Multiple Chemical Sensitivity researcher launches website: CFS/ME, PTSD, GWS

[Guest guest]

*note: I have not visited this website, yet, just passing the info. along.....

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity researcher launches website

April 13, 2009 by Susie  

 

 

Professor Pall launches website explaining his groundbreaking research

into a common cause for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis,

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Fibromyalgia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Pall, professor emeritus of biochemistry and basis medical sciences at

Washington State University, started looking into ME/CFS after he was diagnosed

with it. The essence of his theory is that short-term stressors cause a build up

of naturally occurring nitric oxide, which starts a vicious cycle and leads to

long-term illness. He calls this the NO/ONOO cycle.

I had the pleasure of a long conversation on the phone with Professor Pall in

February, where he explained his research into a large body of evidence showing

common ties between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Multiple

Chemical Sensitivity, Fibromyalgia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

He says his research shows this in regards to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity:

1.  There is compelling evidence showing MCS is caused by chemical exposure.

2.  He’s found common threads, evidence, that each class of chemicals that

cause MCS have shown to produce the same response (this includes animal models,

a big deal when citing evidence).

3.  There is genetic evidence that shows a total of six genes determining

susceptibility.

A missing piece of the MCS puzzle, he says, is that there are no biomarker tests

for people with MCS, hindering recognition by mainstream medicine. However, he

notes, lupus and asthma did not have biomarkers either, yet those illnesses are

widely recognized.

Pall’s research involved a review of existing literature, meaning he started

out with a theory on certain evidence, and then sought to find other existing

evidence for further support. What he found was an avalanche of evidence

supporting his theories. His groundbreaking research led to an invitation to

write a review on MCS in a very prestigious multi-volume set on toxicology; that

review has been accepted and will be published this autumn.

This scientific toxicology review is extraordinarily important because, Pall

says, MCS has been largely ignored by toxicologists, despite its high prevalence

in the U.S. and in other populations, because they have felt that there was no

reasonable explanation for it. Now, he says, through his research, they find

there is a compelling and well-supported explanation for MCS and therefore it

should be integrated into the larger framework of toxicology.

Pall’s review is the longest such review on MCS ever written, as well as the

most extensively documented, having well over 400 citations in it.

On his new website, he explains:

These four illnesses, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME), multiple chemical

sensitivity (MCS), fibromyalgia (FM) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

often occur together in the same individuals (they are comorbid) and share many

symptoms in common (1,2).  They also share a common pattern of case

initiation:  Each is often initiated (that is started) by a short-term stressor

only to be followed by chronic illness that typically lasts for years and most

often for life.  These various similarities and overlaps among these four have

led many scientists to suggest that they may share a common etiology (cause),

however they have been uncertain what the cause may be.  I will call these four

illnesses multisystem illnesses, following the lead of some others, and will

challenge here the claims they are unexplained and that even their symptoms are

unexplained.  What many have called the Gulf War Syndrome is a combination of

all four (3; Chapter 10,

ref.1).

It is my goal for this web page, to provide a detailed explanation for their

overall mechanism and provide a proposed mechanism for the many symptoms and

signs that they share.  In web pages linked to this one, I will discuss some

specific features of these illnesses and how each of these specific features may

be generated by this same basic mechanism.  I also provide more detailed

support for the NO/ONOO- cycle mechanism outlined on this main web page, in

these other web pages.  My overall goal, here, is to outline the understanding

of these illnesses that is documented in much greater detail in my book,

“Explaining ‘Unexplained Illnesses’†(1), as well as in many other

publications (2-12).

Pall also serves as research director at The Tenth Paradigm Research Group.

Link to Pall’s website.

The Canary Report previously reported on Pall’s theories about myalgic

encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.