Osteopathic Manual Medicine
Biomechanics is the study of physics and physical laws as they are applied to the body. Using the same concepts as in the field of Structural and Mechanical Engineering, looking at stress and strain patterns, torque, sheer, elasticity, visco-elasticity, force and resultant force vectors, loads, compression and tension dynamics. Biomechanics is the study of physics and physical laws as they are applied to the body. In fact, it uses the same concepts as in the field of Structural and Mechanical Engineering, looking at stress and strain patterns, torque, sheer, elasticity, visco-elasticity, force and resultant force vectors, loads, compression, and tension dynamics. The basic underlying objective of the biomechanically based osteopathic physician is first to establish the underlying physical causal relationships between lack of movement or tissue injury and the disorder resulting from these issues. The osteopath will determine whether and where there are causal structural imbalances within the patient’s body and then work to re-establish the balance using non-forceful, self-guided, resistive adjustment maneuvers.
The biomechanically-based osteopath will carefully assess the patient’s subjective description of their disorder (the history), then proceed with a thorough exam of the various components of the physical body, starting first with a thorough neurological exam, then a specialized mechanical assessment of the standing posture as it relates to the pelvis, spine, sacrum, cranium shoulder girdle, rib cage, muscle firing patterns, and the various other structures that might be related to the disorder, i.e., feet, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, head and neck for example. The patient will then be assessed in three planes of motion: standing, lying supine and prone, and then seated. Once the underlying cause of the damage or disorder has been established structurally and the motion restrictions are identified, the biomechanically based osteopath works with the patient to guide them through an isometric self-correction process that reprograms the nervous system tone to the muscles on either side of the joint that realigns structural imbalance and results in increased range of motion and often elimination of pain. Re-establishing a new neural program at both the spinal cord and cortical (brain) levels results in long-standing restorative change.
This process has been compared in a very simple example of a house built on an un-level foundation. Due to settling, eventually doors and windows upstairs will no longer slide open or close in their casings. The plaster in the upstairs rooms will sheer and crack, showing symptoms of stress and strain. Patching the plaster and adjusting the doors and windows only treats the symptoms. Until the structural integrity is restored, the problems will reoccur.
Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is an injection treatment that delivers an irritant solution (dextrose) into tendons, ligaments, and muscle attachments to cause a localized productive inflammation that results in the proliferation of new tissue and strengthens and shortens the collagen fibers that already exist in the tissue. It is used to treat a myriad of different musculoskeletal pain conditions and instability syndromes. Prolotherapy is used to treat enthesopathies (pain originating in ligaments) all over the body, from the spine to the extremities. It is used in shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, hip, ankle, sacroiliac, lower back, upper back, and neck pain.
It is commonly used to treat:
- Partial tears of the rotator cuff, ligaments, or labrum of the shoulder
- Certain knee meniscal tears
- Bursitis
- Partial anterior/posterior cruciate or medial/lateral collateral ligament tears
- Achilles tendonitis or partial tears of the Achilles tendon
- Medial/lateral epichondylitis of the elbow
- Plantar fascitis
- Chronic ankle sprains
- Wrist overuse syndromes, torn ligaments, or tendonitis/tendonopathies
- TMJ-D
- Chronic neck and back facet joint capsule sprains from car accidents (whip-lash)
- Sacroiliac joint pain and instability syndromes
- Chronic sciatica stemming from a non-neural origin
- Stabilize spondylothetheses in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions
- Sports injuries or other traumatic or degenerative conditions.
- Shoulder impingement syndromes
Enthesopathies (pain from ligaments) are known to cause pain that radiates in the same patterns as cervical and lumbar radicular symptoms, such as sciatica. Ligament pain is often confused for true nerve pain due to impingement syndromes and is often missed when someone undergoes surgery that does not result in a cure for pain. Dr. Talty believes that Prolotherapy should only be used immediately after Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine techniques in certain areas of the body to ensure that the joints and soft tissues are moving in their full-unrestricted range of motion so that the joints remain in proper alignment throughout the treatment. Prolotherapy can often be the answer to some of the most complex and perplexing symptom presentations.
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Sports Medicine
The field of sports medicine encompasses many aspects of modern life. Yes, the term is most widely applied to athletes competing in organized competitive sports. Still, it also applies to the industrial athlete or stay-at-home mom who suffers from a repetitive motion injury of the elbow, wrist, shoulder, or back. Athletic injuries can also be caused by normal work or play in the middle-aged or elderly athlete who is active and exercises to stay in shape in order to reduce cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, relieve stress, maintain healthy body weight, play golf or be able to play with their grandkids.
The central tenant of sports medicine is to treat, rehabilitate, and heal the injury while allowing the athlete to remain “in the game.” This could be taken literally, if they are actually involved in a competitive sport, or it could imply simply being able to continue working and providing for their family while the condition improves and the individual remains active.
As a young person, Dr. Talty spent several years in competitive athletics and has suffered many of the minor and more devastating injuries she sees walk through her door. She knows the journey of living through the pain and employing the proper rehabilitation, which allows one to move on to full recovery. Her love of sports and staying active lead her to the field of sports medicine as her undergraduate major. As a student athletic trainer, she worked with both men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics. In that position she evaluated injuries on the field, learned about and became experienced working with physical therapists/certified athletic trainers in the training room on the concepts and performance of physical rehabilitation. She had the great fortune to work with the team physician, who uniquely required student athletic trainers to shadow him while he saw his private sports medicine patients in his outpatient clinic practice. Additionally, she joined him on rounds in the hospital and even in the operating room for surgery. This type of training and experience is usually reserved for medical interns and residents – not undergraduate students.
The concepts and practice of sports medicine that incorporate healing, rebuilding, strengthening, and retraining are woven into the fabric on which Dr. Talty has based her entire medical career. She particularly likes working with the aging athlete who is simply trying to stay active despite the inevitable changes the aging process presents. This is why she has incorporated so many other subspecialties into her practice. Staying healthy and active, naturally, must address the body as a whole when looking at the aging and healing process itself. Sports medicine may incorporate:
- Keeping the body freely moving and balanced without mechanical restriction utilizing biomechanical manual medicine techniques.
- Healing weakened, stretched, or painful ligaments with Prolotherapy.
- Restoring the body’s natural hormone balance using bio-identical hormones in order for the tissues to remain strong, flexible, and elastic.
- Identifying any underlying infections that may be destroying the body’s collagen matrix and causing multi-system pain, fatigue, and disruption, as in the case of Lyme disease.
- Balancing everything above and below the jaw joint if it has become dysfunctional, thus allowing the person to eat a healthy, balanced diet free from the agonizing pain of temporal mandibular joint disease (TMJ-D).
Sports medicine combines the principles of osteopathic medicine by empowering individuals to once again run, bike and play with their children and grandchildren. Enjoy playing golf and tennis and being able to participate in life’s adventures. In other words, live their life fully physically, emotionally, and spiritually with vitality!
Clinical Bariatric Medicine Medical Weight Loss Using Hcg Diet
MEDICAL WEIGHT LOSS WITH THE HCG DIET PROGRAM
HCG is the pregnancy hormone that is made by the pregnant female to protect her and her unborn fetus from starvation if her caloric intake drops to or below 500 calories. If that happens, the body’s metabolism switches from using sugar and protein to using only stored fat. With HCG on board, along with a safe and healthy home-cooked 500-calorie diet, the body will consume 2,000 calories from itWealth of previously stored fat. So, each day, the body has at its disposal 2,500 calories to utilize so you are never hungry. That is, on average, a loss of a pound a day of fat, not muscle, and without depriving your body in any way.
THE TOTAL COST OF THE 30-DAY PROGRAM IS $800 AND CONSISTS OF:
- $400 Deposit at time of booking appointment and $400 at first office consultation.
- Watch the 30-minute group orientation meeting with Dr. Talty on this website.
- One, ½ hour medical consultations; one before the participant starts the program and one when the participant finishes the program. If interested, this price would also include a consultation and workup for hormone imbalance (a $550 value)
- A prescription for the subcutaneous injection HCG called Pregnyl and syringes
- Prescription for Phentermine, a safe appetite suppressant
- Prescription for medical-grade potassium to maintain a healthy electrolyte balance
Dr. Talty is board-certified in both family medicine and orthopedic medicine and has been offering the HCG diet to her patients since 2008. She has gained a wealth of knowledge on how it works and how to achieve the greatest results for each patient. She uses the original pharmaceutical HCG subcutaneous injection solution called Pregnyl daily injections.
EDUCATION INTO METABOLISM AND WEIGHT LOSS:
The program consists of a now must see videotaped 30-minute group educational meeting on this website. There, Dr. Talty goes over how the HCG diet works why it works, and reviews experience with the hundreds of patients she has worked with over the years. Focusing on the reasons why people gain weight, stresses the hormonal component of weight management, and shares her experience with addressing hormonal imbalances and how it relates to “yo-yo” dieting. Using her extensive background in nutrition and exercise science, she is able to offer solutions not only on how to get the weight off, but then keep it off in the future to secure permanent success.
WHAT’S MY THYROID OR MIDDLE AGE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
A little hint: most people who participate have tried every diet program out there, and they may have lost and gained hundreds of pounds. For many, the key to permanent success is to assess subtle thyroid dysfunction, in both men and women, that does not show on typical thyroid tests. If appropriate, Dr. Talty will evaluate your hormonal status, testing in a way that mainstream medicine does not utilize. This is often the key as to why you gained the weight to begin with and why you cannot, despite Herculean efforts, lose it and keep it off for good. If the participant chooses to proceed with hormone testing and evaluation ($450 value), they will then become part of her regular medical practice, where yearly follow-up appointments and blood work to check levels will be necessary.
CONSULTATION #1
As part of the program, each participant is seen for a 1 hour medical consultation to go over their personal medical history and the medications that they are on and plan for any adjustments that may be necessary during the weight loss and maintenance phases of the diet program. Many people come solely to decrease or stop many of the medications they have been prescribed. Once they have reached their weight loss goal, they often no longer need or can lower the doses of medications for diabetes and high blood pressure. At that appointment, you will pick up your prescriptions for the Pregnyl HCG to take to a pharmacy that has it in stock, as well as the prescribed appetite suppressant and potassium.
CONSULTATION #2
You will then follow the diet exactly using the HCG as prescribed, 0.25 ml daily injection, monitor your weight loss by daily morning weigh-ins, and return to the office once you have completed your 30-40 days. At the second ½ hour medical consultation, you will weigh in, and Dr. Talty will check in with you as to how you did and review the maintenance phase of the HCG diet program. Many people have more than 30 pounds to lose. If you wish to do more than one round of 30-40 days, you must wait 6 weeks in between rounds to allow your brain to become sensitive to the HCG once again. At that point, you can let us know that you want to do a second round. You will be charged $100 for a second prescription sent you a local pharmacy.
Weight loss, or more appropriately, “fat loss” success, can be yours with this program. Whether you want to lose a little or a lot, the HCG program creates an opportunity for significant weight loss along with resetting “cravings,” helping to ensure your ongoing success in maintaining your desired weight.
Diagnosis & Treatment of Lyme Disease Following Ilads Guidelines
Lyme disease is currently the most under-reported emerging infection in this country. Its symptoms mimic three hundred different medical conditions. People can be infected with it for years and never know it. The infection may not be recognized until the person either gets a new bite from another infected tick or any other infected biting insect or spider. Or, if the person who has previously been infected and had not been showing symptoms, undergoes some other major life stress such as a car accident or other physical injury, or emotional stress such as a divorce, death in the family, loss of a job, lose their home, or other financial/personal insecurity issue. All of these situations, both physical and emotional, lower the body’s immune system to where it can no longer contain the infection, and strange symptoms in multiple organ systems begin to appear.
Not everyone shows up with an embedded tick and a bull’s eye rash, and experience tells us that is usually the rarest presentation. Acute exposure needs to be treated immediately with the correct medications at high enough doses for a long enough period of time. What is printed in the Sanford guide that doctors are trained to consult when faced with an infectious disease question is inadequate to clear an acute infection. Most importantly, most people who end up with Lyme disease never saw the tick or have a rash.
Dr. Talty never went looking to be a Lyme disease specialist. In the course of curiously trying to figure out complex pain and musculoskeletal pain conditions, it found her, and she found it. Beginning in 2004, her physical medicine practice began to transform to include this mysterious infectious disease as an underlying cause and origin of her patient's symptoms. Following the ILADS guidelines for treatment, she immersed herself in the world of treating acute and chronic Lyme disease and, in the process has found herself in the middle of one of the largest controversies in medicine today. In spite of the conventional infectious disease medical community's current position, people do get better with long courses of multiple antibiotics and integrative medical treatments. The disease can exist in the face of negative objective laboratory testing. Many times, the objective laboratory diagnosis is made after appropriate medical therapy is initiated and well underway.
Unfortunately, there are some negative associations with those suffering from Lyme disease. People suffering from Lyme disease are not benefiting by being sick. They are not “looking for an explanatory diagnosis.” They often feel too sick to work and end up losing their ability to make a living. They often are unable to care for themselves and their families and slowly decline into states of disability. Borrelia Burgdorferi infection (Lyme disease), along with its three possible co-infections (Bartonella, Babesia, Anaplasma/Ehrlichia, as well as many chronic viral illnesses), are often the underlying cause of syndrome diagnoses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. The bacteria feed on connective tissue of every kind and use the bloodstream as their super-highway in order to get around.
Using IGeneX testing, which is currently the most sensitive and specific laboratory testing available, along with the CD57, we are often able to objectively prove Lyme disease is present. This provides essential information for insurance companies so that they are obligated to cover the staggering costs of treating this disease.
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Natural Hormone Balance for Men & Women
Board certified in Family Practice, Dr. Talty is able to integrate her knowledge, experience, and curious mind, and when faced with perplexing pain conditions can draw conclusions based solely on physiology. She began noticing syndromes present in her patients, both male and female, who had been experiencing severe chronic pain or illness. That led her to investigate and further appreciate the powerful effect that pain and disease states have on the pituitary-adrenal axis system. This intricate feedback system controls all the hormones in the body. Learning from the experience of working with patients with severely disrupted adrenal and reproductive hormonal balance, she began using natural hormone replacement with her pain patients. Treating the whole body and empowering its healing abilities has led to amazing improvements in her patient's symptoms and quality of life.
She now offers “Natural” or “Bio-Identical” hormone balancing for both men and women. Natural or Bio-Identical hormones are the exact hormones that our body makes in the ovaries, testes, and thyroid glands. This term is not synonymous with what is commonly referred to as “Hormone Replacement Therapy,” or HRT, which specifically refers to the use of synthetic hormones from female horse urine (pregnant mares urine = pre-mar-in) or the modified form of progesterone called Provera (which can have some very nasty side effects in the body). Horses have nine estrogens, and human women have three. The other six that horses have can be very aggressive toward female human breast tissue, thus increasing the risk for breast cancer. Bio-identical hormone replacement has never been shown to increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Everything that has ever been published in peer-reviewed literature or referred to in studies and reported in the media refers to Premarin and Provera, two very different compounds from natural estradiol and progesterone. Provera is not the same molecule as Progesterone. It has been modified so that it could be patented by the pharmaceutical industry and sold for profit. It binds to the progesterone receptor on the cell surface but can cause it to be partially turned on or work differently than it was designed to. Therefore, it has side effects on the body that can put some women’s health at risk.
Women’s progesterone levels begin to decline in their middle 30s, and symptoms of that decline often begins to be felt in the early 40s. Often, this first shows up as heavy and irregular periods and truncal weight gain (belly fat) despite Herculean efforts to decrease calories and food intake and increase exercise. Other symptoms include new or worsening premenstrual syndrome (PMS), increased anxiety, inability to manage stressors of daily life, joint and muscle pain, headaches, brain fog, bloating, and fatigue. As the process of hormone decline progresses into the late 40s and early 50s, the symptoms of estrogen decline appear, including increased insomnia, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, night sweats, added weight gain, dry skin and hair, wrinkles, sense of internal burning, emotional liability, loss of libido, depression, mood swings, and short and long-term memory loss. Symptoms aside, the most important reason to consider natural hormone replacement is the simple fact that everything we associate with aging, be it physical, emotional, or cognitive, is a direct result of our hormones dwindling and then disappearing once we are past our reproductive years. Biologic evolution has no more need for us once we can no longer reproduce. Therefore, we slowly dwindle into failing health, pain, disability, walkers, wheelchairs, and rest homes. The fact is that we are now living well into our 80’s and 90’s and want to remain healthy and vital until our predetermined biological clock runs out and we crump with the least fan-fair and intervention possible.
Just like women who go through peri-menopause and then menopause when progesterone and estrogen levels decline, men experience what is known as “andropause” when their testosterone levels decline in their later 40s and early 50s. In the 4th and 5th decade of life, men’s testosterone levels decrease, which can leave them depressed, short-tempered, lacking motivation, fatigued, increased tearing and emotionality, diminished sex drive and performance with declining muscle tone despite exercise. Besides the symptoms that men experience, low testosterone levels can lead to higher rates of prostate cancer and higher levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, thus leading to heart disease, including myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, and osteoporosis.
All “disease” begins at cellular inflammation. In a healthy, balanced hormonal state, our threshold for cellular inflammation is elevated as hormone balance keeps us in an anti-inflammatory state. When the hormones decline and then go away, that threshold is significantly decreased. This then results in higher levels of inflammation. Thus, when the hormones have dwindled, “disease” states develop much sooner and more intensely with much less reserve to recover before we experience symptoms and eventual decline.
Temporal Mandibular Joint Disease
Temporal mandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ-D) exists in the gap between medicine and dentistry. It is a joint disorder that can cause a myriad of acute and chronic jaw, face, neck, shoulder, head, and ear pain presentations. Along with pain, it can present with:
- Inability to fully open the mouth or move it side to side
- Headaches
- Earaches
- Face pain
- Buzzing or ringing in the ears
- Sudden inability to find a comfortable jaw position.
- Clicking, popping, or locking of the jaw.
There are many causes of this complex and often debilitating condition, malocclusion from a variety of sources, such as direct or indirect trauma to the head, intubation following surgery or recitation procedures, inflammatory arthritic medical conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoarthritis, gout, scleroderma, fibromyalgia, previous poorly done dental work, bruxism or grinding the teeth at night, substances such as excessive caffeine or other stimulants or poor diet in general and poor postural neuromuscular biomechanical balance.
The jaw joint hangs on the temporal bones of the skull. The sutures of the skull are the joints in between the bony plates that create the rounded, enclosed shape of the skull that provides the bony protective covering of the brain. Over one hundred years ago, Osteopaths palpated and described motion in the cranium. Now, today, we have laboratory evidence to prove that the skull not only moves but is often found to be “misshapen,” limiting fluid flow in the brain's arterial and venous circulatory systems. But perhaps even more importantly, the flow (or lack of flow) of the cerebral spinal fluid can be associated with several symptoms, including those contributing to TMJ-D.
Other influences from below the jaw joint can also contribute to balance and proper function of the jaw joint, such as myofascial tension in the muscles of the neck, shoulder girdle, and spine as they attach to the skull. Influences from as far away as the bottom of the feet affect how the stress and strain patterns are influenced as they project through the jaw joint and skull. For example, if someone has an asymmetrically fallen arch on one foot, that essentially drops that lower extremity further to the floor and influences the pelvis to side-bend to that side. All motion in the body is coupled, meaning if it side-bends, it also rotates. So, when the pelvis side bends to the side of the essentially short leg, it also rotates, taking all the muscles and their fascial strain patterns with it. This side-bending and rotating influence travels up the system, ending in the fascial attachments in the scalp that cover the skull. This fascial asymmetry and its effects had to pass right through the neck muscles and thus affect the balance of the jaw joint as it hangs on the temporal bones of the skull.
Dr. Talty has teamed up with Dr. Paul Henny, DDS, who specializes in the dental aspects of diagnosis and treatment of complex TMJ disorders. Dr. Henny addresses the occlusive surfaces, first by resting the joints by having the patient switch to a soft diet and then creating custom-adjusted hard acrylic orthotic appliances (bite splints) that redistribute the stresses on the TMJ that turn off the excessive muscle drive. He then may equilibrate the bite by performing a series of treatments with different custom bite splints that balance the occlusive surfaces of the joint. Please visit his website, www.drpaulhennydds.com, for further information regarding his treatment protocol.
Mold Biotoxin Disease “CIRS”
(Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome)
KIND OF SOUNDS LIKE LYME DISEASE, DOESN’T IT?
CIRS is a term coined by Dr. Richie Shoemaker, who spent a career figuring out the cause and effective treatment of this complex array of symptoms that certain people develop after exposure to indoor environments that have experienced water exposure. It is now known, that 50% of the buildings in the US have some interior water damage and do harbor certain species of molds and many other toxic elements that cause neurotoxins to be released from mast cells in our immune system. In the area of the country where it rains, and heat and humidity prevail during the summer months, it is closer to 95% of the buildings. This includes any water damage that has EVER occurred in the building, even if it was thought to have been effectively remediated. During the time of the water damage and the disturbance of the contents during the remediation, the airborne mold spores floated around the space, got circulated in the HVAC system and distributed wide and far in the building/home.
They landed on all the surfaces that were contained in that space, like door jams, window casings, books, documents, carpets, rugs, furniture, bedding, and clothes. They are still there, causing inflammation in your body. Do you decorate with antiques or have family heirloom furniture? Recall the smell that hits you walking into an antique store. They all smell the same – right? Guess where most of the contents that are displayed for sale were stored before the previous owner decided to sell them, usually in someone’s basement.
In 24% of people, they have a certain genotype that cannot clear these neurotoxins. A mast cell functions as a pack-man in the immune system that gobbles up all kinds of substances and invaders and digests them so that they do not cause overwhelming disease. Why is it that CIRS seems to be associated with Lyme disease? The answer is that both inhaled species of molds and Lyme disease infection create neurotoxins in the body. So, it is likely that the same people with this particular genotype who get sick from exposure to indoor molds, if exposed to a bug bite that passes the spirochetes and/or other potential infective organisms that cause the symptoms of Lyme disease, will also get sick.
If you can imagine a fuzzy-looking mast cell covered with arms holding catcher’s mitts all over its surface. The mitts catch all these circulating neurotoxins, and the arms bring them into the mast cell, where they can be effectively gobbled up and done away with. The folks who have this certain HLA genotype are missing the arms and, thus, the mitts on the surface of their mast cells. So, therefore have no ability to clear these toxic elements. The liver tries its best to excrete them into the bile that then gets circulated through the digestive tract and eventually reabsorbed. So, they never really leave the body and continue to build up and cause symptoms.
Neurotoxins cause an array of symptoms that affect every organ system. Therefore, it is not unusual for patients affected by this condition to have visited several different medical specialists before they end up seeking the help of a physician who is aware of this condition. Or, they have scoured the internet and deduced on their own that they have symptoms consistent with either Lyme disease (which they might have as well) or hormone dysfunction, which is also part of CIRS. It is complicated.
CIRS dysregulates the hormone (endocrine) system at any age. The endocrine system’s hypothalamus and pituitary work together to always monitor levels and send signals to the glands that produce hormones to either make more or make or less of the hormones that regulate the body's physiology. This communication system is complex and exquisitely tightly managed. You can imagine the clip from old TV shows with the operator sitting at the phone bank with the plugs connecting the phone lines. When Joe calls and wants to speak with Sally, the operator plugs Joe’s line into Sally’s home line, and the conversation starts. When mold is present, it decreases a master regulatory hormone called melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH). This is kin to the operator sitting at the phone switchboard who suddenly went on break.
THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM CAN NOT COMMUNICATE
This is why, as just one example, a person with CIRS can feel as if they have all the symptoms of hypothyroidism and have been to several doctors who have “checked” their thyroid function in the way we as physicians are trained to check it, with a simple Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) level. TSH can often look perfectly fine and in the normal range. The patient then gets the message that their thyroid function is normal. When, in fact, it really isn’t. The TSH level is often not sufficient to assess the totality of thyroid function. Doctors who are trained to appreciate CIRS and Lyme disease must order more in-depth thyroid markers such as Free T3, Reverse T3, Thyroglobulin antibodies, and TPO antibodies to fully understand what is truly going on. Free T3 is the end product of thyroid metabolism. It runs the body’s metabolism. Doctors are not trained to even order that test. We are trained to rely on the signaling hormone TSH, which is why hypothyroidism is so often missed in Mold and Lyme.
FOR YOU SKEPTICS
I say that lovingly, as I was one, too, do you wonder why and now? Why are we seeing this occur in patients seemingly for the first time? Why didn’t my regular doctor mention it? Traditional medicine still does not consider CIRS a “real” diagnosis, and insurance companies don’t consider it a valid condition. It is recognized in the specialty of environmental medicine, but try speaking to a peer-to-peer review doctor on the Thphone, like I must do often. I, like many of the patients, feel as if we are operating in an alternate Universe.
Many factors began changing in our indoor and outdoor environments in the 1970’s. Benomyl, an antifungal chemical, was developed and sprayed on farm fields to prevent fruits and vegetables from molding in the fields. Pittsburg Paints then began adding it to their interior paint products to specifically prevent interior spaces from molding.
SOUNDED LIKE A GOOD IDEA?
Something else was going on in the background at the same time. Building codes were changing to improve building heating and cooling efficiency. Buildings were being built to be tighter and tighter to prevent air exchange with the outdoors. This allowed the indoor environments of these buildings to increase in humidity. Mold grows at a certain level of heat and humidity. The perfect storm was being created. The Benomyl in the paints was killing off some species of mold but allowing others to modify and change, thus creating “super molds” to take over.
NOW, THESE SUPER-MOLDS ARE MAKING US SICK
Another interesting fact is that in 1975, the strain of Lyme disease that now bears Dr. Willy Bergdorf’s name was discovered to have been responsible for the 29 kids in Lyme, Connecticut, to show up with mono-articular knee swelling.
IT WASN’T JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS AFTER ALL?
CIRS is diagnosed with a series of blood work markers produced by the mast cells and a functional visual test, the VCS test on Dr. Shoemakers website SurvivingMold.com. If you are curious, go to his website and take the test. It is $15 to take, and be sure to sit 18” from the computer screen. It has a 92% sensitivity and specificity. Meaning, it will diagnose the condition accurately 92% of the time if done correctly. You can falsely pass 8% of the time, but if you fail, it is likely you are suffering from CIRS.
The number one principle of the treatment of CIRS is to remove yourself from or remediate the offending environment immediately. You must stop the ongoing exposure and thus the recreation of the mold neurotoxins. That sometimes requires extraordinary means if it is your place of employment. You somehow have to convince not only your employer but also, the owner of the building that it is responsible for making you sick. If it is your home, we have a secret weapon that is a lower-cost solution. It is also available as an option for commercial buildings as well.
Once the patient is safely out of the ongoing exposure, we can then go on to treatment. There is no pill in the traditional sense to treat mold neurotoxin disease.
The treatment includes:
The detoxification of your body with the use of bile acid sequestrants (binders)
Use a spray in the nose to kill the multiple antibiotic organisms (MARCoNS) that are now living in your nasal and sinus cavities, causing the crash of your endocrine system.
Treating complex biofilms in the GI tract and nasal sinus passages using biofilm busters
Treatment usually takes 3-4 months.
