Constitutional hydrotherapy utilized totreat fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue

When asked to write about a particular health condition, a doctor always thinks of their most challenging or outstanding case. I am no exception. Following are a few of the most severe fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue patients that I have treated in my clinical experience.

Case 1
A few years ago a 49-year-old man came to my clinic with extreme fatigue. He also had complaints of vertigo, brain fog, writing words incorrectly, saying things incorrectly and knowing he is doing this, but not being able to correct it. He had neuralgia in his hands and feet not during activity but occurring upon stopping the activity. He complained of a racing heart, shortness of breath, and falling asleep at a moment’s notice anytime during the day. It appeared he may have had a form of narcolepsy. During the initial office visit he could barely focus his eyes. He slumped from his chair and laid his head on his arms on the exam table. Nearly falling off his chair he struggled to pay attention to my questions regarding his health. As his case history unfolded it became clear that this “type A” businessman who ran two corporations had more than your run of the mild ‘fatigue’ symptoms. His condition had developed over the previous six months to the point that he was near business failure, marriage failure, and now life failure.

His story follows. He had an episode driving his car across the country in spring time. He had a pain behind his right eye with a loss of vision for nearly five minutes. With this he experienced problems of finding words when he was speaking. The following morning he arose with head/skull pain. He was dizzy and unstable but made it in to see an MD yet that morning. The ensuing MRI was negative. Visits spanning the next six months with the neurologist, cardiologist, and other specialists were to be frustrating for him. All the docs pronounced him well. The only explanation was a possible TIA so they put him on blood thinners. They found nothing to confirm his progressing fatigue and inability to function.

After another six months with these symptoms he came into my clinic. I decided to run lab work that the other doctors hadn’t. This man was hypothyroid (TSH > 300 on salivary testing), adrenal exhaustion (ASI + for Maladaption Phase II with cortisol peaking at midnight, and low DHEA of 2 ng/mL). He was positive for reactive HAV, negative for CMV, B. burgdorferi, and Toxoplasma gondii. His EBV IgG was 3.66 (normal is <0.91) Having just learned about the fluorescent antibody testing for Lyme Disease, I ran this as well. Although he was negative for the Western Blot Ab IgG, IgM; he was positive for this QRiBb testing with a positive titer of 1:32. After therapy, about six months later, this came down to 1:16.

Iris diagnosis showed a poor stomach pH, generalized colon irritation, lymphatic congestion, and severe adrenal insufficiency. His Achilles reflexes were nearly absent (a sign of thyroid insufficiency). His blood pressure lying supine was 120/82. Upon quickly standing this pressure dropped to 100/70. After waiting five minutes, his blood pressure sitting was 106/80. He begged me never to do that test on him again. It exacerbated all of his symptoms. With food intolerance testing done with Dr. Dick in 1963, we knew his food intolerance to be meat. This is difficult, since I usually utilize a lot of glandular extracts as a means of rebuilding organ function. I could not do glandular therapy with this particular patient. I had to change up my therapy approach, but it worked well.

Therapeutic approach
He began on constitutional hydrotherapy which he managed to do eight clinical therapies with me and continued to do another 26 at home. I started him on sesame oil TID, pantethine TID, antiviral tincture (lomatium, melissa, hypericum, glycyrrhiza, thuja, populus ) 30 drops TID, adrenal tonic (glycyrrhiza, ginkgo, panax, eleuthero) 20 drops TID, heart drops (cactus, crataegus) 10 drops BID, Thyroid Plus (a homeopathic combination remedy) 10 drops TID, and beta glucan 2 caps/day, as well as Kali phos 3X – 5 tabs TID.

After two weeks his thyroid panel was redone and his lab results were normal. Upon follow-up I kept him on the pantethine, antiviral tincture, adrenal tincture, heart drops, decreased the Thyroid Plus to 10 drops once daily, maintained the beta glucan, and added a cat’s claw/ashwaganda tincture 30 drops TID.

This businessman for over a year now has been golfing, traveling, and being his very productive and active self. The possible TIA was a wake-up call that prompted him to get help before his system totally exhausted itself. The low adrenal and thyroid functions led to opportunistic infections of viral and bacterial origin. Constitutional hydrotherapy and nutrition brought him back. Medically the only answer for him was antidepressants which were prescribed for him by every specialist, but which he refused.

Vis Medicatrix Naturae
Causative factors for fatigue
1 Digestive Stress
Sixty percent of the body’s total energy goes into digestion. Thirty percent of the total energy is used for brain power. Only 10% of the total energy of the system goes to fuel the muscles. This is contrary to what most people think. It feels as if your body uses all of its energy for physical activity, when in fact over half of the total goes to digesting and assimilating nutrients. If you eat poor foods, or are under stress when you eat, or eat your food intolerance, then the brain has to put even more blood and energy toward the digestive tract to get the nutrition you need to survive. So, now you have 70% or 80% of your total energy being used by the digestive system, leaving much less to provide for the brain itself (now there is brain fog,

Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a metabolic imbalance in muscle and nerve tissue. Often there is a toxemia associated with this imbalance which sets up the inflammatory reaction. Poor adrenal response of low cortisol levels causes the muscles to be unable to repair the normal wear and tear of the fibers which occurs with everyday work. Simply detoxify the body with constitutional hydrotherapy, give proper food for the patient, support adrenal function and the body can repair this. It sounds easy, and usually is, unless the patient you have in front of you in the exam room is a complicated case.

Case 2
In 2001, a 54-year-old woman came to me with fibromyalgia and possible RA (the rheumatologist could not clearly diagnose this). She was on Soma (a muscle relaxant), and Ambien (for chronic insomnia) and was suffering. MDs had nothing for her but changing the pain medication protocol. She was unable to take narcotic prescriptions, placquinel, methotrexate, and many of the other drugs they had tried to stabilize her symptoms on. In her words, “I have trouble eating due to PAIN. I don’t tolerate meds well. I currently do not have any kind of pain management. I get very tired just from bearing the pain and am easily frustrated when I’m in pain”. The focus of her life has become the pain.

At one point she called me in the middle of the night, in obvious distress. She had taken her pain medication and was so out of it that later she accused me of not calling her back that night to help her. I had told her what home hydrotherapy to do and she had followed it, fallen asleep and didn’t wake until morning. She never recalled that I had spent 45 minutes on the phone with her that night. I had to show her my chart notes to convince her that I had spoken with her. That’s how bad this lady was.

In her case, the multiple medical drugs were another source of her toxemia which I told her would take 1+ years to remove and detox from her system and approximately 2 years to rebuild. Dr. Dick and Dr. Carroll would tell patients, “It takes a month of healing for every year you have the condition.” This is about right, as I have seen. Now, with more toxic metabolism and stronger suppressive drugs – it may take even longer.

This woman has become a dear patient of mine. Currently she is on only Ambien occasionally for sleep and her pain is 90% improved. Dealing with a painful heel spur is her chief complaint currently.

The fibromyalgia presented as total body muscle spasms, moving around with no rhyme or reason. At first it was in her right calf muscle, as well as neck and entire spine. At times it would be a chest wall muscular pain, or a hamstring pain, or…. This list goes on. The symptoms began 20 years prior with an emotional stress, which I learned later was the cause of her insomnia.

Iris diagnosis revealed stomach pH imbalance, general colon toxicity, and of course, adrenal insufficiency.

Her food intolerance test results indicated an egg intolerance with a fruit and sugar combination which she needed to keep separate in her diet by six hours. She follows this diet moderately and really falls off it when she is in more pain. It is difficult for her to think and prepare food when she is in pain, and she lives alone.

Hormone testing showed high testosterone, low DHEA. Complete Stool and Digestive Analysis was positive for gut dysbiosis. She was low in lactobacillus at 2+, high in Klebsiella pheumoniae 4+, and high in Enterobacter cloacae 3+.

Therapeutic approach
Initially I started her on constitutional hydrotherapy, diet incorporating the food intolerance test results, and a mix of glandular and nutritional supplements: adrenal and pancreatic glandulars, trace mineral B-12, and calcium lactate, and a tincture of Reishi, Shiitaki, and Ganoderma mushrooms.

Through the years she has been on many differing constitutional homeopathic remedies to treat the layers that have arisen. The nutritional support has changed as well. A year after she began working with me, she wrote me a letter saying, “I am feeling great!!!” Two weeks later she called me in distress. It went on like this with ups and downs, but there were more good days than bad. Now the bad days are very infrequent. She has had 62 clinical constitutional hydrotherapies. I don’t know how many home hydrotherapies she has done in the past 4 to 5 years.

Her latest regimen of supplementation is Cataplex B, Drenatrophin, Adrenal tonic tincture (glycyrrhiza, panax, ashwaganda, eleuthero), 7-Keto DHEA, Kali phos 3X, and Nitric acid 6C.

Her pain is present on occasion, but mild. The Vis has now brought out an acute response with the current heel spur. This I am treating with constitutional hydrotherapy utilizing high frequency vita-ray current locally. This and homeopathy are resolving the painful spur.

On this journey with this woman I have held her hand, seen her grieve, listened to her yell at me in anger and then apologize, and have become her friend and a true partner in her healing process. It wasn’t easy, nor is it meant to be. She has taught me many things as a healer as well. The learning went both ways.

I wanted to share these cases to stimulate your thought on the care and rebuilding of the patients’ metabolism rather than the medical management of disease. NDs should not settle for the medical approach of case management… ”managing” a disease and causing the condition to continue and often develop into a more severe degenerative condition. Via constitutional hydrotherapy and nature cure, these patients are not “managed” in a disease state, but rather the Vis is stimulated to heal and it will carry the body as far as it can in the healing process. This is our body’s inner wisdom. It knows what to do, we simply must know how to support it.

Constitutional hydrotherapy is truly critical and dynamic in treating chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. This therapy stimulates circulation, oxygenation, lymphatic movement, detoxification via liver and kidneys, increases WBC motility and increases numbers in circulation. Improving the basic, fundamental mechanics of the human body increases the power of the blood. The healing power is in the blood. Once optimized, the brain and nervous system get fuel, the muscles get fuel, and the metabolism can return to normal function. The immune system then can react to viral or bacterial invaders.

Those people who suffer this syndrome recognized by the medical field, but poorly managed with pain meds, sleep meds and antidepressants, can heal.

The constitutional hydrotherapy remakes the blood – simply stated. Once the blood is vitalized, normal metabolism follows.

Author: NDNR