Chronic fatigue meets Epstein-Barr: The Virus that Thrives on Our Toxins

My long road back to health (Image courtesy of worldofmiri.com)

And how I became EBV free

I was in the middle of my detoxing and healing journey.

I felt depleted and exhausted most days; hungover, but without the booze. I had worked on my diet, dropped the alcohol, meditated and did yoga. Still, I was not well.

I could not shake the suspicion something else was at play

On top of this, I got a tick bite. The kids and I were sitting in the Sydney Opera House watching “Room on the Broom”. It was meant to be an enjoyable afternoon treat in the January school holidays. Even before the show started, I felt inclined to touch the back of my neck and there it was. A lump. I asked the kids to check and they confirmed my tick suspicion. It was a large one.  The moment I touched it, I could feel its toxins releasing and pumping through my body. It felt like an injection. I was in agony. There wasn’t anything I could do! Well, at least that was my belief. I suffered through the performance and tried to find a pharmacy afterwards for a remedy, without success. I had the tick removed by a GP the next day. She treated me with antibiotics because that was the standard treatment when suspecting Lyme disease.

A few weeks later, I developed joint pains in my knees and wrists and couldn’t sleep. I was shaken because I believed the antibiotics should have prevented this.

This time, I checked with my naturopath and asked for help. She did not follow the Lyme disease path but instead recommended a book: “The Medical Medium” by Anthony William. William talks about the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) as a root cause behind chronic or mystery illness. Among the symptoms, he lists

“…muscle pain, joint pain, painful tender points, back pain, tingling and/or numbness in the hands and feet, migraines, ongoing fatigue, … unrestful sleep, and night sweats.”

(The Medical Medium by Anthony William, Hay House 2015, p.47)

Well, that sounded like me. Except for the night sweats.

William says the EBV is behind mononucleosis, also known as “kissing disease”, which I caught at the age of seventeen during a high stress period. William states the virus goes through various stages and settles in the organs where it cannot be detected by blood tests. It may stay dormant in the body for years or decades if not flushed out.

“…it loves being in these organs (typically liver and spleen) because mercury, dioxins, and other toxins are likely to accumulate there. The virus thrives on these poisons.”

(p.42 “The Medical Medium”)

William explains that the EBV bides its time and strikes anew when the stress factor in a person is high.

I had been in a peak stress period before the breakdown that led to my depression and health crisis.

Could the EBV have survived in my organs for over twenty years?

Could it be one of the reasons I was not getting better?

Could it be behind the joint pains?

In the next consultation, my naturopath confirmed I held heavy metals and still carried the EBV.

For those wondering how my naturopath diagnosed me (as she did not use any blood tests or other diagnostic tools), she tuned into my energies and directly communicated with my body. I have no idea how she does it. However, I trust her completely. I have worked with her for over fifteen years with great results. For me, she is some kind of magician, and however logical and mind-oriented I have been all my life, this form of magic I totally accept. It is based on my personal experience. I always feel better after seeing her. That was proof enough for me.

However, I still did not understand one part of the equation. Where had all those heavy metals come from? After all, I was not actively ingesting them, yet they seemed to be there.

I learned they can accumulate in the body from consuming seafood that holds heavy metals, or when removing old dental fillings. But was that enough?

I stumbled across the following paragraph from “The Medical Medium (p.154):

“It’s very easy for a baby to take in heavy metals from her or his mother while in the womb, and for a father to pass along heavy metals at conception. That’s because the parents have likely accumulated mercury over decades, and so did their mothers and fathers before them – and mercury tends to stay in the body generation after generation, in some cases for centuries, unless specific steps are taken to detoxify it.”

Well, that was shocking. Had I already been born with a high amount of heavy metals? Had I been feeding the virus with them?

According to William, there are certain foods that help with heavy metal detoxification, including cilantro and spirulina. With the help of my naturopath, we identified exactly what herbs and supplements I needed to drive the virus out of my system. Spirulina was one of them. It took about a year before she could tell me I was EBV free.

The joint pains disappeared.

The spot where the tick bit me had been sore for weeks. This also disappeared.

I reversed the negative side effects of the antibiotics on my gut by taking a high-level probiotic.

Maybe I should be grateful for the tick bite?

It was the beginning of a journey that led me through new doors and to new levels of understanding of health and my body.