How it went
Did it last?
- 10 of 38 said the benefit wore off (including the 6 who relapsed).
- 3 of 38 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 6 | 16% |
| Near-full | 5 | 13% |
| Substantial | 8 | 21% |
| Partial | 12 | 32% |
| Relapsed | 6 | 16% |
| No benefit | 1 | 3% |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild | 1 | 100% | |
| Moderate | 8 | 38% | |
| Severe | 15 | 33% | |
| Very severe | 4 | 50% |
10 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
Right-hand number: share describing a full or near-full recovery. Pages that sell something, and advocacy sites, tend to publish only the successes.
Specific treatments in these accounts
- TreatmentHow it wentRecoveredFaded
- H2 blockers (famotidine, cimetidine)12 accounts
17% 33%
- H1 antihistamines9 accounts
44% 22%
- Pacing and the energy envelope5 accounts
40% 0%
- Mold avoidance / CIRS protocol5 accounts
0% 0%
- Montelukast / Singulair4 accounts
0% 25%
- Low-dose naltrexone4 accounts
50% 25%
- Lyme / co-infection protocols3 accounts
33% 0%
- Salt, fluids and compression3 accounts
67% 0%
- NAC and glutathione3 accounts
0% 0%
- Nattokinase and fibrinolytics3 accounts
33% 33%
- Herbal and Chinese medicine3 accounts
0% 0%
- Meditation, yoga, breathwork3 accounts
33% 0%
Within the accounts on this page. Grey numbers rest on fewer than 10 accounts.
All 38 accounts
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits nervous system regulation. Peter was ill 5 years severe with severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Comorbid POTS, MCAS; recovered 2+ years.
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Recovery from Long COVID Shouldn't be This Exhausting
In this post, Zeest Khan describes using a beta-agonist or steroid inhaler along with unspecified pills, injections for allergic triggers, and steroids — no drug names, doses, or durations are given. In 2021 she was bedbound, unable to stand without nearly…
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List of ME/CFS Recovery and Improvement Stories (page 14 discussion)
ixikd2025 credited a broad, kitchen-sink regimen spanning stimulant, mitochondrial, antihistamine/MCAS, and lifestyle interventions (meditation, running, acupuncture) for significant improvement. With so many concurrent changes, no single component could be…
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Radical Rest and Beyond
The author of Encephalogirl (who signs as Michelle) treats her ME/CFS-related dysautonomia and POTS with guanfacine and low-dose Abilify (titrated from 0.5mg down to 0.25mg after migraines, then back up to 0.5mg), an increased dose of low-dose naltrexone, a…
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My long covid recovery recap: the timeline and tools
Ariel Conn's recovery centered on mind-body approaches: Claritin as one of only two things that helped in her first 18 months, then somatic meditations, Nicole Sachs' JournalSpeak journaling method starting December 2021, somatic and Internal Family Systems…
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Pepcid and 1 Month Without an Episode
julienl42 credited a combination regimen - nebulized itraconazole plus Pepcid, Zantac, kratom, Alka-Seltzer, Alvesco and albuterol - with a month free of the episodes referenced in the thread title. No further detail on duration of illness, severity, or…
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Several long-COVID patients report improvements from antihistamines (Emeline)
Trialed loratadine 10mg twice daily plus famotidine 40mg once daily over a 34-day self-trial, more than four years into her illness; she initially dosed in the morning, then moved the famotidine to the evening after two weeks, which subjectively felt like a…
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Several long-COVID patients report improvements from antihistamines (Rich D)
Tried Singulair (montelukast), which produced significant, though not huge, improvement within about a week, while Pepcid (famotidine) and Zyrtec (cetirizine) had no effect for them. They suggest antihistamines are most useful for long-COVID patients who…
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Several long-COVID patients report improvements from antihistamines
Takes cetirizine nightly (dose not specified) since 2021, along with probiotics, for long-COVID symptoms. They describe the antihistamine as the only thing that quiets what they call a constant cytokine-storm reaction, and say it has also calmed…
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Ten Months of Long COVID
Marie Sanchez Nelson describes taking cetirizine, an antihistamine that calms her nervous system "in minutes," and had started nattokinase just three days before this post, which she hypothesizes may help repair blood vessels; no doses or durations are given…
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Daughter's recovery details
The regimen for Celandine's daughter included daily liquorice root powder and salt in plant milk, weekly-then-tapering Perrin Technique osteopathy (including breast lymphatic massage), the POTS medications ivabradine and midodrine with salt tablets and 2…
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Amber's Long MCAS, POTS, MCS, ME/CFS Recovery Story
Amber had digestive and allergy problems since childhood that became severe MCAS, POTS, MCS and ME/CFS after a marathon at thirty and a bad flu-shot reaction at thirty-one, leaving her homebound and fainting daily despite seeing more than a hundred doctors.…
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Long COVID/ME-CFS Patient Goes into Remission After 3 Weeks on the Antiviral Sofosbuvir
After 2 years of severe, housebound long COVID (POTS, MCAS, brain fog, gut issues, severe weight loss), this patient took standard-dose Harvoni (sofosbuvir/ledipasvir), an antiviral, for 3 weeks and reported the POTS, brain fog and MCAS symptoms resolving to…
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An ME/CFS Expert Helps a Long-COVID Patient Recover
A nineteen-year-old developed POTS and mast cell symptoms after a mild PCR-confirmed COVID infection, leaving him with a wellness score of 45 out of 100 and out of in-person classes for about fifteen months. Under Dr Peter Rowe at Johns Hopkins he was…
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Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine article comments (Li Ho's daughter)
Li Ho's daughter, as the commenter is identified, received a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine while she had post-infection POTS with MCAS symptoms. The shot was followed by an eight-month remission in which she could exercise as she liked and eat foods…
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Success keeping EBV in check with Tagament and/or a herbal protocol
Used Tagamet against recurring mouth sores and flu-like symptoms, but wary of long-term use over dementia-risk concerns, and describes an herbal stand-in - monolaurin, olive leaf extract, oil of oregano, raw garlic, cat's claw, reishi and andrographis taken…
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Impact of extended-course Paxlovid in established Long COVID (Case 7)
Case 7, a 29-year-old man about 10 months into Long COVID/ME since July 2022 with extreme fatigue, PEM, tachycardia, POTS, persistent headache, brain fog, chest pain and shortness of breath, took a 15-day extended Paxlovid course in May 2023 while also on…
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Impact of extended-course Paxlovid in established Long COVID (Case 2)
Case 2, a 45-year-old woman about 11 months into Long COVID with orthostatic intolerance, tachycardia, short-term memory loss, word-finding trouble, fatigue, PEM and MCAS symptoms, took a 15-day extended course of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) in…
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Lucie's Surprisingly Simple Road to Recovery
Lucie had ME/CFS for over a decade, ill enough to cut back to part-time work and give up cycling. Under Dr Rowe's care she combined naproxen taken with salt water, compression stockings and pacing. She reports full recovery with no restrictions, while noting…
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Lucie's Surprisingly Simple Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Recovery Story
Lucie became ill with relatively mild but disabling ME/CFS around 2011, unable to exercise and with her work and social life sharply curtailed. Following pacing advice and an orthostatic-intolerance protocol of high salt and 2.5 litres of water daily, she…
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Immediate positive response to antivirals/immune-modulators, then worse?
Trialed valacyclovir, ranitidine and cimetidine separately, each as single doses and then multi-day courses of up to 4-5 days, with at least a week's break between attempts. Each drug produced "near-complete resolution of fatigue, headache" within about an…
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Has anyone followed the Neil Nathan approach and gotten better?
After six-plus years of illness since a pregnancy-related onset and nine months on Welchol without progress, she was just beginning the Neil Nathan protocol and planning mast-cell stabilizers and five different binders. No outcome is reported, as she posted…
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3-month IVIG experience
Did two years of IVIG (July 2016 to July 2018) at 82g per infusion cycle, run at a very slow infusion speed of 40 ("but it was the fastest that I could tolerate"), for autoimmunity, MCAS and dysautonomia that included years of muscle weakness and breathing…
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Health Update #4: Recovery is a %*#*&$@!
Jennifer Brea had been managing severe ME for about 8 years with Valcyte, Valtrex, Mestinon, and fludrocortisone plus mold avoidance, which had only brought her from severe to moderate; in November 2018 she underwent three surgeries over six weeks — a…
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The Temporary Recovery Stories (Michael)
Commenter Michael credited the allergy drug Singulair, taken for post-nasal drip, with months of improvement that let him sleep, exercise and do cognitive training. No further detail on illness duration or on what happened after he stopped is given.
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Rituxan Number Three, Some Improvement, Still Early to Tell
Previously bed- and wheelchair-bound with complex neuroimmune disease, EDS, PID, NK-cell deficiency and MCAS, she had two Rituximab infusions in November 2018 and a third by March 2019. By the 3-month mark she reported clearly improved muscle strength and…
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Could Craniocervical Instability Be Causing ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia and POTS? (Jeff)
Jeff was young, healthy and active before a viral infection with high fever triggered symptoms that progressed until he was bedbound, unable to chew food, and diagnosed with ME/CFS, POTS and mast cell activation syndrome. Years into his decline he learned he…
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Beginning of improvement?
Six weeks into a self-directed antiviral/immune-booster stack (famciclovir, amantadine, cimetidine, astragalus, inosine, vitamin C) for CFS that began after an unresolved flu six years earlier, reports "much more energy, no brain fog, no fatigue, no chest…
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Charcoal increased my energy immediately - what does this mean?
Unable to tolerate charcoal at all, she instead used apple pectin with oats alongside a relocation and a broader medication protocol for MCAS and prior mold-related illness, reporting only "mild improvement" that can't be cleanly attributed to any one…
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M.E., My Mold, and I: A Story of ME/CFS and Toxic Mold
Over nearly seven years of ME/CFS beginning in late summer 2010, she tried pacing with a heart-rate monitor and many supplements, including herbal antivirals, for about a year, then added neurotransmitter support (dopamine, GABA), an ATP Fuel supplement,…
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The Master Cleanse
Fourteen years into CFS and CIRS (also citing heavy metal toxicity, mold and Lyme disease), Eric documented a roughly 25-day Master Cleanse of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne, adding psyllium and bentonite shakes and continuing some supplements against…
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Tagamet for CFIDS (Denn)
Replying in the same thread, Denn reports a "consistent lessening of the intensity" of some symptoms while taking ranitidine, a milder H2-blocker in the same class as cimetidine. The account is brief and the improvement is described as partial rather than dramatic.
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Tagamet (cimetidine) for CFIDS (worked for me)
After a severe four-month relapse with fevers, shingles and swollen glands, faith.hope.love reports being "90% recovered" on cimetidine about a month into treatment, functional enough to return to work, with her recurrent shingles not returning and the other…
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List of ME/CFS Recovery and Improvement Stories
As compiled in Hip's master recovery-story list, OnlyInDreams is described going from moderate ME/CFS to remission on valganciclovir, with the case noting relapse if the drug is stopped - so the remission is presented as continuing only while medicated.
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Fasting - specifically practically with ME/CFS and methylation treatment
Mr. Cat did a 9-day Master Cleanse of water, lemon, cayenne and molasses. Hunger disappeared by day two, but energy fluctuated and his thinking felt impaired through the fast, and his digestive symptoms improved only to return "immediately" once he went back…
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Mika's full recovery from CFS, Lyme, Severe MCS
Credits brain retraining. Mika had severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Comorbid Lyme, MCS, MCAS.
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Primal Trust testimonials: Alyssa Shifre
Credits brain retraining. Alyssa was ill 3y with long COVID and reports a partial improvement. POTS, Lyme, Long COVID and MCAS combination.
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Vanessa's journey: from chronic illness to recovery
Credits trauma and somatic work, SIRPA and somatic. Vanessa was ill 4y with very-severe long COVID and reports a substantial improvement. 90% recovered; 50+ symptoms including POTS and MCAS.