Having lived with Morgellons disease for just over three years, I’d like to share certain awarenesses, in the hope that it will help prevent people from making the same mistakes that I did.

Almost everyone that comes down with Morgellons immediately assumes that they are dealing with some sort of insect infestation. This usually triggers a frenzy of activity clearing the environment of unnecessary belongings, using chemicals to kill invaders and exposing oneself to further environmental toxicity. Been there, done that.

I was just as insistent as everyone else in this community, in the belief I was infested with bugs. After all, I’ve been on this planet for 56 years and know what a darn bug feels like. What I didn’t know (and couldn’t hear at the time) was that a severe histamine (allergic) reaction can mirror the sensations of bugs crawling on the skin to the point that it is virtually impossible for the individual to discern the difference. Unfortunately, it’s as if our brain has only has one wiring system to deliver these two distinctly different messages to the physical body. Having never experienced a histamine reaction, one couldn’t possibly know the two could be identical. Call it a flaw in our design, and take it up with the Creator.

At least allow yourselves to keep an open mind to the possibility that you are not crawling with bugs, but that these are SYMPTOMS. The nervous system is reacting profoundly to some sort of allergen, pathogen, or other toxic event that is triggering it to into high red alert.

It was only during the act of healing, that I was able to understand this concept.

Over a period of 3 to 4 months, the symptoms of itching, biting, stinging and crawling started to quiet down, as if the volume were being lowered a tiny bit each day—until they completely subsided. This did not feel like bugs dying, it was something altogether different—the body slowly just stopped reacting.

In your travels, you will hear that Morgellons is a mite, a nanobot, a worm, or other parasite. Keep in mind though, that a parasite can be a spirochete, protozoa, fungi, mycoplasma, etc. and should be viewed as something separate from the crawling sensations on the skin which are in most cases symptoms.

My feeling is that there is a parasitic component involved (along with other complications), based on the high “positive” that is showing up on DNA stool tests showing “non-human parasite, taxonomy unknown”—and positive results for the new protozoa, Dr. Fry, of Fry Labs discovered. We know that Morgellons sufferers have high bacterial and fungal levels as well and those getting tested for heavy metals seem to be carrying a lot of toxicity. It seems that that Morgellons might be a multi-layered, multi-faceted disease.

For all those people in the forums that are vehemently convinced to the point of evangelical proselytizing that these sensations of the skin are a bug or nanotechnology, please consider that the world is watching. It is bad enough, that our families, physicians and governments do not believe this disease is real and label us with a mental illness, but a community in which there is so much divisiveness lessens our credibility in the eyes of the general public, which is all too willing to discredit us—and for good reason. We often sound unstable. If you do not have scientific proof to back up what you think is going on, try to keep an open mind.

Now that I’ve said all this, I want to qualify my thoughts. There are those in the Morgellons community that truly are having issues with bug infestations of their skin. Clearly, something in the human condition is severely broken to allow us to be host to foreign organisms like this. A co-infection in which the bodily terrain is so compromised that it can be invaded by foreign organisms, is not the general norm for this community—however it does exist.

Most people experiencing the sensations of crawling, itching stinging and biting, do the obvious and exterminate. It is imperative to know first if your environment is the cause. We know that the Morgellons infection can be delivered through a variety of bug vectors—mites, scabies, spiders, ticks, bedbugs, etc. One way to figure out what is going on, is to call in a professional exterminator. If they check your environment and tell you there are no bugs, embrace the idea that maybe this is the disease. Another way to get a reality check is to see if other people that live with you or visit are experiencing your sensations. If you are the only one, that is an indication that maybe the problem is internal and not external.

Extermination in this case, is not going to serve you well and it poses a moral dilemma for any professional you’ve called in, who is not supposed to spray if they cannot find evidence of infestation.

There is often a toxic component to this illness, as many of us who have been tested know. By spraying unecessary chemicals you may be overburdening a body unable to detoxifying itself, thus creating an even greater problem.

***

Food On the diet pH page I talk more about food, but it bears repeating elsewhere. The food you eat can have a dynamic affect on your symptoms. I have experienced a full return of itching and stinging by eating one too many products that triggered me (carbohydrates), i.e. a bagel on one day and three health-food cookies, two days later. This full body reaction, took a good two weeks to calm down before symptoms left me completely. If your diet consists of processed foods, GMOs, high sugar, high carbohydrate denatured foods, it will be hard to become symptom-free without making changes that nourish the body instead of fueling symptoms.

***

Common sense tells me that families with more than one member infected might not necessarily be an indication of contagion (although I can’t discredit that), but might have to do with having similar genetic material, such as a mother and child, with the possibility of a common weakness making them susceptible to the disease.

People ask me all the time about contagion and I have no answers. I’ve heard convincing stories with opposing positions. Dr. Ginger Savely has seen hundreds of Morgellons patients and has not gotten ill from them. As far as I know, she doesn’t believe it’s contagious. Yet, I have heard of people getting infected from contact with someone in the throes of crawling, itching and stinging while spending time relatively little time with them. Usually, they’ve been in close contact, in a car or slept in the same bed.

I do not believe at this stage, that I am contagious, and I am out living among those that are healthy without fear of making them ill. If there is a contagion factor, think of all those people that currently have fibers in their skin but have no symptoms of Morgellons. These are the folks that are handling (and putting back) vegetables in the supermarket with their bare hands. So if it is contagious, it’s likely most will have been exposed. If you are in the early stages of the disease, where you are experiencing crawling sensations and feeling miserable, my advice would be to refrain from pursuing intimate partnerships at this time.

***

Parting thoughts Becoming ill with Morgellons is psychologically devastating to the individual. I believe that many of us suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Faced with a situation in which there are more questions than answers, uncertainty about what we are dealing with and how to treat it, lack of empathy from the current medical extablishment, including lack of support from family members and friends who will not acknowledge this disease as real unless an “authority” tells them so, has a huge negative psychological impact on the Morgellons sufferer. Many withdraw, suffering with deep emotional pain and isolation that has in some cases driven them to take their lives. To top things off, we are told we have a mental illness by those “authorites” that stand united in ignorance.

There are thousands of people turning to the Internet in the hope of finding help. For this we are branded as Internet “fadists” as if Morgellons were a hysterical disease that could be caught by reading websites. We just can’t seem to catch a break. It is a long road back to healing, but many of us are succeeding in recovering our lives.

There are so many in our community who are researching and studying, and already in the few years I’ve been sick, I see progress. We are figuring out how to manage and we are sharing. I look forward to the day when we will have enough answers to help guide others through this experience in an intelligent fashion.

It has taken me these three long years, to come back to a sense of being myself. Not knowing if I were contagious to others, I went into self-imposed isolation for ten months. Zero physical contact of any sort, not even to pet a dog. No man is an island and in the end, it was my friends that helped me heal; the girlfriend that let me cry on her shoulder when my long-term relationship crumbled, showed that she could survive physical contact with me without getting sick—allowing me integrate one tiny toe placed in front of another, back into society. Sometimes the smallest gestures have the greatest impact.

If you have Morgellons, then I’m talking directly to you. You are courageous to carry such a heavy burden and are not alone on this road—even if it feels that way. I say this for myself as much as to you…forgive yourself for mistakes made unwittingly while journeying this illness, and give yourself a pat on the back for the hurdles you’ve managed to jump. xoxo

Ayla

By Heather Moore - bio | email KPHO

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (CBS5) -

“It will make you crazy because that’s all you can think about,” said Stacy Hillman, who describes 2011 as the year from hell. “I was suicidal,” she said.

Last March, Stacy started feeling pin pricks on her skin and a few weeks later, lesions covered her entire body.

She tells CBS 5 News, ”It felt like there was some type of bug, thousands of bugs, crawling all over my face.”

Stacy and her husband, Jeff, spent thousands of dollars going from doctor to doctor, trying to get help.

Jeff remembers those visits. “They basically would look at her like she was crazy.”

Stacy shared that skin-crawling sensation with thousands of people all over the country.

It’s common name is Morgellon’s syndrome, which the CDC doesn’t recognize as legitimate. Critics say it’s a mental issue.

Stacy fires back, ”Pray you don’t ever have it for a day or a week, and then talk to me and tell me if it’s all in your head.”

The Hillman’s found relief in Dr. Omar Amin in Scottsdale.

He’s a parasitologist, but since so many sought his help believing they were infected by bugs, he wanted answers.

“I’m a hard-core, old-fashioned scientist,” said Amin.

Amin believes the problem actually comes down to dental material, that is not compatible with the body’s immune system.

The exposure to those toxins causes nerve damage, which makes it feel like the skin is crawling.

Amin says, “the nerve cells will misfire. You have no normal nerve impulse anymore, and that misfiring will cause the sensations of movement and pinprick.”

The lymphatic system tries to eliminate those toxins through the skin, which breaks out in sores and invites other biological organisms to nest, like spores which grow long-stemmed fungus.

The concept is new to science and easy to dismiss, but Amin warns thousands are at risk.

“Everybody who has dental work, and that’s just about everybody who lives in this culture of ours, is an open game,” he said.

Amin calls the disorder, NCS, for neurocutaneous syndrome, and sees patients from all over the world.

The Hillmans came to seek treatment from Los Angeles. Stacy is taking homeopathic remedies, and her dentist has started to replace her fillings with more compatible material based on her individual blood tests.

If you would like more information on Amin and his Parisitology Clinic in Scottsdale, visit his website here.

Copyright 2012 KPHO (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

By: Joseph Lackey of livestrong.com

Patients with symptoms including persistent skin rashes and sores, accompanied with sensations of burning, stinging, biting or the feeling of crawling insects under the skin frequently diagnose themselves with Morgellons disease, usually after doing research on the Internet. However, the majority of doctors regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, most commonly delusional parasitosis, according to an article published in the “American Journal of Dermatopathology” in May 2010.

The latest Morgellons disease research

By ERIN ALLDAY of seattlepi.com

Sufferers describe ghastly symptoms; but some doctors skeptical of claims

The CDC describes Morgellons Disease: “Persons who suffer from this condition report a range of cutaneous symptoms including crawling, biting and stinging sensations; granules, threads or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin; and/or skin lesions (e.g., rashes or sores) and some sufferers also report systemic manifestations such as fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision.”

Victims complain of skin rashes or sores that can cause intense itching, crawling sensations on and under the skin, often compared to insects moving, stinging or biting, fibers, threads or black stringy material in and on the skin, severe fatigue, inability to concentrate and short-term memory loss, behavioral changes, joint pain and vision changes.

Some health professionals believe that Morgellons disease is a specific condition that needs to be confirmed by future research.

Some health professionals believe that signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease are caused by another condition, often mental illness.

Other health professionals don’t acknowledge Morgellons disease or are reserving judgment until more is known about the condition.

We’re a long way from understanding this disease and hopefully helping patients, but like such conditions as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, it’s likely to take a famous person getting the disease before someone starts to consider it as a legitimate diagnosis, much less figure out its origins.

And, no, Peter Parker might relate, but I don’t think any time soon we’ll be renaming it “Webbing Disease.”

The Cure For Morgellons Is Here!

Definition of Morgellons Syndrome – Morgellons is an unusual parasite-like skin disease, which produces irritating sores all over the body

People suffering from this condition report a range of symptoms including crawling, biting and stinging sensations as if they had insects on and under their skin. Skin lesions (rashes or sores) appear all over the body. Fibers of different colors – blue, red, green, etc. threads – are found protruding out of the skin. They also may have sand-like granules and/or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin. Additionally some sufferers also report systemic manifestations such as fatigue, mental confusion (brain fog), short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision.

Some sufferers of this skin disorder or disease see it as similar to scabies.

The name Morgellons disease was coined by the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF), which chose the name based on French literature of the 17th century describing a similar condition in children. This old medical paper described symptoms similar to those now associated with Morgellons such as the sensations of itching, crawling, biting, stinging, pricking and burning…

Causes of Morgellons Syndrome – The actual cause of Morgellons, at this time, remains unknown. There are several suspects. Some doctors believe this disorder is related to Lyme’s Disease. It is interesting to note that many of those who show symptoms of Morgellons Syndrome, once had Lyme’s Disease. Is it possible that Morgellons is a second phase of Lymes?

Some physicians suspect an as yet unknown pathological agent and point out that the “prions” that cause Mad Cow Disease were only recently discovered. Perhaps another disease causing organism is just about to be discovered.

Others believe that Morgellons is the result of nano machines accidentally or purposefully released into the environment. A nano machine is a man-made molecular machine comprised of a few atoms or chains of atoms, use to do work at the atomic level in manfacturing process. In the biological field, nano machines work at the celular level inside of body cells.

Those who subscribe to the Morgellons nano machine theory believe that these tiny machines are creating tiny fibers that spread throughout the entire body building a new kind of bodily network. They also think that the Morgellons nano machines seem to have some kind of hive or ‘group intelligence.’ And that the nano machines are trying to remake the human body into some kind of synthetic biological machine!

Is there really a possibility that an invasion of human tissues in the form of self-assembling, self-replicating machines has occurred? That nano machines are creating visible tubes, colored fibers, wires, and other arrays that could be sensors or ‘antennae’, by genetically altering human cells? We don’t know, but nanotechnology is a real, and thriving industry today.

Another possible source of Morgellons maybe coming from Chemtrails. Fibers similar to those described by Morgellons patients appear to be found in jet plane exhausts – those white lines in the sky caused by the passage of airplanes. Chemtrails appear to be particularly heavy releases from planes (perhaps purposeful releases of unknown chemicals, nano machines, viruses, etc.) containing fibers. There is strong anecdotal evidence linking these Chemtrail aerosol fibers to Morgellons fibers.

It is possible that the cause for Morgellons is thus some type of chemical poisoning caused by airplanes. It should be noted, here, that airplanes do cause environmental pollution in humans. Traces of unburned jet fuel have been found in mother’s breast milk around the world…

Is Morgellons Syndrome a Real Disease? Because no root cause of Morgellons has yet to be found, many doctors feel those who are exhibiting symptoms of Morgellons actually only believe they are infected with parasites. Diagnosed with delusional parasitosis, these patients are thus referred to psychaitrists.

Morgellons is characterized by many physicians and dermatologists as ‘Delusions of Parasitosis” meaning that the patient thinks there are insects or bugs crawling and scratching under their skin. They exhibit neurological symptoms such as depression, chronic fatigue and ‘brain fog’ which render the patient essentially incapacitated.

The Morgellons Research Foundation argues that the behavioral disorders are caused by Morgellons. The scientific community is taking the opposite view – describing the symptoms of Morgellons as a delusion associated with an underlying behavioral disorder.
Whether Morgellons is caused by an infectious agent such as Lymes, comes from an environmental source – nano machines or chemical poisoning, or is the result of a psychological disorder, there is no doubt that the sores, fibers, pains, and other physical manifestations are real. Until the root cause is determined, the symptoms should be treated.

Treatment for Morgellons Syndrome – Due to the nebulous nature of this disease – the cause for the disease has yet to be determined, a regular treatment regime has yet to be created. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a treatment similar to what is given for Lyme’s Disease has been effective in some cases. Others have found relief in the use of colloidal silver (silver suspended in liquid, usually water).

And, of course, many doctors have suggested that psychological treatments are in order.

People are suffering from Morgellons Syndrome. Sometimes whole families come down with the symptoms at the same time. At this time, some are recommending that you treat the sores and other symptoms as you would as if they appeared seperately. And continue to demand real attention from your doctors and further research into this condition.

Source: Healthy Human

Doctor researches Morgellons and finds a cure

By vaughanbell  of Mindhacks.com

Morgellons is claimed to be a new form of skin disease by its sufferers but has been largely ignored by the medical community and some have claimed it is, in reality, a psychotic syndrome akin to delusional parasitosis. (Morgellonsitchyrash.com does not agree that it is delusional parasitosis, Morgellons is real!)

Outraged by the accusation that their symptoms may be a result of mental illness, proponents are producing fibrous outgrowths from their troubling skin lesions as evidence of its reality.

Although previously just a fringe concern, in the last few weeks Morgellons has gained a huge amount of publicity, with TV reports, magazine articles, newspaper stories and posts on some of the internet’s most popular sites.

Nevertheless, Morgellons challenges more than just the ability of the medical community to make sense of physical symptoms, and is a classic example of a syndrome on the borderlands of medicine.

The only peer-reviewed article on Morgellons indexed by PubMed, the international database of medical research, was published this January in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology. It defines the condition as “characterized by fiber-like strands extruding from the skin in conjunction with various dermatologic and neuropsychiatric symptoms” and goes on to describe a coherent theory, but no conclusive evidence, for its existence as a genuine skin condition.

The paper was co-authored by biologist Mary Leitao (left) and funded by the Morgellons Research Foundation, an organisation Leitao founded after she became concerned about a rash on her son that seemed to contain fibres, subsequently dismissed by the doctors she consulted.

In contrast, after concerns about the disease were first widely broadcast in the media, Duval County Health Department investigated a series of cases and concluded in their report that those reporting Morgellons in fact suffered from delusional parasitosis, a form of limited psychosis diagnosed as a subtype of delusional disorder.

Interestingly, the fact that self-reported Morgellons is associated with mental illness is not in dispute. Both sides of the debate find evidence that sufferers have significant levels of psychological, and sometimes, neurological disorder.

What is at stake is cause. The debate is over whether pre-existing mental disorder is leading people to believe that they have been infested with parasites, or whether these parasites cause so much distress as to cause a mental or neurological disorder.

However, the medical community has many reasons to doubt the existence of Morgellons as a new form of previously undetected parasite or infection.

The first is that medicine is very good at detecting specific pathogens – infectious organisms that cause disease or illness. They can be measured, quantified, analysed and give a definite indication whether the person has the disease or not.

Mad cow disease, and its human equivalent, is a classic example of this. Cases of the disease were relatively rare, produced non-specific neurological symptoms, and turned out to be caused by prions, a form of infectious protein virtually unknown until a few years before. Despite these hurdles, the disease was recognised and quantified very quickly.

Further Morgellons research is underway, however. Randy Wymore, a professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University, might yet find a conclusive pathogen for Morgellons, but the fact that no widely accepted findings have been forthcoming, especially from something that supposedly produces such visible symptoms is bound to cause suspicions about a psychological cause for the disorder.

Secondly, the symptoms of Morgellons are indeed consistent with delusional parasitosis, even down to finding fibres in the skin.

Producing dubious evidence of the supposed infection is so common in delusional parasitosis as to be used one indication of the diagnosis (known as the ‘matchbox sign’ as people often bring such fragments in small containers such as matchboxes).

Psychiatrist Alistair Munro, author of one of the only books to specifically address delusional disorder, notes that patients with delusional parasitosis may dig into their flesh and retrieve small fibres – most likely to be the ends of peripheral nerves that form a network under the surface of the skin.

Other fibres such as trapped hairs, or even keratin, a fibrous protein recently found to be a component of normal human skin, might be found by those examining skin lesions in detail and used as evidence for a Morgellons-like infection.

Indeed, some people claiming to have Morgellons produce such a wide range of fibres as evidence that it is hard to believe that they could all come from a single infectious disease, especially when the majority resemble man-made fibres (right) and human tissue.

However, there is an important discrepancy between the delusional explanation preferred by the medical profession and the presentation of people who claim to be affected by the condition.

Delusions are defined as false, fixed beliefs, not held by members of the person’s culture or subculture. Although online subcultures of psychotic individuals are not unknown, the fact that there is a well-organised Morgellons community, and that cases seem to peak with media interest, suggests that not everyone who believes they have Morgellons is frankly psychotic. Of course, there may be sufferers who are, but cases of people who have delusions of HIV infection do not causes HIV doctors to doubt their diagnoses.

Morgellons seems to be a disorder on the borderlands of medicine – what is being increasingly called a ‘medically unexplained symptom’. Here, the interplay between belief and the body is thought to be key, as the mind has long been known to produce genuine physical symptoms, a process known as somatisation.

At the time of writing, exactly such a disorder is sweeping Portugal. Large numbers of school children are reporting physical symptoms of a mysterious condition. Curiously, the symptoms mirror those suffered by characters in a recent edition of a soap opera, where a life-threatening virus caused an outbreak in a school.

This is not an unknown situation, and has been extensively studied by sociologist Robert Bartholomew who has reported on numerous occasions where physical symptoms spread through populations, only to disappear without trace when the social concern subsides.

Sometimes this can take quite a dramatic form, famously with koro, where sufferers believe they are afflicted with a life-threatening disorder which causes the penis to shrink into the body.

Often, the interaction between belief and symptoms is far more mundane and relatively commonplace. A recent study estimated that about 50% of consultations to hospital outpatients departments have no associated disease. One difficulty with such problems is that doctors have traditionally dismissed them as ‘all in the mind’ – implying that they are no concern to busy physicians.

More recently, however, there has been an acceptance that belief plays an essential role in the course of illness, whether they have been traditionally classified as ‘physical’ or ‘mental’ disorders.

The famous distinction between mind and body is seeming increasingly redundant, and disease-related disability is now being widely-treated with psychological therapies as well as physical medicine.

The beliefs at work are not just those of the patient, however, and the conclusions and thoughts of the people around them, including medical professionals are also known to influence how symptoms progress.

The common belief that ‘symptoms must have a definite physical cause’ is one of the strongest of such beliefs, and is often played on by drug companies aiming to market seemingly simple fixes for simple causes. The virtually evidence-free claim that depression is ’caused’ by low-serotonin in the brain, is one of the most notorious examples.

The fact that the array of symptoms attributed to Morgellons could be caused by a range of factors which could differ between individuals, such as media-inspired worry, other skin conditions, psychosis, and yes, even a new form of parasite (however unlikely), seems counter-intuitive to those holding the belief that ‘symptoms must have a definite physical cause’.

Until science finds otherwise, Morgellons seems to be an example of this process at work. Only believers seem to find conclusive evidence of it as a physical infestation. Of course, this makes it no less disturbing to those who suffer from it, but leaves medicine at a loss of how best to help those distressed by their self-reported condition.

The Cure For Morgellons Is Here!