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Muscly body and stiffness while in period


Hi everyone,

My name is Nada, I am 29 years old and I live in Australia. I have diagnosed with MC Thomsen since a young age. Everyone sees me think that I go to gym because I look muscly in my whole body. I look so fit and toned that some personal trainer envy me that they work so hard to get in muscly shape and i naturally have it lol

However, the struggle that I live in some periods of times, only people who have MC can understand it.
What I have noticed that every time I got my period, my muscles become stiffer and I find it hard to walk and do my daily activities, as well as that affect my speech, it is like something in my stomach is pulling my tongue inside which become hard to control my lips and jaw muscles.
This lasts during my period and for 5-7 days after it.
I am wondering what exactly happen during that time that my muscles reacts this way! Is there minerals that the body looses or what. I wish you could help me with any knowledge regarding that.
And if the ladies in the forum experienced that or only me.

Warming up and walking helps me. So after those days gone, i start to feel better and easily move. I just feel happy.

One more question:
Are all MC people have muscly body?

Thank you.

Type of Myotonia: Thomsen

Country: Australia

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

That's very common, Nada. Hormones have a significant effect on the function of the chloride ion channel. Also estrogen binds thyroid hormone which can affect your muscles. Most women are estrogen dominant around that time and it can take several days for the liver to metabolize the excess.

Exercise is one of the best ways to reduce excess estrogen which is probably why walking helped. Foods that help break down estrogen can also help including yogurt. citrus, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, nuts and eggs. Lean meat is okay, but avoid high fat meats. I would always eat a lot of salsa which acted as a mild diuretic and it relieved the myotonia.

It's important to avoid pesticides and foods packaged in plastics. If you microwave anything, use glass instead of plastic and avoid plastic wraps that contain plasticizers. These all mimic estrogen and can make the problem worse. Alcohol, especially beer, will have a stronger negative effect.

Another study showed that testosterone and progesterone also inhibit the activity of the chloride ion channel, so using those to counter estrogen does not help. The form of estrogen seems to be important - beta estradiol has much less of an impact.

If you can get your doctor to order a hormone panel on one of the days that you're worst, it might help you identify any that are out of balance. If it is low thyroid that is causing the stiffness to increase, then using some flax oil can release thyroid hormone from the binding protein and raise your temperature enough to alleviate the stiffness.

Jan



Type of Myotonia: Thomsen's

Country: US

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

Hi Jan,

I extremely appreciate your reply.
I will follow your advices and see how my body reacts. Would be amazing to observe how things change and find out ways to help us cope with Myotonia and learn more about our bodies.


Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
Much love and respect.
Nada

Type of Myotonia: Thomsen

Country: Australia

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

Just read your responses to periods and VBAC. I wish this site had been around years ago. I was officially diagnosed 23 years ago when my symptoms became much worse with pregnancy. prior to pregnancy and afterwards I also had worsening of symptoms at ovulation and menstruation. Tried to convince the doctors that there was a link between hormones and MC symptoms and they pooh-poohed the idea. One thing that did help was being treated by a kinesiologist (sp?)with adjustments and muscle manipulations and with a homeopathic supplement to increase liver function. That seemed to help even out the hormones. Old age helps too. Now that I am menopausal, my MC symptoms have lessened to the degree that I often forget I have it.

Type of Myotonia: Thomsens

Country: U.S.

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

Thank you Lena for sharing that. I agree with you about hormones and liver too. Here in Italy doctors only told me to try Mexiletina and stop. When i tell them that food change myotonia they don't believe me. I think there's connection between stomach/intestine and MC. Months ago when my stomach started getting worse for taking supplement with sorbitol/mannitol (sweeteners) my myotonia got really worse. I think there's more than mutation....so we can explane people with mutation without symptoms like my mother.
Sorry for my english.....i hope you understand. Mavi

Type of Myotonia: Myotonia Congenita

Country: Italy

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

You are doing much better in my language than I would do in yours so do not worry. About the same time as I went menopausal, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I cleaned up my diet, took out the sugars, and lost 30 lbs. This may account for some of my improvement of symptoms too. I know that years ago I read something about sugars being bad for myotonia. And for diabetic control, I know that sugar substitutes are also bad for your body in terms of the insulin and blood sugar reactions. I do not know if these are triggers but it might be good to eliminate them from the diet. Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

Type of Myotonia: Thomsens

Country: U.S.

Re: Muscly body and stiffness while in period

Lena, avoiding sugar (and high potassium foods) are the mainstay of my diet:

MC Diet

As long as I follow this I don't even notice that I have myotonia. That's after severe stiffness earlier in my life. The only thing now that sets it off is exposure to pesticides and herbicides or medications that affect electrolytes.

I did find that taking the supplement Acetyl-L-Carnitine allowed me to tolerate a little sugar occasionally. It is often prescribed for diabetics because it helps with insulin resistance and peripheral neuropathy. You can get it at any health food store.

Jan

Type of Myotonia: Thomsen's

Country: US