Science Friction
August 19th, 2007
Morgellons disease under the microscope
By Todd Morehead
The rest of the neighborhood sleeps as the morning birds begin to tentatively chirp from the shadows of the yard. But you don’t hear them. And though the tentative gray of dawn lights your bathroom window in degrees you’re too distracted to notice.
You’ve been frantically scrubbing at the newly formed lesion on your forehead since the itching drove you from your bed in the middle of the night. You’ve already got two other sores on your torso. Various ointments and creams—whatever you had in the house—and even some industrial solvents are scattered around the sink and in the floor, though nothing has stopped the itching.
You’ve considered waking your husband but don’t want to worry him yet, because—and maybe you’re crazy—it feels like the itching is coming from inside, like something is crawling under your skin and trying to burrow out. As you lean closer to the mirror you notice that strange blue fibers have sprouted from the sores and somehow you suppress the immediate urge to scream so you don’t wake the kids.
Six months later, the sores have spread to your legs. The fibers are sprouting in various colors now and you notice that they fluoresce under a black light. You’re starting to suffer cognitive and neurological breakdown and are no longer able to work. The sores have sprouted on your youngest child, too. And, worst of all, your doctor explains away the fibers as lint and says the itching is due to a form of psychosis.
It has been a year since the media storm surrounding Morgellons disease peaked and died. The news angles were essentially the same: an alarmist anecdotal lede like the one above, usually featuring a Morgellons sufferer in the reporter’s respective area; the story—or at least mention—of Pennsylvania-cum-Surfside Beach, S.C. resident Mary Leitao, a mother of three who discovered and named the affliction and who founded the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF); the emerging science, some legitimate, some quackery and the medical community’s dismissal of the symptoms as psychosomatic; something about the CDC; the whole thing capped off with a tragic, cliffhanger-like ending: “For now, the only thing they can do is spread awareness and hope for a cure.” Fade out.
By and large, the national press hasn’t yet faded back in. Meanwhile, it has been a watershed year in the Morgellons world. This month the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a statement officially recognizing Morgellons as “an unexplained and debilitating condition” and announced plans to begin preliminary research.
In the background, a schism in the MRF led to the formation of a rival foundation called the New Morgellons Order (NMO). Then there is the Nevada group of Morgellons enthusiasts who believe the condition could have nanotechnological roots, not to mention the ever-strengthening presence of Morgellons Watch, a watchdog blog run by a tenacious and tireless California man who is determined to debunk them all.
But against the backdrop of these new developments, the same old scabs remain. And until concrete indisputable evidence can be brought forth from a CDC-sanctioned case study, the debate will rage on: are these people afflicted with a new disease or with a case of Internet spawned mass delusion?
Morgellons’ Roots: Mary Leitao and the MRF
“The first six months was like living in a Stephen King horror film… and I was the star.” -Arlene, California
In the summer of 2001, two-year-old Drew Leitao pointed to an itchy spot on his chin and said, “bugs.” Drew had already been tested for eczema, scabies and other skin disorders but no diagnosis seemed to fit his condition. One evening Drew’s mom, a former biologist, noticed strange fibers that seemed to be emerging from the sore on his chin. For the ensuing months, Mary Leitao says she conducted her own studies on the fibers, hoping to explain them away as synthetic or fabric. But, after she repeatedly sterilized the sore on Drew’s chin and then bandaged it, the fibers would always return, seemingly sprouting from the inside.
One doctor from John Hopkins University suggested that Mary might be suffering from Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, a form of hypochondria which causes sufferers, usually the mother, to project illness (or sometimes purposely induce it) on their children. Undaunted, Leitao continued her research and found no other disease like Drew’s listed in current medical literature. Scouring antiquated medical texts, she came across the text of “A Letter to a Friend” by 17th Century naturalist, Sir Thomas Browne. In the text Browne describes a medical condition he observed in French children called “the morgellons” in which those afflicted would break out with patches of coarse hairs on their backs.
In 2002, Leitao, then living in Pennsylvania, started a Web site called the Morgellons Research Foundation and received responses from people across the country, all who claimed to be suffering from an affliction similar to Drew’s. The Web site morphed into a full-fledged non-profit with a board of directors and medical board dedicated to securing funds for continued research. Following the death of her husband in 2004, Leitao moved her family to Surfside Beach, S.C. for a fresh start.
There fundraising for Morgellon’s began in earnest and preliminary research on Morgellons began at Oklahoma State University, Cal State and the State University of New York, according to her site.
The MRF, currently listing its address in Pittsburgh, Pa., has so far documented 64 claims of Morgellons in South Carolina. Approximately 10,000 families have registered with the foundation, believing that they or a family member showed symptoms of Morgellons as defined by the MRF. Of the U.S. families in the MRF registry, 24 percent reside in California with a large cluster of cases in the San Francisco area.
But one California man doesn’t buy it. Michael—who would only give City Paper his first name out of fear of harassment and who prefers to go by his screen name “Margellon”—started Morgellons Watch in April of 2006 because, he says, he had “some problems with their science.”
“Much of the MRF info is very one-sided and pushes a very particular viewpoint,” he says. Margellon worries that if someone is in fact delusional, the MRF gives them a blanket validation.
“The MRF simply says ‘you are not delusional’ without knowing anything about the person,” Margellon charges. “Simply that the person thinks they have Morgellons is enough for the MRF.”
Margellon also worries that the site scares people. “The media coverage (all guided by the MRF) sensationalizes this as some horrific new disease. People get scared that they might have it or catch it. This is all based on no evidence at all and is very irresponsible of both the MRF and the media,” he says.
Still, he believes Mary Leitao means well. “But I think she is simply misguided,” he says, “and perhaps manipulated by those around her.”
Morgellons under the microscope
The medical and scientific advisory boards of the MRF are comprised of over a dozen medical doctors and researchers. Taking into account recurring symptoms described by patients coupled with their own research, the foundation has developed it own case definition of Morgellons.
The opening paragraph of the case definition concedes that the initial three characteristics of Morgellons mirror a psychiatric illness known as Delusions of Parasitosis (DP), which Dr. Noah Scheinfeld, assistant clinical professor in the Dept. of Dermatology at Columbia University, describes as “the patient’s firm belief that he or she has [itching] due to an infestation with insects.” He goes on to say that patients will often bring in “clothing lint, pieces of skin, or other debris contained in plastic wrap, on adhesive tape, or in matchboxes. They typically state that these contain the parasites; however, these collections have no insects or parasites.”
But the MRF maintains that DP was “named decades before today’s laboratory technology and infection/immunity knowledge, driven by HIV, developed.” They believe that, in the case of Morgellons, DP is “a prematurely-assigned label to an organic, rather than purely psychiatric disease.”
The physical symptoms of Morgellons, according to the foundations definition, include: skin lesions, which progress to open wounds that don’t heal completely; movement and biting sensations both on and under the skin; near microscopic granules and “filaments” of varying color which fluoresce under UV light; and cognitive and neurological dysfunction. The definition also cites muscle and joint pain and fatigue similar to that described by people believed to suffer chronic Lyme disease.
“The association with Lyme disease,” the case definition states, “and the apparent response to antibacterial therapy suggest that Morgellons disease may be linked to an undefined infectious process.”
The foundation has so far not developed a concrete theory as to how the condition may be spread, though many believe that it is communicable. They also don’t believe that Morgellons is fatal.
Clongen Laboratories, LLC, owned by MRF board member Ahmed Kilani, Ph.D, believes that Morgellons is caused by a complex fungi, algae or “novel parasite.” They are currently trying to isolate DNA from the fibers and link it to a similar organic structure. Dr. Vitaly Citovsky, Ph.D is also on the board of the MRF.
A researcher with the State University of New York, Citovsky believes that Morgellons could be linked to an Agrobacterium that causes tumors and forms root-like structures within plants. In recent years, forms of Agrobacteria have been used to genetically modify plants by transferring select genes to those plants.
“Morgellons skin fibers appear to contain cellulose,” Citovsky stated in a January 14 statement. “This observation indicates possible involvement of pathogenic Agrobacterium, which is known to produce cellulose fibers at infection sites within host tissues. … If these results are confirmed, it would be the first example of a plant-infecting bacterium playing a role in human disease.”
Dr. Randy Wymore, director of the Center for the Investigation of Morgellons Disease at Oklahoma State University, insists that most of the Morgellons fibers he has studied were first observed under and within healthy, unbroken skin, which would rule out the possibility of lint being stuck to a scab.
In a June 19 position statement, Wymore stated that some of the fibers associated with Morgellons “are not simple textiles of animal, plant or synthetic nature.” In one now infamous experiment reported by Psychology Today, Wymore and a fiber expert from a police forensics crime lab exposed Morgellons fibers to extreme heat to compare their burning point to other organic compounds. The fiber is reported to have sustained temperatures up to 1,400 degrees without burning.
“Efforts to find microorganisms associated with Morgellons are a process of elimination,” Wymore states. “We use molecular biology techniques to try to identify the presence of DNA sequences of candidate organism.”
So far, no research has proven conclusively that the fibers are generated within the body.
Crawling with nanorobots / The schism at MRF
Russell Altman of Beneficial Solutions, LLC distributes a colloidal silver additive for water called NutraSilver. Colloidal silver is believed to have antibiotic properties and was used as a disinfectant before the invention of penicillin. Currently, the U.S. government only considers it a dietary supplement (which can’t by law claim to cure diseases) and in 2001 the FDA issued a warning to an Internet site that promoted colloidal silver as an antibiotic. Still, Altman believes that his silver product will ease the suffering associated with Morgellons.
He also told City Paper that he believes Morgellons is caused by tiny replicating robots which are sprayed down upon the populous from Earths atmosphere.
“There is some very strong information coming from Dr. Hildegard Staninger who is a very famous Industrial Toxicologist that this infection is man-made nanomachines and that they are able to communicate,” he said.
Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, with Integrative Health International, LLC did indeed present a paper to the National Registry of Environmental Professionals in 2006, claiming that a study of Morgellons fibers showed that “the fibers’ outer casing is made up of high density polyethylene fiber (HDPE). The fiber material is used commonly in the manufacture of fiber optics.” He went on to say, “It was further determined that this material is used throughout the bio nanotechnology world as a compound to encapsulate a viral protein envelope which is composed of a viron (1/150th times smaller than a virus) with DNA, RNA, RNAi (mutated RNA) …for specific functions.”
“This is a man-made infection,” Altman insists and then raises the question: But who made it? “Well, consider that it took many billions of dollars to create, you can guess who might be the inventor of this horrible, life-stealing disease,” he says.
When asked what he thinks about the high density of reported cases in California, Texas and Florida, he begins his sales pitch. “Morgellons disease is created by Chemtrails at high altitudes. My product is sold globally to victims in almost every country because the world population has been exposed through high-altitude spraying. Morgellons is in the air and therefore in the water and food chain globally. Yes, there are clusters, but my view is that this is all over the world. You need to know that I have the only effective treatment for Morgellons. We measure our success by how many suicides we prevent every week.”
He then directed me to his associate’s Web site to read testimonials by doctors and lay people. NutraSilver claims to cure everything from acne to Lyme disease and, of course, Morgellons. One testimonial was given by a doctor named James Matthews, M.D. who claimed to have Morgellons only to be cured by NutraSilver. He also disclosed that a “small percentage from the sales of NutraSilver is paid to Advanced Medicine, L.L.C., a new nonprofit company that I direct.”
“It’s a typical nonsense theory,” says Margellon of the nano machines. “Russell Altman, on the other hand, is all business. He’s running a MLM [multi level marketing] scheme for a quack remedy. Jeff Sohler is the man behind morgellonshope.com and nutrasilver.com. Both Web sites are registered through his Internet marketing company Sohlius, Inc.”
And while 2006 saw the Internet blossom with pyramid schemes to fuel the debunkers’ cause, internal personal struggles began to wreak havoc at the MRF.
Dr. Greg Smith, a Gainesville, Ga. pediatrician who served on the MRF medical board, resigned last year citing philosophical differences with Leitao. Former MRF chairman, Charles Holman and Dr. Smith also asked to see the foundation’s financial records for 2004 and claimed that Leitao said she didn’t have them. Shortly thereafter, Smith removed a letter on a medical Web site soliciting donations to the MRF and replaced it with a retraction, stating that he couldn’t solicit donations to the foundation without seeing the financial records.
“It has been the most bizarre situation,” Leitao told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the time. “We’re talking little, tiny chunks of money. I will tell you, the year 2004, there were $318 worth of donations. And $100 of those came from me. I donated a check to my own foundation to jump-start us.”
City Paper obtained the foundation’s IRS 990 form for 2005 which listed total revenue at $17,165. After expenses the foundation’s total assets for 2005 came to $14,664. It was unclear how much was donated to research.
Leitao did not respond to information requests by City Paper. Ken Cowles, the foundation’s director of media and public relations, enthusiastically agreed to a conference call between himself, City Paper, possibly Leitao, and a South Carolina Morgellons sufferer (for alarmist opening paragraph purposes… hence the subpar, 2nd person substitute). Subsequent phone calls and emails from City Paper to set up said interview have so far gone unanswered as of press time.
Margellon, however, was quick to comment and also criticized MRF board members Ginger Savely, RN and Raphael B. Stricker, M.D. who both have backgrounds in the chronic Lyme disease movement.
“The thing I dislike the most is that many members of the MRF have a significant financial stake in popularizing the idea that Morgellons is a distinct disease. Stricker and Savely run a clinic in San Francisco where they treat Morgellons Patients with cocktails of anti-everything drugs and very expensive courses of antibiotics,” he said. “I think they get a lot of business via the MRF.”
Morgellons Watch reported that Savely charges $500 for an initial visit to her clinic and treatment costs run from $1,200 to $12,000 per year, all out of patients’ pockets, as medical insurance doesn’t cover such treatments.
To add insult to injury, Dr. Wymore at Oklahoma State University stepped down as the foundation’s director of research, though he still maintains a working relationship with the group. Meanwhile, former chairman Holman and other board members, Smith included, formed the New Morgellons Order, a group so rabidly pro-financial-disclosure that they post photocopies of the organization’s written checks on their Web site.
The CDC trudges into action
Until recently the CDC seemed reticent to devote any manpower to the Morgellons issue. After a strongly worded letter by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) the CDC began to contact people directly to inquire about the condition. In 2006 a CDC task force was formed and in December of that year, U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) signed a single letter to the director of the CDC asking them to expedite their investigation of the issue. The CDCs Division of Parasitic Diseases removed the Delusional Parasitosis page from their Web site in March and many in the Morgellons community believe the removal of the entry has significance to their cause.
David Daigle, a spokesman for the CDC, told City Paper the entry was removed for other reasons.
“The page/link was removed due to a Web management issue rather than Morgellons,” Daigle says. “HHS [Health and Human Services] web governance asked us to remove the page as it did not provide information, rather it linked visitors to another Web site.”
Last month, the CDC released a solicitation notice contracting Kaiser Permanente—a nonprofit managed health care organization based in California that boasted an operating budget of $3.1 billion in 2005 with 37 medical centers across the country tending to its roughly 9 million health plan members—to investigate Morgellons. The CDC chose Kaiser Permenente due to its location in an area with a large number of suspected cases, its large database of patients and what they describe as its qualified staff and facilities.
Some in the Morgellons community have expressed concern over the government’s decision to award a contract to a multi billion dollar health care organization instead of some of the University researchers who have been studying the condition for years. But for now, it’s all they’ve got.
For now the only thing left to do is spread awareness and hope for a cure.
21 Responses to “Science Friction”
Sorry, comments are closed for this article.
August 28th, 2007 at 05:15 AM
It appears you have put a bit of time into researching your story. However there are many facts that you are unaware of. The question is, do you, or your publisher have the courage to write the real story?
Contact me at the email given. You will be presented with more than you may actually wish to know. This is without question, one of the biggest stories of our generation.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:45 PM
I have a few comments about this and how Morgellons ( a very horrific condition !) is being portrayed in this article. One Big no no is placing Morgellons under a science fiction type place in your paper. Morgellons sufferers have been labeled nuts and this illness has been labeled delusional all in our heads for years, we do not need the media to help us out in that area any longer ! Until we get coverage where the reporter is covering Morgellons as real ( now called a sydromby the CDC) and holding Morgellons in that light as cancer is , we will not make any headway in fighting this. You can not fix what you do not acknowledge . If Morgellons remains in the science fiction class it will remain a joke to others and I can say it has not been funny from day one with morgellons and no where near a joke ! A reporter with some common sense would be nice .. asking himself logical questions like If Chem trails caused this wouldn’t everyone have it ? Why publish things like that ??? It only keeps morgellons in an uncredibal light. “Morgellons is caused by tiny replicating robots which are sprayed down upon the populous from Earths atmosphere. ”
Oh pulesse!! we have been labeled nuts why open your mouth and prove this in an individual… Reporter ? what scientist who actually had these so called robots with scientific proof of their existence .. told you this ??????? Then what are you publishing ? You wrote about the MRF without one shred of their response .. I do not care if you could not get them to answer your calls .. If you could not get the other persons input .. you do not publish it . That kind of journalism belongs in the INQUIRER” not here. A South Carolina print media with a real honest to goodness desire to help us would base a story on scientific facts not a knucklehead from the other side of the country who couldn’t tell a petrie dish from American standard. By the way I am in SC and got in remission with a regular GP all I needed to find was a doctor with an open mind and willingness to look past opinions and see it scientifically . My doc was not recommended by any one in any morgellons group . And the medicine he keeps me on gave me my life back, Mary Letio saved my life one day .. when no one would talk or visit me , when this illness had left me a lump of terror on my couch screaming .. when I thought ” IF I kill me I’ll kill this ” She called me and her kind words saved me from doing myself in , Now y’all stop fighting and find out what Morgellons is ! scientifically not speculations from knuckleheads ,, thanks you
August 29th, 2007 at 10:57 AM
Thank you for your article regarding the mystery of Morgellons. I would like to correct one of your points, if I may.
You wrote “The CDCs Division of Parasitic Diseases removed the Delusional Parasitosis page from their Web site in March. While many in the Morgellons community believe the DP removal has significance to their cause, the CDC has yet to officially acknowledge its reasons for removing the entry.”
It was vary easy to get the answer to why the DP page on the CDC site was removed, I just asked them. Here is their response -
http://www.seektress.com/cdcdp13.htm
Regards,
Lorie K
August 30th, 2007 at 08:50 PM
Thanks, Lorie
Awaiting confirmation from the CDC on my end and will definitely amend the passage above if I get a similar response from them, with my apologies. I think “publicly acknowlege” would have been a better choice of words on my part. Hell, there may even be a press release on the matter buried somewhere in the CDC archives that I have yet to discover and if you’ve found a public acknowlegement by the CDC in your research, by all means feel free to share that here, too.
All best,
Todd Morehead
August 31st, 2007 at 12:37 AM
I’ll say that these wacko’s can’t deal with reality and an impartial article.
If some nut job claims robots that is part of the story.
That sucks if it doesn’t represent the mainstream morgellons sufferer, but those people if they exist could be commenting here. Not just the one lone wack job leaving comments
September 4th, 2007 at 02:24 PM
Finally heard back from the CDC re: their removal of the Delusions of Parasitosis entry from their site:
David Daigle, a spokesman for the CDC told City Paper: “The page/link was removed due to a web management issue rather than Morgellons. HHS [Health and Human Services] web governance asked us to remove the page as it did not provide information, rather it linked visitors to another web site.”
I amended that section of the article above.
September 9th, 2007 at 01:35 AM
I have followed most of the players in this scenerio and the Chemtrails scenerio…most of the people associated with these causes are out for people’s money. Morgellon’s disease has been around since the 1990’s with dermatopathologists from OSU hospitals in Columbus, Ohio first diagnosing the disease. It is my firm belief that if the Chemtrails theory didn’t pan out then they would find some psychosomatic person and feed them info. If someone would seriously investigate Hilda Staninger for her business practices with her herbal vinegars and everything else she professes to have discovered you will find that she is what you call a Sharlaton (sp)? All are connected one way or another, Shoshanna, Lorie Kramer, et al. I do not wish to be contacted, just wanted to voice my opinion…check out PhD creditials on Hilda, see where they came from…somewhere WHO, not even a documented or accredited institutions, ran by a bunch of wacko’s… Money is their mantra…or rebels looking for a cause or bored women with nothing more to do…Do not post…just ponder on these things.
September 14th, 2007 at 04:30 PM
I am responding to Mack…..were you hit by the truck of the same name? Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, PhD, has credentials a mile long and has worked for the US Dept. of Army, the State of Fla., has numerous awards for her work and does not sell vinegars and such. Unfortunately there have been many charlatans (correct spelling….and I have Morgellons), associated with Morgellons disease, most prominently Russell Altman who used the work, words and images of many scholared researchers without permission and with objection. He and his colleagues have mounted ferocious attacks against any that try and stand in his way, threats amongst them. Get your facts straight before you open your mouth about something you obviously know nothing about. I would typically go on to explain how devastating this disease is to the patient, physically, societally, psychologically, etc. However, I believe this article to be a well written and well rounded representation an no further comment is necessary.
My only other comment is to say……look at who sits on the Boards of the many Morgellons associations. I would venture to say the majority are men. This disease is NOT gender selective!
September 20th, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Every time I have visited CDC’s website I would run a search on “Morgellons” “Morgellons Disease” “Morgellons Syndrome” The search always came up with 0 matches. I ran a search on the CDC website just a few days ago and here are 3 of the 8 links I got a match for on my search on “morgellons”. http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/ http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/general_info.html http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/investigation.html
I have had the dreaded Morgellons Disease for about 5 1/2 years, I am all to familiar with the strange “unknown” fibers that are most commonly black and white and rarely red. I have seen the blue and green fibers under a microscope, the blue one appeared to be white at first. I found out I had Morgellons after my mother told me to watch a News segment on Fox, channel 2 in Oakland titled “Mysterious Skin Disease, affecting Bay Area Residents” at the end of the segment a link to the Morgellons Research Foundation website was provided www.morgellons.org. I got on-line line and went to the website and finally learned that I wasn’t the only one with this chronic nightmare. I read over the list of unusual sensations that others were feeling, I was looking for an exact match to the words I had in mind “moving hairs”, and I could hardly believe I found “moving hairs” on the list it was one of many other things I had been feeling at the time but I didn’t know that the hair-like fibers were related to all the other problems too. I felt like I had finally made it home after a long journey, and I found some comfort finding someone who believed me, knew what I was going through, and that I wasn’t alone anymore. I would never wish Morgellons on anyone, but I think life would be to much for me to bare if I was ll alone in the nightmare we call Morgellons. I was horrified to find out that Morgellons is a chronic disease. As our Morgellons community gets larger our voices get louder, we will fight for our lives until it kills us and we won’t go down quietly. I do hope the medical community will believe that all of us couldn’t possibly be wrong about what is going on inside our own bodies. How could the doctors possibly know more about my body then I do? I heard a doctor say in a news segment “If Morgellons disease can’t be found in the medical journals, then it doesn’t exist”. What a joke! HIV/AIDS wasn’t even a part of our vocabulary until 1984, and today practically everyone in the world knows that it definitely does exist.
I hope CDC knows what they are doing choosing Kaiser for the Morgellons Investigation. Do those of us with Morgellons have to be a member with Kaiser in order to be a part of the investigation? I know most of us are on MediCal, or don’t have a health plan all, I am sure we don’t have enough money to go run and buy one of Kaiser’s individual health plans which must be at least 150 - 200 or more depending on health or maybe we will be offered a group rate instead, would the plan consider Morgellons a preexisting health problem or not.
Before I had Morgellons disease I had a job doing Accounts Payable I had benefits including a Kaiser health plan when I first started to come down with Morgellons disease. I loved Kaiser until Morgellons came into the picture. Kaiser is where I got the idea of “moving hair” in the first place. I tried to get treatment from my Physician at Kaiser SF for something that didn’t have a name. The nurse (or assistant) said she could actually see the long strands under my skin which went from the nape of my neck and down the entire length of my back. I tried to describe the strange sensations I was feeling to my doctor and was told that if it couldn’t be written down on paper it couldn’t be treated with internal medicine. Couldn’t be written down on paper? I exclaimed, what do you mean? I told her what her assistant was able to see on my back, unfortunately my doctor didn’t have as good vision as her assistant so of course this last bit of my “evidence” was stolen away.. I was supposed to feel blessed with my doctors referral to my very own personal Dermatologist at Kaiser, I thought I would get better treatment from Derm. since the fibers did come out from under my skin, it made sense to get treatment from a skin doctor, instead I got a prescription for anti-depressants which I had to stop after two days because they were making me fall asleep while I was at work. The antibiotics were supposed to make me stop feeling the hair on my head growing under my skin throughout my entire body. I believed what she said might be possible perhaps it could have been my own hair I was losing a lot of hair and it seemed to be disappearing somewhere, I wasn’t finding strands of hair on my pillow like most people do when they lose hair. After two or three appointments with my dermatologist, I couldn’t stand going anymore, my last visit my dermatologist rushed me in, didn’t seem to listen to what I was saying, she asked when I noticed the fibers the most I replied it’s right after I come out of the shower I heard her softly mumble the shower under her breath and she looked thoughtful for a moment, then she walked away. When my Derm. returned to the office she had an annoyed look on her face, she was almost mean to me, she pulled strands of her own long hair strait up in the air above her head, which meant to me that the fibers weren’t fibers it was all just the hair from my head. I remember my hairdresser asking me what was doing that to my hair making it thin and get really tangled up, I didn’t tell him about the fibers, if I had he probably would have believed me. One day a friend of mine told me about her ex-husband who had the same types of skin sensations as me, and that they suspect that the “hairs” aren’t really hairs at all they believed it may be some sort of fungus instead.
This all happened before I met our guardian angel, Mary Laiteo, and the MRF website that was like a sanctuary to me. Without the limitless time Mary devotes to getting our voices heard across the nation, and proving that we really are all in the same boat. The Titanic would look good because at least you would be going somewhere on a boat in the first place. Without it we would probably each be out there slowly dieing on an island or ourselves, that would be bad enough to make me think about suicide, but I just couldn’t live with myself if I actually killed myself. I do believe Hell is probably worse then Morgellons.. At least if the boat sinks you can still hope that Morgellons doesn’t exist in heaven. I don’t know if these are my true beliefs but I can’t say they are my dis-beliefs either and I do believe these thought do give me strength and keep me from losing my will to live.. I am sane, I am living with Morgellons disease, and I don’t want to die with it. I want my life back, I want to be comfortable in my own skin again. If I wanted to feel comfortably numb, I would have become a junkie instead of catching Morgellons.. Wake up America when it comes to Morgellons, you have to believe it before you see it otherwise it will probably be to late. I want us all to beat the deadline on this, don’t you??? I know in my heart we can win, don’t give up, our strength is in numbers now more then ever we all need you.
I included some info. about my support group “BAMSAC” anyone who has Morgellons disease, or cares about us Morgy’s is welcome to join the group, even if you don’t live in the area… . Bay Area Morgellons Support and Activisim Commitee (BAMSAC) is listed in Yahoo Groups under skin conditions , please feel free to see what the people who have Morgellons disease in the San Francisco Bay Area have to say about it (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/morgellons_bayarea/?yguid=214563000). BAMSAC doesn’t except donations and we don’t appreciate peddlers selling products like Collodial Silver, etc. in our support group. We are not here to support anyone financially or we would except donatons from our members. If a member has found a product that he/she that helps and wants to share there experience to the group that is one thing. Peddlers, and overly persistant sales people trying to make a buck off a group like us is totally inappropriate and will not be tolerated. We also do not tolerate Morgellons bashing, save your drama for your mama, please… I know the few moderators of the group only ban our unwanted members. I do like Fungasoap that was created by a dermatologist for patients with fungus and parasites, Fungasoap can be purchased at Walgreens for about $5.00.
September 20th, 2007 at 09:39 PM
I have had Morgellons symptopms for over 6 months. I do think this was caused by GM cotton.
I have used an after bath cotton fragrance since last January. I have done all the physician things.. with no help, of course!
I have just opened a website for those who have Morgellons symptoms in Maine and surrounding states.
I think Morgellons should not be named a disease, but rather a reaction! As do others, I hae a compromised immune system caused by Fibromyalgia and ParvoB-19.
The pesticide proteins (“Round Up” ) that have been put in the mutated cottonseeds cause a systemic reaction…Morgellons. This mutated cotton is in our foods as cottonseed oil and other products that are used daily.
I have, like all of us who suffer these symptoms, lesions and fibers, fatigue, sore throat, brain fog, sleep problems, swollen feet,a systemic itch and fiber “point” pain.
mainemorgellons.com
September 27th, 2007 at 02:14 AM
IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 24, 2007 Media Contact: Shoshanna Allison Sh0shanna@aol.com (that’s a numeric ‘0’ zero in Sh0shanna)
MORGELLONS’ FIBER MYSTERY UNRAVELS
Presented at the 2007 Annual Conference of National Registry of Environmental Professionals:
*Morgellons - A Nano 911 Foreign Invader - Full Paper Presentation By Dr. Hildegarde Staninger http://www.rense.com/general78/nano911.htm
*IMAGES - Jan Smith Specimens & References - Special #10 http://www.rense.com/general78/morgpc.htm
The research and findings in the documents above are discussed in the following internet radio Rense Morgellons Special No. 10:
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 10 Hildegarde Staninger, PhD, RIET-1 Dr. R. Michael Castle Morgellons Victims Jan Smith and ‘Anonymous’ from the Midwest September 17, 2007 http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons10.mp3
*Dr. Hildegarde Staninger Office: 323-466-2599 Integrative Health Systems 415-3/4th Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90004 dr.hildy@yahoo.com ~Biography~ http://www.staningerreport.com/bio.php The Staninger Report Website: http://www.staningerreport.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Dr. R. Michael Castle - Bio - ekimcastle@yahoo.com http://www.rense.com/general76/castlebio.htm Dr. Castle’s White Paper on Chemtrails
(Soon to be updated) THE METHODIC DEMISE OF NATURAL EARTH
http://www.bariumblues.com/methodicdemiseofnaturalearth.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed Spencer, MD’s paper to the Berkeley City Council: http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about9119.html edspencer3000@comcast.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MORGELLONS RADIO SPECIALS ~See Dr. Staninger - Special Nos. 5, 6, 7 & 10~
~See Dr. R. Michael Castle - Special Nos. 7 & 10 ~See Dr. Ed Spencer - Special No. 7~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DR. STANINGER’S MAJOR MORGELLONS PAPERS and IMAGE REFERENCES ARE MARKED WITH ‘*’ BELOW. THE DOCUMENTS WERE PRESENTED DURING THE RELATED RADIO SHOW - for which mp3 links are provided.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 9 Special Update Program http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons9.mp3
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 8 Psych, Emotional, Personality And Relationship Impacts - Cliff Mickelson, Jan Smith & Guests May 10, 2007 Inspiring Letter About Morgellons Special #8 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons8.mp3
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 7 Hildegarde Staninger, PhD, RIET-1 Ed Spencer, MD Dr. R. Michael Castle Jan Smith, Morgellons Victim Morgellons Identified - World Exclusive! Shocking Research - Nanotech Machines In The Human Body March 29, 2007 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons7.mp3 Morgellons #7 Documentation *Project FMM - Lab Report Analyses on Morgellons Fibers ~Dr. Staninger~ http://www.rense.com/morgphase/phase2_1.htm
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 6 Hildegarde Staninger, PhD, RIET-1 Rahim Karjoo, M.D., F.A.S.C.P./F.C.A.P., Jan Smith, Morgellons Victim Shocking Breakthroughs! November 9, 2006 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons6.mp3 *Morgellons Specimen Photos in Sequence - Special No. 6 http://www.rense.com/general74/morg6-1.htm
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 5 Hildegarde Staninger, PhD, RIET-1 Rahim Karjoo, M.D., F.A.S.C.P./F.C.A.P. Jan Smith, Morgellons Victim, Stunning Data, Solid Evidence October 24, 2006 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons5.mp3 **Findings Presented by Dr. Hildegarde Staninger - Oct. 18th-2006 http://www.dldewey.com/stan.htm
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 4 Cliff Mickelson, Jan Smith, Gillian from Melbourne, Australia Morgellons Victims August 18, 2006 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons4.mp3
*Stunning Photographs #1
http://www.rense.com/general72/morg1.htm *Stunning Photographs #2 http://www.rense.com/general72/morg2a.htm MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 3 Cliff Mickelson, Jan Smith, Cindy Casey, RN and Charles Holman, Greg Smith, MD & Judy Smith, RN Morgellons Victims July 17, 2006 http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons3.mp3 (MP3 Audio File)
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 2 Cliff Mickelson, Jan Smith, Cindy Casey, RN and Charles Holman Morgellons Victims June 27, 2006 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons2.mp3
MORGELLONS SPECIAL No. 1 Cliff Mickelson & Jan Smith Morgellons Victims June 22, 2006 (MP3 Audio File) http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/special/rensemorgellons.mp3
OUT THERE TV: YouTube - Dr Hildegarde Staninger Interview (Part One)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4dqP_mhps&mode=related&search= YouTube - Dr Hildegarde Staninger Interview (Part Two)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLw3PS_FEs
YouTube - Dr Hildegarde Staninger Interview (Part Three)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R01zEna0InI&mode=related&search= ~~~~~~~~###~~~~~~~~
September 27th, 2007 at 03:09 AM
I am so fed up with people having all sorts of personal OPINIONS about Morgellons disease and none of the facts. The fact is that Nano technoloyy is coming out of my body and I have both photos and slides of this material. It has been identified and it doesn’t look a thing like blanket fuzz.
Go view the crystal nanocone array at Rense.com and view my photos. Please get in touch with Dr Staninger for the real facts. She has the samples on slides and is not hiding them from anyone in the medical profession. The medical profession simply will not look at her facts.
There is documentation from the lab at Woods Hole/MIT as well as several other labs that did independant research on these items as unknowns. That means there was no expectation of what the findings would be. Get it? When a lab asks you for more nano machines without you ever saying a word that tells a tale don’t you think?
Have any of the Nay-Sayers ever bothered to look at the research or to have any actual lab analysis done? If so then please share your data.. If not then I suggest you stop trying to do more harm to those of us who are genuinely ill. Anyone here who is not interested in scientific facts may prattle on with hollow and biased opinionated drivel about this disease but I happen to be living with it and only scientific facts mean anything at this point.
There are many people who are trying to prevent the truth from being heard. Dr Staninger is hiding nothing and is more than happy to be disproven. Go Ahead, Make Her Day!! Why is it that nobody has contacted her and looked at the facts?
If I had to guess I would say that this is a cover-up from the highest levels. Fortunately I don’t have to guess, I all ready know that Morgellons disease is being stonewalled by the medical profession and the corporate lacky of the major media and the government and even a few internet bullies.
Here are my videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thegreema1
Here are my photos: http://www.rense.com/general78/morgpc.htm
It’s time to wake up and smell the evil.
September 27th, 2007 at 03:10 AM
I am so fed up with people having all sorts of personal OPINIONS about Morgellons disease and none of the facts. The fact is that Nano technoloyy is coming out of my body and I have both photos and slides of this material. It has been identified and it doesn’t look a thing like blanket fuzz.
Go view the crystal nanocone array at Rense.com and view my photos. Please get in touch with Dr Staninger for the real facts. She has the samples on slides and is not hiding them from anyone in the medical profession. The medical profession simply will not look at her facts.
There is documentation from the lab at Woods Hole/MIT as well as several other labs that did independant research on these items as unknowns. That means there was no expectation of what the findings would be. Get it? When a lab asks you for more nano machines without you ever saying a word that tells a tale don’t you think?
Have any of the Nay-Sayers ever bothered to look at the research or to have any actual lab analysis done? If so then please share your data.. If not then I suggest you stop trying to do more harm to those of us who are genuinely ill. Anyone here who is not interested in scientific facts may prattle on with hollow and biased opinionated drivel about this disease but I happen to be living with it and only scientific facts mean anything at this point.
There are many people who are trying to prevent the truth from being heard. Dr Staninger is hiding nothing and is more than happy to be disproven. Go Ahead, Make Her Day!! Why is it that nobody has contacted her and looked at the facts?
If I had to guess I would say that this is a cover-up from the highest levels. Fortunately I don’t have to guess, I all ready know that Morgellons disease is being stonewalled by the medical profession and the corporate lacky of the major media and the government and even a few internet bullies.
Here are my videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thegreema1
Here are my photos: http://www.rense.com/general78/morgpc.htm
It’s time to wake up and smell the evil.
September 27th, 2007 at 09:51 AM
Since I am reading that Morgellons is caused by nano technology, I am puzzled as to why Morgellons patients are getting relief of symptoms and partial cures/remissions from treatment with oral antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasitics and avarious environmental sprays in the home and topical skin products.
Please explain. Thanks in advance. GKS
September 28th, 2007 at 09:31 AM
Why is it hard to believe that nanotechnology can include fungus, bacterium, plant cell technology, human and animal t dna and rna?
There is no national or international oversite for what is being done on the nano scale.
There are people around the world studying this. It is all being kept in the dark for political and security issues.
October 2nd, 2007 at 02:10 AM
This unknown skin disease was given the name of Morgellons so that Mary from Morgellons.org could advance awareness about a condition or syndrome that was being ignored by medical science. Medical science inclusive of published articles by doctors that have never seen a patient that has this clearly shows that there is more than meets the eye. Giving Kaiser Permanente, a health insurer whose bottom line equires that you DO NOT find additional diseases that require years of medication, the grant money to research this syndrome also is quite fishy especially when there are others in the field that have been doing legit research and they have not gotten any grant money. Givin the money to a drug company that could create a drug to cure us all would be a more honest approach to finding us a cure, but that is not being done.
This is a real disease. Many diseases have fatigue, aches and pains, itching, scratching ( I have not had either of those) and some even have unexplained lesions that do not heal but no other diseases have these strange fibers that no one has been able to evaluate and if they have it has not reached the level of those who SHOULD and are getting paid by your tax dollar, to listen and take action.
Please be aware of what is going on around you with government and you will see how this fits into commonality of all things around you.
This disease is real:people have it. The medical community is being taught to ignore the symptoms without investigating them, prescribing medications without first doing any research and that is a VERY slippery slope.
This disease and how we are all being treated is the slippery slope of medicine as is eminent domain the slippery slope of property rights and I could name you a few more regarding civil right etc.
It is the responsibility of the health system to investigate honestly something that is reported to them and they have not done this yet and have instead created a smear campaign by internet.
Yes, there will always be horrible people out there trying to make a big buck on desperate sick people unable to get help from those set up in society to help them. That is sad and sick and par for the course.
The fact is that when people can not find an answer they will look for one until they find one if they are proactive. This is why they search the internet, find chemtrails, hope Hildy is correct, have their fillings taken out by Amin, have faith in Vitaly Citovsky, swollow silverdyne, pay people hundreds of dollars for things that are called cures when they are snake-oil remedies and why we love and stand behind Randy Wymore. If we lose hope we have nothing except lesions with fibers breaking out all over our bodies and taking months to heal while we are being blamed for creating them, which is madness.
If the medical community was doing what they should be doing these people would not be looking somewhere esle to find solice and comfort from their constatn anxiety about having something invade their body and their lives that they can’t get any help for.
We need nest research without agendas. We need open minds, no matter how much our disease may frighten you. We need people on the side of good and government today, is a new world order of money and not concern for the under dogs. We are just more vocal than most who are being screwed by this new society. It truly is a sad state of affairs.
That is all I have to say.
October 3rd, 2007 at 03:39 PM
I have Morgellons. I have had the affliction for 5+ years. It has only been 14 months since I discovered, via the internet, there are thousands of sufferers, and the syndrome is being called Morgellons. The internet has thankfully allowed people like me to receive emotional support and share ideas with others for reducing symtoms.
I have taken Nutrasilver for months and spent hundreds of dollars on the product. It did not help me. I know of a couple people who have improved using Nutrasilver. It is not a cure! Russell Altman has no business claiming his silver product is a cure. He knows it isn’t.
I have been to nine doctors including three dermatologists, one appeared to care and tried to help. The other eight were indifferent, arrogant, rude, and inept. The CDC and the majority of the medical professionals have failed a large and growing segment of the population.
For the skeptics particulary Margellons, please at least attempt to show some compassion for people who are suffering and leave us alone. I would not wish this affliction on my worst enemy. The treatment we are receiving from the press, skeptics, government and medical profession is appalling and alarming.
October 4th, 2007 at 08:24 AM
I got an e-mail today from one of the board members of the Morgellons Research Foundation. Morgellons disease is caused by a parasite, that mite bite. The labs are studing the little invaders, trying to determine the species. The case study consisted of 25 Morgellons patients, parasites were found in all 25 partisipants. The good news is the recovery rate is 90% recovery of 90% who participated, I don’t know what the outcome was for the 10% who didn’t recover. There will be a write up in the medical journals in the next few months, hopefully. The DOP diagnosis is definately not the case for Morgellons. Visit my yahoo group, Bay Area Morgellons Support and Activism Committee, for more details.
Thanks, JulieK.SFCA
October 4th, 2007 at 03:39 PM
Thank you for this great article.
Whenever there is a ‘mystery’ of any kind, right behind follow the hounds who are more than willing to feed off the afflicted.
I have several considerations:
One, US medical schools stopped training our doctors about nematodes (yes, worms) when we stopped being an agrarian society.
Two, the concentration of this disorder seems to be in states surrounding Mexico, where there are agrarian workers. Doctors in these areas are reporting to the CDC parasites and disorders that they have never seen before, nor have they been trained to handle them.
Three, new drugs in the US for worm conditions are released for animals, leaving the ones tested for people old, out-dated, and ones which these parasites have developed a resistance to.
Four, relief is gotten by certain substances on a temporary basis. It is very hard(I would say impossible) to kill nematodes in the body in ALL of their life stages with one substance or with one short treatment regimen.
Five, because people are so trusting/been brainwashed into thinking that their doctors know almost all there is to know, if the local doctor cannot cure them or refuses to think of this as a disease, some people think it must be ‘supernatural’ or nano-bs or perhaps alien-derived, or maybe the Department of Defense is trying to thin the herd, or perhaps an agro-Frankenstein has gotten out of control.
Shows that we share a similar mentality with the cargo cults that we find so amusing, doesn’t it?
My only real problem with this article is the negative ending. If the CDC is looking into this, it will find a solution. That solution will be eventually published and shared with the medical community at large. If they see this as a growing problem, which it is, the drug companies are more than happy to develop new drugs to increase their profits. The government is not soliciting money from us that they pocket or hide in some strange account. They are functioning to put together a parasitic team and method of attack on this thing, and I am certain that we are finally on the road to a solution.
Morg people have been dissappointed for so long, from so many sources that they have trusted up until now, that any good news is looked upon with skepticism.
I truly believe Help is On the Way.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:44 PM
Finally, some good news about organism identification and treatment options is on the way by Dr. Harvey’s group at MRF. I suppose we are all aware that this may be only a partial answer, but it is promising.
I am saddened by the splintering of morgellons groups, which is unfortunate. However, I am dismayed, hurt and angered by the hostility and destructiveness by the hate-group, morgellonswatch. I sincerely wish this upon each of you and am gratified to know that some of you already have it. (My own opinion, after viewing some of your own photos).
I am ever grateful for Mary Laiteo for calling attention to this infection. I attribute my partial recovery to an early referral by a microbiologist who referred me to MRF after her websearch (after viewing my “impossible” specimens). This kept me sane through a very disheartening and anxiety-ridden time.
I am also grateful to the biology online forum for the lively and informative discussions (minus the splitting by destructive individuals, which finally terminated the group).
Thank God for Dr. Harvey, Dr. Randy Wymore (OSU), Dr. Hilde (whose credentials are impecable) and all the others who are actively researching this phenomenon. All have contributed greatly to our understanding and salvation.
There is also a German researcher, Marc Neumann, who offers some fascinating data, unusual photos, lots of information on his website morgellons-research.org. All obviously ring true about this disease called Morgellons. What a shame there is not more collaberation among all these folks.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:15 PM
Many Morgellon’s sufferers are co-infected with tick diseases. I have had combinations of Lyme, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, and related Mycoplasmosis for too many years. Gratefully, no Morgellons. I encourage anyone reading this with Morgellons or knows anyone with this horrible disease, to get tested for all tick diseases, including Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Bartonella, Lone Star Tick Disease, and more. Check www.ilds.org for information. The best advice ever given to me by the God-sent MD that diagnosed me is to take the very best care of your body. Every body system and organ needs to be as well as possible. To your best ability, take good care of yourself so your symptoms are not compounded. In Prayer, Nancy