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- Mayo Clinic Concludes Morgellons Symptoms Are Often Delusional
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| Mayo Clinic Concludes Morgellons Symptoms Are Often Delusional Posted: 17 May 2011 10:14 AM PDT  They have flocked to websites to share details of their malady, which they call Morgellons disease; they have charged the medical community with ignoring their plight and have strong-armed the government into studying it. They go from doctor to doctor, carrying specimens in Ziploc bags and on glass slides, desperate to find a physical cause. Now a Mayo Clinic study reviewing samples provided by 108 such patients, published Monday in the Archives of Dermatology, has concluded that the perceived infestation exists only in their minds. Although one patient who consulted dermatologists for Morgellons was found to have pubic lice, microscopic examination showed that none of the remaining 107 patients — who were seen over a seven-year period ending in 2007 — had any evidence of infestation by bugs or parasites, despite their firm conviction that they did. Instead, the authors concluded, the rashes, eruptions and skin ulcerations patients suffered were either mundane skin conditions that gave rise to delusions of infestation, or the result of sufferers scratching or picking at their skin to make it go away. And the fibers and filaments so often described and offered as evidence of infestation were, upon microscopic examination, skin flakes, scabs, hair, lint, textile fiber and everyday debris. Two fruit flies, which do not colonize the human body, were found, as well as one mite and one tick. The review of patients' records from the Mayo Clinic is the first major study to conclude that a seeming outbreak of subcutaneous creepy-crawlies is not evidence of a new pathogen abroad in the land: rather, patients suffering such symptoms more likely have a psychological disorder long described in dermatological literature as "delusional parasitosis." "This study is important for patients," the authors wrote. "Patients frequently believe that physicians are dismissive of their concerns and are not examining their skin closely enough, and therefore patients request that more testing be performed. This showed that biopsy results do not change a physician's clinical diagnosis of delusional infestation." Results of another, three-year study, undertaken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, are slated for release in the next few months. That study was launched in January 2008 after patients and a small group of medical professionals led by an organization called the Morgellons Research Foundation advocated for a full-scale government investigation of their symptoms. The CDC and Kaiser scientists conducted skin biopsies, physical and psychiatric evaluations of sufferers and microscopic analysis of samples. The findings are now under review by independent experts. "We recognize it has taken time, and people and their families are suffering, but at same time, it's important to release these findings appropriately and to ensure their scientific integrity," said CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell. The Mayo Clinic findings are certain to be bitter medicine for patients who identify themselves as sufferers of Morgellons disease. The Internet is home to a growing community of patients certain that their symptoms are evidence of a new and very real disorder. Study lead author Dr. Mark D.P. Davis, a Mayo Clinic dermatologist, said he doubted the study would convince such patients that their disease originates in their brains and not under their skin. "They feel you're still missing something even if you've gone the extra mile," Davis said. Several board members and a spokesperson for the Morgellons Research Foundation could not be reached for comment. Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, praised the Mayo work as "the best study done to date" on the bizarre constellation of symptoms called Morgellons. He commended the Mayo researchers "for putting in the effort to understand a disease that's becoming more and more important in our culture today." At the same time, Craft cautioned that dermatologists and primary-care physicians who see patients with similar complaints should not automatically conclude, based on the study, that they are all delusional. "Infrequently, we do find real bugs. So everybody gets their due diligence," he said. And, he added, taking a patient's complaints seriously will often help him or her take the next step in cases where a physical cause of their agony cannot be found. "I have a growing numbers of patients who respond really well to medicines that treat the brain," he said. "I know it's frustrating, but I often encourage them to try it if we can't get to a diagnosis." - latimes Current CDC update: Unexplained Dermopathy (also called "Morgellons") Mayo Clinic report: Morgellons disease: Managing a mysterious skin condition  ----- Posted 9/11/2009 - the CDC information that was provided 2 years ago: CDC Updates Morgellons Disease Information Page  CDC continues to receive reports of an unexplained skin condition which some refer to as "Morgellons". Persons who suffer from this condition report a range of cutaneous or skin symptoms including crawling, biting and stinging sensations; granules, threads, fibers, or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin; and/or skin rashes or sores. In addition to skin symptoms, some sufferers also report fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision.At this time, scientists and doctors do not know what causes this condition. They do not know if people who report the condition have common risk factors or if there is a common cause for the symptoms. To assist in learning more about this condition, CDC is conducting an epidemiologic investigation. To learn more about the investigation, please refer to the following link: www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/investigation.html  Does CDC have evidence that this is a new condition? We do not know the cause of this condition or whether this condition is new. CDC has received an increased number of reports from persons who describe similar symptoms; therefore, we are conducting an investigation to learn more about this unexplained dermopathy. I (or my family member) am/is suffering from this skin condition, what should I do? Persons who believe they may suffer from this condition should contact a healthcare provider for evaluation and medical care. CDC is not a medical facility and does not provide medical care or consultation to patients. Is this condition contagious? The factors associated with acquiring this condition are unknown. At this time, doctors and scientists do not know what causes this condition and there is not enough information to determine whether or not this condition is contagious. How do I find a doctor? CDC is a public health institution that is a part of the federal government. CDC does not provide healthcare or maintain a referral list of providers. CDC suggests that you contact your primary care provider. If you do not have a healthcare provider, you may be able to identify an appropriate doctor in your area by contacting your insurance company or by using online physician locators that have been established by professional medical societies such as the American Medical Association http://webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder/home.jsp or the American Academy of Dermatology http://www.aad.org/public/searchderm.htm. Is CDC aware that some web sites claim they have products that will treat/cure this condition? Yes. We are aware of some web sites that make these claims, including some that imply CDC support of their products. CDC cannot validate the information or claims of those web sites. At this time, CDC does not endorse or recommend any specific treatment or medications for this condition. Consumers should seek input from their healthcare provider before purchasing or using any product (e.g., skin creams, pills, and other medications) or equipment that is marketed as a treatment for this condition. I have more questions, whom can I contact? CDC recommends that you contact a licensed healthcare provider to discuss your symptoms. CDC maintains a telephone number with a pre-recorded voicemail and an email account to which you can send inquiries. At this time, we are not able to provide individual responses to each inquiry. ______________________ Morgellons Disease: Alien Introduced or Natural Human Syndrome? Morgellons Disease is a mysterious skin disorder that was first described more than 300 years ago. The disease is characterized by multi-colored fiber-like (filamentous) strands extruding from the skin in conjunction with various dermatologic and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Some of these multi-colored fibers (filamentous) are of microscopic size, while others have the appearance of fibers and granules coming out of the skin that can be seen growing with the naked eye. The multi-colored fibers range in color: white, blue, black, red and are often regarded by the medical community as common house hold lint.  Some self-identified Morgellons sufferers and various conspiracy theorists provide their own origin hypotheses: "Perhaps it is caused by chemical spills or bio-terror or even alien abductions. On a radio program Coast to Coast a New Mexico doctor reports that a former CIA agent told him the disease was caused by the French. A botched government experiment, he says, contaminated the water.Morgellons patients are skeptical that aliens are the cause of their disease, but have not ruled out the possibility completely. Many websites host "proof" that the fibers and granules found in the lesions and rashes are actually a successful attempt at alien invasion. Subscribers to this theory theorize that the fibers are a means of communication or an attempt at global positioning for aliens. Evidence is beginning to mount linking Morgellons to Lyme Disease which can be caught from tick bites. Ginger Savely, a medical practitioner in Austin Texas, says she's seeing more and more patients in her clinic with the symptoms. Quoted in a local newspaper she said "Talking about it just sounds crazy, but there are just a lot of things that come out of their skin." Savely specializes in Lyme Disease and believes there may be a link. She says that about 10 percent of her patients with chronic Lyme disease have symptoms of Morgellons. He theory is that people with the tick-borne Lyme Disease have weaker immune systems, and may be more vulnerable to the Morgellons infection. The Morgellons Research Foundation says that forty-four people with Morgellons have tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the bacteria which causes Lyme Disease. They believe that an infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) may alter the individual's immune system and allow this unknown organism to become an opportunistic coinfection. So it seems there is in fact a real bug, or even a 'willing coalition' of bugs at large in the United States attacking innocent citizens, despite official denials. It also seems that it is the US medical establishment that is 'delusional', not their unfortunate patients.       |
| Fortean / Alternative News: Cow Abduction, Roswell Was Soviet Plot and Batman Arrested Posted: 17 May 2011 04:38 PM PDT  Argentina: Tractor Operator Claims Seeing Vehicle; Farmer Sees Cow Abducted From Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology Former judge Andrés Miotti discussed the likely "sightings" that have occurred in the [town of] Maravilla with EL LIBERAL, where according to Miotti, a tractor operator had a close encounter. "A UFO appeared before the tractor operator. The tractor stalled, and once the UFO departed, the machine resumed operation," Miotti asserted. He says that subsequent research into the case "yielded positive results". He also said that this event was documented "in one of the many works written by Fabio Zerpa on UFOs." He proudly recalled that Zerpa, in one of his books, "devoted a section to the Maravilla Case and our organization's involvement." Another possible close encounter that Miotti remembers took place in 2001, only a few kilometers from the center of La Banda. "The case that startled me was that of a UFO abducting a cow in a field near La Banda," he recalls. "While he did not acknowledge it at first, the witness to the event subsequently confessed it to us. It was two o'clock in the morning and he had gone out to relieve himself. That's when he saw an object stationed in the field, in the process of abducting a cow," he said. Miotti is a firm believer that Santiago del Estero is a province where "UFO sightings always occur". In this regard, he said that just recently he received an eyewitness account from people who allegedly witnessed abductions occurring in that region of the vast provincial territory." Thanks to Scott Corrales **********  'Batman' Arrested On Roof In Michigan Holy trespassing, Batman! A 31-year-old man dressed as the comic book character was arrested Wednesday in Petoskey after he was seen hanging from the wall of a downtown business on East Mitchell Street. In a release, the Petoskey Department of Public Safety said officers pulled the man back onto the roof and found a baton type striking weapon, a can of chemical irritant spray, and a pair of lead lined gloves. The suspect, a Harbor Springs resident, was arrested for trespassing and possession of dangerous weapons. He is being kept in the Emmet County Jail. Petoskey is in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula, about 225 miles northwest of Detroit. - clickondetroit ********** Roswell 'was Soviet plot to create US panic'...what? The so-called Roswell Incident of 1947 spawned conspiracy theories by the score. But now, sadly for UFO spotters, a new book offers an entirely man-made – and some would say even more bizarre – explanation, featuring two of the greatest villains of 20th century history: the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the infamous Nazi "Angel of Death" Dr Joseph Mengele. During a powerful storm in July, 1947, an object crashed near a rancher's home in Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell army air base initially said that a "flying disc" had come down, but hours later, as government scientists arrived in the area, it was stated instead that a weather balloon had crashed. The incident went largely unreported until books and documentaries in the 1970s made allegations of alien life forms. Area 51, the new book by Annie Jacobsen, is based on interviews with scientists and engineers who worked in Area 51, the top secret test base in the Nevada desert. It dismisses the alien story and puts forward the theory that Stalin was inspired by Orson Wells's famous radio adaptation of the HG Wells novel War of the Worlds, which provoked hysteria across America when broadcast in 1938. According to the book, the plot started after the Soviet Union seized from Germany at the end of the war the jet-propelled, single wing Horton Ho 229 – a fighter said to be the forerunner of the modern B2 stealth bomber. This is where Mengele enters the story. The Nazi doctor, who experimented on prisoners in Auschwitz and fled to South America after the war, was supposedly enlisted to create a crew of "grotesque, child-size aviators" in return for a eugenics laboratory. The book says that the plane was filled with "alien-like" children, aged 12 or 13, who Stalin wanted to land in America and cause hysteria similar to the 1938 broadcast. But, the plane, remotely piloted by another aircraft, crashed and the Americans hushed up the incident. Jacobsen's source, a retired engineer from the former defence company EG&G, which handled the US government's most sensitive projects, said he was put on to the Roswell project in Area 51 in 1978. Miss Jacobsen writes: "They found bodies alongside the crashed craft. These were not aliens. Nor were they consenting airmen. They were human guinea pigs. Unusually petite for pilots, they appeared to be children. Each was under five feet tall. "They were grotesquely deformed, but each in the same manner as the others. They had unusually large heads and abnormally shaped oversize eyes." Two were supposedly found "comatose but still alive". The EG&G engineers were told "that seeing the bodies would be a shocking and disturbing experience". Perhaps not surprisingly, a spokesman for the US Air Force said: "We have not yet read this book so we are not able to make a comment on it." - telegraph ********** Scots site may hold the key to Arthurian mystery heraldscotland - It is a mystery that has baffled generations of historians, but the secrets of King Arthur's round table could finally be laid bare thanks to modern technology. A circular earthen mound near Stirling Castle has been linked variously to the legendary king, to British aristocrats and to Roman invaders, but its origins remain shrouded in history. Now, for the first time, a team of archaelogists from Glasgow University is preparing to use hi-tech scanners to survey the ground beneath it, providing a clear insight into the mound's beginnings. The structure, often referred to as the King's Knot, has long fascinated national historians. Despite the mysteries it may contain, however, it has remained undisturbed for fear of damaging it. The new project, scheduled to run next week, will provide a full geophysical survey of the entire area. Stirling Local History Society (SLHS) and Stirling Field and Archaeological Society have secured funding from Historic Scotland and Stirling City Heritage Trust for the operation. Dr Richard Jones, senior lecturer in archaeology at Glasgow University, said his team had little idea of what they might uncover. "This is a fabulous opportunity to discover more about a site that has fascinated people down the centuries, and it's all the more exciting because we really don't know what – if anything – it will reveal," he said. "The survey equipment we use will sense beneath the ground, showing us any lost structures and features up to a metre below the ground, irrespective of how old they are." John Harrison, chairman of the local history society, said the distinctive "cup and saucer" shape of the mound had changed over the years. There are several competing theories on its dates of origin," he added. "People have told stories about the King's Knot for hundreds of years and it has become linked with all sorts of ideas. But its origins remain mysterious. "The area was used as a garden in the 16th and 17th centuries. But when was the present 'cup and saucer' mound formed? "Perhaps it was as late as the 1620s. But about 1375 the poet John Barbour says that 'the round table' was somewhere to the south of Stirling Castle and tradition continued to place 'the tabilll round' hereabouts. It is a mystery the documents cannot solve. But geophysics may give us new insights." Archaeologist Stephen Digney, who is co-ordinating the project, said the area around Stirling Castle contains "some of the finest medieval landscapes in Europe". He said: "This investigation will be the start of a serious effort to explore, explain and interpret them. Is the Knot an ancient feature that Scotland's monarchs reused, or was it a unique garden design?" Richard Strachan of Historic Scotland said the operation "is important to help us discover more about Scotland's past". He said: "The King's Knot is not only a fascinating site, but also a very sensitive one, which means that geophysical survey techniques are ideal as they help reveal any archaeology below the surface, without causing it any damage." The survey begins on Monday, and is due to be completed by the end of next week. ********** Chinese farmers perplexed by exploding watermelons Farmers in eastern China have been left perplexed after their watermelons began to explode one by one. An investigation by state media found farms in Jiangsu province were losing acres of fruit because of the problem. The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster was blamed in one report by China Central Television. But agriculture experts were unable to explain why chemical-free melons were exploding. They cited the weather and abnormal size of the melon as factors. China Central Television said farmers were overspraying their crops with the growth promoter, hoping they could get their fruit to market ahead of the peak season and increase their profits. According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 farmers in a village in Jiangsu province planted imported seeds from Japan, with 10 households saying their watermelons began exploding last month. Farmer Liu Mingsuo told Xinhua that more than two-thirds of his crop had blown up. He said he had used chemicals to boost their growth on 6 May, and the following day more than 180 melons exploded. Mr Liu was reported to be the only farmer from the 10 households who used chemicals. Wang Dehong, who has been farming watermelons for 20 years, couldn't understand why his fruit also exploded as he had not used any chemicals. Agricultural experts investigating the incident were unable to offer an explanation. China has approved the usage of the growth chemical under certain quotas. So far, tests show the chemical is safe, Xinhua reported. However, as the public is increasingly concerned about food safety, experts say a quality tracking system should be introduced, detailing every stage along the food chain, to inform the public fully, and ensure food safety. - BBC ********** UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock on the Radio Rick Phillips of UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock will be a guest on "The Acceleration" featuring L.A. Marzulli on Wednesday at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT.     |
| Video: Haunted Earth - The Scariest Ghost Clip Show...EVER! Posted: 17 May 2011 08:00 AM PDT  Our friend and colleague Chris Halton from Haunted Earth TV has released a new video which he describes as "compiled video clips showing some of our best or most interesting paranormal events captured to camcorder over the last few years." Chris is a former police detective and intelligence officer who also has empathic ability. I have followed his work for many years because it depicts real activity without the hype of similar TV based shows. Click for video - THE SCARIEST GHOST CLIP SHOW - EVER! You can also access the Haunted Earth home page...paranormal TV on demand! Also, check out and subscribe to the new Spirit Rescue International YouTube channel as well as the Phantoms and Monsters YouTube channel...Lon  Spirit Rescue International™ Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind  The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum *Join Our Group On Facebook*  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  Astral Perceptions - Discussing ultraterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena and the proficiency of remote viewing   Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and the crew LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go Beyond the Edge!  Click here to check out Stan's most recent book!  Click here to check out John Ventre's most recent book! The Social - Paranormal Network  A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION  (410) 241-5974  Phantoms and Monsters Now Available on Kindle      |
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