good" left leg could have lost more than half of its motor neurons to polio and still have normal strength. The fact that your left leg is getting very muscular in the calf shows that you are increasing the size of muscle fibers as a result of your exercising. Bigger fibers are a problem because the bigger the muscle fiber the more work poliovirus-damaged motor neurons have to do to make the fiber contract, which leads to more "overuse abuse" of the already damaged neurons.
My thoughts are to stop the damaging exercise, look at the Post-Polio diet to lose weight and in general “Conserve to Preserve” your remaining poliovirus - damaged motor neurons.
To start with, take a look at these 2 articles:
• Exercise - Use It and Lose It and
• Post-Polio Protein Power: Eat Well, Be Well
Look in the Index of the Encyclopedia of Polio and PPS under the topics of “Diet” and “Exercise” for more
information that can help.