Hi,

I wanted to write this as ive made such wonderful progress over the past few months and a lot of this has been because of the curezone website and particularly Bob Mantz z story of his recovery from the illness. Just incase writing might help anyone else I thought Id write about my recent experiences. I know everyone is different, especially with this illness but ive gotten so much help from reading about others experiences, I felt I had to write myself!

Ive had CFS now for 3 years and was severely ill for most of that time. I ve tried so many different therapies, had small improvements and several setbacks following them. I followed the advice of doctors who knew very little about the illness and tried to do their gradual exercise therapies etc (not gradual enough for me as it turned out!) After some time i learned to trust my own intuition and became much more careful about accepting advice from others, be they professionals or not.

I found a great doctor (dr podell in New Jersey) who was open to both medical and alternative treatments, knew his stuff as regards CFS and is both open minded and a nice guy to boot, and he helped me alot, especially in stabilising the worst problems like the severe headache and muscle pain, low thyroid, acid reflux etc I tried many med s and supplements and though many did not make an obvious difference I also found some that helped. I got into doing breathing exercises every day and meditation (dr Andrew Weils books and tapes helped me a lot with getting started!)

But in recent months ive made much more dramatic progress (at least to me it seems dramatic after so long of tiny incremental improvements and setbacks etc!) and i wanted to share that with others on this site just incase any of this would be helpful to the recoveries of others.

Whats really made the difference for me is having weekly reflexology sessions and then discovering Dr Schulze s herbal organic products through my reflexologist. I researched Dr Schulze alot online especially as his manner can be a bit in ur face/brash etc and i felt the need to check him out thoroughly and found really positive feedback on his products. I discovered the Curezone website.On that webside i also discovered Bob Mantz s story about his recovery from CFS and found that really inspiring. (Thank u Bob)

I decided to try Dr Schulze s superfood and do his 2 week intestinal detox. I had never done any detoxing before that and after all the time being sick etc i figured my body could use it:) I had a great increase in energy from doing the detox and went from being reliant on others to make my meals etc to taking over making my own meals and being up and about the house alot more each day. I was a bit concerned that the energy increase might be temporary as id never experienced improvement like that before but it lasted (although the rapid increasing of energy tapered off once i had finished the detox, the new higher energy levels stayed) I then tried his echinacea formula (it also has Garlic and cayenne in it) and again experienced very significant increases in energy. I stopped though after a week as with the energy was also getting headaches so thought it was time for a break. Again the energy increase has lasted and the headaches disappeared once i stopped taking the formula

At this stage i bought a juicer and began drinking a quart a day of homemade juice. I also started hot/cold hydrotherapy showers and started taking cayenne powder to help boost my circulation. These have REALLY helped too!! I was diagnosed with POTS a while back so i thought this might help with that, especially as i knew my circulation was poor as my feet and hands were always cold. I stopped eating meat and fish and no longer drink milk or eat eggs etc I decided i would be a vegetarian at least for the summer, as not sure i want to give up meat etc permanently! all of this has made such a huge difference to my health in a very short period of time. I know its a combination of all of the different things im doing not any one of them but since adding those mentioned here ive really made much more progress!

Im on day 4 at the moment of Dr Schulze s 5 day liver/gallbladder detox and and every day I have more energy. I wondered if I should wait a bit longer before writing about these improvements as its only been a few months since I started seeing my reflexologist and doing all the detoxing and herbal supplements etc but I figured why not write as its happening, ill keep writing and let the forum know how it goes!! Im planning on doing another one week course of Echinacea once finished the detoxing as it helped so much the last time. I really feel like my body is healing and though from long experience I try not to think beyond one day at a time, with this illness being so unpredictable, Im really exited by all the improvements.

I’ve gone from being almost completely bed bound to being up and about the house all day, making my 5 meals (find 5 small meals helps keep the blood sugar/energy up!) a day and fruit and veg juice and being able to phone friends for long chatsJ I take a daily sun bath and cant believe im well enough to get downstairs for a short time nevermind the whole day! A few months ago I would have to have complete bed rest for at least 24 hours after having a shower and now I have a shower every night at the end of a vastly more active day. I started measuring my exercise/physical activites with a number system about a year ago, each number representing a certain amount of walking about the house etc, the highest I ever got to at my best was 5 walks and now im up to 14! When I started improving one of my first priorities was to take over making my own meals etc so my (very supportiveJ) mother would be free and I would have some independence back. Ive now taken over all of
that and am looking forward to doing more as energy allows. I know I have a long way to go yet so its very much one day at a time at the moment. Its just great to be seeing this kind of progress after all this time.
Sept 26th 2006
I wanted to add this update as after i last wrote i enjoyed 8 months of good health, good enough to return to work full-time and enjoy life though not 100%. However, in May of this year I had a full relapse and now in Sept I know why. I was diagnosed today with Lyme Disease. I had the Igenex tests done and they showed up positive in several bands for both IGg and IGm antibodies. Im still in shock to have this new diagnosis and very hopeful for the future. Im still a huge fan of the detoxes and of Dr Schulze, for it to be able to put me in remission for 8 months considering I had Lyme bacteria floating about is pretty amazing in my book. I would highly recommend anyone who has been diagnosed with CFS or FM to be tested for Lyme as the illnesses are so similar. The tests need to be done though at a specialised Lab though as the basic Elisa test and many of the western blots done by Quest and other such labs are very unreliable with give false negatives. Im on a cocktail of anti-biotics and have been herxing since day one so think thats a hopeful sign that they are working! Ill write again when i know more!!