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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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  1. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Highly unlikely, as I'd be seeing a much more sudden symptomatic change of course. I was extremely conservative the first 6 months on HT in avoiding anything that could conceivably cause a problem. When I added in various spices and other foods after 6 months of extreme caution, I saw no...
  2. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Some people can get away with only inoculating every 6 months, 1 year or even 3 years, but I'm obviously not one of them. A two to three month schedule with very small numbers (3-5 NA) is what seems to work best for me.
  3. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Still doing well. In fact, I've started a new business! We're now manufacturing cold brewed coffee and tea, so this requires hauling around large kegs of drinks, standing and bottling for hours at a go and working at Gourmet Food shows and having to be on my feet for entire work days. I still...
  4. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    It isn't unusual to feel a bit off-colour around that time. You can see the hookworm timeline here. M
  5. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    I'm not in contact with these docs myself, but no reason you shouldn't be. Go for it!
  6. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    New hookworm research study looking for volunteers here in NZ. For coeliacs this time, but our turn will come! http://colonyofme.com/coeliac-volunteers-needed-hookworm-trial-new-zealand/
  7. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Double thumbs up. I absolutely agree. It all sounds completely bonkers, until you do the research. Then you think, "yeah, probably a good idea for most everyone."
  8. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Yes, there are a lot of theories about what is really going on, but no one knows the answer just yet. I've got a "simplified" page on How HT works on the site now which says basically, "HT tells your immune system to chill out". I'm also planning a intermediate version, with Th1/Th2 info, then...
  9. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    My experience is that it has been fantastic for my mental health, but just like pharmaceuticals, you have to expect that some people will have better than average results and others will experience more side effects. Also, some people do better with one helminth type over others, so some...
  10. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Yes, the PEM was wicked. One trip to the grocery store would put me out for a whole week at one point. That was if I managed to go to the store at all, of course.
  11. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    @Kina, thanks again for the concrete suggestions. I've changed the main background colour to a light grey as well as changing the colours of the dropdown menu. I'd very much appreciate it if you were willing to take a look and see if you think the site is more friendly for those of us who are...
  12. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    @Cheesus has graciously volunteered to help anyone who needs assistance in dealing with Bitcoin in an earlier post on this thread.
  13. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Sounds like you are set microscope-wise. I generally use mine on 40X for easy searching, so huge magnification not required. For anyone who doesn't have a microscope, I highly recommend a scope with a mechanical stage to make your life easier. This is the one I use plus a box of slides. All the...
  14. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Could absolutely be. Certainly the ME community is not monolithic. I wouldn't be surprised to see several subgroups defined in the coming years. It may be that only the "never gets sick" group are the only ones who will benefit from helminthic therapy. More data would be helpful on all fronts.
  15. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Definitely sleep on it. Read up on it. Educate yourself on the pros, cons, processes and pitfalls. I especially recommend An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases by Moises Velasquez-Manoff which is available on Kindle as well as in print for anyone...
  16. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Your mini-journey is one most therapeutic helminth hosts have gone through. Also, quite a few hosts use LDN on top of their new friends. Before I had the full-fledged health breakdown, I was susceptible to all sorts of infections, UTI, lung, throat, etc. I don't know how many rounds of...
  17. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    There seems to be much discussion about that with no solid answer yet. Of course, there are pretty much no solid answers for CFS/ME in general, so that is no surprise. If what you are doing is working for you, that is fantastic.
  18. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    I'm glad you are seeing some positive changes. There is no doubt that I've been insanely lucky at my level of improvement. Even if it had been more modest, I would be keen to continue as I also see it as a reasonable part of a healthy lifestyle after all the research I've done into it. Almost...
  19. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    You can learn more about why increased Th2 activation can be an excellent thing for people with autoimmune disease from the first TED talk on this page by a PhD in parasitology. Spoiler alert: Increased Th2 activation downregulates Th1 responses, which are the ones we have problems with in...
  20. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    In that order. Or, of course, you can get a colony going with as few as 5 NA if you are lucky (I did and I know of several others who have as well) and DIY from there if you can buy or borrow appropriate gear.
  21. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    As far as a starter dose for CFS/ME, yes, five is the way people in the HT community are going at the current time and is what I did. I saw marked improvements in 5 weeks. That is unusual, but not at all unprecedented. Most people don't see improvements for at least three months and for some...
  22. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Don't even get me started on the FDA. You're definitely right that there are FDA issues. It is also a tricky subject that many people have uneducated knee jerk reactions about, so I don't blame providers who wants to remain anonymous. Be aware that HDC is a non human helminth, so you are...
  23. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    My pleasure. I don't find it difficult to do, but some people seem to struggle. It does require a decent microscope which will cost you a few quid and some other small bits of gear. I suspect most people, especially if they are able to work, would simply find it simpler and easier to pay for...
  24. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    All of the therapeutic helminths complete their life cycle outside the human body, so there is no chance of anyone having more than has been introduced. The typical dosing scheme is to add more every three months until you are satisfied with how you feel or until you start to feel worse. Feeling...
  25. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Some of the providers only accept Bitcoin, but by no means all of them. I know Wormswell has specifically satisfied the import requirements for the New Zealand government and we take biosecurity very seriously down here. I've had no issues with Wormswell myself. If you want a medical clinic...
  26. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Hip, also, if you didn't see my reply about dose size above, 5 NA has become the go to starting dose for CFS/ME and a few other conditions. The IBD crowd tend to go for 25 as a starting dose, but that seems to be well too high for the CFS/ME crowd. We also tend to need a much lower number as a...
  27. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    As I mentioned in the article, the various doctors I went to were not at all interested in trying to help with my chronic fatigue issues. The only blood work that was done was standard CBC (showed nothing interesting) and, when I absolutely demanded it a few years in, a thyroid panel. When the...
  28. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    People with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis generally start out with a dose of 25 NA and do well with that. For people with CFS/ME, fibro, multiple food intolerances/allergies or who are just plain sensitive to things generally are starting out with 5NA and seeing how it goes from there. I did 5...
  29. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do.
  30. Gyre

    Incredible improvements with Helminthic Therapy

    There is an active forum for Helminth Support on Facebook where all such things are discussed in detail at https://www.facebook.com/groups/htsupport/ There will also be more on what to expect, etc on Colony of Me as I get more info on the site. I've been eating a diet high in prebiotics and...