​ In the modern age, it has become customary practice to identify the apparent source ingredient for the health benefit of something, and then to create a pill containing that source benefit. My intuition tells me that it is often the whole package of the food item which is important, and not just an isolated nutrient, and unfortunately perhaps even the entire environment, the weather from that location, the sunshine, the lifestyle of the people, and their genetics. Leaving aside all those latter mentioned variables, let us stay focused on the entire package of the food item: the complex carbohydrates, roughage, proteins and fat - the whole package. A recently advertised supplement on tv has

This is a question posed by a parent of a sufferer. This is a diagnostic dilemma that is not uncommonly encountered: are the symptoms experienced part of the original condition (MS, VHL, etc) or post-some other treatment that has occurred (back surgery, even as part of treatment for another condition). I also mentioned this about Fibromyalgia, a diagnosis that many GDD patients are labelled with. I think the surest way to find out is to get one-time chelation with Ca-DTPA, the best provocation agent available for GDD. If the symptoms get worse (Flare) then they have GDD, if they don't, the individual does not have GDD. Recognize ofcourse that one can have symptoms of GDD coexistent with sym

This post expands on co-existence of GDD and chronic infections- most common are Lyme and EBV. It is probably a chicken and egg thing (which one came first) I think probably the infection, which has been quarantined and isolated in your body.... till GDD came along. This is a work in progress- I believe prophylactic treatment for the chronic infection while chelating/treating GDD. You are in an even trickier situation, as having received a macrocyclic GBCA and developed GDD. For some reason(s) macrocyclic-caused GDD seems a little worse. It may simply be that, most individuals with macrocyclic GBCA-induced GDD are more early stage (disease is more recent) than those with linear-GBCA induced

I have mentioned in earlier blogs that you have to take a Zen approach to your health care (you are responsible for your health care). This is especially true with GDD, until knowledge becomes more generalized in the medical community, and standard treatments become more reproducibly and comprehensively effective. But, you need to be informed. This is why I write so many blogs, to benefit the world community of sufferers, and to guide practitioners and researchers. Regarding the last point: if you think I am wrong then do a scientific study proving your point. I am certain that with a number of issues that my theories may be only partly correct - but that is what studies are for: to reveal t

Perhaps among the most asked questions - why Gadolinium (Gd) [that has made us sick] and not some other agent? Are there other agents? This is a brief treatment on that subject, designed for the lay audience. To begin with, contrast agents in MRI generally are not directly visualized, but their presence is demonstrated by their effect on adjacent water molecules. This is quite a remarkable concept - we are not seeing Gd directly, but rather its effect on surrounding water. This is different for example than Iodine contrast, as used in CT, where we are actually seeing directly the presence of iodine, because it is directly blocking the passage of x-rays in the body. So for us to see a contras

One of the most informed patient sufferers, in my opinion, took exception to some of the points I brought up in my Will I get NSF blog post. Her points were excellent, and are important to address for the wider community. 1. NSF has more symptoms than I mentioned. Interestingly as I have mentioned in earlier blogs and also brought up at the RSNA/FDA/NIH meeting. NSF has to be looked at again. Maybe it has more symptoms, similar to GDD, and maybe the epidemiology is similar. The difference is that the literature of NSF has been written mainly by radiologists and pathologists (the first authors though nephrologists), and they don't see patients and hence don't know all their symptoms. In the

I am intending to write an article describing the accounts of physician- GDD sufferers. I have met with a few radiologists who have described their account to me at meetings I have presented at, to hear from them and others would be important. In order to get this critical work published in a good journal, I need as many physicians who have the disease to contact me, as I would very much appreciate adding your account in. You have the option to keep your name anonymous if you prefer. Click the link below to provide Dr Semelka with your name, email address, and what type of physician you are: https://forms.gle/LJVXNoGZMoSVr1Jq8 Richard Semelka MD Consulting Stay tuned on the latest advanceme

I think one of a number of problems that GDD sufferers experience is that physicians do not acknowledge the failure of the safety of GBCAs. Denial and avoidance is the strategy most often used. This is a huge mistake, and I was outraged when one of my patients told me that she went to a pain clinic and wanted the MD to have her disease GDD recognized in her chart, and not the disease of fibromyalgia which they assigned her. Apparently he responded to her, I know what you are up to, and stormed out of the room... I think he said some more words. In completing medical school we recite the Hippocratic oath: Primum non Nocere (first do no harm). We should as the next oath recite the words of Sir

This post addresses why we use a bolus technique, most often, and not a drip. Here is the explanation: The manufacturer originally described bolus rather than drip with Ca-DTPA. Bolus also more closely follows the administration pattern of the original GBCA injection. Bolus has been preferred for administering iodine radiology contrast since the 1980s, where bolus and drip were compared. There is much better opacification of organs with bolus than with drip - much better penetration into the capillary spaces. For a brief time in the early 1990's slow bolus was recommended by manufacturers, but it quickly became clear that rapid bolus administration has vastly superior opacification (brighten

I have heard this question recently quite often, so I thought to respond to it in a blog. If you have normal kidney function, received GBCAs, and are sick with symptoms of GDD, the short answer is no. As I have opined in an earlier blog is NSF really just GDD in a patient with advanced renal failure. I am not sure, but I think no. In large part my answer is based on the lesser number of symptoms that NSF patients have been associated with, but this may be an artifact that the peripheral glove and sock skin woodiness and joint contractures have been so dominant of feature that other symptoms have been overlooked. That is why I have told NSF experts to look again at their patients to see if th

There are a multitude of strategies recommended. With so many possibilities, and most often not based on peer-reviewed scientific articles, what to do? I recommend always considering the trilogy of considerations: 1. does it make sense with some scientifically justifiable reasoning? 2. is it quite affordable? 3. is it very safe to take? If the answer is yes to all of the trilogy, then why not take it. An excellent example of this, and one therefore I recommend trying is combining cilantro and chlorella. By description the two act in a complementary fashion to chelate and remove heavy metals. Who doesn't like Mexican food with a lot of cilantro - nobody. Add this to our list: Blueberries, a

What radiologists are now focused upon (besides denying that GDD exists), is what speciation Gd is in in the body. Primarily with the linears, as they all assume the macrocyclics remain intact; but with linears, how much is fully intact, and of that which is disassociated, how much as Gd salts (that is combined with carbonates, phosphates, etc), and how much as macromolecular combinations (presumably with proteins)- and which of these is responsible for the high SI in the brain. I am focused on the same issues, but am asking, which of these are responsible for GDD, and even which components of GDD. What has been accepted in Radiology for maybe atleast 5 decades is that all contrast agents ca