I went through and read the first ~8 pages of the first thread. The speculation as far as inflammation in the gut and nose causing neural inflammation is very interesting. I know that as long as I can remember, I've had nasal inflammation - now somewhat under control with use of loratadine (Claritin). I'll experiment with NAG and see if there's any effect. I've also coincidentally been using curry powder more recently, but I'll be picking up some pure tumeric and experimenting with ~1g per day in food. It so happens that it's delicious on chicken, so there's no need to bother with swallowing a powder.
I have to apologize for the messiness and length of my two threads detailing the anti-inflammatory treatment of mental symptoms. I am trying at the moment to write up a more concise and organized account that is easier to read (but unfortunately my CFS brain fog often makes it difficult to be mentally organized).
I received feedback from quite a few people who told me that these anti-inflammatory treatments — especially the N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) — worked very well for their anxiety symptoms. Though equally, a few others said that NAG did not work at all.
It will be interesting to hear if N-acetylglucosamine and the other recommended anti-inflammatory supplements are of benefit to you. NAG significantly reduced my anxiety levels within hours of taking it; but the improvements in anhedonia and motivation only appeared after several months of taking a daily regimen of anti-inflammatory supplements, including NAG, turmeric, flaxseed oil, vinpocetine, high dose vitamin A, and high dose probiotics.
I can actually feel these anti-inflammatory supplements working soon after I take them, in the sense that they noticeably reduce the inflammation in my nasal cavity and sinuses, and reduce the feeling of inflammation I get in my head in general.
My view is that a chronic nasal or sinus congestion or inflammation, in cases where there is no overt signs of a significant bacterial or fungal infection, is probably an indication of some low level hard-to-detect chronic infection in the body. I suspect this low level infection then maintains the inflammatory sinusitis. This chronic inflammatory sinusitis, since it is in close proximity to the brain, may well be ramping up brain inflammation, which in turn causes mental symptoms.
Papers like
this one suggest that infections/inflammation in areas outside the brain can trigger and increase inflammation within the brain. So by reducing your sinusitis with a supplement like NAG, you may also be reducing brain inflammation. Inflammation in the gut can similarly remotely trigger brain inflammation, so taking high doses of prebiotics and probiotics, which help counter gut inflammation, can help lower brain inflammation too. I found prebiotics and probiotics quite helpful for my anxiety symptoms.
In CA, it is solely the pleasure that is gone. There's no erectile dysfunction, no loss of interest in sex, no loss of arousement, no loss of anticipation of having sex or getting orgasm. There's no loss of general enjoyment, the only thing that is missing is that specific part of the enjoyment, the actual (probably opioidergic) pleasure.
In my case, there is significant loss of interest in having sex or thinking about sex, complete loss of anticipation of having sex (no interest in going to clubs and bars, which for most healthy people is often done on the pretext of getting or chasing sex). If you subscribe to the cliche that men think about sex one every five minutes (which from my own life, I'd say is accurate), well nowadays I'd say I think about it — and very fleetingly — only once or twice a week.
I have also mostly lost the ejaculatory ecstatic state (orgasm is in fact a mini-seizure of the limbic system, which I think may be the reason for the ecstatic feelings), and I have also the loss of the post-ejaculatory relaxation and feeling good state. Although physically there are no problems; all these sexual dysfunctions appear to be a brain based.
As an aside, in addition I have a near total loss of all the more romantic, emotional thoughts that relate to falling in love and forming an intimate relationship. I used to be quite romantic as well as sexually driven, but now I find I am neither.
I think the loss of the emotional, romantic thoughts may be in part due to the emotional flatness (blunted affect) symptoms I am experiencing. It may also be linked to my chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms, as I know that many people with a significant degree of CFS seem to find that the normal human desire and yearning to form an amorous relationship tends to disappear.
Note that anhedonia is not a normal symptoms of CFS; the virus I caught gave me CFS, but also gave me some added extra symptoms for free, such as anhedonia, blunted affect, and severe generalized anxiety disorder.
The mental symptoms of CFS are mostly cognitive dysfunctions (brain fog, short-term and working memory deficits, problems recalling words or names, loss of focus and conscious awareness), as well as some mood disorders (typically depression, anxiety, panic attacks, irritability, mood swings). But anhedonia is not common in CFS.
I would say that out of all the mental symptoms I have, anhedonia is one of the worst, and the one I'd most like to remedy.
The anti-inflammatory approach I used did seem to help quite a bit for anhedonia. Originally my anhedonia was so severe that I had almost constantly suicidal ideation thoughts in my mind for several years. In fact it anhedonia is strongly linked to creating suicidal ideation, possibly because with no feeling of pleasure or reward in life, a human being simply loses all purpose for living. It is amazing how as creatures we are so dependent on our mental pleasure and rewards systems for giving us purpose and will to live.
Having used these anti-inflammatory medications for a year or two now, I can definitely say that my anhedonia has improved to the point that I now hardly get suicidal ideation at all. Recent research has implicated brain inflammation in a number of mental disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, autism and bipolar, so I think it is worth trying to reduce brain inflammation, to see if this improves the particular mental symptoms you are trying to treat.
As mentioned, the supplements I found the most effective for tackling brain inflammation are detailed in my threads
here and
here. Note that these two threads detail various anti-inflammatory supplements in the context of treating anxiety disorder; but as mentioned, I found these same supplements also noticeably improved my anhedonia and motivation after some time.
Oh and what's the logic behind using dermorphin for CFS?
I read an account of one individual, bedbound with CFS, whose health was greatly and quickly improved by taking an obscure but extremely potent Amazonian Indian medicine called kambo. I did some research on kambo, and found that it contains several active peptides, once of which is dermorphin, a mu-opioid agonist around 40 time more potent than morphine. For various reasons, I have a hunch that dermorphin may be the main curative agent in kambo, as far as CFS is concerned, because CFS does seem to involve mu-opioid system dysfunction (many people with CFS benefit from low-dose naltrexone, for example).
So I decided to try taking some pure dermorphin that I obtained from a chemical supplier. I took 100 mcg of dermorphin intranasally, and felt nothing at the time, but in the following three days, many of my CFS symptoms were noticeably improved. However, unfortunately on the forth day following my dermorphin administration, I got some temporary psychosis symptoms, which were unpleasant. I have now halted my dermorphin experimentation until I can figure out how to prevent this psychosis from recurring.
You can read about the use of kambo as a treatment for CFS, and my experiments taking pure dermorphin, on my thread here:
From Bedbound to Fit and Able in 14 Days: Effects of the Amazonian Medicine Kambo on a CFS Patient
LongeCity
