Third Installment: How the Biotoxin Discovery Was Made ( Part 1, Part 2.)
I am always interested in how something significant got started. People are amazed when I tell them that ACT! got started in 1985 when I wrote a software program for my own use to track my contacts when I was selling computers. Everyone who saw it said, "Can I get a copy of that?" After this happened several times I realized I may well have stumbled onto something significant. Duh! 4 million copies later it is astounding to realize that I did not even set out to build a product that others would use.
I believe that Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker's discovery regarding biotoxins and Illness is incredibly significant. It will take decades for the significance to be recognized but it is inevitable that his observations will positively effect the health of millions of people.
How did he discover this? Just like so many other great discoveries, he basically stumbled onto it. To be fair, great discoveries may well be by accident, but after all is said and done, someone usually has to work very hard to actually make something of the discovery. That is the case with Ritchie. While he stumbled onto this discovery, he doggedly followed every possible trail where the original discovery led. He really is more scientist than doctor, and this actually makes him a great doctor. His instincts and curiosity as a scientist drove him to learn everything he possibly could from his original observation. Many people have a unique insight into something, but for some reason don't have the drive or passion to follow up on it.
Around 1995, a few dozen patients came to Ritchie's clinic all with the same cluster of symptoms. It was all of sudden. They were already his patients and had never had these symptoms before. Ritchie was totally puzzled. They all had terrible diarrhea, headaches, fatigue, sensitivity to light, muscle and joint aches, memory problems, weird anxiety, sleeplessness. These symptoms had all appeared suddenly. He tried numerous things and nothing worked for them. He talked with other docs in the area and they suddenly had patients like this as well.
The symptoms continued for weeks. Diarrhea particularly worried Ritchie because you can die from that. He tried numerous anti-diarrhea meds and nothing worked! One day, with a women patient, Ritchie was desperate to find a way to stop her diarrhea. He remembered that there was an old medication called Cholestyramine that was used to lower cholesterol levels before the invention of statin drugs. It was also used for cases of diarrhea where fatty bile was causing the diarrhea. It works by binding with cholesterol that is part of bile. It does not allow the cholesterol to be reabsorbed in the intestine but rather gets flushed out in the stool. It has the side effect of making you VERY constipated. He thought that could be useful to stop the terrible diarrhea that she was experiencing.
After a few weeks on CSM the woman came back and happily reported that her diarrhea had finally stopped. She added that not only had her diarrhea stopped but ALL of her terrible symptoms had stopped as well. This totally surprised Ritchie. Why had all her other symptoms stopped as well?
He prescribed CSM to all the other sick patients and sure enough, all of their symptoms went away within a few weeks on CSM. Ritchie was amazed and perplexed. A lot of docs would have just shrugged and said "well that is great!" and then gone and played golf. Not Ritchie! He wanted to know WHY this happened!
He began asking all the patients every question he could think of trying figure out what they had in common. The only thing he could find was that every single one of them had recently been in the local Pokemoke River. He later realized that there had recently been a very large algal bloom in the river killing tens of thousands of fish. He was unaware of any connection to illness in humans from algae blooms. An algal bloom happens when the conditions are just right for the growth of algae and it reproduces at a tremendous rate becoming the dominant organism.
Ritchie learned that this algae was called pfiesteria. He learned everything he could about it. He learned the pfiesteria produced a particular type of toxin that was fat soluable. He theorized that these people had picked up enough of this toxin to cause the symptoms. Since it was fat soluable it got trapped in a cycle where it would bind to nerves and brain since they are mostly made of fat. The toxin would make its way to the liver. The liver would dump the toxin into the bile duct for elimination. But since it bound to cholesterol it would NOT get excreted. Aside from the current negative connotation given to cholesterol, the body considers cholesterol to be a very valuable substance, so it has a way of reabsorbing cholesterol before it is excreted. This allowed the toxin to re-enter the body repeatedly, causing sickness with no end.
One thing that puzzled Ritchie was that these people were not the only ones who had been in the river. They got sick and others did not. He could not figure out why, until later.
More posts about mold.
Technorati Tags: Health and Wellness, Mold, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Diarrhea, Headache
Third Installment: How the Biotoxin Discovery Was Made ( Part 1, Part 2.)
I am always interested in how something significant got started. People are amazed when I tell them that ACT! got started in 1985 when I wrote a software program for my own use to track my contacts when I was selling computers. Everyone who saw it said, "Can I get a copy of that?" After this happened several times I realized I may well have stumbled onto something significant. Duh! 4 million copies later it is astounding to realize that I did not even set out to build a product that others would use.
I believe that Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker's discovery regarding biotoxins and Illness is incredibly significant. It will take decades for the significance to be recognized but it is inevitable that his observations will positively effect the health of millions of people.
How did he discover this? Just like so many other great discoveries, he basically stumbled onto it. To be fair, great discoveries may well be by accident, but after all is said and done, someone usually has to work very hard to actually make something of the discovery. That is the case with Ritchie. While he stumbled onto this discovery, he doggedly followed every possible trail where the original discovery led. He really is more scientist than doctor, and this actually makes him a great doctor. His instincts and curiosity as a scientist drove him to learn everything he possibly could from his original observation. Many people have a unique insight into something, but for some reason don't have the drive or passion to follow up on it.
Around 1995, a few dozen patients came to Ritchie's clinic all with the same cluster of symptoms. It was all of sudden. They were already his patients and had never had these symptoms before. Ritchie was totally puzzled. They all had terrible diarrhea, headaches, fatigue, sensitivity to light, muscle and joint aches, memory problems, weird anxiety, sleeplessness. These symptoms had all appeared suddenly. He tried numerous things and nothing worked for them. He talked with other docs in the area and they suddenly had patients like this as well.
The symptoms continued for weeks. Diarrhea particularly worried Ritchie because you can die from that. He tried numerous anti-diarrhea meds and nothing worked! One day, with a women patient, Ritchie was desperate to find a way to stop her diarrhea. He remembered that there was an old medication called Cholestyramine that was used to lower cholesterol levels before the invention of statin drugs. It was also used for cases of diarrhea where fatty bile was causing the diarrhea. It works by binding with cholesterol that is part of bile. It does not allow the cholesterol to be reabsorbed in the intestine but rather gets flushed out in the stool. It has the side effect of making you VERY constipated. He thought that could be useful to stop the terrible diarrhea that she was experiencing.
After a few weeks on CSM the woman came back and happily reported that her diarrhea had finally stopped. She added that not only had her diarrhea stopped but ALL of her terrible symptoms had stopped as well. This totally surprised Ritchie. Why had all her other symptoms stopped as well?
He prescribed CSM to all the other sick patients and sure enough, all of their symptoms went away within a few weeks on CSM. Ritchie was amazed and perplexed. A lot of docs would have just shrugged and said "well that is great!" and then gone and played golf. Not Ritchie! He wanted to know WHY this happened!
He began asking all the patients every question he could think of trying figure out what they had in common. The only thing he could find was that every single one of them had recently been in the local Pokemoke River. He later realized that there had recently been a very large algal bloom in the river killing tens of thousands of fish. He was unaware of any connection to illness in humans from algae blooms. An algal bloom happens when the conditions are just right for the growth of algae and it reproduces at a tremendous rate becoming the dominant organism.
Ritchie learned that this algae was called pfiesteria. He learned everything he could about it. He learned the pfiesteria produced a particular type of toxin that was fat soluable. He theorized that these people had picked up enough of this toxin to cause the symptoms. Since it was fat soluable it got trapped in a cycle where it would bind to nerves and brain since they are mostly made of fat. The toxin would make its way to the liver. The liver would dump the toxin into the bile duct for elimination. But since it bound to cholesterol it would NOT get excreted. Aside from the current negative connotation given to cholesterol, the body considers cholesterol to be a very valuable substance, so it has a way of reabsorbing cholesterol before it is excreted. This allowed the toxin to re-enter the body repeatedly, causing sickness with no end.
One thing that puzzled Ritchie was that these people were not the only ones who had been in the river. They got sick and others did not. He could not figure out why, until later.
More posts about mold.
Technorati Tags: Health and Wellness, Mold, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Diarrhea, Headache