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Porphyria: A Cause of Chronic Illnesses Cause Porphyria: Chronic Illnesses Twenty per cent of mankind may have a genetic defect that is activated after many kinds of toxic exposure, and often results in chronic degenerative diseases or allergy-like illnesses including Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, hypoglycaemia and multiple chemical sensitivity. ould the ultimate cause of your chronic, or environmental, illness be a "rare" disease for which 20 per cent of mankind may actually have a predisposition? Many people have a chronic illness, or an environmental illness, for which no one seems to have an answer. Modern man is plagued with chronic fatigue or wasting diseases (chronic fatigue syndrome [CFS], myalgic encephalomyelitis [ME], fibromyalgia), allergy-like disorders (to foods, chemicals, electromagnetic fields [EMF]), pain and inflammatory diseases, "mental" illnesses, and degenerative diseases in older people. Sufferers of these disorders usually first go to orthodox physicians and then to alternative practitioners. Often, no cure or relief is found. Could the answer lie in a little-known metabolic disorder that is mistakenly said to be very rare? Could this little-known metabolic disease be the hidden cause of at least some cases of CFS, ME, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's disease, hypoglycaemia, asthma, ulcers, autism, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), adrenal or thyroid disease, anxiety or panic disorders, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and the explosion of intolerance to environmental chemicals and foods? We will see that one clue is to ask if you have a history of poor tolerance for caffeine, alcohol, medications, stress, certain foods (including citrus, tomato, spices), monosodium glutamate (MSG), sunlight, heat, even vitamin and mineral supplements? This hidden metabolic disorder is called Porphyria (pronounced like "poor- ear-ee-uh"). Porphyria is derived from the Greek word for purple. It is actually a set of eight metabolic disorders, whereby the body does not properly make a protein called haem (or heme). Instead, excess compounds called porphyrins—some of which are purple—result. These act as internal toxins. They accumulate in, or go to and adversely affect, the cells and organs in which they build up. Now, you already know one haem protein: haemoglobin, which transports oxygen as part of our red blood cells. Haem is nearly identical to chlorophyll, with the exception that it has iron in the centre of its our porphyrin ring compounds while chlorophyll has magnesium in its centre figure 1). Thus haemoglobin is red, while chlorophyll is green. Porphyria was known, even to Hippocrates in ancient Greece, as a blood and liver disease. By 1871, the causal role of the purple pigments— porphyrins—in porphyria was stated. The clinical syndrome was detailed in 889, a date which coincides with the near epidemic in Europe of porphyria induced by the drug sulphonal. Some experts claim that, between 1888 and 890, as many as 14 per cent of those people in Europe who took this anti- insomnia, sulphur-containing drug had porphyria reactions to it'—thus indicating, even, over a hundred years ago, that porphyria is not a rare disease; rather, a significant percentage of humanity may have the genetic defect, or predisposition, to develop porphyria after a toxic exposure. There are at least nine different haem proteins in the body. Besides by Steven Rochlitz, PhD © 6 October 2010 Post Office Box 2154 Cottonwood, AZ 86326, USA info@wellatlast.com http://www.wellatlast.com by Steven Rochlitz, PhD © 6 October 2010 Post Office Box 2154 Cottonwood, AZ 86326, USA info@wellatlast.com http://www.wellatlast.com NEXUS » 31 DECEMBER 2010 - JANUARY 20II www.nexusmagazine.com