Cold baths as a treatment - what happened to that?

[CharlotteV]

Hi Dr Shepherd - About 20 years ago a Professor Vijay Kakkar published a protocol for using cold baths as a therapy for ME in a newspaper. Lots of people were trying it and he had said that he was going to recruit thousands of people (not just with ME, perhaps) for a trial.

I tried it myself and had a brief but spectacular improvement, once I got to the target temperature, that lasted a couple of weeks before I came down with a bug, stopped the treatment until it cleared, and never benefited again, even though I restarted the baths immediately and persisted with them for over a year.

Do you know what became of the trial? Do you know of anyone with ME who had lasting benefit? Do you think it's worth another go, and if so, do you have a record of the protocol?

[Dr Charles Shepherd]

Charlotte

Yes, I am aware of this research and the vast amount of media publicity (yet another 'miracle cure' for ME/CFS) it generated in the Daily Telegraph at the time

I have to say I was never very convinced by the theory and did not start recommending this approach to people with ME/CFS

As far as I know the research was never followed up and it is not something that any of my medical colleagues either use or recommend

We do not have any feedback at the MEA from people who have obtained longlasting benefit or are still using this treatment.

And I do not have a protocol for it

Sorry to be of very limited help here