Thank you for your reply.

I am guilty as charged of thinking that the whole thing is rather stupid. When I discovered that addressing excess acidity was effective in helping me need less medication, I thought this was some major revelation. It turns out it is rather well established in the CF community that CF leads to very extreme excess acidity. Yet it goes largely untreated, in spite of acidosis being a known serious medical problem. Additionally, the salt issue is so well established as an issue for CF that a sweat chloride test is the single most common initial test for CF, yet nothing is really done to address that issue. Both seem very obvious for anyone in the know yet both go largely ignored in treatment modalities.

As for victim card, I've really had the crap kicked out of me for trying to share info. I have no doubt that at this point that negatively impacts the way I come across when discussing the issue. I don't have some magic wand for how to make that go away. I think the ugliest thing said to me publicly was that someone implied that my son was the product of an incestuous relationship. Moderators routinely side with my attackers and act like I have some unreasonable expectation for thinking I should be able to participate in conversation on the same footing as other members where such attacks would not be tolerated. I have left lists over such incidents.

Researchers and doctors have expressed no interest in what I am doing. My doctor's response to my dramatic improvements in health was to schedule me fewer and fewer appointments and express zero curiosity as to how I was doing so much better. For the most part, people on CF lists are also not really interested. Their primary response is to be very defensive and default to accusations that I am a charlatan and a snake oil salesman. I find this personally very difficult to comprehend or deal with. I have CF. Why on earth would make any of this up? People are suffering and dying and begging for a cure. One would think that my testimony about my experiences would be warmly welcomed rather than viciously attacked. I am both baffled and hurt by this consistent response over the past five years.

I didn't get myself well in order to impress anyone. I am willing to help if I am able, but I am not interested in martyring myself. I got well to get my life back, not to find new ways to be tormented by life. If getting my life back is all it accomplishes, that is enough in my book. (I have heard similar stories of health improvement due to diet/lifestyle changes about other people. I am apparently not the only one who made significant changes to diet and lifestyle and saw major improvements. Most people apparently just go on living quietly rather than fight with other people about it, an approach I continue to work on in spite of my big mouth.) The degree to which the CF community plays the victim card and expects other people to pay for their survival and very high on-going medical expenses is something that looks to me like a big part of the problem, both in terms of mental models and logistically.

As for the "excess mucus" theory, I do not buy it. I have seen more than one public discussion about women with CF suffering vaginal dryness, in some cases so severe it ruined their sex life. I see no reason why one set of mucus membranes in the body would work the opposite of the rest for a genetic disorder that impacts all cells in the same manner. One study I ran across indicated that it was not excess mucus clogging up the lungs of people with CF, it was phlegm -- ie infection -- and that, in fact, people with CF produce too little mucus, not too much. This fits with my experience that when my sinuses are too dry, that's when I have more lung issues and sinus issues. I have seen women with CF complain of "goopiness" (vaginally). I see no reason to believe that isn't also a form of drainage from infection, similar to phlegm build up in the lungs. It seems to me if it were mucus, then women with CF shouldn't have any of the difficulties with sex which they report.

I am not claiming that lack of reports of egregious problems is proof positive that it works, much less that it would work equally well for all people with CF. I am claiming that people who have tried some of my suggestions and also reported back have indicated surprisingly good results, often in quite a short period of time (for example, one parent whose teenaged child was supposed to be listed for lung transplant put them on supplements I suggested and in a very short period of time -- something like two weeks -- saw such dramatic improvement in lung function that listing for transplant stopped being a consideration). I am also indicating that while people in the CF community are very critical, often in a very ugly fashion, none of the criticism I have received so far has come from someone who tried my ideas and got sick from it. It seems to come from people who reject all of it out of hand as "too good to be true" without further investigation.

Peace.