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Strepsils reduced my M.E. "depression", weird!

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
had very bad couple of weeks, often having to go back to sleep after waking to recover from waking up! ick! (waking is always my worst period)
Not sure if it was the actual cause somehow, or came about because of this bad patch, but I got very unpleasant sore throat.

Pretty sure the sore throat's related to eating salted peanuts, at that time, whether a "bad bag" of nuts (perhaps after having had them open a few days they have got some mould or such but unusual if so as the salt usually keeps them fine),
or
because the M.E. was so severe my immune system started acting against the peanuts *shrug*
I do not have ANY allergies (1), but it's certainly possible from everything I've read or experienced that M.E. can set up feedback cycles of unusual immune reactions.

Anyway, I took plain old Strepsils (well new blue ones anyway), for the sore throat, after finally finding the mental strength to think about it and do a hunt for 'em. (2)
For those not familiar, Strepsils are a UK well known brand of throat lozenges to help with sore throats etc
Holy crap! not only did it help the throat it also had just as quick a difference in the "depression" and other mental crap that I'd been suffering!
it was too sudden too unusual to be any kind of mood swing or whatever, hey I know myself, you know :p
You do get ups and downs, but not like this. Pretty sure reducing the sore throat improved mental state.

Depression is *NOT* being "down" it damn well is "physical" somehow and to some extent, never been a depressive person in my life but plenty of crap to get you "down" now and then, and the difference is night and day.
yes, having most of my life, what I "do" and care about, destroyed by this illness is massively upsetting etc , even so, depression and other mental issues like my short term memory is ruined, problems seeing words I've typed are wrong etc are not psychological.

I know the worst thing for my M.E. is having an infection, as that sets it off terribly.

So I wonder, from what I've read on M.E. and many other illnesses once thought of or accused of being "psychological" like O.C.D. (3), that calming the infection or immune reaction then helped calm down a cycle of autoimmunity that causes some of the mental issues

the difference is VERY noticeable. I simply don't get "swings" or changes anything like this except over long period of time as warm, drier weather of late Summer eases things and cold damp Winter (as in now!) makes the M.E better or worse.

Most interesting!
Mind is much clearer, still not a like I used to be but hell of a sight better than last few years, and still physically wrecked by the M.E.

(1)
I have "allergies" to poverty and arrogant, cowardly, vicious bullying SOBs like, the psychs, but hey, I think that's obvious! :p

(2)
Folk unaffected by such ailments simply have no idea how hard it can be, to do the simplest bloody things, and it has NOTHING to do with how strong willed etc you were before.


(3)
I recall reading an article some 30 or so years ago now, of a man who had severe OCD, they found by pure accident (he got an infection they prescribed an antibiotic and "cured" his OCD while the antibiotic worked)that as long as he was kept dosed with a form of antibiotic, the OCD was almost completely gone/controlled
when he accidentally forgot to take his prescription he nearly died as a result of his OCD coming back and pushing him to do something extremely dangerous.
Always remember that article.
Oh and it's and NOT like the psychs could have made a complete arrogant stupid balls up and not accepted that many mental health conditions could be related to autoimmunity, is it?
*he says with sarcasm set in Maximum Overdrive mode* :p
or,
fact that some pathogens create incredibly potent poisons some of which can affect the brain (L.S.D. for example! or the sudden extreme psychosis that bladder infections can trigger).
 

GreyOwl

Dx: strong belief system, avoidance, hypervigilant
Messages
266
What are the active ingredients in your Strepsils?
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
What are the active ingredients in your Strepsils?

Strepsils are standard over the counter, no prescription needed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsils

Strepsils is a line of throat lozenges, used to relieve discomfort in mouth and throat infections.[1] It is manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser and is one of the Boots Healthcare International brands that Reckitt Benckiser acquired in 2006.[2] The primary active ingredients are dichlorobenzyl alcohol and amylmetacresol,[3] with some formulations containing ascorbic acid (vitamin C).[4] Inactive ingredients include menthol, tartaric acid, and propylene glycol
 

Asklipia

Senior Member
Messages
999
Now you mention this, I realize that I relied on Strepsils when I could find them where I lived. I was never without them and they made me feel better every time! They had Strepsils in India then and I was fine. Other lozenges never really helped. My favourite were Cherry flavor which worked very well. I tried other brands but never had the same effect.
I get the same effect now with oral probiotics of the New Zealand kind.
 

JohnCB

Immoderate
Messages
351
Location
England
Strepsils are standard over the counter, no prescription needed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsils

The amylmetacresol is also the active ingredient in Tesco own brand blackcurrant antiseptic lozenges. Note however the cherry flavour has a different active ingredient. I keep Tesco own brand blackcurrant antiseptic lozenges in my drawer for when I have a bad throat. They help with that. I hadn't noticed any other effects. I'll think about this when I next have a sore throat.
 

JES

Senior Member
Messages
1,320
Interesting. Are you sure the sore throat was not related to you catching some type of a cold bug?

Reason I ask, every time after I've had a cold or a food infection, my CFS related mental symptoms resolve temporarily. It's like my immune system starts working normally for a moment thanks to the new virus caught and I guess the cytokine response that is causing the 24/7 brain fog temporarily gets modulated.

I never noted down any effect of strepsils, but I usually only use them when I catch a cold, so maybe there is an effect, who knows. Will trial it.
 
Last edited:

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
It reminds me of that Japanese study which found some patients improve or even recovered when threated for chronic epipharyngitis

Sixteen patients were willing to come into hospital for treatment, consisting of a very dilute zinc chloride solution thoroughly applied to the epipharyngeal wall.

While this treatment reduces the pain and inflammation at the back of the nose and throat, the most interesting finding was that in 13/16 patients there was also a marked reduction in symptoms overall after the procedure, with 4 patients eventually achieving a ‘cure’.

As the authors say, “Given the degree of impairment of quality of life previously observed in these patients, the degree of response to this treatment was quite remarkable….”

They point out that the extremely high incidence of severe epipharyngitis (100%) and dramatic improvement in patients’ general and multisystem symptoms after treatment strongly suggest an association between chronic epipharyngitis and the ME/CFS-like symptoms
http://www.meresearch.org.uk/news/nose-and-throat-inflammation/
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
Not a clue, how could I tell anyway? :) I'm not Reed Richards :p
lol and I'm not Poly Styrene

I know some people like the Cepacol lozenges for the dextromethorphan (dxm) in them for fibromyalgia pain and angst etc sometimes but I don't like it

Interesting. Are you sure the sore throat was not related to you catching some type of a cold bug?

Reason I ask, every time after I've had a cold or a food infection, my CFS related mental symptoms resolve temporarily. It's like my immune system starts working normally for a moment thanks to the new virus caught and I guess the cytokine response that is causing the 24/7 brain fog temporarily gets modulated.

I never noted down any effect of strepsils, but I usually only use them when I catch a cold, so maybe there is an effect, who knows. Will trial it.

I have noticed that when I have had bugs (a cold or flu) sometimes at onset I feel a certain relief for awhile, like my immune system was modulated in some way....I have wished to know how to capture that
It reminds me of that Japanese study which found some patients improve or even recovered when threated for chronic epipharyngitis


http://www.meresearch.org.uk/news/nose-and-throat-inflammation/

I took zinc homeopathic Hylands brand for cold prevention last fall and noticed that some of my CFS symptoms seemed improved so I kept taking it....I recently found an old Spectracell nutrient test that I had done in 2000 and it mentioned zinc as something I am deficient in. The Hylands brand-- I like how i feel-- whereas other types I tried again recently I did not. (altho the positive benefit seems less obvious now). less is often more for me. I had forgotten I had a known deficiency. too much info gathered over the years................
 

Neunistiva

Senior Member
Messages
442
I took zinc homeopathic Hylands brand for cold prevention last fall and noticed that some of my CFS symptoms seemed improved so I kept taking it...

I think they used zinc as a topical disinfectant when doing abrasion of the throat, and it was abrasion that had the effect. (And homeopathic zinc probably doesn't have any zinc in it anyway
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
I think they used zinc as a topical disinfectant when doing abrasion of the throat, and it was abrasion that had the effect. (And homeopathic zinc probably doesn't have any zinc in it anyway
I thought about that and was skeptical as well and researched it and "homeopathic" is a bit deceiving of a word that gets used now by some companies, it did have some zinc in it is conclusion I came to. I believe some folks had contacted company and it was probably close to the rec'd dosage of 15mg in a day if you took it multiple times a day as label says. But who knows, a lot of nonhomeopathic stuff doesn't have in it what the company says....end of the day we have to go by our trials and errors
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
I'd had the sore throat for a week or more before using the Strepsils, silly of me should have done it right off, but....
So the infection probably made my M.E. worse but not vastly, still have sore throat still using strepsils to get rid of it, slowly
and so the improvement wasn't caused by the infection but the treatment.
Still have sore throat, Strepsils are helping, but the improvement mentally was huge and relatively quick.

Xraspex
well I don't like D.C. comics, Reed Richards always seemed to have some damned easy silly "technobabble" way of fixing things, blech! He always knows exactly what the "thingy ma bob is"....how?!
I like Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog ;)

wish I knew what was helping things, but only guess I can give is that easing the infection eases some of the M.E, issues, beyond that I have no clue, ok, so I'm clueless, it's my normal state :p
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
I think they used zinc as a topical disinfectant when doing abrasion of the throat, and it was abrasion that had the effect. (And homeopathic zinc probably doesn't have any zinc in it anyway
But I am intrigued by your study---wondering about the abrasion now and what that all means...........
 

Hugo

Senior Member
Messages
230
I have noticed that when I have had bugs (a cold or flu) sometimes at onset I feel a certain relief for awhile, like my immune system was modulated in some way....I have wished to know how to capture that

Me to, I thought a lot about this. Incubation time is a great relief on ones body.
 

Prefect

Senior Member
Messages
307
Location
Canada
Reason I ask, every time after I've had a cold or a food infection, my CFS related mental symptoms resolve temporarily.

I have noticed that when I have had bugs (a cold or flu) sometimes at onset I feel a certain relief for awhile, like my immune system was modulated in some way....I have wished to know how to capture that

This is insane I was just thinking about this today. I was running a mild fever because I'm coming down with something and my mental fog/dizziness, etc, head stuff that I usually have were gone for hours.

I find my anxiety calms when I have a head cold.

I've been on psyche forums on which people with depression and anxiety had relief from their mood disorders during a head cold, etc.

The cytokine modulation is an idea, but today I was also wondering if it could be because a fever dilates your brain blood vessels, doesn't it?

Or could it be the same action that's behind depressed patients getting relief from hyperthermia treatment because it modulate core body temperature?