FFO and Pyroluria Awareness...

I have included this in the blog because FFO contains zink. Ive know about zink since the early 60 when I was in nurses training. Along with my studies I incorporated personal studies on nutrition, vitamins and herbs. Zinc caught my attention when I read a story about a family that was camping. The youngest child was a year old female who was suffering from a cold. She accidently got hold of a bottle of zink and ate the contents. The only outcome was a complete sessation of all symptems. No fever, no congestion...notheing. There are many benifits to taking zine so I include this article here. For further reading theres an excelent book on Pyroluria and its symptoms: The 55 Minute Natural Fix...Stop Panic Attacks, Anxiety, & the Alcoholic urge in 55 minutes by MG Michaelof; www.55fix.com

I believe everyone needs to be informed about this life altering blood disorder and also know how to recognize symptoms in children or family members.

The effect of pyroluria can be mild, moderate, or severe depending on the severity of the imbalance. Most individuals show symptoms of zinc and/or B6 deficiencies, which include poor stress control, nervousness, anxiety, mood swings, inner tension and depression.
It is estimated that 10-20% of the population is affected by pyrroledisorder, most of them undiagnosed. Up until 2 years ago, I was one of those people who had no idea I had a genetic predisposition to anything. I suffered unknowingly with this condition for as long as I can remember, but about 5 years ago my symptoms became so intolerable I felt like I could barely function in doing even my normal every day activities like going to work or taking care of my son. I saw psychiatrists and therapists and medical doctors, too many to count. For almost three years I searched for answers and tried practically every antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication on the market. Nothing helped and being that I'm very sensitive to medications, most of the time they made me feel even worse. I always felt like something was physically wrong with me. Other people always just seemed to have more energy, be happier and have so much more enthusiasm about life that I could never seem to grasp. My happiness and lack thereof was completely elusive. It would come and go with almost no relation at all to circumstances or life events. I could never put my finger on why I was feeling anxious or depressed which made it even harder to talk to therapists. One day I was searching for answers on the Internet and came upon a message board...some guy was telling his story which sounded exactly like mine; basically he saw doctors and psychiatrists and tried medications to no avail. He then mentioned this condition that he had been diagnosed with. When I read about the symptoms and his story it sounded so much like what I had been going through it almost seemed like a sign from God that I was even reading it. At that moment, before I even had a diagnosis, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I shared his affliction. I found a clinic near Schaumberg Illinois that did testing called thePfeiffer Treatment Center. It was still a hard decision to have the testing done only because at the time I had not one dollar to my name to spend on anything extraneous aside from my bills and items of necessity. Because this condition is not recognized in conventional medicine, my insurance would not pay for the testing, which is very expensive and has to be paid for up front. I still knew I had to go so Tony took a loan out on his 401K to pay for it. ThePfeiffer Treatment Center has a full team of medical doctors and nurses...MD's, not naturopathic physicians, they just happen to believe that some conditions can actually be treated with something other than pharmaceutical drugs. After waiting 8 long weeks for my test results I finally got them in the mail. Just seeing those results on paper in black and white I felt like the entire world had been lifted off my shoulders. The treatment for Pyroluria is very simple and consists of supplementing zinc and B6. At first I was disappointed, I didn't notice any huge difference right away. It happened slowly over the course of a year. All of a sudden one day I realized that I was feeling the closest to normal that I had been in years. This has continued to improve as long as I keep taking my supplements. I still have ups and downs and of course there are days where I feel like I could use an IV drip of Prozac but nothing even close to how I felt before I started taking the vitamins.

I believe the reason for the lack of knowledge out there is due to the fact that the cure for this condition has nothing to do with pharmaceutical drugs....and if drug companies can't profit, it gains little to no interest from medical doctors. Vitamins cannot be 'patented' or sold at high profit margins.

Because most doctors have yet to acknowledge this condition as legitimate, its up to those who know about it to get the word out. I hope by sharing my story, maybe someone out there will read this just like I did when I was searching for answers. Who knew that the only thing standing in the way of my health were two vitamins.