Understanding Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).

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Vanessa Haycock NTS,LMP,CCHT has adapted this article for this blog. Please follow link at the end for entire article written by Natasha Thomas, M.D

This is an in-depth article about a condition that is only recently being taken seriously. If you suffer from many symptoms that are “unidentifiable” as a single condition or told you have chronic fatigue syndrome or candida overgrowth but NOTHING works then its worth reading this article.

Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), is also known as “bio toxin illness” and describes a group of symptoms, lab findings, and targeted test results associated with bio toxin exposure, especially in genetically-susceptible people.

Symptoms can include the following:

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Depression and Anxiety
• Allergies
• Somatization (ex. Hypochondria)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Most of what we know about bio toxin illness is the result of practice-based studies done by physician and researcher, Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker. His research dates back to 1997. When practicing family medicine in the rural coastal town of Pocomoke, Maryland, where he linked a previously undefined illness to a toxin produced by a fish-killing dino-flagellate known as Pfiesteria.

Dr.Shoemaker has been able to distinguish similarities between cases and noticed that there is a specific “cluster” of symptoms per patient. An example of 3/13 groups are

  1. Diarrhea. Abdominal pain. Numbness

  2. Impaired memory. Difficulty with word finding

  3. Blurry vision. Night sweats. Mood swings. Ice-pick pain. Red or bloodshot eyes

Since his studies in 1997, Dr. Shoemaker has linked this same kind of illness to toxins from water-damaged buildings (WDB), as well as toxins associated with tick-born microbes.

Over time, Dr. Shoemaker developed a thorough description of this illness and called it Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS). Through his practice-based research, he also developed methods to diagnose and treat this illness, bringing back health to thousands of patients worldwide.

When a patient is exposed to bio toxins through breathing while inside a “water-damaged building” (WDB). a reaction occurs in the body to the biochemical stew of the dangerous mix which can include different chemicals, fungi, mold, bacteria, endotoxins, volatile organic compounds and Actinomycetes that together create the “biochemical stew,”. This mix is the cause of the “mysterious and elusive” illness.

CIRS is not caused by one particular element of this biochemical stew, but rather the combination of these things causing a multi-system inflammation.

Dr. Shoemaker estimates that 80 percent of CIRS cases are caused by repeated exposure to water-damaged buildings. These cases are designated as “CIRS-WDB”.

Other ways to contract CIRS and/or WDB bio toxins can include:

  1. Tick or Spider Bite: It is very common that patients may not always realize they have been bitten by a tick. Ticks can carry can Lyme disease which may include Borrelia burgdorferi and Babesiosis (Babesia microti), among others. The bite of the recluse spider species may also cause bio toxin illness.

  2. Ingestion: Patients who have eaten reef fish contaminated with dinoflagellate algae (that produces Ciguatera toxin) may develop an illness.Exposure to the Ciguatera toxin occurs when eating reef fish that have eaten smaller fish that consumed the toxin producing dinoflagellate

  3. Direct Contact with Contaminated Water: Patients may be exposed through direct contact with water contaminated by toxins in areas of fish kills such as Pfiesteria and Cyanobacteria, including inhalation of airborne or aerosolized toxins from this source.

Most bio toxins have the structural form of ionophore or amphipath. These are extremely small molecules capable of moving easily from cell to cell through cell membranes without being carried in the bloodstream. This ability of bio toxins to pass through cell membranes with ease means they are difficult or impossible to find in standard blood tests.

The issue with genetically-susceptible people; We now know that bio toxins can cause acute illness, but for people who are genetically susceptible, they can cause lasting chronic illness. For many people,
bio toxins are recognized by the immune system correctly, broken down, and removed from the body. However, genetically-susceptible people have immune systems that do not recognize the bio toxins and fail to remove them, leaving the bio toxins circulating in the body indefinitely, and causing inflammation
throughout the body.

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