Energy saving summary 1.whole food plant based diet: Looked it up and this is like vegan diet with no added oil or fat. This increased her energy, digestion and other symptoms. 2. Intermittent fasting:she ate from 10 am to 6pm and fasted for the rest of the day. 3. Very gradual exercise:she started with a regimen as if she is like 100 years old, used to do weights with 1 or 2 kilo weights. Still crashed when she overdid. gradually improved to 1 hour a day after a year. By 2 years, she worked 6 days a week, at any intensity she liked.
This is the first person I've come across who speaks about ME/CFS but remembers the difficulty we have with too much information. So many other "experts", (including those who have actually had the illness!) seem to forget once they are better how hard it is to deal with too much talking and find too much information at a time is completely overwhelming!!!
Raelan have you heard of Nathan Butler? He runs Active Health in Melbourne Australia. About 90% success rate in chronic illness recovery using graded exercise therapy, pacing, mindfulness etc. I believe he modelled it off a highly successful program on a CFS hospital ward he worked at on UK and no one else is doing anything like it. He taught me that what all the CFS specialists etc had told me was wrong. I am not allergic to exercise and it will actually be a big part of my cure!
Hey Bianca! Yes I have heard of this place and how incredible to hear that the success rate is so high! These are exactly the things that helped me also, so to me it makes sense. I know that exercise is a tricky one because it is so easy to overdo it and set ourselves back, but I'm hearing more and more from people like you who have found that exercise was such a useful tool for recovery. It definitely helped me loads and I'm so glad to hear that these things are helping you too!!
Raelan Agle If you do it in the wrong exercise is the enemy. Nathan has a very specific program. It’s all about sticking within a bpm range and time limit and slowly increasing. His theory is if it isn’t a challenge or it causes symptoms afterwards, you’re not doing it right and you need to be somewhere in the middle.
I really like your videos and your attitude. Just one suggestion. Your videos and especially your introductions are quiet long. I feel like for someone with severe CFS it‘s really hard to watch
Hey Philipp! Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it! And yes, I am working to put out some shorter videos. I am now doing a mix of both longer and shorter. For example, although this video is longer, my last two videos were only 6-7 minutes long. I'm working on it! Wishing you the best with your own recovery 🙂
I found your videos a couple of days ago and want to express my gratitude. The information is incredibly helpful. You have restored my hope. I feel like I will be out of bed again, finally! I've been listening to others that basically say, "learn to live with CFS". Next, your videos are so well done! Thank you for putting yourself out here for us.
You are so welcome, Cindy! This was such an absolutely wonderful message to find here waiting for me, thank you for taking the time to share this. I know I needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and believe that it existed) during my own recovery, so now that I've finally made it I hope to help shine a bit of that light for others. I am sending you huge hugs for your own journey and hope to hear you as well sharing your own recovery story one day soon 💜
Raelan I love your videos. They are incredibly insightful, inspiring, hopeful and helpful. Thank you. A note about intermittent fasting and/or time restricted eating. According to most experts discussing this, the distinction between solid and liquid food is not the defining criteria of a fast, but whether or not your blood glucose rises. A small rise like from toothpaste or a small bit of cream in coffee would not bring you out of the fasting mode, but anything else will break the fast (veggie juice for example). If it is not too much glucose, you may be able to get back into fasting mode more quickly. I have been fasting for over 10 years now, 16/8, and I love it. And in the first several months I lost 20 pounds without trying. FWIW I am 80, have ME/CFS and improved rapidly after I started the ANSrewire program. (And BTW I love your interviews with Dan Neuffer - the program creator and guru.) Keep all the wonderful information coming!! I truly appreciate what you do.
I'm so sorry to hear that you are struggling with this. It an be SUCH a brutal illness, can't it. And 5 years is such a long time to have to face this. Sending you hugs for your own recovery journey - i sincerely hope you find what you need to heal.
Thanks for the Video! Excuse me for the intrusion, I am interested in your opinion. Have you researched - Dinanlinson Rebooting Health Approach (just google it)? It is a smashing exclusive product for getting rid of chronic fatigue syndrome without the hard work. Ive heard some amazing things about it and my old buddy Taylor after many years got great success with it.
While going whole food plant based hasn't fully cured my 40 years of ME/CFS, it's almost certainly healed me of diabetes and will add years to my life. As I got older, my blood sugar started creeping up, and both my father and maternal grandmother had diabetes. One year it was 126, barely just prediabetic. But (CFS to the rescue?!) my last 2 annual blood draws had made me so sick and literally weak for weeks so my NP let me stop doing them. By the time she died a few years later and the doctor who took over made me do them again I had changed my diet, lost 35 lbs (I've now lost 60 with hopefully 15 more to go), my fasting blood sugar has stayed in the safe range and the last time I checked my A1c it was a minuscule 4.3.
You are a beautiful person and I’m so humbled by how powerful of a person you are so have taken such trauma and loss and pain and healed turned it into all of this
Thank you. It really makes sense. I am moving forward to plan based diet. I am doing the green drink. It help my digestion and my body skin looks better. You can save many life out there!!
Dear realan, can you make a Video on having children with CFS/ME? Like with women that have taken the step? As many are hit with this Illness at the end in their 20s or in their 30s I feel like this is a huge topic as we have already to give up so much!
Hey Raelan I only recently discovered your videos. I have a question concerning your eating "schedule". So you eat 3 main mails between 10 and 18 hours. But do you also have snacks between those meals? Like fruits or something else? Uptill now I didn't hear you talk about fysical pain. Just exhaustion. Did you experience any pain? I find that pain in my muscles, tendants en fascia is wearing me down a lot. And this only adds to my chronic fatigue. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this videos and answer questions!
Hi Caroline, I'm so sorry to hear about the symptoms that you are facing. To your questions - with those 3 meals I might have one snack as well. Also, I did experience some body pain but thankfully this was not one of my more prominent symptoms and as my health gradually improved this went away. Sending support to you for your healing journey ❤️
I’d love to try plant based but don’t tolerate chick peas, pulses or soy and can’t get enough protein without animal products. Also can’t fast because of hypoglycaemia. My gut symptoms are severe and debilitating. My instinct is to have a break from animal products (I eat more vegetables than meat etc) but don’t know how to overcome these issues. I’m doing ANS rewire program and have had CFS for 41 years. Raelan’s book and videos extremely inspiring and informative.
Raelan, your content is quite good! I have no trouble getting to sleep but I wake up 3 times a night. Any idea on how to fix that without meds/sups? Also can you tell me how you managed to get good sleep while you were backpacking at hostels?
Hey Nick! Glad to hear you're enjoying the videos and thanks for the feedback 😊 Sleeping in hostels was REALLY hard for me. I took a lot of naps while traveling. It's interesting though - my days were packed with joy and somehow the crappy sleep didn't destroy me quite as bad as it did back home. Although I wasn't making much progress with my health while traveling, just maintaining it mostly. As for waking up in the night - I imagine that it's different things causing this for many of us. For me, when this happens (when it's not noise waking me up) it's almost always a blood sugar issue. If I have sugar or alcohol or white flour in the evening I wake up frequently throughout the night. But that's just me! I'm sorry to hear that you're facing this because I know how frustrating it can be. I hope you find the culprit causing this soon.
I wonder if glutamate elimination is the reason why plant based diets work? If often wondered if ME/CFS patients have more glutamate genetic mutations. Glutamate produced by ATP, and ATP is acting as a danger molecule in Cell Danger Response.
Hi Kate - thanks for watching! My schedule with this has varied over time. While I was actively working on recovery I did a 3-day juice fast about every 2-3 months. These days I do them less frequently.
Thank you Raelan...I'm wondering if you had any way of recording your exercise etc. It's just that I seem to resolve to do stretches etc but never seem to be able to be consistent...basically can't seem to get it together!
Hey Dorothy! It's so challenging, isn't it? I definitely empathize. And thanks for the suggestion! I am actually working on this now and plan to have some videos showing the stretching and also the workouts that I've done up soon 😊
Lovely Video clip! Excuse me for chiming in, I would love your initial thoughts. Have you researched - Dinanlinson Rebooting Health Approach (probably on Google)? It is a smashing one of a kind guide for getting rid of chronic fatigue syndrome without the hard work. Ive heard some amazing things about it and my old buddy Taylor at very last got excellent success with it.
Where you fatigue when you did the training at first, or was it just the PEM you had to watch out for? I have started to walk but sometimes i feel really tired while i do it, but as long As my PEM dont Get Worse after im trying to stick with ut! Thank you for this 💞
My fatigue wasn't too bad while doing the actual training, it was more the PEM that hit me hard. That's great that you're able to walk with no PEM! Sending you my best with your own recovery ☺️
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That's an understandable concern. Diet is so tricky and so individual, isn't it? I haven't had my iron level tested in quite some time so i couldn't say for certain. I eat a ton of legumes, sunflower seeds, raisins, and dark leafy greens which I understand are all sources of iron so I suspect I'm ok.
So interesting to hear about your experience going Vegan. I am currently reading a book about by Dr Sarah Myhill and she claims at Keto - Paleo is the best diet. So basically high fats and fibre and low carbs and sugar. I was thinking about starting that in January but now I’m not sure 🤔
I agree I became wfpb five years ago and came off all medication. I have just been diagnosed CFS/ME but had a very stressful job and people to care for at home. I don't want to loose the benefits of wfpb and am reading Sarah Myhill's book. It is confusing and we are all different.
depending what is going on with your health and your gut, will be the answer for you. For example, with sibo (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) there are 3 different types, methane, hydrogen and sulphide dominant. for the first two it is recommended you do a paleo type diet but for sulphide it is recommended you do a vegan diet. interesting enough, I have sulphide dominant sibo but when I went paleo (only eating white meat) for about 3 months my health improved dramatically. I think it was less the meat but the fact that it allowed me to consume so much veg (9 cups per day) because I wasn't filling up on carbs. i am back to eating vegan now at the advice advice my doc but I feel more or less the same. Also rotating between muscle and organ meat is important. liver is like a drug ! both have a whole host of benefits for different people. I recommend a microbiome analysis of your gut with the help of an integrated doctor and they can advice which diet will be better for you, unless you a certain your cfs is not gut related.
I thought I would weigh in. I have long Covid. Not sure if it’s cfs. I’m just coming off of 4 months of a ketogenic gaps (very clean keto) diet.I got worse over the 4 months. I agree that everyone has to try and find what works for them. I agree it could be gut/micro biome Related and one could Be out of balance in one way or Another. A specific diet could move them back to optimal depending on where they started.
Waiting for part 2. Thanks for your videos. Regarding beginning a strength program - Would you recommend a couple reps (5-10 and if so how many reps?) of light weight exercises or starting with 1 rep of more challenging exercise (such as regular push up)? It comes down to whether to increase intensity or volume ( more reps) over time? (Or maybe both) Will Appreciate your help 🙏🏼
These are great questions! Thanks for this. For me, more reps of lighter weight worked the best. So I would opt for 5 pushups off my knees (or off the counter) over 1 regular pushup. I started with about 5 reps of things and slowly built from there. Once I was comfortably doing 15-20 reps of something (with multiple sets - usually 3) I would then increase the weight (or intensity). Generally I was increasing both intensity and volume over time, but always with a focus on volume. And I really can't overstate how light and gradual this all was! Sooooo light. Super slow and steady won this race for me. I hope that answers your question and best of luck with all of this!
