Question from Naa Koshie

[Guest guest]

I joined this group almost 2 years ago after being diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Since then, there have been times that I have gotten some very useful information from reading other people's posts as well as reading through the archives. Sometimes I have felt compelled to offer support to those reaching out for help and have sent an encouraging note or offered advice I have learned along the way through my illness. Sometimes I've submitted questions or comments and have gotten responses. There have also been some times where I have lamented about what the sarc has done to me physically and have been made to feel vain. There have been other times where I have reached out for help and received no response at all. Case in point my message below. This is not the first time that this has happened and the main reason why most of the time, I simply lurk and hope I can pick up information from others' messages. When this has

happened in the past, I haven't said anything, but this time I felt it necessary to mention that this bothered me. I realize that others are sick, and sometimes are unable to post responses, but when I see other messages being responded to at the same time that I have posted my message, it makes you go hmmmmm. Everyone wants to feel validated and when it doesn't happen, it sucks and you have to choose to say something or not. I decided to say something this time and honestly and truly, do not need a response to this message. God Bless! Naa Koshie"Naa Koshie O. Mills" wrote: I was on the bus to work this morning and it suddenly occured to me that I used to work in a federal government building for 2 years that was evacuated, gutted, and stood because it was labelled a "sick building." While I worked there, I suffered from horrible headaches and many others had unexplained illnesses. I was pregnant while working in the building as well. My question is this, I realize that we may be genetically predisposed to certain illnesses, so could working in this building for 2 years have triggered the sarcoidosis? I don't know why I never thought about this b4. I'm researching to see

if there are reports from folks who worked in that building. Naa Koshie "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." ~ Washington Carver Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business. "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

~ Washington Carver

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[Guest guest]

I was on the bus to work this morning and it suddenly occured to me that I used to work in a federal government building for 2 years that was evacuated, gutted, and stood because it was labelled a "sick building." While I worked there, I suffered from horrible headaches and many others had unexplained illnesses. I was pregnant while working in the building as well.

My question is this, I realize that we may be genetically predisposed to certain illnesses, so could working in this building for 2 years have triggered the sarcoidosis?

Koshie,

I'm sorry that this didn't get addressed. You are right, I know it feels like you've been blown off as unimportant when these get passed by.

Honestly, when I read this-- I didn't and still don't really have an answer.

It's possible that yes, the enviroment that you were in may have caused your immune system to kick into overdrive.

One of the themes that I see, from all I read is that the scientists believe that sarcoidosis is caused from a combination of things. Yes, it seems to hit people that have some family history of auto-immune disease.

AI encompasses everything from arthritis' to diabetes to MS to Lupus and more. So (in my mind) that means that virtually all the people on earth stand a chance of getting sarc. I don't know anyone that doesn't have someone in the family lineage that doesn't have one or more of these conditions.

For instance, my family has a long history of heart diseases, a long history of diabetes on both my parents side of the families, and a long history of arthritis and "bad" backs.

Some of what I've read seems to state that they think there's a connection between a virus that came on- went untreated because it was a "virus"-- and that instead of our bodies realizing that we were over the "virus"-- or immune systems went into overdrive.

So is there a genetic predisposion-- more than likely, is there an enviromental issue, probably so. Were we exposed to "germ warfare?" Who knows.

If you read SARCOIDOSISSHARMA-- you'll see that he does believe that it is a combination of enviromental and genetics.

I am coming to the conclusion that it is a combination of the food we've all grown up on. (We are a generation- almost 2 generations now) that have grown up with our foods and soils and air constantly influenced by pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, food additives- even to the source of the cattle being fed antibiotics, ground tires to add weight to the feed, genetic alterations to make the animals and fish and fowl weigh more, so that it has less fat, can grow into maturity faster, so can be butchered sooner- and consumed earlier than what our parents and grandparents ate.

We've engineered the vitamins and minerals out of our soils, and then reinvented them in forms to add back into the soils, or at the plant when they process the wheat, corn, rice- etc.

We bleach our sugar so that it's "white"- and we process the flour so that we get Rainbo bread- vs. whole grains.

We've got a planet that is so encumbered by factories that produce toxins that are released into the enviroment. It's in our water sheds, we have septic systems for human waste-- and those leach into the soil-- the same leach system that our wells are feed from. (Makes it seem that the old statement that "shit runs downhill" makes one want to live on a mountain top.)

For my family, we've come back to more and more organic and natural foods, we filter our water- and we don't swim in the local creeks-- because we know that they contain so much in the way of "grunge." However, this is more expensive.

By cutting out some of the more processed sweets, sugars, and vegetables-- and going back to eating what is in season and fresh fruits- I can honestly say that much of my body pain has decreased.

I'm finding that if I want to hurt-- all I have to do is get into the dairy products for a few days. Add high concentrates of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup products-- and I can put myself into a pain cycle that will take weeks to get out of.

Koshie, it's never my intention to make anyone feel unimportant, or belittle anyone if they speak of issues that maybe arent significant to me. Many of us have issues with our weight, and with the way we feel or think about different things. It isn't to say that the way you feel about something isn't important. It's just different from someone elses opinion.

I don't know if that job in that building had anything to do with you becoming ill. I don't know if the years I worked as a secretary for a pest control company - where my husband was a technician and the truck along with it's tanks of pesticides- sat in my garage nightly for several years-- had anything to do with my getting sarc.

I wish there was a definate answer-- if so, our doctors would be much farther on the way to finding a cure or at least an effective treatment for us.

You may want to ask the local health department why it is and what they found in that building that caused it to be demolished. Shoot, if you had that information, and could tell your MD's-- then maybe one of them would get interested enough to try to put another piece of the puzzle in place.

Most sincerely,

Tracie

NS co-owner/moderator

[Guest guest]

Naa, this is the first time your email came across mine. There have been some computer glitches that have caused emails not to post. The last I knew no one had been able to figure out what was happening. We either wouldn't get the email at all or way later we would receive. Sorry you didn't get an answer. To your question, no one know how this starts so there is no way of validating that the building caused this. We have also noticed in this group, that lots of us worked in the health care profession??///Take Care, Connie"Naa Koshie O. Mills" wrote: I joined this group almost 2 years ago after being diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Since then, there have been times that I have gotten some very useful information from reading other people's posts as well as reading through the archives. Sometimes I have felt compelled to offer support to those reaching out for help and have sent an encouraging note or offered advice I have learned along the way through my illness. Sometimes I've submitted questions or comments and have gotten responses. There have also been some times where I have lamented about what the sarc has done to me physically and have been made to feel vain. There have been other times where I have reached out for help and received no response at all. Case in point my message below. This is not the first time that this has happened

and the main reason why most of the time, I simply lurk and hope I can pick up information from others' messages. When this has happened in the past, I haven't said anything, but this time I felt it necessary to mention that this bothered me. I realize that others are sick, and sometimes are unable to post responses, but when I see other messages being responded to at the same time that I have posted my message, it makes you go hmmmmm. Everyone wants to feel validated and when it doesn't happen, it sucks and you have to choose to say something or not. I decided to say something this time and honestly and truly, do not need a response to this message. God Bless! Naa Koshie"Naa Koshie O. Mills" <koshie127 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote: I was on the bus to work this morning and it suddenly occured to me that I used to work in a federal government building for 2 years that was evacuated, gutted, and stood because it was labelled a "sick building." While I worked there, I suffered from horrible headaches and many others had unexplained illnesses. I was pregnant while working in the building as well. My question is this, I realize that we may be genetically predisposed to certain illnesses, so could working in this building for 2 years have triggered the sarcoidosis? I don't know why I never thought about this b4. I'm researching to see if there are reports from folks who worked in that building. Naa Koshie "How far you go in

life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." ~ Washington Carver Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business. "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will

have been all of these." ~ Washington Carver Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

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