Hi Red04,
I had recovered on Fredd's protocol, but I still always felt like I was pushing my body hard all the time. Too many symptoms to mention had gone away, but I still had some that remained which seemed to be related to systemic inflammation.
Stomach and intestinal issues (gastritis and IBS) that would return without supplemental support (this is in addition to Fredd's protocol, I took antimicrobial herbs and I took intestinal soothing remedies like DGL and others). I also suffered from diagnosed interstitial cystitis which remained very painful, tooth grinding in my sleep, eczema, had nervous system inflammation that resulted in numbness in my hands and feet (this went away, that is was not getting worse, with the protocol but would progress without twice daily mB12 injections, an old knee injury would always ached, and following an asbestos exposure I had painful lung inflammation that no one could explain (symptoms like that are supposed to take years to show up, but mine started about 45 minutes after the exposure).
I was on Freddd's protocol for about a year when a close family member was diagnosed with a terminal disease and died within a year. This was extremely stressful for me and I found myself getting worse and worse. All of the inflammatory symptoms above were at their worst when one day I decided to take some aspirin (something I had used all my life with no apparent issue) to see if the anti-inflammatory nature of it could help my symptoms. I was very suprised to find they all got much worse almost immediately after taking it!!
I searched on how I could possibly get the opposite effect and found the salicylate sensitivity forum:
http://www.salicylatesensitivity.com/forum/
From reading around this site I realized I had this and other chemical sensitivities - phenols, amines, sulfite...With so many of these sensitivities I realized I was potentially a "MCS", multiple chemical sensitivity patient rather than the CFS one I had always identified (as no energy and fatigue were my major symptom previously) myself as.
At this time I also felt that some of my supplements were contributing to my symptoms. I took much in excess of what Freddd recommends, thinking more is better. Lots of bioflavinoids, herbs, too much to mention... I stopped taking all supplements and I followed the instructions on that website for a low salicylate diet. I did this for about 6 months. I felt absolutely amazing!! All of the inflammatory symptoms were close to resolved, though low levels remained. I no longer grinded my teeth and could throw out my mouth guard and not suffer painful headaches, I no longer woke up many times a night to empty my painful irritated bladder, my knee symptoms and eczema went away...My energy was really better than I remembered since childhood.
I had a problem that many on the low salicylate diet experience. As I reduced salicylates I became more and more sensitive to them. I went from excluding high and very high foods, to needing to exclude the moderate ones to continue to feel as well, eventually even the low ones left me with some symptoms. If you read the food list you will see that this left me without much to eat. I was also dairy and gluten free, so, nothing much to eat at all.
Since I identified with MCS I was also reading more about it. I found an amazing website where many are getting completely well using brain retraining. The following links for have some success stories:
http://planetthrive.com/2011/04/eft/
http://planetthrive.com/2011/11/positive-choices/
http://planetthrive.com/2011/02/eft-for-mcs/
http://limbicretraining.com/contributors/kath/getting-my-life-back-using-eft/
There are programs you can buy, but I wasn't interested in spending more money, so I tried EFT. It's completely free and really worked well for me and some other on the site. This man in particular had success and I tried some of his suggestions ( the eye movement, humming, tapping, counting all at the same time, all day whenever I could for two days to have a complete reversal of all my food and chemical sensitivities - could tolerate alcohol and caffeine too, eat gluten and dairy and salicylates). I had a really great summer this year.
http://planetthrive.com/2012/03/t-cans-mcs-recovery/
When I got started I downloaded this free book. It covers so much on EFT and you don't need to buy any of the programs that are advertised to learn everything that is out there. If you can read and are willing to try different approaches this can help. The free ebook is here:
http://selfheal4me.com/
One comment I will add is that all of the brain retraining sites suggest a minimum of six months for your brain to cement new neural pathways once you have recovered. I stopped after ~6 weeks when I felt great and felt great for over 6+ months, but slowly my symptoms started coming back. They are very minimal but because of my history I recognize the path I am headed down and I am now tapping again. The symptoms slowly rebuilt as everytday life stresses rebuilt in me, some say EFT should be a lifelong tool to help deal with stress.
Velha