3: Meditation and ME... some solutions (maybe)

by Joelle Marlow

ME/CFS patients face two significant obstacles to meditation practice: a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system leading to frequent triggering of the fight flight response, and ‘brain fog’.

These barriers can seem especially disheartening to beginners who are learning, but they don’t mean we should stop trying. However, forcing oneself, feeling like a failure and getting more anxious as a result (all common experiences among our members) are clearly not helpful approaches either! Let’s look at constructive methods of working with the mind-body landscape ME creates: treatment (this page), meditation as a healing attitude, and aids to concentration.

Treatment

There are many views and much controversy surrounding ME/CFS and its treatment and plenty of other web sites addressing this area. Here, we will briefly summarise some mind-body approaches that some of our members found helpful.

Treat the brain circulation and brain nutrition

Dr David Mason Brown advises that first and foremost "the brain circulation has to be treated. The priority is correcting the brain and pituitary circulation. It is like coming out of hibernation. Once the brain circulation is working again, then the meditation and other skills start to return." For this, the drug Nimodipine is used. (As this product is not licensed for ME/CFS on the NHS it can be difficult to obtain via your GP.) For ME, doses can be as small as an eighth of a tablet - a fraction of the usual dose for other conditions. Another part of the treatment is the herbal product Gingko to improve brain circulation. He warns against using large doses of this herbal product. A final, vital component in the process of improving mental clarity "is the brain nutrition and the removal of pollutants, both environmental and internal (neurotoxins).” Products used for this include the amino acid supplement l-Glutamine and Prime Directive, a prebiotic superfood.