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Date:         Fri, 25 Dec 1992 22:48:35 +0100
              <CFS-L@NIHLIST.BITNET>
From:         GERARD VAN EYK <IVASEC@URC.TUE.NL>
Subject:      chronic mouth infection/was Flagyl

Subj:   RE: Flagyl and symptoms I DON'T have a history of sore throats, per se,
however, .....  my tooth was never really cured. I needed major dental wo rk
and I'm not opposed to the idea that a chronic infection in my mouth for a few
years prior to CFS diagnosis, probabably lowered my immune responses, thus
making me a target for whatever turns *IT*(?) into CFIDS/ME/FM..whatever!!! I
WAS sick with sore throats  and BRONCHITIS type colds/flu during my year in
Dublin but this stopped when I moved back to the states. At that point it was
summer and the only thing I seemed to bring home with me was FATIGUE and a bad
attitude! I thought my occupation, the pollution, and the weather were the culp
rits!  Please tell me more about this theory and treatment! happy X-MAS! BEKI

I have the idea that your observation that "chronic infection in my mouth....
.... lowered your immune responses" could well be the other way round. Or, the
chronic infection is a signal that your immune system has been lowered already.
Fatigue is a late-comer in the total process of detoriating immune responses.
It begins with various disturbances of the intestine that are hardly visible or
usually disregarded as 'normal problems'. In Chinese medicine, but also some
reflective dentists, it became clear that each individual tooth, being on the
same 'meridian' as specific parts of the abdomen, can signal the 'quality' of
that part of the abdomen/intestine.  The way CM looks at the quality of the
tongue is part of this 'theory'. The next step in the detoriating immune system
is the vulnerability of the mucus in the mouth for infections where infections
at the root of the teeth are very hard to remove if you are not particularly
keen on it. These infections settle and become an autonomous source of
weakening your immune system *on that particular meridian*. It becomes a
*catch22* situation and it is hardly possible for the immune system to get out
of it.

The theory underlying the foregoing paragraph is a somewhat generalized version
of my case of getting CFS. It has slowly emerged since I can overlook a longer
part of my history; in particular including the period preceeding the 'fatigue'
phase, when nothing seemed to be wrong..... Just a few 'normal problems'.

When I was younger, I always had enough reserve energy to overcome these
problems, but gradually I lacked the energy to even cope with the 'normal'
energy required by medical treatment. That was the phase of more or less
permanent exhaustion or 'fatigue'; sometimes interupted by flames of energy
caused by 'will power' leaving me behind even more exhausted.

I think that it is important to look at the whole proces of loss of immunity,
not only at the very last phases. The original start of the process could be
'anything', a virus, a bacteria or what have you. This gradual, but typical and
seemingly unstoppable, decline  is also what CFS, Lyme etcetera have in common,
apart from some very specific details, characteristic for that particular
origin. That is what irritated me often when looking at the long lists of
symptoms: All these illnesses have a lot more in common than in those flames or
battles over 'is it lyme, me, cfs or fibralgia' seems to matter.

In my case, most probably, a lifelong allergy for wheat and milk seems to have
eroded my resistance. But what does it matter? There is a colloquial expression
which holds that 'the last straw breaks the camel's back' or 'the last drop
makes the cup run over'. What irritates me is that we, in our (scientific)
approach to all these illnesses try to blame the last drop (or straw): Only the
most recent events or medicine or treatments are taken into consideration.

My personal position is that I, of course, am not opposing symptoms treatment.
(Call the fire brigade first!) However, from the deeper sources it is not just
that particular insect bite, that flu in 1987, that virus or you name it. That
is *blaming the last drop*. But why is it that we (I mean a lot more people
than those who have a diagnosed CFS, Lyme etcetera) are so vulnarable for very
common diseases. Is it not known that the common cold virus is omnipresent. Why
is it that it gets us down only every now and than? For that reason I finally
came to food and food habits as the core of any treatment. Finding out to what
extend our food (even the *good* veggie food!!!) is undermining our immune
system, is my present occupation. It is apalling to learn that there is hardly
food in our culture that does not severely undermine the immune system; let
alone our (socially indoctrinated) eating habits.

But that is for another posting. I have been deviating from the original
subject: A suggestion to Beki to see tooth infections not as a source of a
detoriating immune system but as a (relatively) late symptom of a detoriated
system.


E-mail: ivasec@urc.tue.nl*GERARD VAN EYK*Voice-mail +31 40 443360
**Letter mail: Postbus 809, 5600 AV  EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS**
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