autoimmunity - part 2

This is part two of my personal story on autoimmune disease/disorders. To read part one please click here.

I was really nervous during the drive to Marina di Massa to visit the homoeopath. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I found when we arrived.

The office was quite small with a waiting room with 5 chairs and a table with magazines. We were greeted by a very kind and happy-energetic receptionist and told to wait a few minutes. I was then directed into the doctor's office and asked to sit in a wooden director's chair and to take off all my jewellery, socks and shoes.

The doctor was reserved and quiet, kept pretty much to himself and didn't explain much. The MORA machine, which too me looked like an electroshock device from the 50's sat on the table in front of him. He wet my hand (I still don't know what with... probably just plain water), placed metal plates under my feet, handed me a metal rod connected to the machine, then took my other hand and started to poke it with another rod, this one ending in a dulled metal point, also connected to the machine.

The MORA machine was created in the 1970's by German physician Dr. Franz Morell and electronics engineer Mr. Erich Rasche t measure the electromagnetic component of the body. All substances, whether living or non-living, emit electromagnetic frequencies based on the amount and rotational speed of their atoms. Every bio-chemical process in a human or animal's body are controlled by the “information” carried by electromagnetic oscillations. The MORA machine is able to read this information as electrical frequencies and find any imbalances in an individuals electromagnetic oscillations.  Then with the help of traditional acupuncture points (although without any actual needles or breakage of skin) and homoeopathic remedies, can help to rebalanced these problems.

So the machine finds your bodies' issues and then suggests cures based upon components that will balance these electromagnetic oscillations.

My appointment lasted 2 hours, the first hour and an half connecting the machine to each of my accupuncture spots in my hands and feet correlating to my major organs.  In my case the machine picked up 3 viruses my body was combating: Streptoccocus, Epstein-Barr (aka Mononucleosis), and Campillobacter (Helicobacter-Pylori). It registered several common allergies including pollen, grass and dust as wel as gluten, which was quite shocking and upsetting as the doc told me I'd have to cut out the pasta, bread and grains that I've gotten accustomed to eating since living in Italy.
The machine seemed to pick up on things I hadn't even mentioned to the doctor, such as my policyctic ovaries and frequent bladder infections. It revealed several zones of degeneration and inflammation in my body: bladder, ovaries, stomach, intestine, joints and articulations, eyes. The doc said my arthritis and fatigue and pretty much all of my symptoms would be due to my immune system not knowing, or having forgotten, how to deal with those three very common viruses.  The last half hour of the appointment was spent more or less searching for the right homeopatic remedies which would balance the oscillations. If the machine's dial read 50% the homeopathic remedy would work.

I was sent home with a shopping list of homoeopathic remedies to order from Switzerland.

Now, let me mention that there is a LOT of talk on the internet about how MORA practitioners are fraudsters and how the machine doesn't work and blah blah blah... I'm a sceptic at heart and definitely felt ridiculous sitting in the chair holding the probes, but no more so than when I have had countless blood tests and x-rays and side effects to 'modern' medicinal practises and drug treatments.... should I now go and claim that my own rheumatologists and immunologists have been fraudsters and that steroids, cortisone and antibiotics don't work?

More on my life with homeopathy, Marina di Massa and going Gluten free in a future post.
Images from http://www.moranoosa.com/

autoimmunity - part1

For a very long time I followed the route of steroids and antibiotics for my own chronic health conditions moon-face for a year while taking cortisone based steroids for my arthritis but still had the arthritis.  I was lucky enough to change doctors in 2006 and what followed was a period of 5 years where I took penicillin for five days a month to combat and circumvent my body's exaggerated autoimmune reaction to the streptococcus virus.  Anytime I mentioned taking antibiotics on such a regular basis, for such a long time, people seemed very concerned and asked how the rest of my system was handing that. Well, it was a concern that of course I had as well... but at least I no longer got locked in rooms because I couldn't grip and turn a doorknob. Suppressing the strep virus worked and my hands didn't swell.  I was happy to remain a long-term antibiotic treatment patient, for as long as it worked and I could live a normal life without steroids, of which the potential side-effects were worse (and in my case, which didn't work anyhow).

Then in 2010 I got pregnant and my immunologist and I decided to suspend the antibiotics and 'see what happens' for a few months... in the interest of the foetus of course I was happy to have joint pain, fatigue and swelling... isn't that what pregnancy is all about for a healthy woman as well?

When you're pregnant the maternal immune system is modified in order to achieve immune tolerance toward paternal antigen expressed on foetal cells.These modifications, which occur both at the
foeto-maternal interface and in the systemic circulation, are driven by oestrogen and progesterone
whose blood concentrations increase during pregnancy.  This means that your immune system, triggered by the oestrogen and progesterone, takes a chilled out back seat during pregnancy in order to let the little baby survive in the womb.  Otherwise, half of the baby would be recognised as foreign to the mother (because it caries the DNA and genetic mapping of the father) and destroyed.  If this system doesn't work in fact, miscarriage is inevitable... as is the case in several autoimmune diseased where the natural immunosuppressant doesn't kick in in time (this may explain also why so many autoimmune pathologies have trouble 'getting pregnant' in the first place...  the embryo is rejected by the over-active system before it ever had a chance to register any hCG in the urine or blood).

In my case, pregnancy turned me into a healthy woman for the first time in 10 years. I had no more joint pain or swelling, was not taking any medication to control my symptoms and had a wonderful pregnancy with little discomfort, fatigue or dismay.  Yay for a suppressed immune system!

After Sera was born, it was a different story.  My joint swelling and pain came back with a vengeance in order to make up for my nine month holiday.... and what's worse, going back on the antibiotics didn't help at all.  My A-Streptosilinico levels were at an all-time high and the stress of a new baby, sleepless nights, breast-feeding and back pain didn't help at all.... what was a girl to do? My immunologist, with an apologetic face told me that I'd have to start injecting a stronger form of antibiotics into my buttocks on a monthly basis just to feel normal. There I was, nostalgic for the carefree, easy days of opening pickle jars and bending my fingers to make a fist that I had just experienced during pregnancy and he was telling me my disease had progressed... depression wasn't far away.

I asked about acupuncture, hypnotherapy, homoeopathy, osteopathy, massage therapy, changing diets, drinking more water, hormone therapy (hey, if it worked when I was pregnant)... friends even joked that I should become a surrogate, but after a traumatic birth experience, that wasn't in the cards.  I looked into everything and anything and the doctors' answers were always that it 'couldn't hurt to try'... but they weren't confirming anything.

When Sera was 6 months old, on a friend's passionate recommendation, we packed up the car and drove three hours to a doctor's appointment with a homoeopath who uses the MORA machine in Marina di Massa and I haven't taking traditional medicine since.

More on MORA, Marina di Massa and homoeopathy in a future post.