[jackjitsu]

This is truly a crazy big month for me, not only did I receive my brown belt, but after 9 years of struggling with chronic fatigue, I believe I have beaten my chronic fatigue syndrome. 4 years after giving up on doctors and researching everything I could get my hands on like a friggen Dr House, I put the complex puzzle together and solved it, just in time for my brown belt.

For those who dont know my story, I started taking Gracie Jiu Jitsu as a "jump in the frying pan" last ditch effort to get healthy. I was truly desperate. My chronic fatigue had gotten so bad, that simply getting out of bed in the morning took me 10 minutes of mental effort to get me pysched up enough to just try standing. Every morning felt like someone had injected me with drugs to keep me paralyzed. Once I got up and showered, the mere exertion of showering sent me stumbling back into bed for another 2 hours. No, I was not doing crossfit and 400 burpees in the shower This all seems like a bad dream to me now.

I had reached the point where I knew I would not be able to hold a job and would need to go on disability. I had tried everything. EVERYTHING. Saw a ton of docs of all different specialties (endocrinologists, cardiologists, sports docs, GP's, gastroenterologists, etc ), not one of them even got remotely close to diagnosing me correctly.

Finally, after being an early UFC fan, and a person mesmerized by the magic Royce Gracie performed in the first UFC's, I discovered there was a Gracie Barra school right up the road from me. This is where I met DirtyRancher, a long time forum member here.

Jiu Jitsu for me was a living hell, but I loved it. This school didnt have just a warm up, it had a conditioning session before technique and rolling. I could not survive it. I would puke and go home at first. After many weeks I could make it to technique, and get a roll in. I could do one class a week, and it would take my body a full week to recover before I could go back to class. I would feel like death that entire week day and night. It was torture. I puked most classes for 9 months, and then got my blue belt. I was sickly, but had a knack for jiu jitsu that made up for my condition. I even competed a few times getting gold and silver as a white belt, and bronze as a brand new blue belt. But although jiu jitsu was helping me heal, getting me stronger, I was also slooowly getting worse.

Along the way I figured out I was hypothyroid (at least 10 docs missed this), and solved that issue which helped a LOT, but I was still not normal. I would have better days, and about once every three months I would experience a day I would feel completely normal. It was a horrible tease and a glimmer of hope. I could train 2X a week and required the rest of the week days to recover. Days which I wasnt training I was in constant complete exhaustion.

Finally... a few months ago I made the break through and put the puzzle pieces together when I came across a curious medical case study of a division one wrestler that would come down with fatigue after work outs, and would even pass out and hit the floor. Docs figured out he had a form of orthostatic intolerance, an autonomic system disorder. Some of his symptoms matched mine, not perfectly, but that was the clue I needed.

Diving into research I found a similar disorder that matched my symptoms better. Neurally Mediated Hypotension. Your body flushes out way too much salt which lowers your blood volume. People with this issue typically are 1/5th low on blood. One of the main symptoms is exercise induced fatigue caused by having low blood volume. When you exercise the veins of the arms and legs dilate, and blood pools there making less available to other parts of your body, like the brain and organs. If you are already 1/5th low on blood, this wreaks havoc. Since your brain is not getting enough oxygen you are effectively hypoxic which causes brain fog, memory issues, and just basically makes you feel terrible. Your body cant recover because there isnt enough blood to flow around. Your heart races like crazy trying to keep your blood pressure up, but it cant. This would last for 3 days after exercise. Imagine doing jiu jitsu with a 1/5th of your blood missing every day. That also explained why I was so pale after training and my girlfriend would tell me I had a blue tint. That has been my entire jiu jitsu career to date.

Fortunately, there is a drug that addresses this issue which I started to take. Its been one month of consistent energy and no fatigue crashes now. Mind blown. Yesterday I was put through the ringer and rolled longer than ive ever rolled before. My instructor told me, you rolled HARD today, if you dont crash tomorrow you are officially cured. I looked at him and said, im confident I wont crash tomorrow (I could feel the normality).

Next week is literally the FIRST TIME I will ever get to train jiu jitsu as a normal healthy person.
My fatigue has prevented me from ever getting "into shape". I believe im capable of that now
Jiu jitsu literally saved my life. It kept me healthy long enough to find the cure before I gave up.

So if you ever come across some young athletic guy who is about to wash out from jiu jitsu, tell him: STFU AND TRAIN.

[BJJMark95]

You the man Jack! Defiantly want to try to plan a trip to come train with you as soon as I get back from the UK. Or if you feel like a vacation you will have a place to stay in Scotland Gotta break in that new belt of yours

[jackjitsu]

Hell yeeees. Got a spare room. Come see the NC lakes.... we'll take the boat out with some jiu jitsu guys.

[BJJMark95]

Look a like I got my early summer trip planned!

[BigCP84]

Amazing story Jack, thanks for sharing!

[TornadoChicken]

This is truly amazing sir. I packed my Gi as soon as I finished reading your story. HAHA!

Hope you don't mind. But I posted your entire post on my Judo teams page on facebook. To inspire the younglings. The purists [our dojo is 62 years old] would be pissed at me again for "advocating" BJJ but this time screw it.. I'll take the beating.

If you're ever in the mood for some tropical adventure go to the Philippines. And train w/ us at Atos. I'm just a white belt but it would truly be an honor to train w. you sir.

[jackjitsu]

Thank you sir.

[ThinAirDesigns]

As someone who has been friends with Jack from well before he found bjj and knew this story, it still brought tears to my eyes.

I love you man and am so proud of you for never giving up. You are an inspiration and I am so happy for your recent success.

Thank you so much for being my friend.

JB

[jackjitsu]

Thank you brother

For the record... ThinAirDesigns was a hang gliding g0d back in the day (at one point the fastest in the WORLD) and was my personal friend and hang gliding mentor. He is now a newish BJJ white belt, and I have the awesome opportunity to reverse roles and be his BJJ mentor How f-ing cool is that???!!?!?

It only took me 8 years to get him to try BJJ Now...NOW he's hooked

[Rincewind]

Inspring as always Jack.

Thank you for all you have done for the people around here.

[buhriyon]

That was an awesome story, makes me think of how easy Ive got it, and that I should get my ass in gear.

[bonestar]

Awesome man, much props and respect!

[Growler]

[muttonwar]

Amazing, Good job dude. I love this sport.

[fenris9]

This is a mixed blessing for me. I love Jack and he's one of my best friends and training partners but the only chance I ever had in rolls with him was his fatigue. I'm well and truly F*&#ed now!
Time to start hiding a taser in my gi

[relax]

Awesome

[jackjitsu]

[PotownAl]

Well done sir!

...and your story is amazing. Here I sit complaining about my swollen ear and sore back, while you've made it all the way to Brown belt with a serious condition like that. You're an inspiration man.

[joshgates81]

WOW!

doctors sure are usless sometimes!

I've been trying to find the cause of my lowered immune system causing near constant fungal infections for 4 years.
To hear that you finally found a cure for your ailment after so many hard years being affected on the mats and spending so long searching for the cure, gives me hope.

so happy for you jack!
thanks so much for such a high quality forum!
and Congrats on your brown belt!
wear it with pride!

[jackjitsu]

Josh, pubmed is your friend

Also, try this site: http://symptoms.rightdiagnosis.com/

Spend some time learning how to use the filters.
Filter very loosely, then independently research every single "hit" you come up with.

I constantly searched pubmed, google and used the rightdiagnosis site to come up with yet another hypothesis.

I would also search medical issue forums for people who had whatever issue I was researching. So for example, I suspected I might have celiac disease, so I would read the celiac forums to see if peoples experiences matched mine. *OFTEN*, I would find people who wrote in detail what it was like to have issue X,Y,Z, that was far FAR more detailed than the medical literature. That is where I picked up clues and slowly zoomed in on the issue.

I would also google search on the symptom to find forums and forum posts from sick people to see what they had so I could come up with a list of potential issues. The problem with "fatigue" was, it overlaps with fricking eveeerrrything.


I was freaking out for a long time when researching my issue because the #2 thing that correlated with my issues was heart valve problems Was constantly crossing my fingers that I didnt have a jiu jitsu ending issue like that.

Apparently my heart is just fine, because if I had any kind of issue, I surely would have died during that roll this saturday