Re: Neurotoxin theory Question?

[Guest guest]

I read through the article,I did not see the supplementation for

MSH,can you give the name,and also the lab. where you can get tested

for M.S.H.thank you jeff

> i know we have been discussing this topic at length (so this isn't

> new), but this article explains more thoroughly the connections

> bewteen neurotoxin, HPA-axis dysfunction and genetic

predisposition.

> also, some interesting ideas on how to oversome it. icluding, MSH

> supplementation. if it is too long to get through (and believe me i

> know this feeling all to well), definitely try to read the last

third.

>

> thanks

> bill

>

> here is the actual link:

>

> http://www.fibromyalgiasupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/3990/

>

>

> New Theory Links Neurotoxins with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lyme,

MCS

> and Other Mystery Illnesses

> Fibromyalgiasupport.com

>

> 11-29-2002

>

> By Patti Schmidt

> Two doctors believe they've discovered a new brand of illness and a

> new way for pathogens to make people sick. They also have an FDA-

> approved treatment that was effective in a small, preliminary

> clinical trial.

>

> neurotoxic /nõr'ò tok'sik/, anything having a poisonous effect on

> nerves and nerve cells, such as the effect of lead on the brain and

> nerves. -The Mosby Medical Encyclopedia

>

> There are many theories and much disagreement about what causes

> Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

(MCS),

> fibromyalgia (FM) and some other chronic multi-symptom illnesses.

> Some science points to abnormalities in the immune system's viral-

> fighting pathways; other research to a cascading combination of

> genealogical, environmental, and health-and personality-related

> events and factors that begin with a predisposition and a " bug " and

> ends with someone who's chronically ill. And despite a rash of

recent

> scientific evidence to the contrary, some out-of-touch physicians

> still insist sufferers are just depressed.

>

> While some blame stress and societal ills for the widespread

fatigue,

> depression, joint pain and cognitive problems common to these

> illnesses, recent research suggests these problems may instead be

> linked to toxins generated by cells gone awry-that many people are

> chronically ill due to biotoxins in their system they cannot

> eliminate naturally.

>

> Two scientists - family practice physician Ritchie C. Shoemaker and

> EPA neurotoxicologist H. Hudnell, Ph.D., - have collected

> data to back up this " neurotoxin-mediated illness " theory, and

> they've developed both a simple way to test for neurotoxins and a

> treatment protocol featuring an effective, FDA-approved

prescription

> medicine that flushes toxins safely from the body.

>

> Shoemaker's website features information and research as well as a

> way to measure toxin exposure potential. After answering a brief

> health questionnaire about symptoms and some questions designed to

> eliminate confounding factors, it takes just five minutes and $8.95

> to take the online Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) test, which

> measures the impact of neurotoxins on brain function.

>

> Data from the questionnaire and vision test are analyzed

immediately

> to determine if users are likely " positive " or " negative " for

> neurotoxins. The website doesn't make an official diagnosis, but

> gives a push in the right direction. Users can then take the test

> results to a physician so they can be treated if necessary.

>

> The two say they have data to support the claim that 90 percent of

> the people who test positive for neurotoxins improve following

their

> treatment protocol.

>

> " If you have the VCS deficit, the potential for biotoxin exposure,

> and don't have other exposures or medical conditions that could

> explain the deficit, our data indicate that the response to toxin-

> binding therapy is over 90 percent, " says Ritchie C. Shoemaker,

M.D.,

> the physician who helped develop the theory and the treatment. The

> story of how a small-town family practice physician and a civil

> servant who works for the EPA came up with that theory- and how

they

> found a treatment for the 10 million Americans they claim it can

help-

> is at least as interesting as the theory itself.

>

> The scientist

>

> Ritchie Shoemaker always planned to have a rural primary care

> practice. He graduated from Duke University Medical School in North

> Carolina in 1977, courtesy of the National Health Service Corps,

> which paid for his medical education in return for a stint serving

> under-served areas of the U.S. In July of 1980, following a Family

> Practice residency in port, Pa., the NHSC sent him to its

> clinic in Pokomoke City, Md.

>

> " I could hardly believe that the government was going to pay my way

> through a few years at Duke Medical School, in order to do

something

> I already wanted to do, " he said.

>

> Pokomoke City was then a thinly populated small town situated along

> the Pokomoke River, a tributary of the 200-mile long Chesapeake

Bay.

> The Pokomoke itself flows South from Delaware, 80-miles long and

just

> 50 yards wide in some places.

>

> At the time they settled there, Shoemaker and his young wife JoAnn

> were newlyweds. Taking great pleasure in the idyllic setting, they

> became involved in civic activities; had a daughter, Sally; and

began

> protecting the unique ecology of the Lower Eastern Shore, building

> and restoring wetland ponds, wetland gardens and a mile-long nature

> trail.

>

> " This was everything I had ever wanted, " said the doctor. " I had

the

> love of a spouse and family, the love of my practice and of my

land.

> I was happy. "

>

> In 1996, the first reports of " sick fish " in the river began

> appearing in local newspapers. It wasn't long afterward that some

of

> his friends and patients began complaining of flu-like

> symptoms. " They had nasty headaches, diarrhea, rash, cough,

> persistent muscle aches and failures in short-term memory, " says

> Shoemaker.

>

> His intuition, backed by a solid grounding in science (he was a

> biology major in his undergraduate days) told him the sick fish and

> the sudden illness among his patients were related. When someone

> brought him a dead fish, fresh from the Pokomoke, the curious young

> doctor put it under a microscope.

>

> " The link was the river, " Shoemaker says in the book he wrote about

> these events, Pfiesteria: Crossing Dark Water. " Each one of them

had

> spent time working or playing in the slow-moving Pokomoke during

the

> summer of 1997. "

>

> He had no idea that what was under that microscope would change his

> life and put him at the uneasy nexus where politics, ecology and

> medicine meet.

>

> The collaborator

>

> Meanwhile, Shoemaker's research collaborator Hilton

Hudnell,

> PhD, a calm, soft-spoken neurotoxicologist, was building a civil

> service career at the Environmental Protection Agency.

>

> Ken Hudnell grew up in North Carolina, where the Neuse and Trent

> rivers join at New Bern. In a twist of fate, the Neuse was where

> Pfiesteria-related fish kills were first found - the very same

> organism thought to produce the devastating effects Shoemaker

> observed under his microscope and in his clinic.

>

> " It's not the same river system that I played on while growing up, "

> says Hudnell today. " Back then there were few fish kills, and

people

> didn't associate human illness with them. My nemesis was seaweed

> growing on the bottom and clogging my outboard motor. Now in many

> places, the seaweed has been choked out by surface blooms of

> cyanobacteria-blue-green algae- due to pollutant runoff from

massive

> hog farms upstream from New Bern. "

>

> A one-celled dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria piscicida is colloquially

> known as the " fish killer " in areas where it has wreaked its havoc

on

> the local ecosystem.

>

> Pfiesteria wasn't the first dinoflagellate that caught Ken

Hudnell's

> attention. After majoring in chemistry and psychology at the

> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he moved to the Virgin

> Islands for three years to start a diving business.

>

> " I soon learned that you don't eat certain types of fish that feed

> around the reefs, " he remembered. " Those fish ate a dinoflagellate

> called Ciguatera and accumulated their toxins. When people ate the

> fish, they got violently ill. Many recovered completely after a few

> days, but others remained chronically ill. Now I know why - they

had

> biotoxin circulating in their bodies that they couldn't eliminate. "

> His experience with ciguatoxins and other biotoxins in the

Caribbean

> compelled Hudnell to return to the U.S. to enter graduate school.

" I

> wanted to understand the relationships between neurobiology, toxic

> exposures and human illness, " he said.

>

> Hudnell received a graduate degree from his alma mater and is an

> adjunct professor there now. His work at the EPA's National Health

> and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, which involves using

a

> battery of neurobehavioral and electrophysiological tests to

measure

> sensory, motor and cognitive functions in people affected by toxic

> exposures, has been recognized with two of the agency's Science and

> Technology Achievement Rewards.

>

> At the EPA, Dr. Hudnell developed a theory explaining the worldwide

> increase in biotoxin-related events: human activities and natural

> events impact the earth's water, land and air, altering the habitat

> and promoting the development and spread of toxic organisms. Those

> toxic organisms, in turn, impact man as well as the ecosystem we

all

> have to share.

>

> It's an interdependent circle, which features mankind using up

land,

> air and sea resources, all the while ignoring the symptoms of

> burgeoning environmental problems that place us in peril.

>

> Two hundred and fifty miles north, Ritchie Shoemaker was

> independently coming to the same conclusions. Chronic illness, he

was

> beginning to believe, was partly a result of the damage we've done

to

> the ecosystem.

>

> Take Lyme disease, for example: As millions of people in the city

> moved to the suburbs- and then further out into the countryside

when

> the suburbs became crowded- they altered the habitat to one favored

> by mice and deer. Houses and new landscaping provided food and

cover,

> and eliminated the predators of a growing deer population.

>

> Deer and mice are tolerant hosts, allowing ticks to complete their

> life cycle by providing a reservoir of blood-borne pathogens for

the

> ticks to deposit into a human who happens to be in the " wrong "

place

> (like his back yard), at the wrong time, leaving behind a tell tale

> trail of acute or chronic illness. If we hadn't destroyed their

> original habitat, in other words, we may never have gotten close

> enough to become a temporary feeding trough for the tick.

>

> The doctor and the scientist met when Shoemaker, hungry for more

data

> on Pfiesteria, called Hudnell at the EPA one July morning in

> 1998. " At 10:15 a.m., I read that Ken had found Pfiesteria patients

> showed a visual contrast deficit that lasted a year or more, "

> remembers Shoemaker. " By 10:17 a.m., we were on the phone and

working

> together. "

>

> Hudnell's early work as a UNC undergraduate led him to the VCS

> literature. He developed a VCS test on an oscilloscope screen early

> in his graduate studies there, soon after it was first reported in

> the scientific literature that the visual system was more sensitive

> to mid-size bar patterns than to smaller- or larger-size bar

> patterns. " I realized that this meant there were different

processes

> in the eye and brain for detecting different aspects of a visual

> pattern, and I wanted to understand how they worked, " he said.

" Later

> I found that those processes were differentially susceptible to

> disruption by various toxins and disease processes. "

>

> While VCS testing had been used in neurotoxic exposure, Hudnell was

> the first to use it to measure the effects of biotoxin exposure and

> heavy metal toxicity, or as a marker for neurotoxic exposures like

> Pfiesteria.

>

> The mystery

>

> Back at microscope in the summer of 1997, Shoemaker found a slimy

> fish that was the first example he saw of just how much damage a

> toxin-producing organism could do in the right set of

circumstances.

>

> In his search for answers, over the next few years he became

> intimately familiar with the habits and neurotoxic illnesses of

fresh

> water and sea animals including fish, birds, alligators, turtles

and

> pelicans. He studied basic and esoteric subjects, including

predator-

> prey relationships of aquatic invertebrates; plants; phytoplankton;

> the pathology of invertebrate organisms in marine and estuarine

> environments; pesticide physiology; and the study of the

rhizosphere,

> the interface between a root and its immediate environment.

>

> He consulted experts in fields such as pathology; toxicology;

> biochemistry; geochemistry; physiology; estuarine limnology; and

even

> membrane ionophore chemistry, the study of the passage of organisms

> and molecules in aqueous solutions across membranes. He learned how

> pesticides degrade in air, water and subsoils.

>

> Given the intense political controversy that an environmentally

> acquired illness like Pfiesteria created, he needed this knowledge

to

> piece together a mystery: Was there a link between the fish kills

and

> the illnesses his patients were suffering? Why didn't the body rid

> itself of these toxins naturally? Do bacteria, fungi, algae and

other

> tiny organisms manufacture toxins that linger on in the human body,

> long after the organisms themselves are dead?

>

> Eventually, Shoemaker figured out that his patients had a new

> illness, originally named Pfiesteria human illness syndrome in his

> 1997 article in the land Medical Journal. The CDC renamed the

> illness " Estuarine-Associated Syndrome " in 1998, and " Possible

> Estuarine-Associated Syndrome " (PEAS) in 2000.

>

> It took Shoemaker a few more years to put together his " chronic

> neurotoxin-mediated illness " theory and some time after that to

> gather the data to tell him his theory was sound. In the end, he

> believes he and Hudnell have discovered a new brand of illness and

a

> new way for pathogens to make people sick. The two have continued

to

> gather data fleshing out the theory with more clinical and

molecular

> information.

>

> In the meantime, Shoemaker built up his medical practice, winning

the

> 2000 land Family Doctor of the Year Award and being named one

of

> five finalists for the National Family Practice Doctor of the Year

> Award in 2002. At the same time, he battled state and local

> bureaucrats who continued to tell people, " the river is safe, "

> despite evidence to the contrary.

>

> When Shoemaker went to the press with his theory and his data

during

> the outbreak in land in 1997, the bureaucrats did everything

they

> could to ruin his reputation. One state official quoted in the

local

> newspapers accused him of " scientific malpractice, " and claimed he

> was " out of his field " when it came to the sciences.

>

> Their refusal to see -and say -the truth simply drove him to work

> harder. When residents near the St. Lucie River near Stuart on

> Florida's East Coast suffered a rash of dinoflagellate illnesses in

> 1998, they listened to Shoemaker's theories of copper toxicity.

> Copper binds to pesticides, giving them easier entrance into

> organisms. If predators of dinoflagellates are more susceptible to

> the copper-pesticide toxicity than dinoflagellates, a decrease in

the

> predator population could result in an increase in the

dinoflagellate

> population. Also, if prey of dinoflagellates are killed at lower

> exposure levels than dinoflagellates, this might put pressure on

the

> dinoflagellates to produce and release toxins in order to kill fish

> for a food source.

>

> Then Florida officials earmarked $30 million to build lagoons that

> filter runoff from copper-laden citrus groves, bought wetland farms

> to restore them and dredged contaminated sections of the St. Lucie.

> They levied a three-year, one percent sales tax to pay for these

> improvements.

>

> The CSM treatment proved just as effective in Florida as it did in

> land. About 15 residents and investigators working on the St.

> Lucie became ill with multiple systems symptoms and suffered a VCS

> deficit. They responded well to CSM therapy given by four local

> Florida physicians.

>

> But like the guy who discovered that a bug causes ulcers, Shoemaker

> found the medical community in land reluctant to applaud his

new

> theory. In fact, it was met with active resistance, he said. For

> example, the head of ophthalmology at the University of land

> School of Medicine dismissed the value of visual contrast testing

in

> helping to diagnose Lyme disease by simply saying, " I don't think

> so. "

>

> In his spare time, Shoemaker also wrote four books: Gateway Press,

in

> Baltimore, Md., published Pfiesteria: Crossing Dark Water, a 360-

page

> tally of the outbreak in the waters of the Pokomoke, in 1997;

Weight

> Loss and Maintenance: My Way Works, a 325-page explanation of a

> weight loss mechanism with maintenance rates that exceed 70

percent,

> in 1998; and Desperation Medicine, the 519-page saga of his

findings

> that neurotoxins are responsible for many chronic illnesses, in

2001.

> His latest book, Lose the Weight You Hate, is a 454-page update of

> his earlier diet primer which adds recipes, an explanation of how

> neurotoxic illnesses contribute to obesity and diabetes, and a

> discussion of the importance of genes and how they effect weight

> loss.

>

> The test

>

> Despite the disbelief, Shoemaker and Hudnell can point to data,

> accumulated since the mid-60s, that visual contrast sensitivity

> deficits exist in diseases like Type 1 diabetes, multiple

sclerosis,

> and in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

>

> In fact, experts suspect that many diseases involve deficits in

> visual perception, but there's little research relating toxic

> exposures to differences in visual function before diagnosing

> disease. Visual contrast sensitivity testing assesses the quality

of

> vision. It differs from typical visual acuity testing in that it

> simulates " real-world " circumstances, while routine visual acuity

> testing measures eyesight under the best possible conditions.

>

> " That's why measuring visual contrast sensitivity in patients who

> report difficulty with their vision, yet see well on the

conventional

> visual acuity eye chart, is particularly useful, " says Hudnell. The

> test is performed by showing the patient a series of stripes or

bars

> that slant in different directions. The patient must identify which

> way each series of stripes is tilted. As the test progresses, the

> bars become thinner and lighter. People with excellent contrast

> sensitivity can discern the orientation of even very light, thin

> bars; patients with neurotoxic damage cannot.

>

> After chronic exposure to many organic solvents, VCS is the most

> sensitive indicator of effects from many toxins, either because the

> visual system is highly susceptible to neurotoxins or because even

> small deficits can be measured, according to Hudnell.

>

> " The visual system is the ideal place to look for evidence of

> neurotoxicity, " he says. " The retina is a microcosm of the brain;

it

> contains most of the cell types and biochemicals that are in the

> brain. So the retina is as susceptible as the rest of the brain to

> neurotoxic effects. "

>

> According to Hudnell, this " piece of brain, " being near the front

of

> the face, is in close contact with the environment. Chemicals may

be

> directly absorbed from the air into the retina, so the potential

for

> exposure to neurotoxins is greater in the retina than in the brain.

> But unlike the brain, he points out, the visual system has few

> functional outputs (pattern and motion detection, or color

> discrimination, for example) and we can easily measure them. The

VCS

> test measures the least amount of stimulation needed to detect a

> stationary pattern.

>

> " As neurologic function decreases due to toxicity, more and more

> stimulation is needed to see the patterns, " he explains.

>

> The effect can be huge; the Pfiesteria cohort in one of Shoemaker

and

> Hudnell's studies showed a 60 percent loss of VCS on average

relative

> to controls.

>

> " When we see VCS drops like this following exposure, and see it

> recover following treatment to eliminate the toxins, we're seeing

an

> indication of how strongly the toxins may be affecting the entire

> nervous system, " says Hudnell. " Of course, biotoxins don't just

> affect the nervous system. They trigger release of inflammatory

> agents in the body that can inflame almost any organ and cause

> multiple-system symptoms. "

>

> The theory

>

> And that's where Shoemaker and Hudnell's theory begins, with

> biotoxins in the body that some people - as many as 10 million

> Americans - cannot naturally eliminate, resulting in many chronic

> illnesses.

>

> The two men believe these poisonous chemical compounds continually

> circuit the human body, shuttling from nerve to muscle to brain to

> sinus to G.I. tract and other organs, triggering the familiar

> symptoms.

>

> These symptoms are similar to those caused by infectious agents,

and

> so is the effect they have on nerve, muscle, lung, intestines,

brain

> and sinus, say the researchers.

>

> Shoemaker and Hudnell say the compounds are manufactured by a

growing

> number of microorganisms that thrive in our ecosystem due to

changes

> in the human habitat.

>

> " New biotoxins or toxin-forming organisms are being identified all

> the time, " notes Hudnell.

>

> Some, like the deer tick that passes along Lyme disease, do so

> directly. Toxin-forming bugs such as the fungi (Stachybotrys and

> others) that cause " sick-building syndrome " and the blue-green

algae

> (Cylindrospermopsis and Microcystis) that poison people and animals

> in most of the lakes in Central Florida, do their work by releasing

> their toxins into air or water.

>

> And although the pathogens differ, Shoemaker and Hudnell say the

> biotoxins they produce all do their damage by setting off a

> similar " exaggerated inflammatory response " in humans. While hiding

> out in fatty tissues where blood-borne disease-fighters can't get

at

> them, they trick the body's immune system into launching attacks

> against joints, muscles, nerves and brain.

>

> There is increasing evidence to show these attacks are carried out

by

> a newly discovered group of molecules, the " pro-inflammatory

> cytokines, " and that the destruction they cause is linked to recent

> surges in the rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Illnesses

> once blamed solely on diet and life-style choices are now being

shown

> to have an inflammatory basis.

>

> And while infections cause a cytokine response from white blood

> cells, especially macrophages, the cytokine response to neurotoxins

> comes from fat cells.

>

> " The body can turn off the macrophage cytokine response, so that

the

> achiness, fever, headache and fatigue of a cold will go away, but

> there's no negative feedback that stops the cytokine response from

> fat cells, " says Shoemaker. " So the illness doesn't self-heal. " The

> team's research found that through typing of immune response genes,

> the HLA DR, they can show that individual susceptibility to

> particular neurotoxins is associated with particular genetic

factors

> not found in others with a different neurotoxic illness or in

> controls. In other words, they're beginning to crack the code to

show

> that some people are genetically predisposed to get certain chronic

> fatiguing illnesses.

>

> But the research that links these things - the exaggerated

> inflammatory response, which may also involve an autoimmune

response

> by a process called " molecular mimicry " -and its link to heart

> disease, for example, is in its infancy, so the medical community

> remains skeptical.

>

> Nonetheless, Shoemaker thinks these provocative discoveries will

> eventually require researchers to confront the grim possibility

that

> these organisms have learned how to skew immune responses by using

> powerful toxins to decimate the body's disease protection system.

The

> diagnosis According to Shoemaker, a diagnosis of chronic, biotoxin-

> induced illness is based on biotoxin exposure potential, multiple

> system symptoms, the VCS deficit discovered by Dr. Hudnell, and no

> other reasonable explanation for the illness. " As opposed to

> illnesses which have no supporting tests or biomarkers like

> fibromyalgia, CFS, depression, irritable bowel disease, or just

> getting older, our approach gives the physician readily obtained

hard

> data to use as a marker and, more importantly, as a monitor that

> changes dynamically with response to treatment, " says Shoemaker.

> Hudnell points out that new tests for cytokine levels, hormone

levels

> and blood flow in the microvasculature of the retina help

> characterize how biotoxins induce chronic illness. The new HLA

> genotype tests (the DNA PCR assays -not the serology or transplant

> tests) also help identify people who are at risk for developing

> chronic illness from particular biotoxins because they're unable to

> eliminate those toxins.

>

> " Patients must have a compatible history, the deficit in VCS, the

HLA

> genotype, an abnormal cytokine response, and the abnormal effects

of

> cytokines on hypothalamic hormones, especially melanocyte

stimulating

> hormone (MSH), " said Shoemaker. " All CFS patients should have the

MSH

> test done. "

>

> Shoemaker and Hudnell's data show that there's a group of CSM

> treatment-resistant CFS patients who are coagulase negative Staph

> (CNS) positive and who have high leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone

> made by fat cells that signals the satiety center in the

hypothalamus

> that a person is no longer hungry.

>

> Leptin stimulates the production of alpha melanocyte stimulating

> hormone (MSH), which in turn controls production of endorphins (the

> body's natural " opiates " ) and melatonin (which regulates sleep) in

> the hypothalamus. CFS patients rarely have much MSH. Eradicating

CNS

> does nothing to the high leptin and low MSH levels in patients

> with " end-stage CFS, " says Shoemaker, but it certainly does in

> patients who are diagnosed acutely and treated aggressively,

> preventing irreversible damage to the MSH-manufacturing pathway.

>

> " We must recognize that the process by which CFS develops may

include

> an acute neurotoxic event which includes upper respiratory

symptoms, "

> says Shoemaker.

>

> Shoemaker believes that the secondary cytokine damage from

neurotoxic

> exposure changes the mucus membranes in the nose, allowing biofilm-

> forming, slow-growing CNS to release hemolysins (once called delta

> toxins) that in turn activate a powerful cytokine response. The

boost

> in cytokines disrupts the leptin-MSH production link. This classic,

> positive feedback system increases cytokines and CNS and reduces

MSH.

>

> " While the data is certainly compatible with this model, I haven't

> asked for volunteers to put CNS in their noses to watch for

> subsequent development of CFS, " says Shoemaker jokingly. But the

team

> has found particular genotypes of the immune response genes in HLA-

DR

> that show marked consistency within a diagnosis group and marked

> disparity in other diagnostic groups.

>

> Shoemaker won't yet say that the HLA DR genes or the abnormalities

in

> the leptin/MSH pathway are the " Holy Grail " of CFS research, but

will

> admit that there are unique HLA genes in his CFS patients; that his

> Sick Building Syndrome patients have at least three unique triplets

> of gene biomarkers; his Post-Lyme patients have two; and that these

> gene-types are quite different from each other. Is CFS an illness

> that includes a genetic susceptibility to particular neurotoxins,

> which trigger cytokines associated with carrying CNS, that produce

> nerve, hormone and immune system dysfunction in the ventromedial

> nucleus of the hypothalamus? Maybe, says Shoemaker.

>

> " If our study shows that replacement of MSH improves many (or

most!)

> of the abnormalities of CFS, I'll believe that, " says Shoemaker.

That

> study will be done after the animal studies required by the FDA are

> completed. They hope it will establish an effective MSH dose and

the

> most effective method of MSH delivery, as well as confirm that

> symptoms reoccur when MSH is stopped, and then again show benefit

> when an effective does is reinstituted.

>

> They'll do baseline VCS tests and MSH levels first, and will

attempt

> to show that high levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-

> 1), tumor necrosis factor alpha and leptin improve after treatment.

>

> A longer trial is planned, pending initial results. That study,

which

> will be done when funds are obtained, will also attempt to show

that

> high levels of PAI-1 and leptin improve after treatment. Shoemaker

> believes PAI-1 is likely to be responsible for the extra clotting

and

> vascular disease frequently found in CFS patients, and that once

> leptin levels fall, CFS patients who have gained weight will be

able

> to lose it.

>

> The website

>

> Before you can take the CS exam at Dr. Shoemaker's web site

> (http://www.chronicneurotoxins.com), you have to register and get a

> log-in identity and password, as well as answer symptom and medical

> history questionnaires. Then you can buy a VCS test for $8.95, or a

> package with several tests and treatment protocols for $49.95. The

> preliminary test (a free questionnaire) assesses the symptoms

> commonly associated with biotoxin-induced illness, as well as your

> potential for exposure.

>

> " Many symptoms of and potential exposures to biotoxins are not yet

> well known by physicians, " says Shoemaker, " So they're easily

> overlooked. "

>

> After you take the test, your results are available immediately.

They

> can also be sent to your physician. If your physician isn't

familiar

> with the theory or protocol, the website mentions a list of

referral

> physicians across the nation, or you can request to see Dr.

Shoemaker

> in his Pokomoke City office. (A second part to this article will

> detail the author's diagnostic and treatment experiences at Dr.

> Shoemaker's clinic.)

>

> The treatment protocol

>

> Cholestyramine (CSM) is an FDA-approved medication which has been

> used to safely lower elevated levels of cholesterol for more than

20

> years. It isn't absorbed; if it's not taken with food, it binds

> cholesterol, bile salts and biological toxins from bile in the

small

> intestine, and then the CSM-toxin complex is excreted harmlessly.

> Science - or Shoemaker and Hudnell -doesn't have definitive answers

> yet as to exactly how or why CSM clears neurotoxins from the body,

> but a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over clinical trial

of

> eight Pfiesteria patients positive for biotoxins showed that those

> who took a placebo remained ill, but improved following CSM

> treatment. Data from 30 others he's gathered since matches the

> original study data.

>

> Shoemaker says while some patients notice immediate improvements,

> Lyme disease patients who've been sick for more than five years

> usually require toxin-binding therapy for 4-8 weeks, he says. " Most

> patients improve in two weeks, some with complete abatement of

> symptoms, but depending on the amount of toxin in your body, it may

> take longer, " says Shoemaker.

>

> He believes the response of these patients to CSM therapy shows the

> underlying common theme of neurotoxin-mediated illness, and that

the

> proof that toxins were responsible for the illness is found when

> patients recover, i.e., have no symptoms following treatment with

his

> protocol.

>

> " The proof of neurotoxin effect comes from watching the biomarkers

> change with treatment and relapse with re-exposure, " says

> Shoemaker. " There's very strong evidence, especially in the Sick

> Building Syndrome patients. " Hudnell agrees.

>

> " The best evidence that biotoxins are causing the illnesses comes

> from cases with repeated illness, " says the toxicologist. " When you

> see patients with chronic illness recover vision as symptoms

resolve

> while being treated with a drug that can do nothing but remove

> compounds from circulation, then see vision plummet and symptoms

> return following re-exposure to sources of toxins, and finally see

re-

> recovery with re-treatment, sometimes for three or four cycles, you

> become convinced that it's the toxins causing the illness. "

>

> In another study of 51 post Lyme disease patients treated with CSM

> after a tick bite, both those who tested positive and those who

> tested negative to Lyme had the same number of symptoms after

> treatment as matched controls. Shoemaker says that data from more

> than 500 other patients he's seen since matches the study data.

Prior

> to treatment, the chronic Lyme disease patients had a statistically

> significant VCS deficit. Following treatment, all patients'

clinical

> syndrome was gone; and their VCS scores and the number of symptoms

> were the same as that of the controls.

>

> Some of these Lyme disease patients, especially those who'd been

sick

> longer then three years, suffered what Shoemaker calls " a symptom

> intensification reaction " early in CSM therapy, similar to, but

more

> intense than, the Herxheimer reactions experienced previously

during

> antibiotic treatment. The reaction was reduced with pioglitazone

> (Actos) therapy or prevented by pretreatment with Actos, which

> downregulates proinflammatory cytokine production by fat cells.

> Patients who weren't reexposed to another tick bite didn't relapse,

> though follow-up was stopped at 18 months.

>

> There are other diagnoses- chronic Ciguatera seafood poisoning,

> Possible Estuary Associated Syndrome, brown recluse spider bites

and

> mycotoxicosis-that were thought to involve biotoxins, but for which

> there was no known, effective treatment. Shoemaker has treated

> patients with these illnesses successfully with cholestyramine,

too.

> Over the years Hudnell has done studies that linked environmental

> exposure to neurotoxicants like airborne solvents and metals to

> adverse neurologic effects in humans, including VCS deficits. But

> there was no treatment for it.

>

> " There was nothing I could do to help them, and the impairments

were

> permanent, " he said. " So I was ecstatic when we found that a simple

> treatment, taken for a short period of time, could benefit so many

> people who had suffered severe chronic illness due to biotoxins. "

> News spreading Others have gotten excited about this research:

> Cheney has used the VCS test and a modified version of the protocol

> to treat patients at his Bald Head Island Clinic in North Carolina.

>

> Chuck Lapp, director of the Hunter Hopkins Center in Charlotte, NC,

> also plans to put one of the machines in his office. " A number of

my

> patients have complained that I wear loud, patterned clothing, and

> that it bothers their vision when I wear a patterned tie, so I

think

> there may be something to this, " he said.

>

> There are also almost 50 physicians in a nationwide referral

network

> who are familiar with the VCS test and the treatment protocol; for

> more information, contact the website for the name and number of

the

> doctor nearest you.

>

> Recent advances

>

> In June, Hudnell and Shoemaker presented data from their latest

> studies on Sick Building Syndrome and Post Lyme Syndrome at the 8th

> International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in

> Occupational and Environmental Health in Brescia, Italy, where Dr.

> Hudnell chaired a session on biotoxins. Shoemaker co-chaired. Next,

> they plan to conduct human studies that will more definitively

> characterize the proinflammatory cytokine basis of chronic,

biotoxin-

> induced illness, and describe the permanent damage that they think

> has occurred in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis of

> those who had the highest exposure levels for the longest periods

of

> time.

>

> They also want to do the animal studies and human trials needed for

> FDA approval of hormone replacement therapy that they think will

help

> those with permanent damage. To that end, Dr. Shoemaker has

> established a not-for-profit corporation, the Center for Research

on

> Biotoxin Associated Illness (CRBAI).

>

> " If the research is to get done, CRBAI needs to raise funds through

> grants and donations from private organizations and individuals

> because there is virtually no Federal funding of research in this

> area, " said Shoemaker.

>

> In the meantime, he still sees patients every day in his Market

> Street office, many suffering from chronic, neurotoxic illnesses.

> Both Shoemaker and Hudnell routinely get calls from all over the

> world asking for advice on toxic outbreaks and how to treat them.

New

> patients are still taking the tests on the website and beginning

CSM

> treatment.

>

> So as physician Osler advocated long before the advent of

the

> biotoxin-mediated illness theory, to find the proper diagnosis,

> Ritchie Shoemaker listens to the patient.

>

> " Recognizing the pattern of a neurotoxic illness is as subtle as

> being run over by a steamroller, once you learn how to ask the

right

> questions, " he says.

>

> Physicians need to learn to ask the patient a few more questions in

a

> new order-in essence, take an organized neurotoxin history, he

> says. " All our biomarkers and all our data and all our nice

molecular

> models simply provide an academic foundation for what the bedside

> physician already knows to be true, " insists Shoemaker. " The toxins

> did it. "

[Guest guest]

jeff

here is an exerpt from the article that refers to MSH supplementation.

the tests that DR Shoemaker advocates include MSH, TNF, HLA-DR by

PCR, Leptin and a Nasal Culture (with speciation and resistances).

i belive he likes to use Labcorp (a national company that will bill

insurance) and also Esoterix (especially for the culture).

here is a link to Labcorp:

http://www.labcorp.com/datasets/labcorp/html/chapter/index.htm

here is a link for Esoterix:

http://www.esoterix.com/

" ....Is CFS an illness that includes a genetic susceptibility to

particular neurotoxins, which trigger cytokines associated with

carrying CNS, that produce nerve, hormone and immune system

dysfunction in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus? Maybe,

says Shoemaker.

" If our study shows that replacement of MSH improves many (or most!)

of the abnormalities of CFS, I'll believe that, " says Shoemaker. That

study will be done after the animal studies required by the FDA are

completed. They hope it will establish an effective MSH dose and the

most effective method of MSH delivery, as well as confirm that

symptoms reoccur when MSH is stopped, and then again show benefit

when an effective does is reinstituted.

They'll do baseline VCS tests and MSH levels first, and will attempt

to show that high levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-

1), tumor necrosis factor alpha and leptin improve after treatment.

A longer trial is planned, pending initial results. That study, which

will be done when funds are obtained, will also attempt to show that

high levels of PAI-1 and leptin improve after treatment. Shoemaker

believes PAI-1 is likely to be responsible for the extra clotting and

vascular disease frequently found in CFS patients, and that once

leptin levels fall, CFS patients who have gained weight will be able

to lose it..... "

> I read through the article,I did not see the supplementation for

> MSH,can you give the name,and also the lab. where you can get

tested

> for M.S.H.thank you jeff

[Guest guest]

i just want to add that i don't have any direct experience with any

of this. i am just piecing together info from a bunch of different

sources. alot has come from this site and alot from the stealth

virus site. the moderator over there (h lynn knapp) often posts

emails from Dr Shoemaker on this topic.

thanks

bill

> > I read through the article,I did not see the supplementation for

> > MSH,can you give the name,and also the lab. where you can get

> tested

> > for M.S.H.thank you jeff

[Guest guest]

My brain is really fogged, so hopefully I will make sense here.

*Can someone explain why Shoemaker does not distinguish between neurotoxic

damage from solvents, etc., and from fish, etc.? I am fairly sure that my

own neurotoxic exposure came directly from pesticides -- I developed marked

visual disturbance and reading difficulties after a great deal of pesticide

exposure.

*Can someone direct me to any posts that actually outline Shoemaker's use of

MSH supplementation for neurotoxins? Also, what exactly IS MSH?

Thanks!

Peggy

*********************************

web page: www.angelfire.com/ri/strickenbk