Posted by bleauberry on July 1, 2010, at 15:55:49
In reply to Need AD recommendation, posted by sregan on July 1, 2010, at 10:04:32
I don't know how much studying on the web you have done on the topic of CFS. But if you've dug into then you know the top theories on its cause are infection related...a virus, Lyme disease, and such. Usually bacterial. The fungal form of Candida is also a big one.
Long story short, the miracle stories out there of people who recovered from CFS are mostly ones that treated the disease as an infection with antibiotics. Think about it, Lyme as example, has three forms of the bacteria. One of them penetrates our own cells and lives inside, totally hidden from our immune systems and lab tests, and able to do catastrophic damage to our biology. No wonder the chronic fatigue and mood problems.
Just throwing that out there in case it is something you haven't heard before. With CFS I think it is prudent to not rule anything out, to leave no stone unturned, and to look at what it is that actually gets people better instead of merely trying to improve the symptoms.
That said, there is one drug I know of that in my opinion has the best shot of helping you. That is low dose Naltrexone, commonly called LDN. For its intended use the dose is 50mg. But for LDN, the dose is only 1.5mg to 4.5mg nightly. Since its discovery there are now reports that some people take even less, take it once every 2 days, or take it during the day instead of night. Self experimentation is needed.
The two most common things to improve in CFS and MS and Lupus with LDN are energy and brain fog.
LDN tricks the body into making more endorphins, which are directly linked to the immune system. The killing ability of the immune system is dramatically increased, even fighting cancer, while the autoimmune sensitivities are decreased.
It is seldom a miracle pill that cures the entire spectrum of symptoms, but is a maust-have to many who share your patient profile looks like yours.
LDN has to be made in a compounding pharmacy to get such low doses. At such a tiny dose the risks and side effects are practically nill, so no doctor has any right to say no to it even if they've never heard of it.
Do a google search on LDN and read all you can about it. Print that stuff out and bring it to your doctor.
You know the bizarre reactions to your psych meds? Well, that happens to fit the profile very well for chronic infections and a confused or compromised immune system. Many would say you are just "sensitive", or it is just "side effects". I disagree. Those bizarre reactions are painting a picture and trying to tell you something. There are clues there if one knows what to look for. Sadly most people don't see the clues even when those clues are screaming at them. Most doctors, outside of Lyme specialists, don't see them either. They instead put a name to some mystery condition and attempt to treat it as if it was a disease, when it isn't, it is a constellation of symptoms from something else that is in fact the real disease.
Hope this helps.
Other than LDN, a look at Ritalin and Modafinil makes sense. Very careful though. Easy does it on the dosing. What many people with these mystery diseases discover is that they need much lower doses than the normal population. 1/8th of the starting dose, 1/4, and such, very common. The worse thing to do is to take the commonly prescribed doses.
Longer term, what to do about it all? Well, LDN is a solid base to work from. From there it involves experimentation with one of the tetracycline antibiotics and the antifungal diflucan. Herbs are safer ways to do the same kind of probing. Good ones include grapefruit seed extract, olive leaf, cat's claw, japanese knotwood, coptis root, pau d'arco tea, oil of oregano, teasel root, and others. St Johns Wort is very potent on viruses. Use it in tincture form though because with your sensitivities you would want to start with mere drops. These things will give you a bunch of clues and one of them may hit the nail right on the head.
Best first move....LDN.
poster:bleauberry
thread:952781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100628/msgs/952859.html