In the marshall protocol, don't they also avoid Vitamin D?
They do, however there are complex reasons for that. The Marshall Protocol is designed for treating diseases associated with chronic intracellular bacterial infections (like sarcoidosis, the disease that Trevor Marshall has himself, which he originally devised his protocol for).
It is believed that these intracellular bacteria which live within cells on a long term basis create a protein which blocks the vitamin D receptor (VDR) located inside the cell. The VDR is the "on switch" for the intracellular immune response — the cell's internal immune system. So these bacteria create a protein which prevents the VDR from being activated, so that they can live inside the cells without the intracellular immune system attacking them.
When your VDR is blocked by bacterial proteins in this way, it is theorized by Trevor Marshall that vitamin D will no longer be able to bind to the VDR receptor and activate this receptor. Worse still, it is theorized that this vitamin D which can no longer bind to the VDR creates a lot of other problems. That's why it is avoided in the MP.
Whereas Benicar, which also has affinity for the VDR and can activate the VDR, is able to push away the bacterial proteins and get to the receptor, binding to the VDR and thereby activating it, thus turning on the intracellular immune response which it is believed will kill the intracellular bacteria. That's the basis of the MP: using Benicar to activate the VDR, in order to kill the intracellular bacteria.
But this problem with vitamin D, and the need to avoid it on the MP, only applies to people with chronic intracellular infections, not to healthy people. If your ME/CFS is due to a chronic intracellular
viral infection, like the non-cytolytic enterovirus that lives inside cells, then I don't think vitamin D avoidance applies, because as far as we know, the non-cytolytic enterovirus does not create proteins that block the VDR.
So for enterovirus-associated ME/CFS, we would probably be the same as healthy people in terms of VDR functioning. There is likely nothing blocking our VDR in viral ME/CFS. Thus for us, I think vitamin D supplementation will likely activate the VDR as per normal, just as it does in healthy people, and thereby switch on the intracellular immune system.
(If your ME/CFS is due to a chronic intracellular infection / co-infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae though, then possibly that bacterium might be able to synthesize proteins which block the VDR, and in which case, you might need to take Benicar rather than vitamin D in order to activate the VDR).
There is a good write up about all this here:
About the Marshall Protocol
