How ME and radiation sickness has altered my mechanism of thinking.

Yablokov et al. in their Chernobyl book demonstrated how radiation exposure affected the brains of liquidators and others at Chernobyl. The brain and central nervous system are some of prominent organs affected by radiation.

Profound cognitive changes have occurred since I came down with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) in April. It has affected the way I think, it has affected this blog, it has destroyed my career.

The first image below is a lattice. It reflects the way I used to think, in my previous 59 years. In developing large scientific computer programs, I would sit in a state of concentration for 7 hours at a time. “347 is related to 13, which is related to 3, which is related to 1245″ etc. I was able to visualize the entire thing in my head at once, and move up and down, changing something at the bottom, then moving to the middle or the top, and conceptualize how the small changes affected the entire system. This is also the way I digested information by reading, and how I was able to present it in writing. This whole blog deals with unifying disparate pieces of information on Fukushima and other issues, and combining them into an argument. This is why there is a unique perspective here, as I discover new things by seeing patterns.

Lattice thinking has gone away. This is difficult to adjust to. It is impossible to multitask in the slightest.

The other image describes linear thinking. “A leads to B, B leads to C, C leads to D”, etc. It’s a chain, not a lattice. I have never been good at this kind of thinking.

But it seems that, while I am now incapable of lattice thinking, the alterations in neurotransmitter functions of serotonin, glutamate, and GABA have IMPROVED linear thinking.

The slightest distraction or exertion will cause me to forget what I was just thinking a second before. Or it will simply go away, POOF. With linear thinking, that means I forget what B is. What I do is simply go back to A and start over. It doesn’t affect this type of thinking like it does the lattice. The only thing I have to do is remember A.

In fact, since I no longer have to remember the entire lattice, this condition has streamlined things, making it easier.

I made a post on Facebook extolling the virtues of fat, for my own health, and ME patients in general.

FAT IS GOOD (for me at least)…

I should go back to the redneck diet I had years ago. I want to have grease dripping out of my mouth. I want pulled pork in my teeth.

Fat increases lymphotoxin, which increases IL-22, which provides immunity to bacteria, and repairs gut tissues, and alters the balance of gut microbiota.

This was without reading any testimonials whatever from ME (ME/CFS) sufferers. It is a product of the thought process behind this blog post I recently published.

1. I had read from UNSCEAR and the National CFIDS Foundation that radiation exposure impairs STAT-1 functions in the JAK/STAT pathway.

2. When I suddenly came down with ME, my plaque and guttate psoriasis suddenly disappeared. This NEVER happens like this to anyone. The inverse psoriasis remained, but that really isn’t psoriasis of the same kind, it’s due to skin damage from uranium and fluoride, some from Fuku, but mostly from Honeywell.

3. I knew from my previous research in psoriasis that there are two mechanisms for psoriasis, one based on IL-17, the other based on IFN-γ and IL-22. It was obvious that the inverse was based on IL-17, and the plaque and guttate were based on IFN-γ and IL-22.

4. Since STAT-1 contains the genes that produce IFN-γ, and this cytokine had suddenly dramatically decreased, I started a chain of reasoning, A -> B -> C etc.

The lack of IFN-γ causes a lack of SMAD7. The lack of SMAD7 causes an increase in TGF-β. The increase in TGF-β causes Th22 cells to not be differentiated. The lack of Th22 cells causes a lack of IL-22.

See, it explains why the psoriasis suddenly disappeared. It’s all about STAT-1 impairment.

Also, IFN-γ is expressed in group 1 innate lymphoid cells (ILC1). ILC’s are located in Peyer’s patches of the intestines, and other lymphoid nodules. ILC3, or group3 cells, express IL-22. The damage to ILC1 causes damage to ILC3. This causes tissue damage to the gut, and bacterial translocation from the gut to other parts of the body.

I was able to predict that eating fat would repair ILC3, and cause improvement in symptoms. I mentioned this is an ME group, and found that others already do this. In fact, ketogenic diets are popular in treatment of this condition. I had not known this.

So I was able to reason, starting from a particular kind of radiation damage, and presented a hypothesis, which was confirmed. This is what science is all about.

I know that I am on the right track, I know that ME is really radiation sickness, and I know that ME is not an autoimmune disease, but an immune deficiency disease, characterized by a loss of cellular immunity. But I’ll be damned if I can organize something which would demonstrate or prove this. That requires lattice thinking.

But maybe I am still good for something, maybe I can work again, but I don’t know just at what yet.