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Archive for January, 2008

7 Subtypes of CFS

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Here’s a great abstract about genomic studies that found different subgroups of CFS patients. It studied the gene expression of 88 Chronic Fatigue patients.
“Clinical features of each subtype were as follows: subtype 1 (cognitive, musculoskeletal, sleep, anxiety / depression); subtype 2 (musculoskeletal, pain, anxiety / depression); subtype 3 (mild); subtype 4 (cognitive); subtype 5 (musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal); subtype 6 (postexertional); subtype 7 (pain, infectious, musculoskeletal, sleep, neurological, gastrointestinal, neurocognitive, anxiety / depression). ”

http://jcp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/jcp.2007.053553v1

This is good news because it can help explain why symptoms vary between patient to patient. I think that this has been one of the main problems of why CFS isnt accepted by some doctors. Maybe these genomic studies can organize these groups, and lead to treatments that are specific to each patient.

Posted in Treatments | 1 Comment »

Amygdala Retraining – Gupta Program Interview

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Recently ive been hearing alot of people talk about “amydala retraining” for the treatment of CFS. Ashok Gupta, the creator of the Gupta Amygdala Retraining course, claims an 85% cure rate for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The DVDs cost $190 if you live in the U.S. He states that this treatment is not Cognative Behavioral Therapy, Reverse Therapy, or Pacing Therapy.

The course teaches techniques combine Neuro-Liguistic Programming, meditation practices, and yogic techniques that help to retrain the amygdala which he says may have been damaged in cases of chronic fatigue syndrome. He believes that a physical, chemical or emotional stressors may cause sympathetic nervous system overstimulation and lead to the mental and physical exhaustion seen in CFS patients.

I wasnt sure what the Gupta DVDs were all about, so i emailed the The Gupta Program and they provides me with some answers to my questions.

“Thank you for your email. Here are the answers to your questions:

You claim a high success rate when treating CFS, how many people do you think have been successfully treated?

- We have successfully treated over two hundred people with the condition in the last few years. We launched the DVD programme in September, and we have had hundreds more people buy the programme, and have given us a lot of positive feedback.

How is this course different than Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or psychotherapy, which has many peer reviewed studies that have already been conducted for treatment of CFS?

- This programme of treatment is very different to CBT or psychotherapy. CBT is based on a very different underlying causal model for CFS, as well as different techniques to help. The Gupta Programme is unique in both its underlying hypothesis for causation, as well as the novel tools and techniques used to “retrain the amygdala”. Many of my patients who are using the programme have already undergone CBT or psychotherapy, but find the Gupta Programme very different and much more powerful. (See attached article)

What is Ashok Gupta’s medical background?
- Ashok Gupta is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Practitioner of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). In terms of the medical background, Ashok is self-taught, and has spent many years of self-study in the fields of brain neurology and physiology. This culminated in the publishing of his medical paper in a peer reviewed medical journal in 2002.(Attached)

Have there been any follow-up studies? Do the beneficial effect last after a period of months, years?

- We are currently conducting an initial pilot study, which will be complete within a month and will be published. This is showing that approx 85% of patients significantly improved, and 70% of patients reached “full-functioning”, which means they are 80-100% better. We believe that if this was confirmed in an independent trial, this would make this treatment the most successful treatment for ME and CFS currently available. The study is a one year study with one year follow-ups, but we will be updating the study every year to show that there are long term results. We hope that publishing this study will encourage funding of a larger independent study this year.

Kind regards
The Gupta Programme ”

***Note – There is alot of discussion in the comment section, i made a special section of the forum to discuss the gupta program.

So if you have a comment or question – ask it here:
Gupta Programme Forum

Posted in Anti-Oxidants, Treatments | 91 Comments »

Vitamin B12 Shots to Treat CFS

Friday, January 11th, 2008

One of the things that helps me the most is the hydroxocobalamin form of sublingual B-12. My genetic testing showed me that the hydroxocobalamin form would be more beneficial to me than the methylcobalamin form (I have noticed that the methyl version is overstimulating for me). B-12 helps me with all symptoms, including brain fog which is my main problem. Even though I and other CFS patients may not be B-12 deficient, I have read that most CFS sufferers will respond favorably to B-12.

On the yahoo groups CFS Experimental message boards, I came across someone who had very similar symptoms as me. They said that once they started doing B-12 injections, that their brain fog cleared up almost completely. It made then feel about 85% of normal. As long as they stuck to the supplements, they felt great in spite of occasional setbacks.
This drove me to the conclusion that hydroxocobalamin B-12 shots, will be the next form of treatment that i am going to try.

This article by Dr. Rich Konyenburg explains how methylation cycle protocol really fits my symptom profile perfectly. Before i had heard of the methylation cycle protocol, i had found that folic acid, B-12, NAC, l-methionine really helped me. I had no idea at the time why they helped, but i had found through trial and error that they did. Rich Konyenburg’s paper explains why all of the supplements help and give me more ideas of things i should be trying.

Since I’ve been on the Amy Yasko Methylation Cycle Protocol, I have had some up and down improvements. Ive felt decent at times, and have been able to do much more than usual. But, i always seem to have setbacks. Im hoping that the B-12 injections will give me the boost that i need. I’ll keep you posted.

Posted in Treatments | 7 Comments »