Tag Archives: illness

ME Question & Answer Session 2

I have had more questions from ME sufferers, so I have decided to create a second ME Question & Answer Session post, as the answers may be helpful for other people with ME who read my blog.

Q: Are ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome the same?

ME stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.  Mya = muscle, algic = pain, encephalo = brain, myelos = marrow, itis = inflammation. So overall ME means muscle pain and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a group of symptoms including fatigue which after months of testing have no other diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after a year of tests. I did not have muscle pain, which can also be diagnosed as Fibromyalgia, nor did I have inflammation of the brain and spinal cord which were checked after a CT scan.

However the terms can be used interchangeably.

Q: How bad were your symptoms at your worst?

At my worst I had severe fatigue, brain fog, poor concentration, dizziness, muscle weakness, sudden collapsing, sensitivity to light and sound, extreme fatigue on light exertion and insomnia.

Q: Other than a vegan diet have you found any other useful changes that have helped you improve?

Yes having a more relaxed lifestyle. Working part-time so I have time to meditate, do yoga and be creative. I have learned that people with ME/CFS often hyperventilate and are stressed out easily. They need to learn to slow down and slow their breathing down. Buteyko breathing is helpful. Counselling is also helpful and they may have an unresolved emotional trauma from the past which is draining their energy and needs to be faced and released.

Q: Do you take any supplements of any sorts or any other form of medication?

I take a liquid multi vitamin and digestive enzymes. I also take a probiotic supplement to support the good bacteria in the gut. I don’t take any medication.

If you have any questions about ME/CFS please do not hesitate to contact me as I will be happy to help!

ME Question & Answer Session

Hi everyone! Since the latest issue of WDDTY featuring my ME recovery story was released, I have had lots of messages from recently diagnosed ME sufferers saying thank you for sharing my story and it is has given them hope, which is wonderful! They have also been asking lots of questions about ME and health and I wanted to share the questions and answers on my blog as it may help other people with ME.

Q: How long did it take you to recover fully?

A: I had my health collapse in December 2008 then had the diagnosis of CFS in December 2009 after a year of tests. I visited the nutritionist in July 2010 and felt a lot better after a few weeks of changing my diet and taking the recommended supplements. I was fully well and able to go back to work in December 2011. So I would say it took me 3 years to recover fully.

Q: Can you suggest any supplements that might help?

A:  I would recommend Source of Life Liquid Gold mulitivitamin to give your body support as it is easy to absorb and gives you an instant energy boost!  Vitamin C is important for boosting a low immune system, which is common in CFS. I took Vitamin C on a daily basis during the worst of my illness. Also a probiotic to repopulate the good bacteria in your gut.

Q: Do you believe candida was central causing to your CFS?

A:  I believe the main cause of my CFS was catching glandular fever at university and it weakened my immune system. I then took the anti-biotic tetracycline for my acne and it wiped out my good bacteria which allowed the candida to proliferate. As soon as the nutritionist detected that I had candida on the bio-resonance machine I cut out processed sugar and minimised sweet fruit. I also took grapefruit extract that she recommended and cut out yeasty foods. The combination of these approaches wiped out the candida within several weeks.

Q: Do you eat fruit nowadays considering it can start to re-feed the candida?

A: Yes I regularly eat fruit since it is full of vitamins and nutrients and the candida has never returned. My immune system is strong now and I regularly take a probiotic to support my good bacteria so candida cannot thrive.

Q: Did you find veganism superior to low fat meat protein+veg diet (like a stone-age)?

A: I would not recommend a low fat diet as the body requires a certain level of fat to function well. If you want to lose weight I would recommend removing processed sugar from your diet as the body cannot use it as it is devoid of nutrients and so stores it. I have never been on a cave man diet, but I don’t eat a lot of grains as they are hard for the body to digest.  I eat a high protein vegan diet with foods such a quinoa, brown rice, peas, nuts, seeds and legumes. I don’t eat meat as I believe it is wrong to treat animals cruelly and murder them when we don’t need to eat meat.

Q: How do we know which diet is healthy and right?

A: There are so many diets out there. You have to listen to your body to learn what is right for you. If you have a bad reaction to a food or get IBS from taking supplements, it is your bodies way of telling you it doesn’t like it and to stop consuming it. Don’t listen to what other people tell you, just follow your intuition and do what is right for you. You can do muscle testing on foods to see if you get a strong or weak reaction to a particular food.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to send me a message. Best wishes to you on your ME recovery journey.

Why ME?

WDDTY September CoverWhy ME

Read about how I used a healthy diet to recover from ME in the latest issue of What Doctors Don’t Tell You magazine which is out in the shops from today!

The article entitled ‘Why ME?’ describes the phases of diet I went through before reaching the cooked and raw vegan stage I am at today, having regained all of my energy. It is a huge change from being bed bound at the start of my severe ME and took 3 years of making positive health changes to recover fully. The article also features my 10 Steps for ME Recovery.

ME is a very real illness despite many doctors putting it down to being in the mind and prescribing anti-depressants. It is caused by the organs of the body not getting the energy they need to function properly from a poor diet devoid of nutrients. The mitochondria cells which produce the energy currency ATP need certain food components to function, and if they are malnourished, the organs such as the heart cannot sustain a fast heart-rate and blood pressure drops. This lead to collapses which I have experienced first-hand. If the brain does not get the energy it needs to function, it causes brain fog, poor concentration and dizziness which I have also experienced. As soon as you consume a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables and wholefoods, the cells are filled with the vitamins and nutrients they need to heal and return to full functioning.

I genuinely hope the article inspires someone with ME to look at altering their diet and see the positive changes in their health. They can read my story and know that the illness is curable and despite what we are told, full recovery is entirely possible.

I am training to become a nutritional therapist and plan to work one-on-one with people suffering from ME to teach them the tools to heal themselves.

10 Steps to Recovery from ME/CFS

10 Steps to Recovery from ME/CFS

50156822 - young woman opening curtains in a bedroom

Here is a list of steps I have created in a moment of inspiration that you can follow when working towards your recovery from an illness. I followed these steps when recovering from my ME/CFS. My 10 steps to recovery from ME/CFS:

  1. Accept – stop and accept where you are. You may have to leave your job and be cared for by family. Accept and make peace with your current limitations.
  2. Look externally – get help and support from the outside world. See a doctor or a therapist.
  3. Healthy diet – visit a nutritionist and take supplements if necessary to ensure you are getting adequate nutrition to support your body during the illness. Alter your diet to include more fruit and vegetables.
  4. Look within – look inside of yourself to find out why you are ill and what lesson it has to teach you. Spend quite time alone meditating to connect with yourself.
  5. Look to the past – what traumas happened in the past that perhaps you have not dealt with? What behaviour patterns did you learn from your parents that perhaps are not serving you well in your life?
  6. Grieve – spend time grieving the past, then release it and let go. The past is over and you are free now.
  7. Get back into society – get out and meet people again. Do some volunteering. And if you are ready, look for a job.
  8. New behaviours – practice new behaviours to replace the old ones that may have made you ill. Think positively to attract good circumstances and people into your life. Practice being grateful for what you have. Think of 3 things to be grateful for every night before you go to bed. It can be as simple as ‘I am grateful to have a comfortable bed to sleep on.’ or ‘I am grateful for the caring and supportive friends and family that I have.’
  9. Look to the future – where do you want to be in 10 years time? Set goals for yourself. What would you really love to do with your life? Find your passion and take small action steps towards making it a reality. Create a vision board.
  10. Keep learning – the journey to great health is an ongoing one. Read about health and keep making small changes in your life such as starting to do 15 minutes exercise everyday even if it is just going on a short walk.

I wish you the best in your journey to recovery!

 

Featured in the September 2014 issue of WDDTY magazine in the article ‘Why ME?’ about my recovery from ME/CFS using diet.

Copyright: lzflzf / 123RF Stock Photo

My Story: How I Became Ill With ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Recently I’ve been studying Infectious Diseases for my Nutrition course exam. Reading about viruses and bacteria, I had a revelation about what caused my ME.

Basically I caught Glandular Fever/Epstein Barr virus at university, also known as the kissing virus. Virus inject their DNA into your cells which replicate their DNA for them and create more viruses! Eventually the viruses burst the cell and are released. They go undetected by your immune system and they hide in your cells and alter your genes for immune defence.

So this caused me to feel fatigued, dizzy, weak, with brain fog, difficulty concentrating.

Also I had a typical student diet consisting of chocolate, crisps, microwave ready meals, pasta and alcohol. So my diet was atrocious! I was malnourished and the high sugar diet gave me spots.

I went to the doctor and told him my symptoms. He gave me tetracycline antibiotics to take for the acne and told me to keep a food diary for a few months and then get back to him. I felt really alone and unsupported and didn’t know what was happening to me.

Back then I had very low self-esteem and pushed myself to please others, doing what was expected of me without questioning what I wanted to do. So I carried on working hard studying for my chemistry degree and working full-time on my industrial placement year at the same time, even though I could barely concentrate. I started collapsing suddenly as I was so weak.

Anyway the antibiotics took their effect and killed off the bad infection. However they also wiped out my good bacteria so the opportunistic yeast fungus that lives in everyone’s gut called Candida Albicans overran my gut. They have hyphae projections that plant like roots in the gut wall and cause little holes to form that allow food particles to leak through the gut into the bloodstream causing leaky gut syndrome.

Eventually I became so ill in December 2008 that I was unable to function in society so my parents brought me back home and my Mum had to care for me for 6 months as I was too weak to stand up and walk to the kitchen to get a drink or make food. I was confined to either my bed or sitting on the sofa in front of the TV.

After a year of diagnostic tests from the doctors, they all came back negative and a neurologist in London diagnosed me with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (a syndrome is a group of symptoms) in December 2009. The only treatment they could offer me was antidepressants and that said it would take time to improve.

At this point I took charge of my own health, and with the little energy I did have I began researching on ME I signed up to an ME monthly newsletter and in one issue it mentioned that acupuncture can help. So my Mum booked an appointment for me to see a local acupuncturist.

Although the acupuncture only provided temporary relief, and not helpful in the long time, she detected that I had severe digestive issues and recommended that I go and see a Nutritionist.

This was the key to my recovery as she used a bio-resonance machine to detect that my body was overrun with multiple viruses, Candida and I can several food intolerances including wheat, yeast, sugar and beef. I immediately cut out the offending foods and wondered what on Earth I could eat as everything seemed to have sugar and wheat in it.

I remember when I cut out processed sugar I had the shakes for a day like I was coming off a drug. I ate fruit as a replacement.

This is when my passion for cooking began as I began experimenting with wheat-free alternatives and baking my own bread with gluten-free flour.

After about 6 weeks of changing my diet and taking supplements including Oregano to kill the Candida and natural antiviral herb supplements, I returned to see the Nutritionist and she noted a marked improvement in my health. I felt better and had so much more energy. The brain fog had cleared.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I believe it is my life purpose to share it and to spend the rest of my life helping other people with their health, using the knowledge I have learned on my own health journey. I feel blessed to have had this first hand experience of illness so I can really relate to my future clients and help them on a deeper level.