Autoimmune Syndrome and Pesticides in our Food Supply

Pesticides Being Sprayed on Food Crops (image source: nmorganics.net)



I recently read an article in "Natural Awakenings" the Central New Jersey version, June 2012 issue, that I wanted to share.  I've written about this subject before but felt it was time for a re-visit.

The title of the article is "Is Your Body Allergic to Itself? - The Plight of Autoimmune Syndrome" and is written by Dr. Nikki Conte (unfortunately the article is available only in print or PDF format which is where the above link will take you).

Dr. Conte's article focuses on, what I agree is, the real cause (or one of the main causes) of autoimmune diseases such as ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and Fibromyalgia.  I don't understand how the presence of staggering amounts of chemicals, including pesticides and synthetic bovine growth hormone, injested by the average American every day in their food can be all but disregarded by our government, medical establishment and the general public.  Our food supply has become inexcusably poisoned and the presence of these chemicals is routine and completely legal. 

image source:  http://www.lowdensitylifestyle.com/obesity-can-be-caused-by-chemicals-in-foods/

Pesticides are created to kill insects, fungus or any other living thing that may endanger the particular crop they are applied to.  Although I realize human beings are quite a bit larger, therefore less vulnerable to the fatal effects of these chemicals, this daily ingestion must have some cumulative effect.  I think it's naive to think that chemicals who's sole purpose is to kill, will have no negative impact on human beings as a whole.  I've often thought (and I know I'm not alone) that these chemicals must have some part in the increase of autism cases and many other diseases, such as obesity, that the medical and scientific communities seem baffled by. (For more information about obesity and pesticides click on the source link under the above image) 

Our immune systems simply don't know how to react to the onslaught of these relatively new agents and in some people, have become so confused that they wage a full autoimmune attack on benign substances in our food or environment that have been in existence for many generations, or in the case of wheat, since human beings began an agrarian existence around ten thousand years ago.

As the mother of a two-and-a-half year old, this whole notion scares the heck out of me.  I buy as many organic foods as I can reasonably afford and my daughter has yet to taste beef, chicken, pork or any other land animal, though she has had fish on occasion.  I feel desperate to protect her from pesticides, synthetic bovine growth hormone and chemical preservatives but these substances are so prevalent in our food supply that I wonder if this is even remotely possible.

Alpha Nutrition Diet.....No More

Well, I didn't make it through the ten days of the diet again.  Seven was as far as I got.  Yesterday I was so discouraged and worn out I just gave up and ate almost an entire box of cookies.  Boy, did it taste good after seven days of rice, water & ENF. 

I'm not really sure if the diet was helping me or not.  It seemed like it was during the first couple days but after that I'm just not sure.  It certainly didn't make anything worse.  I do recommend though, for anyone trying the diet, to mix the ENF with water not juice.  It tastes much better with juice but gave me horrible heart burn.  I wish I could report something more conclusive. 

The idea of delayed pattern food allergies still seems to make sense to me.  I do believe that all the chemicals in our food supply must be having repercussions of some kind.  The idea that the constant ingestion of these chemicals into our bodies is screwing up our immune systems makes perfect sense.  Let's face it, during millions of years of evolution, our immune systems have never encountered such a bombardment of chemicals (pesticides, preservatives, hormones) and they don't know how to process them.  They attack them, but these are not like the viruses and bacteria the immune system evolved to destroy.  It's no wonder the immune system goes crazy and starts attacking things it's not supposed to.  It's no wonder that we become allergic to foods that, in the past, we weren't really allergic to much.  I think it also accounts for why so many more people are reportedly getting autoimmune diseases.

My mom is a retired grammar school teacher, now substitute teacher.  She tells me that there are classrooms that are classified as "NO PEANUT ZONES".  This indicates that a child in the class is so allergic to peanuts that they will go into anaphylactic shock if they're even around peanuts.  This means that no child in that class can bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school, and their parents receive a notice at the beginning of the year indicating this.  I remember kids being allergic to bee stings and poison ivy but nothing like what my mom tells me about.  Does anyone else find this strange?  Why are so many children so deathly allergic to foods? 

Maybe one of these days I'll get up the will-power to try the Alpha Nutrition Diet again.  We'll see.

Alpha Nutrition Diet - Take Two

Now that I'm finally feeling a little more stable, mentally, it's time to get back to my "I'll try anything..." mode.  Researching this stuff and trying new things is the only thing that keeps me from slipping down "the black hole" of hopelessness.  Maybe I haven't fully accepted that I'm chronically ill.  I still have a feeling deep down that if I keep trying different things, I'll eventually find what's causing this and continue leading my life where I left off two years ago.  Maybe this is naive but I'm not to the stage yet where I can accept that this is how I will possibly feel for the rest of my life. 

So......I'm trying the "Alpha Nutrition Diet for Aching and Fatigue" again.  I posted about it some months ago and made it to day two, I think.  The timeline is ten days and I'm on day three this time.  I've ingested nothing but Alpha ENF, white rice, water and juice.  Surprisingly, I feel pretty good (relatively speaking of course).  My energy level seems better than normal, which, I didn't expect so early on.  It's hard to resist the few holiday treats still lingering around but it is nice not having to think about what to eat. 

The Delayed Pattern Food Allergy hypothesis did make a lot of sense to me when I read about it.  One of the things researchers think might be causing these unusual food allergies, are all the chemicals, like pesticides, that are in the food we eat.  Our immune systems go into overdrive trying to attack them then get stuck in this hypersensitive mode and begin attacking things that aren't harmful to your body.  Some theories add that this hypersensitivity is what eventually causes autoimmune disease, when your immune system starts attacking your organs.  Personally, I'm sure I've ingested enough chemicals to easily make my immune system crazy.  I don't do much cooking (to put it mildly) and I've been know to eat every meal of my day out of a box.

Well, I hope I make it to day ten this time.  Who knows, maybe it'll actually make me feel better.  I have to have the hope that it will.  For more information about the Alpha Nutrition Program here's the link:  http://www.nutramed.com/alpha/index.htm

Many Many Drugs - Prednisone

Before my last doctor's visit a week ago, I sat down with all my medical records (a very thick file) and compiled a spreadsheet of all the medications I've been prescribed since this nightmarish ordeal began two years ago.  It took a while to organize all this information since dosages on some of the drugs had been changed several times.  When I was finished, there were still some holes in my timeline because I remembered that at times, my doctor had changed dosing over the phone and I hadn't written it down.  Anyone who has ME/CFS or Fibromyalgia knows that if something doesn't get written down, it's forever lost in the fog that took over where your brain used to be.

Two years ago, when I first visited a doctor about my strange set of life-altering symptoms, he ordered, what I didn't realize at the time, would be the first of many rounds of blood tests.  He guessed that I was having a response to some sort of inflammation.  He suggested I try aspirin to bring down the inflammation until the blood tests came back with some answers.  Everything came back normal including the Rheumatoid Factor except for the ANA titer which came back positive with a speckled pattern - 1:36 . 

When I went back a couple weeks later, my symptoms had gotten worse and more blood was drawn.  The doctor I saw this time (from the group) prescribed Prednisone at 60mg per day for five days then 10mg per day for fifteen days, then 5mg per day for ten days.  A few days after I started the Prednisone, I actually felt a lot better and was able to return to many of my previous activities including, walking up two miles of steeply inclined roads per day.  But, about a week into the lowered doses, my symptoms returned and I was experiencing a lot of pain and severe fatigue again.

My doctor prescribed another high-dose round of Prednisone which was effective but short-lived as before.  She explained that Prednisone was not a long-term option at this point due to the toxicity of the drug, so I went back to feeling sick and returned to the doctor once more.

Tune in next time for...drug number two! 

Lower Than Low

I went to see doctor number 4 for a second appointment today.  The prognosis was so depressing that I spent most of the day after, crying.  I was finally able to sleep for an hour or so which helped my mental state a bit and allowed me to talk to my parents about the doctor visit, which I hadn't been able to do earlier in the day.

None of the medications this doctor has prescribed have helped me.  Admittedly, the doses were low but I haven't seen any real change in my condition.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  I've been taking Zyflamend, which is an otc supplement for joints, for about two weeks.  I've been walking one mile per day and up until about two weeks ago the walks consumed incredible amounts of energy and effort.  It was as though I were a baby just learning to walk.  My muscles were weak, burned and didn't seem to involuntarily "know what to do".  I had to mentally direct my legs to lift and move forward which resulted in very slow, clumsy walking.  Since I've been taking Zyflamend, my walking is getting smoother and easier.  I think I'm walking a little faster and my muscles don't have nearly the weak, burning feeling they had.  It may just be a phase, but I'll keep taking the Zyflamend for the time being if I can afford the exorbitant cost ($40 for 60 capsules taken twice a day).

The doctor had also prescribed low dose Prednisone, Nuvigil, Sinemet and Lyrica which I tried one at a time.  Since they didn't seem to help me, we're moving on to the next "experiment".  I had taken high-dose Predisone over a year ago and to date, it's the only thing that has given me any of my life back and it actually made me feel almost completely well at one point.  This only lasted a week or two though, since my doctor didn't want me taking that high a dose (50mg per day) for too long.  I was so dissappointed when it wore off, though, and I was back to being as sick as I had been before taking it.  According to this doctor, this is an anomalous reaction considering my rhumatoid factors, etc. were normal.  He's guessing that I must have some inflamation somewhere in my body that's just not showing up in the blood work so, he's prescribed high-dose Prednisone again.  He wants to see if I have the same reaction and if I do, I can have a "break" for a couple months while we figure something else out.  When I asked him what he thought my diagnosis might be he mentioned Fibromyalgia, CHF and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease but added that these were all just names and probably related to some un-named auto-immune disease.  There were some other "speculative" possibilities we discussed but I just don't have the energy to go into detail about them now.  I hope to in my next post.

Since I'll be going back to California in two weeks, I probably won't see him again except for maybe an appointment via phone.  He's given the name of a doctor in the Bay area that he thinks I should see.  Since I live in Southern California I'm not sure how that would work logistically but I'm not worrying about that now.  My only goal today and tomorrow is to feel better mentally.  My depression has been so severe during the last couple weeks that I haven't been able to conjure a purpose for my existance on this planet.  The doctor prescribed Welbutrin to augment my Zoloft but I'm sure it'll be at least a couple weeks before I see any effect from it.  I'm just hanging here by a thread in the meantime.