ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, MCS Are Not Psychological | Ashok LIVE | Gupta Program |

Well, hello, and a warm, warm welcome to our Facebook Live today. My name is Ashok Gupta, and I'm the founder of the Gupta Program. And today we're going to be talking about is this condition psychological? So the conditions we're talking about are MECFs, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, mold sensitivities, food sensitivities, or other kind of environmental conditions. And it's a question that I get asked all the time, are these conditions psychological in nature? And for those of you who suffer from it, I'm sure you are absolutely clear that it is not psychological, that it is definitely something which is very real. And in fact, modern science is already showing this and already proving this. So a bit of background to myself, if you're not too sure who I am. I actually suffered from ME chronic fatigue syndrome many years ago at university. And I managed to get myself 100% better where I did a lot of medical research. I tried to understand the condition more. And I remember in my darkest days, it was really an awful experience. And for those of you experience these kinds of conditions, it can feel like a brick wall has come up in front of you, you know, and I totally empathize if you're going through that now and you're finding it hard to really deal with the condition and the symptoms, also dealing with family and friends who don't fully understand, and perhaps in the back of their minds think that it might be psychological, and then having to deal with the medical profession, doctors, researchers, trying to understand what's going on. And I also went through all of that when I had the condition. And for me, that became the beginning of a lifelong quest to really understand this condition and see how I can get myself better. So I spent a lot of time researching brain neurology, brain neurology of emotion, brain neurology of illness, brain neurology of immune reactions. And from then on, I came up with a hypothesis as to what might be causing these conditions. I then published a medical paper on it, and from then on set up a clinic to treat others. And it's been a real journey from where we first started in 2000 to where we are now in terms of developing a home study course and now an online program. And it's been so fascinating for me to understand more and more about what this condition actually is, what causes it. And I'm always looking to learn more and understand more. And for me, it is very clear that this is not a psychological illness. And when we say the word psychological, what on earth does that mean, I think after all these years of research, I still don't understand what people mean when they say it's psychological. So one understanding of that is you're making it all up. There's a deliberate intention to make it all up. And of course, for many people who suffer from this condition, that's actually quite insulting. Why on earth would you make a condition up like that? Even if you thought there were something in psychology called secondary gains, it was absolutely no way that somebody would make up this severity of symptoms. So certainly it is not that. Do they mean psychological in terms of emotions causing the symptoms? Well, we know that these conditions often start at a very distinct point in their lives. So whether those same emotions were there before, the same emotions are there afterwards, and yet this condition starts after some kind of infection or exposure. So it can't be that emotions are causing the symptoms. Although certainly we know in many different illnesses, emotions or feeling emotional certainly make those symptoms worse. Is it hypochondria? Absolutely not. Most of the people that I know and most of people I treat who have these conditions are actually very hard working, very conscientious. They absolutely don't want to focus on their condition and think about being ill. They're actually very positive people. Perhaps the symptoms are being magnified now to that extent. Certainly there is some evidence that the symptoms in the body that are being caused by these various conditions, they may well be magnified and magnified signals going up to the brain, but that still doesn't make it a psychological condition. And if we look at all the research out there, I mean, I often present posters at the International IACFS ME Conference, and I meet lots of researchers there and in the room. It's incredible. You have every single branch of medicine represented. You have the immunologists, the endocrinologists, the muscle experts, the fatigue experts. Every branch of medicine, even psychology, even some of the more structural issues and musculoskeletal departments are all represented at those conferences. And all of them go up and they present their findings and say, we have found abnormalities. We have found abnormalities in the mitochondria, which are those little subset structures inside each cell which produce energy. We know there are abnormalities there. We know there's inflammation throughout the body and also inflammation in the brain. Now, there's no way somebody's going to make that up and say that that's psychological. And by the way, if you are experiencing the condition, this is perhaps a video that you can send to your friends, your family, your doctor, or perhaps you can share this on social media, on various forums, or various pages that you belong to, where people might be questioning the condition. Because today's video is all about how it's not psychological and actually how there's a real neurological explanation for all of these conditions. And obviously, do, like, comment, give us a little emoticon, let us know that you're watching. It's always nice to see those buzzing across the screen. So I was just talking about the various abnormalities that we found with people who have these conditions. So the mitochondria aren't functioning correctly. We know there's inflammation, there's physiological changes in the structure of the brain. Where we see a shrinkage in the part of the brain called the insula, we see a contraction of the prefrontal cortex, often by 5 to 10%. We see other parts of the brain responding inappropriately or actually shrinking or expanding. So we know that there are those kinds of changes. We know there's a shift in the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal gland access, and the way that we respond to stresses. We know the cortisol rhythms are out of whack. We know the sleep rhythms are out of whack. So we even know that gene expression is changed. So there are 20 to 30 genes which respond in a very different way. All of these are clues or actually just pure evidence showing us that it's not in the head, it's not psychological. And I know what it's like when you're having to battle with a medical profession, perhaps battle with people who are providing benefits to you to help them understand this condition better. And unfortunately, the traditional medical profession finds it quite hard to treat these conditions, because once again, in traditional medicine, traditional medicine has made in fantastic strides on conditions which work on the reductionist philosophy, which essentially means there's something wrong in the body as if it's a car. So there's something wrong over here. We fix that, everything comes back to normal. There's something wrong over here in the neurons in the brain, right? We fix that, come back to normal. But these conditions are conditions where we need to treat the entire nervous system, the entire software. So medicine is set up to treat the hardware of the body, as it were, but these conditions are issues with the software. So if there's something that goes wrong with the hardware of your computer, you would go and take it in for to a particular computer engineer who would then open it up and fix whatever could be going wrong at a hardware level. But when a software issue happens, what do you need to do you often need to run an update or reinstall? As people know, I'm a bit of an IT geek, so I love all these analogies to do with hardware and software. So the way we treat a hardware issue is very different to the way that we treat a software issue. And I call these conditions neuroimmune conditioned syndromes. Let me explain that. I believe that these conditions are neurological, which means they involve the nervous system in the brain, they're not in the head, but they are in the brain, in my view, immune. Because most of these conditions involve some kind of abnormal immune reaction. Too many cytokines in the body. Conditioned means that it's been trained into the nervous system to respond in a certain way, been trained in the brain to respond in a certain way. And all of this is happening unconsciously, subconsciously, beyond conscious awareness. So how can it be psychological if it's incurring in these unconscious brain structures upon which we normally have no control or very little control? Therefore it can't even be classed as psychological. Certainly each illness that we encounter, every illness that we encounter has a psychological component. For instance, in cancer treatments, they find that when they do group therapy or meditation or mindfulness, there are certain psychological interventions that support the healing of people with cancer, people with heart disease. So there certainly are psychological interventions that can support the healing of every condition. We know that getting a cold or getting a flu is very much based on your psychological state of mind. However, that doesn't mean that the root cause of these conditions is psychological, but they can be impacted by our psychology. And they are two very different things. So it's talking about neuroimmune condition syndromes. Syndromes means that there's a collection of symptoms based on unique vulnerability or genetic vulnerability. So, for instance, when we look at me, CFS and fibromyalgia and chemical sensitivities, there's often a crossover between those conditions and people have a certain set of symptoms that perhaps could belong to any of these conditions. And then when we look at chemical sensitivities and mold sensitivity, often they come hand in hand. We've got food sensitivities as well. They're often part of the package. And there are various other related conditions like POTs, such as autonomic dysfunction syndrome, chronic pain syndromes. All of these various conditions all seem to have overlaps. And we're trying to understand what exactly is the core of it. And I believe that the core of it is an overstimulation of the brain, of the nervous system and the immune system causing a unique pattern of symptoms in each person. Now, how do these conditions start and what can we do about them? Well, what I'd love to do is very briefly go through a hypothesis of what I believe causes these conditions. And as you know, all of this information is actually on our website, which is www.guptaprogram.com. so you can find lots of free videos explaining the hypothesis. And also on there you can join our free trial. So we have an online brain retraining course, and you can go online and have a free trial, sample some of the videos, even some of the meditations, etc. And it's a great way of understanding more about this hypothesis and this potential explanation. And if you watch the videos and you resonate with it, then I truly believe that there is a way of getting better from these types of conditions. So in terms of what causes these conditions, let me very briefly go through the hypothesis. So I'll just share with you some slides. So what are some of the, what we call predisposing factors? So what are some of the factors that may trigger getting one of these conditions? Well, often we find that people get this condition after a period of chronic stress, or that might be mental, physical or emotional stress where they've pushed their body to their limits or perhaps they're overcoming some emotional challenge like a bereavement. And so definitely, number two there, stress tends to be a predisposing factor. And certainly our genes and our upbringing be another factor. So we know, for instance, that people who've been through a very challenging childhood, which may have involved mild to moderate abuse or potentially a lot of difficulties in childhood, whatever they may be, they're more likely to contract fibromyalgia, and it's often combined with a physical trigger. And I'd like to introduce you to this is a character from Paw Patrol, Rocky, I believe his name is. For those of you with children, when we have some kind of illness, a bacterial or viral infection, the system is at balance. It detects that particular trigger and then it triggers the nervous system and the immune system. So now we get off our centered balance to fight off that particular symptom or that particular virus or that particular pain, whatever it may be. And then once that particular situation has been dealt with, it comes back to normal, back to balance, back to center. And this is happening all the time. We are fighting off opportunistic infections all the time that are inside our bodies now in this condition, A because of all the stress. It's like this particular system gets Stuck, it gets stuck in the on position. And it doesn't matter what we do to try to come back to balance, we are still stuck in that position, as if we're still fighting that bacterial infection, that chemical that we've exposed to that mold, whatever it may be. And certainly we know that in chemical and mold sensitivity there are certain genetic abnormalities which predict whether someone will get one of those conditions. Now you might say, well haha, that means that it can't be anything to do with the brain because it's in the genes. But actually our genes are not our destiny. Our genes are much, are perhaps one factor in a range of factors that determines whether we get a particular condition. And unfortunately in the media, in the population, there is this idea that the genes, if they're abnormal or not even abnormal, but they have a certain pattern that 100% determines whether we're going to get the illness associated with it. But actually all it is is a risk factor. And those risk factors can vary from 5% risk to a 10% risk to a 20% risk, 30% risk. And it varies. And even with cancer, they know that. Now 80 to 90% of cancer is in fact lifestyle related and not gene related. So our genes are not our destiny, even if we have a predisposition to getting one of these conditions. So a combination of these three factors I believe then causes the brain to become hypersensitive. Now why would it do that? Let's take the example of flu. Many, many people die of flu. So imagine flu virus is like an army, an invading army. So use the analogy of analogy of Game of Thrones. So imagine sounds very popular in the media right now. So imagine that you are the king or the queen of the castle. So your prefrontal cortex, your conscious mind, you are the king or the queen of the castle. And your castle is the body and your army is the nervous system and the navy is the immune system. And there's an army invading over the hill. Now let's just say normally you can fight off invading armies very easily, but this time the castle has undergone a period of weakness. Perhaps there was a famine, perhaps the crop didn't work this year. Perhaps they are already recovering from previous battles. So the castle is weak, the navy is weak, the army is weak, and then another invader comes over the hill. And that weakened state, the army, the navy battle because they realize that survival is paramount. Survival is the number one priority of our body, our brain, our genes. Survival of the fittest, passing on the genes to the next generation, ensuring the Survival of the castle, and they fight off the incoming invaders. But in that battle, they become even more weakened to the point to which they become so paranoid that they think we only just fought off that invading army that nearly took away the castle. Therefore, we now need to remain on high alert and make sure that we're constantly in battle ready mode. Sure, that's going to take up resources from the castle, but as long as we remain battle ready, we will be able to defend this castle and ensure the survival of this castle. So now even if there's an innocent group of people coming over that hill, the army and the navy get engaged and they get into battle mode and start battling away. So we get an inappropriate triggering of our nervous system and our immune system, which uses up all the resources of our body. So in the case of ME cfs, we're often exposed to a virus or bacterial infection. And that's what happened to me. When the body's in a weakened state and it's almost like a post traumatic defense response that once we've overcome that virus or bacterial infection, we are now in that battle ready stage to keep fighting off and keep stimulating. Actually, what happens is other opportunistic viruses infections can then come into the body. So even though the immune system is over triggered, it actually allows for opportunistic infections to run riot in the body. And this also happens in the bodies of people with autism. There's a similar composition of opportunistic bacterial and viral infections in both the bodies of people with ME CFS and autism. And autism is now in the research, we often know that it's caused by an overstimulation of the nervous system and especially from the amygdala. So we've got an overstimulation and those particular triggers, the nervous system and immune system cause a lot of those symptoms. So the body now is in that defense state, using up all the resources. And in the case of fibromyalgia, often we've had exposure to stress combined with localized pain syndrome, and that pain syndrome eventually generalizes to the entire body. And this often happens in chronic pain conditions, not just fibromyalgia. In the case of chemical sensitivities, we find that we've had exposure to a particular chemical which then the brain decides is very dangerous. We now get an overstimulation of the body each time we are exposed to that chemical, but also any chemical. Now we get a generalization of our response to any chemical that we're exposed to. Same with mold. We may have been exposed to mold in unhealthy amounts at the beginning. But now even a smidgen of detection of that mould triggers the nervous system and the immune system. Same with electrical fields, electrical sensitivity. Same with food sensitivities. The software in the brain has made a logical, rational decision, or what it thinks is a logical, rational decision to overstimulate the nervous system and the immune system. Even if we get exposure to 5% of what we detected before and those symptoms get triggered now even with external stress, so we can see external stress on the top right of that diagram, even external stress now seems to over trigger our responses. Because when the body is in hyper defense mode and in protection state, what happens is it will now over respond to any external stress, noise, light exposure, anything else it could be sensitive to, it will now respond and we find it more difficult to deal with the day to day stresses of life. And this can then go on to cause secondary conditions. So that might be, we may have adrenal fatigue, we may have mitochondria dysfunctioning, we may have our sleep rhythms or sleep apnea. We may find that there are other secondary conditions which other practitioners or doctors can diagnose within us. And those secondary conditions now also contribute to the symptoms. And in a lot of cases, those symptoms then double back to the hypersensitive brain. And the hypersensitive brain thinks, ah, these symptoms in my body are also evidence that I'm still in danger. I still need to over trigger the nervous system and the immune system. And so it keeps triggering, keeps triggering and we get caught in this vicious cycle. And the extent to which we, we have symptoms depends on how vicious this particular cycle is and how fast it goes. So in the case of fibro and MECFs, often people can be bed bound or perhaps housebound. In the case of chemical sensitivities, some people can't even go to the shops or be exposed to anyone around them for fear of having a particular reaction. And once this system has been set up this way, it is a survival instinct as far as the brain is concerned. Now what can we do about this? Well, the Gupta program is basically a program of retraining, relaxing the nervous system and re engaging with joy. So three Rs of the Gupta program, we are not saying that the condition is psychological. As I've just explained through that hypothesis, it is neurological. It is in the brain, not the head. And many people on many forums dismiss our treatment program or similar ones because they believe that we're saying it's psychological and they think well, if you're not using drugs and you're not using surgery, then you're saying it's psychological. Therefore, I'm not interested. And often, because of the misunderstanding of this condition and the medical profession finding it difficult to treat these conditions, there is often a movement to focus more on persuading the medical profession that this is physiological and this is the evidence for it, rather than focusing on novel ways and novel research that we can actually engage in to prove that there are ways of people getting better. And many, many people do get better. That's the hope that I want to give to you. Through various means, often on patient forums online, people can be very negative saying, there's no way you can get better. We just need to wait for a miracle cure to come along. But actually, many people do get better and leave that community. And I'd love for you to refocus that hope to say, yes, there is a way of getting better. I deserve to have my health back. And so when you read on various places that the Gupta program says it's psychological, I've had to bat off that question so many times. It's helping you understand that in no way do we say it's psychological. It's a real physical condition caused by changes in the brain. And normally we have no access to the brain, the unconscious brain, but through using novel techniques, we can rewire and retrain the brain out of these protective responses. Just like somebody who perhaps has had neurological damage in their arm or in their legs, often war veterans, they've had this neurological damage, and there is a process of rehabilitation where even using imagination and visualization, they're able to start literally creating new neurons in their limbs to regain control over their body parts. This is actually a scientific process. So in the same way we're rewiring the brains, we're creating new safety neurons to persuade the brain we're no longer in the danger state and we don't no longer need protection that we needed at the beginning of the condition. Hope that makes sense. So in terms of this explanation, if you go to our website, we have lots of videos which go through the full explanation. And in terms of our Gupta program, it is a brain retraining course, involves the three Rs. So the main core of the program is retraining the brain out of these protective responses. And it uses a combination of various different techniques combined together. And we've spent literally 20 years refining and refining and refining this technique until it works for the most of the people most of the time. And a clinical audit that we performed many years ago showed that around two thirds of our patients reached a 80 to 100% recovery within one year. And that paper was published, and you can read that paper on our website as well. And we've just done a research study in Spain on fibromyalgia, which is going to be published shortly, and that also showed a similar response to around 60 to 70% of patients with fibromyalgia made a good positive recovery. So 80 to 100% recovery. And there was about. And still there were other people in the study who also improved, who weren't part of that group. So we're very confident that we can support people's recovery using this brain retraining program. And it used to be a DVD program and we've completely revamped it. It's the Gupta program, version 5.0. We're very proud of it. And it is now available online. So all the videos and all the audios are online. So it's 15 interactive video sessions, lots of meditations and audios and brain retraining exercises. It also comes with a physical manual which you'll receive in the post at home, and a floor chart. And you also get access to our wonderful healing community of retrainers who are supporting each other towards recovery. And we've got many coaches around the world that I've trained to also support your recovery. So many people decide to start the program or later on down in the line they actually work with one of our coaches. And finally, if you purchase the program, we include 12 weeks of webinars with myself. So each week we have a webinar, we go through some of the content and that's just a way of feeling that you're keeping in connection with me and the knowledge and you're accountable to yourself to actually put the program into practice. And our next webinar series starts on Monday 5th August. And so if you are interested in having a look at the Gupta program, you can obviously sign up for the free trial. And if you purchase it, then we're starting our next series on Monday 5 August, where each week we'll have an hour to an hour and a quarter webinar. You'll be able to ask questions and it's a great way of supporting you through your retraining process. And lastly, we give a one year money back guarantee. So if you were to use the program after six months, if you find it has been no benefit, then you can return it, get a refund, no questions asked, and that's for up to a year. So you've got nothing to lose by giving it a go and really giving it your attention and focus and really going for it. So I'm sure you have lots of questions about what we've covered today. So what we're going to do is we're going to end this Facebook Live now. And please do share it on patient forums or with people that you know who are suffering from the condition. And please do like and send us lots of comments and likes. We always like to see those across the screen. And I really hope that you can join us on Monday 5th August for our webinar series with myself. And you can obviously, if you haven't already, engage in our free trial. So please do Visit our website, www.guptaprogram.com and you can like our Facebook page as well. So please do share this. Thank you for watching. And we're now going to start another Facebook Live on the Gupta Program Facebook page. Just give me a couple of minutes or actually about 30 seconds and then you'll be able to ask me questions and we can get more interactive. Thank you for watching and goodbye.