A Fibromyalgia Doctor Steps Out
Dr. Dantini on Treating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with Antivirals
Caroline Anderson’s gripping novel “A Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Novel” portrayed a small community’s fight for health (and justice) in the face of a mysterious disorder. When the lead character went searching for answers she stumbled into a shadowy and even, at times, dangerous world of tainted government agencies and big corporations doing what they need to do to ensure their bottom line is met.
Caroline herself has been looking for answers for decades and her fight, fraught with misdiagnosis, confusion and even doctor neglect, has been every bit as tumultuous. Unlike many people with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, however, it does have a happy ending and the reason for that is Doctor Dantini.
Carol’s treating physician, Dr. Dantini, demonstrates how large and diverse the CFS/FM universe is. A Florida physician treating FM and CFS with antivirals since the late 1980’s, with a book “The New Fibromyalgia Remedy” out in 2008, and a website touting the viral causes and treatment of Fibromyalgia (FMS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) – I was kind of astonished I’d never heard of him.
His website states that “He specializes in the treatment of viruses that cause Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” and that “The advantage in diagnosing the viral cause of FMS and CFS leads us to a logical course of treatment based on laboratory diagnostics.”
As he relates in his story, Dr. Dantini had classic gradual onset FMS/CFS. As a board-certified ear nose and throat specialist and surgeon he slowly got more and more tired. First he put a couch in his office so he could take naps. Then he began getting headaches, night sweats and irritable bowel symptoms, and his muscles and joints felt heavy, weak, and painful. The worst for him, though, was the exhaustion. His antiviral treatment and identifying and avoiding food allergies brought him back to full health.
Now he runs an ear nose and throat and FMS/CFS clinic. His treatment protocol consists mostly of antivirals and allergy treatments. His website states his fibromyalgia protocol doesn’t work for everybody but has an 80% ‘success rate’.
Outside of the Box Viral Testing and Treatment For Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Physicians are taught that IgG results have no bearing on whether an infection is active or not. Dr. Dantini, Dr. Lerner, and Dr. Montoya all believe that very high IgG levels in the presence of illness often do reflect an active infection.
Food Allergies – a Hidden Menace?
Hidden, often delayed, allergies to foods have not gotten much attention in the FMS/CFS Community but some doctors are convinced they play a major role not just in CFS but in many other disorders. In his book “The New Fibromyalgia Remedy”, Dr. Dantini states that in his experience, “identifying and removing food allergens can alleviate many chronic degenerative disorders” and related that his arthritic knee that appeared destined for a knee replacement cleared up completely after he removed food allergens from his diet.
In his book On Hope and Healing, Dr. Nathan writes that “many autoimmune diseases have a food allergy component” and that “In my experience, food allergy is one of the most commonly overlooked causes for a wide variety of conditions.”
A Black Science – “Some allergists are clear about how destructive food allergens can be, but they’ve gotten no support or medical research funding in the U.S.” Dr. Dantini said.
It’s a black science because we have by arbitrary definition decided that, in the United States, there is no other allergy to anything you eat other than IgE which means with peanut allergy you get hives or anaphylaxis.
Treating the underlying infection and the allergies they’ve developed allows the immune system to calm down. I asked, “If you treat the underlying infection do you still have to treat these sensitivities or will this over-response to the environment go away?”
He said he treats both but that if you wait long enough it will all go away, (although) it is a long process, and that the fatigue problems will probably disappear first. If, for instance, a person has IBS and CFS – since IBS symptoms are often triggered by food allergies he said the fatigue problems will disappear first and the IBS symptoms will remain for a while.
These disorders are on the increase and no one knows why. I’ve been in practice now for almost 40 years. When I was in practice my training was in large hospitals and we saw a lot of stuff. You had to look long and hard.. maybe you wouldn’t see someone with lupus for months. We thought of them as curiosity diseases…they were an oddity, they aren’t any more?
Dr. Dantini suggested that increased communication and traveling has allowed the viruses that cause these disorders to spread. He also believes the reason outbreaks seem to be rarer now is that the viruses are simply everywhere.