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Answer:

You're "lucky" in that it seems that you've got a reasonable idea of what has caused your problem.

I've done 3 different therapies now that have helped me detox the various toxins that I seem to have accumulated.  The therapies, in the order that I did them, are the PLX, taking supplements that support my mitochondrial function and treatment with a drug called colestipol.  I'm still a big fan of the PLX, but if I had my time over I'd do them in the order below rather than the order that I did them.  As I'm sure you know, this isn't medical advice, but just some things to help you think about the problem.

1.  Support Mitochondrial Function

Dr Sarah Myhill "discovered" this treatment and has written an article about it here:  http://drmyhill.co.uk/article.cfm?id=381  Biolab, a lab that Nutrition Associates uses, has developed a test of mitochondrial function to support this treatment in conjunction with Dr Myhill and there are some details here:  http://www.biolab.co.uk/acumen.html#atpprof.  Make sure that you click through to the sample report and additional notes as there's some good information there.  [The sample report is no longer available]

I wasn't expecting to get a detox effect from this but I did and so, given that you have some Chronic Fatigue (CFS) symptoms, you may find it helpful.  Dr Myhill isn't seeing patients at the moment but if you check her web site (look under the entry for November 2006) she has some advice on how to get this treatment.

I was attracted to this treatment because, before I had heard about it, I had already found that Co Q-10, magnesium, niacin and carnitine were helpful and so it seemed sensible to do the test (which came back positive) and then give the D-Ribose a go.  Adding the D-Ribose to the mix really gave me an energy boost and as I said, also seemed to spark off a round of detox.  The other advantage of doing this first is that the other treatments seem to use up a lot of energy and so sorting out any mitochondrial function problems first will help you supply that energy.

The only problem with this treatment is that it doesn't provide anything to help you do the detox.  This may be a problem if you're not already familiar with supporting your detox processes.  There is some good information on our bodies detox processes at http://www.arlaus.com.au/clinical_guides/FLDP%20Guide.pdf or come back to me if you'd like to discuss.

2.  Colestipol Treatment

There is a web site that gives the full details for this treatment at http://chronicneurotoxins.com/ (click on the "Our Research" link on the left for a description of what it is all about) with the only difference being that it talks about using cholestyramine or CSM (brand name Questran) rather than colestipol (brand name Colestid).  I convinced my doctor at Nutrition Associates to let me use colestipol rather than cholestyramine as Colestid Granules has only one additive whereas Questran is loaded with additives that I didn't want to take.  Note that there is a Colestid Orange that is loaded with additives so make sure that you specify the granules version if additives are a problem for you.

I'm doing this treatment now (June - July 2006) and it has been very effective.  The only downside is that it has mobilised a whole lot of toxins that the colestipol doesn't bind to and so I've been suffering really badly.

The advantage of doing this treatment before the PLX is that you can probably convince your GP to prescribe you some colestipol and so it is really cheap.  In my case I got my doctor at Nutrition Associates to write me a private prescription and then went to my NHS GP and said can you write me a script for this to save me some money.  He probably would have done it anyway as I've got them working together but at least that way he had some evidence that my doctor at Nutrition Associates was okay with it.  The other advantage is that if you did the PLX and the colestipol together then any toxins that the glutathione (in the PLX therapy) doesn't pick up may be picked up by the colestipol and so you will get an overall better result.

3. PLX

I found the PLX to be really effective and it is probably the best thing that I've done.  It's possible that the other therapies on their own would have helped me just as much but given that I did it first we'll never know.

As I say on my web page, while I've found it to be really helpful, and I think that it has made me healthy enough that my body can start to heal itself, the detox that I suffered while doing it and subsequent to doing it (various pains, headaches, diarrhea and a general lethargic feeling) has been really hard to bear.  If I had had access to the colestipol then things would have been easier but given that the colestipol hasn't picked up all the toxins in my body I guess that I still would have had problems.

Whether or not you will have similar problems is probably impossible to say as the one problem with the treatment is that it doesn't provide any way of identifying the toxins that we're suffering from.  However, you may have the advantage over me here since you know what you were exposed to and so Nutrition Associates may be able to advise what is going to happen.

The only disadvantage with the PLX is the price.  However, for me it was worth it as I was looking at a disability retirement and so anything that wasn't outrageously expensive and had a reasonable medical basis was worth a try.  I'm still not back at work as I'm still dealing with the toxins but at least I have a better idea what is wrong with me and so a basis for action.  Prior to this there was no clear way forward.


Finally, something that I'm trying to arrange at the moment is a referral to the Toxicology Clinic at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital - http://www.medtox.org/  I don't know what treatments they do but given that I still seem to have some toxins that none of the 3 treatments have dealt with I need to find out what they are and then deal with them.  Hopefully these are the guys to do that.  I haven't been able to talk to any of the doctors there but I did talk to the clinic secretary who seemed to be quite knowledgeable and said that they treated people with suspected or unknown toxin problems.

If you're in London this is also something that you could consider.  If you're not in London then you will hopefully be able to find another UK toxicology centre from http://www.npis.org/NPIS/uk%20npis.htm  Unfortunately doctors seem to be totally ignorant of the existence of these toxicology clinics which is a pity because it looks like they're just what you and I need.


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