Ashok Gupta

Ashok Gupta is a former ME/CFS patient who claims to have healed himself, and now sells his own program to patients with a variety of chronic illnesses. He also conducts coaching webinairs and workshops.

Qualifications and training
Ashok Gupta graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He was then automatically awarded an honorary MA (Cantab), as all Cambridge University graduates are. After graduating he worked as a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and states he had alternative and complementary health certifications (DHyp PNLP MNCH, Neurolinguistic programming Practitioner and Clinical Hypnotherapist, member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy).

Gupta describes himself as a "chronic illness expert" but holds no medical qualifications or certifications, and as an "expert on stress", and has given a number of media interviews about stress, but does not appear to hold any academic or professional qualifications in psychology or mental health either.

Gupta states he has designed "Revolutionary Neuroplasticity Techniques" based on his "20 plus years of experience and research". He has not completed a research degree, does not have a medical licence, and is not affiliated to any academic institution.

Illness
Gupta states he fell ill with CFS during his time studying Economics in Cambridge; he states he was partying hard, studying hard, feeling pretty stressed out, and not taking care of himself when he contracted "some kind of stomach bug" on a trip to India and developed a host of symptoms that did not improve. Gupta states he found a way to heal his ME/CFS and has been fully well since. Gupta reports being ill with CFS, which he regards as the same as ME, for over three years in the late 1990s.

Research
Ashok Gupta states he has spent over 20 years researching neuroplasticity.

Gupta Program
Gupta published his hypothesis of ME/CFS in 2002, and has sold the Gupta Program, which he describes as a brain training and holistic health course, it has been commercially available since 2007. The Gupta Program was originally called the Gupta Programme and later a variety of different terms have been used to promote it, with Amygdala and Insula Retraining (AIR) being the most recent.

Complaints
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint in 2018.

Notable studies published by others

 * 2020, Mindfulness-Based Program Plus Amygdala and Insula Retraining (MAIR) for the Treatment of Women with Fibro - (Full text)
 * Conflict of interest not declared: Author and investigator Virginia Gasión (Virginia Gasión Royo) had been a Gupta coach since 2014, which means she earns from people doing the Gupta Program, giving a direct final financial conflict of interest.


 * 2012, A mind-body technique for symptoms related to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue - (Full text)
 * The Advertising Standards Authority rejected this as evidence of effectiveness of the Gupta Program.
 * This was open to patients with chronic fatigue syndrome but none completed it. Of the 32 patients randomly assigned to Amygdala and Insula Retraining (AIR) plus standard care, 19% (6 patients) dropped out before starting, 19% (6 patients) did not complete baseline measures but did AIR, 41% (13 patients) did AIR but not the follow-up assessments, 22% (7 patients) did AIR and completed follow-up assessments. Twice as many patients completed standard care, including both assessments - 56% (14 out of 25).

Articles not peer reviewed or from non-academic journals

 * 2010, Can amygdala retraining techniques improve the wellbeing of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome? A clinical audit of subjective outcomes in a small sample - (Full text)
 * The Advertising Standards Authority rejected this as evidence of effectiveness of the Gupta Program.
 * This was not published in an academic journal


 * 2002, Unconscious amygdalar fear conditioning in a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome patients - (Full text)
 * The Medical Hypotheses journal that published this is reported to be the world's most controversial journal, and describes itself as publishing hypotheses that are "radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas" and some "where experimental support is yet fragmentary". It is peer-reviewed.

Clinic location
Previously called Harley Street Stress Solutions, Gupta's clinic is now in Harrow, Middlesex, UK.

Talks and interviews

 * 2021, Conversation With Ashok Gupta, MA (Cantab), MSc: Treating Long-Haul Covid - Dick Benson
 * 2021, The Role of Neuroplasticity in Chronic Illness & Healing - Kara Fitzgerald, Naturopath
 * 2008, Can this man cure ME? Alice Hart-Davis - This is London

Online presence

 * PubMed
 * Twitter
 * Facebook
 * LinkedIn
 * Website
 * YouTube (Gupta Program)
 * Email: info@guptaprogram.com
 * Clinic address: unknown