by Sandra C. Strauss, Florida, USA
Without credible answers from mainstream medicine regarding what mysterious illness had stricken Rick, my seemingly robust and healthy 59-year-old husband, I embarked upon a fervent journey of discovery. What had fired up so many bizarre symptoms that turned him so suddenly into a stranger? It became a 12-year siege of ever-changing symptoms and cognition that—through traditional testing—defied diagnosis.
With his manifestation of weird behavioral issues among a long list of symptoms, consultations with most of his specialists erroneously assumed his case was psychiatric. They dismissed the possibility of a dementing illness for several years, insisting their chemical cocktails would bring him back. Unfortunately, their training didn’t include exploring the organic reasons underlying his symptoms.
Eventually, I was guided to a biotoxin researcher whose precision biomarkers indicated the presence of toxic exposures from mold and Lyme. A genetics test revealed that Rick was a poor detoxifier, compromising his ability to release toxins. Additional testing confirmed high levels of toxic lead, aluminum, and other heavy metals. Combined together with his childhood history of living on an industrial site with chronic chemical exposures, his toxic body burden ultimately resulted in multiple imbalances, autoimmunity, and neuroinflammation.
Initially, I believed Rick’s illness must have been so rare that doctors were unable to diagnose it. As more was revealed, I recognized his case served as a quintessential example of how multiple inflammatory agents launched a cascade of imbalances that were never properly evaluated or treated in mainstream medicine.
I wrote A Toxic Brain: Revelations from a Health Journey because answers do exist right now, but conventional doctors are still not being trained to explore root causes of symptoms. Legions of people continue to suffer from undiagnosed, inflamed bodies and brains with the roots of their illnesses not being identified early enough or treated with proven therapies to transform health destinies.
Only after my husband’s death would his toxic exposures and their connection to dementia be legitimized through evolving research linking toxicity to brain inflammation. Science now identifies a toxic-related type of Alzheimer’s (Type 3) caused from toxic impact of the brain, which manifests differently from other forms of Alzheimer’s. Toxins are also being linked to other neurological disorders.
As a consumer educator with decades devoted to promoting strategies for wellness and well-being, I was obligated to “unpack” my husband’s case with all its complexities. It includes the details of what I witnessed, documented, and learned from his illness, both inside and outside of mainstream medicine, and share in service to others. It’s a story for our toxic times.
Beyond our personal story, A Toxic Brain features how these revolutionary insights and tools are transforming brain health, including Alzheimer’s, commonly viewed as irreversible. Now, that narrative is changing with clinical trials having demonstrated exciting transformations in reversing cognitive decline with proven protocols.
As an endurance run of body, mind, and heart, I also share the raw details of other matters related to Rick’s illness—relationship rifts and shifts, family dynamics, care issues, legal consequences, and support strategies—in the hopes that it may help others navigate through their own challenges.
As science continues to confirm the relationship of symptoms and diseases to toxicity and other root causes, a paradigm shift addressing them is critical. The wisdom of evolving science and those who practice it are transforming health destinies now and offer new realities for vibrant aging.
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