Morgellons Laboratory Tests Redux: Treating Co-Infections of Morgellons

[tcmgpt13]

I know that many of us believe that doctors are no help and quite often that is true. They do not truly have the answers for us yet anymore than those who use more natural treatments. So far this disease has proven to be very difficult to treat. Until we know more about its cause it most likely will remain so.

I think we forget that there are some areas we may explore with the assistance of physicians and that is in the area of testing. As the Western herbalist whose course I attended for about six months was fond of saying "Doctors are very useful in some areas, especially in the area of diagnosis." Then she would pause and add "But what you do with that diagnosis is up to you."

Natural medicine, no matter what tradition of natural medicine (herbalism, tcm, ayurvedic adn more), requires a very skilled practitioner to determine what might be wrong with the patient as it is all based on the patient's body.

In Western medicine lab tests of various kinds are employed to see what is going on inside the body. If the doctor is skilled enough to read and understand the tests ordered then sometimes they will have some information that often will be missed in natural medicine.

Over time I have gradually pushed some of the information I read early on about Morgellons to the background. Last evening I was re-reading some of the material on the Morgellons Research Foundation site which I think could help some of us as far as treatment if we can persuade a doctor to run some of these tests (assuming they have not already been run). Maybe the brain fog I have been experiencing lately is starting to lift as this is the first time I have noticed that hemoglobin levels are usually low in people who have Morgellons. Mine is low, so now I wonder what other tests I might match. What information might be missing from my Western diagnostic picture which could help my TCM practitioner or my doctor?

Fortunately I was tested for the herpes viral infections mentioned here, but it looks as if there is a lot more to explore which might shed light on what might be going on. These tests point out some of the commonalities of our M infections. Knowing what we have means that at least we could treat whatever our symptoms are more effectively, whether that is with natural medicine or Western treatments doctor offer. No doubt there are other tests listed by other Western practitioners who treat M. Still this is a place to start so that we may treat our co-infections which no doubt play a major role in this illness:

"Common Laboratory Abnormalities

Elevated cytokines: TNF-alpha, IL-6, TGF-beta; Elevated inflammation markers: C-reactive protein and TNF-alpha; Immunodeficiency markers: low CD 56 or CD 57 number, low C1Q, low IgG subclasses 1 and 3; Hematological abnormalities: low hemoglobin and hematocrit with abnormal RBC indices; and Biochemical abnormalities: elevated blood glucose, insulin, calcium, and serum Homocysteine, and low serum potassium and magnesium.

The consistent finding of numerous unexpected biologic agents at atypically high levels (some thought to be non-pathogens, others definitely pathogenic) strongly supports that an immune deficiency state exists in Morgellons patients. Agents identified serologically include many zoonoses (intermittently and in low numbers) such as Borrelia (at least five species) and Babesia, a single recently found gram negative bacterium, most herpes viruses, some strongly activated such as VZV and HHV-6, several mycology species (esp. Tineas), and particularly in those we have labeled Morgellons patients, parasites (species will be elaborated following PCR sequencing)."

Case Definition of Morgellons - Morgellons Research Foundation