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Cold, crisp and clean ocean air!

mellster

Marco
Messages
805
Location
San Francisco
It's less than week since we moved from the inner city and the house is old and cold and the ocean is close - and I love it (my SO is not so fond of the cold). I don't know what it is but I had hardly any pain symptoms the last days and the fatigue is much better as well. I caught my first real cold since 2009, maybe a combination of the KMAF and other treatments and the cold ocean water I tested the other day. My nose is running, I have mucus in my slightly sore throat and a bit of a cough, but I feel like jogging to the ocean everyday I wake up. My office room next to the garage and backyard is currently unheated and I sit there with a thick sweater and brew hot tea all day and the crisp air quells almost all of my pain symptoms. Maybe there is an auto-immune component to this as prolonged exposure to cold air is supposed to slightly lower your immune system activity overall but who knows. Now I have to go to the hot office with the sticky AC and not looking forward to it.. oh well ;)
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
i love being by the sea - i alway feel so much better when i am in the ocean air, i wish i could live by the sea. Cold though - thats terrible for me, i cant control my body temperature at all and soon get shivering and chattering teeth!

I do wonder what it is about sea air that is so good. I have asthma, so the extra ozone at sea level is supposed to be bad - but i lived by the sea for 15 years with no ill effects for my lungs at all.

I hope you continue to enjoy it,
Justy.x
 

Ocean

Senior Member
Messages
1,178
Location
U.S.
All this crisp ocean air talk is making me envious! ;) Glad you're feeling better living by the water Mellster. If only the office could be moved there too!
 

mellster

Marco
Messages
805
Location
San Francisco
Thanks for all replies. Well it's an old house that could benefit from window replacement/insulation, but it's a lot of fun ;) Regarding the ozone forming by the ocean I would think it has to be fairly warm/hot for that to happen and accumulate, and in San Francisco it is never really hot :) I think it's just that the air is much cleaner here, there is always a constant breeze and the amount of cars passing by every day is likely 1/1000th of the amount for the inner city. Long term I am looking to work from home most of the time if not all the time, can't do that right now, but consider this a necessary step to heal (it's also cutting out the commute).
 

Jarod

Senior Member
Messages
784
Location
planet earth
I used to love SF. So many neat things to see and do.

My favorite spot in San Francisco is Fort Mason. They have a really neat little organic breakfast lunch place called "Greens" where you can look out over the boats in the bay. After a good mocha, one is not too far away from the Golden Gate Bridge if you can walk that far.

There is also a great view from the De Young museum if you get a chance to see that.
 

slayadragon

Senior Member
Messages
1,122
Location
twitpic.com/photos/SlayaDragon
So glad to hear that you're doing better, Mellster. Where exactly are you living that the air feels so good?

People with CFS often do better on the ocean (if they can live right at the beach, especially). The most common explanation is that (regardless of whether they are aware of it) they are sensitive to inflammatory toxic molds (and other microorganisms) in the environment, and that those molds are not as prevalent right at the beach.

For instance, here Dr. Sarah Myhill talks about the effect:

>Patients who are not responding to a standard allergy work up are often suffering from mould sensitivity. This is not an easy diagnosis to make because skin prick tests for mould allergy are unreliable. Furthermore it is uncertain whether symptoms are due to allergy to moulds or to sensitivity to mould fumes. This is a little bit like yeast overgrowth in the gut - for some people this causes a problem because they are allergic to yeast and for some because they react to the products of fermentation.

>The key to diagnosing mould allergy is the history and if patients are improved in a mould free or low mould environment then this is highly suggestive that moulds are a problem. In order to survive moulds have to get their water from air, therefore they do not exist either in very dry climates (which may be hot dry or cold dry), above three thousand feet where the air is too thin to hold sufficient moisture, or on sea fronts where the prevailing winds are onshore. Since moulds do not live in oceans, their spores are constantly blown in land.

>Therefore, to diagnose mould allergy I currently recommend that people have a two week holiday in such a mould free environment. They may have already done this and not realised that their improvement was actually due to the control of their mould allergy and ascribe improvement to other factors such as freedom from stress, or sunshine, or whatever.

http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Mould_Sensitivity

Like England, SF is cold and damp and has a lot of toxic mold (both indoors and outdoors). If people can get to a place with reduced amounts of it, they often feel better.


Here's an thread about how the English musical theatre star Michael Crawford recovered from his ME/CFS by moving to a beachfront house in New Zealand.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?16783-Michael-Crawford-and-the-Locations-Effect


Here is some discussion of people feeling better while in Hawaii and considering why that might be.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?13799-Mold-or-Oxygen-Feel-better-in-Hawaii

http://ampligen4me.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/what-is-it-about-hawaii/


Here is a board dedicated to exploring this type of effect in ME/CFS:

http://locationseffect.proboards.com/index.cgi?


Can I ask you -- when you moved, did you bring along your possessions from your old place?

Also, would you consider sharing your experiences on the Locations Effect board?


Best, Lisa
 

mellster

Marco
Messages
805
Location
San Francisco
Thanks all again. I did move within San Francisco, just have been living mostly in the inner city neighborhoods, now I live a couple of blocks from the ocean where it's actually cheaper to live and you get more family space. While I think it adds to well-being, it is definitely only a factor though, albeit a major one. Also the mold thing is interesting and tricky, this hood has mainly very old houses and is naturally damper than the inner city (more fog). I have been tested for mold sensitivities but tested negative. I did a mold test at my old place and it was spotless (whereas my office wasn't), didn't bother doing one here although we have carpet now (fairly new though). I do agree though that having mold at home is never good, but I think the main effect here is the tranquility and cleaner air in general. Also colder and crisper air somehow contains my fluey pain symptoms and increases my exercise tolerance significantly. We brought all of our possessions. I still have symptoms though but while I have a fairly common test results/symptoms profile for someone with mild CFS, I think I am more in the FM camp. For example my symptoms don't improve with inactivity (only if I rest aggressively after strenuous exertion and when I sleep well in general), in fact they may get worse to the point where I exercise quite hard and then experience almost complete relief for quite a while (esp. if I exercise in the rain or rain-washed air). So my main goal is bringing my resting cytokine profile back into balance and decrease the background pain - exhaustion and fatigue wise I am currently only minorly affected.
cheers

So glad to hear that you're doing better, Mellster. Where exactly are you living that the air feels so good?

People with CFS often do better on the ocean (if they can live right at the beach, especially). The most common explanation is that (regardless of whether they are aware of it) they are sensitive to inflammatory toxic molds (and other microorganisms) in the environment, and that those molds are not as prevalent right at the beach.

For instance, here Dr. Sarah Myhill talks about the effect:

>Patients who are not responding to a standard allergy work up are often suffering from mould sensitivity. This is not an easy diagnosis to make because skin prick tests for mould allergy are unreliable. Furthermore it is uncertain whether symptoms are due to allergy to moulds or to sensitivity to mould fumes. This is a little bit like yeast overgrowth in the gut - for some people this causes a problem because they are allergic to yeast and for some because they react to the products of fermentation.

>The key to diagnosing mould allergy is the history and if patients are improved in a mould free or low mould environment then this is highly suggestive that moulds are a problem. In order to survive moulds have to get their water from air, therefore they do not exist either in very dry climates (which may be hot dry or cold dry), above three thousand feet where the air is too thin to hold sufficient moisture, or on sea fronts where the prevailing winds are onshore. Since moulds do not live in oceans, their spores are constantly blown in land.

>Therefore, to diagnose mould allergy I currently recommend that people have a two week holiday in such a mould free environment. They may have already done this and not realised that their improvement was actually due to the control of their mould allergy and ascribe improvement to other factors such as freedom from stress, or sunshine, or whatever.

http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Mould_Sensitivity

Like England, SF is cold and damp and has a lot of toxic mold (both indoors and outdoors). If people can get to a place with reduced amounts of it, they often feel better.


Here's an thread about how the English musical theatre star Michael Crawford recovered from his ME/CFS by moving to a beachfront house in New Zealand.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?16783-Michael-Crawford-and-the-Locations-Effect


Here is some discussion of people feeling better while in Hawaii and considering why that might be.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?13799-Mold-or-Oxygen-Feel-better-in-Hawaii

http://ampligen4me.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/what-is-it-about-hawaii/


Here is a board dedicated to exploring this type of effect in ME/CFS:

http://locationseffect.proboards.com/index.cgi?


Can I ask you -- when you moved, did you bring along your possessions from your old place?

Also, would you consider sharing your experiences on the Locations Effect board?


Best, Lisa
 
Messages
45
Location
Northern California
I recently moved to Santa Cruz, smack on the beach. I feel better here than the Sacramento area. I think anyone would do better with the fresh air coming in than polluted air. I still don't know yet how it will effect my CFS, I've still got lots to unpack. I have brought some things from my old environment, mainly area rugs...hope that isn't a bad thing.

It's not as cold as SF here ( I lived there for some time), in fact gorgeous weather. It's not as foggy here as SF or Carmel. And so much more casual. So far, so good.