I, Human

I have been trying to hide this part of myself for 7 years now. I did a pretty good job of that, as I think 3 people even know that I have been dealing with it. I just think it’s time to let people know what is going on with me. I know that a lot of people look at where I am in life and think I am just wasting my life away, or mooching off of my parents and skating through life. Well, I have actually spent most days, in the times that I have been unemployed, trying to find a cure for a disorder. I came down with this disorder after stopping Benadryl, in the winter of 2010, but it got worse when I tried to take it again. I have no insurance and my doctor didn’t know what was wrong. So I have had to spend quite a bit of time trying to find an accurate diagnosis, to work towards a cure for this problem. I firmly believe that what I have is “chronic blepharospasm.” There is currently no known medical cure, there are treatments, which are supposed to provide minor relief, and are not cheap, but there is no permanent cure.

I have tried so many different supplements and herbs. I worked at adjusting, increasing or depleting every neurotransmitter that I could think of, which might have any relation to this disorder. I worked on fluctuating GABA, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, histamine, and acetylcholine.

99% of all medical research has gone into blocking the action of acetycholine, which is thought to trigger the constant blinking, and/or eye shutting, experienced with chronic blepharospasm, through a dysfunction in the basal ganglia. Through my own research and experiments, however, I have found the opposite to be quite helpful.

In the middle of December of 2016, seen in the left video, below, I was unable to drive, watch tv, read, play video games or do just about anything. Medical websites all state, “this condition will only get worse and there is no known cure,” so I believed that my condition was just regressing, as others with this condition experience. I was beginning to think that I would never be able to work or leave the house again.

I decided to try to read a lot of articles online about exercise and how acetylcholine is affected by it. Three months later, I arrived at the hypothesis that the obsessive exercising that I was doing (for a year) caused a major depletion of acetylcholine, by flooding my brain with an increase of other neurotransmitters, combined with the fact that I had recently changed my diet and, suddenly, I was hardly consuming any choline (the primary precursor of acetylcholine). Enter a high choline diet and my cessation of an exercise routine. I started this high choline diet 5 weeks ago. In addition to my diet of no sugar, no caffeine, and no white flour or dairy foods. The results of this dietary change are displayed in the video, below, on the right, taken this morning. I also must note that I am no longer taking any supplements or vitamins. I would say that I am pretty darn close to a cure!!

Not only have I, potentially cured my disorder, but I have realized that the medical community at large, seemingly disregards this extremely vital neurotransmitter!! It is alarming to me! Acetylcholine can be depleted by so many mainstream, popular prescription and otc drugs! Ten years ago, my doctor had me on an antidepressant, Xanax, Benadryl for cat allergies and ibuprofen for back pain! All of these have anticholinergic properties! I believe pharmaceutical companies should spend more time determining the effects, long and short term, of prescribing multiple anticholinergics, simultaneously. Sadly, for a lot of people, these medications are taken without stopping their use of recreational drugs (like marijuana) and/or consumption of alcohol, which are also commonly known to possess anticholinergic properties.

I have chronic blepharospasm from a compounded anticholinergic effect, but I firmly believe that Alzheimer’s could be a result of unknowingly taking too many anticholinergics, long term. In addition to pharmaceuticals, the most easily affordable and consumable source of choline (primary precursor to acetylcholine) is the EGG yolk of a chicken, which doctors also keep our elderly away from, due to their supposed detrimental effect on cholesterol. (Women are supposed to get 425mg of dietary choline, and men are supposed to get 550mg, daily.)

I am not looking for sympathy or pity. I just know how people must think that I am very lazy or have no ambition. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I was determined to find a cure for this disorder and I believe that I may have, actually, finally, done it; and if I can help, even one person, not develop Alzheimer’s disease, that is an added bonus!