Can't see the wood for the trees

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http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/bmj.38078.503819.EEv1#61732

Can't see the wood for the trees

24 June 2004

W on,

former patient

Belfast, BT4

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Re: Can't see the wood for the trees

Sir,

Readers may be interested to know that has written

publicly about his own recovery from CFS in a number of internet

discussion groups.

" I discovered years ago that I have an extreme neurological reaction

to unbelievably slight amounts of specific mold toxins. "

" I found that my depression had a perfect correlation to cytokine

storm from exposure to my MCS irritants. "

" My perception of exposure was the best indicator - not any tests. I

trained myself to recognized subtle symptoms of exposure by

deliberately testing myself against various mold colonies. "

" Soon, thanks to my ability to perceive it, I could feel that a vast

number of people in CFS support groups carried either this mold or a

lesser mold of higher toxin concentration on their clothing and were

probably suffering a long term inflammatory response in the same way

I was. "

" By avoiding this long term inflammatory response I have exerted

more control over my CFS symptoms than anything else I've tried. "

" Within six months of following a strategy of extreme mycotoxin

avoidance, I returned to Dr s office with pictures of myself

after climbing Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain within the

contiguous 48 states in the USA. I have spent the years since then

controlling my symptoms through extreme mycotoxin avoidance and

being discounted by every researcher, doctor and PWC I tell my story

to. "

For someone who is so against psycho-social theories of CFS, it is

interesting to see that his own recovery is clearly psycho-social in

nature. In fact, it is as good an example of the placebo effect in

action as you are likely to find anywhere.

on

http://www.cfs-fm-sandiego.org/Lyme/extreme_mold_avoidance.htm

cfs_research/message/14128

cfs_research/message/14182

Competing interests: None declared