Posted on 06/05/2005 1:20:38 PM PDT by neverdem
ROXANNE PEREZ had never really been sick in her life until, at age 27, the roof began falling in. During a Fourth of July weekend at the beach in 2000, she was rushed to an emergency room suffering from convulsions. In the months after, she had blood transfusions and her spleen removed. Then, in 2001, she suffered a heart attack that left her heart permanently weakened.
Ms. Perez, who lives in San Antonio, had to give up her job, her home and car and move in with her parents. Now 32, she suffers from frequent fatigue, made worse when she goes out in the sun, and takes 25 different drugs. She said she could never have children.
"I was at the prime of my life and it's like a bomb fell on me," she said.
The attack was the physiological equivalent of friendly fire. Ms. Perez has lupus and hemolytic anemia. Both are autoimmune diseases, in which the person's immune system, meant to defend against germs, instead directs its fury against the person's own tissues.
There are at least 80 autoimmune diseases, ranging from familiar ones like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes to more obscure ones like pemphigus vulgaris. They affect 5 to 8 percent of the American population, or up to 23.5 million people, say estimates from the National Institutes of Health. Patient advocacy groups often give much higher estimates, and there is evidence that the incidence of some of the diseases is increasing.
Most of the victims are women - many, like Ms. Perez, in their childbearing years. There are at least eight women for every man who has lupus, scleroderma, thyroiditis and Sjogren's syndrome. Women also outnumber men, though not by as large a margin, for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
... checked the links this time...
The place to look is www.sarcinfo.com for the links to medical papers, and to ask questions without registration. The www.marshallprotocol.com site also has links to the medical papers, and a FAQ. However, it's intended use is for those on the MP, so you'll need to register to ask questions there. Two good places to start might be the essential reading forum, and the success stories forum.
I haven't completed the process, yet, but I'm certainly willing to dicuss my very positive experience with this protocol.
N.B. It's Chris, not Luke.
Someday, I've got to ask about switching my handle. I chose this one when I was real nervous about the web, which is kind of funny in a geek-way, as I've been earning my living around and near the web for a long time. It isn't the web per se, but working for a rather PC corporation that worried me. However, they know my politics by now.
Sorry, the lifespant thing doesn't wash. The reason the average lifespan was lower was because so many infants and children died, and more mothers died during childbearing - so many more children, usually.
Once a person reached adulthood they had as good a chance of anyone living now of reaching 70 or more.
I blame aspartame. ;)
Or a much simpler one, if auto-immune diseases are infectious, and slow-growing, then they might be passed from mother to child and the transmission not noticed due to the time lag before symptoms appear.
TH1 refers to a cytokine profile indicating intra-cellular infection, rather than inter-cellular. This is a more accurate description of what the diseases MP addresses, than is auto-immune, which I understand can be a clinical, symptom based diagnosis rather than based on any positive identification.
Thanks!
I want to be clear. In a ruthless environment, I with my rotten sinuses, poor eyesight would not last long.
I too am glad that the subject of this post has access to the 25 pills a day she needs. I take 3 a day. Still, that is why we need more and more intervention.
We adapt to the world as it is. In my case, I sit most of the day. Accordingly, my sitting muscles have grown too, too large.
There are 50 new species developed in brine shrimp at Pt. Mugu lagoon. The lagoon was excavated only 60 years ago. Evolution can occur very rapidly when there is an open niche.
I would say in the last 70 or so. quinine, penicyllin, sulfa drugs, polio vaccine all let millions without top notch immune systems live. Before then the random combinations which led to weakness were ruthlessly purged from the pool. We benefit from their productivity, but their children pass on potential weakness.
Simple biology. I hope the medicine makers continue their good work. When they can't, we will have a "mass extinction" event. The ones that survive will get to begin again.
The alternative: the genetic manipulation that was intially funded to investigate AIDS-HIV can patch genetic weaknesses such as that which leads to diabetes or autoimmune stuff.
In the past, any such rare autoimmune disease was thought to be just part of life/death. It hid in plain sight as part of the usual mortality rate. Now we keep such people alive longer, and our science can isolate it from other causes of death. No change in the gene pool is necessary, but we sure can extend the lives of people who would have otherwise died. If they breed, their traits are passed on.
Nope. Doesn't explain why Type I (aka juvenile) diabetes is so much more common in recent years.
Thank you.
Hm. Perhaps if you knew facts instead of opinions, you'd understand that the vast majority of new diabetes cases are in families where neither parent's family has a history of it. There's certainly no such history in either my or my wife's families -- nor is it the case in families of other diabetic kids I know.
Perhaps a bit of research would do you good.
I believe the reason there are so many more auto immune diseases diagnosed now is because of advancements in medical testing, as well as a better understanding of human chemistry.
Do you have a citation for that. Paper or web.
I've been searching without success for a while.
... means that your previous "Darwinian society" statement is completely wrong. You should own up to your mistake, rather than trying to baffle us with BS.
If you're this wrong on diabetes, the rest of your opinions are not to be trusted, either.
No, I'm not wrong. There are at least two genes involved in the situation. There is also the possibility that many of those children wouldn't have come to term without prenatal care programs. There are too many variables involved.
You are picking and choosing between conditions and genes. There are two traits among the Amish that appear within that group than any other 6 fingered dwarves. That can be traced back to one individual. That doesn't mean that all people with that ancestor have that condition, simply means that the likelihood of that condition appearing is greater.
Well we are just going to have to do something about that then!
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