Marianne Gutierrez: Health Practitioner: An answer to a question about ME

An answer to a question about ME · 6 July 2005

I would recommend that you see a Nutritionist called Patrick Holford. He is a scientist, researcher, psychiatrist and nutritionist. His personal experience was meeting Celia Wright who had written a booklet about a healthy gut many years ago now. Although he mentioned about how he was introduced to Nutrition at one of his workshops I don’t feel I can repeat that here.

I have seen Nutritionists myself but no-one comes near Patrick Holford in my estimation. I haven’t seen him myself except I have attended some workshops of his.

Patrick speaks about imbalances. In the last couple of years he has introduced a supplement that balances the homeocystine levels (please see this link) which in an unhealthy person are very high. You will find links to Patrick Holford and to Celia Wright’s company Higher Nature on this website.

I am unable to take supplements on a grand scale but what has really helped me are the Omega Oils. I take 6 a day and after a month I saw improvements and it just gets better. I have always taken omega oils but it was taking the higher dose that has helped so much.

I have also written an article called Guts, Vitamins etc and in this I mention parasites. A garlic supplement that contains garlic enzymes called Allicin has also been very helpful and my aches and pains are much less. I think there is a substance called Samento that is meant to kill the particular bacteria mentioned. This is mentioned in my website but if you key in Samento into a search engine, you will come up with several sites that will give you loads of detail about this.

You can put parasites in the browse option on my website and it should come up with other articles where I mention parasites.

But the biggest unbalancer of the body systems are food sensitivites. ME is an over worked immune system causing exhaustion. When we have a food sensitivity the immune system kicks in massively. This can be the cause of odema/water retention. I swell everywhere when I eat something that I am sensitive to and feel very bloated. I was tested by a kinesiologist many years ago and he was very thorough. If I work too much or do anything too much I put my immune system under too much strain, and I find that I am more sensitive to foods than if I have paced myself. But giving up the offending foods really, really helps the ME.

No-one knows what causes ME and there are a lot of symptoms ie food sensitivites, parasitic invasion, exhaustion etc etc etc etc etc etc! But what is the cause????? Wouldn’t we all like a definitive answer to that one!!!!

I do believe the body heals itself. Sleep is a great healer and again I find that the Omega Oils help this and maybe a supplement which is an amino acid, tryptophan. Amino acids are the break down of proteins and one may need to eat more protein. This is why the old fashioned remedy of a warm milky drink was used to help people sleep. Tryptophan helps produce seratonin which aids sleep.

One may be deficient in zinc. You only need a small amount but zinc supports many functions and many, many people are zinc deficient. One or more white spots on finger nails is a good indicator of zinc deficiency. (from Patrick Holford’s Optimum Nutritional Bible) Feeling nauseous is also a symptom of zinc deficiency.

If one’s gut is upset which it surely would be with a bacteria infection of the type, Borrelia spirochetes, and ME, then one may also be deficient in the B vitamin complex which are supported to thrive in the gut by healthy good bacteria. So one could take Allicin to kill bad bacteria and parasites and later in the day (at least two hours later) take a good stomach resistant bacteria to proliferate the gut.

When I was first diagnosed with ME, I went to see a Nutritionist who totally alarmed me by her findings. I was terrified about what was wrong with me and thought I was going to go completely downhill with osteoporosis for one thing never mind all the other alarming things that were going on in my body. I was getting faint, the room would go blue, I was so terribly tired and yet couldn’t sleep at night, my heart would palpate to such an extreme I thought I was having a heart attack, my breathing was so low that sometimes I couldn’t take a breath – it was like my body had forgotten how to breath, and I would ‘pull’ a muscle so easily if I did anything heavy like pushing a broom or vacuuming the carpets. I took all the supplements that I was advised to take and felt worse. Very ill. But knowing one can feel worse before one feels better I stuck with them for 3 months. Then feeling no better, I threw the supplements away and began to think about what I knew about my body and I have basically pulled myself to the feeling-better-plateau I am now on.

This is why I think that seeing a Nutritionist is a good idea but to see a ‘good’ nutritionist, one that has been recommended. And most importantly to listen to one’s own body and only do what makes sense.

All I take now are the Omega Oils and Allicin. I would like to take Vit C but I bought the wrong ones and they contain soya which made me ill again and I haven’t been able to make a decision about any others … yet! I would also like to take B Vitamins and a multi-vitamin but I can’t find one that doesn’t contain the things I cannot tolerate at the moment. I always use Higher Nature or Solgar and Solgar have changed their formulation and I was very ill after taking their multi-vitamin. Higher Nature vitamin B reacts with me too and I am not sure why.

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