As FM-CFS is NOT understood and may be a group of different disorders, one
cannot say whether paleo will be good or bad. Certainly there are anecdotal
successes, but there are anecdotal successes for FM-CFS with nearly
everything- including nothing (ie some opf them spontaneously recover)(some
of the miracle cures are spontaneous recovery that  happened at the tim they
took the "magic" treatment). No doubt some of them have known medical
problems such as sleep apnoea as well.Some of them may have some undiagnosed
food allergies.

My friend with CFS tells me that a number of Australian naturopaths are
recommending the "caveman diet" for CFS sufferers. No particular author or
book mentioned- just handout type info I suppose- must ask her to grab a
copy.

Now, it is held that those with "true" FM-CFS may have an immune
disturbance.

Paleolithic diets help by:
1. Being very low in lectins- toxins in grains beans and potatoes and corn
that have a number of nasty effects including screwing your T-cells and
B-cells that control your immune system. This is without doubt true fact.
Lectins can do a number of things including binding to cell receptors
simulating them and casuing the cell to respond- dividing, dying or just
going bad. Unfortumatley the ER4YT diet just looks at one type of lectin- cf
paleo wipes most of them out. It also wipes out most other antinutrients eg
enzyme inhibitors. Reading anything about antinutrients is almost like
reading about non-paleo foods!!!

2.Bettter W-3/W-6 fat ratio. It is easy to increase w-3 fats and decrease
w-6 fats on this diet which should lead to less overactivity in the immune
system. High in vitamins, minerals etc don't hurt- in fact how do you expect
your white blood cells to work if you don't feed them properly?

3. Low in many allergens- this will help the food allergic- eg I used to get
5 big headaches per week, now I get 1 small one each 2 or 3 or 4 weeks. I
know food allergy played a role as onions always brought headache on. Still
do to a lesser extent. Other foods must contain the same chemical. Haven't
put in the time to identify it yet.

4. Low-carb paleo is probably good for hypoglycemia sufferers and related
disorders (post-prandial tiredness) due to a low level of carbs and low
level of antinutrients

5. Paleo is a very healthy diet that is proabaly the archetypal perfect diet
for humans -  and many people will feel better on it even if they didn't
feel sick in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey, I'm
slightly biased. What the hell, paleo is as perfect for adults  as
breastmilk is for babies- only problem is that we don't have any true
cavemen left to study.

Ben Balzer
"The ideal diet for any animal is that which it eats in the wild. Humans are
no exception."
"Ask a dietitian or doctor how to lose weight and you'll be told to eat
bread, corn, soy, cereals etc.. Ask a farmer how to fatten an animal and
you'll be told to feed it bread, corn, soy, cereals etc. There is a
discrepancy that needs explanation."


> The following question was posted on our Paleo board:
>
>  >I have fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome.
>  >Will the Paleo diet benefit this condition?
>
> I know that no one can answer this question without a disclaimer.  What
> would be of interest, is if anyone knows of the diet having any success in
> this area.  My feeling is it would.  However, the only fatigue I have is
> being lazy, and Peleo hasn't cured that yet.
>
>
> Bob Martin
> Webmaster
> AgeLess Resources
> http://www.ageless.com