Additional Resources for Chronic Illness Sufferers....

Over the past several years, I have done a tremendous amount of additional research into chronic illnesses, their causes and treatments, and new information is coming out every few months.  Although I have personally observed many people with chronic autoimmune-type illnesses reverse their diseases using the antibiotic protocol, and it did work for me for almost 2 years, I am once again struggling with some degree of illness.  For whatever reason, the antibiotic quit working on me.  So I have continued educating myself, and have come across some invaluable information for anyone with chronic illness.  Here is a summary:

First, the more I have read over the years, the more I have become convinced that the many different chronic diseases such as Crohn's, lupus, psoriasis, CFS, MS, RA, etc., are not really so different after all..... I see the symptoms as non-specific alerts that something is interfering with the body's ability to heal and be well, usually the immune system, and how the underlying problem manifests as symptoms--which symptoms an individual develops-- depends on a combination of environmental and genetic factors. 

Conventional Western medicine has primarily used a reductionist approach in its quest for treatments, meaning it has taken common clusters of symptoms and labeled them as "Crohn's" or "RA" or "(insert disease name)", and treated them as if each type of symptom cluster (each "disease"), such as every case of RA for example, were always caused by the same thing, and that underlying cause has not been discovered, and therefore there is no cure.  While reductionism has its place in medicine, I believe it has caused conventional medicine to fail its patients with respect to chronic illnesses. 

The more I research, the more information I come across which strongly suggests that there is no single cause for all cases of RA, or all cases of polymiositis, lupus, or Chron's, etc.  Many autoimmune patients with varying diseases get well when they change their diet or lifestyle in profound ways.  Some RA patients get well when they remove gluten and dairy from their diet or go vegan or organic.  Others get well when they have all their amalgam tooth fillings removed or have mold-generated mycotoxins removed from their environment.  Still others get well after becoming regular meditators and improving their stress management.  And many get well using antibiotics.  Two different people can suffer very different symptoms that are caused by the same underlying problem. 

So I truly believe that a "one size fits all", maximum efficiency approach to diagnosis and treatment does not work for chronic autoimmune diseases. The frustration only increases, though, when one is faced with the daunting task of figuring out exactly what is causing a particular case of disease.  The potential causes identified so far tend to fall into about 4 categories, and a particular person can have more than one of these factors going on at the same time:

• Bacterial or viral infections;
• Chronic stress overload;
• Toxins (especially heavy metal toxins such as mercury in amalgam tooth fillings; but also mold mycotoxins, pesticides, herbicides, plastics, sodium fluoride, benzene)
• Diet (such as gluten, dairy, GMOs, non-organic foods and many more)

There is a fantastic new book called "The Autoimmune Solution" by Dr. Amy Myers which discusses all of these in detail.  I highly recommend this for anyone suffering a chronic illness.  Also, my research on heavy metal toxicity, particularly amalgam tooth fillings (the silver ones most people have), has produced a great deal of evidence they are highly toxic to the immune and central nervous systems.  Dr. Myers discusses this in her book, but I also recommend anyone with chronic illness who has amalgam fillings read an article on the FDA's website by Bernard Windham, "Mercury Exposure Levels from Amalgam Dental Filllings; Documentation of Mechanisms by Which Mercury Causes Over 40 Chronic Health Conditions; Results of Replacement of Amalgam Fillings; and Occupational Effects on Dental Staff."  Here is a link to that article: www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/dailys/02/Sep02/091602/80027dde.pdf.  I have read several articles over the years about the toxicity of amalgam fillings and their role in many chronic or autoimmune diseases, and after reading the Myers and Windham info, I have decided to investigate amalgam as a cause of my own illness.  Because the tests for mercury toxicity are pretty unreliable (in part because most tests are improperly performed), and also because I have a specific genetic mutation (the MTHFR gene) that makes it very difficult for my body to expel mercury on its own, I am taking the more certain route and having my amalgam fillings replaced with composite ones by a biological dentist (one who knows how to remove the mercury safely so that the vapors do not go into your system during removal).  Most regular dentists do not have the equipment or knowledge to do this properly.  Then I will undergo gradual chelation therapy to rid my system of the mercury that has accumulated over the years.  We will see....