First time acupuncture experience

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(It was not really the first time but it is the first time I got into this seriously.)

The past Friday I went to see a local Chinese doctor. He looked around 60, energitic and was very concerned about my condition. He gave me one hour acupuncture treatment --- needles all over my body! And all of them were connected to electricity! But really, it was not that scary and painful as it sounds. After connecting to electricity, I felt vibration on skin. That's all.
Before the treatment started, my noses were running like crazy. Doctor gave me first 3 needles around my noses. He said it should help me with my sinus problem. Other needles went to all other places for all different goods.

I didn not feel obvious difference after treatment (my noses stopped running during the treatment but after I left clinic they started running again). These couple days I do feel better but I don't know if it is because of acupuncture or not. Doctor told me I would not feel obvious change until 3 times treatments. So I am patiently waiting for my next appointment (which is tomorrow). In the meantime, I just keep my fingers crossed.

Order blood tests online!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

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By the reading the book "Wellness, piece by piece" I learned that we could actually order blood tests online! I just did one from directlabs.com and I could go to do the tests tomorrow (I could actually go today if I didn't eat my breakfast).
By doing this online, I could avoid all those doctor visit sh*t (sorry) and saved a lot of time! And what's better is that we do not need doctors' permission to do the tests we need! We could do whatever tests we want.

This is the website from where I got my order:
https://www.directlabs.com/

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"Wellness, piece by piece", by Pat Sullivan

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A friend recommanded this book. Pat Sullivan is a successful entrepreneur who suffered long term chronic fatigue syndrome. I just started to read. It seems to be a book that contains lots of original and valuable information.
In the chapter "manage your nervous system", the auther quote from Dr. Edward Conley, an expert in treating CFS:
"We should not confuse the fact that the vast majority of fatigue patients are depressed because of chronic illness, not chronically ill because they are depressed. This is a very important distinction and (one) that most doctors fail to draw. To treat the depression as causing whole illnes is wrong!"

This is so important. I had told friends about this countless times! Now I finally found a approval by an expert!


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September 14-20, 2009, the national invisible disease awareness week!

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977792111

"Nearly 1 in 2 american has a chronic illness"! That's a lot! But I am sure they don't have chronic illness like I have, because almost everybody I know is healthy compair with me!

Moderate and regular exercise, the best way to keep you healthy!

I believe, physically speaking, 2 things dragged me into CFS: extreme lack of exercise and bad diet.
Based on yeast theory, CFS is due to the fact that increased yeast (or candida) population stresses our immune system. So, first is the increased yeasts, second is stressed immune system. I also found that lots of people carry too many yeasts but they are fine. Why? The answer is simple, because they have stronger immune system than I do. So, just one single reason, either increased yeast population or, weak immune system doesn't really cause such terrible outcome as CFS, only 2 of them get together can destroy one's health.*
For my own case, the lack of exercise caused my terribly weak immune system and the bad diet also made yeasts inside my body very happy (that's why I gained weight since I got into middle age).
Now, solutions are: diet pretty much takes care of starving yeasts; exercise would take care of improving immune system.
Here are some researches about how moderate and regular exercise can boost up immune system:
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/injuryprevention/a/Ex_Immunity.htm
*Of course mental issues are also very important but, I don't really want to discuss those right now.

CFS and weight loss

Not sure about other CFS sufferers, I myself always gain weight when my health declines. I had twice gained weight suddenly in my middle aged life: once I gained 20 lbs in 3 month and the second time was 2 years ago, I gained 10 lbs in about one months. And as soon as my health getting better, I am able to do some exercise, my weight drops.

Based on Elmer M. Cranton (http://www.drcranton.com/CFIDS.htm), yeasts mostly live around large intestine area. Thus I think that people with big waistline might carry more yeasts than those with small belly. That's why getting fat is not healthy at all. Of course there are lots of people have big belly and they are just fine, but I suspect that the reason that they are fine might be because their immue systems are strong enought to deal with that many yeasts. When yeasts grow out of proportion, which means more than their immue system can handle, they would suffer consequence just like many CFS sufferers.

Above all, everybody is different. I am glad that I don't have a very strong immue system otherwise, I may weigh 200 pounds now!

Brain fog or sleepiness?

I started to realize that my "brain fog" might simply due to my lack of good sleep.
An online friend suggested that my "brain fog" might be the side effect of taking lugol's iodine (anti candida medication). I have been taking lugol's iodine for over 10 days and I have not found any unwellness yet, except this dizziness.
However, yesterday I woke up with such a good sleep and the "brain fog" was almost gone!

Lots of people believe that CFS is not curable. I don't buy that. Anything has reasons, as long as we find what cause the problem, we will have sulotion..

Here is reference about getting ride of brain fog:

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• Getting Rid of Brain Fog (genbetween.com)

My weight dropped these days without much exercises.

Several things I have been doing together but I don't know which one worked or, just all of them worked: diet, psyllium seeds husk supplement, a lot of water.
Here is my diet menu:
breakfast: oatmeal (actually experts put it as forbbiden food), nuts, a piece of whole wheat bread, soy milk, one egg;
lunch: fish, vegs (salad), brown rice;
dinner: almost the same as lunch.

Oh, just realized that I haven't eaten any fruits for several days! By experts' opinion, fruits have lots of sugar, so they belong to forbbiden foods for CFS sufferers.

Inulin, as a suppliment feeding beneficial intestinal bacteria

According to this link:
http://www.health-science-spirit.com/overcome-candida.htm

inulin, is "a non-digestible polysaccharide, which helps to feed the beneficial intestinal bacteria, especially in the colon. It is present in Jerusalem artichokes, chicory roots and dandelion roots, and may be sold as a white powder, see http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_prebiotic_probiotic.html. ..."
Here is the link to buy:
http://www26.netrition.com/now_inulin_page.html

New page on my website: www.overcomecfs.com/

http://overcomecfs.com/visitors.html

Story of a systemetic candida sufferer. Great fighting experience!

Supplements that help CFS/Candida/yeast-related illness

According to Walter Last "overcoming candida" , these are some useful supplements for CFS or candida/yeast-related illness sufferers:

Multivitamin with additional magnesium, selenium and zinc;
Fish oils;
Plenty of antioxidants;
Digestive enzymes with cooked foods
inulin, present in Jerusalem artichokes, chicory roots and danelion roots, maybe sold as a white powder, check out:http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_prebiotic_probiotic.html
Iodine, 3 mg daily.

More about misunderstanding CFS

Before I realized that I had CFS, I was mentally stressed about my "newly developed antisocial" personality (I used to have so many friends and was always popular wherever I went). I found myself stealthily estranged from old friends, while I was not able to make new. Whenever conflicts happened between my friends and I, I always doubt myself: did my personality really changed? Was I really so stress about my career or personal life, as some of my friends suggested? Now I realized that I am just one of millions of CFS sufferers who not only suffer from physical problems but also from mental stress due to people's misunderstanding and misjudgment.
The major problem is come from the aspect of this disease: the victims DO NOT look sick. That's why it is also called "invisible" disease. Since doctors also cannot find out what problems are, patients' problems are easily considered as mental issues (CFIDS):
"Much to their distress upon seeking medical advice, such victims of CFIDS are often told, "Your physical examination and laboratory studies are all normal. Your symptoms are "psychological." In other words, "you're imagining your illness." Physicians and family alike would consider such patients to be "hypochondriacs." Victims of CFIDS would go from doctor to doctor, year after year, with no benefit."
Not only doctors, but also friends and families members don't understand CFS. Since CFS patients always claim "tired", people would think the "tiredness" they talk about is just like the "regular tiredness", like normal people usually feel after getting out of gym. So most people easily believe that those CFS sufferers are either "lazy", or mentally fragile. Let's just read a little more about what is CFS tiredness like (By FM/CFS/ME resources):
"We all get tired. It's part of life, and especially part of modern life. Think for a moment about the last time you were really tired at work. It's harder to focus, harder to function, but you can push through it. Now think back to the last time you were really sick with something like strep or the flu, too sick to work, and too sick to function. Can you remember how exhausted you were, how hard it was to get out of bed and even take a shower? When you're sick like that, it's like your body just shuts down and demands that you rest.There's a big difference between the two types of tired, right? That second kind of tired is what people with CFS/ME deal with every day. They're not just sleepy, and they can't just push through it. They're so wiped out that their bodies demand rest and sleep constantly."
I myself used to be extremely tired that I had to quit my job (or whatever I do for living) together with almost any social life --- include hanging out with my dear friends --- because talking was just too much for me to suffer. But still, many people just don't believe that I was ill, and suggested that it was due to my "antisocial personality". Of course it is not that important how other people think of you. We all know this simple philosophy, but in situation like CFS, being sick like a person need to be taken care of in hospital but not even a life soul on this earth believe that you are sick, to be understood by others means totally different thing. I just cannot tell you how angry I felt when people looked at me, shaking their head saying: "you don't look sick", "you are fine", "just don't say you are tired. ok?", "why do you say that ('I don't have energy')?". At this point, what offends me is not what people's misunderstanding, but ignorance: how could people assume they know you better than you know yourself?
Under such overwhelmingly misunderstanding and judgment, I just cannot tell how much it would take me to retain my sanity. Needless to mention, those physical chronic symptoms alone could destroy a normal human being's confidence.
After I knew I had CFS, I visited some online forum and realized that I was not only one who suffered this kind of misunderstanding. Much worse cases are out there. Some of them were treated as mentally ill people, forced to spend rest of their life in asylum. The worst case was those who died by misdiagnosed and mistreatment, like Sophia Mirza.
Again, Ignorance kills!