Identifying and treating these underlying causes will give us the best chance of either reversing or preventing cognitive decline. Other members who’ve walked this journey before me know much more about the subject and I look forward to learning from them. I want to begin by sharing HOW to figure out if this might apply to you.
Not everyone is susceptible to this syndrome. Approximately 25% of the population is genetically prone to develop CIRS if exposed to sufficient amounts of biotoxin. Anyone who’s dealing with mast cell activation symptoms, chronic fatigue, exercise intolerance, or chronic pain should suspect CIRS. Previous DXes of MCAS, MCAD, CFS, CFIDS, FM, and MS do not rule out CIRS. In fact, they may be red flags that point to it’s likelihood. Anyone with symptoms of impaired immunity, histamine intolerance, even gluten sensitivity, may also be affected. I found this article to be a nice overview.
I just received this note from Dr. Bredesen today:
If you suspect you might be dealing with chronic inflammation, a good starting place would be to take a free VCS test. This eye test measures a person’s ability to distinguish light from dark – detect an “edge”. As it turns out, Biotoxins lower the available oxygen due to reduced blood flow to the optic nerves. Apparently, 92% of those afflicted will fail the VCS test. Lower oxygen to the eyes may also reduce night vision and cause increased light sensitivity.There’s a strong correlation between impaired results and CIRS. Visit this thread to learn more.Just a brief note to let you know that it is becoming more and more clear that everyone at risk or with symptoms should have the CIRS testing (HLA-DR/DQ, C4a, TGF-beta-1, and MSH; MARCoNS cultures if possible, and VCS)—several more with E4/4 are all turning out to be positive (some who followed up from your site, when we offered that I would evaluate anyone from Muses). As we discussed previously, the type 3 patients are mostly E3/3, and these have a typical history of cortical symptoms. However, it is looking as if the E4/4, or potentially E4/3, have more inflammation (just as we see with the promoter targets of ApoE4) and thus have a more typical amnestic presentation, suggestive of type 1, 1.5, or 2.
The whole infection-inflammation-response-resolution process in AD is becoming more and more clear—I believe that there are many, many people on your site who will turn out to have chronic Lyme or chronic mycotoxin exposure or a closely related problem. If we can identify the major pathogen in each person, this will give us a whole new level of success with treatment, although of course we’ll have to restore microbiomes for people who go on antibiotics. The current protocol does seem to help many even without antibiotics, which is exactly what is being used for many with CIRS.
The next layer of the AD onion is being peeled back…
Here’s a list of the laboratory tests that Dr. Bredesen recommends to rule out CIRS:
-HLA-DR/DQ: Test Code 167120, CPT Code 81375- LabCorp
-TGF-beta-1: Test Code code 52112, CPT Code 83520- Quest
-MSH: Test Code 010421, CPT Code 83591- LabCorp
-NJC-C4a: Test Code 42658, CPT Code 86160- Quest