HERE'S MY STORY...
Chronic Fatigue: My Adventure into
Alternative Health & Wellness
(written by Michael Betz and Tami Freedman) Advocate for AUTISM
My name is Tami Freedman. This is my story.
In 1982, I was playing softball in a neighbor's yard when the ball ricocheted off the glove and hit me in the eye. The softball broke the bone under my left eye that separates the eye socket from the nasal cavity. Surgery, my only one to date, put a balloon in the nasal cavity to support the bone until it mended. The doctor prescribed extremely strong antibiotics before surgery; I also had a CAT scan at this time.
In the following months, I couldn't think as creatively with my writing projects. I had problems organizing my material around information and jokes. I had planned to be a writer and loved screenwriting so this was devastating.
During 1983, I fatigued easily and often: I worked 24 to 28 hours a week (usually 3 days) but it would take 3 days to recover. I had very low energy and cold extremities.
In the winter of 1984, I was constantly sick with colds, bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. I couldn't understand what was happening so I took these questions to my primary care physician who referred me to a specialist in diabetes and hypoglycemia. When these suspected culprits were eliminated, I was sent to a neurologist who also couldn't identify anything wrong. By 1985, I had seen 8 or 10 medical specialists who failed to find anything wrong or provide any help for the heavy weight of fatigue. The term chronic fatigue syndrome had not yet come into common usage.
During the following year, my mother showed me a front page Parade Magazine article about yeast. I was excited: My symptoms were perfectly described and the article suggested that those who had the symptoms should consult an allergist for a yeast test. Here was my illness and a way to cure it!!! I took the article to my local allergist and handed it to him. He treated me like a hypochondriac, bothering him with the illness of the week (illness de jure’). When he learned that my only surgery had been for a softball injury, he treated me more respectfully but the final conclusion of my meeting with him was: Yeast is a bogus condition. The article is a sham. The writer is a quack!
The allergist did refer me for full allergy testing because he said my problems might be allergy related. That turned up only two slight allergies so I was sent home with fewer answers than before.
Since I could no longer write screenplays after the accident and surgery, I became a Realtor because I could do the math and work with people. Due to the severe brain fog, I couldn't remember appointments I had scheduled unless I had a written list. I made extensive use of lists to function since my memory was poor.
In 1988, everyone in my Real Estate office (mostly females) signed up for a weight loss program. Being a single non-cooking person with low energy and a sweet tooth, I had been consuming junk foods at quite a pace. I had gained weight and so decided to join them in the weight loss program. The first step of this program was a 4-day fast. I drank water for four days, leaving the sweets behind. Upon awakening the fifth day, I realized my brain was slightly less foggy. I had my answer. It was diet-related and probably due to yeast. I asked around until I found a conventional physician who tested for yeast levels in the body.
Dr Dixon, a physician in Rome Georgia conducted a number of tests including a test for yeast. The yeast test took two weeks for the results to return from distant labs. When he came into the room, he began telling me the Yeast Diet and Protocol. I asked him if I had yeast. He looked surprised and said, Yes, I had tested off the top of the scale. A score of 39 was high but my score was 105. He prescribed a Yeast diet, consisting mostly of green veggies, white meats and water. The medicine he prescribed was Nystatin powder.
After a year on the diet and Nystatin, I was only a tiny bit better and after eight years in Real Estate, I quit (in 1992) because I really couldn't work - I had reached an energetic low point in my life.
In 1997, I started exploring alternative therapies. Through a friend, I met an Iridologist who diagnosed illness and health conditions from examining the iris of the eye. I had a session with this Iridologist and tried some herbs. My friend also referred me to a Reflexologist who worked on me twice a week for much of the fall of 1997. From the reflexology treatments, herbs and home remedies, I started experiencing some improvement.
I revisited Dr. Dixon for a re-test of my yeast and also to test for mold in the fall of 1997. The test results this time were obtained in his office for quick results. Again, I tested over the range on both tests. I was prescribed Nystatin and Diflucan. These helped some.
In 1998, my mother called one evening and asked me to turn on the TV to watch an episode of Unsolved Mysteries on “energy healing”. A Chinese medical doctor and Qi Gong Master, Dr. Hong Liu was explaining energy healing. Researchers at Harvard had studied Qi Gong with him directing his energy at petri dishes with cancer, while other petri dishes with cancer were left untreated. In his treated dishes, the cancer shrank during the month, while the untreated cancer dishes grew at a normal rate. The next day I bought his book, Mastering Miracles and became a believer in healing energy.
I asked an online friend to find me a healer on the internet. I assumed there would be no such healers in Chattanooga, but since I had relatives in California and New Jersey, I thought there might be a healer in one of those locations. She located a distant healer from Maryland who I called and worked with for some six months. I also worked once with someone she found in Atlanta. Over time, while talking to herbalists, chiropractors and others, I learned of healers in my own hometown. These conversations directed me to Joan Colmore. I made an appointment and was thrilled with my sessions. I was slowly getting better.
In 2000, I got attuned in Reiki and joined a Reiki share circle in Cleveland Tennessee. Here I was introduced to the alternative health network CAHS that became WWN in Knoxville/Cleveland. Attending those conferences and regular meetings, I started learning about more alternative health practices and began meeting many alternative practitioners in this area.
In 2001, I went to my primary care physician, an internist, and asked what a person could do about Chronic Fatigue. "There's not much that can be done for that,” she said. Also in the fall of 2001, Dr. Eric Pearl, the founder of a energy healing modality called Reconnective Healing conducted a seminar at our church, Christ Unity. This healing tool was very helpful! The first several sessions restored my energy field for the first time in years. The sessions brought powerful healing improvements.
In April 2002, I asked a friend in my alternative health network what could be done for chronic fatigue. This led her to an important therapy that changed everything! This friend started me on a path toward saving my life. She suggested Herbal Repair foot soaks would infuse my body with nutrients; I was referred to a local practitioner for this special type of foot soak.
The Herbal Repair practitioner gave a list of herbs/oils/fruits/etc to buy and I returned with a bowling ball size bag of fresh garlic, white and black figs, olive oil, peppers, white willow powder, onions, carob powder, several essential oils, and more. With my bag full of food, herbs, and essential oils, I arrived hoping Herbal Repair would facilitate my healing! The theory behind Herbal Repair is that feet contain the largest pores of our body, and hot water helps open these pores. Upon putting all these herbs, figs, garlic, and oils into the foot soak, they are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. A big magnet is placed at the adrenals to draw these nutrients into key organs of the body. Eating herbs and other nutrients to be absorbed via the stomach is nearly impossible. With herbal repair, these nutrients become absorbed into the bloodstream within several hours. Absorbing them directly through the skin facilitates the infusion of these nutrients into the system!
The day after my first Herbal Repair session I experienced a huge benefit. I spent money, but I felt greatly enriched with more energy and nutrients in my body. I could afford this only once a month since I wasn't working. After 5 or 6 sessions, the lady taught me how to do these foot soaks on myself. I bought bowls, magnets and of course, more herbs, garlic, oils and etc. I began home treatments.
In 2002, the herbal repair lady referred me to a different type of foot soak. It was called “Ion Cleanse.” This was a $2500 machine that plugs into the wall, while a part of the machine rests in the pan of water where you place your feet. In 30 minutes, the machine ionizes the water and since the human body is normally 60-70% water, the body is also ionized. That ionizing turns the water from clear to dirty orange brown in 30 minutes. Tests show that the scum floating on the top contains heavy metals, toxins and the cottage cheese looking white colored stuff is yeast.
During 2002 and 2003, I had approximately 30 Ion Cleanse sessions. In the first 10 sessions or so, all manner of colors in the scum floated on top of the water. In the next 20 sessions, it was mostly cottage cheese looking yeast floating in the water after the session. I believe that an overgrowth of Candida albicans (yeast) is the most common underlying problem in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
By the time the yeast takes hold, the gut no longer is effective and cells are not getting nourished. This yeast releases 80 - 120 toxins including formaldehyde that shuts down much of the endocrine and sweating systems so the person experiences a heavy load of toxin backup. You lose your energy and clear thinking. Compounding the problem is the shutting down of proper food assimilation, and proper waste expulsion thru sweating. While the body is becoming more and more toxic, the body has less and less nutrients and systems for removing toxins cease to work, creating a huge toxic burden.
Between Herbal Repair Foot Soaks and Ion Cleanse Foot Soaks, I was moving along the path and finally getting better -- things were returning that had been dormant for a very long time. I continued with more home-foots soaks (not nearly as effective as the ones by the Herbal Repair lady) and wearing Essential Oils all the time since they were so helpful!!
Essential oils contain tremendous healing properties and can affect almost every cell and organ system in the body. Each essential oil has a unique pharmacological effect, such as anti-bacterial, antifungal and antiviral. It also is a powerful oxygenator that delivers nutrients into the cells as the oil contains trace elements of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antibodies and antifungal properties. The oil transports the fundamental nutrients necessary to feed and nurture the cells. The essential oil penetrates the cell wall and transports oxygen and nutrients inside the cell. One cause of disease is the inability of nutrients to penetrate the cell wall, causing cell deterioration, creating a host for bacteria and disease. About 200 different types of oils are being distilled with several thousand chemical constituents and aromatic molecules.
For many years, I realized that I got no energy from food. In talking to a friend with Fibromyalgia, she mentioned one day that she got no energy from eating. I was surprised, thinking I was the only person who experienced no energy from eating. Then in August 2003, after 15 months of Herbal Repair, 30 sessions of Ion Cleanse, and numerous years of herbs and Reiki & Reconnective healing sessions, I ate a meal and for the first time in years, I felt a small increase in energy. With each successive meal in the following days, I experienced more energy from each meal until by Christmas, my eating energy “felt normal.”
My family had been supportive of me- both financially and emotionally. But because of being sick, I sought out healers and people in the alternative health community and these people have become like family to me. Throughout 2003, brain functions were slowly returning after 22 years. In November 2003, I sweated for the first time in many years.
During the fall of 2003, I met a person who owned a Rife Machine. This energy machine creates vibrational fields that counteract different conditions and diseases. The Rife machine, like everything else helped some. While talking to this woman running the Rife machine, I asked her, What does a person do for Chronic Fatigue? She replied: That is easy for a woman. Take a garlic clove leaving the 'onion skin' on, pierce it with a fork prong and place it in the vagina. Hmmm, I had to think about that one -- for 3 months.
Finally in January 2004, determined it was time to get well, I got a garlic clove and tried this “folk-remedy.” Within 12 hours I felt like I'd had a professional foot soak! The health improvement was immense! I was excited and called my friend who owned the Ion Cleanse machine. She knew about this therapy. She suggested putting essential oils in water and inserting it into the vagina with a syringe and inserting a tampon to hold the essential oil and water there.
In the book The Oil That Heals, Castor Oil heat packs are used on the abdomen to heal all sorts of problems. I decided to experiment with essential oil directly on the tampon, followed by soaking the tampon in castor oil before using. Again, within 12 hours, I felt a huge improvement! Two, three, four times per day, I used essential oil tampons and felt like my body was healing at an incredible pace. I used Juniper, Lemon, Yarrow Green Milfoil, Blue Tansy and others. I always covered the tampon liberally in Castor Oil. In November 2004, my ‘brain fog’ was finally clearing and after years of work and struggle, I began to consider myself "alive" again!!
In early December, I bought my first batch of GlycoNutrients. Having read about people who mega-dosed on this product, I decided to mega-infuse nutrients into my system so my body could heal more quickly. (These are listed in the PDR of non-prescription supplements - non-toxic in any amount). I took a month's supply of Glyconutrients in two days and felt great.
Because I was already almost well when I was first introduced to GlycoNutrients, I'm not including those in the therapies I found most helpful (below). The therapies that helped me most in recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are:
1) The Essential Oil Tampon & Garlic Tampons are #1 !!
2) Herbal Repair Foot Soaks are next!
(NOTE: Herbal Repair folks are now using Color Therapy with amazing success!)
Recently I've discovered a number of additional "miracles from God" for creating cures, including: Mangosteen Juice, Kombucha Tea, Acai, Vibe and NCD (click on the links on this site for more info!) I've also heard wonderful things about Gogi Juice -- that's supposed to have some of the polysaccharide/glyconutrient sugars and be great for diabetes and hot flashes! (more info coming soon!)
The nice thing about Glyconutrients and all of these are that they're regular cures that seem to be creating miracles and it's MUCH easier to talk to most people about products they can purchase than complicated foots soaks and tampons. So these days, when people mention a health problem they're having, I'm happy to say to them:
Mangosteen, Acai, Cayenne, and Glyco-nutrients!!
THESE ARE CREATING MIRACLES DAILY!!
People I've talked to have overcome Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with a variety of different therapies. Some therapies are more helpful to some than to others. Continual efforts of eating organic whenever possible and buying health food store body products - gargling with hydrogen peroxide - all helped me! I'd try anything and everything that might return you to wellness - usually with big dividends!! No health condition should be viewed as permanent. If Downs can be reversed, almost anything is possible. Full belief and continued striving for wellness are most important. I've also come across several additional amazing products including NCD (Natural Cellular Defense) with Zeolites that detoxes people so well that their urine, sweat and bowel movements smell much stronger. I've heard that 99% of adult Americans and all people with chronic illnesses, are extremely toxic. So a quick and easy detox is a great first step!
Blessings, Tami :-) Tami's Health Page
AUTISM
VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM-Here’s the Proof:
1) GOOGLE: “Deadly immunity” By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
When CDC data revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines caused an autism epidemic, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role.
In June 2000, top government scientists, health officials and big pharma reps gathered for an illegal (public not invited) meeting at Simpsonwood conference center just outside of Altanta. “According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants, the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.
"You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. ‘Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine…’ ”
“But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data”…
The 300+ page transcript was leaked:. Google: “Simpsonwood Transcript” for Vaccine-Watergate reading.
| If there is "any doubt whatsoever" about the safety of mercury Autism which occurred in 1 in 40,000 children during the 1960's, in January 2004 occurred among 1 in 166 |
2) Verstraeten Study –(Your Pediatrician Quotes this to Defend Vaccines)
Rep. Dave Weldon MD (R-FL) explained in his “Something’s Rotten In Denmark” speech in 2004, that the 5 studies used by the government to “protect the vaccine program” and defend the safety of Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines were all flawed. Three were studies from Denmark where Thimerosal was removed from infant vaccines in 1990, about the same time (1991) the US doubled the mercury in American infant vaccinations.
Eight years later, after a 700+% increase in U.S. autism, a June 1999 FDA-head internal email was read before Congress which said they were “asleep at the switch” on unsafe levels of mercury “9th grade math” should have caught.” The 1990’s US infant vaccination schedule injected American infants with over 200 TIMES “safe” EPA mercury levels, i.e. at 3-months, vaccine injected into infants had mercury levels the EPA indicates would be “safe” for a 1375+ lb adult to ingest or 1770+ lbs via injection.
Dr. Stephanie Cave, in her book, "What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Children's Vaccinations” writes: “Between 1991 and 1999, by the age of 6 months, vaccinated children had received 187.5 mcg of mercury—a poison that accumulates in their bodies because production of bile, which helps clear toxins from the body, is not developed in children less than 4 to 6 months. When mercury can’t get out of the body, it travels to the brain, changes into inorganic mercury, clings to brain tissue, and damages the nervous system. Mercury doesn’t cling to just any part of the brain; it goes exactly to those areas involved in autism. The similar and overlapping traits of mercury poisoning and autism…evidence many cases of autism are a form of mercury poisoning.” (p.62-3)
The Verstraeten Study (remember Tom Verstraeten from Simpsonwood) is the prime U.S. data the CDC uses to defend vaccines. The Verstraeten Study Phase 1 found undeniable connection between mercury in vaccines and autism. Phase 2 found less of a link. Phase 3 found almost no link. Through changing the HMO’s, the ages of children included, etc., Phase 4, was published in November 2003 in Pediatrics the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics to much fanfare and showing no connection between autism and vaccines. The original data is missing.
3) Studies of ‘Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated’??
The Age of Autism: The Last Word , By DAN OLMSTED, UPI Senior Editor, July 18, 2007,
WASHINGTON, UPI, (last article in “Age of Autism” series) …What is the autism rate among never-vaccinated American children? Vaccines are the leading "environmental" suspect for many families of autistic children. So I was stunned to learn that such a study had never been done … Recently, such a study was done with private funds. It was a $200,000 telephone survey commissioned by the advocacy group Generation Rescue that, as limited as it is scientifically, suggested a disturbing trend: Higher rates of autism in vaccinated vs. never-vaccinated U.S. children, along with similar ratios for other neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD... (www.generationrescue.org/survey.html).
I reported the same possible association in the Amish community (Olmsted did the research the CDC hasn’t and found only 2 cases of autism among the Amish in Lancaster Co. PA, instead of statistically expected 135, both vaccinated).
I also found a family medical practice in Chicago called Homefirst that has thousands (30,000-35,000) of never-vaccinated children as patients. According to its medical director, Mayer Eisenstein, he's aware of only one case of autism and one case of asthma among those kids -- not the 1 in 150 and 1 in 10 that are the national averages for those disorders, and he has the medical records to prove it. I wrote about that in 2005 (UPI article), yet when I met again with Mayer in Chicago last week, he told me not one public health official or medical association has contacted him to express any interest. Nor has any other journalist -- not a one.
-- Another angle I explored intensively involved a group of families in Olympia, Wash., who noticed their children regressing into autism after getting four live-virus vaccines -- mumps, measles, rubella (MMR) and chickenpox -- at an early age and in close temporal proximity. These cases seemed to have little or nothing to do with the mercury preservative in other vaccines, called Thimerosal, (49.6% mercury), that many parents blame for autism. That raises an ominous prospect: The still-rising autism rate might be related to some other aspect of the immunization schedule as well -- timing, age, total load or other ingredients. … whatever is causing autism could be coming at us from several directions -- our increasingly mercury-toxic environment as well as any medical interventions (vaccines).
4) Geier and Geier: Thimerosal Linked To Autism
Dr. Mark Geier MD PhD, (100+ peer reviewed articles, over 30 on vaccines) and his son David Geier were the only outside researchers ever allowed into the CDC vaccine database. They were sent by Congress after autism became epidemic. The Geiers found the connection between autism and vaccines, but when they wouldn’t hide it, the Geiers were blocked from further research. The CDC then put the database into the hands of an “outside company” (although still in the CDC building in Atlanta), but now with no access..Although you probably won’t hear the media mention this, Geier and Geier have published a number of studies linking Thimerosal (vaccine mercury) to Autism.
5) “Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in
Federal Court - Now What?” By David Kirby, February 25, 2008
”After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims…The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal "Vaccine Court," was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the "defendant" in all Vaccine Court cases. The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- was supposed to be one of three "test cases" for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration.
”Keisler wrote that medical personnel at the HHS Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) had reviewed the case and "concluded that compensation is appropriate." The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal). Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now What? So far, the FDA has said nothing publicly about the vaccine-autism connection, the mercury levels “error”, or any recovered kids. These are first steps toward needed insurance support of D.A.N. Doctor bio-medical interventions, (chelating mercury out, etc). In 2006, only 2% of kids with autism were getting bio-medical supports. 75% of the rest will end up institutionalized in adulthood.~~~~~~~~
AUTISM IS TREATABLE!!!
Jenny McCarthy (actress, dating Jim Carrey) author of new vaccine/autism book: “Louder than Words,” said on Larry King Live: Vaccines caused her son Evan’s Autism – AND he recovered with the help of a D.A.N. (Defeat Autism Now) Doctor using Bio-Medical Interventions –thousands of children have recovered fully! There IS Hope! Note: 49 states, including TN & GA, allow Religious Vaccine Exemptions. 94% of Americans vaccinate, It’s Your Child, Educate Yourself!!!! For sample Religious Exemptions: http://AutismFliers.tripod.com. or email: TamiFreedman@aol.com
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