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Chronicle today on ME by six Norwegian professors.

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Lightning Process has been very heavily promoted in Norway with much publicity, by a Practitioner called Live Landmark, and by Paediatrician Dr Vergard Bruun Wyller, who is referred to in the Aftenposten letter from the 6 Norwegan Professors:

“One of the foremost proponents of stress theory and a very important agenda for Norwegian ME politics until now, Vegard Bruun Wyller, tested this hypothesis in a study using clonidine on young ME patients. This drug reduces the autonomic nervous system.

Treatment gave no effect, Wyller was unable to prove his theories.”




Bruun Wyller constructs ME as a stress response. Phil Parker had relied on Bruun Wyller and his earlier research and articles to gain 'science' credibility and publicity for Lightning Process in Norway, and elsewhere.





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In 2011 in Norway, the family of a youngster who had attempted to take their own life after doing Lightning Process and not recovering from ME, went public. There was then an outpouring of statements from others with ME who had done Lightning Process but became more ill as a result, and felt guilty or ashamed when they did not recover, or became more ill..


http://translate.google.no/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http://www.nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.7891470&act=url

‘13-year-old attempted suicide after ME courses’ [Lightning Process]

‘The family hoped the 13-year-old with fatigue syndrome should be well on course "Lightning Process." Instead he got breakdown and tried to take his life.’

…..‘It was Chief Vegard Bruun Wyller who told the family of 13-year-old about the Lightning Process.

NRK.no asked Bruun Wyller if he has any qualms about sending ME sick children at LP course when you know that someone gets sicker of it, and even tried to take his own life.

Wyller would not comment on individual cases.’




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The Lightning Process commercial Website
http://lightningprocess.com/research/

‘Dr. Bruun Wyller, who is considered to be one of Norway’s leading experts on ME, has published some interesting articles which concur with the clinical findings of the Phil Parker Lightning Process, which you can find here (1) (2). His most recent paper in conjunction with Hege R. Eriksen, Kirsti Malterud who are university researchers from Bergen, can be found here (3).

Dr. Bruun Wyller says: “Recent research on CFS pathophysiology has revealed alterations of cardiovascular regulation and thermoregulation, characterized by enhanced sympathetic nervous activity and increased secretion of epinephrine. These findings indicate a state of permanent distress response – sustained arousal – in CFS patients. Based upon our findings, we have formulated a theory of sustained arousal in CFS, which seems to correspond quite neatly to the theoretical considerations underlying the Lightning Process.” ’


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But Bruun Wyller's more recent clonidine study did not support his stress theories about ME.



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1,446
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A 2011 article which sets out the two different approaches to ME operating in Norway healthcare:


Two diametrically different approaches to disease ME. Read Anette Gilje article in Dagbladet 01.12.2011

https://translate.google.co.uk/tran...dpress.com/tag/vegard-bruun-wyller/&edit-text=



‘Choose the right treatment’

‘Those who think ME caused stress should not be responsible when the national competence service restored.'


'Minister of Health
announced Monday that Oslo University (OUS) from 2012 will gain status as a national resource service for ME. Which environment OUS will set the tone?


There are currently two environments, one for adults at Aker, led by Barbara Baumgarten-Austrheim, and one for children at Rikshospitalet, led by Vegard Bruun Wyller. There are huge gaps between these two environments, both in terms of perception of ME as disease and how it should be treated.


Baumgarten-Austrheim parts ME Association understanding that ME is a serious physical illness, and she has been on developing the international consensus criteria for diagnosis. Based on these criteria appear ME as a distinct syndrome diagnosis with a prevalence of 0.2 to 0.4 percent. In addition to energy failure and exertional fatigue, there must be symptoms include within the criteria neurology, immunology and gastroenterology.



Cancer Doctors Øystein Fluge and Olav Mella from Haukeland University presented earlier this autumn sensational results from their research. Ten of 15 ME patients had significant effect of treatment with Rituximab. Patients experienced improvement from all CFS symptoms.

Government appropriated Monday two million kroner to further studies. ME Center OUS Aker is in dialogue with Fluge and Mella research collaboration. There is considerable excitement to whether further studies will confirm the supposition that ME is an autoimmune disorder that in the long term are medications.



Wyller from child clinic at Rikshospitalet understand disease from a stress response hypothesis, and recommend treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise. The criteria for diagnosis is wide.

Wyller believe that anyone who is tired long enough and do not have anything else, they have this. Wyller have recommended children and youth to take Lightning Process courses (LP) in Active process "because many elements harmonize well with what we otherwise know about the condition."



LP instructor Live Landmark in Active Process writes on his blog: "All participants must be convinced that they know that we teach a method where they can be turn or affect a condition that can be caused or maintained by stress. »

She believes one to two percent of the population is affected by this condition and lectures for teachers and doctors and share information about methods in the hope that they will meet exhausted, stressed or anxious children and adults more appropriate.

On LP course teaches you a method to stop "making ME, take responsibility for their own health and carve out a fresh life." Several of our members have experienced rapid exacerbation after practicing LP method.



Wyller biopsychosocial model of explanation has unfortunately become widespread. Nav justifies refusal of care money to parents with seriously ill children (with nursing needs 24 hours a day) with that in cooperation with the National Hospital child clinic has arrived at a list of the clearly serious diseases where there is normally granted attendance allowance.

Although there may be a need for comprehensive care from their parents, can not disease overall image is compared with the diseases that according to the guidelines is considered very serious.



Norwegian ME Association hopes that the national skills service for ME is added to the academic community at ME Centre at OUS Aker.

We have heard too many stories about children and young people who have become even sicker to follow advice and treatment regimen recommended by the Children's Clinic at Rikshospitalet.'


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xrunner

Senior Member
Messages
843
Location
Surrey
“One of the foremost proponents of stress theory and a very important agenda for Norwegian ME politics until now, Vegard Bruun Wyller, tested this hypothesis in a study using clonidine on young ME patients. This drug reduces the autonomic nervous system.

Treatment gave no effect, Wyller was unable to prove his theories.”

This must be the study they were referring to and which proved Wyller's theory wrong.

JAMA Pediatr. 2014 Apr;168(4):351-60. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4647.
Disease mechanisms and clonidine treatment in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: a combined cross-sectional and randomized clinical trial.
Sulheim D1, Fagermoen E2, Winger A3, Andersen AM4, Godang K5, Müller F6, Rowe PC7, Saul JP8, Skovlund E9, Øie MG10, Wyller VB11.
Author information

Abstract
IMPORTANCE:
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disabling condition with unknown disease mechanisms and few treatment options.

OBJECTIVE:
To explore the pathophysiology of CFS and assess clonidine hydrochloride pharmacotherapy in adolescents with CFS by using a hypothesis that patients with CFS have enhanced sympathetic activity and that sympatho-inhibition by clonidine would improve symptoms and function.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:
Participants were enrolled from a single referral center recruiting nationwide in Norway. A referred sample of 176 adolescents with CFS was assessed for eligibility; 120 were included (34 males and 86 females; mean age, 15.4 years). A volunteer sample of 68 healthy adolescents serving as controls was included (22 males and 46 females; mean age, 15.1 years). The CSF patients and healthy controls were assessed cross-sectionally at baseline. Thereafter, patients with CFS were randomized 1:1 to treatment with low-dose clonidine or placebo for 9 weeks and monitored for 30 weeks; double-blinding was provided. Data were collected from March 2010 until October 2012 as part of the Norwegian Study of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Adolescents: Pathophysiology and Intervention Trial.

INTERVENTIONS:
Clonidine hydrochloride capsules (25 µg or 50 µg twice daily for body weight <35 kg or >35 kg, respectively) vs placebo capsules for 9 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:
Number of steps per day.

RESULTS:
At baseline, patients with CFS had a lower number of steps per day (P < .001), digit span backward score (P = .002), and urinary cortisol to creatinine ratio (P = .001), and a higher fatigue score (P < .001), heart rate responsiveness (P = .02), plasma norepinephrine level (P < .001), and serum C-reactive protein concentration (P = .04) compared with healthy controls. There were no significant differences regarding blood microbiology evaluation. During intervention, the clonidine group had a lower number of steps per day (mean difference, -637 steps; P = .07), lower plasma norepinephrine level (mean difference, -42 pg/mL; P = .01), and lower serum C-reactive protein concentration (mean ratio, 0.69; P = .02) compared with the CFS placebo group.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Adolescent CFS is associated with enhanced sympathetic nervous activity, low-grade systemic inflammation, attenuated hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis function, cognitive impairment, and large activity reduction, but not with common microorganisms. Low-dose clonidine attenuates sympathetic outflow and systemic inflammation in CFS but has a concomitant negative effect on physical activity; thus, sympathetic and inflammatory enhancement may be compensatory mechanisms. Low-dose clonidine is not clinically useful in CFS.

TRIAL REGISTRATION:
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01040429.
 
Messages
35
Location
Norway
I have tried the Lightning process, and to me it gave no positive effect whatsoever. It was simply confusing and disturbing (and expensive). Their big "secret" - that there is a mind-body-connection (really….), and how they teach it is at a sad and low level for anyone who has had a conscious relation to just mind-body and worked with it for a while from different angles.

Of course there is a mind-body-connection in all conditions. If one has no awareness of this, and don't have some ways of working with those sides of oneself, AND also has had an underlying disease which has physically "burned out", then I guess the lightning process could be right thing. For other people it has a big potential for doing harm. I just saw on the Lightning process´web page that they now also "treat" MS-patients with this method. I would say that is worrying. There are healthy and safe ways of working with mind-body (mindfulness meditation as my own best example), and there is Lightning Process which is all about stopping to listen to what your body desperately tries to communicate to you.

I would say sending CFS-sufferers to Lightning Process Classes is a much bigger risk to their health than giving everyone Rituximab to see if it works.

Well - I guess you have had Lightning Process debates at this forum before my time here. I just needed to join the chorus… ;)