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- So I think lifestyle options again,
not specific necessarily to polymyositis,
but certainly including it, is that often these
effect the people in the prime of their life.
And so, lifestyle becomes one of self care.
Frequently, people who are working jobs
with stressful hours, long hours, I sometimes do ask
them to take a break to take care of themselves.
Most people can remain employed and have a wonderful
quality of life, but it often is a conversation
to have a reality check, realizing that there
may be some time off and needing to care for
ones self more than usual.
I find that patients really report a lot of
fatigue and decreased muscle endurance.
And I think it takes a little bit of time
to know ones body and to be able essentially to
titrate the amount of activity
really for the lack of a better word that you do
based on what you've learned from the previous
day and the previous week.
So I think lifestyle becomes one that's tailored to you
that you figure out on a day to day, trial and error basis.
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People always ask about diet and autoimmune disease,
and I think that really sad part about it
is that diet is underappreciated in general, in health.
And physicians are not always trained
to concentrate on diet.
I would say that's one of the number one questions
I get asked by patients, and really what the literature
would say is that we don't know.
I think that it probably goes without saying,
that common sense is to avoid processed foods,
to have a whole foods approach, and to try maintain
normal weight; particularly in muscle diseases.
The reason that weight control is important
is not only that one is actually carrying around
a lot of weight and it's hard when your
muscles are effected and you're weaker,
but also that there's a fair amount of research
that shows that every little fat cell is actually
an inflammatory cell unto itself.
So with any weight loss, you're likely reducing
you inflammatory burden.
So I think the main tenets of diet are
whole foods, decrease processed foods,
and try to maintain a normal weight.
People ask often about protein.
Whether protein is good for the muscle.
In general, protein keeps you full and is probably
a reasonable source of calories and energy,
but again, there's no specific studies
that focus on the composition of diet and polymyositis,
or really other autoimmune diseases to a great extent.
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Yeah, I think people ask a lot about what was
called alternative medicine not too long ago,
and now is called complementary medicine,
which I think is a better term because I think
that we can each learn from each other
in those disciplines where allopathic or traditional
medicine can certainly learn from
our counter parts in holistic health.
Acupuncture is helpful for some.
Once again, this is not studied rigorously,
but empirically many people find it helpful
to reduce the tension in the muscle
or just overall have a feeling of balance and feeling well.
As far as supplements, some people take creatine
which is a muscle enhancing supplement.
Again, there really is not a whole lot of data
that says it's helpful but there's relatively little harm.
And so I usually tell patients if they want to try it,
to give themselves a three month trial.
I think the last supplement that's worth
discussing is Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is general deficient in so many Americans,
and that's for a variety of reasons,
like wearing sunscreen appropriately,
probably not having as much sun exposure,
and that we don't get a lot from food sources.
Vitamin D probably has a unique component
in the muscle because some of the receptors
for Vitamin D actually lie in the muscle.
So it's a unique thought that optimizing Vitamin D
may in fact help muscle strength,
however again it hasn't been studied rigorously just yet.
So I guess the last things that I would say
regarding lifestyle are that self care
is such an important part of healing.
And I think beyond medicines which have some side effects,
one needs to care for themselves holistically.
Massage, meditation, and really just taking
a holistic approach, in addition to the medications
your doctors may prescribe, is an incredibly
important part of not only fighting the disease,
but doing that by getting well.
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