How it went
Did it last?
- 7 of 32 said the benefit wore off (including the 2 who relapsed).
- 5 of 32 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 | 3 | 9% |
| Near-full | 4 | 12% |
| Substantial | 10 | 31% |
| Partial | 11 | 34% |
| Relapsed | 2 | 6% |
| No benefit | 2 | 6% |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 2 | 0% | |
| Severe | 12 | 42% | |
| Very severe | 7 | 14% |
11 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 Vitamin D and sun exposure, 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 | 4 | 184 | 21.7 |
| 2010 | 10 | 682 | 14.7 |
| 2011 | 21 | 704 | 29.8 |
| 2012 | 54 | 1,491 | 36.2 |
| 2013 | 7 | 1,708 | 4.1 |
| 2014 | 50 | 2,352 | 21.3 |
| 2015 | 15 | 2,158 | 7.0 |
| 2016 | 17 | 1,431 | 11.9 |
| 2017 | 21 | 3,110 | 6.8 |
| 2018 | 18 | 2,201 | 8.2 |
| 2019 | 3 | 1,075 | 2.8 |
| 2020 | 35 | 2,581 | 13.6 |
| 2021 | 26 | 1,867 | 13.9 |
| 2022 | 70 | 1,166 | 60.0 |
| 2023 | 33 | 1,000 | 33.0 |
| 2024 | 14 | 1,237 | 11.3 |
| 2025 | 36 | 1,019 | 35.3 |
| 2026 (so far) | 2 | 840 | 2.4 |
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
All 32 accounts
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Nearly Recovered Me
Rebuilt her gut microbiome with General Biotics Equilibrium and later Seed probiotics, which she calls a turning point, on top of a two-decade stack that included 41 days of Miracle Mineral Solution in 2008 (a self-described game changer), Fredd's B12…
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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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Has anyone recovered from CFS or been able to radically improve?
Posting as FortheBeautyoftheEarth on Mumsnet, this user describes B12 injections given every three months, a double dose of Desunin 800 (vitamin D), and folate supplementation, with vitamin C mentioned as something still to try; no further doses or a…
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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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Has anyone recovered from CFS or been able to radically improve? (riotlady)
Treatment was non-pharmaceutical: an initial period of extended rest, followed by graded exercise therapy done very gently under a physiotherapist's guidance, plus vitamin D tablets, with riotlady saying no single measure was a magic bullet. The post does…
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Digestive enzymes profound positive effect on me
Started Thorne Bio-Gest digestive enzymes after suspecting poor nutrient absorption, later adding zinc carnosine, whey protein, iron with vitamin C, a multivitamin, vitamin D, iodine and NAC, with no doses specified. He says he can now feel his body "healing…
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Bedridden for 1.5 years and still getting worse - IVIG only hope
Howard, exclusively bed-bound since 2015 with post-exertional malaise since 2009, said eight hours a day of outdoor light since the previous November, aimed at raising vitamin D, brought a recent sudden though gradual improvement, alongside tart cherry…
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A treatment that helps me tremendously
Ill since 2012, this poster built daily direct sun exposure from five minutes to several hours a day over a few years, alongside high-dose vitamin D3. In summer he can do housework, see friends, sail and garden, going from roughly thirty per cent to over…
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Ivermectin for Fibro.
Ivermectin, taken orally starting in July as a COVID preventive with no dose specified, was continued by an ME/CFS patient for a couple of months. After about two months they began feeling better in general, reporting more energy and less post-exertional…
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Substantial improvement with strange dietary adjustments
Wonkmonk built a highly specific elimination/adjustment diet after years of downhill CFS. He says he moved from borderline "very severe" to the lower end of "severe" - pain almost gone, able to get up, cook, and walk a few miles - and calls it "very…
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A treatment that helps me tremendously (pamojja)
Over eight winters of tropical sun exposure in India, this poster's swimming capacity rose from about twenty minutes to more than eighty during those sunny periods. A near-infrared lamp gave a smaller but measurable version of the same benefit when real sun…
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A treatment that helps me tremendously (splusholia)
Previously completely bedridden and unable even to sit up or talk, this poster credits hours of direct daily sun exposure as a key factor in improving to a severe-to-moderate level over subsequent years. It is a major but explicitly partial gain rather than a cure.
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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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Illustrated Remission, Energy & End of Insomnia - Returned to Running
Built a daily regimen of iron supplements twice a day, a green drink with apple cider vinegar, vitamin D at 10,000 IU, grass-fed beef liver tablets, 30 minutes of daily meditation and nightly yoga, later adding a reverse-osmosis water filter. Had been…
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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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Full Recovery of 27 Severe Mycotoxicosis Patients (O2 / FIR / Sups / Antifungal / AIET) + POLL
On cholestyramine and two months away from home while addressing a broad B-vitamin deficiency found on testing (which he attributes partly to cholestyramine binding nutrients), he reports improvement has been minimal, "without much improvement," and adjusted…
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Super Immune Activator - GcMAF by Living Technologies
Used the Living Technologies "Super Immune Activator" kit (homemade raw milk/kefir-grain GcMAF ferment with colostrum, probiotics and vitamin D3/K2, 50ml twice daily) plus GcMAF Plus cream, starting October 2017 for gut/bowel symptoms. Within days he could…
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GREAT Tips to improve (6 years experience)
Six years in, this poster describes a partial turnaround in energy timing and sleep - waking naturally without an alarm - after combining a supplement stack with a self-imposed "dopamine challenge" restricting stimulation after 6pm. He's explicit this is "my…
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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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Mike Dessin's Amazing Recovery Story
Started powdered amino acids at about a quarter teaspoon per day, alongside pregnenolone, vitamin D, methyl B12 with methylfolate, and a high-protein diet of about 100 grams a day kept up for more than five years. Had been ill with ME/CFS for 10 years and…
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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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Boo's Healing with B12 Journal
About two years into B12-deficiency-related neurological symptoms, depression and heart palpitations severe enough to include hospitalization for a suspected cardiac event, she moved to monthly hydroxocobalamin injections alongside potassium, magnesium, iron…
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A Proven Treatment-Cure for Chronic Epstein Barr Virus
After 19 years of illness including multiple chronic infections, Abdulrahman self-designed an antibiotic course for mycoplasma followed by a supplement-heavy antiviral protocol for EBV, and reports being "95% cured for 2.5 years," functioning better than the…
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Methylation recovery survey. Recovery stories here!!
Followed a "Yasko lite" methylation protocol blending Rich Van Konynenburg/Freddd/Ben Lynch approaches for about 1.5 years, including methylcobalamin, adenosylcobalamin, potassium, magnesium, molybdenum and methylfolate. She discontinued long-term antifungal…
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Significant Improvement Story -- Focus on Thiamine Deficiency
Daily thiamine injections reportedly resolved nine years of ME/CFS that the patient attributed to "a vitamin deficiency caused by a metabolic error," leaving them "leading a normal life today." This account was reposted secondhand by another member quoting…
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progess report..feeling almost normal
About 1.5 years into severe illness (bedridden, lightheaded, shaking, forced to leave her home), she combined cholestyramine and Valtrex for 4 months, methylB12 injections tapering from daily to every other day over 4 months, plus ongoing sublingual…
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Latested Updated Regimen
Built an elaborate daily/weekly amino-acid, vitamin, mineral and chelation regimen (sodium ascorbate and amino acids with every meal, weekly LDN, sublingual B12 forms, EDTA chelation, periodic Tindamax courses and liver flushes). An earlier version of this…
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has anyone stuck religiously to Dr Myhill's protocol and hadsignificant improvements?
Following Dr Myhill's protocol for over a year, though not "religiously" due to sensitivities and being vegetarian, this poster reports magnesium clearing cramps and restless legs, vitamin D3 helping cognition, and overall "significant improvements" that…
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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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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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Supplements that have helped me
Takes vitamin D ("makes a real difference for me"), B-vitamins, whey protein for GI problems, omega-3 for joint/muscle pain, and topical Traumeel/Lymphagen for chronically swollen throat and ear glands, alongside juicing and a grains/sugar-reduced diet.…
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Gcmaf-reactions and side effects
Took 4 injections of GcMAF and had a marked exacerbation of pre-existing burning mouth syndrome, describing the sensation as "like chili on my mouth." Labs showed low 25-OH vitamin D but elevated 1,25 vitamin D; the prescribing clinic (KDM) responded by…