A very Merry Christmas to you all. We hope that all patients have reached the stage where they can thoroughly enjoy the festive season with family and friends.

Good news - Bad news

The price of the protocol is continuing downwards, and the length of the treatment is shortening. It is now US$2,450 for the two-month course delivered, and US$1,050 for the three-month maintenance delivered. The treatment is now a five-month course overall instead of an eight month course. It is a great pity that financial instability has caused the Australian dollar to fall and partly counter the reduction in price.

Doctors are not GODS.

I am sure that the seven of my mother's children that are still alive would tell you that her most conspicuous characteristic was that she taught us that, "Doctors ARE GODS !" I find it terribly out of character to be reporting on the battle between groups of doctors. When Nash saw what I had written about Prozac in the Dr. Willix article he gave me a lot more horrifying information. Initially Prozac was found to cause impotence, loss of weight, and several other side effects

.Scientists came up with 'Fenfluramine' to do the same thing as Prozac. Can you guess ? It put users TO SLEEP. Back to the drawing board. This time they added 'phen' to keep patients AWAKE. This new drug 'fen/phen' was prescribed 2.5 MILLION times in the U.S.A. by June 1996. Worldwide it had been prescribed to SIXTY million people. In July 1996 Mayo Clinic doctors reported serious heart valve damage in a large percentage of users. Other studies confirmed this finding. The American FDA agency asked companies to recall the drug. Prozac is only one of a large family of similar drugs that seem to have dangerous side effects

Gary Winn

Seen here with Nash and Emmylou in London recently sent a very nice e-mail to Australian supporters. ( Of course he also sent the Dr. Willix article.) He said that, "I had been sick for eight years. I had been bedridden for nine months prior to commencing the programme. My symptoms were continuous and were - headaches, brain fog, enlargement of many lymph glands, muscle pain, joint pain, awful flu-like throbbing of muscles, incredible fatigue, (even by just lying in bed. In fact I struggled to even get out of bed to go to the toilet !) I was advised by my consultant at the hospital - the medical adviser of the British M.E. Association NOT TO COMMENCE THE COURSE. My own G.P. was sceptical. In fact Britain seems to be a nation of sceptics I thought (Not only Britain Gary !!) As there was nothing else anybody could offer me I decided to take my own decision. To-day I feel decidedly well and am back at work, not sleeping during the day, and with many of my symptoms relieved. I am so happy that I did not take the advice of my medical consultants."

Gary said that he had been paying his doctors one hundred pounds an hour for medical research, but all they told him was to give up work and rest.

As Julie, and I'm sure lots of others have said, "How is it that Roy could have found a cure in only ten minutes on the Internet ?" Gary ended with, "My message in summary to anybody out there who is suffering from CFS is to take the plunge, commence this programme and relieve yourself from this unnecessary hell."

Gary is at pains to say that he still has a long way to go on the treatment. He says that he is in no way financially involved with The Petrovic Health Clinic and that 'I will the take my reward from knowing others have also benefited from this treatment.'

I'll never win Tattslotto

When my success in finding Nash on the Internet became known locally a friend approached me reluctantly. She had just recovered from a colon cancer operation and her liver contained many six centimetre wide tumours. She had heard that two people with cancer had gone to Germany and come back cured, or greatly improved. They had given her TWO clues. They were Professor Douwes and BAD AIBLING. "Surely I can't be so lucky again ",I thought. When you look for something on the Internet you use a SEARCH ENGINE. If you use three words like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome a typical response would be for the engine to say that it had found a quarter of a MILLION matches. As you normally can only look at ten matches on the screen at a time you could spend the rest of your life looking at the references.

I was so lucky that Nash's Website was on the THIRD page.

When I entered 'Bad Aibling' there was only ONE reference. It was Klinik St. Georg in Munich. There were about eight pages of coloured photographs and details of the cancer treatment there. They heat the blood to 41 degrees Celsius and use standard chemotherapy. It is SIX times more effective under these conditions. My friend's tumours were reduced from 6cm wide to 3 cm. I'll leave you to guess what the trip to Munich cost her and her husband. In addition to the improvement in her liver they had a wonderful holiday that they would never have had in any other circumstances. When I phoned to ask if I could tell about her experiences she gave permission and said that her liver was now obviously a lot better as she was PUTTING ON WEIGHT The friend has been doing a lot to help herself in the mental battle against cancer. I'm sure that she has used meditation and visual imagery that Ian Gawler taught her at the camps that he runs.

Ian Gawler was an athlete who developed cancer that caused his bones to disintegrate. He changed his diet completely and was able to put the cancer into remission. His life is now devoted to helping other sufferers. He developed the concept of Visual Imagery that seems to be particularly effective. I am trying to develop this point because it seems to Julie and me that, because we are so far from South Africa, the mental side of the treatment becomes critical. The next section also emphasises the importance of preparing the mind for recovery. We have a book called "The Calm Technique ", which teaches a particularly simple and effective form of meditation that I have used myself. It was written by Paul Wilson, published by Greenhouse Publications in Elwood, Victoria. Its ISBN number is 0 090104 87 5. I would be happy to photocopy the relevant pages for anybody wishing to try it.

More on 'The China Cure'

Mercedes drew my attention to the fact that " Elle " magazine had run an article on ' The China Cure '

In response to an enquiry from a prospective Canadian patient, Max gave further information. He said, " A couple of guys from China came to Sydney early this year and didn't have much success treating Alice, whereas since she has been in China she has made great progress. I think that the significant difference is that she gets a lot more treatment time per week than the two in Sydney were able to devote to her. The treatment is a combination of Qigong ( pronounced Chee-goong ) and Chinese herbal medicine. Qigong is a combination of acupuncture-point massage and energy transfer, from practitioner to patient and within the patient's body. There are also exercises and meditation for the patient to do to help them become more receptive to the treatment."

Thanks Max for that explanation.

Emmylou

Tells me that she is taking courses in mathematics and computers, and has started to enjoy a social life at last. From what Nash has told me recently she is obviously very busy organising affairs in England.

Other news

Another lady in England, Sara Edwards, is a member of a fifty strong CFS group. She is taking the protocol. After three weeks she felt so much better that she started to drive her car again - something that she hadn't done for months. She lives quite close to Esther Rantzen. This may be the best chance yet for Emily to find out about the protocol. A CFS conference - is to be held in Sydney in February. I don't know at this stage if Nash and Dr. Smith will be making a contribution.

Linley Frame - The Australian Women's Weekly recently had an article that told that Linley is another top athlete who has become a victim of CFS.

Innocent abroad

If I had known one hundredth of what I know about CFS now, before I wrote the letter, it would never have been written. The most difficult thing to accept is the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This is the way that government subsidises pharmaceutical companies for the costs involved in producing drugs. You will all have seen the big palaver that is being made about patients having to use the cheap generic drug rather than the expensive one with the name that the pharmaceutical companies tend to promote. In addition to the fact that a doctor with a medicare provider number would have to dispense the protocol, there is no way that antioxidants would qualify as drugs under the PBS. They are natural, wholesome ingredients that should be found in food.

Well, how are they ?

The whole point of this newsletter is to let you know how the Australian patients are getting along, without intruding on their privacy. Nash told me that, "In modern medicine 75% therapeutical response CAN be described as a 'CURE' " He is confident that the Australian patients, as a group, have achieved this result.

Great fun !

I am sure that you will realise that producing this newsletter is a LOT of work. What makes it so fulfilling is that I am obviously making great use of my computing hobby. I get a lot of positive feedback asking me to keep up the only good news that is available for CFS sufferers. Being creative is quite a strain and this is another reason that I can't really see myself keeping up a MONTHLY newsletter after May 1998.

Melissa and Kathlyn-Eva

Nash is very proud of his family. Apparently Kathlyn-Eva, shown here at about four and a half months, is a real show stopper. They receive lots of comments from strangers about her while shopping.

I am sure that Kathlyn-Eva's first Christmas will be a memorable one. Here she seems to be enjoying the sight of an exhausted Santa.

Roy and Eileen wish you Peace and Health for 1998 and into the future.