Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a guide to the homeopathic treatment of CFS/M.E.
Diane L Solomon DHM DipI.O.N
Author Bio
Diane Solomon B.S., DHM, Dip.I.O.N., was a well-known singer and actress in the UK, until Chronic Fatigue Syndrome hit, and destroyed her career.
HER LATEST BOOK: “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a guide to the homeopathic treatment of CFS/M.E.” was published in November, 2015. She wrote this book out of a passionate desire to help others afflicted by this syndrome, which stems from her painful personal experience: seven devastating years of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She completely recovered, thanks to a homeopathic remedy.
There are high-quality books that lay out the history, symptomatology, CDC definition and treatment protocols, and possible alternative treatments. Diane simply puts forward an overview of these areas. However, few of these books touch on homeopathy in any in-depth way. Having practiced for over 20 years, and worked with many CFS sufferers, Diane knows that homeopathy is vital, even essential, to the treatment plan of this dreadful scourge.
Diane is a nutritionist and homeopath trained in London at the prestigious Institute of Optimum Nutrition and The British Institute of Homeopathy. Although empowered by her training in nutrition, adding the modality of homeopathy/energy healing to her practice resulted in even greater success and health for her clients. She states that homeopathy is “the most powerful healing mechanism we have.”
Although she retired from practice in order to focus on writing, Diane helped thousands of people. Diane lives in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, with her husband Mark. She writes novels, books on health, and edits and occasionally ghost-writes for others who as she puts it, “have something great to say!”
Description
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.), Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), Post Viral Syndrome.
There are so many names, so many symptoms, and so much suffering involved in this complex, dreadful illness. With all the years, all the struggles for recognition, and all the medical research that has been performed, there is still no cure and very little offered by orthodox medicine for this scourge.
But there is a great deal of help available in the world of homeopathy.
The author, Diane Solomon, herself struggled with a severe case of CFS for more than seven years, but finally found her way back to full and glorious health through homeopathic medicine. Having gone on to train at the renowned British Institute of Homeopathy, she practiced for more than 20 years, guiding hundreds of CFS patients to recovery and well-being. This book will help hundreds or thousands more!
Diane wrote the book out of a passionate desire to help others afflicted by this syndrome. She focuses on the homeopathic remedies that have cured CFS, plus ways to ascertain the “onion layers” of causes that pile up on the CFS sufferer. She describes the many ways to peel back those onion layers, both for practitioners, and for patients themselves.
Easy to read, well laid out, concise yet thorough, everyone struggling with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis should read this book.
THE FOLLOWING IS A CURRENT REVIEW FROM AMAZON: “A must for everyone with an interest in CFS, and homeopathy!
By Constant Learner, on November 29, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
“What a wealth of information! Hopefully this book will show up as a reference for everyone researching Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – a truly complicated illness. If I got nothing else out of this book, it was a true appreciation of not only what a CFS patient suffers, but also the COMPLEXITY of its diagnosis, treatment options, possible origin(s), etc. etc. etc. Whether a practicing homeopathic doctor or patient, an allopathic physician, a CFS researcher, or, like me, someone who is keen to learn as much as possible about homeopathy, this book has a great deal to offer. Thank you, Diane, for putting so much together in one resource!”
Book excerpt
With the wealth of available books discussing every possible factor relating to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, you may wonder why I chose to write another one. I have studied this illness in the course of my practice as a nutritionist and homeopath and have information that may help. And, as a fully recovered CFS sufferer (a rare beast), I have a great deal of experience to share, and enormous understanding and compassion for anyone suffering this scourge.
I do not pretend that this is the be-all or end-all book on CFS, with regard to research, orthodox treatment, etc. There are high-quality books that lay out the history, symptomatology, CDC definition and treatment protocols, and possible alternative treatments. I simply put forward an overview of these areas. No need to re-create the wheel! However, few of these books touch on homeopathy in any in-depth way. In my opinion, having practiced for over 20 years, and worked with many CFS sufferers, homoeopathy is vital, even essential, to the treatment plan.
I wrote this book out of a passionate desire to help others afflicted by this syndrome, which stems, of course, from my own painful personal experience: seven devastating years of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Here is a little of that story. I had completed my nutrition degree, in London, in 1986, from the Institute of Optimum Nutrition. I had practiced nutrition for some years, when I, of all people, came down with the dreaded Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, shortened to ME, as it is known in the UK. Imagine my shock, disbelief, and denial when I contracted what I thought was the flu, but never got better. It couldn’t happen to me, I was a nutritionist! I ate organic food, drank very little alcohol, I exercised, I took tons of nutritional supplements. I was happy, having just fallen in love and was planning to move to Los Angeles to be with my fiancé.
But, I had a history of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and I needed to be very careful with wheat and dairy, due to food intolerances to both. Add to that the occasional migraine headache, inherited from my mother, and I certainly wasn’t able to lay claim to perfect health.
Stress had a great deal to do with it, too. I was selling my home in London, moving to California, planning my wedding, buying a home in Santa Monica, and my father was dying of pancreatic cancer. I flew from London to Los Angeles 22 times in 24 months, as well as making several trips to Massachusetts to see Dad. By the time he passed away, I was an exhausted wreck. Nutritional adrenal support helped a bit, then failed. Other energy nutrients and herbs didn’t work. Rest didn’t work. Exercise was impossible. Sleep was elusive. I’d come down with the flu but didn’t stop doing all the things that needed to be done. I worked and traveled right through it, out of sheer will power, and from a sense, however misguided, that it was absolute necessity that I do so. The Super Woman diagnosis definitely applied. I thought I could do anything.
Over the next seven years, I tried every possible modality. First, of course, were the orthodox physicians. Three of them. I heard “You’re hyperventilating, breathe out of a brown paper bag and you’ll be fine.” This from an MD in England. “Try to get some more rest; here is a prescription for tranquilizers and sleeping pills.” This advice from another general MD, this one in Los Angeles.
And then there was the MD at Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles who spent a great deal of the appointment time trying to persuade me to schedule a mammogram. (What did that have to do with the price of tomatoes that day?) I was there, desperate for help, with symptoms of systemic exhaustion, inflammation, swollen glands, sore throat, shaky feeling, weakness, foggy mental processes such as lack of concentration, and inability to sleep – all the symptoms of CFS. When I researched his clinic, I found that he part-owned the laboratory where he wanted to send me. Of course, this practitioner had nothing helpful to offer; he actually confessed he had no idea what was wrong with me. But he did present a large bill.
I also tried, oh, so many alternative practitioners, who, while more caring people, couldn’t seem to help, either. I would find a bit of improvement from herbs, a chiropractic adjustment, acupuncture, or whatever, but it would not hold, and I’d sink right back down. I sought out naturopaths, acupuncturists, Chinese herbalists, chiropractors, a DO, massage therapy. I even tried hypnotherapy, in case I had somehow brought this all on myself and therefore my mind could undo it. I felt guilty contemplating that I had somehow done this to myself. But nothing I tried was of much use, certainly nothing lasting. I spent a fortune, was unable to work at the time, and was terrified. And very depressed about it.
The nutshell: years of bed-ridden misery. Sometimes I couldn’t walk across the room unaided. I couldn’t find the energy to answer the telephone. I couldn’t sleep, so I never felt better in the morning. My first waking thought was “Oh my God, another day. How on earth do I get through it?” There was no reprieve from the never-ending headaches, body and muscle aches, and the inexplicable, all-consuming fatigue. Imagine you flew from L.A. to Bangkok (16 hours or so), with the flu, and a hangover, and then add the sensation that you’ve drunk five cups of coffee so you can’t sleep. When you do sleep, it is a light, floating, semi-sleep full of horrible dreams, and you wake up over and over and over again. So the nights go on forever, but you feel no better in the morning. You just hurt all over like someone has hit you with a baseball bat about 40 times, and you honestly wish you were dead. That’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
It truly felt like a lifetime, these years of suffering, and thoughts of suicide haunted me. I know it was cowardice that prevented it, not any sense of hope. That was long gone.
Then I tried homeopathy – goodness knows why I did not find it sooner. A Los Angeles-based homeopath/Chinese herbalist recommended I take a nosode of Coxsackie B4 virus. (I know this may not mean much to you at this point – more later!) I took three doses over 24 hours and then promptly experienced a full-blown, terrifying relapse. Any tenuous balance or coping I was holding on to vanished with this remedy. I fell into bed – boy, did it ever make me sick! I was much worse; for about a week and a half I felt as if I had the full-blown flu. It scared me, I can tell you.
BUT THEN IT WAS OVER. At about the ten-day mark, I just woke up. Everything felt different. There was no pain, no foggy feeling in the head, much less exhaustion, no swollen glands, no sore throat, no sore muscle points. I was still tired, weak, still had some mild IBS and gut problems, and the occasional inherited tendency to migraines that I had experienced for years before the CFS. But the majority of the symptoms were gone, and I was a consistent 80-85% better. No relapse. It took a while to clean up the gut, restore full adrenal function, and I was allergic to every food under the sun, it seemed, by this time.
I felt like the black and white movie of my life had suddenly been re-mastered in gorgeous color. Like the curtains were raised. Like everything was in focus again. The fog and misery and aches and pains never returned. I was terrified that they might, for the next few years, but they never did.
Our belief, as homeopaths, is that my immune system was deeply challenged by the remedy of this virus (perhaps the virus of the original flu I had contracted seven years previously) and had kicked it out at last. The truth is, no one in the world of homeopathy knows exactly how this works, but that is my best guess.
I have since helped many people with CFS to recover some or most of their health with a remedy similar to Coxsackie. It might be another virus, such as Influenza or Cytomegalovirus, or even the Mononucleosis EBV virus. This is not to say that I think everyone with CFS will recover this dramatically with the use of a viral nosode, but it certainly can be a part of the picture needing to be addressed. Or, at least viral involvement must be eliminated as a cause.
That’s a little of my story. I have been fully recovered now for over 20 years. I exercise, garden, hike, and ride my bicycle. I am back to normal, with a lingering mild problem with food allergies that I work on. Homeopathic desensitization techniques help, but have not completely eliminated the problem. And of course, I still have the occasional mild migraine. I have undergone constitutional treatment as well, and can honestly say I am healthier now than at any time of my life.
However, not a day passes that I don’t feel truly blessed to have survived those dreadful years. When I get a cold or an occasional stress headache, I tell myself, “It’s only a cold, it’s not CFS,” or “It’s only a headache, it’s not CFS.” So it feels like nothing at all. Nothing could be that bad again, so this rebirth is just wonderful, just miraculous. A true gift!
I look at things differently now, I suppose not unlike those who approach death, yet escape. I am truly grateful that I didn’t have the courage, all those years, to do the unthinkable. I am truly grateful that I am still here to enjoy my life, and that I might be able to help others who are lost and in pain.
Author Website
http://www.EloquentRascals.com
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