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Steadily Progressive Brain Symptoms for 3 Years

brain fog progressive degenerative

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#1 SeanQHX1

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Posted 07 October 2019 - 02:37 PM


Hi everyone! For not long over 3 years now I've been battling a mysterious illness causing steadily progressing brain symptoms including worsening brain fog, mental tiredness, emotional blunting/anhedonia, vision problems and insomnia to name the main ones. This illness has been making my life not worth living these days as I can no longer work (I now claim benefits), had to give up many activities I used to be good at and enjoyed, have lost basically all my prospects and I'm finding it increasingly hard even to enjoy and appreciate anything in life nowadays. Doctors don't seem to be doing very little to try and find out what my illness is and appear to be dismissing it as "CFS" and "Post-Viral Fatigue", despite me having very different symptoms that are primarily brain related, not to mention the illness being progressive.

Before I had the illness I was completely healthy, aside from the fact I had Asperger's and some minor gut issues. But when I came back from Download Festival in June 2016 I ended up with some sort of cold or flu, and along with it: severe brain fog which resulted in me failing a college course in audio engineering I was just a few days away from completing. This bug I had only lasted a week before clearing up. But since then, this brain fog has remained and has only gotten worse, while even more seemingly degenerative symptoms have appeared over the past 3 years. And so far, practically nothing I've tried in terms of diet, exercise, suppliments, nootropics and medications have had any effect on my symptoms. Although in some milder cases, melatonin does help my insomnia.

Here's a time line of my symptoms so far in the order they appeared and progressed:

June 2016 - Mild cold/flu symptoms - Cleared up within 1 week

June 2016 - Cognitive Decline  - Sudden onset along with cold/flu symptoms. Mainly affecting recall and processing speed. Imagination and creativity seem to be getting particularly worse and once vivid photographic memory has almost became non-existant. Brain also seems to become very easily aggrivated and fatigued (with acompanying headaches) when thinking or doing any kind of mentally involving tasks even for short periods of time. Steadily worsening and continuing to decline.

June 2016 - Tiredness  - Constant general feelings of tiredness. Steadily worsening.
 

Sep 2016 - Insomnia (Episodic)  - Difficult or completely impossible to fall asleep at night. Can occur at random on certain days but most often happens in week long episodes, leading to 4 days or 5 days of complete sleep deprivation. This insomnia is usually acompanied by a very unpleasent 'buzzing' or 'tingling' sensation in the head. Has since then progressed to chronic/intermittent insomnia.
 

March 2017 - Persistant Headaches and Strange Head Pains - Various pains around entire head directly under the skull, including stinging and burning pains. NOT migraine, tension or cluster types (never experienced these) and are likely to be of a different cause.
 

Oct 2017 - Deteriorating Field of Vision  - No physical problems with eyes and appears to be a processing issue with the brain. Anything the eyes are focusing on will be seen at high resolution while everything else around it isn't and seems blurred out, giving a false sense of peripheral vision loss. Steadily worsening and continuing to decline.
 

Oct 2017 - Abdominal Distension and Bloating  - Bloating, swelling and fat accumulating in the abdomen (particularly at the front stomach area) resembling a "beer gut". Prior to this, stomach area looked perfectly slim and healthy. Still worsening and increasing in size as time progresses.
 

Sep 2017 - Sleep Issues + - Unrefreshing sleep even after 8-10 hours of sleep, some days worse than others. Can often wake up feeling much more tired and groggy than usual. This lasts throughout the rest of the day and is only resolved (may be better or worse) by a night's sleep. Symptoms of this continue to worsen.
 

Dec 2017 - Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) Attacks - Occur at random, often when in a relaxed state such as bedtime. Sudden sweating will generally occur as a warning sign first. The heart then quickly beats hard and speeds up to around 170-200 BPM before slowing down and returning to normal.
 

Feb 2018 - Blunted Emotions and Anhedonia - Emotions deteriorating in a similar manner to other cognitive functions. Not related to depression and cause unknown. Steadily worsening and continuing to decline.
 

March 2018 - Heart Arrhythmias, PVCs and Bigeminy Episodes - First began after taking propranolol (after only taking two tablets in one day), lasted 2 months, subsided,  then returned 3 months later for unexplained reasons.
 

March 2018 - Chest Pains - Strange pains that often appear at random in the chest, mainly on the left side. A dull, spreading pain in the middle area along with chest tightness (basically like a heart attack) can often appear during an SVT attack, likely due to the heart muscles being under too much strain.
 

Feb 2018 - Muscle Twitches  - Small repetitive muscle twiches that happen on any part of the body. Can also happen in the heart and be mistaken for arrhythmias.
 

April 2018 - Head Pain when lying down  - Pain quickly builds up when any kind of pressure is applied (e.g. when lying on a pillow) to any area of the head where the brain is located. This pain instantly disappears when head is lifted and pressure is relieved. This is not related in any way to headaches and is an entirely separate symptom.
 

June 2018 - Vision Issues - Flickery vision with slight static, and flickering shadows (something I would only previously get with sleep depravation). Looking at plain white objects makes this most noticable and tiny, white specks (floaters?) can also be seen.  
 

August 2018 - Tinnitus - Constant ringing in ears for unexplained reasons, without any exposure to loud sounds.
 

August 2018 - Unpleasent Head Sensation with Brain Fog - An extremely unpleasent, aggravating feeling in the head that is somewhat comparable to a bad head cold or hangover. Is acompanied by brain fog (which makes the existing cognitive issues seem much worse) and often, headaches. Happens in week long episodes generally twice each month. Taking co-codamol (30/500) seems to help block out the horrible negative feelings with these episodes and make them more tolerable.
 

October 2018 - Exertional Breathlessness - Breathlessness and very rapid heartbeat upon exertion, especially when walking up and down stairs and lifting heavy objects. Still Worsening.
 

Apr 2019 - Insomnia (Chronic/Intermittent) - The insomnia seems to have progressed to a more chronic and intermittent state where it comes and goes on a random basis. A common pattern however is alternating sleep and insomnia: one night of sleep, one night of insomnia, one night of sleep and so forth.   


Does anyone here have any idea what could be causing a progression of symptoms like this? Anyone who manages to help find out what this condition is once and for all deserves a reward from me to say the least, many thanks again! 



#2 RYAN474

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Posted 14 October 2019 - 02:42 PM

With the connection between the gut and brain symptoms, I would suggest considering setting an appointment (skype) with Gut Dr Michael Ruscio (Chiropractor). He seems to be quite cost conscious so hopefully wouldn't cost you excessive amounts of money to try various treatments. He may be scheduled out a long many months but it's probably worth it. I have not worked with him myself, but have a lot of respect for him and the providers I have worked with have said good things about him. 

 

You may also want to consider trying a carnivore diet in the meantime to see if it improves any of your symptoms. For most people it does 

 

 

 

 



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#3 SeanQHX1

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Posted 17 October 2019 - 03:32 PM

With the connection between the gut and brain symptoms, I would suggest considering setting an appointment (skype) with Gut Dr Michael Ruscio (Chiropractor). He seems to be quite cost conscious so hopefully wouldn't cost you excessive amounts of money to try various treatments. He may be scheduled out a long many months but it's probably worth it. I have not worked with him myself, but have a lot of respect for him and the providers I have worked with have said good things about him. 

 

You may also want to consider trying a carnivore diet in the meantime to see if it improves any of your symptoms. For most people it does 

 

I think I should perhaps look more into gut issues first before I decide on this, but thanks, I'll definitelly have a look into Dr Michael Ruscio and consider a skype appointment.

 

Just now though I have no strong suspicions or theories on what could be causing this and I'm basically running around like a headless chicken trying to find out what it could possibly be. Anything could be causing these symptoms and I agree that gut problems could very well be one of them. I'm not so sure as of yet though as I know food intolerences are often apparent with gut problems, whereas I don't appear to have any intolerences and my symptoms just steadily worsen with time regardless of any food, suppliment or medications I've taken. And so far I haven't heard anything about gut problems causing any sudden severe, symptoms out the blue with a seemingly viral onset but if I do, I'll have more reason to suspect gut issues are causing my symptoms. But just now I've practically been stuck in limbo for the past 3 years and feel hopeless as I slowly waste away with this condition.

 

Personally I think I need more tests done and at least have some sort of idea where I'm having problems. So far, all I've had done so far is a bunch of routine blood tests the NHS run to check for common illnesses like diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease etc. And besides that I had a brain CT scan, a test for Lyme Disease and a test for Coeliac Disease which also came back fine.


Edited by SeanQHX1, 17 October 2019 - 03:34 PM.


#4 Infinite1

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Posted 18 October 2019 - 01:29 AM

Just a quick thought, do you live or work in a building with any history of water damage? Your account is consistent with biotoxin exposure, either exogenous or from a pathogen residing within (e.g. lyme, babesia, bartonella etc.).

Toxic mold exposure can cause a great deal of GI distress. Contrary to popular thought much of the inhaled mycotoxins do not make their way to the lungs, rather the mucosal membranes of the esophagus etc. then downwards. There tends to be commonly dysbiosis and candidiasis for those with mold exposure. This also seems to be the case with lyme albeit a bit more convoluted in action.

You can go to survivingmold.com and take the visual contrast test which is considered one of the hallmark deficits and a pseudo screener: https://www.survivin...-screening-test

What type of test was run for lyme? Igenix would be the preferred over standard western blot. Regardless these test for antibodies to lyme spirochetes and inherently assumes proper immune system status. Before any lyme test you should perform a two week provocation with a broad spectrum antibiotic, e.g. minocycline. This will offer you more confidence in diagnosis.

Edited by Infinite1, 18 October 2019 - 01:59 AM.


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#5 SeanQHX1

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Posted 19 October 2019 - 05:29 PM

Just a quick thought, do you live or work in a building with any history of water damage? Your account is consistent with biotoxin exposure, either exogenous or from a pathogen residing within (e.g. lyme, babesia, bartonella etc.).

Toxic mold exposure can cause a great deal of GI distress. Contrary to popular thought much of the inhaled mycotoxins do not make their way to the lungs, rather the mucosal membranes of the esophagus etc. then downwards. There tends to be commonly dysbiosis and candidiasis for those with mold exposure. This also seems to be the case with lyme albeit a bit more convoluted in action.

You can go to survivingmold.com and take the visual contrast test which is considered one of the hallmark deficits and a pseudo screener: https://www.survivin...-screening-test

What type of test was run for lyme? Igenix would be the preferred over standard western blot. Regardless these test for antibodies to lyme spirochetes and inherently assumes proper immune system status. Before any lyme test you should perform a two week provocation with a broad spectrum antibiotic, e.g. minocycline. This will offer you more confidence in diagnosis.

 

I've had several people asking me if my illness could be biotoxin related, particularly toxic mold exposure. I don't live or regularly go near any buildings with a history of water damage. Also if it is mold, I imagine it would need to be a single exposure to some extremely toxic mold that causes perminant symptoms for years after the time I was exposed to it. I also don't have any breathing or respitatory problems which suggests it isn't affecting my lungs, as I've said it seems to be causing more damage to my brain than anything else.   

It's hard to say too if my illness is causing GI symptoms as I've always had such symptoms sinch birth. And I can't tell if these GI symptoms have gotten any worse since this illness struck. I do know however that my distended and bloated belly only started developing months after I had the illness which could be a sign of additional GI problems on top of the ones I already have.

I took the visual contrast test (from VCSTest.com) a few times and while I didn't score enough for biotoxins, the "nutritional deficiency" part of the results was positive. Overall, my total score when taking these tests was around 37/45 (82%) and my biotoxin score was at 16-18 (89%). I'll take this test again to see if my eye issues have deteriorated any further, in which case the score will likely be lower.
 







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