Day 715 - Low Stomach Acid Headaches

“Individuals suffering from headaches related to low stomach acid have the option to resolve not only the headaches, but also most of the other symptoms associated with low acid, such as bloating, or heartburn-like symptoms following a larger meal.

Considerations may include lemon or lime water, or they may supplement a digestive aid containing Glutamic acid + Betaine + Pepsin, or they may try Bromelain, which is a better choice if they suffer from acid reflux and low stomach acid (which is possible). Acidophilus, or any of the 'Probiotic' friendly bacteria formulations could also be taken on a regular basis, with the best time being right at bedtime. This assures re-seeding of the "good" bacteria overnight, which will subsequently lessen any early morning symptoms such as nausea or headaches that are experienced by some of those suffering from low stomach acid.

Since the Helicobacter Pylori bacteria is a common cause for low stomach acid (as well as ulcers, cancer, asthma, gum, and heart disease), it may be worthwhile to be tested for a possible infection, and if found positive, undergo appropriate therapy.”*

*http://www.acu-cell.com/dis-hpy.html

The headache’s second year anniversary is coming up soon, although this year it doesn’t seem to be as big a deal as it was last year. Maybe it is because I have lived with it for so long now that two years seems to be no different from one. Maybe it is because I would rather just push the thought to the back of my mind.

I have been suffering from bad stomach aches for a few weeks which has made, of course, me wonder if they are connected to the headache. My stomach has come up as a potential cause for the headache on various occasions with the kinesiologist. I have no idea as to what the source of the pain could be - possibly a bacteria, or maybe stomach acidity. The kinesiologist has suggested I get checked for Helicobacter Pilori.

The discomfort of the stomach aches which have now persisted for over a month have made me once again realise how one gets use to pain as I have caught myself on various occasions wishing for the tummy ache to go away and for the pain to move to the head. I have evidently got so used to the headache that discomfort in other parts of my body nearly feels unnatural, so to speak.

I thought the stomach ache was the cause of something I ate, but given its somewhat abnormal duration I have decided to go and see a gastroenterologist. Again, an odd bit of hope that this may be the cause of the headache that is manifesting itself two years down the line.

Day 673 - Chiari Malformations

"In 1891, Austrian pathologist Hans von Chiari described certain hindbrain abnormalities as postmortem findings in infants; these came to be known as Chiari malformations.

Chiari malformations (CMs) are structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. When the indented bony space at the lower rear of the skull is smaller than normal, the cerebellum and brainstem can be pushed downward. The resulting pressure on the cerebellum can block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord) and can cause a range of symptoms including dizziness, muscle weakness, numbness, vision problems, headache, and problems with balance and coordination.

There are three primary types of CM. The most common is Type I, which may not cause symptoms and is often found by accident during an examination for another condition. Type II (also called Arnold-Chiari malformation) is usually accompanied by a myelomeningocele-a form of spina bifida that occurs when the spinal canal and backbone do not close before birth, causing the spinal cord to protrude through an opening in the back. This can cause partial or complete paralysis below the spinal opening. Type III is the most serious form of CM, and causes severe neurological defects. Other conditions sometimes associated with CM include hydrocephalus, syringomyelia, and spinal curvature.

Medications may ease certain symptoms, such as pain, although many people with Type I are asymptomatic and do not know they have the condition. Many patients with the more severe types of CM and have surgery see a reduction in their symptoms and/or prolonged periods of relative stability, although paralysis is generally permanent. Surgery is the only treatment available to correct functional disturbances or halt the progression of damage to the central nervous system."

*http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chiari/chiari.htm
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/406849-overview

I recently had a comment on the Hemicrania Continua post from someone who has been diagnosed with Chiari malformation. Given that I do not yet have a post on this condition, I thought it would be interesting to write a few lines about it, especially as recently various people have mentioned that they are familiarizing themselves with new conditions via my blog. And I have to admit I find it fascinating, albeit at the same time very daunting, to learn how many different conditions have constant headache as one of their symptoms. It goes to show how complex and how intricately connected all parts of the human body are.

And I wonder how many other conditions exist with headache as a primary symptom, which modern medicine has not yet familiarised itself with.

Some of the websites I have read which detail the symptoms of Chiari state that at times an MRI is not sufficient, and that a CT scan can better detect any possible signs of the condition. I myself have had both, so can say I most probably do not have Chiari malformations. Yet again, something to tick off the ‘I most probably do not have this’ box.

As Christmas once again creeps up on us, I am approaching year two of my permanent headache. I feel I have made some progress since it started, albeit only in terms of being able to eliminate what it could not be. As to what is really is, I still do not have a clue. At times I sit back and wonder whether I should not be more worried about this wretched headache and about what it could possibly be, but it has got to a point where I simply push that thought to the back of my mind. I try and forget that I have had this miserable and mysterious headache for so long, this headache which has no doubt altered the course of my life and has put me on a life path that maybe I would not have followed. The only thought I can reassure myself with is that, as I have mentioned before, it has probably made me into a stronger person and enabled me to cope with a condition I previously would have thought I would never have been able to put up with.

Day 632 - Black Walnut (Juglans Nigra)

"The leaves of English walnut trees, Juglans regia L., also known as European walnut, have been used medicinally for thousands of years particularly for treating skin disorders. English walnut is native to southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, India and China.

The leaves are considered astringent, and insecticidal against bedbugs and mites (i.e. scabies). The famous herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper, used European walnut to "kill worms in the stomach or belly". The juice of the green husk was boiled with honey and used as a gargle for sore mouth and throat and to relieve heat and inflammation in the throat and stomach.

Walnut leaf today is most often used externally as an astringent for treating eczema, herpes and ulcers. The leaves of black walnut are most often used to treat hemorrhoids as well as liver and gallbladder problems. In folk medicine, black walnut leaf was also given to relieve headache, hepatitis, and skin conditions, although there is little evidence to back up these claims. The walnut’s active compound, juglone, isolated from black walnut, has been shown to be a laxative, fight worms, and have strong activity against bacteria and abnormal growths."*

*http://store.healingifts.com/blwaleexor.html

The headache has been pretty stable the whole summer, hovering between 1 and 2; I only had one flair-up which lasted a couple of days, and was only about a 5. I say ‘only a 5’ because those of you who also suffer from a constant headache know that 5 is bad but perfectly bearable. I have not had a 9 for a long time now luckily. I dread to remember what it was like.

I saw the kinesiologist again a week ago. When muscle testing me, ‘bacteria’ came up a few times; whether this is a possible bacteria I caught when travelling in South America this summer or a cause of the headache I do not know; he gave me black walnut drops to take for a few weeks.

I have recently had a number of postings on my blog - thank you everyone - although sadly many of those who have commented have had some terrible side effects from the medicines they have been taking to quell the headache. I cannot stress how much my headache has improved since those horrific first few months, and only through natural methods. I myself felt the urge to take some strong medicines at the very beginning when the haunting headache was horrendously bad but I opted out of this option having read what side effects some of these have.

I know natural remedies, as a general rule, take longer to have an effect on our organism but this is not a reason to discard them; western medicines may have an immediate effect but they all have side-effects of one sort or another. The stronger the medicine, the stronger the side effect. I know my headache has not gone away but it is better - all I am trying to say to those of you who suffer from a similar condition is to try some natural remedies first before moving onto potent medicines.

Day 545 - Colon Cleansing

"Why, suddenly, has colon cleansing (detoxification) become so necessary? Many argue that our grandparents did not use colon cleansers and they survived pretty well. The answer is simple: times have changed. Our eating habits have changed and our dietary intake has altered radically since the old days. Our grandparents, like their parents before them, lived on a healthy high-fibre diet of whole foods such as fresh garden vegetables and plenty of unprocessed fruit.

Our food intake in today's rushed, modern world is very different. About 90 percent of the foods that we consume on a daily basis is processed or refined in some way. These refined foods keep depositing toxic waste in our body. The foods (including sugar and flour) make us extremely susceptible to serious intestinal problems.

Over six thousand chemicals are used to process foods. The food that we eat every day is refined, genetically engineered, preserved, coloured, and treated with a mixture of insecticides, chemicals, and hormones. That means that not only do we eat very little roughage to encourage healthy intestinal function, but the constant chemicals, preservatives and colorants that we consume also have a devastating effect on the digestive tract.

What happens when the colon becomes sluggish or constipated? This results in toxic poison building up as the result of multiplying bacteria when foodstuffs travel too slowly through the intestines during the evacuation process. These toxins then enter the bloodstream via the colon. That's why chronic constipation poses such a dangerous health risk.

So, the single most dangerous threat to your colon is, of course, your diet. Depending on your daily food intake, your low-fiber, high processed, refined and chemically laced food intake is a serious health risk. In today's modern world, we are actually poisoning ourselves little by little, each and every day.”*

*http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/colon-cleanse-the-single-most-dangerous-threat-to-your-colon-1754106.html

I remember hearing about a detox programme a couple of years ago through a friend of mine. Hers involved sipping some horrible sounding ‘soup’ for a few weeks or so, after which she had to slowly reintroduce certain foods, starting with little nibbles of salad or boiled vegetables so as not to give her system too much of a shock having not eaten anything solid at all for so long.

No wonder I was reluctant to try the Colonix detox programme that my mother suggested I give a go. ‘You’ve tried everything for your headache, I don’t understand why you won’t just try this too’, she said to me. At the time, my mother had been on the programme for three months and had seen great results - she felt a lot more energetic and generally a lot healthier.

I eventually gave in and thought ‘what the heck, might as well’ - it just gets to a point where you’re willing to try everything. ‘What if I don’t try it and it’s the key to solving my headache?’ - that’s the question that runs through my head virtually every time someone suggests trying out something new. I took the Colonix for a few months. As I have been based abroad for work, I couldn’t have gone back to see the kinesiologist anyway and I had finished all the tablets he had given me. I was therefore not following any specific diet nor was I on any programme of sorts. So why not give it a go?

I was rather frightened by the possible effects of taking the Colonix - look at their webpage and the testimonial photos and you will no doubt understand why I am using the word ‘frightened’. My mother was convinced I was harbouring some sort of a bacteria or parasite which would soon be released thanks to the potency of this combination of herbal ingredients.

I have now finished the three month programme and I do admit feeling better. My headache has stabilised to a 1/2, albeit with the occasional flair up - only once did I get an 8 which was dreadful but luckily it didn’t last for too long. As I have mentioned on a number of occasions, one forgets how bad the pain is until it comes back, your head thumping away, your field of vision obscuring as little flashy stars appear in front of you, a wave of nausea running through you and an untold desire to lie down and close your eyes taking control of your mind and body.

The headache has definitely not gone, it still very much haunts me every living second, but it’s better, which is an improvement. I am seeing the kinesiologist again in a few days - I’d be interested to see what comes up when he muscle tests me.

Day 500 - Occipital Neuralgia

“Occipital neuralgia is a term used to describe a cycle of pain-spasm-pain originating from the suboccipital area (base) of the skull that often radiates to the back, front, and side of the head, as well as behind the eyes.

The occipital nerves are two pairs of nerves that originate in the area of the second and third vertebrae of the neck. While most people's nerve roots originate in similar places on the spine, cadaver studies show a wide variety of differences between individuals as to the course of the nerves once they leave the spinal column. Often the nerves follow a curving course that passes through various muscles in the upper back, neck and head.

These nerves supply areas of the skin along the base of the skull and partially behind the ear. While the occipital nerves do not directly connect with structures within the skull itself, they do interconnect with other nerves outside of the skull and form a continuous neural network that can affect any given area through which any of the main nerves or their branch fibers pass.

Occipital neuralgia occurs more often in women than men. It can have many causes such as trauma (a direct blow or "whiplash"); spinal column compression; nerve lesions; localized infections or inflammation; gout; diabetes; blood vessel inflammation; and local tumors.

Commonly, the nerves are inflamed and sensitive because they are trapped within the muscles through which they pass. Muscle spasm and pain are often associated with nerve entrapment, which causes localized pain, spasm and muscle cramping.

Symptoms include the following:

- Headaches that are localized or following a "ram's horn" pattern on the side of the head, often starting in the upper neck or base of the skull. It can be one-sided or on both sides.
- Scalp that is tender to the touch, often hypersensitive. Even brushing your hair can be a painful experience.
- Pain or pressure behind the eyes. Eyes are very sensitive to light especially when the headache is present.

Many conditions can show symptoms similar to those found with occipital neuralgia. Treatment of occipital neuralgia may involve oral medications that are designed to reduce inflammation and spasms, localized therapeutic injections, physical therapy, massage, and heat.”*

*http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/536/main.html

I thought I would post something on occipital neuralgia as someone recently mentioned looking into this condition. My type of headache doesn’t seem to correspond to that described above, in particular as I do not suffer from muscle spasms. One reader of this blog recently commented on the hemicrania continua post about having an indescribably severe headache which manifests itself with severe muscle spasms. Occipital neuralgia could be something he could look into if he hasn’t yet. His story nearly brought me to tears.

The number of comments recently posted on my blog under the hemicrania continua post go to show how many people seem to suffer from this condition. Sadly most of the people who I have been in touch with have not as yet had much relief from the medicines they were prescribed. I still remain convinced (and I am sure many of you do) that there must be an intricate reason for the onset and continuation of our headaches. What this is, in my case, as no doubt in many others, still remains a mystery.

There have been a few days in which the headache has flared up, and every time I manage to forget how bad it can get. Being tired doesn’t help. Sleeping too much doesn’t seem to help either. Finding a constant balance is what I need to do. I also got a bit of a cold the other day which revived the headache, making it thump away - although that was a ‘cold headache’ on top of the ‘normal’ headache.

It has now been nearly a year and a half.

Compared to others who have commented on my blog, it’s no time at all. What is my body trying to tell me? What is going on in there? Sometimes I wish I could just crack my head open and see what’s going on.

The kinesiologist was not around when I was back in the UK so I did not manage to see him this time round. I went for some acupuncture - the acupuncturist always manages to pinpoint the pain and stick a needle right in it; as the needle enters that part of my head, my head feels like a balloon deflating. The pain remains but in some ways I feel like I have caught it, pinpointed it, willing to stab it and kill it once and for all. But, alas, it perseveres.

Day 449 - Swearing

"That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests. Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.

"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."

Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual's tolerance to pain. Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person's tolerance. As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.

The researchers enlisted 64 undergraduate volunteers and had them submerge their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice. The experiment was then repeated with the volunteer repeating a more common word that they would use to describe a table.

Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word. The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body's natural “fight-or flight” response. Stephens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may increase aggression (seen in accelerated heart rates), which downplays weakness to appear stronger or more macho. "Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," Stephens said."*

*http://www.livescience.com/health/090712-swearing-pain.html

I have not posted for a while as the headache has been at its best for the past few weeks - up until a few days ago. I got a bit of a cold and since then the headache seems to have partly shifted to the left hand side which is proving to be a complete and utter nightmare as I am not used to the pain being there. I can’t even seem to be able to figure out what level out of 10 it is as the pain has never been on the left hand side for so long.

The other day, when it first moved about, I had a headache on top of the headache. That was a bit of a nightmare - it’s incredible what the body can get used to, and how one can feel two headaches simultaneously. It’s hard to explain unless you have experienced it first hand. I am sure that before the headache started I would not have been able to imagine experiencing two headaches concurrently.

And, once again, I forgot how bad the headache was - when it subsides you can never really picture how forceful the pain had previously been.

I also woke up a few days ago with an unbelievable pain in my teeth and jaw. I felt as if I had spent the night furiously grinding my teeth (I still regularly wear the mouth guard I was given by the dentist one year ago) - not sure if it was due to the headache pain, or possibly just a bad nightmare. Rather odd though as I woke up with my teeth and gums in complete agony. This makes me think the headache could be related to the jaw, but I have had that tested on various occasions and it doesn’t seem to be that..

Let’s just hope all the pain moves back to the right as I feel I am able to cope with it much better when it’s on that side - I guess, once again, it just goes to show how used to pain we become. Maybe I should just swear more to make the pain more tolerable, as the study above seems to suggest.

Day 428 - Pain

'We forget very easily what gives us pain.' - Graham Greene

"Pain is a simple enough concept to grasp. You stub your toe, shout, perhaps utter a few expletives, rub it better and it eventually fades. But neuroscientists are realising that pain is much more complex than anyone thought possible, comprising not just physical sensations, but emotional ones too. Pioneering studies are providing insights into why some people experience debilitating chronic pain long after an injury has healed, as well as why some are more prone to pain than others, and why certain people never recover from bereavement.

While most pain goes away as an injury gets better, sometimes it remains for months or even years, long outlasting its original purpose. Chronic physical pain is debilitating and can cause disability, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. It is also very common.

No one really knows why some people experience chronic pain and others do not, but imaging studies at Northwestern University, Chicago, have found a series of abnormalities in the brains of chronic pain sufferers in which the part linked to decision-making (the prefrontal cortex) is reduced, while an area of the prefrontal cortex linked to emotion is hyperactive. What is known for certain is that the brain changes in those with chronic pain so that they experience pain differently from the way they did before.

We all have a system for suppressing pain when necessary so that we can flee attackers even when injured. Those who suffer from chronic pain appear unable to access this and cannot use distraction as a means of suppressing pain; their brains seem to amplify pain signals rather than inhibit them.

Neuroscience is also revealing a host of similarities between emotional and physical pain. Professor David Alexander, the director of the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research, is not surprised about the link between physical and emotional pain. “If you listen to people who are damaged emotionally, they will often translate their pain into physical similes: ‘my head is bursting, my guts are aching', and so on. The parallel is very strong.”*

*http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4397377.ece

As I have mentioned on a number of occasions, the headache has created paradoxical feelings in me - on the one hand, I feel I want people to know about it as it could justify any incongruous behaviour, such as feeling dejected, short tempered or angry at inappropriate times; on the other hand, I don’t want people to know about it as I don’t want them to see me any differently than they would someone else.

But even those who know, after a while, stop asking you how you are, they stop asking about your headache, because they forget. But the awful thing is that I can never forget because the headache is always with me.

It’s odd, though, how easily one forgets about pain - when the headache is at its strongest you are taken aback by the amount of pain it causes because in that intermittent period of time in which the pain was bearable, you forgot how bad it really was.

And in a similar way, people forget, because most of us who have these inexplicable headaches don’t tend to have any other visible symptoms, which naturally leads people to forget about the fact that you’re in constant pain. But we ourselves are incapable of forgetting about our headache, because it never leaves us.

Many people have asked me if I can forget about the pain, but how can you? Sometimes you get distracted for a few minutes and of course you focus on something else, but the pain is always there, always reminding you of its presence. It makes you wonder if another person would be able to cope any better. Would they be able to put up with the pain too? How used to the pain have I got? According to a study mentioned above, the brain changes in those with chronic pain so that they experience pain differently from the way they did before. This makes me question how much (or how little) I feel pain in comparison to others. I sometimes wonder what would happen if someone else lived in my body - how long would they be able to put up with the pain for before handing it back to me and imploring me to take it?

I just cannot imagine what it would be like not to have a headache. I can picture an immediate feeling of lightness. Just imagine! My head always feels so heavy, so burdensome.

Day 400 - Vaccines & Thimerosal

“Vaccines are medications that are designed to stimulate the body's immune system to generate a response that will protect the individual from disease by the pathogen in question. The first vaccination was performed in 1796 by the British physician Edward Jenner who had noticed that dairy maids who had had cowpox infection (Vacca = cow in Latin) did not succumb to the deadly smallpox infection that was claiming many lives at the time. To test his theory, Jenner infected his gardener's son, James Phipps, with cowpox and then weeks later attempted to infect him with the deadly smallpox. Happily, James survived the experience and was protected from infection and thus the practice of vaccination was born.

The body's immune system is comprised of two arms - antibody-mediated immunity and cell-mediated immunity. All vaccines developed in the last 50 years probably protect by stimulating a potent antibody response. However, for pathogens that live within cells of the body, where antibodies can't reach, it is likely that cell-mediated immunity is required for protection. Examples of such pathogens include malaria, TB and HIV. Each of these is a huge global health problem claiming millions of lives each year for which there is no effective vaccine.

Thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, contains 49.6 percent mercury by weight and is metabolized or degraded into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate. Mercury, or more precisely, ethylmercury, is the principle agent that kills contaminants. Studies indicate that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines.

Mercury poisoning has been linked to cardiovascular disease, autism, seizures, mental retardation, hyperactivity, dyslexia and many other nervous system conditions. That's why the FDA rigorously limits exposure to mercury in foods and drugs. Some common sources of mercury include dental amalgam fillings, various vaccines and certain fish contaminated by polluted ocean waters.”*

*http://www.malaria-vaccines.org.uk/2.shtml
http://www.naturalnews.com/011764_mercury_thimerosal_vaccines.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4472485.stm

Having written a post about heavy metal toxicity and having read more about the relation between mercury and vaccines, I thought I’d share some thoughts with you.

I remember talking to some friends a few months ago when swine flu seemed to be the next epidemic that would wipe out half the world’s population (ah, the media!). I remember saying that I would never dream of taking a swine flu vaccine not only because of the amount of poisonous metals (namely thimerosal) contained in the vaccine itself, but also because the vaccine had never been tested before, and thus the long term effects are unknown.

A few weeks before having that conversation, I had watched a video (you can click on it above) on the 1976 swine flu propaganda. The outbreak was a strain of H1N1 influenza virus and prompted vast mass immunization in the United States, mainly due to the advertising campaigns broadcast on television which propelled most Americans to immediately get a vaccine. As you will be able to see in the video above, the consequences were disastrous.

I find this whole topic fascinating, in particular as no one is ever warned of the possible side effects of having a vaccine. How many of you are ever warned of any possible dangers following your vaccinations? The only thing I have ever been in told is that I may feel a bit dizzy and weak afterwards, but that’s about it. We’re not warned of the possible long term effects these injections may have on us.

As I was doing some research online, I came across a site which explained that a study conducted in 1999 revealed that some infants, due to a genetic or developmental factor, lack the ability to eliminate mercury. Trace amounts of mercury in these infants, when accumulated over several vaccines, could pose a severe health risk.

Because of this some countries (including the UK) have banned the use of thimerosal in some - but not all - vaccines. According to an article I stumbled across on the BBC webpage, only hepatitis B and influenza in the UK programme now contain thimerosal.*

More and more scientists have found links between thimerosal and neurological damage, including higher incidence of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) antibodies in autistic children. Surely the link between those developing autism post vaccines is no coincidence? Needless to say, there are plenty of doctors, including the spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, who believe that “There is strong evidence to show that thimerosal in vaccines does not cause neurodevelopmental problems." There seems to be plenty of evidence that points to the contrary...

Could my headache be linked to metals that my body is finding hard to eliminate? Possibly.

Day 386 - Heavy Metal Toxicity

"Heavy metal toxicity is an excessive build-up of metals in the body. Oftentimes, the vague symptoms produced by heavy metal toxicity are mistakenly misdiagnosed as incurable chronic conditions. The most common heavy metals that humans are exposed to are aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.

Heavy metals are found in everyday existence and are frequently hard to avoid entirely. Most people can excrete toxic heavy metals from the body successfully. However, some people—especially those who suffer from chronic conditions—cannot excrete them efficiently enough and a build-up occurs. Recent research also reveals that those who cannot excrete heavy metals efficiently appear to be genetically predisposed to this condition.

When numerous metals are present in the body, they have a “synergistic toxicity.” Dr. Boyd Haley, professor and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, performed a study on rats and found that the mortality rate of rats exposed to a small dose of mercury or aluminum killed only 1 rat in 100. However, when the rats were exposed to both mercury and aluminum at the same time, all 100 rats died—a 100% mortality rate.

Heavy metal toxicity can result from either acute or chronic exposure to heavy metals.

Acute exposure can occur as a result of:

- Receiving vaccinations that contain thimerosal (mercury preservative)
- Mishandled metals at a job site
- Chemical and heavy metal spills–even from a broken mercury thermometer

Chronic exposure happens over a period of time, and includes:

- Having mercury amalgams (“silver fillings”) in teeth
- Living in a home built prior to 1978 that has lead-based paint
- Smoking and/or inhaling second-hand smoke
- Eating foods (such as contaminated fish) that contain high levels of heavy metals
- Living near a landfill

- Working in an environment where exposure is prevalent, such as at a dentist’s office where amalgam is used to fill cavities"*

*http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/heavy-metal-toxicity

I had a bit of a flare up last week but nothing major (probably about 6/10) but other than that I have been doing well at about 2/10. No complaints. I am also back in the cold dry Russian weather which so far has kept the headache down to a 2/10.

When I returned to Europe in December for a few weeks the headache seemed to fluctuate a bit more and oscillate (randomly, of course) between 2/10 and 5/10 but after a few days it seemed to stabilize at about 2/10.

I went to see the kinesiologist again a few days ago. I appeared to ‘weaken’ to a homeopathic remedy of metals which implies a possible metal toxicity. Incidentally, the nutritionist I saw a few months ago had mentioned the possibility of taking a herbal remedy for metal toxicity as she had told me this could be the cause of my headache.

I ‘tested’ well for Cilantro (Coriandrum Sativum), a plant used in cases of metal toxicity, and I am now taking 20 drops of it three times a day.

The most common form of metal toxicity is via tooth fillings, of which I have none (luckily). But there are, of course, many other causes of metal toxicity such as those mentioned above, the most common of which is by far receiving vaccinations that contain thimerosal, a mercury preservative.

Given that we have all received vaccinations, it is not surprising that there are so many undetected illnesses out there that could originate precisely from injections that most people deem beneficial to their long term health.