Buddhism is a very helpful philosophy that complements personal healing, as the philosophy is focused on improving the self. One of the central teachings is the eightfold path (in English also referred to as the 8 R's): right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi (meditative absorption). As with everything that is created in a certain historical age, some items seem peculiar in the present era. Among the eightfold path, right livelihood comes to mind. The Buddha describes what jobs you should have and which not - and the type of jobs seem strange in the present day. Lifestyle: That being said, probably right liv

The first treatment for GDD is to never get another GBCA injection again. Unfortunately many patients with GDD get repeat GBCA injection to investigate what actually turns out to be the disease. This is one of the great tragedies of the disease: getting more of the same injury when suffering with a disease, to investigate for what is causing the sickness. So, if one's symptoms are getting a lot better on their own by 3 months or 6 months, then I would recommend holding off chelation. I would follow the conservative at home managements that I describe on my web-site. If by 1 or 2 years one is still suffering significantly with symptoms, even if they have improved from what they were at the st

There are a few pre-amble points that are important, and I will follow after my table, with notes on the table. I recognize that for each individual sufferer, in their mind the risk was 100% for the disease, because they got the disease. Unfortunately though with population studies, risk has to be calculated in an actuarial way for population groups. Having now essentially focused the last 2 years of my life and career to understand all aspects of GDD, I am now in a position to post my first, if you like, actuarial table on gadolinium toxicity (which includes acute hypersensitivity reaction [the important one being anaphylactoid shock], GDD, and NSF) but also selected medical radiation proce

When I reflect over what I have done in my career, with a great emphasis throughout on patient safety, I think the best explanation of why I have been prepared to stand up for the rights of patients, and not simply follow along with the status quo (the latter course vastly easier, more profitable, and less stressful). I do my best to imagine myself in the situation of others. When I hear stories of individuals who were more-or-less quite well or healthy, undergo an MRI study with GBCA, that they were told in advance would be safe.... then get very sick.... then are told by doctors that it could not be the GBCA ....and/or to find out what is wrong with them, put them through another MRI with

The primary reason we are not using HOPO to chelate gadolinium for this is that HOPO has not been FDA approved for use in humans for any treatment. In comparison, iv-DTPA is FDA approved for decorporation (AKA chelation) of actinide radioactive metals (most famous of which Plutonium), and using it for Gadolinium is off-label, but an accepted practice. Physician do this all the time, and it is customary practice. FDA approval requires 3 phases of research - which is time-consuming and can be quite expensive. Generally at least 3 years at a very minimum (usually 7 years), and anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion dollars (that's why in large part, proprietary drugs are so expensive). Fortunat

This observation was buried in an earlier blog but really should be at the forefront. Both conditions have a strong neuralgia component to it, with Fibromyalgia mainly a neuralgia. Both are new diseases. The use of GBCAs are new. The underlying cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. My opinion: many cases of fibromyalgia are actually GDD. An important tip-off, if the symptoms of presumed fibromyalgia developed shortly after the administration of GDD: the disease is likely GDD. A recently treated patient of mine informed me that circulating among the GDD network is the impression that a very accomplished female entertainer, who has been told that she has fibromyalgia, had symptoms develop shortly

There have been a number of patients who have described the following scenario: infection (post back surgery, mastitis, etc), extensive antibiotic use, MRI with GBCA to evaluate the status of infection. Development of GDD. I have addressed this subject as part of a few blogs: GDD arising because of partial destruction of the host microbiome by antibiotics. Many articles have recognized the importance of the bacteria in our gut to maintain our overall health. I am a great believer in this concept: that the microbiome is a critical component of our immune system. So following the concept of the trilogy: 1) makes scientific sense, 2) not expensive, and 3) not likely to do any harm: dietary addi

Almost no food should be cooked too much, because nutrients leach out with excess cooking. So avoid that. Here are just a sampling of what you should be eating. A few of my favorite things: Mediterranean diet elements: olives natural yogurt natural kefir (yogurt drink) fresh fish cooked in olive oil low fat red and white meat tomatoes spinach honey peaches apricots (pectin) oranges grape fruit (vitamin C) red wine spices: oregano, cilantro Japanese diet elements: salmon sushi green tea South Beach elements: many from above green salads broccoli beets blue berries Celery / celery juice Indian food elements: vegetarian dishes spices: curcumin, curry, turmeric Additional items: alkaline water m

The interval between chelations likely is also very important. In our original peer-reviewed article on chelation with DTPA we looked at 4 week and 1 week intervals and found that both were acceptable. With more experience, it seems that time interval may need to be tailored to the individual, based on a few factors: 1. how soon after GBCA injection and GDD development is the treatment planned. 2. how the patient is responding to the schedule they are on. In general in patients who have GDD for less than 6 months, and certainly around 3 months, experience has shown that in a counter-intuitive way, short interval treatments make the patient feel much worse, because of the spiraling up of the

A few issues have become clear with GDD and its treatment: 1. As Gd is the problem, Gd must be removed to stop the continued stimulus for host reaction. 2. Host reaction must be addressed for many individuals. 3. Cytokines are critical in the disease. Likely members of other inflammatory cells are also important, such as the early group of granulocytes and B-cells, and chronic cells such as CD34+ fibrocytes. 4. Duration of disease is specifically critical to determine treatment, at the division point of early stage disease (< 3 months) and later stage. This division point may be 6 months in a number of individuals. What is likely: 1. Host management must be varied depending on the type of a

A number of patients have described that concurrent with GDD they have chronic infections, with infections caused by organisms with a tendency for chronic infections. These include viruses like Herpes and Epstein Barr (EB), and the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (causative organism of Lyme disease). What appears typical of infections concurrent with GDD is that the organisms on their own have a chronic remitting course, which for many organisms implies that they are not killed and eliminated from the host, but instead contained in some fashion. What is typical for the viruses is that they remain dormant on nerve roots by the spinal chord, and track down the nerves when they cause recurrent i

The foundation for treatment of GDD is two components: 1) removing the Gd 2) controlling the host response. The most reliable will be with true medications; for removal: iv DTPA (or in the future other ligands/chelators, especially oral); for control of host response: extended hypersensitivity protocol, autoimmune drugs. We are not there yet with the ideal treatment, but we are on the right path. I do not discount essentially any other strategy: but alternative therapy (I prefer the concept of describing as additional therapy) should be affordable, effective (based on some form of scientific study/paper and not purely anecdotal experience of a practitioner) and safe. The perfect example of t