Talk about survivor’s remorse. To this day, I still can’t come to terms with a world in which Jarret and Dan are cut down in their prime, while I continue on. That will never make sense to me. Not now. Not ever. It’s not worth concealing either. I feel guilt that I’m here and they’re not. It just doesn’t seem fair. But, as I’ve been so often reminded, this life isn’t fair.
The fact that we believe there is something called fairness or justice and that we recognize this isn’t that thing we call fair or just, I think that bodes well for humanity. We shall keep at it, hopefully getting closer with each infinitesimal act of goodness and mercy. Al-Anbar Sniper, if you’re reading this, I forgive you for killing my best friend. Your life probably hasn’t been that fair either.
After several years of severe ME/CFS, Kyle’s body began breaking down more rapidly. (Ken Anbender – Face Spread on Bread)
My body finally started giving way to the unrelenting nature of the illness. It had proven exceptionally resilient for the first 2.5 years. That was one of the things that led most clinicians to pass me off as a “head case.” But, there came a point in time that I looked almost as sick as I truly was. I had lost 50-60 pounds.
It is hard for me to know for sure just how much because the last time I was weighed, it was so devastating that I didn’t ever want to look again. No matter what I did, I kept losing weight. My muscles started tearing from simple things, necessary things like sitting down on the commode. We all knew that at this rate, I didn’t have too much longer to go. The answer for what ails you is always more tests.
I was loaded back into the chariot like a wounded animal and carried to a research hospital where they could prod at me a bit. They wanted to do a biopsy on my stomach while I was there, so they began prepping me. My blood pressure wasn’t high enough for them to use anesthesia, so they asked me to try and cooperate. “Do you think you can do that, Mr. McNease?”
Hey, they got my name right, so the least I can do is assist them in this procedure. As they were wheeling me into the exam room, I could hear one of the doctors saying, “His BP (blood pressure) is low. His O2 (oxygen) is low.” “Well, can we give him more oxygen?” asked the physician responsible for the procedure. “Well, we’re really not supposed to, but what’s a few more liters amongst friends?”
Then, someone puts a clipboard on my chest and says, “Mr. McNease, please sign this form.” “What does it say?” I questioned aloud. Mind you, I had wires coming out of me, lines going in me, and was wearing a mask.
“It says that if we puncture something in the procedure, we can try to correct it.”
“What? What can you do if you puncture something—not in the procedure but in me?” I asked with increased anxiety. “
Well, we could operate on you.” With this bunch, I wasn’t feeling very confident about the outcome. What choice did I have though? If I would have been able to run or walk or even wheel myself around, I would have tried to escape from that place.
Before the procedure began, they took me to the restroom and left me in there by myself for a few minutes. It felt like an episode of Prison Break but for the disabled. I desperately wanted to tunnel out of that room. I wanted to get out of this nightmare. I actually reached over and pulled at the mirror. It was attached to the back of the exit door but wasn’t part of it. So, even with an amazing feat of strength, even if I had torn that mirror off of the door, I would’ve had to chisel my way out. I was missing both crucial elements for an escape of that nature: I had neither the time nor the chisel.
They took me in and rolled me onto the operating table. “Mr. McNease, please open your mouth as wide as you can. Whatever you do, don’t swallow!” I did as I was instructed. Then the doctor says, “Mr. McNease, I’m just going to have to do this with you awake. I will try to be as quick as I can, but if you’re not going to be under, we need you to help us. Prop on your left elbow.”
He began shoving this big black hose down my throat. Of course I was gagging on the thing and they told me, “just relax and breathe through your nose.” Lucky for me, my idea of relaxation happens to be choking on a huge hose while people cut pieces of my stomach and duodenum out. As if it weren’t uncomfortable enough, out of the corner of my eye, I could also see my insides on a monitor. I can empirically say that I am not one of the folks you hear about that are beautiful on the inside!
It was too much for my feeble brain to take in. Just in case you were keeping score, I got way worse in the weeks following that debacle. My stomach burned so much that even the thought of food made me sick. I existed off of bouillon and a few scattered sips of Diet IBC Root Beer.
It all felt like it was winding to a close. The clock was counting down for me, counting down on me. My family was so good at trying to keep me encouraged. They had all these awards hanging in my room. One day, a plaque came in the mail stating that I was voted the top undergraduate student in my discipline. I wasn’t even a student. I had been withdrawn from the university, indefinitely.
I scowled when I saw the thing. I had been so foolish for thinking that accolades or money or power or prestige matter. They don’t. At best, they are distractions or illusions. How did I not know that most of the things I had been living for were a sham? Why hadn’t anyone told me that when I looked back over my life, the only things that would matter were the relationships, the people I loved so much and what happens next.
The ultimate epistemic question was staring me in the face, and I didn’t have an answer. Heck, I didn’t even understand the terms of the question. What does forever mean? What does extinction mean? What is not existing like? Please don’t insult me by saying it’s like going to sleep because it isn’t. Dying is not like going to sleep because if it were, none of us would ever go to sleep! And, if we did go to sleep, we wouldn’t wake up. The whole idea with sleep is that you enter into its cycles and reemerge with a rejuvenated body. No, when you don’t have a lot of time, you can’t endure childish answers. Death is serious, while naps are not.
You can quote me on this: dying feels epic. Should’ve given you a spoiler alert, I know.
An innovative doctor took a second look at Kyle’s tests, ordered some more tests – and figured out what had happened. (Ken Anbender – Garden’s of Sushi)
It is difficult to maintain agnosticism during that period of life, or at least it was for me. So much is riding on it. “All’s well that ends well.” I wanted to end well, but couldn’t wrap my head or heart around nihilism. I know many detractors say that belief in an afterlife is tantamount to wishful thinking. Perhaps that is true. But, I don’t see how that is truly a problem? I mean I wished that my wife would say yes when I proposed to her. She did. Wishing something to be true doesn’t automatically disqualify it from being true. This life reads too much like a Dostoevsky novel. For good or ill, I think there is a mind behind it. Whoever you are, if you’re reading this, please help me write a few great chapters before I leave this place.
Fortunately for me, I was granted a stay, something like clemency during my waning hours. This one hard-headed doctor out in Colorado said, “I think I know what’s wrong with you.” Of course he did. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men” hadn’t been able to put me back together again, but some toxicologist out in Colorado could?
He ordered more tests, but when they came back, he interpreted them differently than most. He saw something that no one else had. He ordered more tests to confirm his suspicion. When I received the results, I was dumbfounded.
His office informed me that I was suffering from heavy metal poisoning. A guy once asked me, in all sincerity, if that was from listening to “too much rock music.” Not quite. Not even close. Some of my numbers were through the roof, no (future) pun intended.
A few weeks before I got sick, I had been doing exterior work on an old farmhouse that my brother and his wife purchased. I was on Christmas break and thought I’d enjoy doing the work and spending time out in the crisp winter air. We did not know that the siding was made of asbestos and the paint was laced with heavy metals.
I breathed in those particulates, and my body stored them in my tissues so that I wouldn’t die. The heavy metals bind to human hormones, bind to immune cells, damage the brain, and cause unbelievable pain. The heavy metals that I ingested were responsible for breaking down all of my defenses, which is why I got that poignantly named “perfect storm of illness.”
Heavy metal poisoning answered a vital question: How’d this all happen so suddenly? Also, a diagnosis like heavy metal poisoning offered at least modest forms of treatment. I was successfully treated with a chelating agent that binds to the metals and allows them to be excreted from the body.
What no one bothered to tell us when I first began treatment was that detoxification equals re-intoxication. When the heavy metals were leeched from my tissues, they re-entered my blood. There are about two weeks of my life that are a blur of semi-consciousness. I would wake, look around, maybe drink or eat something, then pass back out. I slept for nearly 24 hours a day.
My parents and I thought I was getting worse, but we were assured that the sleeping was a good thing. It meant my body was trying to heal. Heal I did. In a few weeks, I actually felt like trying to live again. It goes without saying that I had to rehabilitate my body. You never realize how strong gravity is until you feel it pressing down on you. For 3.5 years, I had existed in a state of almost zero gravity. Now I had to learn how to do everything over again.
Kyle’s heavy metal poisoning opened the door to numerous other issues including viral and bacterial infections. (Ken Anbender – Tracking Snipes Over Calisto)
My body had fought unbelievable odds to give me the chance to start back at the beginning. Even Derrida wouldn’t recommend this kind of deconstruction. At some point the question does become: How do you reconstruct a life that wasn’t supposed to be?
Keep in mind, right up until the heavy metal diagnosis, it looked like curtains. I remember looking up at my primary physician and just fishing for hope: “What is your best prognosis for me doctor?” He thought for a minute and said, “I hope that one day you will be well enough to drive yourself to your doctors’ appointments.”
That wasn’t the kind of news I was looking for, but it was light years beyond where I was at the time. I guess what I’m learning is that rebuilding my life is tedious work—brick by brick, line upon line, precept upon precept. It can also be extremely frustrating.
There are parts of myself that I will never get back, and I know it but still strive to recover those fragments—more casualties of war. There is this world inside of me that I can’t seem to tap back into. Every morning is a searching. I know in those first 30 seconds what kind of day it will be and what version of me will show up.
The problem for me now is not something I was aware of back in the early days. Sure, we treated the heavy metal poisoning, and I continue to take medication for that. But, the damage that was done to my immune system and brain, that may be irremediable.
For years, viruses and bacteria attacked my body like marauding bandits. Unchecked, they stole and wreaked havoc. Today, I try to compensate for the lasting effects. I have to wear special red lenses in my eyes to reduce my sensitivity to minute pulses of light that go unnoticed by most people. I go and get I.V. infusions to boost my immunity, but I still stay sick. It’s an ongoing struggle to see who will win each day: the good cells or the invaders?
Recently, I was lying in the hospital—an all-too-familiar scene—and my wife brought my school books to me, per my request of course. The doctor walked in and said, “You can’t live like this. You’ve got to find a way to rest.” Can’t live like this? This is the best I can do! You should’ve seen me before.
To keep the body going, I take supplements innumerable. I have a cocktail of drugs that try to manipulate my body into some form of homeostasis. I have shots that must be plunged into my thighs; gels that have to be rubbed into my skin. Even with this maintenance, it’s all so unsure. I do all of my work in bursts of binging because I never know if I will be able to continue it the next day. I exist in this invisible energy envelope that can’t be violated but often is, because it is contingent upon a shifting matrix of variables.
Kyle may never fully recover from his heavy metal poisoning but his journey through the abyss – which he barely survived – embedded in him how precious every moment can be. (Ken Anbender – Our Lady of Mass Destruction)
Reading is one of the most challenging tasks that I do each day. I used to be able to read entire books in one sitting, but no longer. It takes a great deal of mental concentration and uses a substantial amount of my energy. I know, I know…picked the wrong profession then. Well, I said it was challenging. All of it is. Existing is. Add to reading the effort of actually going to class, trying to pass as a self “like everyone else” and being around contagious students (who think nothing of their temperature in the same way that I didn’t when I was an undergraduate), and it gets more complicated.
So, what are my options? Sit around and stew in this neuro- immune disease that was instigated by heavy metal poisoning? Sit around and struggle to read and maybe enlighten myself to the point that I can share some of it with others? Sure, I’d rather not suffer at all, but that doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards, at least not yet.
So, if I am going to suffer anyway, why not try to do a little good with the little time I have here. It is precious. It is fleeting, that much I know. Sometimes I just want to break the silence and ask people why they aren’t living with more urgency. Whatever you’re going to do, you had better do it now while you have the light of life. It won’t always be with you. You won’t always be with us.
Beauty in youth
Youth in beauty
Then all fades…
- Kyle Mc Nease is married and has two children. He is a professor at Florida State University. In the next part of his story we’ll dig more deeply into Kyle’s surprising diagnosis, the treatments that helped him, and his continuing journey to improve his health.
Kyle McNease – The Suffering of One is the Suffering of All – An ME/CFS Narrative
- Pt I: REELing
- Pt. II: Eros Lost, Absurdity and A Love Song
- Pt III: “Didn’t Life Know I Had Plans?”
- Pt IV: “Didn’t Life Know We Had So Many Plans?”
- Pt. V: Remorseful Survivor – Kyle Finds An Answer
Ken Anbender’s Art
References
Bormann, E. (1972). Fantasy and rhetorical vision the rhetorical criticism of social reality.
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 58(4), 396-407.
Bukowski, C. (1990). Septuagenarian stew: Stories & poems. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press. Burger, N. (Director). (2011). Limitless [Motion Picture]. United States: Relativity Media. Douglass, F. (2005). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Retrieved
from http://antislavery.eserver.org/narratives/narrativeofthelife/narrativeofthelife.pdf Eliot, T.S. (1998). The wasteland, Prufrock and other poems. New York: Dover Publications. Emerson, R. W. (1890). Essays: First series. New York: United States Book Co.
Forster, E. M. (1924). A passage to India. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. Frost, R. (1915). North of Boston. New York: H. Holt and Company.
Plato, & Waterfield, R. (2008). Gorgias. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sartre, J.-P. (1987). Existentialism and human emotions. New York: Philosophical Library. X, M., & Haley, A. (1990). The autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Balla
Didn’t Ron Davis find higher than normal levels of certain metals in the severely ill patient study?
Yes he did – he found higher levels of mercury and even uranium in a significant subset of the severely ill plus lower levels of selenium. The low selenium could open the door to heavy metal toxicity. He’s pursuing a grant to check this out further.
Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome with other metals is seen in countless
patients now with skin testing even cobalt, stainless steel & others…
I have FM, not CFS, but sharing experiences online on sites like this, it is clear that so many of us with chronic syndromes like these have one or more toxic elements in excess. In my case it was cadmium, followed by lead.
It was Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis that revealed this for me. The horrible reality with cadmium poisoning, is that it saturates the renal system first before it starts to show up in any testing.
There are numerous potential “triggers”, and all of us seem to have had more than one of them at the time we got unwell. I had the cadmium poisoning (unknown at the time), a giardia infection, an operation for a varicose vein, and chronic stress.
Mainstream doctors were useless. They order cheap blood tests, say there is nothing wrong, and tell you to go away. It was years before an Osteopath told me I had Fibromyalgia – and my doctor confirmed this when I went back to him. It was a pharmacist who ordered the HTMA for me.
Mainstream medicine is skeptical about HTMA, but their tests did not reveal the cadmium poisoning. Their tests also said “electrolytes normal” when my life was being even further ruined by nocturnal cramp attacks that were agonizing and prolonged. HTMA showed very depleted magnesium.
Taking the right antagonistic elements, like sulphur, I have been mobilizing the cadmium out of my system for years; it keeps “spiking” in the HTMA, consistent with the hypothesis that reservoirs of it have to be dislodged and then only slowly excreted out. I believe these “spikes” also coincide with successful mobilization for the first time, of lumpy masses of adhered muscle fascia, particularly in deep core muscles; at the same time, I get a flare-up of pain down my legs; I beleive the dislodged toxins (of which cadmium is only one) seep downwards.
I just slowly improve and improve; life gets easier and easier as movement gets easier and easier. In Fibromyalgia, I believe the problem is adhesions in muscle fascia that limit movement and create “drag” in the movement that is still possible. Starlanyl suggests that the effect can be as much as “trebled” amount of effort required for a given movement. This is why FM is sometimes confused with CFS; people with FM just are truly fatigued from having to over-exert to move at all. CFS is some other disruption in “energy flows”.
It’s been an epic read so far Kyle and tough to read of your many challenges. I’m so glad you found a root cause to explain your horrible experiences. As an MD myself, it still took 7 years of searching for answers before it was found that toxicity of epic proportions from many types of chemicals, including heavy metals, were behind my crazy symptoms and decline. Toxicity just isn’t on 99% of physicians’ radar as possible causes which really needs to change. I got exactly 30 minutes lecture in med school on toxicity and it only focused on a very short term acute exposure of a pesticide. It’s never in mainstream conferences and rarely in medical journals. This really needs to change. Good luck with the rest of your recovery
I agree. it seems to be taboo. The fact that nobody in the mainstream even considers mercury is wild. Dr. Cheney diagnosed mercury toxicity in me when my hair levels – given that I’d had my mercury fillings out – were higher than expected (but still well within the norms.)
I stopped eating fish and my numbness, my arms and feet falling asleep and other symptoms like just disappeared! I vividly remember a little wave of relaxation flowing over me when a dentist removed the remains of a mercury filling beneath a crown.
Something is going on with me and mercury. I don’t know how important it is – but something is going on….
Do you know where your toxic exposure came from?
So, is he going to say exactly what was found or how he is being treated now? Ranges of results & what were the extended tests the Toxicologist did on him?
My first experience of ME-like symptoms was aged 15 (early 1968) with acute onset – got up one morning and my legs were like concrete blocks, almost completely paralysed, strange physical sensations in head/brain. In the following days/ weeks, constant wooziness, intermittent sense of unreality visually, slowed comprehension, loss of ‘flow’ in verbal expression, and the beginnings of decades of OI and fluctuating cognitive confusion/ fogginess.
For several weeks prior to this, I’d had daily exposure to a huge new carpet impregnated with pesticide ‘for mothproofing’. It stank, and always made me feel woozy being in that room.
Around that time I was very excited because I’d just moved to London, with new house, friends, new school, etc; also quite nervous, but determined I was going to have a great time in ‘swinging London’.
I mention this because I’ve read that stress can make the blood-brain barrier more permeable; elsewhere I’ve learnt that physiologically, ‘stress’ can include ‘good/ happy/stimulated” experiences, as well as negative ones – ie being extremely ‘up’ and buzzing with nervous energy could perhaps have the same effect as bad stress re weakened b-b-barrier. (Also, IIRC, children’s and adolescent’s b-b-barriers are more permeable than adults’.)
I think it’s remarkable how often people’s ME stories begin while they’re having the best time of their life – travelling, getting married, running a business, going away to university and many other sorts of exciting adventures and positive life changes. In those new situations, our bodies may be being exposed to new physiological challenges – like vaccines for travel, new paint and building chemicals like glues etc in new homes, or moulds, or (in my case) pesticides, or new infectious agents in foreign countries our immune systems may be fighting off, etc – all or most going unnoticed by us because we’re not aware they can harm us seriously. Not sure if/where heavy metal etc exposures fit in here…
But, anyway, could a weakened b-b-barrier, resulting from ‘positive’ life situations as well as viral, toxic/ chemical, surgical, workload, emotional trauma and all those other kinds of ‘negative’ stressors people cite as the initial triggers for their ME, allow toxins into our brains from where they can begin do all kinds of damage, triggering the ME ‘cascade’ of symptoms/ interrelated disrupted body systems?
Hi Elizabeth,
“But, anyway, could a weakened b-b-barrier, resulting from ‘positive’ life situations as well as”
Both strong positive and negative emotions do cost massive amounts of energy.
Often it is said negative emotions do cost energy and positives give energy. I disagree. Strong emotions do cause strong signals flowing trough the brain and activate plenty of brain regions. That costs plenty of blood flow, energy, oxygen…
Negative emotions have a higher risk to be self-reinforcing then positive ones. Few people describe being very happy for a time and end up in a spiral of getting ever and ever happier till they become permanently manic (which is a bad situation in itself, manic is part of the disease called manic depression where people fluctuate between being very depressed and driving at full speed through stoplights as they believe their bodies are made of steel).
That’s the bad part of negative emotions. The good part is that negative emotions inhibit energy use (by the rest of the body excluding the emotional part of the brain). When people get depressed they do very little. That reserves their energy for healing. Most healing processes cost plenty of energy too.
The good part of positive emotions is that it rarely spins out of control. The bad news is that it stimulates energizing hormones. Hence the saying that positive emotions create energy. But those hormones (or more precisely the act of doing more) in a sense “borrow” energy from the future. Doing more creates more metabolic waste that piles up and processing and removing that does cost energy.
When people thrive too much on these positive emotions and according hormones, they often do too much for too long time. And on top of that these strong emotions cause the entire brain to be activated “to live and enjoy” these emotions. But that costs plenty of energy too. So thriving too long on positive emotions has a strong risk to deplete the energy reserves of the body, postpone needed rest and hence leave too few energy for the daily needed and essential healing processes. When that coincides with a strong assault like being exposed for days to a strong toxic chemical, defenses are completely down allowing the assault to amplify its devastating effects.
The lack of reserve energy after strong emotions, few rest and increased activities is significant (and more energy is needed to clean up increased metabolic waste due to over-exertion) and creates plenty of ROS but few anti-oxidants. That’ll weaken any cell membrane in the entire body including the BBB.
To give a simple example, I had a time when the simple “act” of feeling “moderately intensely” happy caused a massive pain flare up in 5 to 15 minutes. It wasn’t psychological at all. It was at a time I already had this nasty disease. I simply couldn’t spare the energy needed to feel plain happy without even being really excited. The energy I “wasted” that way was spent at the cost of having not enough energy left to defend my cells against the massive amounts of ROS running in my body due to ME and acted that quick that my nerves indicated a strongly increased state of alarm in the form of pain, trying to make it clear to me I had to back down. That was what happened I believe.
So yes, living in a period of strong “positive” excitement with “positive” emotions and plenty of changes in life pattern (messing with rest, efficiency of routines…) plus exposure to plenty of new chemicals, pathogens… can be harsh on the body.
How did you overcome this? Have you recovered? I am suffering from the same thing. But mine is after the gardasil vaccine. Been suffering for 4 years.
Sorry, but after following & reading his Book long blog I am not convinced at all on the diagnosis he has reached nor do I believe the Toxicologist he was seen by it is all
the exact same thing I see on floxie patients they claim recovered & they are not recovered. Had I known this was not in any way a Recovery I would not have wasted
my time reading this long overwhelming blog at all. Very disappointed. I even had thought we were reading a Recovery from the herpes medicines from the Alabama
Ortho Surgeon with antivirals…I do not believe he still has been properly diagnosed that is certain after reading this…Sounds exactly like the desperate Floxies who are still Sick & not fully recovered at all…
Well, your expectations were not met! We probably have to get used to that. I think we’re going to see much more of that over time. I never in my wildest dreams expected that Jen Brea would have craniocervical instability. That’s still not a diagnosis I would ever want to have.
Instead of thinking your time wasted because Kyle’s illness was not triggered the way you thought it would be – you might think – hmm… heavy metals – I didn’t know they could result in massive viral reactivation and fungal attack and orthostatic intolerance and adrenal exhaustion! I didn’t think a single, seemingly innocent exposure could trigger something like that.
I didn’t know heavy metals were another viable pathway into this illness – a pathway which few doctors even consider but clearly should. I find that VERY interesting!
I wouldn’t be surprised if you could count the number of doctors who could have properly diagnosed Kyle on the fingers of one hand. (You’ll see why in the next blog.)
In any case let’s be clear – Kyle was losing weight fast, was at the point where he was contemplating his own death, and probably would have died had things had continued the way they were going.
Now he has a wife and two kids and works full-time as a University professor. Whether he’s well or not I would say that counts as a remarkable recovery.
Yes! Yes!!!
Very well said Cort!!
Anthony William talks a lot about heavy metals and their role in CFS. According to Anthony………heavy metals provide fuel for the viruses.
Not knocking the article just that I thought from reading it he was fully recovered & I do not see this at all it is the same on the Floxie Group they say fully recovered but when one reads all the so-called recoveries they
are not in any way Recovered which is very frustrating to many sick now & searching for answers…It is not you Cort, I know you are trying to get the info I thought we were reading something major as a possible
treatment…Open Medicine just now put something out on the Nails in the hands’, something there they have found
I strongly believe mold is a huge driver of my illness but there are so many other factors I don’t think it caused my condition. I think it’s much more complicated than that. I suspect that is the case with the person in this article. His condition is much more complicated than a simple one time heavy metal exposure.
I strongly suspect the type of diagnosis you get depends a lot on the type of “specialist” you see
I am always skeptical of recovery stories.
There are just so many shades of gray. I am vastly better than I was 22 years ago when I was living in a moldy house but nowhere near what I would call “cured”
Although if he is maintaining a full time job that would full-fill my expectation as to what indicates a “recovery”.
Then you have to ask was he sick the way I am, like so many others are. Because while there are shades of gray, there just doesn’t seem to be a “cure” for 99.9% of us.
I think Kyle’s story amply demonstrates how some sort physiologically traumatic event – whether it’s exposure to heavy metals, or an infection or or something else – can open the door to so many other things.
Kyle’s trigger was heavy metal poisoning – but his issues ended up being so much more complicated than that.
Genetics must play a role and who knows what else. The only thing I can think regarding myself was a case of giardiasis a couple of years before I got ill….Did that somehow set the stage? It’s such a mystery but Kyle’s story demonstrates that the damage once done -can spread. Its amazing that a single exposure like that could turn such a strapping young man into a skeletal memory of himself.
The thought came to mind that if only we could slowly, carefully dissect Kyle (sorry Kyle!) we would learn so much 🙂 🙂 :). I guess the same is true for me but I think we would learn more from Kyle (and I would prefer Kyle :))
“The thought came to mind that if only we could slowly, carefully dissect Kyle (sorry Kyle!) we would learn so much ? ? :).
(and I would prefer Kyle :))”
I wouldn’t repeat that thought too much if I were you. Identical twins with one having ME and the other not make better dissection subjects :-).
What I learned first and foremost from this episode of Kyle’s story is that his body inhibited an overwhelming acute danger. It did so and doing so saved him.
Having these very strong reaction to the tiny amounts of heavy metals that past trough his blood flow when taking his drugs indicates how bad it could have been if not a few percent but most of it would have run free in his body.
So his body exchanged a realistic chance of death within days for years of near full and agonizing inhibition. Probably by storing the heavy metal toxins in some sort of fat and maybe further encapsulating it in purposefully build tissue that hindered his normal functioning. Maybe his body even reduced the blood flow to both the parts of his body were it dug away the toxins and the brain in order to prevent toxins to be carried away from these storage places to his brain.
Now that I CERTAINLY wouldn’t call a waste of my time reading it.
Thanks Dr. Naviaux and Ron Davis for giving us the Dauer / inhibition hypothesis! Thanks Kyle for embedding a clear example of how it could work in such a beautifully written story!
Still surprised a single exposure to heavy metal and asbestos could wreak that much havoc but even more so this type of damage. But heavy metals can create massive ROS and massive ROS can create the described symptoms and vicious circle IMO. But still surprised.
talking about being dissected; since dr’s cant seem to figure out what is wrong with me except ‘fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, I am going to donate my body to science…anyone here know of good place to donate; I don’t want to have to worry about any funeral costs at all
Good idea!
If you’re in the UK there is a place – I think Invest in ME has done that.
Dr. Montoya at Stanford reportedly recently created a Brain and Tissue bank there – I don’t know the status of it, though.
I had mercury poisoning as a child (I suspect a teething powder made in Australia was to blame.) I’ve read that you could use it on all your children and only the hyper sensitive one would get sick. They called it Pink Disease, as the digits would turn pink.
So, now that I’m 63, and have minimal insurance coverage, is it worth it to get my mercury fillings removed? That won’t undo the damage done, will it?
I had mine removed and it did complete my cure. BUT they were removed very carefully and this is essential or the removal will expose you to more murcury via the vapor created by the removal.Drilling murcury will quickly create murchury vapor
The original problem was a chip of murcury that had fallen into a hole made by tooth removal and fused to the bone. It caused merriment because it glowed on Xrays but no dentits ever suggested excision to remove it.
It was an oral pathologist who identified murcury toxicity through her miroscope when I was being biopsied to see if the
amnormalities’ in my mouth were cancerous. I expected my mouth to feel better but actually my ME receded almost immediately.
Here are the precautions used in my case:
1. an environmentaly aware dentist followed the direction of a natropath using muscle testing recommended the order of removal and the time intervals invovled. Ie not all at once or you will get a masive blast of murcury vapor, also a mouth full of metal in the slightly acid environment of the mouth sets up small electric currents between the fillings just like a battery. They tested the currents they were generating to find out which ones to remove first.
2. I had damp pads put over my eyes and a covering mask – to keep the eye tissue out of contact from the murcury gas given off.
3. I had a double dental dam in place across the inside of my mouth to ensure I did not ingest chips as they drilled. This meant I could not breath through my mouth
4.I had oxygen and air blown into my nostrils to ensure I was not breathing murcury vapor – and so did the dentist as he peered over me! he didn’t want exposure either.
5 I had detox chelation medicine prescribed afer wards but I was acutely senstive with hives, respitatory distress etc so did not continue with it. and anyway I got good results almost straight away.
BUT I GOT RESULTS AND ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER STUFF LIKE CLEAN LIVING, DIET ETC ETC I DO NOW CONSDIER MYSELF CURED. I am quite a vigorious 75 year old who really likes riding her bike with a grandchild in the dicky seat shouting Lee Hi woopy ( the gradchild I mean – only very occassionally the gran)
PS
There is a toxin free dental hospital in Switzerland which specalises in removal, a friend of mine is about to go there she has multiple metal sensitivities causing her ME and will be operated there for removal of her root canals etc. i will post the contact if it is useful
PS i forgot to mention that I had before dental removal developed nickle allergy and stainless steel allergy, whch makde a metal watch strp and earling look like my skin was moldy. I had to stopp al skin l contact with metals until after treatment I had to discard stainless saucpans etc I just use pottery or glass for food storage.
and also allergy to chorine in teated water.
but chlorine goes into water as a as and will come out as a gas if you stand yur jug of water in the air for 4 or so hours.
Hope this helps somebody metal toxicity is so wierd while or have it.
get them out… go on the andy cutler protocol and heal
I’ve got a thought. How about we have a mthly blog on what ‘helps’ with FM/CFS.
Like what supplements people have found most helpful to these conditions. What works for people. I’ve yet to find a place on the internet where these things are compiled so others can use them. We need info on things that have relieved pain, made for better sleep, and things that have brought people energy. I would really like to see something like that instead of ads, etc. Bring it on!
Yes, if possible I would like it to. Although, we are all so different, so do not know if it helps.
When I got the horrible diagnosis of CFID’s and FM I was 40 years old and I went through a five-year search of this disease which meant I investigated all the medical research that was out at the time including all books and medical journals that I ordered. I went to Dr. Teitlebaum as well as called various researchers in the field at the time. I continued my quest to find help and read tons of books in alternative medicine as well as anything I thought might prove helpful. I finally asked my primary doctor if I could be tested for heavy metal poisoning which he thought was the most neurotic thing I could do but he complied. He couldn’t believe the results…I was heavily poisoned by aluminum, cadmium, aresenic and bismuth. I was retested and I found that the only people doing this test was two labs in the country at that time. However, the results were the same. However, even though I did get my fillings removed as well as chelated for the aluminum which did. The chelating phsycian found it very odd as he generally only was helped those with heart problems and didn’t know if EDTA would chelate aluminum I told him my reserach told me otherwise. It did work but I have eto admit it did nothing to really help me other than bring down that one toxic metal. I am left with the others and no one has offered to help me with the toxicity. I am not sure if there is a way to get those metals out so I was interested in this particular case although the metals are different than mine. I have no clue other than a genetic link to my mother’s sister who had early-onset Alzheimers and I know she wrote to let me know of her past history with being sensitive to various heavy metals and chemicals as she had been a chemistry and biology teacher before she became ill. I have wondered about that as well but crossing my fingers I don’t have to face that problem as well now that I will be seventy this year. I would love to know more about how heavy metals are treated and who one would go to as well as anything you could share although you are quite right there is limited training I know about physicians treating my illness as I already have faced most doctors declining to want to take me on as a patient….of course we know that most rheumatologists most decline. I also have suffered with multiple autoimmune illness including recently finding brain lesions that were old suggesting MS diagnosis. I don’t have the heart to seek treatment for that as thank god most of the symptoms of that are not so often but who knows how much fatigue is associated with all these problems. I am always tired these days. I just would like to know more about those with CFID and heavy metals.
“I am not sure if there is a way to get those metals out so I was interested in this particular case although the metals are different than mine.”
Let me start by saying that THE FOLLOWING IS ABSOLUTELY NO DO IT YOURSELF ADVICE!
It is meant as an idea for researcher who might read it here or elsewhere.
Aren’t plenty of toxins stored in body fat? That is why belly fat is considered especially dangerous.
It’s not building or having it, but the breakdown of it when you lose weight. Then plenty of toxins are released and with belly fat this release occurs near many critical organs.
Now there are ways to remove that fat in big chunks… Not that that method hasn’t got plenty of side effects and the narcosis to do so is risky all in itself. So therefore it’s more of a research suggestion then anything else to know how high a percentage of the heavy metals get trapped by this fat and if research results could lead to a potential safe enough treatment.
The starting problem may be that the heavy metals prefer other soft tissue such as fascia, brain, kidneys that are non removable. That would be for research to find out.
I have had very bad heavy metal toxicity. The majority was from 14 Amalgam (silver) fillings and stainless steel bonded crowns. I was lucky in that I saw an integrative (functional) Dr who tested me using tests from Germany (I am in Australia). I had Very high lead from exposure to renovations, Mercury and Nickle from the fillings plus a host of others. After DMSA chelation for 2 years, I have most of it out, but due to allergic reactions, I can’t remove the remaining Nickle and thallium.
Both before and during chelation I was sleeping an average of 20 hours per day, which slowly reduced over the years. Now I am partially functioning. Able to walk or go to a Doctors appoinment on most days. The experience of chelation is very hard on the body and due to the metals and treatment, I also have MCAS along with ME/CFS. I have cervical stenosis too, so have been watching Jen brea’s case and the research on that.
It’s heartwarming for me to see how others have recovered, and to see that heavy metals were a large part of recovery in this case too. I think stress and the nervous system is also a big contributor in my case as well as mould exposure.
If you haven’t had Heavy metals checked I recommend doing so and checking with another DR if you can’t find one who will.
Great response Cort, you were so much nicer than I would have been to that negative ignoramus. That one post was great and gives me hope. Aidan tried to take it away. God bless you Cort.
Kyle, What a journey you have had. It doesn’t surprise me at all. Heavy metal toxicity or chemical toxicity are easy to miss, and are key in my struggles. I wanted to pass on the use of HBOT in helping you recover. Dr. Harch in New Orleans is who I saw and has helped my health improve unlike other therapies I have tried. Don’t miss that as a modality to get another layer of healing. I am so glad you are getting better.
Thank you Maryann…DITTO!!!
As a 28 year “veteran” of this malady, at age 70, my belief is that expectations for others, most especially myself, are ineffective. I have my snarky days, but do my best to rein them in. When my speedy keyboard fingers reflect a rough day, I do my best to not pass that on. I am human though, very, very human.
Sharing in someones story brings me a sense of connectedness, and often something I can apply or pass on. What I deeply appreciate is this mans’ articulate recounting. It gives me insight , an opportunity for reflection, and again, an ongoing modicum of hope.
Each story shared is an opportunity to glean something micro or macro to continue our own personal journey.
Excellent job…again…Cort…you never cease to amaze me. The isolation, ignorance of this vicious disease often renders us impotent. We are not, when we connect. Bless you…
I agree that heavy metal issues should be addressed but it’s not necessarily a path to healing from ME/CFS. In the early years I went the entire gamut of blood/hair tests finding out I was over range in Mercury and a few other metals, high in Gadolinium which you only get from MRI’s, etc. I went through extensive chelation and had
all my mercury fillings (8) removed by a biologic dentist using strict protocols like a special mask, dams in the mouth and so forth. After all that I still saw no improvement in my severe ME/CFS symptoms. I’m not sorry I went through it all as who knows what ‘else’ it may have staved off but I had hopes it would have more effect.
Let’s revisit “Alice in Wonderland”. The Mad Hatter was a reference to hat felters who used mercury in the felting process and eventually had such serious cognitive problems, they went “mad”.
There are many ways to be exposed to mercury: some seafood like swordfish; mercury amalgams; mercury emissions from coal-fired plants; chlorinated chemicals made by the mercury cell process (including chlorinated pesticides); mercury thermometers; mercury from natural gas extraction.
Mercury is tricky to measure in the body. Some doctors recommend using a trial of a chelation agent to pull out as much mercury as possible before blood testing. Others do not feel that this is safe.
Mercury chelation is difficult because once chelation agents loose mercury from where it is secreted in the body, it can recirculate in the blood and settle primarily in the brain and kidneys.
Mercury is an immunotoxin and a teratogen (can cause birth defects). A body burden of an immunotoxin could potentially cause herpes viruses, bacteria and mycoplasms to reactivate.
When I was about 15 at high school, the teacher wasn’t in the room so poured liquid mercury into my hand which was in a cupping position. I watched in fascination as it rolled around and beaded off. I poured what could back into the container (the rest scattered across the floor). 3 years later I had severe ME. So about 25 years later I got a mercury blood test and the results were apparently normal, 30 years later I still remain ill. Mostly housebound and bedbound
My question: is it possible to for the lab to miss read these heavy metal blood tests or is mercury stored somewhere else in the body and are blood tests a waste of time. Or do I not have mercury poisoning if the blood test says I didn’t ?
I hear Ron Davis said a lot of lab tests have a 5% to 10% false positive or false negative error rate.
If so is there a different test for mercury I can request?
This is a really tricky field. I’ll give away the punch line for Kyle’s initial heavy metal test results – they twitched the toxicologist’s antennae because they abnormally low! Further testing found some off the charts high heavy metal results – but not in the metals usually tested for.
As I noted in another comment – I am leery that levels of anything necessarily tell the entire story. I can react really badly to small levels of some chemicals. I imagine that my blood levels of those chemicals are normal – but my system is for some sensitized to them. My experience suggests that that is true for mercury.
Unfortunately this only complicates matters!
Cobalt & Stainless Steel are other Metals that can be found in skin patch tests or blood. Cobalt is also in mouth braces, fillings…One Guy mentioned on Dr. Ron Davis’s daughters page that numerous were now
recovering from ME/CFS on Metal free diets & avoiding these as much as possible in cooking utensils even vitamins minerals have metals. I joined some Metal Groups on Facebook…Some there even have EDS or were told ME/CFS Fibro…
I also remember the loose ball of silver stuff rolling around the classroom. Im struggling to remember the reason and all I’m thinking of is that we were being taught something about Mercury. Why it was set loose from its container or thermometer I don’t know. At that time which I think was about 1978 (?) I don’t think the danger of it was as well known or taken so seriously as it is now. I was diagnosed with FM in 2010. I haven’t had any heavy metal testing.
I know of someone who took some home from school in his car and accidentally spilled it all over his car. Things were a lot looser back then.
There are tests you can do that show the levels in tissue, either HTMA or chelation provocation testing. I recommend getting checked by an Integrative or function DR as they usually have training in that area.
Here in Belgium you can have a test for heavy metals (and minerals) in your tissue : Oligoscan spectrometer
They test it on your hand.
My values of antimone, baryum cadmium and mercury were too high.
Aluminium ok, in contrast with the values of my md: much younger and healthier She stopped with anti-transpirants and no longer used alu cooking ware. After a chelation cure the aluminium values went back to normal measured by the same method
“Most of metallic mercury will accumulate in your kidneys, but some metallic mercury can also accumulate in the brain. Most of the mercury absorbed into the body eventually leaves in the urine and feces, while smaller amounts leave the body in the exhaled breath.” Agency for Toxics Substances Disease Registry
15 years ago, I had elevated rates mercury on hair testing ordered Dr. Cheney’s office. I was nervous about the potential adverse effects of chelation so I didn’t opt for a trial of DMSO. However, one of Dr. Cheney’s treatments at a later time was intranasal collodial silver alternating with EDTA (a chelation agent). After this treatment, my horrid headaches of 25 years duration disappeared. Interestingly, EDTA is also an anticoagulent so it may have effects like heparin that some doctors have used to treat ME/CFS.
Mercury is the third most common toxic exposure of concern in the country according to a list on the EPA’s web site.
Do I think mercury is the main cause of ME/CFS? No, I think it is a contributing factor in some patients. I still have ME/CFS, but I am able to work and travel and take part in some exercise like 9 holes of golf when it isn’t too hot. I can’t do truly aerobic exercise.
Mercury tests can be done in hair, urine and blood.
Mercury can be measured in the blood stream soon after someone is poisoned, but it quickly moves to other body organs.
Many ME/CFS patients have said that they feel “poisoned”. These might be the patients who should be tested for mercury and other toxins.
I also believe that chronic tinnitus and multiple chemical sensitivity may be markers for toxic exposure.
Dr. Ron Davis did all tests known for Mercury he said the Mercury found in some was from too much Fish consumption & was not toxic levels either, he also said Mercury
is not any cause for alarm in ME/CFS it is not the cause either he said some are deficient in critical metals needed from detoxifying their bodies & he said the
Plutonium found also in samples was not from Nuclear Radiation another hype going around he said it was from consuming Well water from the ground so all this
talk about Metals as cause is not any cause of ME/CFS…We need Science not theories that do not add up at all he also said 75% of the World population not 2%
as what CDC says are now at risk of getting ME/CFS Yes 75% not 2% lets hope that send chills down the Spines of NIH CDC & WHO Scientists & their Families now including Governments & fraud CBT/GET fools…
That’s good to know and it fits with my experience but let’s not one presume that one small but obviously very well done study tells the entire story about ME/CFS. The study is just too small to do that – and it was designed that way: they did a very deep dive into a small number of patients in order to pick up themes they could explore more deeply later one.
Given what I’ve learned about Kyle’s case – which will be detailed in the next blog – it might have missed his heavy metal poisoning. Kyle is probably an outlier! But that doesn’t mean that his story isn’t applicable to a subset of patients. (He’s also an “inlier” in that aside from the heavy metal issue his test results including massive pathogen reactivation seem to be pretty typical of many patients (or so it seems – Ron’s group did not have pathogen reactivation either (!))
I submit given my experience – of overt neurological symptoms – simply from eating fish – which did not show up in very high hair mercury levels – a detoxification or sensitivity issue is, in fact, present.
I think we have to be wary about “levels”. We saw with Montoya’s cytokine study that cytokine levels were NOT high but they were associated with severity. Similarly, in my case, my mercury were NOT high but they were definitely associated with dramatic symptoms. Fortunately Cheney was adept enough to recognize that possibility.
One thing we’re learning, I think, is to look beyond levels to immune networks and sensitivities to different factors. Nancy Klimas is doing this really well with her immune network analyses.
“Many ME/CFS patients have said that they feel “poisoned”.”
Too much acetaldehyde, that the body can produce from oxidized lipids (due to too much oxidative stress) are quite poisonous too.
It’s the first break down product of alcohol and is according to many researchers a lot more toxic then alcohol itself.
The Floxie Gang say they were Poisoned by antibiotics & the poison is still inside their bodies those antibiotics are still in their cells they are toxic.& poisoned by them I read also a Toxicologist he said he was poisoned as
well from the University of Florida by the same antibiotics he even said there is nothing that can get it out of the body it is still there
Thanks for the reminder. I tried intercolloidal silver on my sister’s advice and I too did well on it – it seemed so woo-woo I was totally shocked. I’m going to order some up. 🙂
Cort, how much intercolloidal silver did you use? How did you benefit from it?
Don’t really remember – as I remember just little bits of it.
“It felt like an episode of Prison Break but for the disabled.”
Thanks for giving me such a good laugh so beautifully and full of irony describing your precarious situation. You have a writing gift!
Yes, indeed! What a gift of language – thanks for the reminder of that one De Jurgen 🙂
Nano zeolite product called TRS by Coseva safely removes heavy metals and other toxins. There are other makers of nano zeolites, but do your research before buying these products.
Jac has TRS helped anyone you know
So Kyle’s problem turned out to be heavy metal poisoning? That kinds of reminds me of a patient with undiagnosed bone infection who later properly diagnosed and treated. Some people jumped on it and claimed that he didn’t have “real” CFS.
I happened to differ. If you were properly diagnosed at the first place, of course, you would’ve been treated and therefore not classified as CFS. But that does not mean that it wasn’t CFS complete with PEM, prior to the treatment and recovery.
Environmental assault or untreated infection can put a heavy stress on your neuro-immunology. Exertion adds to that and you end up with PEM. You can’t distinguish that from someone hyper-sensitive ending up with PEM after a minor exertion.
I think we should stop obsessing a particular cause of CFS and instead focus on the common mechanism among all these cases that leads to CFS symptoms, PEM and neurological anomaly in particular. I think we’ll get to the solution faster that way.
It also reminds me of Jenn Brea’s case of sudden recovery after a surgery. I don’t know if cervical cranial instability can put a pressure on your neuro-immunology to cause CFS, but it may be still possible that the surgery did something to “reset” something to cure CFS even if CCI wasn’t the original cause. Just like the case of Marilyn’s “New Zealand effect” and the resulting recovery. And then there was a patient that reported that his CFS was randomly switched on and off for no reason. So it may be possible that CFS can be turned off just as suddenly as it got turned on.
Reminds me of a recent letter by a physician (with CFS) to the NEJM online telling of 3 cases he knew of sudden improvement from CFS after a stress to their system. At least one of them was after an (unrelated) operation. I am very happy for Jenn Brea and her recovery. But, I would still wait before thinking this was an answer for many of us.
It does remind me of the “Liberation” surgery for Multiple Sclerosis that was so in the news several years ago – had a theory behind it, had initial very promising results, and many patients clamoring for it. But then in the end was proven to be unhelpful
@David R, Yep I concur. Treatment that worked on one patient often fails for others. Most of them probably are coincidences rather than cause-effect. Even if it weren’t, the same treatment may work differently for different patients. We’ll never know till we do large scale trials.
I’ll have to dig up and read that NEJM letter. I do have personal experiences with stress letting me do more than I should be able to, even though it didn’t let me recover from CFS. The stresses were fight/flight or novelty kinds though (like travel), not 2-day CPET kind that is no more than a drag.
I agree! I doubt that everyone with heavy metal poisoning has orthostatic intolerance, massive viral reactivation and fungal problems.
Thank you for bringing this story of heavy metals to our attention, Cort and Kyle! They can indeed cause many serious health problems, even cancer!
Like many other patients, I have lousy detox genes, and as I learned, a tendency to pick up toxins. Over 8 years, doctors have found, and helped me chelate, mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic, and platinum. A few things learned along the way:
1) Hair testing, as done in Ron Davis’ group, is not the best way to find out if you’re toxic. It is the best way to find out what metals your body eants to excrete in hair.
2) Provoked urine testing, where a chelator (EDTA, DMSA, and/or DMSO) is effective at identifying which metals will be excreted and how easily compared to one another by using a chelator. (Conventional doctors don’t believe in this method, but I found it to be quite useful in getting rid of platinum I had acquired from platinum-based chemotherapy and knew was in me – as my chrlstion protocol went on, less platinum emerged.)
3) The body doesn’t get rid of all metals at once – it seems to prioritize what order they come out in. I got rid of my mercury 6 years ago, since then, mercury has been low, while overcome, other metals have come out in sequence.
4) You must use the right chelator for the right metal. They don’t work interchangeably.
5) There are multiple layers of metal sequestration in our bodies. I thought I was pretty clean, but still lacked energy. My doctor tried a novel chelator that’s supposed yo help mitochondria make more energy, PolyMVA, a polymer of alpha lipoic acid. I immediately collapsed, and much to everyones surprise, my blood tested at CDC recognized levels of acute arsenic poisoning. The irony is that aresenic hadn’t shown up in any previous tests. It had been hiding in my mitochondria the whole time! Arsenic can impair ATP (energy) and was impairing mine.
Getting rid of the arsenic by repeated use of PolyMVA aling with methylation support brought my levels down and gave me more energy.
I suspect manybof us have more heavy metals than we think.
Additionally, Davis has mentioned that selenium depletion is because it is used as an antioxidant annd helps to make glutathione, used in helping to chelated heavy metals from the body.
“Arsenic can impair ATP”
Eating a few dry full grain rice crackers before sleep and mid night help me to sleep better. I however was surprised to learn that even two of those can increase daily arsenic intake by 30%.
That did not make much sense to me. Asian people eat far more rice a day than that amount and do so for generations. Then it appeared to me: well water can contain arsenic. In countries like India it is common nowadays to drill water wells a few hundred meters deep IMO. That is a result of industrialized farming and overall increased water consumption making rain water insufficient to grow rich crops.
And the deeper the well, the higher the chance that it is full of different heavy metals as far as I know.
=> Could we be exposed to significantly increased heavy metals due to irrigating many crops with water from very deep wells? Some people may be more sensitive to it then others?
I had high arsenic and cadmium too. Doc thought someone was trying to kill me. Turned out to be well water and in the air due to old silver mines in area.
Got rid of this with high doses of cilantro and sodium arginate.
A well-written and poignant article, leaves you wanting to rule out heavy metal poisoning but no way to do it ifyour doctor is not on board and your state requires referrals for blood tests.
In two of his episodes, he has succeeded in putting my sentiments into verbal form. I struggle every day and push myself to the max. I do not complain or make excuses. I have no tolerance for people who have issues easily remedied. Who play the blame game on their “infirmities”, their crutch. Who need their infirmities as in refuse to see a doc for a simple dx or treatment. I believe they would miss their partner in the blame game and lose the attention they get from fixable issues. Their crutches. Literally zero tolerance for that game. He also put something into words that I have felt many times – How can I feel so bad and still be living.
P.S. During my vacation I had the opportunity to do something I have not done for many years. Swim in a heated pool. It was so recuperative – I found I was not at all dizzy or in muscle pain when floating and even swimming. I still have the muscles. I just can’t use them well out of water. I have the muscles because my body is in a constant state of tension. Isn’t life grand.
Blood Irradiation – I suddenly recalled that when I lived in CO a friend of mine had become suddenly quite ill. No doctors, not even Mayo could offer anything other than you need a shrink. He felt like he had the flu, that never let up. We had heard about a holistic doc in Littleton who was actually a highly trained pharmacist who had done research in Europe. He put us both on the blood type diet. In addition to that my friend was so ill that the doc used blood irradiation. The first day he felt worse than ever, but the second day he felt like a new person. Never felt better. This technique was used twice with same results each time. Blood irradiation is a very old technique and I believe he said there was once a big clinic/hospital in Kansas City. I wish I could recall his name. He was a very busy man.