I was having inconsistent results with the protocol, many experiences lined up with what was expected or predicted to happen,
I got the weird headache to begin with, it became a problem at times that reminded me to take the sodium benzoate, I got the strong fever within the first few days, experienced changes in symptom profile and energy levels. But it seemed to not last or intensify and I had patterns of ups and downs, a light fever feeling that came maybe once a week then disappeared within 2 days seemingly regardless of if I increased the level of oat bran that I was consuming, say from 1 gram to 2 grams.
This lead me to test different variables, the first was the quality and contents of the supplements, at first reishi and green tea, I noticed pains in my right side after switching to Life Extension mega green tea extract, made into empty capsules ( this allowed EGCG from an unknown, probably low amount, up to 30mg or higher ). I settled with Life Extension brand reishi capsules after various discussions and looked at other products.
One of the things I tried recently was going on a very restrictive diet, of the same sorts of food as I was already on, getting calories below 1500 or maybe 1000 per day, I had a suspicion that this would re-induce the fever and it basically did, but another factor that I decided may have been important, and the only factor that I hadn't considered at length yet was beta glucans. Most likely its effects stack up over time, so just trying to take 2 instead of one, as a once off, might not be a good indicator of any scaling effects. I decided to switch the brand of Lions Mane I was using, because I remembered that it said on the bottle ' 450mg per 3 capsules ', I am now switched to Time ultra lions mane which have 50% beta glucans content. I noticed that fever was induced shortly after switching to these, but still not an intense one. During or following the fever I usually have higher energy levels and feel better aside from certain odd feelings that I recognize as something different to standard ME symptoms.
The other factor I have been observing is diet, when it gets lax and I start to eat more carbohydrates or sugar e.g. one small pizza ( 150g ) I notice that a day or 2 later I feel more rough / less energy, and this seems to disrupt the fever process. Exercise beyond a threshold might also have this interrupting effect ( harder to confirm that ).
48 hours ago I was feeling ok and was quite active in various ways, I decided to test the diet hypothesis, I ate a bread roll, 2 Cadbury Darkmilk chocolate bars ( around 85g each at around 48% sugar content ), then half of a 450g pizza. Almost immediately my cognitive function seemed to be 'jammed' and I later got a headache ( though the headache part could have been due to the high temperatures we've been having, so not a fair test exactly there ). I generally felt all sorts of PEM symptoms heavily come on, which I am still experiencing 48 hours later, and I feel exhausted in general, yesterday I slept halfway through the day for example.