How I Cured My Proctalgia Fugax

Proctalgia Fugax has been written about since the Roman times and appears to be relatively common.

The name is derived from the Latin "'procto', 'algia' means pain and 'fugax' means fleeting. The pain can be excruciating and happens mostly at night. It is painful enough to wake the sufferer. The episode doesn't last very long usually a few minutes, which is fortunate due to the intensity of the pain, and the pain itself can be experienced as a cramp or stabbing pain. Sufferers can experience between around 5 to 20 episodes per year.

I would suggest any pain must be checked out for differential diagnosis by a doctor, but I never had mine checked out. This was because I was scared. In fact it is estimated that only about a fifth of sufferers have their symptoms checked out. Protcalgia Fugax may be affecting up to about 30% of the population presenting in the third or fourth decade.

My Proctalgia Fugax started around the age of 46. At first i only had an occasional episode,

Time passed and at night I began to be awoken by the same cramps, painful anal cramps. They were mild, infrequent may be 2 or three per year and didn't last long, but they were waking me up and I found it hard to go back to sleep again afterwards. The difficulty in going back to sleep was in part due to worrying the pain might return, but also I was increasingly becoming anxious in case something more serious was going on.

I hoped the cramps would just one day go away, in the same mysterious way they had appeared. In fact the opposite happened. They increased.The episodes became more frequent. more painful and lasted longer. I spent many nights walking around the house waiting for he paint to stop.

I just could not bring myself to go to the doctor because I was becoming more and more concerned I might have a diagnosis that I didn't want to hear.

In the event, at the age of 51 I had a breast cancer diagnosis that made me really sit up and pay attention to my body . It was whilst I was trying to sort out my immune system that I realised my Proctalgia Fugax coincidentally had gone away.

Four years after optimising my immune system, I had cause to test my cure, the Proctalgia Fugax returned I had an episode during the daytime because I had compromised my immune system. I now know how to prevent occurrence and to fix an occurrence should it ever happen again. Which I hope it never does.

After my breast cancer diagnosis my mind was very focused on my health. It sometimes takes something serious to happen to really concentrate my mind.

I decided there had to be a difference between the way my immune system was working to that of some of my contemporaries who seemed to be enjoying much better health. What was the difference?

A long term concern of mine had been that I might have had a sub optimally operating thyroid as my general health was slipping. I spent a lot of time and money researching and visiting many eminent doctors who treated my pseudo hypothyroid symptoms. Unfortunately the treatments didn't work.

The reason I know my thyroid supplements were not working was that 1) I did not feel well, and 2) my temperature was low. Another observation was that my numerous tests all came back normal. Apparently there was nothing wrong with me at all. Over a couple of years I began to deteriorate even more.

Fortunately for me, I zoomed in on my temperature. If I could just find a way to fix that first, maybe operating at a 'normal' temperature might offer my immune system a better opportunity to fix things. I couldn't do this on my own.

I searched the internet for anyone who had fixed any idiopathic or chronic illness by fixing their own low body temperature in order to optimise their immune system. Bingo! Steve Richfield, who must be the only Central Metabolic Control System Therapist in the world! I read everything I could find that he had written, which at that time was precious little, in the end I found his contact details and emailed him.

Within a day I started on a supported reset program. A program which helped retrain my brain to enjoy operating at a normal temperature and encourage it to select this temperature as a new and improved operating set point. I reset my daytime temperature from 35.8C or 96.44F to 37C or 98.6F within a two week period. I then spent the next few years ensuring I always cycled around that temperature for as much of the day as possible. Now, my set point is firmly fixed back to 'normal'. If I trash it in extremely cold weather for example, when I go back in my home and warm up it naturally returns to 37C or 98.6F.

After a few months I realised I had not had an episode of Proctalgia Fugax. Could this be coincidental?

I reset my low body temperature in order to optimise my immune system..

I now believe my Proctalgia Fugax occurs as a result of a compromised immune system. If I operate every day at 37C or 98.6F for as much of the day as absolutely possible, as a rule for a minimum of six hours, thus optimising my immune system, then I have no occurrences of Proctalgia Fugax.

Recently I put this to the test. Inadvertently, whilst I was out shopping in extremely cold weather, I noticed my set point crashed. As I walked home which was about a one mile walk in near freezing temperatures, I noticed the telltale pains of Proctalgia Fugax. By the time I was home I was very cold and in great pain.

The difference this time was, that I believed when I got home and my temperature rose I ought to observe my painful anal cramps disappear.

Once in my house, I took my temperature, I was 34.5C or 94.1F. I warmed up, pulled my set point to 37C or 98.6F and, as if by magic my Proctalgia Fugax went away. Could this be coincidence? I think not. I have every confidence that I have cured, and know how to prevent a recurrence of, my Proctalgia Fugax.

Steve Richfield's work has enabled me to understand that the brain can be taught to enjoy an optimally operating immune system underpinned by a temperature set point of 37C or 98.6F. The temperature cycles around these set points during the daytime. During sleep the underpinning temperature is 36.3C or 97.34F.

I may never know if my sub optimally operating immune system was unable to deal with my cancer and so allowed it to grow into a tumour, neither may I ever know whether having optimised my immune system I have any greater chance of survival. What I have noticed is my Proctalgia Fugax has gone as indeed have a few other subset illnesses I had.