iotransformational capability.
While examining all the things that are not working in their life, be sure to identify what is working well in their life and what makes them happy and feel better.
A full examination of all body systems is necessary and a full physical exam can be helpful. All of these people have "leaky gut" due to gut inflammation leading to inflammation all over the body. Keep this in mind.
Test for identifying biomarkers that are altered in CIRS - due to water damaged buildings.
Genomic Analysis is a necessity to help most folks deal with inadequate biotransformational/detoxification systems. Nutrigenomics can be used to assist these people.
The physician will usually use a list of signs and symptoms that they look for. They will also ask the patient if they have been exposed to a water damaged building at home, work or school etc. Additionally they will see if the patient has been exposed to poisoned seafood, spider/scorpion bites, may have or had Lyme Borreliosis, may have been exposed to blue green algae or other cyanobacteria. Most patients will also have some sort of precipitating incident that starts their illness off. They may have been living in a moldy environment and it was not noticeably bothering them until some big stressor effected them. I am talking about major life stressors such as a car accident. If a patient has any of these exposures and if the patient has signs and symptoms that are seen with biotoxin disease, they may suspect CIRS. The most common type of biotoxin illness seen is that due to water damaged buildings (mold).
Next they may ask the patient to use a Visual Contrast Sensitivity test. Many physicians that treat patients for mold exposure or other biotoxin illness use the Visual Contrast Sensitivity test as an easy to take test that helps them screen their patients. If positive, more tests are undertaken. There are a variety of places patients can take this test on line or you can purchase the test to use in office. One place that offers on-lines tests is survivingmold.com They also sell a kit for your office. Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker who is the owner of the Surviving Mold website has done tremendous research on mold related illness. He has greatly contributed to the knowledge of biotoxin illness. His website is worth while to visit.
If the Visual Contrast Sensitivity test is positive, there are a variety of additional tests that can be run depending on the signs and symptoms the patient is displaying.
If the patient has a past history of exposure to a biotoxin, has signs and symptoms of biotoxin illness and tests positive for a number of lab tests used to identify CIRS patients, the physician at that point will move forward with the diagnosis. The most common biotoxin illness is CIRS - due to water damaged buildings (mold).
In 2008 the following list of diagnositc procedures were made available at the Government Accountability Office by Dr. Shoemaker.
Tier 1 - exposure; see it, smell it, measure it. Need to have sufficient symptoms in 4 of 8 body systems.
Tier 3 - improvement. Symptoms and VCS should improve with treatment. Labs should improve.
For more information on symptoms and clusters of symptoms, see this article by Dr. Shoemaker.
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