Have any of you noticed that being well-hydrated makes your flares worse? I recently made a good attempt at being better hydrated, because I tend not to get enough liquids. And during that time, my flares got noticeably worse. Sure enough, when I lowered my fluid intake back to not-really-enough, the flares calmed back down a bit to where they were before.
Just thought I'd bring this up as a discussion point since it had such an obvious effect on me. I'd guess higher fluid intake opens up the vessels and thins the blood, leading to worse flares. Obviously, I cannot sabotage the rest of my health (go thirsty) to ease the flares, so this is just another balancing act in the circus that is EM.
Thoughts? Experiences? Science?
Also, if you know any good jokes, feel free to share those too.
Hi Libby, with me it makes no difference how much or even what I drink (except alcohol, haven't tried that yet). But I assume you are talking about drinking water - so either something strange is in your water or maybe you should try it again. If it happened only once it may have been a coincidence. I have never heard that water intake opens the blood vessels or thins the blood. As a matter of fact I think thinner blood would cause less problems than thicker blood.
Can't think of a good joke right now but I think what I have to do is funny - a back problem is helped a lot by putting a heating pad on it and my bottom part gets too hot in the evenings - so sometimes I sit in my computer chair on a gel ice pack with the heating pad on my back.
Wow! That's unfortunate! I haven't noticed because I have always been thirsty (and dry skinned), so I always have water close by. But maybe its the overall increase of volume of fluid in the blood vessels, making the pooling or whatever it turns out to be, even worse. I'm not even going to try backing off water to see if I get the same effect. Thirst puts me in the red zone.
I tend to agree. The last 3 weeks I have been VERY hydrated. And the last 3 weeks the evening flares have been especially bad. And the possibility of an afternoon flare has come back. And the length of time to get my feet down in the morning has been especially long. Yes, I believe good hydration causes my EM to be worse. Of course, it could be just an EM cycle and tomorrow the cycle will change. But 3 weeks is not 1 or 2 days.
I'm ALWAYS thirsty, but usually dehydrated. When the hospital rehydrates me it always makes things worse so i know exactly what you are talking about. Things that are good for the rest of the world are usually not for us :(
Hi Domina. It is well known that dehydration constricts vessels (leading to cold extremities), so I think it stands to reason that sudden increased hydration would open them up, worsening EM symptoms. I live in a metropolitan high-rise, so the chances of my water containing "something strange" (that affects only me, to boot) are quite low. I have also lived in 3 different regions of the States since developing my EM symptoms. I will be trying this hydration exercise again to confirm my experience. Since EM is so different for every sufferer, I would not expect 100% of respondents to have the same experience that I did, and I am glad to hear that you haven't had this happen.
Domina said:
Hi Libby, with me it makes no difference how much or even what I drink (except alcohol, haven't tried that yet). But I assume you are talking about drinking water - so either something strange is in your water or maybe you should try it again. If it happened only once it may have been a coincidence. I have never heard that water intake opens the blood vessels or thins the blood. As a matter of fact I think thinner blood would cause less problems than thicker blood.
Thanks for the info Libby - didn't know that about dehydration - I am usually putting away at least 5 glasses of water a day, that's why I never really thought about it.