The Great CFS or M.E. Debate Continues. Yet Highly Effective Solutions Already Exist

Article: Why are doctors and patients still at war over M.E.? How the best treatment for the debilitating condition is one of the most bitterly contested areas in medicine.

Linked below is an article by Jerome Burn for the Daily Mail in the UK discussing the ongoing battles between doctors and patients over the cause and treatment for M.E., or CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).

Finally the highly controversial PACE (a combination of cognitive behavioral and graded exercise therapies) recommended by many medical boards has been seriously questioned due to what has now been revealed as a lack of supportive data compared to what was originally claimed. Whilst this is no surprise to anyone who has suffered from CFS/M.E. and has tried this technique, it took years and many law suits to get the doctors invested in the use of this technique to reveal the data to the public. In doing so, serious discrepancies were revealed. It doesn’t actually work that well. Well, most who have tried this technique would suggest that this is stating the obvious.

It is however, a win for those wishing to have CFS, M.E. fibromyalgia etc. recognised as an actual physical condition as well as a psychological condition.

Yet, the debate as to the causes and the most effective treatment still wages. All this reveals is that they still don’t have the answers.

The medical community, that is your local doctor, and the fatigue specialists, still can’t provide solutions for CFS. And I’m sure we all implore them to continue the research.

However I believe their search is guided by the wrong paradigm.

Their education and ongoing research is largely bound by the current medical/pharmacological paradigm that looks at individual chemicals and imbalances, and the site of symptoms and putting out spot fires, rather that focusing on whole systems and the whole organism. This is the pharmacological approach that works great for acute illnesses, infectious diseases and trauma. But not for chronic, insidious onset illnesses.

There are effective solutions out there yielding fantastic results – and most of them have been found by thinking outside the square.

The approach of evolutionary biology or medicine would suggest we predominantly suffer and die from chronic illnesses because we have created a huge mismatch between the bodies we have inherited from our hunter gatherer ancestors, and the culture we have created.

“We get sick from chronic diseases by doing what we evolved to do but under conditions for which our bodies are poorly adapted, and we then pass on those same conditions to our children, who also then get sick. If we wish to halt this vicious circle then we need to figure out how to respectfully and sensibly nudge, push and sometimes oblige ourselves to eat foods that promote health and to be more physically active. That too, is what we evolved to do.” Daniel Lieberman, ‘The Story of the Human Body. Evolution, Health & Disease’.

What inspired me to practice natural medicine, respiratory therapy and Mickel Therapy was a complete recovery from CFS. I had experienced the lack of belief and acknowledgement from many doctors, and the admission from those who did acknowledge as to their inability to help. As such, for a long time I also experienced the extreme helplessness, frustration and depression that all sufferers experience.

However I was fortunate to find a practitioner who, although he had a very esteemed scientific background, he did think outside the square. As a result, I experienced a level of health I had never felt even prior to my illness. My mission then became one of finding more effective solutions for this ailment. And to further explore the upper levels of optimal health.

Unlike many doctors, other than duty of care, I am not bound by expectations or guidelines that threaten to ridicule or cut me off should I stray beyond their boundaries.

Guided by the evolutionary biology approach, my approach over the last 20 years has been to explore any modalities that potentially offer solutions for CFS, M.E. etc. as I can find. Whilst I have seen many that did not work, or some that in no way met the bold claims made by it’s protagonists, I also found a few techniques that have offered fantastic and highly effective solutions for chronic illness – and performance for the same reasons, but used in reverse.

And these solutions are the ones I use in clinic now. Whilst the doctors and experts waged their debates, I, and some colleagues, started to see regular complete resolutions in clients suffering from CFS, M.E. fibromyalgia, IBS, anxiety, depression, auto-immune conditions and more.

If you suffer from any of these conditions and are sick of the bullshit, then feel free to contact me at tim@timaltman.com.au or 0425 739 918.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4790904/Why-doctors-patients-war-M-E.html