+100%-
+100%-

Dr. Teitelbaum has been studying and  treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia since he came down with ME/CFS over thirty years ago. The author of the best selling ME/CFS treatment book, “From Fatigued to Fantastic’, Dr. Teitelbaum talked for 48 minutes on his basic approach talk to ME/CFS and FM at the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine conference.

dr-jacob-teitelbaumSm(He noted that all the pay/royalties he gets  from the products he designs and directs people to go to charity.  (Too bad Health Rising is not a charity :))

This is a basic overview of ME/CFS and FM treatment.  It’s interesting while watching the video or reading the overview.to contemplate the differences between ME/CFS experts in this field   One group of ME/CFS/FM experts (Teitelbaum, Holtorf, Garabedian)  appears to place a strong focus on hormones, another group (Peterson, Lerner, Chia, Klimas, Dantini) focuses more on immunological issues and pathogens. Dr. Bateman  and Dr. Natelson appear to take a more conservative approach than either group and it’s not clear, at least to me, what group Dr. Lapp, who is well acquainted with Ampligen falls into.

Anyway – here’s a short introduction to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia treatment from Dr. Teitelbaum.

Highlights

He started off by stating that most people with ME/CFS and FM can get well (!), and then showed a study indicating that 91% of patients treated with a ‘integrated treatment approach’ experienced moderate  to significant improvement in their symptoms.  The average increase in quality of life was 75%.

upward graph

Dr. Teitelbaum reports he sees progress in most of his patients

That’s not the same as ‘getting  well’, but it’s certainly significant and it does track with many ME/CFS practitioners statements  that ME/CFS is generally treatable.

He noted  a very interesting pattern where improving one  system leads to improvement for awhile but ultimately can put stress on another system that causes  the patient to crash.

Besides  fatigue Dr. Teitelbaum picked out insomnia, muscle and  joint aches, sensitivities to many substances, brain fog, spastic colon, leaky gut,  decreased sex drive and an interesting one not often associated with ME/CFS – chronic sinusitis.  Most people with ME/CFS/FM he said, had chronic sinusitis and post-nasal drip.

He recommended NAET  very highly for treating allergies and sensitivities.

He believes, like Dr. Cheney, that ME/CFS is caused by a body-wide energy crisis except that Teitelbaum targets the hypothalamus instead of the heart. Infections, hormonal deficiencies, poor sleep, etc. can all cause the body to ‘blow a fuse’.  Dr. Teitelbaum believes the hypothalamus, which controls sleep,  hormones, temperature and autonomic functioning puts the body in a kind of hibernation to protect it.

“When your  muscles  get exhausted they go tight –  and they hurt”.

Of course,  the muscles  require a lot of energy as  well. When they run out of  energy he noted that they get locked in a shortened position.  (We’ve seen evidence of muscles in shortened, contracted position in  our Fibromyalgia blogs). In a Rowe overview we’ll  see evidence that the nerves associated with the muscles aren’t able  to elongate as they should in ME/CFS: i.e., they remain ‘tight’). Those painful muscles then set the  stage for central sensitization (increased pain sensitivity).

(It’s interesting that at the heart of it,  it’s all about energy production for Dr. Cheney, Dr. Teitelbaum and probably Dr. Myhill.)

Onset Matters

People with gradual onset often have more problems with low thyroid or other hormonal problems, yeast, autoimmune and sleep  disorders and severe stress.  (Autoimmune  disorders often trigger  a ‘secondary fibromyalgia’ that rheumatologists miss.)

Rapid onset, on the other hand, suggests to Dr. Teitelbaum, infection, injury and pregnancy or rather problems after pregnancy, when the body has trouble adapting to a new hormonal  environment.

Dr. Teitelbaum at the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine Conference  in 2013

(Also find the video here)

Then  Teitelbaum talked about the psychospiritual side  of ME/CFS and ‘doing what feels good’.  This side of medicine has people determine what feels good  and keep doing those things.

Efficiency Matters – A Standardized Approach

He uses standardized questionnaires to  assess how patients are doing, noting that they can enable a doctor to accomplish in five minutes what would take an hour.  He gives them out to physicians for free (endfatigue@aol.com).

discussions

An ME/CFS and FM practitioners networking site – what a great idea 🙂

ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia Practitioner Network

Noting that there’s no way that anyone can know all or even half  the things that might be helpful in this field,  Teitelbaum has also  set up a free Fatigue  and Fibromyalgia Practitioners network to allow  practitioners from different fields to share their insights (www.vitality101.com/FFPN/

Shine Protocol

Nutrition

Some tidbits  from the nutrition section.  Use powders instead of pills. Stay away from sugar (except for chocolate –  a health food), add salt, high protein-low carb diet, and consider a  mitochondrial enhancer (D-Ribose, others).

D-Ribose

He’s found  significant success with D-Ribose (5 grams 3x’s a day for three weeks)  in two studies, one of them quite large.  After three weeks he drops it down to  twice a day. He gives a B-complex vitamin with it.

He noted that the energy recipe (D-Ribose,  COQ10, magnesium,  etc.) is amazingly like you treat heart failure – another energy production crisis.

Sleep

He asserted that if anyone answers  yes, to the question “Can you get a good nights sleep?” they don’t have Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

woman in bath

Hmm…candles, Epsom salts, chocolate, a little wine (very little) – sounds good!

After noting that there are many different types of sleep aids (and describing some of them) Dr. Teitelbaum’s described his favorite ‘high tech’ recipe for sleep: two cups of Epsom salts in a warm bath, a little red wine, some chocolate and candles an hour before bed.  (Being relaxed before sleep has been shown to result in deeper sleep.)

He prefers a natural approach but particularly with Fibromyalgia he mixes and matches a variety of drugs (Trazodone, Flexeril,  Neurontin and sometimes Ambien) to  get patients the eight hours of sleep they need to improve.

Hormones

Dr. Teitelbaum believes  that even mild hormone deficiencies can cause widespread problems and he has little faith in  the ‘normal’ ranges  that most doctors use to determine if deficits are present.  He believes that most people who need thyroid test in the ‘normal range’ and he determines thyroid deficiency by symptoms.  He said his thyroid talk takes an hour, but,  in general to adjusts the dose to how the patient is feeling and check their free T4.

Adrenal dysfunction can simply be indicated if all of a sudden a person with ME/CFS feels they MUST eat something.

Infections

Many infections have been associated with ME/CFS, but there’s one that every doctor should look for – Candida. Sinusitis and spastic colon are dead giveaways.  He prescribes low sugar diets, probiotics, anti-fungals (Diflucan), and looks for a host of other infections, but the key infection to treat is  in his opinion … candida.

 Pain and Small Fiber Neuropathy

About half of people with Fibromyalgia have small fiber neuropathy, most of whom also have IgG subclass deficiencies and dysautonomia (problems standing).   IVIG can be helpful (and very expensive at $50K for 6 months treatment).  He uses it in the sickest 15% who don’t respond to anything else.

Mind/Body

Being driven himself Dr. Teitelbaum is well acquainted with the role the mind/body interaction can play.  If you’re an overachiever, if you try to be all things to all people, if you have trouble saying no – you’re setting up for problems with this disorder. Learn how to say “No!” Teitelbaum emphasized.

He ended by talking about other alternative treatments. He singled out human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) for chronic pain.

__________________________________

Dr. Teitelbaum later responded to some of the negative comments:

“Wow– Some pretty intense stuff!

It reminds me of how frustrating this illness can be. I remember when I had the illness. It crushed the life and hope out of me – taking away the goals and purposes in life I held most dear. And when my professors told me that they could not find a cause for the illness, so I must be depressed, this only added to the pain.

Yet, I did learn how to recover. And being a physician, I made the choice to help others. This meant designing a research protocol based on thousands of studies and many years of experience, including learning from my own recovery, and running a double-blind placebo-controlled study put together with the gracious help of researchers at the NIH. Our published study showed that 91% of people improve with an average 75% increase in quality of life at 99 days and 91% at two years (p<.0001 vs placebo) using SHINE. This study was published in a peer-reviewed journal, and I accepted no drug company funding, paying for the study out of my own pocket. Instead of patenting the protocol, as is often done, I put the protocol into the public domain so that everyone could use it. Free. I then put the information in a book, and have spent the last 40 years educating practitioners and the public about the illness, to help as many people get well as I could.

I will admit though. It is painful when some people write harsh posts attacking me. I do take comfort though, in that I have never seen a negative post from any of the thousands of people I have treated. Simply put, I would’ve made more money in my medical practice with much less work and grief had I not focused on helping people with CFS and fibromyalgia. Yet, I have not regretted my decision for a moment. I take great joy in the tens of thousands of people that I have helped, and continue to help, reclaim their lives.

CFS and fibromyalgia are very treatable. This does not, of course, mean there is a cure for everyone. Some do reclaim full health as I did. Most, however, find that the quality of their life improves markedly with treatment.

I do understand that many people feel angry and drained from having tried treatments that did not help, or more often from seeing physicians who simply told them that they were crazy. I remember my anger and hurt with the illness, and truly bear those of you who wrote the attacking posts no ill will for your feelings.  To those angry with the work I’ve done, I apologize for any discomfort my efforts may have brought you and invite you to simply discard the information—like a shoe that does not fit you.

However for the others who do seek the information I offer to help them reclaim their lives and health, I will continue to dedicate my life to helping them. Just as in the video above, where I was lecturing with no recompense, selling nothing that I profited from, and happily creating 400 competitors by teaching physicians in the audience how to help those with this illness– for those continuing to  seek help, I take great joy in continuing with my passion. Helping to bring the possibility of health to everyone I can.

Love and Blessings

Dr. T”

GET FREE ME/CFS AND FIBROMYALGIA INFO

Like the blog you're reading? Don't miss another one.

Get the most in-depth information available on the latest ME/CFS and FM treatment and research findings by registering for Health Rising's free  ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia blog here.


Stay on Top of the News!

Subscribe To Health Rising’s Free Information on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM), Long COVID and Related Diseases.

Thank you for signing up!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This