A very interesting question raised here, initial exposure to extreme sunlight may well have been a sgnificant factor to me. Wish I had time to discuss this more but I'm afraid I have too much on my agenda at the moment. Just the one thought, that extreme 'over-sensitivity' to all kinds of things is clearly a strong feature for many of us, and different frequencies of light (radiation) are very powerful frontiers for science to look at. I think there will be a whole range of reactions, from those made better my sunlight to those made worse. It is not a simple, clear-cut, picture, very far from it. But I do think that light therapy might in the future be very important as a treatment. For example, I've posted elsewhere about Far Infrared Saunas, which are claimed to aid the breakdown and release of toxins held in the body, and I certainly did get very positive results myself when trying that. Even though most of the time I do tend to stay indoors and keep the light radiation to a minimum.
One conclusion I'm focused on at the moment is that each of us has different and changing pictures of what is helpful and unhelpful to us, and that the apparently contradictory nature of that is a severe confounding factor for science. At the moment, I'm focusing on constantly listening to my body, monitoring my reactions to different stimuli, and constantly trusting my instinct and trusting what works. For example, that means that even though there are things I know I'm sensitive to and have avoided for a very long time, sometimes I do allow myself to (for example) eat bread, or eggs, in small quantities; and even when I do get a negative reaction to, say, clothes or food, I sometimes gently push myself if I'm feeling confident, to allow myself to stay in contact with the thing that's making me feel worse, as far as I can bear to. I suspect that, in this way, one can begin to retrain one's sensitivities somewhat. But it is all about listening to your body, trusting it, blocking out all those voices that have contradicted your own knowledge of your condition, and learning to trust yourself and your instincts, being aware of all the choices you do have. This approach may not be effective for all of us, but I think it is the way forward for many. We need to avoid the triggers that set us off badly, but then we also need to gently expose ourselves to those triggers as well, when we are able to, to avoid getting trapped into vicious circles where the sensitivity actually increases. In mathematical terms: fuzzy logic. And by the way, all of the above is quite consistent with the XMRV findings as well, XMRV recently stated to increase sensitivities but also, there will have to be ways (including natural healing ways) of coping with that and self-treating. Summary guidance: trust your body's instincts, block out the negative arguments against those instincts that you've had from doctors and others with more dogmatic views, and trust yourself; seek alternative treatments, follow what works for you rather than what you are expected to think and do, and keep on exploring what works for you with an open mind. And don't give up! :Retro smile:
PS: was that reading or Reading I wonder? Hmm...I got my sunlight overdose in the latter...just a long shot but shout me if that makes sense to anyone...just ignore if you don't have a clue what I'm driving at there.
