Strange CFS and sleep observation

While I haven't experienced exactly what you describe, I do notice that the point in my sleep cycle that I wake up makes a huge difference to how I feel. I stopped setting an alarm because I consistently felt disgusting when woken up "unnaturally" but feel better if I let my body wake up when it wants to. Being woken up in the middle of what I assume must be REM sleep is awful. There are chemical changes that go on in our bodies during sleep and it kind of feels like those changes never got a chance to complete properly. Maybe a nap is enough to let them do so? I don't know, just theorizing...

One morning recently I woke up unusually early feeling ready to start the day, had a shower and everything, then started to feel extremely ill (on the verge of passing out, shivering, nauseous) so I went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours...felt fine after that!

OMG! I'm hoping I may have had a Eureka moment, that I wanted to share with you all.

Not sure if I've mentioned this before in this discussion but my diet is extremely limited due to what I believe are many food intolerances. For instance, my diet contains minimal fat, and as such I was worried that I would keep loosing weight (I dropped from 14 stone (89kgs) to 10 stone (63kgs) during the time my problems started. To combat this I found a couple of chocolate manufacturers whos products I thought I could tolerate, so I would make a point of eating a small amount each day, so as not to loose weight, and it seemed to work, I have been a steady 10 1/2 stone (67kgs) for the last couple of years.

Yesterday I woke up feeling really bad, with my digestive system being particularly troublesome, I felt so bad that I didn't even eat my daily dose of chocolate. I woke up this morning, albeit very early, and I was staggered as to how much better my digestive system felt. Don't get me wrong, it's still not 100% and my Fibromyalgia and CFS symptoms are still apparent, but as far as my digestive system goes I haven't felt this close to 100% for many, many months.

There are two variables here that are significant, now it could be because I had no more than 6 hours sleep last night, and the reason why I started this discussion, or it's the fact that I eliminated chocolate yesterday. However, even though having less sleep made me feel generally better, my digestive system would still play up quite a lot, but today it feels totally different, I don't look and feel as bloated, not so much gurgling and churning going on and I haven't felt one associated pain yet so far today.

It's early days I know, but I do feel a totally different person. I'll keep it out of my diet for a few more days still, just to be sure I don't have a flare up, but fingers crossed I might have found a way to at least ease some of my symptoms, only problem now would be how to keep weight on without chocolate, plus I'll miss it if I have to give it up!

Just thought I'd share that with you all.

Hello All.

Just thought I'd give you all an update on my recent findings.

I took one of you kind peeps advice and had a food intolerance test done, in fact I've done two, one non specific test which just tells you whether you have intolerances or not, and another that tests for 600 types of intolerances, both food, non foods and heavy metals. I haven't had the non specific results back yet, but I'm only using this as a confirmation test against the other specific test, if the non specific test comes back positive then I can pretty much trust the other specific test results, which I already have had back and I was rather surprised by the results. It turns out I have food intolerances to the following items:

Broad beans, cheese, cornflakes (but not corn or maize), E351 (Potassium malate which is found in ice cream and fried products), E442 (Ammonium phosphatides which is found in cocoa and chocolate products), E903 (Carnauba wax which is found in chewing gum, confectionary, coffee, bakery products), fig, gooseberries, herring, milk, millet, quince, rye, sheep's milk, shrimp, spinach and swede.

I also have intolerances to the following non food items and metals:

Duck feathers, Glaskraut plant, lycra, chromium, lead, nickel, tin and zinc.

They also told me that my levels of the following nutrients are 15% or less:

Calcium, chromium, iodine, lecithin, manganese and vitamin B1.

I was intrigued by these results, and although I am on a very limited diet there are 3 foods that I regularly consume linked to that list, those being milk, coffee and chocolate. I got these results 4 days ago and for the past 3 days have stopped my intake of these foods, and I already feel better, no where near 100% but a definite improvement. I don't know if its the elimination of these foods or whether I've gone into remission from my conditions, but something definitely feels different about me. Put it this way, a week ago I felt so ill I could hardly get out of my dressing gown and off the sofa, however yesterday I was up and dressed pretty early, was pottering about the house and garden, albeit gently not exerting myself at all, and I even felt well enough to try out my sisters brand spanking new car, I haven't driven in months. And again this morning I don't feel too bad at all, still a bit fuzzy headed and my stomach isn't quite right, few minor aches and pains here and there, but I'm definitely better than I have been in the past.

Could this have been the cause of my problems all along? Only time will tell of course, but surely this is looking promising so far! Only problem now is that I have to find some dairy free alternatives to milk that doesn't make my morning porridge taste like liquidised cardboard, plus try and live a life without chocolate !! 

Many thanks again to you all for your help and advice and I will keep you posted!

Well that was short lived.

My digestive problems flared up again yesterday late morning, more bloating, burping, stomach and bowel churning and random pain, along with just a general strange, on a boat feeling, and that is with cutting out the supposed problem foods for a few days now  It wasn't as bad as it has been in the past, so maybe it's still my body adjusting to eliminating the problem foods.

However, I do believe I'm going through a Fibromyalgia or CFS flare up at the moment so perhaps this is contributing to my digestive problems. I know when I'm having one of these flare ups as for some reason my left eye twitches badly, and feels lumpy at the same time, I frequently get a stye on my eyelid as well when in a flare up period, and I've had one for the last few days on my right eye. Doctor has said this is just a sign of being run down from the Fibromyalgia and/or CFS. It could also be due to having quite a busy day with visitors yesterday, I know that socialising can really take it out of me.

I don't feel too bad this morning though, bit of an odd feeling in digestive system, which I'm pretty sure is linked to wind build up, it usually is. I'll keep plugging away at the elimination of these foods, perhaps it is just a blip caused by my other conditions. Fingers crossed!

Forgot to mention that it was noted my Vitamin B1 levels are quite low, and upon looking up symptoms of this, it could well be that contributing to my digestive and other problems as well, with fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath being a few of the known symptoms I experience that are associated with this deficiency.

Hi Paul. Me again. Lol. Your eye twitching just made me think of something ive been taking in the evening. 500 mgs of magnesium. It has been helping me feel a little better over all and many holistic doctors tell CFS patients that we need magnesium . My levels were not very low but it still helps along with once a week epsom salt (magnesium) bath. My CFS doc also recommends vit d and k2( which i read up on and my anxiety tells me no. Lol) good luck.