First Installment:
I have been waiting to post something about a new puzzle piece I have found for my own health. I wanted to be sure that the recommended solution actually worked. The good news is it does! Extremely well. This is a likely one of the biggest underlying issues for me, if not THE underlying issue.
To review, I have considered only two pieces to my health puzzle as major puzzle pieces. It seemed that MOST of the other issues I have had were related to these two issues. The two issues are mercury from 14 mercury amalgams and strong sensitivity to mold. A number of symptoms I had simply vanished, or got better when I had my mercury amalgams removed in 1987. Also, I felt better than I ever had after going to see Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker a few years ago. From Dr. Shoemaker I found out 1.) I was very sensitive to mold. 2. ) I had significant exposure to mold. 3.) When treated for mold I improved dramatically.
In fact, I came to believe that mold WAS the ultimate underlying issue for me. Even bigger than mercury. But this has proven to NOT be true. Mold is a very significant issue for me and I watch my exposure to mold very carefully. I plan to go see Dr. Shoemaker again within the next few months as his techniques and knowledge has grown significantly over the past years. I think he can help me even more.
In my search for health I came to believe that I needed to find "underlying issues", not just various symptoms that were caused by the underlying issue. I spent much time chasing symptoms, trying to deal with each one. But if I could find the underlying cause and deal with that I could then usually get rid of the symptoms. An example of this was a heart arrhythmia. When I would exercise, my heart would keep beating for over an hour at about 110 beats per minute. I could have gone on several meds to try to treat this condition. Instead, when I had my mercury amalgams out, this symptom suddenly and permanently stopped. Several other symptoms either went away or got better with their removal as well.
I am happy to report that I believe I have found my main health issue.
Since uncovering mold as my most significant underlying issue, I thought I was cured. I actually went over 2 full years feeling really good. However, as I said in my book, "how do I know what normal is?" When you feel poorly for many years or decades, you lose the ability to remember what normal feels like.
Well... so here is what happened.
For a variety of reasons which I won't go into, last fall I was under a variety of stressors. Stressors can be anything. From less sleep to mold exposure. Anything that stresses the body or mind. Early December I started to feel "off". My sleep patterns changed and I had nights when I either had trouble falling asleep or I woke up and had a real hard time falling asleep. I have learned over the years that a change in my sleep pattern was usually significant and often foretold a coming "episode."
As December wore on, I could tell that I was getting a little worse every week. The things I begin to feel at the start of any episode were a strange anxiety, or sense of doom that just was there. Nothing real was behind the feelings and eventual thoughts, it was simply there. As it gets worse, it is there all the time. My sleep grows worse and with that I begin to feel depressed for no good reason other than I am not sleeping very well and I feel so anxious.
When these symptoms began to be really noticeable, I theorized that I must be being exposed to mold somewhere. I began to take CSM (cholestyramine) as prescribed by Dr. Shoemaker. A few times in the past when I thought I was feeling the early symptoms of an episode I would take CSM and the symptoms went away. But this time, it was not mold. Even with CSM for a few weeks, the symptoms got stronger. I was totally perplexed. If it is NOT mold, what is it? I was doing everything I knew to do yet I was growing worse everyday. The anxiety grew stronger, my sleep got worse and I felt more depressed and tired. What the heck was going on?
Little did I know I was about to discover a brand new piece to my puzzle. One that actually started 35 years ago!!
I will continue this tomorrow.
