Posted by bleauberry on September 6, 2009, at 15:07:39
In reply to Ritalin and Fatigue??, posted by Monica L on September 5, 2009, at 21:17:21
Well, this is going to sound really strange to you, and I know for sure people around here get sick of me saying it, but if one person really cares about another's chronic fatigue, it has to be mentioned.
There are quite a few Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue clinics around the country and in Germany that have been finding success in the last decade. It came about quite by accident, as astute aware MDs noticed patients were getting better on these certain meds.
The meds in question are things like Doxycycline, Tetracycline, Erythromicin, Diflucan. These are antibiotics and antifungals.
In addition, the alternative and natural clinics are seeing significant improvement with anti-microbial herbs that target a wide range of bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
This approach has not been formally studied. It is just a huge body of anecdotal observation at this time. No one is likely to study it because there is no money in it. It is one of those phenomenon of history where anecdotal evidence is so profound as to rapidly overwhelm conventional thinking. But then, of course, conventional thinking doesn't even offer an explanaion for chronic fatigue. The neurotoxins of malignant organsims are powerful explanations.
I'm not the expert of viruses. I do know there are several that cause your symptoms and cause people to show up at forums such as pbabble.
The prime bacterial suspects are Borellia, Bartonella, and Mycoplasma.
There are a host of parasites. A most problematic one is Babesia.
The primary fungus is Candida, and this is likely the first step on your journey to saying bye-bye to chronic fatigue. It is just so common.
There really are no accurate tests for any of these. It is a clinical diagnosis based on history and symptom patterns. These things are in your tissues, not the blood. They have extraordinary survival skills in deceiving the immune system and tests from seeing them, that is, until after a bunch of their dead and weakened body parts from treatment show up. Many people test negative before treatment, and solidly positive after treatment has had a few weeks. Trials of particular medicines or herbs solidly confirm or refute a suspected diagnosis by way of the Herxheimer reaction.
You absolutely do not want a doctor who is going to use a lab test as the primary judgement factor. That could potentially give you a life sentence in prison with no parole. The things that are important are history, symptoms, and what is working in specialist offices.
You seem to be at a point where options are running out and mysteries abound, so I just wanted to point out this angle that has likely not been considered.
Very simple. Most chronic fatigue patients improve markedly on antibiotic herbs or meds, and antifungal herbs and meds. Why? Well, it doesn't matter. Pretty safe to assume there is a hidden invader and lots of neurotoxins from them.
Either an LLMD (Lyme Literate MD) or an Integrative MD are the ones you want to see. Both are even better than one alone. Whether you have Lyme or not, these types of clinicians are well experienced in your symptoms and causes, whereas routine MDS are kind of limited in choosing a handful of meds that might pep you up (but not even touch the problem).
As for Ritalin, sure, a come-down fatigue crash could be expected. But it is the other presentations, history, and symptoms you described that caught my attention as being yellow flags. The only way to rule out the meds themselves being involved would be to stop each one, carefully, one at a time, and see what happens. Who knows, maybe it is Lyrica.
You presentation looks pretty darn identical to tens of thousands of others though. We all have the freedom to choose our path. I just wanted to present one that is working around the world in specialist clinics, for you to look into deeper or shrug it off as nonsense, whichever is your will.
poster:bleauberry
thread:915857
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/915908.html