How it went
Did it last?
- 12 of 76 said the benefit wore off (including the 3 who relapsed).
- 5 of 76 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 | 14 | 18% |
| Near-full | 8 | 11% |
| Substantial | 24 | 32% |
| Partial | 23 | 30% |
| Relapsed | 3 | 4% |
| No benefit | 4 | 5% |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 7 | 29% | |
| Severe | 34 | 38% | |
| Very severe | 7 | 57% |
28 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.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Elimination and ketogenic diets, per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 6 | 184 | 32.6 |
| 2010 | 9 | 682 | 13.2 |
| 2011 | 8 | 704 | 11.4 |
| 2012 | 3 | 1,491 | 2.0 |
| 2013 | 42 | 1,708 | 24.6 |
| 2014 | 64 | 2,352 | 27.2 |
| 2015 | 11 | 2,158 | 5.1 |
| 2016 | 11 | 1,431 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | 32 | 3,110 | 10.3 |
| 2018 | 65 | 2,201 | 29.5 |
| 2019 | 19 | 1,075 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | 24 | 2,581 | 9.3 |
| 2021 | 10 | 1,867 | 5.4 |
| 2022 | 23 | 1,166 | 19.7 |
| 2023 | 11 | 1,000 | 11.0 |
| 2024 | 9 | 1,237 | 7.3 |
| 2025 | 3 | 1,019 | 2.9 |
| 2026 (so far) | 1 | 840 | 1.2 |
Posts in the forum threads we archived, 26,806 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These threads all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
Side effects and harms people mentioned
Found by scanning the summaries for side-effect language, so this list is incomplete and may include a mention that isn’t about Elimination and ketogenic diets itself. Read the story before drawing conclusions.
- Side effects
A roughly two-week trial of the low-calorie "Blood Sugar Diet 800" eliminated this poster's daily afternoon-to-evening energy crashes, letting him "sit up all day," but he had to stop it because it caused increasing weakness - a genuine but unsustainable partial improvement.
All 76 accounts
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Jonathan Groves' Story
Jonathan practiced Ekadashi Upavasa fasting (fasting on the 11th lunar day) combined with autophagy principles, an elimination diet cutting out all processed food, caffeine, sugar and alcohol, the Silva Method, meditation, breathwork, affirmations and…
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What is the evidence for histamine as a possible cause of ME/CFS symptoms?
Took diamine oxidase (DAO) situationally before high-histamine meals, plus nettle tea raised from one to six bags a day after a histamine spike, with quercetin and bromelain. Explicitly did NOT follow a low-histamine diet, stating that histamine in food was…
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Relief! I still have CFS but am a MILLION times better, takes a lot of work but worth it
Built an extensive daily regimen around kratom (Green Malay strain), weekly B12 injections, magnesium, psyllium fiber, CPAP therapy, an annual course of Xifaxan and a year-long course of itraconazole, plus NAC, glycine, glutathione and BPC-157, for ME/CFS…
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Relief! I still have CFS but am a MILLION times better
julienl42's own title is his hedge: after 13 years and a long, actively-managed stack of prescription, antifungal, sleep and supplement treatments, he has gone from being in bed all day with 3-4 crashes a month to about one crash every one to two months,…
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Karen Wright's Story
Karen started with a low-histamine diet that brought overnight improvement, then moved to a broader anti-inflammatory diet, alongside pacing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy through the NHS Long COVID service, breathwork, meditation, yoga, counselling and…
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Low oxalate diet noticeably improved my fatigue and brain fog after 3 days
Hip started a low-oxalate diet plus calcium-with-meals and daily magnesium and reports significant improvement in fatigue, brain fog and mental/anxiety symptoms appearing within just 3 days. He calls the brain fog and "zombie-like mental vagueness" clearly…
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Diet Recommendations?
Tried an elimination diet removing gluten, dairy, legumes, meat, poultry, fish and nightshades, after 6 years of ME/CFS that had left her pretty incapacitated with only brief remissions (the longest 7 weeks). Was already eating a Mediterranean-style diet…
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Pepcid and 1 month without an 'episode'
After 36 years with ME/CFS and a period of mold exposure and concussions, began a low-oxalate diet on top of an existing low-histamine diet, plus doctor-prescribed Pepcid and ketotifen fumarate. Describes feeling, before this, like dropping through layers of…
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Melody's ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia and Long COVID Recovery Story
Melody was infected early in the pandemic, hospitalised with double pneumonia, then bedbound for six months and homebound on supplemental oxygen for two and a half years despite thirteen prescription drugs and multiple specialists. She credits a combination…
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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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Dr. Craig on Fasting For Better Health in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lowered carbohydrate intake combined with intermittent fasting, progressing after some months to therapeutic fasts of 24 to 72 hours. He had CF/ME-type symptoms for an unstated period until discovering this approach in 2022; severity is not given. After 7 to…
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Michelle
Michelle saw more than ten specialists and tried extensive medical treatment: beta blockers, the migraine drug Ubrelvy, meclizine for dizziness, two rounds of prednisone, B12 shots for neuropathy, and Paxlovid taken months after her initial infection, plus…
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Vedicinals-9 for Long Covid - my experiences
Vedicinals-9, taken as one bottle daily for six weeks, three boxes and 42 bottles in total. She had long COVID for more than two years before the trial. Early days brought no change, nausea appeared around days four to eight, energy and ability to go outside…
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Recovery stories: parasites cleanse
In 2006, took Paragone (an herbal antiparasitic supplement) for a couple of months alongside a very-low-carb diet, and reports it "cut the brain fog I'd grown up with by about 70%." Explicit that this did not touch the underlying ME/CFS, which they attribute…
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List of ME/CFS Recovery and Improvement Stories (page 6 discussion)
msf went from mostly housebound to functionally healthy - full-time work, a social life and strenuous exercise with minimal PEM - crediting a combination of KDM-directed treatments, trazodone, a low-FODMAP diet, ALA and Chinese skullcap. No single component…
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CBT for CFS: Luke Shares His Experience and Recovery
Luke combined self-directed CBT (working through his own negative thought patterns rather than with a therapist) with a methylation protocol developed by Rich Von Konynenburg (B vitamins plus folic acid), guidance from two books -- Kristina Downing-Orr's…
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My whole world and understanding of things had been turned upside down, in the best way possible
Alex did a three-day home-visit Lightning Process course with practitioner Kathy Kent, based on Phil Parker's method, after roughly three years of ME/CFS that left him room-bound for about a year, able to reach the bathroom only once a day at his worst, and…
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ME/CFS Patient Goes into Remission After Taking Elixir of Youth (GDF11)
beatsmyth, bedbound for a decade with CFS/fibromyalgia, had already improved his gut and skin issues on an 8-month antibiotic protocol before adding BPC-157 and LL-37 peptides for three months, which he called "absolutely miraculous": remaining stomach…
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Adrienne Dellwo Shares Her Fibromyalgia Remission Story
Adrienne Dellwo's regimen included low-dose naltrexone at 3mg (compounded, versus a standard 30mg dose per the article), plus rhodiola rosea, L-theanine, vitamin B and D, a custom herbal blend and acupuncture from her rheumatologist, meditation, yoga, a…
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Partial success with liver health improvement - choline
About two years after her liver-focused diet, and after discovering she also had previously undiagnosed active celiac disease, switched to a ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting. Says this is definitely helping, with several hours of active time…
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3 Decades of ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, MCS, Lyme End Fast
Claudia treated chronic Lyme disease from 2012-2015 with three years of low-dose Byron White herbal protocols plus a strict elimination diet, then in 2019 did the three-month ANS REWIRE nervous-system retraining program alongside naturopath adjustments that…
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Treatments that have worked??
Two weeks into a strict ketogenic diet after 5.5 years of worsening, housebound ME, describes being "currently near remission." He flags it himself as "very early days" and points to a separate thread for details rather than declaring it settled -- a…
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First time in remission with ketogenic diet
After 10 months on a ketogenic diet, reports a "much better state of health" than on a prior Paleo diet, with less PEM, no air hunger, and better coordination and balance. Describes about 10% more energy overall, with the gain holding rather than fading over…
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First time in remission with ketogenic diet
On a ketogenic diet, reports no longer being housebound "after many years" of ME/CFS, though it "took me a lot longer to see results" than other posters in the same thread. Exact dose and duration weren't given, but the improvement is described as…
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First time in remission with ketogenic diet
After more than a year on a ketogenic diet, reports a "very significant improvement" in ME/CFS symptoms: reduced PEM, eliminated air hunger, better coordination and balance, and about 10% more energy and mental clarity. Notes the benefit "tailed off a…
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First time in remission with ketogenic diet
Adopted a strict ketogenic diet after 5.5 years of moderate ME/CFS with escalating weekly crashes: a 48-hour initial fast, under 25g net carbs a day, roughly 75/20/5 fat/protein/carb macros, electrolyte and baking-soda supplementation, and blood monitoring…
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Treatments that have worked??
One to two weeks into a strict Fuhrman-style whole-food plant-based diet plus L-tyrosine, B12 and chlorella, reports sleeping well and exercising daily with "NO PEM, none whatsoever," resuming running and gaining muscle after years of losing it despite…
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Mestinon + Famvir - whoa!
After a severe EBV flare in February 2017 that made cardiac symptoms - low blood pressure, low heart rate, shortness of breath, "heart palpitations like mad" - much worse on top of 5 years of CFS, started Famvir (titrated up to 500mg twice daily), added…
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Gaps diet put me in direction to recovery
After ME/CFS following a Levaquin reaction, started the GAPS elimination diet plus VSL#3 probiotic while mostly bedbound and began "improving slowly but surely" within two weeks. Reached part-time work by two years in, and by five years post-diet was "much…
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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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Objective CPET improvement & remission on ketogenic diet
A roughly two-week trial of the low-calorie "Blood Sugar Diet 800" eliminated this poster's daily afternoon-to-evening energy crashes, letting him "sit up all day," but he had to stop it because it caused increasing weakness - a genuine but unsustainable…
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Objective CPET improvement & remission on ketogenic diet
Unable to tolerate a full ketogenic diet, this poster followed a looser low-carb, high-fat approach alongside antibiotic herbs and a course of Rifaximin, reporting energy "way up" and PEM "very much improved." Presented as a straightforward success with no…
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Objective CPET improvement & remission on ketogenic diet
Twenty-one years into ME/CFS and on a slow decline, this poster switched to a strict ketogenic diet in October 2016 and six months later reports reactive hypoglycemia, disabling migraines and insomnia resolved, and he can sit upright all day without…
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My recovery after my one and only crash.
Added iodine supplementation, topical DMSO with magnesium oil twice daily, pregnenolone 50mg per day, and a gluten-free, grain-free diet. Illness duration and severity are not detailed in the post. Reports 2016 as one of his most significant improvement…
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My recovery after my one and only crash.
Combined a strict elimination diet (no gluten, dairy, processed food or fructose) with Lyrica at 225mg per day, low-dose naltrexone, ketotifen, antihistamines, B12 with methylfolate, rifaximin plus neomycin for SIBO, hyperbaric oxygen, and later tDCS.…
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Nutrients from food, paleo 'cheats'. Working for me, at last!!
Reports "good improvement over the past few years" after making large changes to diet, including a nutrient-rich eating pattern, vegetable juices and higher-quality supplements. States explicitly that she is not fully cured; specific supplements and doses…
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Nutrients from food, paleo 'cheats'. Working for me, at last!!
After 5 years of illness, switched to a modified paleo, nutrient-dense whole-food diet and says most of the improvement came from these dietary changes, putting them "way closer to living a normal life." Explicitly says "I'm not cured," and notes symptoms…
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I'm in love with Ketotifen!
Ketotifen, starting with over-the-counter Zaditor eye drops before moving to the oral tablet form, exact dose and duration not stated; how long ill is not given, though she describes moderate chemical sensitivity and anaphylaxis-like reactions. She reported…
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How I recovered.
Combined a multi-part protocol -- twelve $325 Oxford "homeostasis" peptide shots starting September 2013, a rotary diversified (Theron Randolph) elimination diet, vitamin D, low-dose naltrexone, Remeron, the Gupta amygdala-retraining program, and removing…
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Fructose Malabsorption
Cut fructose out of his diet and separately treated a confirmed case of SIBO, after developing worsening stomach pain and going on to develop full ME/CFS on top of existing fibromyalgia over about a year. Describes going downhill more and more beforehand,…
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What Is MCAS Like?
Ketotifen, dose and duration not stated; how long ill and severity are not given. He described it as being like a miracle drug when he first started taking it. He then crashed very badly. The account frames this as an example of medication sensitivity, with…
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Beat Candida Diet Beats Christine's 10 Year Bout with ME/CFS
Followed a candida-focused Four Point Plan diet for ME/CFS. Had been ill for 10 years, at a point described as slumped in a chair exhausted with little interest in life. The site describes dramatic improvement within weeks; by a few months later she was…
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Beat Candida Diet Beats Christine's 10 Year Bout with ME/CFS
Mentions having tried anti-candida treatment himself nearly 30 years before this post. Illness duration, severity and the specific protocol used are not detailed. Reports it was without success, with no further detail or later follow-up given in the thread.
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Beat Candida Diet Beats Christine's 10 Year Bout with ME/CFS
Tried an anti-candida diet about 20 years before this post with no benefit, then tried again roughly a year and a half before this post but abandoned it after three weeks, citing how restrictive it was and how emotionally hard it was to give up comfort…
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Beat Candida Diet Beats Christine's 10 Year Bout with ME/CFS
Tried the same anti-candida approach, using candidarecovery.com as a resource, but struggled with the diet because of her IBS-C, needing to keep fiber intake high. Found the Thorne SF722 (undecenoic acid) supplement helpful when attempting the protocol.…
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Beat Candida Diet Beats Christine's 10 Year Bout with ME/CFS
Christine suffered years of severe ME/CFS exhaustion and depression after a gradual onset in the early 1990s, at her lowest slumped in a chair with little interest in life. Under a nutritional therapist's guidance she followed a four-week anti-candida…
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Nutritional Genomics and My Complete Recovery
Used a nutritional-genomics-guided protocol, using his own genetic testing results to choose specific diet and supplement changes, alongside an ongoing low-histamine diet. Had ME/CFS along with cycling OCD, anxiety and depression severe enough to require two…
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A Story of Survival: How Diet Saved a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Patient's Life
Naomi narrowed her diet to ten foods she did not react to and stayed on that restricted diet for five years, alongside deliberate stress reduction and faith practice, a later shift to organic food, and unspecified herbs and vitamins. Her pain and migraines…
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Emotional Healing Key for Fibromyalgia Patient
Beth was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1987 and was mostly bedbound for close to a decade with severe fatigue, back pain, migraines and insomnia. She pursued Bach Flower Remedies, a candida diet, chiropractic, massage and Reiki alongside addressing…
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Do People Really Recover From ME/CFS and/or Fibromyalgia? An Inquiry (Sandrine)
Commenting on this inquiry post, Sandrine described about two years of severe fibromyalgia so bad she was once unable to brush her teeth and would scream from pain. She credits essential oils taken internally and topically, liposomal vitamin C, MSM, olive…
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Hitting Rock Bottom Leads To Turnaround for Dan
Dan developed ME/CFS after a chickenpox vaccination during an intensely stressful period, and over six and a half mostly homebound years suffered extreme fatigue, bouts of fever, cardiac issues and brain fog. He attributes his recovery to addressing…
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Diet makes the biggest difference for Alexandra
Alexandra, a 26-year-old nurse when she first fell ill after flu, recovered initially but then relapsed severely for seven years, becoming mostly home- and bed-bound. She tried amitriptyline, which eventually made things worse, and used the mind-body…
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High Protein, High Fat, Low Carb Diet Makes it for Mike
Switched to a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet for ME/CFS. Illness duration and severity beforehand are not given in the visible excerpt. The site describes him as reaching better health than ever along with a sense of inner peace after the…
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High Protein, High Fat, Low Carb Diet Makes it for Mike
Mike developed a sudden onset of ME/CFS after losing his job and then his home, becoming depressed while eating mostly junk food. He credits a switch to a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet based on Dr Wolfgang Lutz's approach with restoring both…
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"Clean Energy": Can a Ketogenic Diet Help with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia?
First diagnosed with ME/CFS as a teenager in 1998 and later in remission, Dr. Courtney Craig relapsed into crushing fatigue, disturbed sleep and muscle weakness. She shifted to a ketogenic diet, getting roughly 80% of calories from fat and monitoring ketosis…
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Multidimensional program is the ticket for Michelle
Tai chi and qigong practice, described as vital for immune function, balance and heart functioning, was one element of a long-term multidimensional program that also included an elimination diet (no dairy, most grains, fermented foods, alcohol, MSG, sugar or…
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Jess Goes Raw - and Beats ME/CFS
Adopted a raw food diet for ME/CFS. Illness duration and severity beforehand are not given in the visible excerpt. The site's title describes her as having beaten ME/CFS through the change, and her own quoted advice is not to overthink going raw, calling it…
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Jess Goes Raw - and Beats ME/CFS
Jess became ill with fatigue and brain fog at university, and after noticing raw foods made her feel better she gradually shifted to a largely raw diet while cutting processed foods and swapping chemical household products for natural ones. Visualisation…
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Combination of Supplements Allows Me to Work and Exercise - But causes extreme Gastritis
Built a roughly 60-item daily supplement stack (B12, NADH, high-dose antioxidants/glutathione, SAM-e, CoQ10, glandulars, ribose, phosphatidylserine and more) over three-plus years of trial and error for CFS, fibromyalgia and Hashimoto's. Says the combination…
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what has worked for you
Combined a gluten-free, dairy-free paleo diet with Nystatin, an S. boulardii probiotic, a Freddd-style methylation protocol, coffee enemas and gentle 30-minute cold-water swims. She reports these "have helped" enough that she is now "able to work part time…
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Dr. Myhill- outcomes of treatment -good,bad,indifferent (poll)
Following Cordain-style paleo and an elimination diet for food/chemical intolerances (not directly treated by Dr Myhill, but using similar functional-medicine dietary logic), she reports staged symptom resolution over years - buzzing sensations stopped…
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Diet and improvement
Followed a strict "Practical Paleo"-book diet for 30 days, then eased off slightly, over about two months total. She reports "significant improvement" - much more energy, headaches and dizziness gone, and anxiety gone (though she notes that "could be from…
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Diet and improvement
Switched to a strict paleo diet and within two weeks felt an "immediate improvement" strong enough that he thought he "would be cured soon" if it kept up at that rate. It didn't: he reports the improvement "has not continued in this fashion," describing the…
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Ten Years of healing: No more congestive heart failure, FMS, CFS and minus 100 pounds
After lifelong gastrointestinal problems, she spent about a year working up to a full dose of a Metafolin-containing B-complex alongside a gluten-free diet. She reports "doing a lot better now," with normal T3 thyroid levels "for the first time ever" and…
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Anyone have any success with GAPS?
After 3.5 years of severe ME, she combined a GAPS/Paleo hybrid diet with aloe vera, glutamine, bone broth, juicing, liver-detox herbs and probiotics. She estimates the diet alone took her from "10% with pain to 40% with no pain," describing it as ongoing,…
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Simple diet restriction seems to be a successful treatment for sleep disturbance
After 5 years of illness, restricted eating to two meals a day with nothing after 6pm, combined with a gluten-, lactose-, whey- and casein-free bland diet on distilled water only. He says it "makes an incredible difference" for his sleep disturbance, calling…
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Some things that have helped me
A ten-month combination of Lugol's iodine, desiccated thyroid, an elimination diet, monthly liver flushes and an antiparasitic herbal mix brought "much more energy and much less pain" after 9.5 years of CFS/fibromyalgia, with symptoms shifting within a day…
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3 Things that Help the Most!!
Credits a low-carb, high-protein diet, hydroxocobalamin B12 injections every 3-4 days, and chiropractic care with eliminating her dizziness and constant thirst. The improvement is specific to those symptoms rather than an overall recovery, stated with clear,…
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What treatments HAVE ACTUALLY helped?
Built a regimen around rotating sleep aids (Imovane/zopiclone), Tramal, 5-HTP, Neurontin, lipoic acid, NAC, a low-carb Atkins-style diet and modified weight training, but singles out Famvir as the biggest driver, saying that without it he "would be…
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What treatments HAVE ACTUALLY helped?
Tried a paleolithic-style diet along with a BEMER pulsed-electromagnetic-field device. Reports improved hypoglycemia symptoms and better sleep, describing it as an ongoing, ordinary partial improvement rather than a dramatic turnaround.
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What treatments HAVE ACTUALLY helped?
Combined a large stack of B12 injections, CoQ10, Fibroenergy, amino acids, SAMe, magnesium, prescription vitamin D, Synthroid, three years of low-dose Minocin, three months of antivirals, and a gluten-free diet, without singling out one component as key. Now…
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Stages of Recovery - personal experience
Eliminated all grains in favor of soaked seeds, vegetables and fruit, with only occasional B12, amino acids, coconut kefir and macrobiotic foods, deliberately keeping supplements minimal. A year into this she no longer needs bed rest most days, does "much…
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Stages of Recovery - personal experience
Followed Dr Myhill's standard protocol (B3, B12, magnesium, CoQ10, 15g/day L-glutamine, 10g/day BCAAs, 1g/day malic acid) starting Nov/Dec 2007, combined with an elimination diet of mainly white rice and chicken, FIR sauna detox, and Buteyko breathing. Went…
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My complete protocol - recovering well from bad 7 years+ CFS
Ran a broad two-year self-built protocol - high-dose B vitamins, vitamin D3, D-ribose, CoQ10, acetyl-L-carnitine, a sublingual/nasal B12-folate methylation stack, amino acids, Buteyko breathing, infrared sauna and transdermal magnesium - layered onto months…
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2 enlightening fasting experiences
cigana, the thread's starter, did two separate 2-day water-only fasts, the second followed by three days eating under 800 kcal. Once ketosis set in their hunger disappeared, energy rose and they said they felt "almost normal," though stomach bloating and…
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Fasting - full water only variety - has anyone here tried it?
After six years chasing relief from ME/CFS by cycling between keto and carnivore diets, Bassaur tried a doctor-recommended 3-day water fast with a couple of cups of bone broth. Partway through they reported feeling unexpectedly good: mind clear, emotions…