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NEWS ... GLOBAL NEWS ... playing high-impact sports such as ice THE MYSTERIOUS MORGELLONS DISEASE hockey and rugby. The tooth brace sends low-power ultrasound pulses to the damaged tooth over many months. A piezoelectric crystal generates the ultrasound by vibrating at frequencies above 20 kilohertz when fed an alternating voltage from an oscillator charged by a battery. Physiotherapists often use ultrasound to help broken bones knit back together, although the healing mechanism is not precisely understood. One theory is that pressure waves mimic the effect of strenuous exercise, loading a bone and tricking it into generating more bone cells—a process called ostoeogenesis. El-Bialy's work on rabbits in 2003 first showed that low-power ultrasound also encourages growth of dental tissue. (Source: New Scientist, 6 July 2006) t's like a mystery disease straight out of the X-Files, but those who suffer from it will tell you it's painfully real. Imagine sweating beads of a black, tar-like substance, pulling coloured threadlike strings from sores all over your body or feeling like your skin is crawling with bugs. Miles Lawrence, a landscaper in Florence, Texas, was supposed to be packing for a road trip to Las Vegas when he noticed his finger tingling. He stared in disbelief, he says, as "little spiny things" sprouted out of the skin where he'd just removed a splinter. He grasped one of the spines with tweezers and pulled. Instantly, he says, a bolt of pain shot up his arm. He tugged on another one and the pain snaked up his neck. Then the really creepy part began. "It felt like bugs under the skin of my arms, in my joints," Lawrence says. "I freaked out." Across the country, thousands of people complaining of the same horrifying phenomenon have formed an illness subculture. They share lists of symptoms, medical speculation and tales of run-ins with mainstream doctors at http://www.morgellons.org, the official website of the Morgellons Research Foundation. It was founded in 2002 by Mary Leitao in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Leitao named the condition Morgellons disease—after a disease with similar symptoms mentioned in a 16th-century medical text—while investigating a skin affliction on her then-two-year-old son. Morgellons has barely registered on the radar of mainstream medicine. Few doctors SHEEP DIE FROM GRAZING ON have heard of the condition, and fewer still know what to make of it. So when people GE COTTON LAND walk into an examination room and announce their symptoms, they are often met with scepticism or claims they are suffering from delusional parasitosis—literally, delusions of parasites in the skin. "Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy, too," nurse practitioner Ginger Savely said. She treats Morgellons patients from all over the country at her San Francisco Medical Center. "But after you've heard the story of over a hundred patients and they're all down to the most minute detail saying the exact same thing, [it] becomes quite impressive." In Austin, Texas, nurse practitioner Ginger Savely says she's seeing more and more goats started dying after seven days of patients in her clinic with the symptoms, like painful skin ulcers that spring blue fibres, continuously grazing on tender leaves and white threads and little black specks of sand-like material. "Talking about it just pods of Bt cotton that remained in the sounds crazy, but there are just a lot of things that come out of their skin." fields after picking. Savely, who specialises in Lyme disease, believes she may have found a clue. In December 2005, a three-month study "About 10 per cent of my patients with chronic Lyme disease have symptoms of this was released which found that workers | Morgellons," says Savely. She says people with the tick-borne disease have weaker picking GE cotton suffered severe skin | immune systems and may be more vulnerable to the infection. reactions, with itching and blistery The real cause of Morgellons disease, however, remains a medical mystery. Most eruptions leaving a black skin _| individuals with this disease report disturbing crawling, stinging and biting sensations discolouration which was still apparent __ | a8 well as non-healing skin lesions which are associated with highly unusual structures. after five months. These structures can be described as fibre-like or filamentous, and are the most striking The British Medical Association has _ | feature of this disease. In addition, patients report the presence of seed-like granules already signalled that GE products could _ | and black speck-like material associated with their skin. present certain risks, including the creation The peripheral nervous system is often affected by this disease, but the most of drug resistance in venereal disease as a significant element of the infection appears to be the effect on the central nervous result of women being exposed to GE system. Nearly all people with this illness report extreme difficulty with mental constructs in personal hygiene products. concentration and short-term memory. Further, GE cotton crops have failed in Mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder, are extremely common in regions of India, with many suicides _ | this group of patients, affecting well over half of all individuals reporting symptoms of resulting because of the debt accrued from | Morgellons disease. Parents of children with Morgellons disease report that the the high cost of growing the cotton. This | majority of these children have ADHD, ODD, mood disorders or autism. It is has prompted the Indian Genetic | estimated that 65% of these children have some form of psychiatric illness and 10% Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) _ | have an autism spectrum disorder. to concede after three years of commercial Associated diagnoses which have been commonly reported in this patient population cultivation that Mahyco-Monsanto's Mech- _| include borreliosis (better known as Lyme disease), fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue 184 Bt, Mech-162 Bt and Mech-12 Bt are a syndrome. failure. (Sources: Morgellons Research Foundation, PO Box 16576, Surfside Beach, SC 29587, USA, (Source: GE Free NZ, 9 May 2006) http:/www.morgellons.org; Popular Mechanics, June 2005) ecent studies on GE cotton farming have raised grave concerns about the safety of GE cotton which is widely used in food as well as in clothing. In New Zealand, a preliminary report released in late April found that thousands of sheep died after grazing on land where GE cotton had been grown. The sheep and playing high-impact sports such as ice hockey and rugby. The tooth brace sends low-power ultrasound pulses to the damaged tooth over many months. A piezoelectric crystal generates the ultrasound by vibrating at frequencies above 20 kilohertz when fed an alternating voltage from an oscillator charged by a battery. Physiotherapists often use ultrasound to help broken bones knit back together, although the healing mechanism is not precisely understood. One theory is that pressure waves mimic the effect of strenuous exercise, loading a bone and tricking it into generating more bone cells—a process called ostoeogenesis. El-Bialy's work on rabbits in 2003 first showed that low-power ultrasound also encourages growth of dental tissue. (Source: New Scientist, 6 July 2006) SHEEP DIE FROM GRAZING ON GE COTTON LAND ecent studies on GE cotton farming have raised grave concerns about the safety of GE cotton which is widely used in food as well as in clothing. In New Zealand, a preliminary report released in late April found that thousands of sheep died after grazing on land where GE cotton had been grown. The sheep and goats started dying after seven days of continuously grazing on tender leaves and pods of Bt cotton that remained in the fields after picking. In December 2005, a three-month study was released which found that workers picking GE cotton suffered severe skin reactions, with itching and blistery eruptions leaving a_ black — skin discolouration which was still apparent after five months. The British Medical Association has already signalled that GE products could present certain risks, including the creation of drug resistance in venereal disease as a result of women being exposed to GE constructs in personal hygiene products. Further, GE cotton crops have failed in regions of India, with many suicides resulting because of the debt accrued from the high cost of growing the cotton. This has prompted the Indian Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to concede after three years of commercial cultivation that Mahyco-Monsanto's Mech- 184 Bt, Mech-162 Bt and Mech-12 Bt are a failure. (Source: GE Free NZ, 9 May 2006) NEXUS +9 AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com