low SED rates & Impedance Cardiography Testing

[Guest guest]

As many of you probably know, Cheney believes that CFS patients are suffering

from heart problems and he recommends Impedance Cardiography testing.

Rich posted over at CFSFMexperimental the name of the company that makes the

impedance cardiography testing machines. It's kind of funny because it's right

here in San Diego, and yet when I asked a

local Cardiologist for this test he ridiculed the idea telling me I should have

a stress test and some other kind of test which would do everything a ICT could

do. I know Cheney disagrees with that.

Personally, I didn't want to risk the stress of a stress test so said no thanks,

not at this time (meaning not until I find a less obnoxious cardiologist, thank

you very much)

Anyway, here's the link to the company. You can call and they'll tell you who's

using a machine in your area.

http://www.cardiodynamics.com/index.html

And below are some interesting quotes from immunesupport.com on Cheney's views

on CFS patients and heart disease. He also makes some interesting points on CFS

patients' abnormally low SED rates.

Last record of my own SED rate(that I could find) was 4, so he appears to be

right on that front. I've always been frustrated by this because low SED rates

are one of the reasons docs never suspect

that we may have infections.

The heart stuff Cheney is talking about may very well be due to infections to

begin with. If you do decide to get this test, be sure you do it according to

Cheney's instructions, which I think are

special in that you need to be standing up for the most accurate results.

penny

http://www.chronicfatiguesyndromesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/id/6679

CFS Compensates for Idiopathic Cardiomyopathy

" Let me first of all define heart failure. There are two kinds of heart failure.

There's the kind that any cardiologist can diagnose in about a minute. That you

do NOT have. Which is why

cardiologists missed this. What you have is Compensated Idiopathic

Cardiomyopathy. " [idiopathic = cause unknown; cardiomyopathy = structural or

functional disease of heart muscle] " And your primary

means of compensation – now this is the big twist – are you ready? Have you got

your seat belt on? The primary methodology for compensation for this disorder is

in fact CFS itself. " ...

On SED, deformed red blood cells and nitric oxide

" ....The best endogenous scavenger of nitric oxide is hemoglobin. [Hemoglobin is

the " red " in red blood cells – a protein that transports oxygen from the lungs

to the tissues.] " When hemoglobin

scavenges nitric oxide, the nitric oxide bends the hemoglobin, causing the red

blood cells to deform. Dr. Les Simpson in New Zealand found that the red blood

cells of CFIDS patients were deformed,

and when they're deformed they can't get through the capillary bed very well and

can cause pain. "

" An indication of this [RBC deformation] is it also drops the SED rate. CFIDS

patients have the lowest SED rates I've ever recorded, and the ones with the

lowest SED rate may have the greatest

degree of pain. " [sED rate refers to sedimentation rate, and is listed as ESR on

many lab tests.]

" Do you know what your SED rate is by chance? Normal for you would be 15 plus or

minus 5. That's according to the British literature. A female your age has a

higher SED rate than children and males.

And you're probably down around 0 to 3. Which means you have Nitric Oxide

binding hemoglobin, and therefore you have an induced hemoglobinopathy, and red

cell deformation and a low SED rate on that

basis. "

In the Laboratory Textbook of Medicine there are only three diseases that lower

the SED rate to that level. One is Sickle Cell Anemia, a genetic

hemoglobinopathy. The second is CFS, an acquired

hemoglobinopathy – acquired by Nitric Oxide binding. And guess what the third

disease with a low SED rate is? Idiopathic Cardiomyopathy!

The more deformed red blood cells you have, the more pain you may experience.

It's bad enough when you don't perfuse your muscles and your joints [because of

poor microcirculation], but it's even

worse when your red blood cells are so deformed that they can barely get through

the capillaries, or are blocked entirely. Some CFIDS patients have a problem

similar to that of Sickle Cell patients

in this regard, and Sickle Cell patients have unbelievable pain - you have to

give them IV morphine and fluids. That's how they're treated.