I am sending this a second time; my apologies, but I left the URL out
the first time. Thanks to those of you who let me know I'd done this.
While doing a brief search on migraine and ophthalmic migraine, I ran
across a World Wide Web site that I thought some of you GMO watchers
might be interested in.
http://www.nemsn.org/ems/home.html
It's the site of the the National Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome
Network, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports people with
this condition. The network also encourages "research to improve
treatment for L-tryptophan-induced EMS" and works toward "increasing
awareness of the cause and effects of the disease."
A backgrounder in the group's words:
"In the fall of 1989, three patients in New Mexico were found to have
extremely high eosinophil counts in their blood and were suffering
from severe myalgias (muscle pain and spasms). Upon investigation it
was determined that all three had
ingested a petrochemically and genetically engineered product labeled
L-Tryptophan. L-T in its natural form is an amino acid found in such
products as milk and turkey. Within weeks the number of cases
exploded into an epidemic of over 1,500 cases in the U.S. This new
disease became known as Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome (EMS). Victims
of EMS were suffering in unrelenting degrees of pain. Many became
totally and permanently incapacitated, a number were on life support
equipment and scores of EMS victims died."
The site provides medical and experiential documentation of the
illness, the believed cause, and other issues. I pass it along for
your interest and evaluation.
There are some interesting perspectives there--a combination of the
precautionary principle (affected patients and their families who
feel they've been used as guinea pigs in genetic engineering) and
risk assessment (there are links to research on the topic). And of
course plenty of assertions by the medical community that, see?, we
always TOLD you supplements could be harmful! I'm not saying that
this isn't true, but it intrigues me that, at a time when iatrogenic
causes account for so much patient illness and death, prominent
members of the medical community are so excitedly pointing fingers
elsewhere, instead of at themselves.
It's always easier to project blame than to take responsibility, and
much more lucrative to quash questions and dissenting opinion than to
build it into research agendas.
peace
misha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Gale-Sinex
Communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems, UW-Madison
http://www.wisc.edu
UW voice mail: 608-262-8018
Home office: 415-504-6474 (504-MISH)
Home office fax: Same as above, phone first for enabling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I MAKE friends. They're toys. My friends are toys. I make them. It's a hobby.
I'm a genetic designer. --J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson, /Blade Runner/)
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail