Aimee Jones

Why do we feel sick when we are sick? It is called traditionally called 'sickness behaviour' which like most terminology in chronic illness is problematic as it has little to do with actual "behaviour" beyond the obvious (think about what your dog or cat is like/does when it is sick) and the location in the brain which drives much of these patterns (the brainstem). A much better term for it is "sickness metabolism" It has much more to do with how your body changes its biochemistry to go into 'infection-fighting mode' and what happens when we get STUCK in that mode (like we do in conditions like #MECFS #LongCovid). "The purpose of sickness metabolism is to generate a metabolic environment in which the body is optimally able to fight infection while denying vital nutrients for the replication of pathogens." In some chronic illnesses 'sickness metabolism' stays on indefinitely - while this sounds bad (obviously) it is actually a bigger issue than you might think. This is because it starts a process of MALNUTRITION and mineral and nutrient depletion that then makes getting out of the 'stuck' sickness state incredibly different and starts to affect every bodily system. The way to think about it is this: Say you decide to save/borrow/raise money and pay for HBOT or stem cells or plasmapheresis. It might help and for some it does but for MOST we are probably putting the fancy intervention in before we get all the foundational pieces normalized and optimized and so it is likely to fail (or more probably, work for a while but might be unlikely to take hold). Before we jump into thinking about "disease modifying interventions" we need to deal with basic biochemistry: electrolytes, minerals, nutrition, microbiome. While the BIG 4 foundational fixes (electrolytes, minerals, nutrients, microbiome) will be unlikely to CURE you (in and of themselves) - without getting these right most additional interventions will fail to lead to the outcomes we hope for (IMO). Does this make sense? The immunology of sickness metabolism (2024, link in comments)