And your friends who had ME/CFS? How did they get over it?
Hi
@Uklawyer -- I feel I've recovered about 75% from ME/CFS after having been mostly bedbound for 20-30 years (approx. 20 hrs/day in bed). I did
many things over the years to improve things for myself, and was able to go from about 4% functionality at one point (took an hour to make my way from my bed to the bathroom in the morning), to around 20-25% functionality for many years.
There were four things that I feel were absolutely critical for me in my journey.
1) I began taking low-dose bioidentical cortisol;
2) I had all my amalgams and metal crowns removed from my mouth;
3) I attempted to treat a chronic Lyme situation with a variety of modalites, including long-term HBOT, and
4) I focused intently on addressing structural issues, and availed myself of just about every conceivable approach I came across.
Many of these approaches helped considerably, especially Orthogonal Chiropractic, and a specialized technique called AtlasProfilax.
Here's a link to 3 video testimonials on how AtlasProfilax helped some people's tinnitus. -- I'm also a big believer in a technique called Nasal Specific, which has also been reported to help reduce or even eliminate tinnitus. But what I feel really got me over the hump (from 20% functionality to ~75% functionality), was doing a couple of simple thoracic extension exercises I ran across on YouTube.
This :37 second video shows two ways a rolled up towel or foam piece can be used for the upper thoracic area.
Thoracic Towel Stretch
Below is a link to a 5-min. video which goes into more detail on how to use a towel or foam piece to loosen up the upper back:
The Simplest and Most Effective Exercise For Thoracic Extension
I discovered a really good complimentary exercise called the pelvis stabilization techniques described in this 5-Min. video (
Natural Pelvis Reset). It really helped my lower back a LOT, and most likely helped my neck area as much as the towel exercise (I use foam instead of a towel). I think these two techniques work really well together.
So why did I improve so much in just a week or two? I can't say for sure, but my top two hypotheses are that by doing the thoracic extension exercises, I was able to get a lot more nerve energy to the top of my GI tract, which is where the bulk of the body's immune system lies. I suspect I had a long-standing chronic infection of some kind that my body couldn't handle, and when I got more energy to my immune system, it was able to dramatically reduce that chronic infection.
The other hypothesis is that I changed things structurally in a fundamental way, and got a lot more nerve energy running up and down my spine, and greatly improved the neurological functioning of my body, helping it in a number of ways. It could also be a combination of the two. I must say however, that even though I feel this is what got me over the hump, I think it's unlikely I would have gotten so much immediate benefit had I not done a very large number of other things over the years that prepared my body to take full advantage of the new stretching exercises that worked so well for me. -- I read of another many with chronic ME/CFS who claimed to have fully recovered just by doing yoga. Could be the same or similar dynamics as my situation.
Just to mention, most people who have ME/CFS never recover. They may have upcycles for a while, or even remission, but it's pretty rare for somebody to recover from ME/CFS, especially if it's long-term. I feel
extraordinarily fortunate that I was able to make such significant improvement after so many decades of being mostly bedbound.
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