Thanks Lisa, for posting this info about mold. I've been taking it in with great interest and have my own story to add.
I have a friend who had CFS and is now in total remission from it, and has been for many years. He lived in Marin County back in the 70's, and was a very successful and brilliant computer wizard, involved in the beginnings of that industry here in the Bay Area. One day he had an accident with a lawnmower, which somehow ran over his foot and severely injured it. The foot became so badly infected that gangrene began to set in. He was hospitalized and given and choice of either amputation or, as he put it "enough antibiotics for a bull." He chose the antibiotics, which saved his leg but destroyed his life as he knew it. Not long after this, his immune system fell apart completely, (his T-cell count fell below 300), he developed severe allergies to the point of becoming a universal reactor, (what is now called MCS), and collapsed into what he called an exhausted "coma like sleep" for the next 5 years, during which time he was able to remain conscious for only 3-4 hours/day. Because there was at that time, back in the late 70's, very little information regarding his illness, he was left to figure it all out mostly on his own. He consulted with several of the more famous MCS doctors (Dr Rea in Texas and Dr Randolph in Chicago), and many brilliant alternative people (like Jeffrey Bland and others whose names I can't remember), but had only only limited success with any of the treatments he attempted... UNTIL he finally decided to completely give up all vestiges of his old life and move out to the desert, where he lived out of his car for most of the next fifteen years.
According to him, living in the desert, away from all pesticides, perfumes, toxins and molds, was the most significant part of his ultimate cure. He took A LOT of supplements--a list of about 40 at one point, and was especially fond of the Sunrider herbs, but he insisted that none of that worked as well as it did when he was in the desert. Upon each return to civilization, he would have a toxic backslide, and with each return back to the desert, he would find relief and renewal of his energy. It took many years and a lot of perseverance for him to get completely well, and there were a LOT of ups and downs on that journey, but the last time I spoke with him (in 2004), he told me he now has "a life that is very different than the one (he) had back in the early 90's," when I fist met him. He travels all over the world, stays in hotels, and gets away with eating mostly whatever he wants. He lives in Arizona when he isn't travelling and is finally able to live in a HOUSE.
He's been harping on me to get out of the Bay Area for years, as he thinks it saved his own life to do so. I can't imagine living out of my car in the desert, though I do know others who have done this with some limited success. But no one has done it AS successfully as this guy did.
