Optimum Health Clinic - anyone used or have an opinion?

[sianrecovery]

Lae - I was diagnosed with CFS in an NHS CFS clinic. It was the only terminology they would consider valid. Since then, I have been diagnosed with ME, by doctors who specialise in ME - but also protomyxzoa, blastocytosis, KPU, genetic defects around methylation and processing biotoxins, and sundry other conditions. ~I had a genetic kidney disorder to start with, and had also had Hep C. The more you investigate, the more you find. My point in listing all that stuff is that ultimately the names are only important in that they can point you in the right direction. Dont get hung up on them. Dont fret about doing it right - because one persons right is anothers wrong - anxiety about what to do next is a primary feature exacerbating many people's ME, because they constantly feel gnawing anxiety, and that does no ones brain chemistry any good. Trust yourself, trust your instincts - and dont worry about the label.

 

[sianrecovery]

Sian, were Athene's chronic infective issues all bacterial in nature, or were some viral too? I know Athene kindly shared on here the German clinic helped her with her lyme infection and some other bacterial infections, but i don't know whether she had re-activating viruses as well. Hope it's ok to ask

sorry Anniekim, I'm not sure, will try and find out

 

[Gavman]

Also, the very fact that they use EFT and NLP concerns me. Aren't these discredited practices? Or am I being closed minded?

I am quite encouraged by their nutrition section, but its still overseen by this Alex Howard guy who seems a bit dodgy to me somehow.

Please tell me I am just being my usual cynical self. Its helped 2 people, so maybe it can help me? With the psychology side of things though I believe it can need a lot of faith to work and thats something I just don't have

I'd love to hear some of your wise opinions!!

Thanks,
A new sleepyhead

Hi Lae,

I'm going to pitch in because i've studied NLP and want to talk about it. NLP is a grouping of psychological tools and very practical based. It seems like CBT is the only evidence-based proven therapy. So if you want to go down that route, you have one option for therapy. If someone has a problem, the good part about NLP is its adaptive, it can shrink the problem down or deal with it on many levels. Three important factors for therapy are: The clients willingness to engage/deal with problems, is the therapy right for that person and is the practitioner the right person for that client.

The idea behind psychology being able to benefit CFS is that, we do create problems and difficulties in our life from our belief and value systems. Claiming this IS the cause of CFS is ludicrous, however, as we deal with and process our issues that go against our health and values, it makes it so much easier to deal with life and get the right help.

Eg. A causal belief for CFS is, I'll never be good enough. If a body can't deal with an illness because they don't ready their bodies natural defences, they arent good enough to deal with it - then of course this could be a major impediment in healing.

NLP is a collection of tools that are used for a specific problem. If someone has an issue that won't respond to a specific form of therapy, there are other ways to tackle the problem. I'd hardly say its discredited, There are a lot of very succesful, health/wealth wise people who use NLP to help process life.

The dodginess to me is the fact that the clinic comes across as a business first. Whether or not those people are effective is a different story.

 

[Lae]

I just wanted to say that as a result of this forum I have ordered the Mitochondrial Function Profile from Dy MyHill, and had the blood taken today (oh my word that was a lot of blood for someone who detests needles!). I had a period of feeling really really unwell so took a while to get it all sorted, but in a way I wish I had got the test done in a really bad patch so I can work from the bottom upwards.

Anyway, just wanted to report back and to say thankyou

 

[sianrecovery]

dont worry about not feeling at your worst - I think that test should pick up whats there either way. Some peeps dont like it as a test, I found it very helpful

 

[OfcourseYouCanRevover]

Hi Lae, and welcome!

I've looked at what they do in some depth - in fact I'm part of a study where you do 8 weeks of their 'Secrets to Recovery' programme and any improvements are assessed with pre/post questionnaires.

As you say their clinic is entirely based on psychological treatments and nutritional advice. I don't know about the qualifications of their nutritionists or the other staff who treat with psychological techniques, but although Alex has a degree in psychology I don't think he's a Chartered Psychologist recognised by the British Psychological Society. So he doesn't have a post-grad qualification recognised by the BPS. (As a psychologist myself I'm familiar with psychology qualifications.) He seems well-meaning, but seems more interested in being an entrepreneur these days.

I signed up for the research study as they gave participants a lot of meditation material - I find meditation quite helpful on a short-term basis but get bored with listening to the same CDs over and over. This material is really quite good. I've done meditation for years though and there's no way it's going to be a cure!

Listening to all the stuff I've been given, it's clear that they define the conditions they're treating as 'burn out'. They actually say as much. This is very different from ME, and so very different from the illness I have. It's possible they can help people with chronic fatigue though, either post-glandular fever, or arising from overwork etc - in fact many of their patients seem to fit this description.

It's quite telling that amongst all the 100 hours of audio material I've been given there are no statistics describing the percentage of people they've seen who've improved or recovered!

Jenny

They certaibly do not say they specialsie in burn out. They use that as one potential description for the condition, which i agree with.