> From:   maureen <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> I understand what you are going through.  I live in the US and have what is
> called here, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.  This is the same as ME in your
> country.


Multiple Chemical Sensitivity may be a  component of it.  Dr.
Durrant-Peatfield  from the UK talked about M.E.  (He's got a book called "The Great Thyroid
Scandal and How to Survive It"  Very good, lite on the scandal part and focus
on patients getting better.)  I was going to put an excerpt from a paper that
used to be on the Internet, but the whole thing seems better.

As for Multiple Chemical Sensitivities until my wfie got adequate thyroid
treatment, her throat was always swelling shut from allergic reactions.  We slept
with the window open one night and wound up in the emergency room. I was
starting to think she was allergic to oxygen.  No emergency room visits since
ADEQUATE thyroid treatment.  Not even any doctor visits about allergies, and
asthma went away.  So, breathing allergies went away but some minor food allergies
are still there, so when she is affected (throat starts itching or swelling) I
give her 40 mg of my hydrocortisone which is equivalent to 10 mg prednisone
and solves the problem, and is much better than the 60 -80 mg or prednisone
they would give her for an allergic reaction in the ER.  She used to be allergic
to almost every medication too.  I don't know whether that's still true or
not.

Anyway, here's discussion of M.E. from a doctor who was suspended by the GMC
without a single patient complaint.  Rumor has it, the same group of people
who influenced the attack then went over to Canada and influenced the Medical
College to do the same thing to Dr. Derry.  In the pursuit of profit I presume.
Less thyroid treatment equals more profit from all the side ailments.  It
certainly did seem strange that I read the input of these two doctors outside my
own country, who were starting to spread their vast knowledge,  and then one
after the other they were picked off.

Skipper

TREATMENT OF M.E
by Dr Barry J Durrant-Peatfield
M.B.. B.S.. L.R.C.P.. M.R.C.S.

Let's first explain what M.E. actually means; we've all heard the term, but
our understanding of it may not mean more than 'Yuppie Flu'. M.E. stands for
Myalgic Encephalitis - which perhaps doesn't get us much further. Literally this
mean brain fever with aching muscles. But it has other names. P.V.F. is an
acronym for Post Viral Fatigue. C.F.S. means Chronic Fatigue. Fibre Myalgia is a
term widely used in the U.S.A.

In fact it isn't very clear cut, since M.E. -as it is mostly known in the
U.K. results in a wide variety of different symptoms, which can make diagnosis
confusing and treatment difficult. Some features certainly, are always to be met
with. The sufferer experiences a level of extraordinary fatigue, so severe
that sometimes it's impossible even to get out of bed, sometimes for days or
weeks on end. Even quite ordinary exertion may result in complete exhaustion and
will greatly delay recovery. The endless fatigue is accompanied by aching
muscles and joints, poor memory and concentration, mood swings, digestive
problems, intolerance to heat and cold, and an overwhelming need to sleep, which may
be disturbed, and unrefreshing. Some idea of how you feel is to think back to
how you felt the few days after a bad flu. People with M.E. feel like that all
of the time.

How does it start? There is often a history indeed of a particularly vicious
flu attack - which never seems to get better. It may begin with a glandular
fever like illness; but the sore throat and swollen glands keep recurring. An
episode of major stress, be it psychological or associated with illness or
accident, may also be the starting point. The symptoms may persist for years;
sometimes slowly improving, sometimes not. The frustration and anxiety may result
in depression and changes in personality, which may well cause the illness to
be misdiagnosed as simple depression; or worse, as some form of opting out.

So what goes wrong? There have been endless theories and speculations; the
problem being that however many tests and examinations you do, nothing very much
shows up as being very wrong. This has led to the regrettable attitude of so
many doctors that, since they can't find anything wrong, then there isn't
anything wrong. Hopefully this approach is slowly being corrected; but sadly too
many doctors look at the blood test reports and shake their heads. A classic
example of treating the blood tests, and not the patient.

It has now become clear that M.E. is actually a disease process involving
many factors, each contributing, but none the main cause. It is now clear that
M.E. starts with damage occurring, usually viral, to the hypothalamus. The
hypothalamus, deep in the centre of the brain, is part gland, and part brain, and
controls the whole of the glandular system, through the pituitary gland, just
below it. As a result of this damage, the thyroid and adrenal glands, and to a
variable extent the ovaries or testes, become deficient. The loss of proper
function of the thyroid and adrenals is responsible for the majority of the
symptoms. Much of what follows is based on the work of two celebrated American
physicians, who devoted their entire working lives to the unravelling of two
inadequately understood and often little recognised illnesses

The first was Broda Bames, who died in 1989, who founded the foundation,
which bears his name and carries on his work of the study and treatment of low
thyroid function, or hypothyroidism. The other is William Jeffries, who made vast
strides in the understanding of adrenal function, especially in deficiency.

It is the close relevance of deficiencies in adrenal and thyroid glands to
M.E. that I am going to explain. First, a little physiology. The thyroid sits
astride the windpipe, just below the adams apple. It is crucially important to
health because it controls the metabolism, in adults, and also the growth in
children. Metabolism is the rate at which all biochemical processes in the body
work, and hence their proper and efficient functioning

To do this the thyroid produces mostly thyroxine (T4 for short) and some
triodothyronine (T3). T3 is the active hormone, and enzyme changes T4 into T3 as
the body requires is. From the blood system, the T3 moves into tissues at
receptor sites in each cell.

The adrenals sit like little hats over both kidneys. The inner part of each
adrenal (the medulla) produces adrenaline and noradrenaline, and is concerned
with the systems immediate reaction to, stress, the "fight or flight" hormone.

The outer part, the cortex, is concerned with the systems longer-term
capacity to deal with stress - of illness, injury and stress in general. Also it
produces hormones which regulate glucose metabolism, water balance, acid - base
balance and certain sex hormones.

The thyroid, and the adrenals, are ductless glands, where the hormones the
make enter the blood stream directly. Of similar type is the pituitary, at the
base of the brain, which controls all the other endocrines (or ductless) glands
by producing instructor or trophic hormones. The sex glands, thymus, part of
the pancreas are also endocrines.

What concerns us, is when the function of these glands is disorganised, and
in particular, when deficient. Failure in the beta cells of the pancreas is the
basic cause of diabetes. Failure in the sex glands occurs in women, at the
menopause, and also in men; and the treatment of these problems - Hormone
Replacement Therapy - most of you will know a bit about.

It is thyroid and adrenal failure that we need to talk about. Let me make it
clear that in using the word failure, we mean partial failure; deficiency of
10% or 20% or 30%. Total failure means death - weeks or months in the case of
the thyroid; a few days in the case of the adrenals.

So what happens when these vital glands start to run down? In the case of the
thyroid, in adults, the symptoms may be numerous and likely to overlooked
unless the whole picture is put together. Tiredness and lack of drive,
sensitivity to cold and heat, increasing weight gain, poor digestion, constipation,
depression, mood swings, loss of memory and concentration, skin and hair problems,
menstrual disorders, and worsening PMT, increasing vulnerability to
infection. To name most, but not all.

Adrenal failure comes next. Confusingly, loss of adrenal function (or poor
adrenal reserve) may be similar to thyroid deficiency (or hypothyroidism). Loss
of energy, cold sensitivity are characteristics, episodes of Hypoglycaemia are
common, with fainting and dizziness when hungry, and low blood pressure.
Marked failure to cope with stress is notable; a feeling of total exhaustion after
a stressful event. Most particularly, a failure to throw off infections, or
an unreasonably severe response to mild illness. Rheumatic or arthralgic
symptoms may be obvious - the sufferer seems to ache in the joints without obvious
cause. Weight loss, due to poor appetite an poor digestion may be a feature.

If both the thyroid and the adrenal are not working properly, many of the
symptoms mentioned may be a constant feature, and, if the deficiencies are not
very bad, one might simply think that one was getting old, and not actually want
to bore one's doctor.

In the clinic, we are now most familiar with this clinical picture, and the
story, together with some simple tests, is enough to make the diagnosis.
Treatment is easy and extraordinarily rewarding.

A number of patients may be diagnosed in this way and respond to treatment,
but an equal number have had an unresolved virus infection present as the post
viral syndrome, or simply as having M.E. All the tests may suggest viral
infections of the M.E. type, and thyroid and adrenal tests may come back within the
normal range.

What has happened is that the initial infection targets the hypothalamus;
and/or pituitary. (Cox-Sackie, or Epstein Barr vims are often implicated), and
have done more damage than is apparent, or sought for. If so, both the thyroid
and the adrenals will lose their efficiency with the loss of their control or
trophic hormones.

On the degree of involvement of thyroid and adrenals, will depend the
emphasis of the clinical picture. With the pituitary, thyroid/adrenal/axis damaged,
the body's immune system cannot recover, and the sufferer is frequently ill
with apparent relapses of vim's illness, other general illnesses, and indeed low
grade parasitic infections, like candidiasis. Eventually, with rest,
nutritional care, vigorous treatment of camp-follower infections, the endocrine axis
may finally recoup. But it may take years.

I hope I have said enough to raise your index of suspicion. Could it be that
your M.E. is part of at least, an endocrine axis deficiency? So how can we
check it out?

Actually it is not very easy to provide convincing blood and other tests -
because, so often they appear to be normal. But this may be the fault of undue
reliance on the tests. There is no substitute, and I do emphasise this most
strongly, for careful consideration of the history, a proper clinical examination
and a high index of suspicion.

There is one home test, which may be convincing. The Bames Basal Temperature
test is sensitive to small deficiencies not revealed by normal pathological
testing. Described by Dr. Bames early in his medical career, it always provides
a strong indication.

In thyroid and/or adrenal failure your resting temperature is abnormally low.
If you take your temperature when at rest, i.e. first thing in the morning,
it should be somewhere between 98F and 98.4F. If it is not, and is below 97.6F,
it is considered a positive indication. Frequently, it is really very low,
even below 96F, if there is an adrenal/thyroid deficiency.

To do it really well, you should place the thermometer for ten minutes under
the axilla (armpit) immediately on waking. (If time presses, three minutes in
the mouth). Glass thermometers are better than the electronic ones for this.

TREATMENT

The increased understanding of the mechanisms of M.E. in the U.S.A., and in
this country, has meant that treatment is greatly more effective; and the
Foxley Lane Clinic has now many years' experience in reversing the cause of the
illness. The key to success lies in realising that all the different symptoms,
all the problems, need to be treated simultaneously. This may not always be
possible all at once; but we will work with you to find the best combinations and
balance of treatment to restore you to what you were. In the ideal world there
is a battery of tests that one would like to check up on.

These include 1) Full thyroid profile (T4, T3 and TSH)

2) Adrenal profile- Cortisol - DHEA 3) Full haematology 4) Blood Chemistry 5)
Ferritin (iron)

6) Hormone Levels - Oestrogen

(for women)

    * Progesterone
    * Testosterone (for men)

F.S.H. (Follicle Stimulating Hormone)

    * L.H. (Leutinising Hormone)

Helpful as their investigations may be, they may leave some questions
unanswered. Also they involve some very considerable expense which may not be
practical or possible. It is usually possible to pick and choose those most relevant;
and, where appropriate, make a judgement on clinical appraisal alone. Thyroid
and/or adrenal deficiency may be usefully and safely be inferred from the
basal temperature test, noted earlier.

Treatment consists in correcting the hormonal and other deficiencies.
Initially, the most important consideration is the correction of the adrenal
insufficiency. For this physiological amounts of Cortisol are required and experience
has shown the use of 5mgm of Hydrocortone, or 1O.lmgm of Fludrocortone to be
the most effective. These amounts may be slowly increased to restore blood
levels to normal. Poor adrenal function will mean low DHEA, and this too is given
to restore normality. Thyroid levels must also be restored, and the use of
thyroid supplementation is required. The use of Thyroxine may prove unhelpful due
to poor receptor uptake, or poor conversion to the active hormone T3
(Triodothyronine); and natural thyroid or Tertroxin is usually more beneficial.

Deficiency in female hormones oestrogen and progesterone must call for
attention; and equivalent deficiency in the male hormone Testosterone will require
attention similarly.

Since poor absorption of many minerals and vitamins is to be found in M.E.,
restoration of possible deficiencies must be attended to. Magnesium 10
supplementation is almost invariably required, since it has shown to be essential in a
great many enzyme processes. The B group vitamins, essential for the healthy
nervous tissue, are also required; many have found Vit B12 to be unexpectedly
valuable. This is given by injection as often as convenient for several weeks.
Iron deficiency should also be actively treated. High doses of Vitamin C,
2000g a day should also be used. Co-enzyme QIO, 30mgms three times a day may also
be employed.

Sleep disturbance may often be a feature of M.E., and the use of simple
relaxants at night can be most beneficial. Selective Seratonin inhibitors (SSRI's)
are widely used for depression; and may be of benefit even if the patient is
not actually depressed; since there is considerable evidence to show that the
complex mechanisms of neurotransmitters, damaged in M.E., may benefit.

Other aspects of nutrition also require attention and careful attention to a
wholesome diet has to be recommended. Environmental toxins, which include
tobacco, caffeine and alcohol, have to be excluded.

Many M.E, sufferers, with their damaged immune systems suffer from
Candidiasis. The avoidance of refined carbohydrates, and yeast-containing products is
obvious; and the use of fungicides may in these cases be important. Nystatin for
several months will be helpful in these cases.

SUMMARY

1. Nutrition Remove coffee/alcohol/tobacco

Vit B, C, B12

Magnesium Chloride

Proper healthy diet

2. Hormones Treat adrenal deficiency

Treat hypothyroidism

Treat male/female hormone deficiencies

Consider Oxytocin supplementation Vasopressin

3. Candida Avoid antibiotics where possible

Treat yeast with Nystatin

Removal of bowel parasites

4. Treat food allergies but don't overdo it.




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