Blood work doesn't look 'out of range' ... still have fatigue?

Blood work doesn't say why the fatigue?

After a 21 month search for what is going wrong with the blood, the answer seems to be here: Doctors believe that if there is significant blood hemolysis, it will show up in the blood count.

Says Patricia P. Wilcox, M.S. "Not true. There can be significant hemolysis which is invisible if all you do is a standard blood count, but shows up nicely as an elevated reticulocyte count , about 2.5 days after exposure ... This is called compensated hemolytic anemia." Or more probably compensated AUTOIMMUNE hemolytic anemia

According to Robbins' Pathologic Basis of Disease, 5th Edition (1994), Chapter 13 (Diseases of Red Cells and Bleeding Disorders), page 584:

"With an increased demand for blood cells in the adult, the fatty marrow may become transformed to red, active marrow. Moreover, this is accompanied by increased productive activity throughout the marrow. These adaptive changes are capable of increasing red cell production (erythropoiesis) seven- to eight-fold. Thus ... such loss of red cells as may occur in hemolytic disorders produces anemia only when the marrow compensatory mechanisms are outstripped."

So a reticulocyte count might be a good screening tool for red blood cell damage/destruction due to exposure to certain types of solvents, e.g. glycol ethers, in patients who are not so badly damaged that they can no longer replace red cells as fast as they are losing them (i.e., they still have normal red blood cell count, hemoglobin, and hematocrit).

Mark Cullen et al. looked for changes in peripheral blood and bone marrow in solvent-exposed printers and spray painters, and found substantial bone marrow abnormalities that were undetectable in peripheral blood counts -- they focused on glycol ethers as a likely suspect ...

Cullen et al. found a one-to-one correspondence between blood/bone marrow abnormalities and red blood cell pyruvate kinase (PK) deficiency in solvent-exposed workers.

[Note: Wilcox found this interesting because PK is polymorphic among humans -- several percent of us have a variant form of the enzyme -- and the majority of a small sample of folks with multiple chemical sensitivities that she looked at had altered PK activity and elevated reticulocyte counts after solvent exposures ...]

I'm not sure how well the reticulocyte count would reflect benzene exposure, which reportedly suppresses production of new red blood cells rather than simply killing existing red cells. A more usual marker of "benzene poisoning" is an abnormally low lymphocyte count, says Wilcox

Patricia P. Wilcox, M.S. 12-27-99 (Note below update)
School of Public Health
The Ohio State University

Source

UPDATE: There are a couple of things wrong, or at least out of date, in the quote. You left out the part about the elevated reticulocyte count peaking exactly 2.5 days after the exposure. That's crucial! If you don't look at the right time, you'll never see it.

A doctor I know suggested that I should have been testing
my level of haptoglobin, which should show up soon after the exposure if blood cells are being destroyed. Since I am no longer testing toxic chemicals on myself I can't tell you exactly how soon, but my red cell count and hemoglobin dropped for 2 or 3 hours, about, after one of these exposures, so 3 hours after exposure might be a good time delay for haptoglobin testing.

Also, although there was something funny about pyruvate kinase enzyme activity in our group of people that got ourselves tested, when we finally got someone to do DNA testing they didn't find any pyruvate kinase mutations.

I am now Patricia P. Wilcox, M.S., M.P.H. (master of public health), and no longer at the Ohio State University -- I was only a student there, not a researcher, anyway.

2-24-04

Shared with permission

Mother Margaret e-mail

Other comments:

http://www.valdezlink.com/gwv/1-5.htm

More thoughts:

Anemia Check - Extra helps

Fax this to your doctor before your appointment - More info

Organs affected by 2-butoxyethanol type solvents/pesticides/poisons

More research Backed up * and * and * and * and * and *

Do your homework, give your doctor the BIG PICTURE

February 24, 2004

Some Gulf War Discussion Forums

http://www.gulfwarhelp.com/forum.php - Sorry, crashed

Comments welcome from anyone affected by 2-butoxyethanol - or with multiple, various symptoms that seem similar - Are some misdiagnosed with CFS when in effect they are 'gulf war syndrome' symptoms?

Australia & USA troops need help GWVRP - reply - backup

Reply to Boorl - Why can't husband walk? - Backup

Why Bouts of Paralysis?

www.valdezlink.com/acute.htm

.Continuing 2008:

CAS number 00111-76-2

2-butoxyethanol C₆H₁₄O₂/CH₃(CH₂)₂CH₂OCH₂CH₂OH

Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether

The EGBE list

Synonyms

Acute affects

Organs Targeted & Chronic affects Other *

For Central Nervous System symptoms ... I would suspect these:

Short term memory loss
Difficulty concentrating
Personality changes to 'grumpy' - Extreme Irritability *
Difficulty sleeping at night
All the time Depression
Suicidal Tendencies

Mimics true psychiatric disorder (sometimes called PTSD)

And HORRIBLE headaches (Autoimmune hypothalamus headaches?)

And changes in blood sugar, blood pressure, body temp (High or low)

And hormones 'off' ... thyroid, adrenal, etc (High or low)

These are some of the central nervous symptoms signs of effects of 2-butoxyethanol (but maybe some other chemicals too) ... in the case of this exposure I suspect FATIGUE also

But someone might want to check THE FATIGUE signs of what ails you (if it is exposure to 2-butoxyethanol)

& these signs are there:

Chills
Fatigue
Pale color
Shortness of breath
Rapid heart rate * *
Yellow skin color (jaundice)
Dark urine (indicative of blood in urine - never dismiss this! Stop exposure immediately!)
Enlarged spleen *

I got this list from the medical dictionary - as 2-butoxyethanol is supposed to cause hemolytic anemia. Later ,... added these to 'the list'

At 2.5 days after exposure .... elevated 'retic rate'

(& small sized RBCs * ) & VERY HIGH WHITE BLOOD CELL COUNTS *

Tired? But Blood Tests OK?

Rudy Giuliani 'flu'

NOT Flu

THE Fatigue AIHA of CFIDS is proof EGBE is the root cause

Some Bad Products & Why

Proof is 'the pattern' of 2-butoxyethanol ...

& as yet is unrecognized by medical profession.

Insurance companies should want to put a stop to this chemical's poisoning as it is very prevalent ... they should be at the forefront of having Congress ban it

http://www.valdezlink.com/pages/aihi_gulfwar2.htm

Even PRES FDR's doctors didn't recognize the pattern ...

http://www.valdezlink.com/pages/thosewithcfids.htm#does

Tired and help?

2-18-08

Suspect Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether for Cancers, too *

Suspect BUTYL for serious health & environmental damage

Gary H. was harmed by a solvent in sign making *

Gary F harmed by MTBE an additive in Gasoline *

Have you been harmed? Contact Congress - They need to ban this chemical

Exposure 'looks like' the sniffles ... congestion ... the flu

with multiple autoimmune issues resulting 3-1-09

& when people get this 'chemical' flu,
have doctors look at the whole picture to find it
http://www.valdezlink.com/re/flu/help.htm

AIHA. http://www.valdezlink.com/re/ethyleneglycol/healthdamage.htm#8 * * * *

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE VIA INTERNET COMMUNICATION IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.

When you spray and dump over a million gallons of anti freeze
Specifically Ethylene glycol butyl ether in the dispersants (Corexit) at 30-60%

that warms the oceans

Where has the current taken that?

And when glaciers melt even more. . . what effect for that?

What Denny Kelso said in 1989 about use of dispersants
www.valdezlink.com/re/gulf/dennykelso.htm