CfS medication
Posted , 9 users are following.
Whats the best medication for CFS , is fibromyalgia the same ,
0 likes, 8 replies
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Notes on CfS medication
jackie00198 mrs_susan74280
Posted
I don't know anything about fibromyalgia. But there is no "best" medication for ME/CFS. In fact, there is no treatment per se for this illness. However, some do find medications that help. This is a very individual, trial-and-error type thing. What works for one, does not work for another. For instance, anti-virals, like Valcyte and Valtrex, are an experimental treatment that works for some, like filmmaker Jennifer Brea. I was helped for a few months, when I first got ill, by the tricyclic antidepressant Sinaquan (now available as Doxepin).
philsey mrs_susan74280
Posted
Agreed there is no agreed medication. However I will tell you mine.
1. in 2001 I was treated with high doses of St John's Wort which cleared the mental fog and enabled me to carry on work at half hours.
2. After losing my job in 2003 I was given a medication set which has tended to work quite well, so long as I don't allow myself to habituate:
-Nightly, Amiptritylene for central fatigue.
-Morning, Sertraline for sudden fight/flight responses which were dragging me down.
-occasional use of Clonazepam for adrenalin agitation
Diazepam for panic attacks.
P
pixie22 mrs_susan74280
Posted
I find evening primrose oil makes moving around more comfortable but i haven't found anything to help with the exhaustion and brain fog.
philsey pixie22
Posted
Try St John's Wort in a proper preparation 800mcg tablet should be enough. Worked for me.
DiannaO mrs_susan74280
Posted
There is no best medication. In fact, medication just makes things far worse for me. My best bet has been to stick with whatever natural methods help. CFS is very multi layered in the since that there are so many things that are going wonky it's impossible to pin it down to one thing that's treatable with a drug. And I'm not sure any kind of drug would do anything to reverse or heal it. Drugs, in my opinion, don't really work that way because they don't address the root cause. My understanding is the closest they have come to finding a root cause is that the autonomic nervous system is not working correctly and since the ANS regulates EVERYTHING, they think that's where the main problem is. I've heard of a supplement called Parasym Plus that has had some great reviews because it contains a type of choline which is usually very depeleted in CFS patients and it adressess a whole slew of CFS symptoms. I haven't tried it yet because it 's very pricey and I don't have the money to spend but I have just started choline bitartrate supplementation to see if I get any results. I want to give myself more time before I make any comments.
Sockpim mrs_susan74280
Posted
I take several things that I think help, but starting out, I would suggest analysing your current diet. CFS and various other inflamtory conditions are linked to diet. For example, through self experimentation, I've found that my digestive system doesn't like wheat very much. I can eat a bit of it now and again, but it can't deal with the 'standard' sandwhiches for lunch diet or eating something for dinner with wheat in it it every day. When I did that I'd get really bad constipation and felt extra exhuasted for that period of time (probably due to not being able to poop). Excessive amounts of sugar or processed foods can cause inflamation in the body that can make the symptoms of CFS worse. I also find that very spicy things go the opposite way of constipation, so I mostly avoid these too.
Soemthing I learnt through experimentation that I've been doing for a while now is that I eat a normal sized breakfast, a very small lunch and then a normal sized dinner (and mostly no snacks inbetween). I do this because I find that if I have a normal sized lunch, all of my energy gets sent to my stomach and I become very tired for an hour or two. Now that I eat a very small lunch (e.g. today I have a medium sized carrot and a piece of cucumber about 10cm long), I don't get that energy slump from my body digesting the food.
philsey Sockpim
Posted
There are a range of fatigue illnesses under the CFS/ME label. I never found dietary adjustments made any appreciable difference to my M.E.. The St John's Wort was later replaced by Amitriptylene, and I find the stuff works for me - though I am on a silly dose (200mg) because my consultant at the time believed it was important to maintain functioning. Actually he was right because I'd never have been able to bring up my children without it, (10mg - 250 in 12 years) but I habituate to drugs very easily and once you are up so high, its a very different matter coming down. I have had a miserable time getting to within what my GP considers an absolute ceiling, and in fact have had to contract my activities to absolute essentials. Perhaps that is no bad thing!
miller.jones mrs_susan74280
Posted
This is something that does annoy myself and a large group of my fellow medical practitioners when people try to claim they are the same also when people with either one are diagnosed with both which tends to be a very high %
Medications need to be tailored to each case we have a guide on the base ones to try but each person is different so it needs to be based on individuals.
I always try to get people to try prescription free medication first and look into how there diet/life style is which again a lot of the problems is that.