Re: Re: CSM & Act

[Guest guest]

,

I didn't go back and look at the original email, but I think what I

was referring to there was the brief intensification of symptoms as

the cholestyramine pulls the toxins out of your bile. Its worth it

because then- each time, slightly, the background inflammation level

gets lower.. it keeps getting lower..

The liver keeps on purifying your blood, but the place where it can

dump toxins is the bile.. Bile gets used to digest food.. Most of it

gets recycled by the body. Cholestyramine is a " anion exchange resin "

that you ingest and then, in the gut, it grabs on to the structure

that is common to most mycotoxins. Thats the only place the toxins can

get intercepted.. otherwise they would just get reabsorbed, again and

again..

Google " enterohepatic recirculation " for more general stuff on this

process - which is important in medicine..

There are many different kinds of substances produced by molds in

water damaged buildings. They are literally chemical factories. (This

mycotoxin word thing is actually a political gotcha.. Some would like

the word " mycotoxins " to just mean a very specific kind of chemical..

leaving many toxic products of molds OUT! Most of us use that word ina

brroader sense to mean " everything in mold that makes you sick " . That

I think is the more sensible approach.. We aren't chemists.)

Also, especially if someone has been heavily exposed (home or

workplace exposures can be long-lived) its clear that not only are

people gradually " hypersensitized " - as you say, also for a long time

afer the exposure, more toxins keep getting dumped into your bile.

They have done work with radioactive isotopes where they show that

they persist in bile for weeks. Going around and around.. (they

actually " echo " up and down!) Thats under sterile laboratory

conditions with a single (massive) exposure..

When its a real-life situation, many would say months (or even years

after a major, multi-year exposure - because mycotoxins, and some

other toxins, get stored in your fat)

I still have sensitivity to toxic mold. Major sensitivity to it. But

as you (1) get out of the moldy environment (indoor mold exposures can

be much higher than outdoor, but hypersensitized people can even be

made sick by the mold outdoors, especially in the late summer or fall)

When you get the levels in your body down, (2) then you stop getting

worse. Then gradually, (3) your body starts to heal, and over a LONG

time, IF AND ONLY IF YOU CAN SUCCEED IN AVOIDING NEW EXPOSURE - and

also taking cholestyramine - and perhaps other medications but I don't

have any experience with them.. many aspects of your illness improve.

For me its been two years, and I am just at the stage now where I am

beginning to be able to talk to old friends without making a fool of

myself. *Its a brain injury, clearly.*

I used to do a very technical kind of work. I have not been able to do

that (yet?) I still have fatigue. I still get sick at the drop of a

hat. I have major GI issues. I also have a few other major health

issues that I hope are curable. I also have some other major health

issues that I don't think are curable. They cost a lot to deal with.

The cost to me both financially and emotionally of " managing " these

issues is very high. I was lucky when I got sick in that I had more

resources than some people (I had a decent amount of money saved

before I got sick the second time. The first time I got sick that

experience had scared me so much, when I finally got a job after that,

I saved a lot of what I made for several years...this may have been

bad in that I did not act quickly enough. But its very hard, when you

are extremely tired and overwhelmed and - have no other place to go

that allows you to keep your life and friends and literally everything

you have worked for.)

>LiveSimply, did you previously have a lot of sensitivity to toxic mold?

Yes, I " did " then and I still have it now. If I get that feeling I

have to leave a building.

I get it not infrequently from air conditioners.. I can't stay in

those buildings.

>In structures? Yes, and last fall, I was also getting it from a very few walks

in the woods.. There was also a TOWN that made me sick..

(it had seen major flooding last year)

>To

items that had been stored in moldy structures?

Yes, but that is variable.. I threw away a LOT of what I owned,

obviously, I also kept more than what many people recommend, because I

simply could not afford to throw many things away. I tried to clean

things first (a istake, in retrospect, because it made me sicker) and

put them in big plastic bags and Ive gradually gone through that stuff

and its all over the map.. some of it still makes me react, some is

fine.. no reaction at all.

I have a lot of observations from then on what and why that I may

write up at some point.. its scrawled in the writing of a drowning

person.. seriously.. thats what it looks like..

>Outdoors in " plumes " ?

Again, there are places where there is a lot of rotting material

outdoors that makes me sick.. Just like a moldy building would. Fall

last year was hell for me. I was going to a doctor thinking I had

serious lung issues. When the cold weather came, it cleared up and

luckily, I have been better this year, so far.

I think it was the combination of the mold hypersensitivity and the

moldy fall leaves.. After the mold, I moved, I could not afford to

live where I used to live.. where I lived before, and where I got

sick, you didn't have the fall leaf thing.. where I live now, you do..

I also moved for my own safety.. Its a long story..

>If so, did the CSM help at all with that?

Yes, its been a life saver, literally. A godsend. I can't begin to say

how much it has helped.

>Have whatever health problems you had resolved?

See above. Its a long and difficult journey.

Time is also a great healer.. they say.. We all wish it would go

faster... Time is precious. You can't get these years back...