complex relation of exercise to UC flares

Hi all,

By doing searches, I see there have been some threads in the past on this. But it's a topic that doesn't get so much discussion, so I thought I'd add another based on my experience this spring.

Clearly, exercise can have real and important benefits for UC. Studies have shown this, I believe. But it also does seem, based on my own and others' experiences, that because of the immune system component, over-exertion can also lead to a flare. It's a delicate balance.

This spring I had an arm injury and had to stop my regular resistance exercises. As I gradually increased the amount I was doing with my arms in PT, I began adding some of my old leg/core exercises back in during the same sessions. The PT arm stuff had by that time gotten quite intense, and adding the other exercises on top of them seemed to trigger a flare.

Now, as I am fighting the flare off (with more rectal meds), I find that if I overdo it with the exercises, I have a bad day afterward, but if I do a more moderate workout, it creates immediate improvement. This has now happened multiple times and I don't think it's coincidence. (I was also a fanatical aerobics exerciser when first diagnosed in my 20s.)

I am someone who, more generally, will get cold symptoms the next day if I overexert myself. So I think that there is a way in which my immune system gets easily over-triggered by exercise. Does anyone else have this reaction?

Again, I want to stress here that an appropriately challenging but not too extreme workout is, I think, very beneficial for UC. But all this is suggesting to me that exercise may be a complex issue for (at least some) IBDers.

I can relate to this! After two years of heavy stress from my mothers dementia decline and then a 3 week intense stress as she passed, I went to get back on with my life and decided to go to a Piyo class. Thought it would be really easy as I’d done yoga for years, but OMG that class almost killed me and I was too self conscious to leave. That was a Saturday and Tuesday morning I woke up to bloody diarrhea and my eventual UC diagnosis. Probably a combo of the prolonged stress and the extreme (to me anyway) physical stress.

Hi Van, I’d be curious what the increasing of antioxidants looks like for you!

What does ROS stand for?

for example c vit cause me sometimes bowel problem....

I could never tell for sure. I used to be a marathon runner and even ran some ultras (50 miles once and once 68). I never flared after the marathons but did after both ultras. But I wasn't in solid remission back then either, and I also was sleep-deprived, skipped my rectal meds the days of those races, etc. And I was actually already mildly flaring before the 68 mile race but all hell broke loose shortly after. I remember getting flare symptoms while training heavily (lots of miles) as well but again, I was only on mesalamine back (with prednisone needed usually once or twice a year) then and rarely felt like I was in solid remissions. If I ever get back to running much now while on Xeljanz, it'll be interesting to see what happens. However, I don't know that I'll ever be able to run as much as I used to after all those years of steroids, considering I've now had 2 stress fractures in my foot just from walking.:/

I get cold symptoms sometimes the day after not getting enough sleep, which I always found odd.