I will tell you about a treatment that has helped me getting from 30% up to 50% or more. Without it I am bedbound 22 to 23 hours a day and unable to do homework. But I can wash myself and sometimes cook. I can also barely walk with my dog twice a day for ten minutes.
Because of this treatment I can do all my home work (cleaning, dish washing, cooking, washing my self and clothes and more). I can see my friends every now and then. I can even sail with our sail boat with my wife, but that is sometimes a bit too much. I do get tired at the sea. I can also do light gardening. But I can't work, not even half time. I also have to rest couple of days, maybe once a week or once in two weeks. Also, my PEM almost disappears with this treatment. I rarely get PEM, maybe once in two months. I don't have brain fog and my brain work a lot better.
Before I tell you what the treatment is... I have talked about this treatment in CFS facebook groups and other CFS groups and found that there are others who have also noticed similar improvement with their energy levels and brain functions, etc. I have encountered three CFS patients, that have told me they have clearly benefitted from this treatment. One of them being Emelia Shannon from UK, who tells it being one of the treatment she uses, that really help. Here is her video about her treatments:
Some have tried this treatment and it hasn't worked for some.
So what is it then that helps me? The answer is: Sunshine!!! It may be hard to believe that sunshine would help, but my doctor tells me that many of his patients have moved from Finland to sunny coast of Spain and they really have benefitted from it. Their quality of life has improved a lot. Emelia Shannon from UK is one of those that has got her help from sunshine.
According to medical studies, infrared and near infrared wave lenght (sunshine contains them), provide energy in a cellular level. I live in Finland, where the sun is not shining between November and February. And even in October and Aprill, it does not provide enough energy to my sells. People here, can't get tanning at the end of September until in the beginning of April.
I know, many CFS patients say that they feel terrible if they try to be in sunshine. So did I. I noticed this in year 2012, when I got my CFS. But I also noticed in 2014 something else. I felt better in Summer. Next year I tried to spent as much of my time in sunshine as I could and felt ever better. But it was year 2017, when I moved to an area, where there was a lot of sunshine. I felt notisably better.
I did a test in year 2019. At first, in the beginning of April, I could barely lay in my matress in sunshine about five minutes and that caused me nausea, which took several hours to go away. But the more time I was in the sunshine, the more I could be there without nausea and other symptoms. I was in sunshine almost daily and after one month I could stay there an hour with out any problems. It was not pleasent at first and I do not recommend anyone to do something that makes them feel worse. But that is what I did.
After two months I started to notice that I have more energy, I can do more things. By that time I stayed several hours in sunshine almost every day. I lived in my sail boat in July and August and got even more sunshine, because in addition to sunshine that I got directly from the sun, water around the boat reflected it to me.
After having spent three months in sunshine almost daily, I was feeling as well as I discribed in the beginning of my story. I could also tolerate more heat from the sun. But not high heat.
This has happened to me year after year. l also noticed that high dose vitamin D helps me even more together with sunshine. Symptoms like depression and headache mostly disappeared. I have also MCAS and most of my MCAS symptoms disappeared with high dose vitamin D3.
What is it in sunshine that helps? I did a test. At the end of September, a couple of years ago, when I was starting to be bed bound again with terrible CFS symptoms, I flew to Malaga, Spain. It took only two days laying a couple of hours daily in sunshine, and I was back to my best summer wellness. I noticed that the sun was up exactly the same hours in a minute, in Finland and in Spain. But in Finland the weather was cloudy all the time. In Malaga, the sun was shining all the time. UV index was 0 in Finland when I left but in Malaga it was 3 during the week I stayed there. So the reason must be the sunshine itself, not the lenght of the day time.
I tried to build a sunshine unit that would provide me everything that sunshine provides me. I bought red and near-infrared LED panel, a big one. I bought infrared lamp. I bought blue and green light LED panel. I bought UVA and narrow band UVB light treatment unit. I bought bright light unit for seasonal affective disorder but I did not have SAD. I did tests for two years with differed combinations of light. None of these caused the same effect that the sun. But I noticed one very important thing...
Red and near-infrared LED panel had one effect that the sun had. I started to use my red and NIR panel in the beginning of February in 2020. At first two minutes a day, because it caused me nausea just like the sunshine but less of it. With LED unit and a timer, it was easier to control the amount of light and nausea it caused.
Later, in March I could spent 10 minutes twice daily in front of my red and NIR light. And when it was time to go outside to sunshine in the beginning of Aprill, I didn't have any nausea. I could stay in sunshine for an hour without any problems. But after an hour, I started to feel nausea.
Another benefit of the LED unit was, that I started to feel better approximately two weeks earlier than on any other previous Summers. This helped me be longer time in sunshine. That was summer 2020.
You can read from my light therapy experiments here:
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/red-and-near-infrared-light-therapy-leds.79181/
And after being longer times in sunhine the whole Summer, I felt better in autumn. Earlier my symptoms had started to get worse in September and I was almost bedbound at the end of September but because I stayed so much in sunshine, my symptoms now started two months later!! And I was never before able to sail since year 2012. I could sail again!
In year 2021 I had to be inside, doing light renovation of my home appr. for one month. That meant literally 30 days without sunshine, weekends excluded. My symptoms started last year at the end of October. So, one month less without symptoms than in year 2020. The more sunshine, the longer I felt better. The time I used for renovation, I was quite exhausted and getting better took a couple of weeks.
I am planning to move to Spain for winters.
How about you, do you feel better in summers? Are winters the worst? Have you ever tried to be in sunshine despite of discomfort? For how long? Did you notice improvement with your health?