Very Interesting article

I also think that the additional problems at the pork production plant in Indiana will induce some studies as well. As Andrew mentioned in a post, it seems as though this is some type of mad pig disease if you will. It would be hard to continue ignoring the fact that illnesses from animals cause neurological disorders. They must have known something in the 70’s, perhaps the immunization against the swine flu was not the problem, but maybe they actually did get the swine flu. It makes me wonder if mad cow disease too could carry over to humans in a nuerological form. In any event, maybe some governmental person will make a connection and start government funded research on demylienating neuropathies. Wow, I am really sounding a little weird today!
Dawn

Dawn,

Mad Cow Disease in humans is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. They belong to a class of neurological illnesses called prions. It is possible to get CJD from eating beef from an infected animal. I don’t remember the specifics, but a few years back, England had a cattle epidemic and caused panic in the beef industry there. All blood products are now screened for prions, but that hasn’t always been the case.

One of the big contributors for gbs/cidp from animals is camphelobacter jejuni from chickens. Last count, approximately 80% of all chickens in the US are infected. The best way to guard against becoming ill is to make sure to cook well done. Interestingly (here I go again), the alternative treatment that I had used for my daughter this past year, is now being used in place of antibotics in some of the poultry farms to guard against camphelobacter jejuni and has shown some success. It remains to be seen if resistance develops against the methoxy-substitued benzoquinone (active ingredient in Avemar) much the same as resistance has developed to anti-botics.

cd

Hey cd…thanks for mentioning the “Campylobacter jejuni”. I googled it with the word “pigs” and got a few hits. This one was very interesting because it talks a lot about gbs.

[url]http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no1/altekruse.htm[/url]

It all points in one direction…the oinkers had Campylobacter jejuni on their minds!
Andrew

PS. I think the problem in UK was hoof and mouth disease, which does not effect humans, but can wipe out herds of livestock. Everytime I left Toronto or went through London, we had to walk over these mats soaked in insecticide.

I had GBS in ’83 and I believe it was brought on by food poisoning so this interests me. The symptoms I had prior to being diagonosed are exactly those of one particular food poisoning that now is being linked to GBS. I had Plasma Pharesis and when they did it the first time, my plasma was greenish black. Anyone else have a similar experience?

Janet

I had a nasty case of food poisoning just before Christmas 2006. Talk about exacerbating my GBS residuals! And I haven’t been strong since. I’m now dealing with a terrible stomach ulcer which I couldn’t feel, because of damaged nerves, until it was quite advanced. Anyone know of a good remedy to use with the Rx??

Funny food poisoning should come up…two weeks ago my PCP asked me if I’d had food poisoning in the month before my onset (12-6-07). I hadn’t but I thought at the time it was a weird question.

Judi Z, I suffered for years with stomach and duodenal ulcers (back when the only Rx was tagamet). Finally the drug “Carafate” come out and it is what enabled my ulcers to heal. It’s still out there and a good med. By prescription only. Hopefully, you’re already on it…if not, maybe ask your doc. Best wishes!

Carla

Took three weeks before a Neuorologist told me what I had. The first PP was a very cloudy light green. By the fifth one it was a crystal clear green. I wouldn’t have liked t see it black, yuk! Still I was told that they couldn’t have got them all and that I would have a relapse in the future. Ain’t science wonderful?

Yeah, it was pretty gross considering it should be a straw color. Unfortnunately there is no way to go back and determine what was going on. My current neurologist has told me that he has never heard of it being black so I hope he does some research, although I doubt he will. It is amazing to hear what is happening now compared to how we were treated for GBS 25 years ago. I was one of the first poeople in Canada to have PP for GBS and according to the neurologist that I had at that time, there was no indication that anyone in Canada had been treated with PP. He was using info he had gotten out of New York and the PP machine that they were using was new and had been used only a couple times for other things. I am interested in all I read here as I am now experiencing residuals that had not bothered me for 20 years. I am not sure if they were there and I ignored them for the most part as I rasied a family of 4. I think they were minimal but as I am aging they seem to get worse each day and it is getting harder and harder to ignore them. I want to continue reading here and hopefully they come up with something that helps those of us who seem to be backsliding, even years later. I am looking to science!!!

Janet