I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the Indie Islands Magazine, the Editor saw the value in the information I've posted about carbon monoxide poisoning and asked if he could include a Feature Article about it in the February issue of Indie Islands.

Here's the link, you might have to join the mailing list or something to download the magazine, but it's very well done and an interesting read even without my article.

http://indieislands.com/

I wish I could say I'm all better, but this is a very long recovery process apparently.

Love and Blessings to All,

Alice

I am looking into this ...... seriously ........ it is interesting and frightening ........ not enough done in such a cash rich industry. Will keep you informed ...

Rusty

Yes, it is frightening, we need to make the lawmakers see that it has to be MANDATORY for every structure with a combustible furnace to have a carbon monoxide detector! You'd better have them installed, Sir Rusty!

Thank you for taking this seriously and for looking into it further while my own brain is not quite right. I said to someone the other day that I'm used to working with a genius type brain, and it's been kindergarten lately.

Let me know what you find out, all right?

Love and Big Hugs,

Alice

I read about your problem with CO poisoning after Misty drew my attention to it by telling me how ill you had been ... and still are by the sound of it. I am both amazed and puzzled by the fact that your doctors haven't commenced oxygen treatment for you straight away as I would have thought that the longer the delay the more damage it could do to your system. There must be specialists somewhere near you if your own doctor does not know how to treat you.

CO (carbon monoxide) is very tenacious when it latches onto the red blood cells occupying the area that oxygen usually latches on to. High concentrations of oxygen are usually needed to displace the CO. I don't know much about what the health food stores are selling you but I would seriously doubt that the concentrations (if there at all) would be high enough to have any effect at all. You need to breathe in oxygen for it to benefit you. See http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/News/vitamino.html

These extracts from http://www.hyperchamber.com/carbon_monoxide_poisoning/index.htm
say it all.

"Normally, oxygen binds with the haemoglobin (Hb) in red blood cells to form oxyhaemoglobin (O2Hb) and dissolves only in small amounts in the liquid component of blood (plasma). Carbon monoxide is particularly dangerous because it has an affinity for haemoglobin 240 times greater than oxygen - forming carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb). This means that a small amount of inhaled gas can be fatal. It also interferes with cellular function in the body by attaching itself to myoglobin and cytochrome enzymes.......

In cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, it normally takes over four hours for the amount of CO in the body to fall by one half, during which time the tissues are hypoxic (lacking oxygen) due to replacement of O2Hb with COHb. Hyperbaric oxygen at 3ata reduces this to 20 minutes, during which time the extra oxygen dissolved in the blood alleviates hypoxia.

The normal amount of CO bound to haemoglobin (COHb) in people living in cities is less than 1.5% - or up to 10% in smokers.

Carbon monoxide is also produced naturally in the body by the breakdown of red blood cells (haemolysis) and is also a neurotransmitter produced in the brain. Certain conditions that increase haemolysis, e.g. sickle cell anaemia, pregnancy, malaria or large bruises (haematomas), can raise COHb levels.........."

As it says above CO can also be produced by the breakdown of red blood cells (presumably at a higher rate when they are already carrying excess CO). Smoking adds even further to the CO already present which could account for the higher readings you are getting.

Alice, I am not sure how the way they measure levels in Canada compare with how they do it in the UK by %, but I sincerely hope you have started receiving treatment by the time you receive this message. If it was me I would be insisting on immediate treatment with oxygen (to breathe in via a mask).

Have you had the results from your children's blood tests yet?

Here's wishing you a speedy and full recovery.

Love Moragh

It seems to me that the delay is due to the fact that none of them seem to know what to do about this. I've been drinking high doses of the liquid oxygen daily, lots and lots, and it's certainly brought me back. Not all the way back, obviously, or I'd have found this message before today, but I'm thinking and functioning again, thank God!!

My children's levels were right around the 'high normal' range, thank God again, but I'm in the house a lot more than they are, and was always the one to go to the basement for anything from tripping a breaker to cleaning it up for a couple of hours at a stretch.

Not enough is known about this anywhere, it seems to me, none of my own family {parents, five brothers and five sisters} had CO dectectors installed in their homes either. I don't know why it's not mandatory to have these things automatically installed! The gas company or other combustible fuel providers could install them and just add the cost to our bills, they're so outrageous already we'd never even notice the extra thirty or sixty or whatever dollars, and then we'd all be safe!

Unfortunately I'm still smoking, but a girlfriend and I are going to work together to stop. I've quit several times over the years, but always go back to it. It's a tough one to quit, but I made a friend get tested who smokes twice as much as I do, driving around in his van a lot smoking, and his levels were lower than mine, so it certainly wasn't from smoking. And it's down now from 6.6 to 4.4, that reading is from two and a half weeks ago now, and I'm sure Friday's tests will show that it's down again, so the measures I've been taking on my own have obviously been helping.

I don't have any idea why the doctor didn't immediately put me on inhaled oxygen, I would have done that if I were the doctor, but he needed that comparison with another smoker too, to rule that out, I guess. Apparently smokers can build up to that kind of level without any signs like I've had.

At least now I only have moments of confusion or blankness, instead of weeks on end that way and only moments of clarity!! Obviously God wants me to stay alive, He must have lots more work in store for me here.

Thanks for caring, Moragh, I'm glad we met! You and Rusty Broadspear are on the same side of 'the pond,' you should say hello to each other.

Love and Blessings,

Alice