Causes of ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia & MCS with Ashok Gupta

Well, hello, and a very warm welcome to our Facebook Live event. My name is Ashok Gupta here from the Gupta Program, and I'm really glad that you could join me today where we're going to be talking about some of the causes of these various conditions. So we're going to be talking about me, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and also mcs, which is known as multiple chemical sensitivities. So the way we're going to work today in our Facebook Live is I'm going to talk for around half an hour or so around some of these causes of these conditions, and then we're going to open up to questions, of course. And I want to make this a very interactive experience. I want you to feel like you're part of a group of people all collectively trying to understand what this condition is about. So I'm sure you might want to interact with each other on the. The comments bar as well, so you can add comments, you can obviously ask questions, etc. And we'll come to those later in today's session. So I'm so excited to be here with you, to be sharing this. And before we start with any of my Facebook lives, I always like for all of us to center ourselves, calm ourselves, so that we're ready to really receive this information with a calm mind. And part of the Gupta program is all about learning to be able to calm our nervous systems and through the use of breathing and meditation. And that's an important part of the Gupta program. So let's just practice that now. So if we just close our eyes, and I'm just going to, whilst we're doing that, just make sure that the feed is working. Okay? So we'd like to close our eyes. And if you'd like to take a slow, deep breath in and breathe out. And if you'd like to take another slow, deep breath in and let go. And I'd like you to just become aware of your feet on the floor. And become aware of your legs. And become aware of your knees now, just with your eyes closed. Now let's become aware of our legs, And let's just become aware of our hips. And let's become aware of our stomach. And our chest. And let's take another slow, deep breath in. And with a smile, let's breathe out. And let's become aware of our chest. And now our arms. And now let's become aware of our neck muscles. And in a moment, we're going to take a slow, deep breath in. And when we breathe out, we're going to relax all of our body from the neck downwards. So let's take a slow, deep breath in and breathe out and relax all the muscles from the neck downwards. And let's become aware of our face muscles, Allowing the muscles of the face to relax. And finally to the top of our head. And let's take another energizing breath in. And with a smile, breathe out really slowly through the nose. And let's take another slow, deep breath in and breathe out. And when you're ready, you can just gently open your eyes. Okay. Welcome back. Well, I'm so excited that to do this actually live on Facebook, it's something new that we're trying and it's a new way for us here at the Gupta Program to be interacting with everyone. So I'm really glad that you're one of the first people to join as one of our Facebook lives here on the Gupta Program. So in terms of what we're going to be doing today, I'm going to be talking about my story, so my kind of story of how I got the condition and subsequently got better. And we'll also be talking about how this is a real physical condition. And obviously you don't need me to tell you that. You obviously know that already, but we're going to understand more about what causes this condition. And I believe this is a brain condition, so it's caused in the brain. And we'll be talking about how we can indulge in brain retraining so we can actually retrain our brains so that we can get our health and happiness back. And, of course, that's why we're here. And that's the hope that I want to give to everyone. Whether you use our treatment or someone else's, we truly believe that most people with these conditions can get better. We're already seeing so many fantastic results ourselves. And that's the hope that I really want to give you today. Okay, so just wanted to say hello to people around the world who are joining us. So on the comments section, if you'd like to just share where you're tuning in from, that'd be really interesting for me to know. So, Kathy saying hello from California. Hi there, Kathy. Great to see you. I see that someone's saying that it doesn't work on their computer. You should be able to see it on the computer as well as an iPhone. So I hope you should be able to see me live. Yeah. And we've got Francesca from Italy. Hi there, Francesca. Who's also going to be translating this live on the Italian page of the Gupta program, on one of the Facebook groups. So thank you so much for that. I know we've got quite a few of our clients over in Italy. Emma's saying, tuning in from Eduare. Okay, so also in London, we're at our studios here in London. And Gail tuning in from Florida. Hi there, Gail. Great. So lots of people from all over the world. Sue from Southern California, welcome to you. And it's morning there. So good morning. If you're in California, tuning in right now. Well, great to see so many people from around the world. Monica from Florida. Hi there. And just to give a bit of background for myself. So I essentially suffered from the condition many years ago, and I had it for a few years, you know, quite intensely. And I think I would still be ill had I not discovered some of the things that I discovered that I'm going to share with you today. And I remember those really difficult, dark times when I had the condition. I remember just thinking, this is it. My life's over. I can't seem to even walk to the bathroom. I'm feeling exhausted all the time. There seems to be no cure. Every time I speak to anyone, they say, well, there's no way you can get better from this condition. So what was I supposed to do? It's like I hit a brick wall in my life. And it was a very, very difficult time. And I'm. And I know for those of you tuning in, whatever condition you have, I know that you know what it feels like because you have it. And it can feel like on certain days, like everything is lost. There can be a deep sense of despair. How am I ever going to get better from this condition? And in those darkest moments, I just thought to myself, I have to work through this. I have to figure out a way of getting better. Be know I was 21, 22 years old. And that's where I then decided to do a lot of research into the brain neurology of this condition. And so I researched a lot of brain neurology in books, articles, et cetera, and I managed to get myself fully 100% better. And I did that through understanding what was going on in my brain, what kind of patterns were occurring. And remember when not saying it's psychological, it's obviously a real physical illness with real physical symptoms. But there are some ways in which we can actually target certain brain responses and begin to gradually calm down an overactive brain. So I got fully better, and I decided to then open up a clinic to work with other people to help them get better, too. And it's been a fantastic journey, a very rewarding journey, and I wouldn't swap my experiences for anything. So at the time, it was a really horrible experience, thinking, this is it, you know, I can't go on. And yet I feel that in my life, there's some positive things that have come out of that. And my sharing and my ability to help others with this condition has been an incredible gift. And I feel very humble and grateful to be able to do this as part of my life. So. So let's really talk about what this condition is. And before I do, sort of say hello to a few more people. So we've got Ronald tuning in from. I don't know how you pronounce that. Idaho in the U.S. paula from Liverpool. How you doing? Cass from Los Angeles, Shamia from Maine, and Jackie from Ireland. Wow. So we've got people from all over the world who are obviously joining us today, which is fantastic. And what I'd love for you to do is actually share this video with other people, if you can. So underneath the video or somewhere on the page, you'll see a share button, and perhaps there are community groups that you're a part of, CFS recovery groups, fibro recovery groups, or websites that you'd like to share this information with. And you can just simply click share and then share it in one of the groups that you're a member of or perhaps one of your own timelines, and that'd be great. So if you think other people could benefit from this, we really want to spread the word about what we're doing. Dirk tuning in from Berlin, and Leslie from Dallas. Welcome. Paul is saying, hi, Ashok. I've recovered using this program, and I'm so grateful to you and the two coaches I've worked with. Great. A member of my family. Oops, sorry, I just lost that comment there. A member of my family has chronic stomach problems that doctors can't explain. Do you think that. Oops, hang on. Do you think that the program could help them? Okay, well, that's something. If you'd like to email into our clinic, we can tell you more about whether we think we'd be able to help you. So, really, I suppose what we really want to understand is what causes this condition? What is the real cause of me? Cfs, Fibromyalgia, multiple chemicals and sensitivities, and even irritable bowel syndrome. Well, there are so many different theories out there. And, you know, recently I presented at the IACFS ME conference Which is the global main conference for me, and chronic fatigue syndrome. And I presented one of my latest research papers there. And what's very interesting is at the conference you've got people from all over the world, from all disciplines. So rheumatologists, endocrinologists, immunologists, muscle experts, you've got people who are psychological experts, people from all realms of medicine, all represented, all saying, I'm aha. We found the reason for this condition. It's this abnormality that we found. And I always find it very interesting because, yes, there are so many abnormalities in every single organ and cell of the body. And in my mind, this must mean that there is a core central process which is causing all of these downstream malfunctions. And if we take a step back, one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves is, why are we here? And I don't mean it from the philosophical point of view, but I mean it from an evolutionary point of view. We're here because over millions of years of evolution, now nervous systems have developed to be able to protect us from danger. And so when we're in danger, our brain and our body enact a defense mechanism, a defensive way of protecting us from that danger. That's how we've been able to survive over hundreds of thousands, millions of years. Our survival has been dependent on our ability to handle our environment and not allow environment to threaten our survival. That's the key thing. So far, so good. Now when we enact those defensive responses. What am I talking about? Well, the most well known defensive response is obviously called the fight or flight response. That's when we feel angry or afraid and we've got a danger and we want to run away from that danger or we want to fight that particular person, that's a defensive response. But the brain doesn't differentiate between psychological defense responses and physiological defense responses. So the immune system that defends us from viruses and bacteria, that can also be seen as a defense response. When our muscles tighten to defend us against a physiological danger, that's a defense response. When the hormones change in the system to deal with whatever threat there may be, that's a defense response. These are all physiological, immunological, psychological defense responses. And it's medicine that separates those two defense responses. But as far as the brain is concerned, the brain simply wants to make sure that, that we survive, that we pass on our genes to the next generation. So it will enact a unique package of defense responses depending on the danger that's presented. And so we know that when we have an immune Response, there are effects on our psychology. We also know that when people experience depression or anxiety, there are quite strong effects that actually occur in the immune system. And there's also excessive inflammation in the body. So this idea that we can separate physical and psychological or emotional conditions is completely false. And that's why we have these people. Many people are asking, you know, well, is it, is it a psychological condition or is it a physical condition? In my mind, it is predominantly a physiological condition, but there are some very unconscious brain responses that are keeping the condition going, and we want to be able to target those particular responses. Okay, so let's go back to this idea that our brain and our body is designed to protect us from dangers. Now, often people report that when they first get this condition, it's happened in a particularly stressful period in their lives. So it might be, for instance, they were going through quite a lot of psychological stress, or they may have been experiencing some kind of physiological stress. And that stress is often combined with some kind of physical response. So often we've got emotional stress and that's combined with a physiological stressor. And in general, but not always, we tend to find that with MECFs, it's some kind of flu, a cold, some kind of stomach infection, it tends to be some kind of response where the immune system has been triggered. In fibromyalgia, it can be an immune response that's triggered it, but in general it tends to be a localized pain syndrome. So perhaps someone's had an accident or a knee injury, and that particular localized pain issue then generalizes to the entire body. Sometimes an accident, etc. But not always. And in the case of chemical sensitivities, generally someone's been through either chronic or acute stress, combined with a particular exposure to a chemical mould, paint thinner, etc. Something that has triggered an immunological response, a defense response, an allergic response. And at the beginning of the condition, we all know that when our immune system is lowered. Sorry, when we're feeling stressed, our immune system is lowered. We know that from neuroimmunology. And so because our immune system is not as effective, it takes longer to fight off that particular virus or infection. Let's start with Emmy and CFS for the moment. And so as the person is trying to fight off, let's say, the flu infection, the brain goes into overdrive, I believe, and goes into a hyper defensive response. And from an evolutionary point of view, this is completely logical. It's completely the right thing to do to overstimulate those defensive responses. To protect us from danger. And of course, many people actually die every year from the flu virus. When our immune systems aren't effective, when they are compromised, then a person can actually pass away from flu. And many elderly people, for instance, do die from flu every year. So we take a cold or a flu as, oh, it's an inconvenience. But as far as the brain and the body is concerned, it's a threat to our survival. So the brain thinks, okay, we need to overstimulate and over trigger those immune responses. And because it does it continuously, again and again and again, it's producing symptoms in the body. And those symptoms in the body then become something towards which the brain becomes sensitive. Yeah. So the brain becomes sensitive to those very symptoms that are being caused by the immune reaction. Yeah. Does that make sense? And the brain thinks, okay, well, I was defending against, let's say, the flu virus in the case of ME cfs, But now, you know, we've spent a long time fighting that off, and we're in this hyper defensive mode. Let's look for new things that we can find to protect us from danger. So it tags onto the symptoms in the body as a reflection or evidence that we're still in danger, we're still under attack because there are symptoms in the body. So a loop is formed. Okay, and then that means that we started off with the physical condition combined with emotional stress, therefore lowered immunity. Then it takes longer and longer and longer to fight off the infection. And a combination of these two things then means that the brain learns new sensitivities and new defense responses. And we know from some of the work of Professor Joseph LeDoux that some brain structures that we're going to talk about, the amygdala and the insula, they actually, when they're in hyperarousal states, they can learn new defense responses very quickly. And that's been proven in animal studies. So let me just show you, like, a couple of diagrams in terms of the kinds of things that we're talking about and how we actually represent them in terms of the brain. Okay, so the amygdala and the insula. So you can see the amygdala is a small part of the brain which is behind the eyes. And then we have the insula that just sits between the limbic system of the brain and the cortex. And there you can kind of see them again in that diagram. And the amygdala's role is to actually protect us from danger. So when I was talking about those defense responses, the amygdala's role is to trigger those fight or flight and defensive responses. So that's one part of the brain that might be getting caught in a hyper defense response. Then we have the insula. And the insula's job is to take in all incoming data from the body, process all of that data, and then trigger particular responses in terms of our nervous system, our endocrine system, etc, etc, so it facilitates a lot of the balancing of the body depending on what incoming data it is receiving. Okay, so the amygdala and the insula, both of them are involved in maintaining homeostasis in terms of balance by defending us from dangers. So the amygdala is often focused on external dangers, although it can also be involved in immune responses. And the insula is predominantly taking in data from the body and processing that particular data. Okay, so so far so good. So coming back to what we've been talking about so far. So at the beginning of the condition, and I hope you can see this diagram clearly, at number one, we've got those predisposing factors. So that means perhaps there are genetic factors that make it more likely that we're going to contract this condition. There might be stress. And at number three, we have that virus or bacteria or chemical exposure or pain syndrome as a physiological trigger. And they all come together, as I've been talking about, to create a trauma in the amygdala and the insular parts of the brain. And lots of other parts of the brain are also involved as well. So I'm talking about the amygdala and the insula. But there are other brain structures that are also involved and we've got them on the screen here. So the anterior cingulate cortex, which focuses on attention, where is our brain's attention? We've got the prefrontal cortex, which is the rational, thinking mind. We've got the somatosensory cortices, where a lot of the processing of this incoming data from the insula actually occur. So we've got lots of different brain structures that are all working together to actually create this condition. So coming back to our diagram, this causes a trauma in the amygdala and the insula, in my view. Now what do we mean by trauma? Those brain structures learn to over trigger defensive responses. And for those of you who have the condition, sometimes it can feel like we're under siege, like the body feels threatened and we're constantly overstimulated and wired and then suddenly very, very exhausted. There can be tightness in the muscles it's like the whole body and brain is getting ready to fight, or it's getting ready to defend itself from something. But the danger, I believe, is no longer present or not in its original form. All right, and also a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is involved in short and long term memory formation as well as trying to subdue the reactivity of the nervous system, believe that that part of the brain gets damaged. And there is some of that evidence in brain scans with patients with cfs, me as well. And those parts of the brain, they all now have learned to hyper defend. So let's imagine that the original condition goes so the original virus or bacteria actually dissolves away, but it's left a legacy. And that legacy is that now the brain has learned that when we get signals from the body, whether it's immune symptoms, pain signals, fatigue, brain fog, they all represent and give us a signal that we're still in danger and we're still under threat. Therefore, myself, as the insula, the amygdala, the anterior cingulate, all of these different brain structures now decide, right, we must now trigger and stimulate defensive responses. And those defensive responses are unique to all of us. So one of the problems with these conditions in diagnosing them is that there are so many crossovers amongst them. And I don't believe there's one singular condition called fibromyalgia or MECFs. They're all a spectrum of conditions with a unique set of symptoms. And that's why it's very difficult to diagnose, because each patient is different and each. There may not be a particular part of the brain or the body or a particular hormone or neurotransmitter that's out of place that you can say, aha. That's the reason, because it can be different for each person, because each person's trauma would be different. The package of defensive responses that the brain is engaging in is all unique. Okay, so the brain now learns to over defend. You might say, well, how can that cause all of these symptoms in my body? Well, when we overstimulate our nervous system, so our fight or flight autonomic nervous system, and we overstimulate our immune system, it can cause all of these symptoms in our body. And in fact, when we have the flu, and I recently had the flu, when you have the flu, all of those horrible symptoms in your body are not being caused by, by the flu virus. They're actually being caused by our own immune system defending us from those dangers. So the Brain now overstimulates the autonomic nervous system and that causes all of these symptoms that we're going to talk about here. So this is where the diagram is just putting all the different bits together. And I know probably on the screen you can't see that, but if you go to our website and click Research, you'll be able to see this diagram and you'll be able to see all the different components. But I'm going to just focus on the bottom half of the diagram so you can see this vicious cycle here. So the top right hand corner at number five, our sympathetic nervous system gets hyper aroused and overstimulated and that then triggers cortisol, noradrenaline, adrenaline, all of these stress hormones and signals into our bodies. And some people ask me, but hang on, Ashok, that means that if we give people drugs that dampen down the nervous system, then that should mean that someone gets better. Well, no, it's Hans sale in the 1920s who talked about this idea of exhaustion phase, which means that once we've overstimulated our system, we get into exhaustion, where there's no longer resources to stimulate those responses. And therefore the fatigue and the deep exhaustion is because we can no longer stimulate any further sympathetic response. We've literally burnt out the system so quickly that we no longer have resources to deal with our environment. Which is why, very cruelly, some people put patients onto a treadmill and let's see how far they can run. But they no longer have the adrenaline, the cortisol, all these hormones and neurotransmitters which are required to be able to exercise. They're no longer available because the body has gone into deep exhaustion. It's run out of all those hormones and neurotransmitters. That's why we call it adrenal exhaustion. And therefore, although we have phases of overstimulation, we have phases of understimulation where the sympathetic system can no longer respond effectively. Okay. And that can cause all kinds of autonomic problems like temperature problems, difficulties with breathing. The breathing system gets out of whack pots where people find it difficult to actually raise their blood pressure when they're standing up and sitting down. So a whole host of different symptoms can occur from the autonomic nervous system there immune dysfunction. So we know that a lot of patients have swollen glands, they have a flu Y feeling, fever, sometimes HPA abnormalities. So abnormalities in the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the adrenal glands, and finally oxidative stress in the body. So overstimulation of these defensive responses at number five and then that causes all the symptoms at number six. So muscle dysfunction, pain signals and symptoms, cognitive difficulties where we can't actually think clearly. Yeah, we may get sleep issues and sleep is a really big issue because when the brain is in defense response, the brain does not want to get you to go to sleep. Right, Makes sense. Right. Why would the brain want you to get to sleep if it thinks it's in danger? So that sleep issues is a big, big issue, which then causes more pain the next day. We then have dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, which is what we've spoken about post exertional malaise. I've mentioned that we can't exercise, we can't do the normal things that we want to do because the brain has used up and overstimulated the resources of the entire body in the system there irritable bowel. So we know that the stomach has a kind of almost second brain. There's lots of neurons in the stomach area and they also are overstimulating the gut and a defensive response which then means that of course the whole gut tightens, we can't digest food particularly well, etc, etc. So we get that at number six and then we might get secondary illness cycles at number seven. So adrenal exhaustion. We've mentioned the mitochondria. So the little energy centers of the cells may not be producing enough energy because they're under stress and overstimulated. We know that inflammation is a big issue. So we get a lot of inflammation in the body, we get a lot of inflammation in the brain. And at the recent conference I was at, there's a lot of people talking about inflammation and saying aha. The reason for this condition is excessive brain inflammation. But once again, I believe these are all downstream symptoms of a deeper cause, a very logical cause in my view, latent virus and bacterial reactivation. So we often find that there's higher levels of bacteria and infections in the blood of people with these conditions. And the reason is, is because when your immune system is over triggered, it's not functioning at its correct level, it's overstimulated, defending against an army that is no longer present. And that idea is an interesting analogy that if you imagine your body is like a castle and your immune system is like an army. Now imagine that army is very exhausted because it's very stressed. Then it sees a foreign invader coming over the hill and so it thinks, oh, I need to defend. So it defends against this foreign army. And it's in such a stressed state that it only just manages to defeat the army, the invaders. But then those soldiers become traumatized, and we know that soldiers become traumatized in war situations. And so they think, oh, what if more invaders come? Are we going to be able to defend? And so those warriors, those soldiers get into hyper defensive mode and anything they see coming over the hill, they try to shoot it down. So those warriors are in a hyper defensive state. That then means when some other armies invade from different sides of the castle, they can't protect because they are obsessed about the army that they just about managed to defeat that may be coming over the hill. So other opportunistic viruses, bacterial infections, etc. Are able to get in there and actually cause a lot of secondary illness cycles and problems. And those particular symptoms then circle back. And the amygdala and the insula and the thalamus, they're all chronically sensitized. And they think, oh my gosh, there's all these symptoms in the body. We must be in danger right now. What are we going to do about that? So then in this diagram, then at number nine, the amygdala, the insula, all these different parts of the brain then decide that we are in danger and we need to trigger those defensive responses. And then we go around in a vicious cycle around and around and around in one of these loops where basically the brain and the body are reacting to each other. The brain has decided that we are now our survival is under threat, therefore it must over trigger defensive responses. When it triggers those defensive responses, and that causes lots of symptoms in the body. And those symptoms circle back and those signals get magnified in the brain, which then causes the brain to overstimulate. And that's the body and the brain reacting to each other, causing this vicious cycle. And once the brain has learned to do that, it's conditioned, it's a learned response. But the good news is, I believe it's a software problem, not a hardware problem. And that means really that, you know, all the cells in our body renew themselves every six months or so, apart from our neurons. But the software keeps reacting in that same way. To say we're in danger, we must trigger defensive responses. And it goes around and around and around in this cycle. So please do click the like button or the love button if you're liking what you're hearing so far, so I can get some feedback on what you're experiencing. And, you know, what's really important is we recognize that this is a real physical condition. But a lot of people are chasing this idea that there's something that's malfunctioning the hardware. But I truly believe the reason that mainstream medicine finds it hard to treat these conditions is because these are what I call software problems. The actual programming of the brain has got stuck. It's trying to fight off a virus or infection or a pain syndrome and it's got stuck. The brain's got stuck and things have changed. Life has moved on. But the brain is still stuck at the position that it had at the beginning of the condition, an over defensive brain. And what we want to do is retrain the brain and that's what we do here in the Gupta program, is we retrain the brain out of these defensive responses. Now I'll give you another example of some of the research around this, which is very interesting, very exciting. A researcher called Dr. Pachero Lopez has done a lot of research into conditioned responses, immune responses in rats. And when he studies rats, he's found that when you give a rat an immunosuppressant, okay, its immune system goes down. And let's say you combine that with some sweet water, you give the rat some sweet water with an immunosuppressant to suppress the immune system and the immune system of the rat goes down. Very logical. They do that a few times and then eventually when they give the rat just sweet water, the immune system gets depressed and gets suppressed. Isn't that amazing that the brain is responding just to sweet water, just to something that indicates immunosuppression? And when they analyze the brains of these rats, they are very, very clear. That is the insular part of the brain that is storing this conditioning. And so the insula, in my view in humans as well, is probably in conjunction with other brain structures. The insula is probably the part of the brain which is storing this hyper defense response, this learned response, as well as potentially in the amygdala. And I believe the amygdala is generally where we find emotional threat responses are stored. So autonomic responses and the insular is where we have immune responses. But it could be that the insula is also where the autonomic learned responses being stored as well. And once it's been learned, as I said, it goes around and around and around. And what we want to do is understand how we can retrain the brain out of this hyper defensive response. And we've done some studies on our treatment. Now our treatment involves some very unique brain retraining techniques that Involve breathing, self coaching, nlp, timeline therapy, visualization. It's bringing a whole host of different brain retraining techniques into a very unique seven step process, which is what we talk about, as well as a whole other toolkit of different processes that people can use. So there are breathing techniques and meditation techniques and mindfulness techniques, but all of those are supporting the main brain retraining technique. And we've had lots and lots of success with it. So in terms of the few studies that we've conducted, we conducted a clinical audit that wasn't with a control group, but a clinical audit on 30 patients, 33 patients, we had a few dropouts and we found that around two thirds of patients reached 80 to 100% recovery within a year. And over 90% of patients noticed improvement. And the average number of years that they had the condition was about 10 years. So these weren't just all short term patients. We've then just done a recent study in Spain and that particular study we had two groups with fibromyalgia and we had 22 patients in the active group taking my treatment and 19 patients in the control group. And the control group actually the symptoms went up in terms of fibromyalgia. But in the active group we found that out of 22 patients, six patients didn't have any improvement because actually they didn't engage properly with the treatment as well. And they admitted themselves and they didn't really do the treatment. But out of the 16 patients that did engage with the treatment, half of those patients, so eight out of the 16 patients reached a full recovery, what they described as a between an 80 to 90 to 100% recovery. And eight of those patients actually reached around a 60, 50 to 60% recovery. So a big, big, significant improvement in their health. So that study will be published soon as well. So it's very, very exciting. So we're finding that generally with our treatment, when we're doing these studies, for those people who actively engage with the treatment, we're finding around half to two thirds are making a very, very good recovery, kind of almost a full recovery. And I say 80 to 100% because once we get to 80, 90% recovery, it's about getting back into normal life after that. And so we're currently looking to raise $200,000 for a large trial and we've already raised $50,000 and we've got some very interested parties who really want to test this and show the effectiveness of the treatment. So we're very excited to be running those trials as well. So in terms of the brain retraining, as I said, it involves these unique techniques that we've talked about and some supporting techniques. And the way that we deliver it is it's a home study course. So you get a DVD program at home and a booklet. And we also have a three month webinar series. So you tune in every week, I give you tools and techniques, and it means that you really feel connected to the group. And we also have a forum as well where you can discuss your recovery with other people. And so it's a three month program of webinars which are starting this coming Monday. And what's very important for me is that until we have that large scale independent clinical trial that shows how effective this treatment is, we are offering a complete money back guarantee on the entire package. And the reason is, if it doesn't work for you, fine, I'd love you to get your money back and try some other treatments. So we're one of the only treatments out there that offers this guarantee that you try the treatment, you try it for up to a year, and actually after six months, if you don't notice any improvement, you can return it, no questions asked, and you can use that money for another treatment. Okay, so that's really what I wanted to cover today in terms of hypothesis. And really now I'd love to go to your questions in terms of any questions you have around what causes this condition, how particular symptoms are caused, and how you can get better. But really I want us to focus on the causes of this condition. So we'll go to any questions that you may have here. Okay, so just having a look at. Emma's saying, I believe you're absolutely right, but how long did it take you to recover? I've been doing the program for four months and I've made good progress, but I've hit a frustrating dip and some old patterns have returned. Now, look, in terms of how I recovered, mine was very ad hoc because I was experimenting with lots of different tools and techniques. But in terms of recovery, it's different for each person. And the recovery process will have some great good periods and there will be some dips. But when we have those dips, it's nothing to worry about. It's just showing that there's more retraining to do. And the brain has gone back to its old patterns and we want to retrain those old patterns so we keep going no matter what. And the people who really make that full recovery are the ones who really keep going no matter the worries. They have about their recovery, no matter the dips that they have, they say, okay, well, if I've improved before, even if I've had a dip, I can still get better, so I must keep going. And of course, the recording of today will be available. So Karine's saying, I've tuned in a bit too late. So, yes, the recording of this will be available as a video on the Gupta program page. You can scroll it and see it in the timeline, or you can just click on videos and it will appear there. Okay. Christine's saying, I get arrogant with the program. I push myself to breathe through exposures instead of removing myself from the situation. Now, with multiple chemical sensitivities, we do say that you don't ignore your reaction to the chemicals. So you use the retraining. And once you feel confident, you then very, very slowly begin that exposure. Once you feel that you're getting better and you're improving, but you don't, like you said, that you don't push yourself through it. So it's about really getting confident in yourself with the retraining, feeling those improvements coming, and then very gently getting back into normal life. Okay. Lee saying, glad to hear you're doing studies. It's definitely helped me. Fantastic. That's great. Lily saying, since I bought the program three years ago, has it changed and how do we get the updates? Yep. So if you sign up for the new webinar series, which is starting on Monday, then you will have all the latest updates. Leslie saying, do you have any statistics about people who have had CFS and MCS for over 40 years in terms of recovery? You know, when we've had the condition for a long time, inevitably we can feel like, oh, it must be much harder to get well. We've had people in their 60s and 70s in terms of age who've got better. We had a guy from Australia in his 80s who managed to make a full recovery. Can you imagine that after having, I think, for 20 or 30 years? So however long you've had the condition, put that out of your mind and say, all that's happening is my brain is stuck in this loop that we've talked about where the brain and the body are reacting to each other. And my job now is to focus on retraining that vicious loop in the brain. And I can do this. Tildy saying, great that you've managed to conduct a small trial. It's a great step forward, even though I don't need that piece of proof to know that it's working. Continue to do Research and interact with the broader research environment. I'm behind you. Thank you so much, Mark saying, I tend to be okay in the morning, and then dizziness and nausea sets in as I get myself moving. Then I get super exhausted around one or three o' clock and slowly I begin to feel more normal by the evening and I go get okay sleep, though sometimes a bit restless. Does this sound like something you can help with? Yes. So we all have different patterns during the day. So our cortisol levels are supposed to be smooth. They rise in the morning and there's a smooth pattern. But we know that with this condition, our cortisol levels are erratic, they're up and down. And that can then mean that this affects our mood, affects our how awake we feel our sleepiness, asleep it can affect all of those things and those moods can change throughout the day. And the program is all about getting back to balance. How do we get our system to reset itself and go back to its normal homeostasis? So, definitely, if you've had a diagnosis of me, cfs, fibromyalgia or multiple chemical sensitivities, then we believe that the program can help you. Cass saying, how is your program different to Neufah's program? There are lots of different programs out there, of course, now what matter? I don't actually. I'm not dogmatic about it. I don't care how you get better. What matters to me is that you do get better. And so of course there are different programmes, different ways you can treat it. But I hope that obviously you'll give our program a go and give it that full six months of commitment, see where it takes you. And we tried to create a whole package around it so that you've got the support, you've got the forum where you can discuss it with others. And it's a very positive, uplifting forum. We don't want any negativity on there. We've got the webinars. You tune in each week to really get that support and understanding. You've got the home study course. There's also a meditation app that supports what you're doing. And we've got practitioners and coaches around the world who can work with you through Skype to tailor the program to your personal experiences. Lee's saying, where do we go to sign up for the webinars? Okay, so if you've already got the DVD program, you can email our clinic and they'll tell you how you can sign up for the webinar series on Monday. If you haven't Got the program yet? Then simply go to our website, guptoprogram.com and then you can actually purchase the whole package. And I'll just bring that up here as well so that you can see that there as well. In terms of the information of what those next steps are. Francesca saying, Loretta from Italy would like to know if the program can also help an allergic person as well as a person with multiple chemical sensitivities. Yes. So in some ways those responses are very similar. And we've actually had, bizarrely enough, people who've had hay fever, which is also, in my view, a conditioned defensive response who've actually used the program to moderate or even fully recover from their hay fever. So these things are all around these defensive responses, a unique package of responses. And these conditions are normally called, sometimes they're called somatic syndromes or, you know, mind body issues, et cetera, me, cfs. All of these different words, in my view, don't fully describe the condition. I call them nics, nics, Neuroimmune condition syndromes. So the neurology has become trained and conditioned in the incorrect way to over respond immune because most of these conditions involve some kind of immune overreactivity conditions because the brain, there's been neural rewiring to cause these problems. And a syndrome, because it's a unique package of symptoms which unique to each person. Neuroimmune condition syndrome. That's what I believe, that all of these conditions sit under that particular banner. Judy's saying, will this program work with those with Asperger's? My young son is Asperger's and gets fatigued easily from learning alongside trying to read people emotionally. You know, we certainly do know that with autism and Asperger's there are higher levels of opportunistic viruses and infections in the body. And actually the idea of an amygdala over reactivity in autism is now becoming more and more accepted as an explanation for, for the condition. So it's very interesting, some of the crossovers between autism and actually the blood of people with me and chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, there are those opportunistic infections, which is why people with Asperger's and autism can feel fluid. They can feel, as you say, chronic infections, ibs. Now, our program isn't specifically designed for Asperger's. I think what we'd need to do is have a specific, specific conversation with you and for perhaps you to talk to your doctor as well about what exactly the diagnosis is. Now, certainly we know that regular and deep meditation can help those who've got overreactive amygdalas. So that might be something to try first. But certainly our treatment program is not designed for Asperger's per se. Shesi is saying, I have multiple chemical sensitivities and a big problem with food. Every time I reintroduce food, I have big stomach and gut problems. Can this program help? Yeah, absolutely. So we've had a lot of people who've been able to reintroduce foods slowly back into their system using some very unique tools and techniques, especially some visualizations that are able to train the nervous system to not react to that particular food. Corinne is saying, how much time do I need to put into the program to get results? Well, in terms of time, we say that we want everyone to dedicate at least 45 minutes every morning or at some point during the day. And that dedication means that you are then making sure that you are putting the full retraining into practice and are not allowing the brain to go back into its old defensive responses. And then there's little tools and techniques that you do throughout the day. Okay, so we're going to answer the last few questions, and then we're going to wrap up because we are getting towards the hour now. So Corinne's saying, I've not yet had a diagnosis. There's a whole year's waiting list at my local clinic. Do I need one to do your program? We certainly suggest it is better to get a diagnosis. But at the same time, I mean, it's obviously not very good that you'd have to wait a year before you can start it. What matters to us is that you've excluded any other condition. So as long as your doctor has actually excluded any other potentially more. Well, this condition itself is very serious. But any other condition that you may have, as long as he's excluded anything else and can't figure out what's going on, then that's good enough for us. Monica's saying, I've got pots, low blood pressure all the time, and cfs. My ADH hormone is very, very low. Can the program help with all of that? Now, this is a tricky one, because, you see, what matters to us is you take the mainstream route to help yourself with your pots. So if you've been to your doctor and they've given you medication, and if you found that you've done whatever you can to deal with the POTS at a medical level and yet it's not really helping, and you've still Got the symptoms? Then yes, I do believe that our program can help because I, as I said, I think all of these conditions sit under the umbrella of neuroimmune condition syndromes and therefore they are all consequences of a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system that are out of balance. And some of you may have seen this latest research on the vagus nerve. So the vagus nerve is a nerve that runs all the way through our body that triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest, rest and digest and repair response. And that response is compromised in these conditions. And therefore what we want to do is to be able to get that back to normal as well. So all of these secondary conditions in my view, are a result of an over defensive brain. Francesca saying Chiara asked from Italy with mcs, I have ups and downs. How does your model explain this aspect of the condition? Very simple. So if we look at our vicious cycle here, for those of you involved in physics or mathematics, you'll know that in order to have a cycle of ups and downs, you have to have a feedback loop in a system. So when that system gets faster and faster and faster, then our symptoms get worse. But when that system slows down, then the cycles slow down and we get better health. So when the brain isn't engaging in the symptoms in terms of those inputs, then someone can temporarily feel better. The nervous system calms down for whatever reason, but then suddenly, if there's a huge triggering of the nervous system, the defense responses, then it can accelerate and then go faster and faster and cause even more symptoms. So it is a condition of ups and downs. And this should help us in the idea that it's a software problem, not a hardware problem. If you break your leg, you break your leg, it's always broken. A physiological condition, purely physiological, but in the case of me, cfs, fibromyalgia and mcs, people often report that they have good periods and bad periods. So that must mean it's not something permanently organically wrong in the body, but that there are times when we feel better, therefore we can train the brain to stay that healing state. Francesca also asking, so Federico from Italy is asking, can the program help in recovery from electromagnetic hypersensitivity? Yes. So our systems are actually very sensitive and they can detect electrical fields. Now when the brain once again makes that decision that electrical fields are dangerous, something external is dangerous, it can then over trigger these defensive responses just in the same way. Okay, just our last question here. Kassing, have you read any of Those fibro studies that show that alcohol is actually helpful. I'm always conflicted about getting wine and coffee out of my life. As recommended by most programs. Evening is always when I feel best. After cocktail and dinner and coffee, I get confused. Well, sometimes what's happening is we might naturally feel better in the evenings anyway. Some people report that now alcohol, unfortunately, I do believe it's not beneficial to have it. So when we have alcohol, it does trigger our stress system. It stops us from detoxing effectively. And I believe that our bodies, when we have these conditions, can't detoxify effectively. So I would suggest know really going on our program and going on a detox from alcohol and coffee and all of these toxicants because really we want to refresh the system rather than we want the system to give you natural energy versus artificial energy. Lily saying, what do you think about nutrition being such a big influence in someone's recovery? Yes, we do have a suggested healthy diet, so we don't ignore diet. We think having a good healthy diet is a very, very important part of recovery. Saying, I've had MCS for six years and now that I have first hand experience how everyday ubiquitous smells make me handicapped, how can I get rid of the discomfort at the idea of closing the scents into my otherwise fragrance free home? It's interesting, isn't it, in mcs and this fits in with the hypothesis. Initially someone might be sensitive to one chemical, but because the brain is in overdrive, it generalizes it to all chemicals. So suddenly someone becomes defensive against mould and paint and perfumes and all kinds of different strong scents. Once again, it's just the brain has generalized its defensive response. Now in terms of how do you stop yourself from having discomfort from all scents? Really it is the only way is brain retraining. The only way is to inform the brain that we are no longer in danger and to let go of those defensive responses. And normally there's no way that we can do it because all of this is happening unconsciously without our knowledge. But once again with the Gupta program, we've got some unique tools and techniques that help us target those particular responses and get ourselves back to health and happiness. So I just want to leave you with this idea that it is perfectly possible to recover. Thousands of people recovered through my program, through other ways. So never let anyone make you think that you can't recover. And often on these patient forums, if you do recover. And hundreds of our patients go onto these patient forums and say, hey, I've recovered using this treatment and the People on those forums say, oh, no, then you didn't have the condition in the first place. Yeah, what a depressing belief a lot of people have that I've got this condition and there's no way of getting better. And they hold on so strongly to that belief that anyone who's recovered can't have had the condition in the first place. Yeah, this is unfortunate, the situation that we have. So I advise people to, you know, let go of frequenting those kinds of forums and instead start a program with brain retraining. Get around people who are really positive and uplifting and move towards that birthright that you have to have your health back, to have your happiness back to and to have your life back. And thousands of other people have done it before and you can do it too. So thank you so much for watching. If you want more information, please do visit our website. You can sign up for lots of free videos that can explain more about what we're talking about. And really, I hope that you'll give the Gupta Program a go. So thank you for watching. And if you do join us, I look forward to seeing you on Monday for our first session of the Gupta Program, our first webinar on Monday, 23rd January. Now, if you can't sign up before then, you can still sign up later on and you can just catch up with the recordings of the webinars. So I look forward to seeing you soon and good luck with your recovery. Thank you and goodbye.