Vagus Nerve

From personal experience, I believe that inflammation is key in generating a good deal of the symptoms of CFS/ME. I got considerably better when I had cortisone shots in my joints for an unrelated problem.  The symptoms quickly returned as the steroids wore off.  None of my docs would prescribe a regular course of steroids to help with CFS/ME since it would be an off label use.

It turns out that stimulating the vagus nerve reduces inflammation in the ENTIRE body without the nasty side effects of steroids.  Now I'm on a quest trying to find out how to stimulate my own vagus nerve.  While I would love to have the pacemaker type device implanted in my shoulder, it isn't available for use in CFS/ME yet.

Here is various information on the vagus nerve and vagus nerve stimulation.

BBC podcast (20mins long and explains the pacemaker style device)
http://bbc.in/1ycMkCm

The Gut Brain Axis (hint the vagus nerve is the info highway between the two)

Cort Johnson's article on The Search for Neuroinflammation in CFS/ME
http://www.cortjohnson.org/blog/2015/06/16/search-neuroinflammation-me-cfs-fibromyalgia/


Of course this would all go faster if someone would cough up a sizeable chunk of money for some research on actual CFS/ME patients.  If it could get approved I would be first in line to give it a try.