Ray9

Retired three years ago at 68. Decided to ride 360 miles per week. I was afraid I would lose muscle mass so I went to failure on biceps, triceps and chest seven days a week. Lost 35 pounds and lost some muscle mass anyway. I got subsurface bleeding on both forearms and went to doctor. BP was 112/49. Blood tests all normal. I take Amlodipine 5m and supplement that with a single beetroot capsule in the morning. The Doc says maybe I should discontinue the beetroot. I have modified my workout to every other day at two sets of 25 reps instead of 100 plus like I was doing before. Anyone else had this issue?

cb400bill

Ray9

Thanks, Ray

Cuyuna

Senile purpura / actinic purpura. Capillary fragility making forearms and maybe legs more susceptible to intradermal bleeding from relatively minor trauma. I don't know about the beet root, but if you take a daily low-dose aspirin, that could be a contributing factor. Mostly, it's just part of being 68. If that's what you have, it's not dangerous, just unsightly. Some things you can try.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605207/



...

Ray9

Thank you for that informative article. I conclude that I should talk to a dermatologist not a hematologist. I don't want to get old but it's hard avoiding it. I had gall bladder surgery a year ago and I need to research if that may have affected my body's ability to absorb vitamin K. Right now the spots fade and go away eventually. I've had reflux for years and though I take no prescription meds for it, I eat Pepcid, which is loaded with calcium, like candy.
My blood pressure is in the ideal range and all I can do is address all the risk factors I have control over. Aging is a risk factor I have little control over.

Ray9

It’s getting cooler, darker and wetter. Another cycling season in New England is coming to a close. I’ve already started walking two miles on the treadmill in the gym and soon it will increase to three miles at three miles an hour, a brisk pace. I can’t run because I have an inguinal hernia that will eventually need surgery. I’ll be 72 in March and age is gaining on me.Because I started running in 1973 my skin has been exposed to solar and cosmic radiation and I never wore sunscreen until about ten years ago. I now have “easy bruising” on one forearm known as solar purpura. After comprehensive blood tests it has been determined that I am healthy with no pathology or immune disease. Luckily I wore sunglasses from the beginning so I have no cataracts. My blood pressure was 112/49 in the doctor’s office and she said not to stop doing what I do because the benefits outweigh the risks. I appear to most people to be about 50 years old.I moderated my upper body work in the gym to every other day and cut my reps in half. I also have a wife which probably contributes to health at least as much as any lifestyle choice. I use a floor pump to inflate my tires to 115 psi and if I didn’t work out that might be an issue.I transitioned to the bicycle in 1983 after experiencing stress fractures and minor disk herniations and as with running did plenty of racing which I no longer do. I’ve broken both collar bones twice, broken an elbow, a leg, my nose, destroyed expensive eye ware and have legs scarred with decades of road rash and have had seven concussions. No regrets-well maybe the concussions. I have a seated recumbent bike with back support that I ride in the winter and it works well while it lets my saddle sores heal. I am 5’5 and weigh between 135 and 140 lbs. When I go the store to buy jeans they slip right on with a 30 inch waist. One of my high school mates said I look like a kid on the bike until you see the whiskers. Please tell youngsters to wear a helmet, sunscreen and sunglasses and to enjoy the bicycle because a bicycle is a beautiful thing. Stay to the right and keep rolling.

jon c. 

I now seem to develop significant bruising on my arms and hands from only the most minor of contusions. Often I don't even notice what caused it. I also seem to now bleed very readily from the most minor of cuts. Working in the yard it's not uncommon for me to realize my hand or arm is bleeding from a small cut I never felt. Fortunately I always wear old pants when doing yard work so it doesn't matter much if they wind up with blood all over them. My doctor seems unconcerned, feeling it's not really abnormal for a 60 year old.

Cuyuna

I've never heard of a cholecystectomy-mediated vitamin K deficiency and doubt that it's a factor. It would be easy enough to measure with a simple prothrombin time or INR and it wouldn't be unreasonable to make sure that your platelet count is appropriate. Your intradermal bleeding is far more likely to be about capillary fragility in your aging, sun-damaged skin, not vitamin K. If you take daily low-dose aspirin, that could contribute by impairing platelet aggregation that would normally quickly stop bleeding from such minor capillary trauma, but your purpuric lesions don't have anything to do with blood coagulation (where vitamin K is involved).

If I was your physician, I'd be FAR more worried about your reflux disease than the purple blotches on your skin.

Ray9

I had an endoscopy with my colonoscopy in 2007 and no evidence of damage or deterioration was found in my esophagus. I take medication for reflux for three weeks just twice a year and use Pepcid. I watch my diet and avoid foods that give me reflux. I have been toying with idea of Human growth Hormone but it is really only effective if administered by injection. When I ride I know that the Grim Reaper is in the pack and I am in the breakaway.

Cuyuna

11 years ago.

I do 1000 endoscopies a year. This graph is in my mind every single day. 60-75 year old men with reflux who eat Pepcid like candy are the prime demographic.

McBTC

Heard about, old age spots, for years... if you search the web for that term you turn up articles about sun exposure. I started wearing white sleeves when riding and I think it's made a difference. Getting poked by bushes working around the garden seems to be a risk factor too-- not sure why...

Carbonfiberboy 

Wrong. Aging is a risk factor over which you have a great deal of control.

I also have senile purpura / actinic purpura, which just really showed up when I was 72. Thankfully this thread appeared just in time, like so frequently happens on BF. I read the above link and others and bought DerMend on Amazon. Yes, it's a bit expensive, but I tried it anyway. I probably started with it on 9/23, using it once a day. Bingo, my blood spots which I've had for a month are almost gone and my forearms look 60 instead of 70. Pretty good result.

I've also had a tendency for reflux for some years. Get thee to a doctor immediately. (after seeing the doctor) . . . Best treatment I've found: no or almost no alcohol. No or almost no cannabis. Nothing which might tend to relax your muscles. Chew a deglycyrrhizinated licorice root (DGL) tab 20 minutes before every meal (vitacost.com). Sleep on 2 pillows, ramped to get your head and shoulders a little elevated. Have a glass of water by your bedside and take a drink from it every time you wake up in the night. OTC at the pharmacy: omeprazone 20mg. Take one 14 day course as directed, no more. I never take an antacid. For one thing, all that calcium is bad for you. For another, you're just masking the problem.

Edit: Looking at that graph, I suspect diet might have a lot to do with reflux. I eat almost no fried foods, no meat other than fish. I eat mostly legumes, vegetables, and whole grains, with whey protein for more of that macro. I'd rather eat more fish instead of the whey, but it's out of my budget.

Giacomo 1 

Wow. I'm floored by that workout schedule and cycling mileage!

Sorry, but your not building or even maintaining muscle mass like that. Your just continually breaking down your muscles. To build mass, you must lift heavier with less reps. And 3 days in the gym is enough. I'm quite sure you would see better results at only 2 days a week in the gym with less reps, more weight. At our older age it takes more time to recover and its during recovery that we build mass.

Cuyuna

Omeprazole is just masking the problem too. It doesn't stop reflux, it only changes the nature of what you're refluxing and isn't protective against esophageal cancer in people with GERD.

Carbonfiberboy 

Then why did my reflux cease after about the 7th day of omeprozole, and why would my doctor have prescribed it? Perhaps because of this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1397745

Cuyuna

Omeprazole is a very effective drug. It controls your symptoms by decreasing the amount of acid in your stomach. Decreasing symptoms is generally a good thing, but you are still refluxing bile salts and other digestive enzymes. It addresses the symptoms of reflux, but doesn't address the reflux. Omeprazole therefore doesn't mitigate your risk of esophageal cancer, and according to this paper, it may actually increase it. https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...687?via%3Dihub .

The cause of reflux is failure of the lower esophageal sphincter (reflux barrier) to keep stomach contents out of the esophagus. Omeprazole doesn't address that.

Carbonfiberboy 

There's a lot of disagreement over that paper. Your statements do not reflect current physician practice in treating reflux. In any case, I didn't recommend long-term use of omeprazole. The thing to do is to get it stopped and allow the sphincter to heal.

McBTC

Beetroot is a blood thinner...

Tusk

As one that suffers from GERD induced dysphagia, which is controlled by rounds of OTC Nexium as instructed by the MD, this concerns me. And it begs the question: what does address it?

Cuyuna

I think you have some very significant gaps in your understanding of GERD, and what current physician practice is.

Ray9

I went out last night and felt great. My legs were like stallions! My lungs expanded fully and easily delivered oxygen through blood conduits to my muscles. My mind was clear and focused and I seemed to glide on a cloud as I rode chasing the wind and listening to the hypnotic hum of the chain as it directed the gears to gift me a mechanical advantage that allows me to exert a force on the physical world. I rode an extra hour and had to turn on my taillight. People who don't do this on this level have no idea what they are missing., I should have used sunscreen;I don't what I could have done about the reflux.

Carbonfiberboy 

Au contraire, mon ami:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1936305/ That last qualification is the reason a reflux sufferer needs to see a doctor. Read and make an appointment: https://www.consumerreports.org/drug...for-heartburn/

Carbonfiberboy 

See post 22. Maybe see a specialist, like a gastroenterologist.

Ray9

We get old. Our organs are wear items. If there is a way to reverse aging they are not sharing it with us. I'm still toying with HGH. I'll have to get some doctor to inject me with it because the pills are ****. Lance Armstrong may have been ahead of his time,

Tusk

Initial complaint was to my general practitioner. Referred to the gastroenterologist who ordered a Barium swallow for initial diagnosis. Then came an endoscope, which revealed erosion and scarring treated with a round of acid suppressing prescriptions (pantoprazole I think). Refill denied by insurance but authorized after script from GP for another round (Omeprazole? I'd have to check).

I was hoping that Cuyuna would have some additional insight on an alternative prevention as I don't like being tied to the little purple pill. Someone that performs 1000+ endoscopes a year must have greater knowledge on the subject than I do.