There’s a ‘everything works’ problem out there as many different people are claiming all sorts of effective treatment for ME/CFS, Long COVID, and post vax. There are many chronic illness gurus who are still very sick themselves (or have a family member who is very sick). Perhaps we can get more reliable information from the people who have successfully treated themselves or a loved one.
Here’s a list of people who claim to have successfully treated themselves (or a loved one) and put out a lot of chronic illness content. Most but not all of these people recovered on some type of antimicrobial treatment.
- Kenneth Stoller - HBOT and other treatments for chronic Lyme
- John Chia - multiple causes of ME/CFS, with enteroviruses being a major cause
- Jeff Wood and Jenn Brea (*sort of) - mechanical basis of ME/CFS
- Steven Phillips - vector-borne infections as a cause of chronic illness
- Kyle Warner - various treatments (HBOT, IVM, black seed oil) for vax injury
- Myself - Antimicrobials for vax injury (and Long COVID)
- Joshua Leisk - Oz protocol for chronic illnesses
Kenneth Stoller - HBOT and other treatments for chronic Lyme
Stoller is involved in HBOT clinics so he has a lot of experience with HBOT. His book Incurable Me discusses how the best evidence in medical research is not incorporated into clinical practice unless the medical cartel can make money from it. It briefly describes treatments (or causes) for conditions such as chronic Lyme, brain trauma, dementia, and autism.
He was a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics for over two decades before he disagreed the AAP’s stance on childhood vaccinations (e.g. Stoller believes that there should be an effort to remove mercury from childhood vaccinations). That led to a conflict where he resigned from the AAP.
His book also gets into Lyme originating from a lab leak and a depopulation agenda. His ideas on mercury in vaccines may be quite reasonable but some of the other ideas in his book are… a little more fringe.
You can find a presentation of his on HBOT on Odysee. Stoller suffered from illness and benefitted from HBOT treatment.
My take: HBOT is currently the most proven treatment for Long COVID (though some people will be worsened by it). His book points out that the best evidence in medical research is often ignored and that actually seems to be the case for HBOT as a treatment for Long COVID.
John Chia - multiple causes of ME/CFS, with enteroviruses being a major cause
John Chia’s son Andrew suffered from ME/CFS. Fortunately, his treatment(s) worked and Andrew now works full-time in the pharma industry.
He is mainly known for his work on enteroviruses as a major cause of ME/CFS. You can find more information about diagnosing and treating enterovirus infections in this summary. You can find additional information at the EVMED Research website, although it does not mention all of the treatments that Chia has been trying.
John Chia may be well ahead of his time with some of his ideas. In 2003 he was writing about vaccination as a potential cause of ME/CFS. Other ME/CFS specialists like Nancy Klimas have since recommended the COVID vaccinations for ME/CFS patients. That turned out to be a bad idea as we’ve seen ME/CFS patients worsen with the COVID vaccines (data here) and we’ve seen the COVID vaccine injured community emerge as a result of the widespread use of COVID vaccines.
Jeff Wood and Jenn Brea (*sort of) - mechanical basis of ME/CFS
Jeff Wood is a recovered ME/CFS sufferer who believes that some people with ME have treatable underlying mechanical conditions. His website, Mechanical Basis .org, explains his ideas clearly in plain language that’s easy to understand.
The idea is that ME happens as a result of a physical injury to our neural tissues. The injury can be triggered by a virus, an impact trauma, or other events. Structural neurological conditions involving our connective tissue, such as craniocervical instability (CCI), could be one type of injury that can cause ME/CFS.
Mechanical conditions may be the cause of ME for a significant percentage of people – or possibly for the majority. These mechanical concepts, involving neural injury in a setting of compromised connective tissue, may also be relevant to Long COVID.
My specific focus has been on craniocervical instability (CCI) and tethered cord syndrome as physical causes of ME/CFS. Other mechanical neurological conditions include intracranial hypertension, Chiari malformations, Eagle’s syndrome, and cervical stenosis.
Jenn Brea’s health improved dramatically follow her surgery. Unfortunately, her health worsened significantly some years later so she can no longer do advocacy work full-time. See my summaries here and here if you don’t want to read through her Medium.com articles.
Steven Phillips - vector-borne infections as a cause of chronic illness
Steven Phillips healed his own health issues, which he believes were caused by infections spread by ticks, spiders, mosquitos, and/or other vectors. With the emergence of Long COVID, I suppose that his views changed to include infections that spread on their own without vectors.
The main message of his book Chronic is that (vector-borne) infections are a major cause of chronic illness like chronic Lyme, dementia, autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, etc. The book is light on the details of actually treating chronic infections. He has some highly unconventional ideas about treating chronic illness such as using azole antifungals to treat chronic infections from the Lyme bacteria (see my longer explanation of that here). However, he doesn’t really explain his idiosyncratic treatment ideas publicly.
Kyle Warner - various treatments (HBOT, IVM, black seed oil) for vax injury
Kyle Warner is a professional Youtuber who makes content about mountain biking. Through his Instagram and interviews (e.g. with John Campbell), he 's talked about his health journey and what treatments worked for him. A list of his videos and interviews can be found in this summary.
Myself - Antimicrobials for long haul
My recovery story is here. While ivermectin and black seed oil helped me the most, I quickly realized from survey data that some people will worsen on those treatments. This is pretty crazy because black seed oil is a food/spice sold in supermarkets. Many people will be non-responders to ivermectin, black seed oil, etc.
What I’m seeing in the data is that most people are recovering from antimicrobial treatments. That parallels the ideas from John Chia and Steven Phillips. My Odysee channel explains the current evidence and how to get access to treatment:
Like Kyle Warner, I report lingering health problems and survivor’s guilt. (Survivor’s guilt is a great problem to have because it’s nowhere as unpleasant as being sick.)
Joshua Leisk - Oz protocol for chronic illnesses
Leisk (a recovered ME/CFS patient) believes that mineral/nutrient deficiencies play an important role in treating chronic illness.
His website Born Free .life has information on his protocol. The latest version can be found in his Discord server.
Recap
Most of the people listed recovered due to some type of antimicrobial treatment. Maybe I’m overly obsessed with antimicrobials but I can’t unsee the pattern. Chia, Stoller, and Phillips are clearly talking about infections though there are differences regarding which infections are responsible for chronic illness (enteroviruses which you get through unclean water, vector-born infections like Lyme, SARS-CoV-2 which you get through aerosol-sized droplets).
The two exceptions are the mechanical basis for ME/CFS and Leisk’s Oz Protocol. Maybe there is something to those approaches. Maybe not.
The list could be incomplete. Survey data suggests that extended fasting is leading to recovery. Nobody on this list recovered through fasting. I also excluded autoimmune disease and cancer (and diet), so meat-only elimination diets and the carnivore diet don’t make an appearance.
