My Journey To Wellness – A Story about the struggle and triumph over Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

I only write when really inspired. In no way am I a writing machine! There needs to be some kind of motivation or emotion that is stirred that causes me to put my ideas and thoughts into written words. Today I felt the inspiration and wanted to share something with you.

Not very long ago I was very sick with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia (CFS/Fibro). Today I was thinking back to the time when I was completely bed bound without any hope or clue as to how I was going to get well again. This illness is a complete mystery to the medical profession. Although oodles of research is going into finding the “cure” and trying to find the causes of this enigmatic illness, for the most part, they really don’t have a clue what is going on.

During my time of intense illness which lasted around 3 years (although I have suffered with it for over 10 years to varying degrees), I vowed that if I ever found anything remotely helpful for my condition, I would share it with the world so that other people did not have to suffer as I did.

Luckily for me, I did find solutions and am overjoyed to be well on the way to a full recovery. Whilst thinking today about how great I feel now and how far I have come, I remembered my promise about sharing what I learnt about the solutions to this illness.

What I am about to write is purely my own experience with these illnesses and is in no way a professional opinion. I am not a doctor, naturopath or any other health professional. I am just a person who went through an absolutely horrible time with an illness that some doctors don’t even believe is real.

At the peak of my misery, I was experiencing about 20 symptoms of ill health. At one stage, I wrote them all down and started the process of going to doctors to see if they could help. They couldn’t. I got tested for everything imaginable, from multiple sclerosis to lupus, in an attempt to find the root cause of my problems. Nothing came up so I was swiftly referred to a psychologist. I was quickly learning that if the doctors couldn’t find anything on their tests, it was assumed that the patient had psychological problems.

This could turn into a very long story of battling with ignorant doctors and the vast misunderstanding of people who do not have CFS/Fibro. But my purpose is to focus on what helped me climb out of the dark hole that is CFS/Fibro and regain my hope and health.

In summary, what helped me was meeting Robyn Chuter, a naturopath who had experience with CFS/Fibro and instantly recognised what was going on in my body and more significantly she knew how to fix it. She said there were two things that manifested symptoms of so-called CFS/Fibro – leaky gut syndrome (LGS) and heavy metal toxicity. She recognised that my symptoms looked like a case of LGS so immediately gave me nutritional supplements to address this issue, in addition to putting me on a healthy gluten-free vegan diet plan.

Within a few days I started to feel better! It was unbelievable! I still cry now when I think about the dramatic turn around. Why don’t doctors know about this? It was baffling to me that in an era of such high technological advances and knowledge, the medical profession refuse to pay attention to the work that naturopaths are doing to help people with CFS/Fibro.

I continued with the LGS protocol for 6 months and eliminated all the fibromyalgia pain and many other neurological symptoms I was experiencing such as severe dizziness. Basically, all the symptoms on the big list I had compiled had disappeared except for fatigue and noise and light sensitivity. I had gotten rid of 17 symptoms by following Robyn’s advice!

At this point, I still wanted to continue improving and so embarked on my own research to see what else I could do to eliminate the remaining symptoms. I remember Robyn saying that the other reason CFS/Fibro symptoms manifest is heavy metal toxicity. I wanted to address this as well, to see if it helped me. I started taking Zeolites that my friend Mark Berriman suggested. As editor of the Natural Health and Vegetarian Life magazine for many years, he had a wealth of health knowledge. He also gave me the Live Smart 360 spray to try. Since taking these two things in combination, my fatigue is lifting. My energy is coming back! Zeolites have many different uses and functions, one being heavy metal detoxification. I have no way of scientifically proving that it is working except my experience of increased energy and vitality.

I also want to add that to eliminate the pain associated with CFS/Fibro I feel it was important for me to avoid all acid-forming food. I believe it is essential for people with pain associated with these conditions (and indeed no doubt many others) to eliminate meat and dairy from the diet as the absolute minimum effort in addressing the pain. In addition I would suggest avoiding the so-called “night-shade” vegetables such as potatoes and eggplant. Green smoothies should be a daily ritual and are great for assimilating a large amount of alkaline-forming food. Working on emotional issues is also important as negative emotions create acid in the body, it is important to create a positive environment for your body to heal itself. So in summary, in addition to very specific nutritional supplements to address LGS and heavy metal toxicity, a healthy vegan diet, positive thinking and addressing emotional issues is key to eliminating the pain of CFS/Fibro, in my experience.

We need to keep in mind also that at this stage in the research for CFS/Fibro it is not a disease as such but a set of symptoms that have been grouped together based on observing patients with similar symptoms and therefore grouping them together and calling them CFS/Fibro. This is significant because it suggests that the root cause of one person’s CFS/Fibro may not be the same as another. There may be variants in the cause and therefore in order for a fibro/CFS patient to get well, they need to investigate all possible causes to see if they can eliminate their symptoms. Dr Byron Hyde, a CFS researcher subscribes to this theory and has written a book called “Missed Diagnoses”. He believes and has illustrated that the cause of all CFS cases can be found if thorough testing is done on the patient.

I also want to mention that I recently found out that I have endometriosis. I didn’t have the classic symptoms of pain that women often have. However after undergoing a recent surgery to remove a sizeable endometrioma (a benign cyst caused by endometriosis), my digestion has greatly improved. Poor digestion was one of my 20 symptoms as well as an inability to tolerate wheat. I can now eat wheat and anything I like, without any adverse digestive consequences. My doctor said that digestive problems are often caused by endometriosis. There does seem to be some kind of connection between endometriosis and chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia, although the “whys and hows” of it have not been discovered yet.

Please share this with anyone you know that is experiencing symptoms of CFS/Fibro. This illness is not as mysterious as it seems. There are solutions. For anyone reading this who is battling CFS/Fibro, please have hope and feel free to contact me if you would like any further information or just to chat with someone who understands.

Wishing you health and happiness today and forever after,

Kathy xx