It's Not In Your Head Q & A | ME/CFS FIBROMYALGIA MCS EHS ADVICE |

Well, hello. And I hope that you enjoyed that explanation of what causes the condition, how it's not all in your head, but it is in the unconscious brain. And so now what we'll do to some questions that I'm sure you may have. So I'm just going to go to obviously the stream there and just see what questions may have occurred to you. So in the Q and A box if you'd like to. So not in the Q and A box, in the comments section of the stream for this particular live Facebook event. Let's see if there are any questions that we can come to. So Prague, I hope that I'm pronouncing that correctly. Prague asked a question. Thank you for all you do. I'm nearly recovered and I've used your meditations frequently. You mentioned a biomarker to prove that we have this. Can you tell us what it is, please? And do you think common autoimmune issues happen for the same reasons and have just progressed further? Right. So two questions there. First of all, when I talked about biomarkers, what I said was is that we don't actually have a 100% biomarker for these conditions. There are many great researchers who are working on this. The reason I don't think we will find a biomarker that will definitively prove all of this is because each patient is suffering a unique combination of symptoms based on, as I mentioned, the genetic vulnerability and the unique conditioning event that happened in the brain. So to say there'll be one biomarker would be unrealistic. In terms of other autoimmune issues, could they have got to such an extreme that that's what's causing the conditions and the autoimmune conditions could be. It's an interesting hypothesis. So it could be that actually autoimmune conditions are where it's gone too far. So it's an interesting hypothesis. Okay, just give me a second here. Dawn says, can you tell me how to address IBS related symptoms with fibromyalgia? This is my most persistent and frustrating symptom. Yeah. So IBS occurs in conjunction with a lot of these conditions because for some people the stress goes to their gut. And so when we have a lot of sympathetic over arousal, our gut tightens up. There's problems with the good and bad bacteria balance in the gut and that can create a lot of symptoms. So when you follow the program, I don't know whether you are on the program. When you follow the program overall, where we, you know, have the three Rs of the GUPS program which are retraining the brain, relaxing the nervous system and re engaging with joy. So a combination of retraining the brain out of these responses and relaxing the nervous system at a much deeper level can enable the IBS symptoms and the fibro symptoms to begin to resolve themselves. Okay, I'm just checking the live stream so I can just answer your question. All right. Ah, right, here we go. How would someone get over seasonal allergies, as you've mentioned? Right. Well, we haven't formally used the program for hay fever and those kinds of allergies, but we have had people who've used the program and have told us that they've been able to either recover from hay fever or certainly have good improvements from it. So it's using the program for those very symptoms. And what be lovely if you can give us some. Some hearts. I love seeing the hearts, the thumbs up and see some of those. That would be wonderful. Laurie says how does the brain know the difference between natural and synthetic sense? I have zero issue with natural scents, but affected by all the chemical scents. You see, in our olfactory system, there is a natural way of detecting or there is a software that detects a particular chemical and then makes a decision as to whether that chemical is dangerous or not. And we know from a lot of research that actually the amygdala and the insula in conjunction with many other parts of the brain. So it's not just those two parts. They decide or send a signal as to which chemicals are dangerous and which ones aren't. So obviously ones which are more natural, the brain believes that they aren't going to affect us in any way, but ones which are more chemical based. The brain makes a decision that that might be dangerous and therefore creates this defensive response. Sue asks, can you please talk about how treatment of Lyme fits with this program? Yes. Now, when you have a diagnosis of Lyme, it's important that you see a Lyme specialist and do whatever you can to work through that. Now, in terms of how Lyme fits with our program, we believe that Lyme is a trigger for this particular illness. Therefore, after a while, if someone's been through the classic Lyme treatment, but it still isn't getting better, it's likely that the Lyme is an opportunistic infection, one of many opportunistic infections that may be occurring in the body. And we've had many people who've made a full on partial recovery who have Lyme and yet and they've been diagnosed with Lyme, and they've still managed to make a recovery using our program. And some of those stories you can hear on our website, even one of our coaches, Pauline, has had a good recovery using the program and she was diagnosed with Lyme and no longer is. So it shows you that, yes, it's part of one of many opportunistic infections that occur as a result of the brain going into an altered homeostasis. Have you found that some people take longer to recover than others? Says Laura. By the way, when you're asking a question, just let me know where you're from so I know which part of the world you're you're tuning in from. Yes, it does take some people longer to recover than others. We have people who have positive effects within weeks, sometimes days. They can feel the retraining working and they can feel healing occurring within days, sometimes weeks, sometimes months. A rare minority, it may take over six months before they notice benefits. And why is this? It's simply because we don't know how much healing needs to occur in the body for someone to get back their health. So as an example, we know that the detoxification processes in the body are shut down when we have sympathetic over arousal. Now, what that means is that you may have calmed down the nervous system and retrained the brain out of this immune system and nervous system response, but we don't know then how long it takes for the parasympathetic nervous system to dominate and to enable that rest, heal and digest and to enable detoxification. Because we know a lot of people with these conditions have high levels of mercury, high levels of metals. And that's simply because the detox systems are shutting down, because we're dealing with other dangers, which makes sense neurologically. So it may take some time for the body to detoxify. In many cases it doesn't. And people notice the energy coming back very quickly. So this is why we ask people to persevere with our program that even if you haven't noticed effects within days and weeks, keep going, keep going. And we've had people, one person was telling me she kept going for a year and finally the energy started coming back to the body because it took that long for a system to heal itself. Okay, So this, there's many, many questions here. I'm not going to get to all the questions. We've just got 15 minutes left, so let me just see if there are any questions I haven't answered. How does Katie asking how does the program address brain fog and what's the explanation for it? What's the physiology behind it? So we know that when the brain is overstimulated, it will cause brain fog. And we see this in a number of different conditions, including extreme anxiety. When the brain is in this danger response, it is overstimulating the neurotransmitters, overstimulating the neurology. There's a lot of brain activity to the point at which then the brain goes the opposite way and it shuts down a lot of processes. And it's the same with the adrenal axis and it's the same with even perhaps people who've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The system just can't seem to respond enough because it's got overstimulated. And so in the same way, our brain starts beginning to shut down. And there's some great work done in the US where when they do EEGs on the brain, they notice the brain is mimicking delta wave sleep. So you can imagine how can you think and process things clearly when the brain is mimicking delta wave or deep sleep type of state. And on top of that, the hippocampus, which is short term memory, the hippocampus can get damaged by overstimulation over sympathetic response and we get inflammation in the brain and the body. So that inflammation and damage to the hippocampus or shrinking of the hippocampus means that short term memory becomes compromised. That inflammation can also make it harder for us to really process things. We know there's shrinking of the prefrontal cortex by about 10%, which is not inconsequential. Does the program work for mental conditions such as anxiety and depression? We have had people use it for those, but it's not obviously designed for that. But it can be used for anxiety for sure. Lisa. Lisa Holland, thank you so much for your comment. Yep, I agree with you there. Katie. Comments? I found your meditations to work very well. Okay. And I've started doing your mantras, deep breathing whilst I do my daily walk. I've heard that extra oxygen can really help the body. Can you expand upon upon this? Maybe. I have Lyme and my symptoms have been greatly reduced using your program over the last two weeks. Thank you so much. Well, great. Thank you so much Katie for your kind comments. Yes, oxygen is important because when we are in this hyper stimulated state, even though we may have used up our adrenaline and noradrenaline, the breathing becomes shallow from up here and we're not getting enough oxygen into the system. Therefore deep diaphragmatic breathing can support the immune system through that extra oxygenation. And we know how when we oxygenate the body, oxygenate the cells, it also allows the heart rate to calm down and it allows the breathing to return to a normal pattern. So deep breathing, deep, slow breathing is useful, as you know. One course I recommend is the Art of living course@www.artofliving.org, and that's a course which has a lot of deep breathing processes that really oxygenate the body. And they've got a whole host of research behind that as well. And, no, I don't receive any commissions from. Okay, just looking through your questions here. Freddie says hello, Ashok, I know you don't encourage drugs in any form. What about helping to get to sleep? You mentioned a certain chemical that will. We won't mention. You know, of course, we say keep everything the same. So keep all of your. Drugs and chemicals every. Keep everything the same whilst we work on, you know, retraining the brain. Because if you change anything, that can compromise your recovery. So, yeah, sure, if you're using something already and your body's got used to it, keep going with that until you retrain, and then you can very slowly come off those particular drugs, as many people do. Linda says, does your program address insomnia? Yes. We've had many people who have found that their insomnia gets a lot better. You may not necessarily need to use the brain retraining aspect, but certainly the long, deep meditations can help. From South Carolina. Okay, good. Vanitas from the Netherlands. Hello. Bex says, I've been doing the program for 10 months, and I just want to thank you so much for giving me my life back. I was skeptical in some ways in the beginning as I tried almost everything, and I've been ill for nine years. But now I'm regularly walking, doing gentle stretches and doing the things that I love. I still have a way to go. I still have social anxiety, but I'm feeling much better. Great. Fantastic. Thank you so much for that. Julia says, yes, I'm so glad you mentioned metals. I detoxed a lot. Yeah, you see, look, the problem we have with these conditions is each researcher and each complementary practitioner thinks that they've found the solution at a reductionist level. So they say, oh, we found heavy metals. That's the cause of your illness. Oh, there's something wrong with your mitochondria. That's the cause of the illness. But we have so many observations. You know, I often present a poster at the international conference for cfs. Is cfsme and every aspect or branch of medicine is mentioned and represented. And everyone presents saying, we found this abnormality, therefore this must be the reason for the condition. And it makes total sense to me that there must be a central place which is causing this malfunction across all of the other aspects of our physiology and our immune system. So, of course, there will be heavy metals in the body. There may well be a buildup of mercury. There may well be a whole host of physiological observations that are picked up by complementary practitioners, and they will give you solutions. But in my view, the body is its own best detoxifier. When you put your mind and body in the optimal healing state to heal itself, it will carry out the detoxification effectively, but it's about getting it to that restful level. Will you be coming to the US to do a weekend seminar? Yes, hopefully next year I'll be coming to the US to do some things, some workshops. Maria says, isn't brain fog the same as what psychologists call dissociation? No, I don't believe it is. Brain fog may cause dissociative effects or a feeling of dissociation, but it's not the same as dissociation. It's not sort of caused by the same underlying factors, in my view. Okay, just going through the questions here. I've answered the one about antidepressants. Elizabeth from California, hi to you. I have tested positive for a particular genetic mutation which causes me not to process folic acid, resulting in toxin buildup. Do you know if this is common in cfs? And does the program work with this? Right. So as I mentioned, obviously there can be various different observations and genetic vulnerabilities which cause someone to get this type of condition. And it doesn't mean that the program can't help, because the program can support the detoxification process as much as possible. If you have a genetic vulnerability, that means you don't do that effectively. What can we do to support that process? So, yes, I would still give the program a go. Even though you've been diagnosed with that, Liz says, how does your program account for relapses? I frequently get to a good level of activity only to suddenly become bed bound. Right. This is a very interesting neurological quandary. When we actually get better, and it could be for a whole host of different reasons, the brain begins to calm down and think we're no longer in danger. I can now calm down the immune system, nervous system, and allow the body to come back to its normal homeostasis, which is the definition of Then the healing. Suddenly there can be one or two triggers that we may not be consciously aware of that can trigger the brain to go back into its over defensive state again, which is why we can suddenly feel better for a while, but suddenly have a dip. And the good news here is that it's a software problem, not a hardware problem. Because if it was a hardware problem, then your system would just be broken all the time or it would just have some physiological damage. If you break your leg, you break your leg. But we know that this condition is a program of cycle of ups and downs. So we have good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks. And if you think about it, that makes total sense because the brain is getting over defensive. It over defends, over defends, triggers this relapse. Gradually we get better because we are able to calm down that defensive response. But if the brain detects any other potential dangers, and we often don't know what those are, totally unconscious, then it can trigger the physiology to then put us back into that state. But as we say with the program, even with the program, once you've retrained, if you have a dip, we don't call them relapses, but if you have a dip, it's okay, that retraining hasn't been lost. You will be able to gradually get yourself back to where you were. There's a just a couple of minutes left. Just going to answer any final questions. Prog saying, guys, I had MCS and cirs and this program helped me immensely. Thank you for that. Okay, just seeing if there's any other questions in the last few minutes. Proful asking a question. Sometimes I find that I can push myself to go out and appear full of energy to others. I think I give myself a big adrenaline rush to go out. It makes people skeptical about whether my illness is in my head. I usually struggle to get myself into this energetic state and crash out afterwards. How am I able to do this for short periods of time, even though I might be immobile most of the time? And you know, this is what I really understand, you know, is the fact that yes, you can push yourself to do something and people think you're fine. And they think, well, it must be all in their head because they look like they can do any kind of activity, but they don't realize the consequences that we then experience afterwards. We are able to push our bodies even though we know we shouldn't and we should be listening to our bodies. We can push our bodies for a little while, but then it has consequences and Then we feel much worse for a longer period of time. And that is because there is a limited amount of energy that the body has. We use it up very quickly, but then we become immobile, and we don't want to do that. We want to pace ourselves as much as possible. Linda says wheat seems to cause emotional rage, even if just exposed to the smell. Can that be altered? Thank you. From Colorado. Yes. You see, as we mentioned, neurons that fire together wire together. So in the case of these defensive responses, every response involves an immune response, an emotional response, a neurological response, and they wire together, which is why often when we have these reactions and these symptoms, there can be a lot of negativity and fear or anger that can be associated with these particular illnesses. So it makes sense to me that your wheat reaction also seems to be accompanied by anger. Yes, that will be altered over time. Once you change the overall neurological response, which involves a different systems of the body and the brain, then overall, that anger can stop as well. Meredith says, I have had improvement in mcs, mold, and other areas, but my CFS symptoms have not improved yet. Okay, well, thanks for being on the program, Meredith. Keep going. The mantra is always keep going. If you've seen these improvements in the MCS and mold reactivity, then you know that you're on the right track. And this can also work for your CFS symptoms as well. Keep going. Because we don't know how quickly the brain can be retrained, how accurately will be retrained, how long it will take, and you'll kick yourself if you didn't keep going to make that happen. Patricia from Northern California, hello to you. Can you please describe how this is different to cbt? Thank you. All right, let me give you a very simple example. I'm sure most of you drive or have learned to drive, had driving lessons. Imagine on the first driving lesson that you have, you have CBT instead of your driving lesson, and you're told, look, just be really positive. Let go of negative thoughts, and you'll be able to drive the car. Yeah, it will work for you. Just, you know, just be really positive. Let go of what negative beliefs you have about it, and just keep positive. Just sit there in the car, be really positive, and you'll be able to drive. That's cbt. And don't get me wrong, CBT for many different conditions, especially anxiety and depression, is a very effective treatment. And I highly respect CBT practitioners. And, you know, but we are very different to cbt. The brain retraining is like learning to turn the Steering wheel, move the gear stick, as you guys call it in America. Press the gas, indicate, look at the mirror. And you're putting all of these things together, and you're, why do you need 10 or 15 or 20 lessons? Because you're training your nervous system to become consciously competent at learning how to do it. Yeah. So CBT has its place and can certainly support healing because you're getting rid of negativity, but it's not retraining the brain. Retraining the brain is certain movements and positions and visualizations and imaginations which are training the nervous system out of old responses and learning something new. So that is the difference. Very, very different to cbt. And we've had many people, in fact, I think a lot of people, especially in Europe, have had CBT before they come onto our program and then do very well on the program. Someone Ann asking, how about reactions to mercury in your teeth? You see, mercury is not a prerequisite for having this condition. You know, there are literally millions of people around the world who've had mercury fillings and probably have had leakage of mercury, but they don't have symptoms. The mercury, I believe, in the body isn't. Is the. Is due to the fact that this illness is stopping our system from effectively detoxifying, which is why there can be a buildup of mercury, which can make symptoms worse. Achilles saying, your program has already helped me a lot. When I started, I can only go to five places in my town due to MCS mold and electrical sensitivities. One second within the first two weeks, I could go to 16 places. And even when I was exposed to something, I could stay calm and happy and reduce symptoms. Thank you. And I'm very excited for your US trip. Yep. So am I hopeful to east coast and west coast sometime next year. Okay. Are we going to wrap up shortly? Okay. And there are obviously some comments here about people who've used the program and done really well. I won't read them all out. And there's some people who are still going and haven't had the effect that they want yet. And, you know, we say with the program that just keep going because it's the only game in town. If you haven't had the positive effect that you wanted yet, it's remembering that it takes time to retrain the brain because you're retraining the brain out of these survival instincts and survival responses. And although we've got this general program for everybody, you may need it applicable to your particular situation. So if you're finding that you've been on the program for a little while and you haven't had the results you want yet, then please do work with one of our practitioners. And often people find that when they work with our coaches, that's able to get the right key in the right lock to unlock the healing for them. Yes, tapering meds. We should wait till after the program to taper meds. Migraines, yes. We've had some people who've been able to use this program for migraines as well. Great. So thank you so much for your really interesting and fascinating questions. I apologize, I wasn't able to get to all of those questions. So thank you for your positive comments and your recoveries. Thank you for those of you who've had to admit that perhaps you're not making the recovery you want yet. And I encourage you to keep going with the program. And yes, the recordings will be available. So on our Facebook page, you'll be able to access the recordings of the first video and then also this Q and A. So you'll be able to access those anytime. And as I said, I really hope that you can join me next Monday for our new webinar series where you tune in for 45 minutes to an hour. I go through some tools and techniques, and then you can ask questions. And we always try to keep it to an hour, but it often goes longer than an hour because there's so many questions to get through. But it's a great way of keeping up with a retraining each week. And each time you do the webinar series, you learn more and more because you're changing your healing. So the questions you ask are different. And I just want you to know that whatever you're experiencing, how bad it feels, just know that it's the software, not the hardware. There's a reasonable explanation. Whether you use my program or something else, you can get to that recovery and get your health back. And so just keep going and keep positive that no matter what happens, there's light at the end of the tunnel and you can do this. So thank you so much for watching and I wish you all the best luck for your recovery. And you can obviously go to our website, guptaprogram.com and find out more. Thank you and goodbye.