Medical Misfit

Complex chronic illness is one hell of a ride. If there's one thing two decades of being a mystery patient have shown me, it's that lab results can never arrive fast enough. It's an odd feeling to want them to come back positive for a particular condition or disease. But answers are answers, and an answer usually means treatment, meaning that I'll eventually start feeling better.

I remember when I learned I had Lyme disease. It came to me after years of treatment and medical nightmares that never seemed to end, endless gaslighting, and frequent dismissals by medical professionals. I lost count of how many providers told me to go to therapy. No matter what I did, what treatments I tried, the number of therapists I saw, or how many lifestyle changes I made, I wouldn't get better. I thought it was in my head; maybe if I just tried a little harder, summoned more willpower, or improved my attitude, I would get better. But I never did. Positive thinking doesn't cure this disease. When I learned I had Lyme, I was excited, thinking that a simple round of antibiotics would be my hero, but I quickly learned that it was so much bigger than that.

The issues with Lyme disease are deeply systemic, and I honestly couldn't have come up with a better analogy to explain the flaws within our medical system; it's not any one individual or practice, it's in the systems that educate and pay, it's in the corrupted science that ignores evidence that doesn't serve particular motives, it's our government agencies who go to bat for for profit entities, it's everywhere all the time and all consuming.

The medical system failed millions of people affected by environmental health issues like Lyme disease. Have you experienced something like this in your healthcare journey?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but on July 25th, Monsanto won in the Durnell v. Monsanto case. The Supreme Court's landmark 7-2 ruling protects the manufacturer of Roundup from state-level "failure-to-warn" lawsuits. The justices decided that federal law overrides state laws, meaning companies cannot be penalized for failing to add cancer warnings to product labels if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not require them.

This ruling doesn’t prevent people from suing Bayer completely; they just won’t be able to sue for failure to warn at the state level. Most lawsuits involve multiple cases, but it is a ruling in favor of a company that knowingly harms us for profit. There have been thousands of cases against Bayer for damages like cancer from Roundup that have been ruled in favor of the individual and paid out by Bayer.

This ruling really made me think about the larger picture: who decides on labels anyway, and why does this matter? Currently, at the state level, manufacturers must warn about potential adverse health effects from products like Roundup. However, that is not the case on the federal level. Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), manufacturers are legally required to sell products with EPA-approved labels, who doesn't currently require warning labels on Roundup.

According to the EPA, they have repeatedly and consistently reviewed glyphosate and determined that it does not pose a cancer risk when used as directed, so it does not mandate a cancer warning on product labels. As I was reading more into this, I learned that the reviews and research done by the EPA utilized studies that were ghostwritten by none other than Bayer, and even though the EPA knew these studies were compromised, it continued to use them to legitimize the safety of Roundup.

Read further here: https://tinyurl.com/Durnell

Why insurance companies won’t cover compounding pharmacies is something I have frequently wondered about. There was a time period when I didn’t have health insurance because all of the care I received was considered alternative. The ironic part was that for me, this care was essential to saving my life; there was nothing “alternative” about it. During that time, I paid for all of my care and medications out of pocket, leaving me unable to afford medical insurance in addition to my medical needs. Many of my medications came from compounding pharmacies because the drugs were either cheaper, safer, or unavailable in traditional medicine. This is especially true for peptides and bioidentical hormones.

When I looked into why compounding pharmacies weren’t covered, I learned that insurance will only cover drugs that have been FDA approved, even if they are the same drug. To add another layer of complication, compounding pharmacies are typically regulated by state pharmacy boards, not the FDA, which to me feels like an intentional disconnect that further supports the interests of both insurance companies and Big Pharma. These three entities have held hands for far too long regardless of what's best for the patient.

I know what I’m suggesting is a broad, sweeping change to the pharmaceutical and regulatory systems, but maybe that’s exactly what we need. If my doctor says I need it, I need it, and it should be covered by health insurance.

Happy 250th birthday, 'Merica! Hope everyone has a good Fourth of July this year and bought enough snakes and sparklers to go round. Who's watching fireworks tonight?

With Carolina Integrative Medicine – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

Scary how accurate this is 😱😨

Don’t be this person 😆 Also this is AI - not real CRED to @jakegtv and @denny_dure for the video

Last week, I earned a new chronic illness trading card for my collection: Epstein-Barr Virus or EBV. My labs show a previous infection, and not necessarily an active one as the marker that would indicate that came back as equivocal, but I am symptomatic. So, my functional medicine doctor has recommended that I start a round of treatment soon that will also address parasites, Lyme, and mold. It's going to be a rough ride. Hopefully, I will start perking up a bit because I am beyond exhausted.