How to stop/reverse muscle loss?

I had muscle loss due to chemo. Another cancer patient suggested taking a powder called Best Aminos, before and after chemo, to reduce muscle loss. Unfortunately I started after chemo but used it with a personal trainer to gain muscle and stamina back.

@malebreastcancer47 Does it contain Creatine? I've had some muscle loss due to chemo and want to rebuild it. Creatine was also suggested to me. Thanks.

Hello @uzi187, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @malebreastcancer47, @sandy8043 and others. It's good to hear you are already speaking with specialists. I'm tagging @jenniferhunter who may have some experience or thoughts on what can help with muscle loss related to the neck.

You mentioned you have nerve damage in your neck. Is the nerve damage from a neck injury?

@johnbishop A mix of injuries over the years, plus using a vibrating massager (which damages nerves), plus bad posture.

Rebuilding muscle is very hard / sometimes impossible when the nerve that tells the body that there is a shoulder in need of nutrients isn't doing that. Therefore, protein powders and creatine (which I take anyway) can only do so much. I'm also taking Magnesium and Vitamin B12 for nerve health.

Mostly I am hoping to hear tips and tricks from those who managed to regain strength in muscles affected by traumatized nerves (whether by deformation, demyelination, etc).

@sandy8043 I was told by friends and Mayo oncology to take creatine. I take it as a gummy but powder is better.

From Google -
Best Aminos does not contain creatine; it primarily focuses on branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and other amino acids for muscle recovery and energy.

@uzi187 Thanks, John for inviting me into this discussion. My muscle loss was from nerve compression and nothing helped until surgery decompressed the nerves. I had a whiplash years ago, and developed bones spurs inside the central canal because of a collapsed disc. I was able to regain muscle after recovering and rehab. I also have thoracic outlet syndrome or TOS which caused compression of nerves and blood vessels in the shoulder. I have done a lot of physical therapy for that and myofascial release which helps. Posture is vital to good body ergonomics and many spaces the nerves travel through are so small that bad posture may contribute to some of the compression. That is something you can work on. Core strength supports everything up the spine and connects to the shoulder mechanics.

I don’t know what your doctors advise or if you have a physical compression that may be helped by surgery or physical therapy. When a nerve is completely compressed, the electrical signal cannot travel through to contract the muscle and without those signals, muscles start to loss mass. Nerve impulses slow down with compression and may contract the muscles in a weakened condition. Nerves also depend on blood supply and oxygen to keep them alive. If you have a peripheral nerve that gets cut, it may have some ability to regenerate. For example, my husband had hand surgery that left numbness, but now after 6 years, feeling is starting to come back. If you have a problem with a spinal nerve due to an injury or arthritis, that may be a different story as to if it has an ability to recover. You need to know and define where the issues are.

They can do therapy using electrodes to contract muscles to rebuild them, but you still need a nerve signal to make it functional.

I’m curious about your mention about vibration massage being bad for nerves? I have not heard that and physical therapy clinics have large vibrating “Power Plates” to assist with getting muscles moving and loosened and assisting with stretching as part of rehab and physical therapy.

@jenniferhunter

Thank you. The information you provided is very valuable to me, especially in regard to the thoracic outlet syndrome which was also investigated in the MRIs they took recently. I'm waiting for the results. May I ask how long it took to rehab the muscles after the surgery was successful?

Vibration massage on the muscles is fine, but I went dangerously close to the nerves, repeatedly, thinking they were myofascial trigger points - back then I didn't know better. In general, vibrations destroy the myelin sheath of nerves. Vibration White Finger happens because the nerves get damaged. Same goes for the recent issue with Formula 1 race-car drivers risking permanent damage because of car vibrations when they hold the steering wheel.