Back from the dead!

All Hallow's Eve approaches and many friends are telling me that they are feeling like death warmed up.

It is normal to be worn down by fatigue and and moan that this is a horrible time of year. We wish all these stomach bugs and infections on our chests would go away...and quickly.

I am also “full of cold”, falling in to a deep exhausted sleep for hours at a time, and struggling to write through an aching body and head which has continued for a week. But I am excited and happy about this.

Why??? Why would I be so perverse?

To shorten a difficult explanation: because it is a sign that my body is alive and kicking!

You see, I have now been through years of these phases of increased immune response with aching bones, upset stomach, mucus-production, sinusitis and headaches. I made them happen by embarking on a radical and tough immune-stimulating drug protocol called the Marshall Protocol. This is the opposite of many mainstream immune-suppressing medical treatments for chronic pain and autoimmune conditions.

The result after 17 months has been a huge reduction in my chronic pain, diagnosed as fibromyalgia, and the recovery of my ability to maintain a stable body temperature (At times in the past three to five years the number of clothing layers I needed was ridiculous and any exposure of my skin to cooler air led to uncontrollable shivering and blueish nails).

I am now able to think about working again because the cognitive dysfunction I experienced for a few years seems to be lifting gradually like a curtain.

I fully expect to face more ups and downs during my recovery, but now I sense that my body can basically cope with what is thrown at it.

In the last month or two I was feeling quite good, sailing along, no longer struggling to walk more than short distances, and able to use my muscles more often without post-exertion pain.

I consulted my two doctors and we agreed that I would make a certain medical adjustment which they predicted would cause my immune response to increase again. This is sometimes called a Herxheimer reaction. We all felt that I was ready for this next step change.

Hence I am now sneezing, coughing, aching and trying to clear my poor sinuses.....and I am rejoicing as I take the next steps in my recovery! I haven't “caught a bug” - my body is responding exactly as planned, to control the chronic infections already at home inside my body.

I want to write a whole series of blog posts about natural immune responses of different types (subject to my own daily symptoms!). If you don't think I am explaining in a lot more depth what I believe is happening in the body, contact me and tell me!

Good health everyone!

A modern parable for the chronically ill

A security guard is sitting at his desk, a couple of token CCTV screens in front of him. In this very quiet building the security desk is tucked to one side, away from the gaze of people passing by.
Not much happens so it is unsurprising that occasionally the bored security guard puts his feet up and nods off.
On one of these occasions some brazen robbers take advantage of his nap and creep past the desk. They invade the inner office and tie up the staff.
They steal everything they can get their hands on and get access to the valuables in the safe - but the security guard is none the wiser.

Once the robbers have stolen everything and decided to set up their own illegal business there, they are a bit hungry. They call up a pizza firm and a bakery and impersonate the office manager to order some take-aways.
The pizzas and doughnuts arrive, but the security guard doesn't think this is suspicious and lets the delivery men deliver to the inner office.
The robbers are enjoying their new crime base and the free facilities but eventually get fed up with having to fool the security guard outside in the lobby. So they devise a way of sealing up the security guard's mouth.
Once they have attacked him, he is forced to remain at his desk as if he is on guard, but all he can do is shriek and groan through his sealed mouth. Now the security guard is aware of what’s happening but unable to tell anyone.

He is a conscientious guy so he decides to risk contacting the main security centre to call for help. But at the other end of the phone line the operator is alarmed and confused to receive several calls and hear nothing but a terrible moaning sound.
The security centre operators become quite distressed when the muffled screeches are repeated over and over again as the security guard keeps phoning.
Eventually the controller of the security centre takes a decision to stop these calls that are distressing his staff so much. He sends round a telephone engineer to the nearest exchange.

Soon the telephone line to the office security guard has been cut and they are no longer troubled by the awful calls.
They assume that the office staff and valuables are safe but the security centre has in fact let the robbers get away with the crime. The business originally operating from that sleepy office is now totally wiped out.

Have you noticed how modern Western medicine is devoted to describing what your main symptoms are and then prescribing specific medication to reduce or stop each symptom?
But consider the word ‘symptom’. When we experience pain or joint aches or digestive problems, what are these symptoms of?
Our bodies are complex organisms able to send us messages to tell us that something is wrong. If we remove these messages – these symptoms – then we don’t know anything dangerous is happening.
The security guards in our body are called Vitamin D Receptors. These form the major part of the body’s innate immune system. This is different from the adaptive immune system which moves to destroy any bacterial or viral ‘robbers’.
In our nice clean society the Vitamin D Receptors get sleepy because they don’t have much danger to look out for. But there are some very clever bacterial ‘robbers’ out there who know how to get past them.
Around one hundred of them can fit inside one human cell. They also produce a ‘slime’ which eventually can coat the Vitamin D Receptors and stop them communicating.

If your body seems to be sending you alarming and painful messages – symptoms - then it may be better for your long term health to listen to them, rather than cut them off at source with medication.
For that you don’t need a specialist. You need to have a holistic view of how the body works. In the past this may have been an area left to ‘alternative’ medicine but now some scientists are beginning to uncover how the body works as a whole mesh of complex metabolisms.
Why not make some further investigations to help yourself out of chronic illness and back in to health?