Monday, June 10, 2013

It has been a very long time since I have posted about my healing journey with Morgellon's. I have learned a huge key. I think, in fact, I have learned what the actual issue is, instead of just grappling with the effects.  It's wheat gluten intolerance. You can get tested by Cyrex Labs by a doctor signed on with the lab. Cyrex is the only lab who accurately tests for this problem. Do not get a regular medical test which is a waste of money. Cyrex has the top immunologists on gluten intolerance working there. There are 24 blood markers associated with each enzymatic step of the gluten breakdown process. If a person is not able to complete one of the steps, the body may turn on itself in autoimmune attack. And guess what? There is one marker associated with autoimmune attack on the follicles.

Since I have gone 100% gluten free over two years ago, I got 100% remission of my Morgellon's symptoms. I additionally got improved symptoms around my thyroid (tiredness and a deep coldness), and my digestion. But many people who are gluten intolerant have no digestive symptoms at all.

After about 2 years, some of my symptoms returned. In particular, the snapping, prickling, writhing, crawly, and popping sensations of the skin came back, but less so. At first, I thought, oh God, it wasn't just the gluten thing.... It's back! But then one day I overindulged in dairy, eating a whole large container of sour cream (my weakness), and my skin symptoms were so much worse the next day and weeks after. Usually, I'm an IgG girl (meaning that my allergy responses to food or poison oak) come about two weeks later, so it is hard to peg any symptom on a food. But this dairy thing was clear to me. Having come the next day, it was an IgE reaction.

Now there is a thing called gluten cross-reactivity. This means that when your body identifies one amino acid sequence in a protein as the enemy, then the body will attack any protein with that same sequence (thus the attack on self). There is a test by Cyrex that tests the foods that are most commonly cross reactive. Some people have no cross-reactive foods, some have many cross reactivities, or anywhere in between.

Since I have got rid of dairy, my symptoms are mostly gone. But I must say though...just like the years of gluten "minimization" that preceded my "elimination,"I did not get results until I went 100% gluten free including all hidden sources in soy sauce, condiments, beer, packaged foods, bubbly french fries, food in shared friers, etc. And I have not 100% eliminated dairy yet. I had mozzarella cheese and tomato salad (1 piece of cheese) in the last three weeks, for example. But gluten reactions have been studied to last up to 9 months long from just one exposure at most. My worst flare up was for three months from eating fries at Betty Burger, not knowing that they spray something on it to make it bubbly/crispy, likely "deamidated gluten"--the worst kind found in processed foods.

Also, know that the best single thing you can do for your body chemistry is cooked green vegetables. Ah, I'm going to sign out now, but I can tell you why the chemical effect later, and it has to do with the flora in the gut.