Posted by bleauberry on September 5, 2009, at 19:20:42
In reply to Re: Tivastal? » bleauberry, posted by Bob on September 5, 2009, at 16:30:11
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> Up until now however, not a single physical pathology has shown itself in all that testing.I believe all the tests you had were fairly useless. Even the Lyme tests were useless. For one thing, the mainstream routine medical tests are rather rigid and broad in interpretation.
For example the cortisol test...if your cortisol is within the so-called normal range (normal for who, an average sample or you, and every lab has a different normal range), well ok your cortisol is normal at 9am when you had your blood drawn. What was it at noon? 6pm? midnight? 6am? A single test tells absolutely nothing except that your adrenal glands are alive or dead. It is the 24-hour curve that is important, and its relationship to a general average of healthy people, not a single sample. The 4-sample saliva test does that. The Endos do not. They are bound by rigid insurance company guidelines and politics.
Even exhaustive blood testing won't show much. Someone who is on their death bed from either heavy metals or Lyme will not show much of a problem in their blood tests. The tests look at tons of important stuff, but not the right stuff.
Specialists are not a good way to go. Long story. Too limited in scope. Not usually creative. Handcuffed due to politics and economics. Good though for bread-and-butter garden variety obvious stuff. Inability to see the bigger picture through their narrow binoculars.
The doctors who have the widest scope and the familiarity of a whole world of medicine that routine doctors do not are the Integrative MDs. That is who you need. Not specialists.
The Lyme labwork is pitifully inaccurate. The most accurate is a Western Blot done specifically by Igenex Labs. If yours wasn't that, it was a waste of time and money. Lyme is primarily a clinical diagnosis...history, exposure, symptom patterns. There are thousands of people walking around (or not walking) with a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Treatment REsistant Depression, Bipolar, Fibromyalgia, and MS, who have those labels because they tested negative but are in fact infected. Their labels are wrong. Their diagnosis wrong.
Tests are useful in the big picture, but not diagnostic. The tests are even declared by the CDC as not to be used for definite diagnosis...they were designed for monitoring and surveilance which allows inaccuracy. Even with a lot of error, it is easy to spot an epidemic breaking out in particular State or Region. The tests are accurage enough for a general trend, but not individual diagnosis. Very long story, you would have to go google it and read about it yourself, but the various organisms of the tick have ingenious methods of avoiding detection by tests and your own immune system.
Testing can be made more accurate, assuming the Western Blot and Igenex, after one has been on antibiotics for some time and then stopped for a couple weeks. The reason is that during that time, the deceptive organisms were weakened and exposed. Now the immune system can see them, and now tests can to. It is amazing how many people entered treatment based on clinical exam but a negative lab diagnosis, then showed a highly positive lab diagnosis later in treatment.
Tricky stuff. I am not suggesting any particular disease or syndrome for you. I am only trying to make the point that huge errors are made in modern medicine much more frequently than the untrained unaware consumer knows.
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> It's definitely good that you can remain off of psych meds for periods of time. I sure wish I could do that!You will, no doubt. When there is a will and a desire, there is a way. You are smart. You will find the your way. The start is a local search for Integrative MDs or Integrative Nurse Practitioners. In the absence of them, Naturopaths even though not full-fledged MDs are good choices. Not to replace MDs, but to augment them. Like we augment meds. Same thing. Naturopaths have the tests for a ton of things routine MDs don't. They probably have the heavy metal urine test kit right in their office, as do the Integrative MDs.
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>> The problem for me with the 'healing crisis' is that one never knows whether they are experiencing an actual healing crisis or they are spiraling down to a place they may not be able to escape from.
>Yeah me too. It is hard to tell a Herx reaction from a depressive flare-up reaction. I can't tell the difference actually. Both are real bad.
poster:bleauberry
thread:914355
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090902/msgs/915846.html