Ashok Gupta’s Amygdala Retraining Technique For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS): Patient Reports
These page contains e-mails (mostly) that I’ve received from people doing the Amygdala Retraining. Thus far have all been positive. One person felt he had plateaued on the treatment and all the others were continuing to improve. Several have had quite dramatic improvements. (My blog on the Amygdala Retraining can be found here.)
From Jennifer (July 26th, 2008)
I was diagnosed with CFS and MCS about 17 years ago. I’ve been doing Gupta’s program, to one degree or another, for just over 6 months. When I started, I had been totally bed bound with a severe CFS “relapse” for 6 months. I was too weak to lift utensils to feed myself, or get to the bathroom, and had to use a bedside commode. Prior to that, I had been in partial-remission for years, and was enjoying working part-time.
I think this program is phenomenal, and I wish I had found it before my muscles became so de-conditioned from inactivity. But even with starting where I did, and only able to implement parts of the program, I am doing much better. I still need wheelchair help to get around most places, but I’m much more functional and am gradually building up muscle strength.
From Ken In New Zealand (June 08)
“Today I have been on the Ashok Gupta Amygdala Retraining course for exactly 2 months and I am absolutely amazed at the progress I have made.
Let me tell you where I have come from – I have had CFS for over 20 years. Five years ago I was diagnosed for the first time, this was when my CFS became extremely severe and I changed to a doctor who actually knew something about it.
That 5 years was to be the worst 5 years of my life, for most of the time I was unable to do any jobs and I could walk no more than a hundred yards. On a bad day I would get up, have breakfast and then have to lie down and sleep for an hour or so. After lunch it would be the same story, lie down and sleep again and at the end of my day I would in bed by 9pm. On one such day I even had problems walking from the lounge to the toilet. I occasionally had a small recovery, it never lasted long and I would soon relapse – to push myself even a little would result in extra fatigue the next day.
Towards the end of that 5 years I got some help from mega doses of Vitamin C and injections of Vitamin B12, or sub-lingual B12 lozenges when my flesh got tired of the needle.
Then 2 months ago I started on the Gupta Program and I haven’t looked back! Now I never have to sleep during the day, I am alert and able to get on with my life. Both physically and mentally I have improved out of sight. I no longer take mega doses of Vitamin C and no B12 either. I have been able to start again with music, I have started to play keyboards again after a lapse of 12 or more years and have joined a group of like minded people who meet in each others homes to share music. I am back to socialising where earlier I had lost all my friends and aquaintances. I’m getting my life back!
Two days ago we had an emergency. My wife was doing the weekly wash when suddenly we found water gushing out under the laundry door and flooding the kitchen, there had been a problem with the washing machine outlet and it emptied the whole lot onto the floor, it got absolutely every where and into everything. We just had to get stuck in to clean up the mess, had to shift masses of stuff outside and I had to manhandle the washing machine so we could mop up underneath it – I worked my but off, my legs went like rubber but I kept on and an hour after we finished the job I was feeling not too bad again. I had a poor day yesterday (to be expected), but nothing like I would have had after such an event before I started Gupta and I am back on course again today!
I would say that I am at least 50% possibly 60% recovered – and this after only 2 months. If you any of you decide to give Gupta a go, and its cheap enough, you do have to work at it, its no good just paying it lip-service, you do need to do the work.
Some time ago I read the following about CFS – it was that CFS is caused by stress, made worse by stress and is perpetuated by stress. What the Gupta program does is to treat this problem of stress”
7/24/08 – Well I am still continuing to improve, not as quickly as the first two months but progress none the less.
I had one or two poor days some of which were due to becoming complacent about using the program, which is a mistake, but also due to severe stress caused by an unrelated health issue. To balance that I’ve also had a few days where I felt that I didn’t have CFS anymore, I just felt like a somewhat unfit 74 year old, which is what I am.
Having said that I have to say that my life is dramatically different from 3 months ago – there just isn’t any comparison. I am working hard on my music, did you hear that? WORKING HARD! I haven’t done that for over 12 years! If I were not to get any better from this point I would be content that the program has done a good job but I feel there I am going to keep on improving. I seriously recommend this program.
From Lynn (June 08)
Lynn and I had been communicating on and off for several months. After seeing her posts to the CFSFMExperimental Yahoo message group I asked if I could post them on the website and she agreed.)
llness history: I joined the CFSFMEExperimental Yahoo group in April 2001, a few months after being diagnosed with CFS. I’d been ill a few years – a couple years mostly bedbound; a few years mostly housebound. At my brain’s lowest point I couldn’t read or understand people talking to me – word salad.
My illness had a gradual onset, over about 4 months, at a time of extreme ongoing stress. It was triggered by mercury poisoning, though that wasn’t discovered for several years. I’ve since had the mercury taken out of my teeth (the source) and chelated from my system. That improved my cognitive function by about half, and was improving my body up to ~30% function. I was somewhat active in this group at that time, discussing mercury mostly.
I ran into trouble with the chelation eventually and wound up back in bed. All signs were that my heart had gone into congestive failure. My doctor suggested I see a cardiologist for treatment, but I didn’t trust it would be useful so didn’t go. It gradually started to improve after a couple years.
At that point I decided to try other possible routes out of the illness (non-AMA). I quit posting here and started looking into other alternatives. Someone here mentioned Donna Eden’s book “Energy Medicine”.
The book infuriated me the first time I looked at it, but I later decided to give it a try since nothing else was working. Over time, the techniques in that book helped me come up to ~40% function. Could walk maybe 500′ on a good day. 3 days of gentle yoga would take 3-5 weeks to recover from.
Gupta – And then I heard about Gupta. After much googling, I came upon Cort’s blog. I watched his progress for 3 months, then decided to try it.
I started doing the Gupta program about 5 weeks ago. At first it looked silly. And sounded worse.(You’ve got to be kidding. This is nuts.) Then I actually tried it. I was surprised at how powerful the words/motions felt…
It’s been amazing. I no longer need the riding carts in the stores. I don’t need my cane – which converts to a seat. (I can stand up!!!) I can think. I can cook (badly, since I’m out of practice, but that will change). I’ve been going to the local senior center for 2 weeks, riding the stationary bike there, and have joined a “stretch &
strengthen” class there. On days I don’t bike, I’m walking – a little over a mile now.
No recovery time. !
I’ve gotten over the shock of this new world I’m suddenly living in, but still feel strange parking deliberately far away from wherever I’m going – and leaving my cane in the car.
In a quick scan of recent posts on the CFSFMExperimental Yahoo Chat group I noticed mention of meditation. FWIW, I put off trying his meditations for a while; was seeing radical shifts in my function before I ever did that. I like the meditation and am doing it, but do not credit it with the improvements I’m seeing. 6 weeks ago I was at ~40% function; today I’d guess it’s ~85%. And rising.
Essentially, I no longer have CFS. Now I’m just a fat middle-aged lady who’s way out of shape. But not for long.
This group has been focused on medical research. I appreciate all that I learned in the years I was active here. And it didn’t give me my body/life back. Gupta’s program has.
I believe this may be at the core of many auto-immune illnesses. The amygdala speaks directly to the hypothalamus, which controls the autonomic nervous system. We know the HPA axis is on tilt, and that the autonomic nervous system is bollixed.
We’re not talking crazy, or depressed, or ‘mental’. Think Pavlov’s dogs. They’re trained to salivate when the bell rings. How to you get them to stop salivating to the bell?
The main control switch has been stuck in the wrong position, thus creating all manner of chaos down the line. My opinion. My experience. For what it’s worth.
From Ursula (May 08)
My name is Ursula, I am a German living in Malta, centre of the Mediterranean, and I was suffering from CFS for four years. I am purposely using the past tense here.
I found Ashok’s advert on the immunesupport web site last November, ordered the DVDs and started doing the retraining on 4th of January this year. So I’m just halfway through my six months period now. For me, the process has worked exactly the way Ashok announces on his web site. I’m not yet 100% better, maybe 80%. But I don’t have the slightest doubt or worry the 100% will come.
Ok, I was maybe in an easier position than yourself, after 4 years of illness I hadn’t lost the memory of how life would be if I’m healthy, for instance. Also, I didn’t have many complicating secondary health issues.
If I may say, after watching a bit the discussions on the Message Board of above web site: You Americans are too skeptical, have a huge problem with trusting in anything. But ok, statements from “trustworthy” sources saying: “There is no cure for CFS/ME, and everyone claiming such a thing is therefore a swindlar and a liar” https://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/treatment-162420-5.html, such a claim is just barefaced arrongance, and, coming from a “medical professional”, is a heavy mortgage on people’s minds. This will have to be broken down
Up to now, what is required to recover from CFS by Ashok’s DVD programme, is having the guts for an own judgment, an own opinion on things, plus the ability to trust. For me, Ashok’s explanation is a breakthrough in the understanding of this kind of condition, and I see farther-reaching consequences of his discovery for other problems many people are facing, these days.
I’m leaving for a one-week bike trekking tour through Sicily, early tomorrow morning. To me, Ashok’s method is the answer to the ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia problem. It’s not just a therapy, this guy has made a discovery which reaches further. Only it will be a long way to have this accepted and fully explored, and made use of by the medical profession.
This cure is a true cure. It takes commitment, it takes belief, it takes much more than swallowing pills prescribed to you. I am largely better after 3 1/2 months now.
(from anonymous)
Hello Curt! (May 08)
I’ve been reading your blog for the last couple of months, as I am also doing the Gupta Amygdala Retraining, and it’s been nice to read about someone else’s experience on the way.
I’ve been doing the training for five months now, with many ups and downs, but it’s only in the last month or so, that I’ve really felt huge benefits – I’m out cycling every day now for a couple of miles, which seems incredible to me. It feels as though my natural vitality is bubbling up again, in a very natural way – no strain or forcing. I feel happier than I have felt for years.