Let's talk nutrition.

[colinmckee2]

Food and anxiety: what to eat and what not to say? I've done a lot of reading and got some advice today off a trainer at my gym. Was telling him about how I get very light headed during exercise due to anxiety and he suggested eating foods like bananas, cutting caffeine out and also avoiding caridovascular exercise as it puts your blood pressure through the roof. I'm a 20 year old guy and I'm sick of hearing people preach exercise is good for anxiety when every time I do it I have a panic attack. Light headedness is my most fearful symptom how do I defeat this during exercise? am I supposed to just avoid any exercise that improves my conditioning? Lol are there foods which reduce this light headedness? I've had all the correct heart monitoring done and bloods etc. as in sure yous have already read.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Was he qualified to give advice to treat GP referrals? If not, he may not have much experience in this area beyond what he would normally advise to people without health conditions.

Cardio is the recommendation for anxiety as far as I now. The question is though, to what intensity? Lets bare in mind the human beings have periods of cardio quite a lot e.g. walking and that doesn't cause problems so if that increases blood pressure, the body must be adept at reducing it again once exercise has completed.

If you train intensely, light headedness could occur from not taking enough oxygen or maybe too much. So, it might mesn finding a range you are comfortable in right now.

Foodwise, bananas are good anxiety, cutting out caffeine is healthy but I'm not sure that advice was aimed at your symptom.

If your light headedness is an anxiety symptom and it is made worse through exercise then bringing down overall levels of anxiety will be the best way. If your reaction to it is the reason it spikes during exercise, there are ways to tackle that but I'm unclear whether thats the case here.

[Davit]

The simplest would be to wear an O2 sat monitor and keep your O2 at above 95% If you go above 100% breath slower.

[colinmckee2]

Thanks for the response, he said that when he suffered from anxiety anything fast paced would throw him into panic due to the increased blood pressure, rapid heart rate etc. I wonder should I be loading up on food before I exercise to ensure that I've enough energy to burn. I suffer from light headedness ever since my anxiety began and have been in and out of the gp and the hospital getting tests done to ensure that it's nothing heart related and it's all came back normal. I known that when exercising you have to push yourself but every time I do I feel anxious, over think it and end up panicking. I'm bring tested for vertigo ATM with a course of antibiotics to establish what's causing it. It occurs at both rest and exercise.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think it depends how you experience your anxiety. I struggled with this myself but I found it fairly easy to get back into cardio once I worked on reducing my overall daily anxiety levels, then its was a matter of gentle exposure.

Weight work is a little different for me as the DOMS are another thing that cause me issues as I was for ever suffering aches & pains, fatigue, etc and so in my mind anything like that is a problem, hence weights are another exposure to get over.

For him it sounds like he would see it as possible onset of panic. Thats a thought issue though, not a physiological one. Cardio doesn't caused panic but it does bring a load of bodily sensations that feel a bit like it so some people then translate that as a possible upcoming panic attack and it causes them anxiety. If you don't see symptoms like faster breathing, faster heart rate, etc as panic then its probably not going to bother you. If you do, then methods like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) are likely going to be a problem. But you can build up through different forms of exercise anyway so that you can judge how you feel about it and how it affects your light headedness. Treat it like ERP in that respect.

Pre workout shakes are usually what people use anyway but it probably depends on what exercise you are getting.

FMP used to be a PT so hopefully he will spot this thread because he can advise you much better on the pre/post supplementation workout thing.

[colinmckee2]

I would get light headed at the thought of exercise but I don't have much choice, as lying about for years with no exercise will put me at more risk for contracting heart disease. I've a session booked in for tonight so I'll let you know how I get on, going to try and tackle this one head on without anxiety and see if the light headedness is present. Thanks a lot terry as always.

[MyNameIsTerry]

You're only young mate, you've got plenty of time ahead of you. This symptom might fade or go altogether and then you will feel a bit more able to push on with the things you want to do.

Its worth a try, if it doesn't pay off just switch tactics to using a building up method. It might even be worth trying a different environment to see if that changes anything e.g. in the fresh air.

Good luck.

[colinmckee2]

Just an update, ate 2 steaks and vegetables 30
Mins before training and didn't have Any lightheadedness, just a bit of anxiety which I can only expect considering my anxiety comes when I'm out of my comfort zone. Lol hope this will put a stop to it :)

[Cusper]

B complex is also really good for your nerves as well!

[colinmckee2]

The vitamin supplement? I have it downstairs but never used it. Does it reduce anxiety?

[Davit]

B complex has a line that if you cross makes it worse but within limits it does work.

Where are the carbohydrates? You just wasted all that precious tryptophan in the meat and if you had broccoli you wasted it too.

[colinmckee2]

Carrot and turnip I had with the steaks. Had my dinner sitting there and wanted to avoid being light headed so shoveled it and it worked. I do use my proteins post work out but on this occasion needed to eat something to avoid the light headedness. What do you mean by crossing the line with the vitamin b complex?

[Davit]

Excess vitamin b will cause anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It sounds like you are just running out of fuel then. Food can be a bit bulky so most people use a pre workout shake which prevents the energy burn out as its replenishing what you are losing whilst you are training.

Its supposed to help with DOMS too.

Your trainer friends should be able to give you some good supplementation advice as he must have gone through that stage where you avoid anything stimulating.

B vitamins cause some people to experience anxiety, others have reports no impact. Also, you have to remember that RDA's are many years out of date and were based on average sedentary people. Besides its common sense that a strength athlete is getting way beyond RDA values anyway from his/her increased diet.

I take it you are taking whey shakes? Some people have reported a spike in anxiety when they take those so if you haven't been affected its a good sign you can tolerate things.