Epstein-Barr Virus and The Medical Medium, Buyer Beware

I recently discovered the work of The Medical Medium when a friend sent me an article from goop.com ( this was my first red flag, as this is Gwyneth Paltrow's on line magazine...really?).  The article is taken from a book the Medical Medium recently published about chronic and mystery illnesses. Before I go any further, I'm going to tell you that the book starts with an introduction by a doctor named Dr. Junger. I read Dr Junger's book, Clean, when I was sick, and I'm glad I followed his advice not to do the Clean Program if you were suffering from adrenal fatigue. Dr. Junger  says he has always been fascinated by "healers", and writes  an enthusiastic endorsement of the Medical Medium who claims he gets his information from "spirit. A red flag went up when I read Dr. Jungers endorsement. My first thought was that Dr. Junger had some sort of financial interest in The Medical Medium. When someone says that have a treatment or cure for a difficult to treat disease, the first thing I look for is   financial gain. People with "medically mysterious" and debilitating illnesses are often desperate (I know I was), and are willing to try just about anything (again, I know I was), to recover. Of all the treatments I tried, I had to go with my "gut feelings " as to whether the person I was getting treatment from had my best interests in mind. We all need to make a living, so of course I was willing to pay for someones' services, but I was always very careful to "screen " for sincerity, plausibility, and a reasonable charge for services rendered.

The Medical Medium charges $500 to $1000 per hour ( red flag here..this is ridiculously expensive)  for his private phone consultations, where he gets messages from "spirit" He has so many clients that he operates on a "lottery" system, rather than a waiting list, so your "number" may or may not be pulled. He does not allow recording of his private phone consultations. ( another red flag).

The Medical Medium states that Epstein-Barr Virus is the culprit behind CFS, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Thyroid Disorders, Tinnitus, Meiere's Disease, and other medically mysterious illnesses. He writes a very accurate and convincing description of EBV. Apparently, "spirit" has told him there are four stages of EBV.

The only cure for EBV, according to The Medical Medium, is to follow his special diet advice and take special nutritional supplements, for one to two years( red flag).  Here is the link to the financial interests of Dr. Junger...although I had to dig a little to find it, he has a very thinly disguised interest in an on-line company called Vimergy, which sells the supplements the Medical Medium says are required in order to recover from EBV...the Full Spectrum Immune Support Package sells for 230$. ( red flag...too expensive!)

The diet and supplements that The Medical Medium recommends work to boost the immune system so that it can fight off the EBV. Again, according to him, this can take one to two years.( that's a lot of supplements for two years!) The only cure is to boost the immune system, since there are no cures for any viruses.

But here it is again. The immune system. A properly functioning immune system will fight off EBV and all manner of viruses that most of us are probably exposed to. Why do we have compromised immune systems? Again, could it be stress? Could it be a body whose autonomic nervous system is constantly pumping out stress hormones, preventing the "rest and relax" function of the nervous system that is necessary for a properly functioning immune system? When I recovered my health by "resetting" my nervous system, my immune system resumed it's proper functiong, and my food  allergies and frequent infections receded. My body was able to resume it's normal healthy functioning.

In my own experience, when I was sick with CFS I tried many, many different diets and nutritional supplements. What helped me the most was a caffeine free, low-carb, high protein diet, and eating protein every two hours. The reason this works is that when your body is under stress, blood sugar highs and lows occur very quickly, and further stress the body...the body has to work hard to maintain steady blood sugar levels, and it has to work less hard when it gets a steady diet of protein every few hours...so no blood sugar highs and lows to deal with, and less stress is inflicted on an already compromised body. Most supplements I took were too stimulating. My nervous system was already on "high alert" and adding stiumlation in the form of caffeine and stimulating supplements only made me worse.

In my experience resolving the unconscious stress that was causing the autonomic nervous system dysfunction that was causing my severe and debilitating symptoms, and lowered immune system functioning, worked better than any diet or supplement program that I tried.