I bring you tidings of joy!

And not just because it's Christmas!

Hello to all my old friends, and to all my new friends.

It's been eight years since I started out here in our Living Room trying to find an answer to all the misery. I mostly eliminated vertigo, so I moved on to other areas of research to deal with my other neurologic symptoms, only visiting occasionally. I've intended to come back and update everyone on what worked for me, but I never quite got well long enough.

I've started seeing a holistic health FNP who quickly diagnosed me with systemic yeast. Yeast was behind my leaky gut years ago, but even after curing that, there were still yeast roaming around my body and while I was dealing with my other issues (which turned out to be dental) the yeast went wild again.

One of the posters here had PMd me to ask a question, so I used that as motivation to write up a post as I had been intending. I've now turned a corner, so it's a good time to post.

I'll post my medical journey in the next post, and follow that up with things that I've learned from dealing with the medical system these last eight years.

 

I was pretty healthy up until my early 50’s. Before that I had a few weird health problems. My BP, uric acid, cholesterol have been high most of my life. I had gout. My CRP tests were often elevated, but normal while cell counts, and sed rate was always perfectly normal. Everything else was so maddeningly normal (maddening because if you feel sick, you want a test to show it dammit!) except every five years or so the liver would complain a bit, then just go back to normal. I was diagnosed with a fatty liver (and I am a none-to-light drinker, never abused alcohol). Then weird things started happening. “Unknown Etiology”.

I’m my 40’s, I had a piece of bone in my right ankle die and start flaking off. They operated to stabilize it, and it’s been pretty good, but they never figured out why nor seemed all that concerned. Unknown etiology.

In 2005, I had to give up white water kayaking after getting a pulmonary embolism. Again, no discernible cause. My genetic factors were good, I had not flown nor gotten a lower extremity injury anytime close to the PE. Unknown etiology. That started me on warfarin, which I just stopped taking earlier this year.

I started getting numbness in my left arm. A MRI showed a narrow area around the spine in the neck, but two of the top neurosurgeons in the are both said the neck was not the issue. Unknown etiology. The physical therapist at work taught me the McKenzie neck exercise, and after about six months I didn’t have any numbness anymore.

Then in 2009 I started getting the tinnitus, hearing loss, and vertigo. Unknown etiology. This is where I made my first mistake. I “knew” it was Meniere’s “Disease” because my Mom had it. The ENT did the standard low-salt diet, take valium when the vertigo hits, there is no cure. My first mistake was to believe him. But my symptoms kept getting worse. Vertigo is a form of migraine (in most cases) and I kept getting auras and brain fog and the ENT set me to an otolaryngologist. Duke trained. His solution: Cut the vestibular nerve. Unknown etiology.

However, I had joined Menieres.org by then. One of the posters (who will forever by my hero) had suggested that I try cutting out wheat. I thought that was the dumbest idea I had ever heard. I had eaten bread and pasta my entire life and it’s never bothered me! Wrong. I was desperate and willing to try anything halfway normal. To my surprise, after ten days off of wheat, I started feeling better (it was temporary). Eventually it didn’t matter much what I ate, if I ate enough of it over time, it would start to trigger migraines (aura/vertigo/brain fog).

Long story still long, I was suffering from Intestinal Dysbiosis (Leaky Gut). Now there are a lot of medical practitioners who treat leaky gut, but back in 2009, it was considered borderline quack, so you had to learn about via word of mouth, and that’s how I found the Doc that gave me the nystatin. Under this doctors treatment, I cured the leaky gut with anti-fungals, supplements and lots and lots of probiotics. For about six months I felt better (no migraine/vertigo but still with tinnitus and hearing loss).

But other symptoms started flaring: neuropathy in the feet, arthritis, difficulty concentrating, poor quality sleep (Central Sleep Apnea), chronic fatigue, folliculitis, heart arrhythmia (Pre-ventrical contractions - PVCs). My PCP was worse than useless, giving me random prescriptions on the off chance that one might help somehow. The HZTZ didn’t, it triggered a huge gout attack.

Long story getting shorter, a serendipitous visit to my dentist for my spring cleaning held the key. She wanted to replace a cracked filling, and found an infected root. So that was infected tooth #1 (when I was a teen/young adult I didn’t properly care for my teeth). After about a week, I felt better and continued to for about six month, then the symptoms started creeping back in. My PCP was basically his clueless self. He was very good at ordering lab tests.

About the same time next year, I was back for my 6 month cleaning and a piece of tooth fell off for no reason. No cavity, just a chunk of enamel. When my dentist heard this, she knew it was another infected root so she did another root canal. That was infected tooth #2.

Again, six month improvement, then a slow return of symptoms. I asked the dentist to send me to top dental radiologist in the area and he found a large area of infection under a tooth that had been rooted over 30 years ago. When the root canal was done, the infection had already escaped the tooth and settled in the socket. That was a 30 year infection. I was expecting to feel better again, but I did a little, but not what I was expecting (this was 2016), and later in the year the symptoms started getting worse, especially the heart arrhythmia.

I ended up getting a new dentist, who is one of the top in this area. But even with the high tech 3-d equipment, he missed another infection.

On Mother’s Day of this year (2017), I had so many PVCs in a row that my BP was dropping through the floor. I could only walk about ten steps before having to rest. A trip to the ER showed a slightly elevated treponin level, which the doc says almost always means a heart attack. She was correct, but I was one of the “not this time” people. My mistake here was believing her. If someone has a lot of PVCs (which I did), that can also cause a slightly elevated treponin level. They kept me overnight and checked the treponin again, but it hadn’t risen, which is what they would have expected for a heart attack. They wanted to do a heart cath anyway, and I was game so off to the ER with the heart doc I went. The doctor had already practiced his speech about how I needed to start statins and exercise more and lose weight. And they had a stent right there in the ER with me since they knew I was going to need one. When I got back into my room, the doc was scratching his head. I had 30% blockage, which is to say, nothing significant at all. He did say that if I didn’t take statins that I would eventually get a heart attack. I figure at the rate the artery was clogging, I’d be 125 years old when it gets to 60%. Doc didn’t know why my treponin level was up. Unknown etiology.

So, I’m at home before I know it and I still can’t walk more than about 10 steps. This shocked me into action (you get complacent when you don’t feel well) and I made an appointment with my new dentist. This time they found that tooth #2 (remember tooth #2?) hadn’t been properly rooted, my old dentist missed ½ of one of the roots. A trip to the endodontist (who makes his living by fixing botched root canals) finished the old root canal and flushed the root area with clorox (breaks up biofilms and kills bacteria). It took about three weeks to recover. But even fixing this tooth didn’t give much help with the symptoms.

I finally decided to seek out a holistic health practice. My new FNP took one look at my tongue (thrush) and declared yeast infection. The yeast that had escaped during the leaky gut period were still roaming around my system, and had gained a foothold again while I was worrying about my dental issues and I hadn’t noticed. That’s why it’s nice to have someone competent managing your health care.

I’ve now been on prescription anti-fungals again for a few weeks. I’m taking colloidal silver (metallic nano particles are big in research) for the anti-microbe and anti-biofilm properties. I’m also taking a number of supplements designed to bust biofilms and boost the immune system. I’m on a low carb/alkaline diet for a few months, but I’ll retain some of that going forward. I’ve lost 20 lbs in a month since I’ve been on the diet.

I’m now feeling better than I have in a long time. My neurological symptoms have eased, my neuropathy and arthritis is mostly gone, I can exercise again. My FNP is the first medical practitioner that understands my medical issues and has been able to offer substantial relief.

The point of sharing my story is that things like migraines, Menieres, and other diseases, including heart disease, artery clogging, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, type ii diabetes are multi-factoral and usually only pop up after you have more than one major health issue with long term inflammation. My two were dental and gut. When yeasts and gut and dental bacteria get lodged in other parts of the body, they can wreak havoc and the immune system can’t attack them directly. They sit there and generate toxins, protected from the immune system and antibiotics by biofilms. When these things lodge in your brain, you get neurological problems. When they lodge in the pancreas, you get diabetes or pancreatic cancer. It’s not clear what the pathway is, but dental bacteria DNA has been found in the amaloyd plaque that causes Alzheimers.

I expect that I’ll always have the tinnitus and hearing loss in my left ear. My right ear is 100%, but the quality of my left ear is such that even a hearing aide won’t help. There is a small chance that the damage is not permanent, because occasionally I’ll have brief periods with no tinnitus and improved hearing. I’m not counting on it, but as I detox and the general level of inflammation goes down, you never know.

In the next message I’ll share some things you can look at which may help with symptoms.

 

It's my bedtime, but I don't want to completely leave you hanging.

The key to much of this are yeast infections, dental infections, biofilms, systemic infections of gram negative bacteria.

 

OK, one tip.

I was given 5mg valium by doctors to put under my tongue to mitigate a vertigo attack. I found that meclazine (non-drowsy Dramamine), for me at least, is more effective than valium in knocking back a vertigo attack. Plus, you don't need a prescription.

 

Hi Matt,

Biofilms are the key to a lot of this. A biofilm is a membrane that bacterial colonies create that shields the bacteria from things that would kill it. The holes in the biofilm are big enough to let in glucose (food) and to let out bacterial poop (if you eat, you need to poop). The bacterial "poop", or metabolic byproducts, are often toxins that spread out throughout the body and cause general inflammation. It's the general inflammation that leads to things such as diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and other stuff.

While the holes in the biofilm are large enough to let in glucose, and let out the toxins, they are too small to let in molecules of antibiotics or molecules of the immune system. So if you have a biofilm infection, you can take antibiotics all day long for a month, and it will not affect the infection.

Biofilms are everywhere in nature. The easiest example of a biofilm in humans is dental plaque, and the white fuzzy stuff you get when you don't brush your teeth for a couple of days. You may be familiar with the problem of infections found in hospitals (nosocomial) or from replacement joints. That's because many of the sterilization techniques are ineffective against biofilms. Alcohol may not break down a biofilm and so an alcohol wipe won't kill infections. Fortunately, clorox does, so you'll see that being used to clean surfaces. In a recent botched root canal fix, my endodontist flushed the root with clorox.

A biofilm colony will most likely not just contain a single species of bacteria. It will most likely contain several bacterial species, yeasts, and viruses. The organisms living in the biofilm colony can communicate at a molecular level to cooperate in maintaining the colony. Gene transfers (this is where immunity jumps from one organism to another) can occur between colony members.

Another common example of biofilm colony infections are gout and rheumatoid arthritis. These are biofilm colonies that live on the bone. They normally don't cause pain, but if you drop something on your foot (for example), it breaks up the biofilm a little bit, lets in the immune system, and BOOM! major inflammation in the form of gout or arthritis pain. Then the colony repairs itself and settles down until the next attack.

To effectively fight these infections requires not just the antibiotics, but also supplements that attack and break down the biofilm barriers. Fortunately, there are a lot of substances that will weaken the biofilms and allow abx to do their job.

Joe

 

One more tease: MD is likely caused (in some people at least in part) by dental infections.

I'll post more tonight ;D

 

Lactoferrin is my go-to biofilm buster but lots of other things will too. But you can't take that if you have the Alpha Gal tick borne meat allergy. My daughter does and she had a yeast overgrowth and possibly dental issues too (but no MD thank goodness). Colloidal silver and many essential oils can also bust biofilms.

I'll post more when I get home tonight.

My go-to resource for research is PUBMED, the National Institutes of Health clearinghouse on peer-reviewed research papers. Most peer-reviewed articles show up there with an abstract. Most articles are pay-per-view, a few are free, but all of them list the abstract (a summary) and that usually tells you enough to decide if an article is relevant or not.

When I started with my research when I first developed MD, I quickly found that 99% of the health related web pages were bogus, and most of them wanted to see you stuff. Since so many people (rightly so) look at those with scepticism so I decided to stick with peer reviewed scientific articles.

Go here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and enter "biofilm disruption" in the search terms (that search brings up over 700 articles)

Here is one that discusses the use of metallic nanoparticles (colloidal silver for one) in fighting microbial infections
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28952436

Silver nanoparticles in dentistry
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28779891

 

correction ^ "most of them wanted to sell you stuff."

 

Here we go. I'm back as a regular for a while, so I'll break these down into smaller chunks.

First, the obligatory warning:

I am not a doctor. I don't play a doctor on TV. I didn't stay at the Holliday Inn last night. After eight years of dealing with them, I don't particularly like doctors anymore, except for the holistic practitioners.

So, please recognize that anything I say is My Opinion Only and please evaluate the merits on your own and act on them at your own risk

 

Do you have any of the following problems?

• Gout, most likely in the feet
• Peripheral neuropathy, most likely in the feet
• Rheumatoid arthritis, again most likely in the feet
• Frequent sinus infections
• Irregular heart rhythms - PVCs (Pre-Ventricular Contractions) It feels like your heart skips a beat
• Joint breakdown problems in the feet or ankle
• folliculitis of the face or body, or rosacea of the face
• occasional twinges in a tooth when eating hot or cold

 

I forgot you can't edit :-[

I'll just ask that you post yes or no, don't need to say what.

I'm predicting that a majority of you will answer yes to one or more of those.

In addition, I'm predicting that a majority will also answer yes to one or more of these:

• Ever had bleeding gums, gingivitis, periodontal disease?
• Ever had an infected root, even if you had a root canal or had it pulled?
• Ever had a mouth injury that involved bleeding?
• Ever had oral surgery?
• Ever had braces?

 

While y'all ponder that, I'll write a little bit about gram negative bacteria. There are two basic types of bacteria. There are gram positive, in which the cell wall absorbs a 'gram' dye (name after a Danish scientist, iirc) and you can see it on a microscope. Gram negative bacteria don't have the normal cell wall, so they don't absorb the dye. So, as a quick classification test, you die it. If the dye is absorbed, the bacteria is gram positive (strep & staph). If it isn't absorbed, the bacteria is gram negative (Lyme, dental infections). Based on which it is, there are tests to narrow it down until you identify the bacteria, but usually just knowing which one you're dealing with is enough to plan a treatment since certain abx are more effective for G+ germs and others are more effective for G- germs.

Some celebrity G- bacteria:

Treponema palladium - Syphillis, a spirochete
Borrelia burgdorferi - Lyme, a spirochete, first cousin to Syphillis
Brucella sp. - Brucellosis, it's what's for dinner. I talked to a woman who had caught brucellosis from butchering deer.

Treponema denticola - Oral bacteria, spirochete, sibling to syphillis. Almost everybody has some in your mouth, and if you don't you're one sloppy kiss away from getting it.

Every time you swap tongues, put a baby's pacifier in your mouth, you're cross-pollenating. When you don't floss regularly, G- dental have an ideal environment to grow. G- germs attack nerves and bone. That's what causes your gums to recede in periodontal disease. T. denticola and other oral bacteria eat the bone.

My advice: Floss or pick daily. Brush with baking soda, then swish it in your mouth for 5 minutes. Get regular dental cleanings. Those steps will lower the population of the G- so that they won't be a problem.

Other things that are effective are to swish a tablespoon of coconut oil for five minutes, then spitting in the trash. Don't spit down the drain, it's a fat and can clog the drains. Don't use if you're allergic to coconut.

Any sensitivity to heat or cold or pressure in a tooth is a potential sign of infection, even if only happens every occasionally.

 

Hi Marie,
You can buy it on-line, but let me strongly suggest you find a good holistic dentist (may be called environmental dentist or biological dentist). They tend to be pretty good about finding hidden infections. If you find one near you, e-mail them and ask if they have experience with wide spread infections.

Then follow up with a holistic MD/FNP who can guide you on what you need, and can instruct you in the user of colloidal silver if that's what's called for. I am taking colloidal silver for my systemic yeast infection but I'm not qualified to recommend taking it nor say how to take it.

But, there aren't that many holistic practitioners so it often takes months to get an appt, They often require payment up front. They'll usually give you everything you need to submit it to your insurance, and then it just depends on what your insurance pays.


What I found out in the last eight years is that most 'regular' dentists are ill equipped to find dental infections. My dentists have told me that their domain is between the gum and the crown. But much of the root is below the gum. Even more importantly, the end of the root is where the very vascular and nerve rich blood vessels can transport the germs and their toxins into the blood and nerve bundles in the face. Then it's off to the races as far as the G- bacteria getting to the rest of the body. But we'll just talk about the dental bacteria that are already, by being in the teeth, very close to the vestibular and trigeminal nerves.

It appears that a second insult must happen to trigger the attack on the nerves. Maybe it's a viral infection (my IgG numbers show that I've had a significant EBV infection in the past). I've had severe yeast infection on and off for years, but I keep coming back to dental being a common thread with MM sufferers.

 

Bumping to see if anyone else has has past dental issues.