Hi Diane:

On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:59:26 -0700, Diane Fagen <dianef84@...>
wrote:

> Hi Dale
>
> How are you?

Not so hot. I've had the winter inflammation set for a few months: lungs,
thyroid, heart, gut, and whatever else.

> Thank you for emailing me the information. As far as your
> hypothesis, I agree with the link between MS and Crohn's. I also think
> that
> Autism is linked also, as well as Fibromyalgia.
> My theory is that MAP attacks everyone in one way or another. You know
> what
> I mean, every family has a predisposition to a particular illness. I
> feel
> that Map is doing damage to the immune system and affecting people in
> different ways. What do you think about my theory?

Assuming that the core problem is MAP and that MAP isn't secondary to
immune deficiency, I think it makes sense that the effect would be
dependent upon where the infection is located. There's clearly a genetic
component to MAP infection as can be seen when comparing the
susceptibility of cattle compared with the susceptibility of primates.
Cattle seem to be more susceptible because they swallow their food, pass
it down into the system where it picks up MAP that's already there, then
they regurgitate it to infect upper portions of the intestines. With
primates, the path is basically one-way tending to make them less
susceptible but they may live longer which could increase the risk. Even
between humans, we're not all as similar as doctors would like to believe.

Besides genetics, there are other factors which could affect both
susceptibility and the location of the infection. Our diets affect the
intestinal environment and the natural balance of intestinal flora which
competes with MAP. The more of a bacteria that we're exposed to, the more
likely we are to become infected.

About 65-90% of fibromyalgia cases are in women, so gender is clearly an
important factor as it is with many diseases. One study found that
fibromyalgia patients were significantly more likely to have: depression,
anxiety, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome researchers have been unable to find a clear distinction between
CFS and fibromyalgia with the two conditions forming a continuum of
symptoms. When the healthcare profession can't identify an infectious
agent causing inflammation, they tend to assume that it must be autoimmune
even if the epidemiology is more suggestive of an infectious agent.

I haven't seen data on where fibromyalgia occurs. It would be interesting
to find out if it's more common in some locations than others.

Many years ago, a doctor at the University of Arizona gave me a skin prick
test using common antigens and the results suggested that I'm almost
completely immune deficient, but he said that I couldn't be that immune
deficient or I'd be having a lot of opportunistic infections. Since then,
other doctors have insisted that my chronic infections can't be
opportunistic because I'm not immune deficient. They order a CBC and look
at the white cell count. It's normal even when I have a serious infection,
which is abnormal, but because it's normal, they assume that my immune
system is intact. Clueless.

My immune system is down but I can't get tested for MAP because I'm not a
cow and no effort has been made to find out what's wrong with my immune
system. In my case, there are too many unknowns to determine what is
causing what else, but the observation that MAP prevents macrophages from
killing E. coli is consistent with the problems I'm having. We desperately
need some serious science for what appears to be an acquired immune
deficiency.

When I had pneumonia last winter, a doctor prescribed an extremely strong
and expensive antibiotic that didn't do a bit of good, I suspect because
it was the wrong antibiotic. This year, I haven't bothered going in
because it's a big waste of money. I have no choice but to see the
cardiologist for him to keep monitoring my blood thinner to prevent a
stroke caused by the heart failure. It's sad that he has no interest in
discovering the cause of the heart failure other than telling me that
atrial fibrillation has suddenly become epidemic which should be a clue.

-- Dale
<http://DaleRoose.com>
Moral relativism is saying that waterboarding may or may not be torture
relative to the circumstances.