What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

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Jenna
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:41 pm
Location: Portland Oregon USA

What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by Jenna »

Hello all - Knowing about causes probably won't help me medically, but WOULDN'T IT FEEL GOOD TO take a tiny early step toward PREVENTING FUTURE OT CASES? Genetics and stress probably play a role. It's worth noticing what else might trigger OT.

Medical professionals tell us a) rare disorders probably arise only when two or three causal factors co-exist in the patient's life, and b) there's probably multiple causal 'pathways' that will differ from OT patient to OT patient In other words, it's super unlikely to find ONE causal factor that explains OT. But still, light can be shed . . . .

Research often starts with anecdotal stories . . . . so let's see what informal 'coincidences' are true among us. What are the common threads for our lifelong experiences? Are there any common threads regarding the couple years before our OT began? (Let's not wait for professional epidemiological research, because they'll wait until they have the resources to reach scientifically-valid conclusions, i.e. they'll wait a long time to even start asking about non-medical life histories.)

Numerous OT people have been curious about chemicals, e.g. pesticides, bug repellent, herbicide, heavy metals. The link between tremor and heavy metals has been documented for 100+ years. More recently, research has revealed a non-trivial link between pesticide/herbicide exposure and Parkinson's disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson' ... sk_factors

Many of us OT folks have mentioned - THE 'A' LIST:
-living in rural areas
-farm agricultural experiences
-lots of time gardening with fertilizers, pesticides, etc
-playing a lot of golf (golf courses use chemicals)
-outdoor enthusiast with personal use of bug repellent / sunscreen?
-traveling or living in foreign countries, particularly third world countries, where a) pesticides/herbicides aren't well-regulated, b) pesticides are used more often in populated areas, c) folks personally use bug repellent to protect themselves from malaria, d) bug bites, parasites, and diseases, e) extra immunizations and malaria-prevention pills, etc.

Other things we could ask about - THE 'B' LIST:
-Injuries to the spine /head that wouldn't be noted on a medical history
-Other exposures to heavy metals or unusual chemicals: aluminum, mercury
-Dr Torres and at least one other person has noticed that OT folks were above-average 'active' pre-OT, and many still are. What kind of 'active'? So . . . . frequent use of plastic water bottles?

Let's not tackle the confusing and overwhelming area of family histories, medical histories, stress histories. The research doctors are (presumably) gathering data in these areas.

Any thoughts about how to proceed?

If nothing else, maybe answer briefly: DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THE SIX ITEMS on the 'A' LIST, ABOVE? Any of them in the 2-ish years pre-OT?

Best to all!!
Jennifer
(POT for 12 years, 4 of the 6 items 'A' list items, one 'A' list item immediately pre-OT)
Jenna
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 1:41 pm
Location: Portland Oregon USA

Re: What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by Jenna »

Could we create a poll on this website, to gather anecdotal evidence? There's professional wisdom out there about how to best create an epidemiological questionnaire: I bet a couple of us could work together to learn how (and it's probably a challenge to do it well)
gloria
Posts: 826
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2004 1:10 pm
Location: New Jersey, USA

Re: What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by gloria »

Jennifer:

I like your idea because collectively anecdotal evidence is very important and I have been giving serious interest to members responses throughout the years. Anecdotal evidence does show possible pathways and shapes entities of diseases. I'm all for such a poll, every bit of information that can be gathered becomes a resource for research. Thanks, Gloria
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 548
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:25 pm

Re: What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by admin »

Jenna submitted a great list of questions for a poll and you can find it at the following link:

POLL: Environmental exposure prior to OT symptoms
Fiona
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:27 pm

Re: What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by Fiona »

I wanted to add my experience to this thread, as I am probably the exception. Out of your "nine" list, I would score myself a dubious half a point.

Never lived in a farming community or on a farm, not an outdoor type of person, not overly fond of gardening (hubby does that), moderate use of mozzie spray or sunscreen (but probably less than many Australians), only visited one overseas country (Vanuatu) for one day. The only thing related to grass is that I spend a lot of time on the sidelines at soccer fields (but not while spraying is actually happening). No exposure to metals that I know of.
Margaret Fredrickson
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2017 8:01 am

Re: What causes OT? Farm / life abroad / insect repellent

Post by Margaret Fredrickson »

Causes for my OT as I review past :
1.Exposure to heavy metals (My skin doctor says that there are indication on my hands that indicate exposure to heavy metals. I wonder from where ? Possibly the town well which is downstream from a site where electronics were made. That site is monitored and "cleaned" but who knows what it was in the past. My husband did a lot of gardening but it was mostly organic gardening.

2. a virus related to ALS. A close friend who came down with ALS about the same time I was beginning to feel my effects.

3. an inner ear effect from an ocean cruise. I was never the same after that. Physical therapists claim they can see something in my eyes that indicates issues in the optic nerve.

4. the effect on my spine of radiation for breast cancer.
5. the the effect of Tamoxifen , taken after a lumpectomy. A physical therapist suggested that strong medicine could cause my balance issues.
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