Alex Tarnava

He had crushing fatigue. I had also central nervous system fatigue. So basically I Went from being able to do like 20 bar muscle-ups unbroken to I couldn't do a chest apart or a 54 inch plyometric box jump to I couldn't get airtime I couldn't jump an inch off the ground with both feet Wow And I couldn't sprint, do anything that was explosive and reactive.

But my slower movements, like my deadlift, my squat, my bench press, were completely unaffected. My strength was normal. Wow. Right? In addition, I had very high markers of inflammation. C-reactive protein. My C-reactive proteins were about 100 times abnormal. Wow. They were, you know, 34 milligrams a liter. Wow. At its peak.

But my slower movements, like my deadlift, my squat, my bench press, were completely unaffected. My strength was normal. Wow. Right? In addition, I had very high markers of inflammation. C-reactive protein. My C-reactive proteins were about 100 times abnormal. Wow. They were, you know, 34 milligrams a liter. Wow. At its peak.

But my slower movements, like my deadlift, my squat, my bench press, were completely unaffected. My strength was normal. Wow. Right? In addition, I had very high markers of inflammation. C-reactive protein. My C-reactive proteins were about 100 times abnormal. Wow. They were, you know, 34 milligrams a liter. Wow. At its peak.

Yeah, I mean, usually you might spike to, yeah, one to three when you're sick, when you have a cold or the flu or something. Right. Most healthy people are below 0.5. Right. Right. Like if you're metabolically healthy. You know, if you have chronic inflammation, you start trending up. But for a 29-year-old in the shape I was in, I should have been below 0.5, below 0.3.

Yeah, I mean, usually you might spike to, yeah, one to three when you're sick, when you have a cold or the flu or something. Right. Most healthy people are below 0.5. Right. Right. Like if you're metabolically healthy. You know, if you have chronic inflammation, you start trending up. But for a 29-year-old in the shape I was in, I should have been below 0.5, below 0.3.

Yeah, I mean, usually you might spike to, yeah, one to three when you're sick, when you have a cold or the flu or something. Right. Most healthy people are below 0.5. Right. Right. Like if you're metabolically healthy. You know, if you have chronic inflammation, you start trending up. But for a 29-year-old in the shape I was in, I should have been below 0.5, below 0.3.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And my roommate got really sick at the time, too, and it hit him different. He actually had to go to the hospital a couple of times with pneumonia. Right. And this was a guy who was, you know, top three and triathlons and Spartan races. So, again, he was a super fit, healthy 29 year old that got taken out by by whatever hit us.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And my roommate got really sick at the time, too, and it hit him different. He actually had to go to the hospital a couple of times with pneumonia. Right. And this was a guy who was, you know, top three and triathlons and Spartan races. So, again, he was a super fit, healthy 29 year old that got taken out by by whatever hit us.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And my roommate got really sick at the time, too, and it hit him different. He actually had to go to the hospital a couple of times with pneumonia. Right. And this was a guy who was, you know, top three and triathlons and Spartan races. So, again, he was a super fit, healthy 29 year old that got taken out by by whatever hit us.

It's just he didn't get the autoimmune response like I did.

It's just he didn't get the autoimmune response like I did.

It's just he didn't get the autoimmune response like I did.

But this lasted a couple of months. And when the dust settled. I was left with polyarthritis. So I developed osteoarthritis in 11 joints. The worst of which is my left shoulder, which this is as high as it goes now. It's bone on bone. But also my hip was quite bad. My hands and, you know, basically anywhere I'd had an injury in sports throughout my long life of contact and combat sports.

But this lasted a couple of months. And when the dust settled. I was left with polyarthritis. So I developed osteoarthritis in 11 joints. The worst of which is my left shoulder, which this is as high as it goes now. It's bone on bone. But also my hip was quite bad. My hands and, you know, basically anywhere I'd had an injury in sports throughout my long life of contact and combat sports.

But this lasted a couple of months. And when the dust settled. I was left with polyarthritis. So I developed osteoarthritis in 11 joints. The worst of which is my left shoulder, which this is as high as it goes now. It's bone on bone. But also my hip was quite bad. My hands and, you know, basically anywhere I'd had an injury in sports throughout my long life of contact and combat sports.

I was told I had to quit working out, right? Period. You cannot exercise more. You can't lift weights. Just walk, right? Maybe... do like some swimming just like with, you know, breaststroke or something that doesn't need the shoulder. And they put me on 1,000 milligrams of naproxen a day. So think like super Aleve. Like Aleve is naproxen, but you might get 200 milligrams.

I was told I had to quit working out, right? Period. You cannot exercise more. You can't lift weights. Just walk, right? Maybe... do like some swimming just like with, you know, breaststroke or something that doesn't need the shoulder. And they put me on 1,000 milligrams of naproxen a day. So think like super Aleve. Like Aleve is naproxen, but you might get 200 milligrams.

I was told I had to quit working out, right? Period. You cannot exercise more. You can't lift weights. Just walk, right? Maybe... do like some swimming just like with, you know, breaststroke or something that doesn't need the shoulder. And they put me on 1,000 milligrams of naproxen a day. So think like super Aleve. Like Aleve is naproxen, but you might get 200 milligrams.

So I was on five times that dose. And I was taking cortisone injections. And I just knew that none of this was how I wanted the rest of my life to go. And it wasn't a long-term solution. It was going to lead to long-term side effects. So the time I'd spent exercising, I just dove into PubMed.