M.E. is a neurological disease which affects the central nervous system.  There are around 150,000 people with M E in the UK of which some 25,000 are children.  The main symptoms are:

• Extreme flu-like fatigue and malaise, brought on by minimal activity
• Varying degrees of muscle, head and joint pain
• Cognitive difficulties and mood fluctuations
• Inability to cope with normal stress levels
• Sleep and digestive disturbance
• Food and chemical sensitivities
  (Action for M.E.)

I am a qualified Aromatherapist and I have been treating a client with M E for over a year now.  She has managed to go back to playing tennis twice a week and is also attending an exercise class once a week.  This is the first winter in nearly 12 years that she has not had a serious relapse.

Why?

During my studies, I noticed that many imbalance symptoms of the autonomic system are very similar to the symptoms of M.E.

The autonomic nervous system is involved, amongst other things, with glandular secretion where the hormones are created.  Hormones govern a wide range of bodily activities from metabolism to reproduction and control of immune responses. The autonomic system is divided into the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system.  Generally speaking the sympathetic nervous system governs the “fight or flight” response and the parasympathetic system governs the rest and relax response.  People suffering with M E seem to have an imbalance between these systems which results in many of the symptoms listed above.  For example if you are given a shock (someone comes up behind you and shouts “Boo”), your heart rate increases and adrenalin is released into your blood.  In a normal person the heart rate will quickly normalise and the adrenals will turn off the adrenalin  (It’s the rush of adrenalin which will make you be able to run away quickly if necessary).  In an M E sufferer the heart will take longer to stabilise and the adrenalin system may continue to drain, resulting in exhaustion.

Therapeutic massage balances the autonomic nervous system.  Aromatherapy oils have very specific characteristics which can help conditions such as stress, depression, aches and pains, sleep and digestive problems, as well as M E.

Therefore, it seemed to me that a course of aromatherapy massage was worth trying just to see if it would help.  The very least it could do was make my client relax and smell nice!

The other discovery I made was that my client often had muscular pain at the nape of the neck on the left-hand side. The autonomic nervous system emanates from the nerve plexuses (bundles) at the top of the spine on the left-hand side (just at the nape of the neck).  Pain and inflammation here showed that the autonomic system was not working well. The resulting tension caused headaches, especially over the eyes and around the forehead.

My client also had great difficulty in listening to her body.  She would just keep going, letting mind rule over matter.  The massage has taught her to listen to her body and take note – to stop and rest when necessary; to eat good healthy food regularly and to keep well hydrated and topped up with minerals and electrolytes when exercising.

I am very interested in trying these techniques on other M E sufferers, please contact me.  I work in the Reading/Newbury area of Berkshire.