Question:
Has anyone here had recurrent dizziness due to increase in training? I was
overtraining on a treadmill and became so dizzy during and after running that I had to stop. I also had numbness in my hands and feet. I went to several
specailists, but doctors could find nothing wrong (no I wasn't dehydrated or
anemic). I tried running outdoors but still got dizzy. It seems that my
excessive running has made me permanantly lightheaded while running. I do have slightly low blood pressure...but I did not have problems prior to that intense period of training.
Answer:
Presuming you have indeed been checked over for other stuff, one possibility
is that you overbreathe. This happens in anxiety states at rest, and may
complicate respiratory disease. If you breathe harder than you need, you get
rid of carbon dioxide. This makes the blood more alkaline, which changes the
ionisation of calcium, which affects electrical impulses in nerves and
muscles. This may cause light headidness, numbness and tingling in arms and
feet and around the mouth, palpitations and cramping of the hands and feet.
Of course, as it often happens if you are anxious, particularly about your
breathing, the tendency is for the symptoms to make you more anxious, which
makes you breathe harder. If you do this whilst not exercising, the trick is
to rebreathe into a paper bag, which retains the carbon dioxide, which
breaks the viscious cycle.
It would be difficult to do that whilst exercising, but what you might do is
try consciously controlling your breathing, perhaps trying to fit breaths
into your steps, and trying to push out each breath so that you can fit in
an additional stride for each breath compared to what comes naturally, and
if you succeed in that, fit in another one too.
This advice does very much presume you have been adequately investigated for
other cause of dizziness which are rather more serious; I see you said that
doctors had ruled out serious causes, but dizziness is one of the warning
signs during exercise which should say, " stop this until you have been
checked", and ranks with chest pain from that point of view.
