Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS, CFIDS or ME) is a very serious disease. It’s had very little attention from the scientific research world until recently.
This is despite the fact that ME/CFS is fifteen times more widespread than the polio epidemic was at its height.
I got sick with ME/CFS at age 22 (46 now). At age 22 I felt 90. I had glandular fever age 11 and my health deteriorated after that. This is about what finally worked for me and gave me some energy after thirteen years in hell as a zombie…
Tips for healing ME/CFS naturally…
The only thing that worked for me was supporting the body, mind and soul…
- Eat and drink the right stuff. Human food ONLY. VERY important. Fruits, veg, nuts, seeds, animal source foods. If you need help with a simple daily plan, then please see our chronic fatigue diet page. Drink 2 liters of filtered water every day.
- Stay away from environmental toxins such as exhaust fumes as much as possible. Remove all recreational drugs from your life… tea, coffee, cigarettes, alcohol etc.
- Exercise. Walk and build. I’m not talking about exercise in the normal way but move as much as possible. This is a fine balancing act. Without moving our cell waste stagnates in the lymph system and keeps us trapped in a downward spiral. Yoga is also great and leaves you with more energy than you started with. It works on all levels — physical, psychological and emotional — highly recommended for CFS/ME.
- Meditate, relax. These methods are wonderful and can be used with profit to spend all the time you will have lying in bed!
- Get organized. Get everything you’re worried about actioned (“What can I DO?”) or set for review. This way you prevent a build up of worries causing you stress (the LAST thing you need right now). Please don’t be too proud to ask for help; you need all the help you can get, and delegate as much as possible to free up what little energy you have for healing.
- Remove mercury. If you have mercury fillings, get them taken out by a specialist in this field.
- Sleep. This is tough and again it’s a balancing act. The thing is… if you have a little energy, use it to move gently… walking, doing your “things-to-do”, yoga/qigong etc, then as SOON as you feel off again… 20-30 minutes rest, then try a little more activity… so we have these rest/move cycles. Try to establish good QUALITY night-time sleep. Bed 10-11 o’clock and getting up before 9 o’ clock. This can give you up to 11 hours in bed but doesn’t allow long lie-ins that can disturb the circadian rhythms.
- Create a daily pattern. Establish all these things into a normal daily pattern — very important.
- Have good feelings. Good feelings heal. Watch comedy for laughs and stay away from ALL negativity… news, soaps, horror etc.
- Believe you will recover. Simply attach the quality of “true” to the idea so that it feels true.
Look to nature
Considering that there is no conventional medical treatment or cure for ME/CFS, I would urge you to look to nature, look to the healing power of body and mind. There’s soooooo much stuff “out there” to confuse you and you can spend YEARS going from medic to medic and trying all different “remedies” and methods.
This is what worked for me and I believe you have a good chance to get well if you get on the right track with the right mindset.
Beware relapse
If you support your body and immune system, it is possible to put ME/CFS into remission but beware… if your immune system is compromised again, you could relapse. Bottom line… do good things, avoid stress, stay on top.
My very best heart-felt wishes for your speedy recovery.
If you have any questions at all, please leave a comment below…
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Michael Kinnaird is the author of Happy Guide, the result of a 20 year exploration into what works for health and happiness.
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Hello, thank you for taking time to post this up for us all :) and i send out a hug to all suffering from M.E, it can be very tough. I have had M.E/fybromyalgia for 16 years. 3 years ago i removed all my mercury fillings and did the lightening process and the tiredness WENT. However, since then i have been just as ill but with bugs and viruses that cling on for up to 9 months. I had vaccines as a child when i moved to Africa, and wonder if its linked to this. I feel so strong now that it just confuses me when my body gets ill for so long, and i wondered if you could shed any light on immunity.
Thanks again for your time :)
from jojo x
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Hi jojo,
I think there are thousands of FACTORS that affect health and so, immunity, and they are all inter-related. So it’s a case of getting as many positive health factors in place consistently, and that means habitually, because we’re wired for habit creation, to learn to do things effortlessly.
For healing, sometimes we need to go the extra mile but in the main, just putting the conditions for health consistently there gives the very best chance of health. Those conditions are NOT the ones that caused the problem to show up.
As you’ve found, me too, once health starts going down hill, it tends to keep going because other factors come into play, perhaps infections as you’ve said, other detrimental behaviors that we do to fix our bad feelings in the moment, which then become habits and so-on.
The solution is to be very clear about what the conditions for best health are, and head tenaciously in that direction, resisting the urge to self-medicate healing crisis, detox etc by doing more bad stuff to ourselves. It’s can be a tough journey for sure.
The stuff I discovered over a 20+ year time frame, I’ve put into my book, Happy Guide, so that others don’t have the incredibly frustrating process of trying to figure it all out. The truth is quite simple as it turned out; Health and happiness is about a FEW ideas pursued with dogged persistence.
I wish you health and happiness and a happy journey jojo,
All the best,
Mike
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Hi Caz0rz,
Nobody sold me these ideas. Back then no-one talked about the power of lifestyle. If GP’s are talking about these ideas now then I’m very happy about it.
Reversing serious illness is a different proposition to prevention. We need to go the extra mile but change is hard for people, even small changes can be hard so you can see why no-one becomes a millionaire :-)
I could have easily given up and said “This isn’t working” too. Because healing can feel even worse and then you conclude that what you’re doing is taking you in the wrong direction.
It helps a HUGE amount if you have someone to guide you who has been through it — who can tell you to carry on when you’re about to give up, to have faith when you feel hopeless.
I once listened to a lecture by the UK leading scientist working on ME/CFS. He explained the biochemical changes in extreme detail, very scientific. An amazing lecture, great knowledge.
At the end, someone asked “That’s great but what can we DO?”
“Eat more fruit and veg” was the answer.
Seems so simple that we dismiss it. How could a simple thing cure MY great problems. The truth is that biochemistry is incredibly complex but the things we need to do are simple and we must keep the faith. We must go the extra mile to REVERSE disease.
If you say you have tried these things I applaud you but I wonder to what extent, with what faith?
I fasted on only water for 11 days. Desperate to get well or die. I simply could not go on anymore like I was. I don’t recommend fasting without supervision of an expert btw.
A doctor once said of CFS “The good news is you’re not going to die and the bad news is you’re not going to die.” So true. Endless torture is CFS.
I walked almost every day on the verge of tears. It was hard to do. There are very few people willing to do what it takes. They would rather wait for a pill while not have to change anything.
I tell you this… most will NOT do what it takes. If you are different then I can show you how to go the extra mile and keep faithful.
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Or perhaps these listed methods have nothing to do with ‘making it better’ perhaps you just got better out of coincidence. As for natural medicine having the answer? If that was true someone would be a millionaire and would be a genius to have figured out what’s stumped millions of doctors – and hurt their egos.
Relapse could then happen naturally anyway, despite your best efforts.
I’ve tried all the things listed above and it did NOT help me. I’m surprised to see that someone who suffered for so long would buy into the mumbo jumbo that is pedalled to patients through their GPs and other health care providers.
I’m glad if you feel this has worked for you, but to put it out there as the answer is wrong. Yes we should all be looking after ourselves – that’s a given – but you can do all that and still get screwed over. Life’s a bitch.
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Hi Zainabu,
I would think the next step for you is to get an accurate diagnosis. What tests have you already had? Has your doctor carried out exhaustive tests to exclude the common causes of fatigue?
A diagnosis of ME/CFS is usually given after all these tests and looking at the usual common symptoms of ME/CFS:
Severe fatigue made worse by even small exertions, foggy/woolly head, unrefreshing sleep, disturbed sleep, NMH — neurally mediated hypotension = low blood pressure causing dizziness and inability to stand for more than a minute or two, difficulty remembering simple words, disorientation, intolerance to alcohol and environment toxins such as exhaust fumes, a permanent “hang-over,” onset of allergies/food intolerance.
This isn’t a full list but these are the very common symptoms. ME/CFS can vary in severity.
It’s critical that you support your body in the meantime by living the best lifestyle you can and getting plenty of rest.
Ask all your family, friends and collegues to help you by giving you the space you need to focus on getting well. Delegate as much as you can to others until you are well again. Asking for help is difficult but swallow your pride and ask :-)
So, seek firm diagnosis and support your body the best you can by doing all the right things. Have a read of the list in the article… these are the keys and all of them important.
Let me know if you need clarity on anything further.
All the best,
Mike
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it all started after taking my kids to school on opening day. i almost collapse in town.I got into the the supermarket and was helped to rest .i called my workmates and they rushed to assist me.2days later was told i have typhoid and was treated. again after a month i was told the typhoid was not eradicated and was give another dose . 4 month later the same fatigue this time again was treated only a month later i was given now malaria treatment. Oh my God i have suffered much.Little did i knew that was going to be along time fatigue.am really suffering with thi zombie. please help!!
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