Question:
I believe the fatigue, if from the butyl ether chemical overexposure (and it doesn't take much)
to be red blood cells dying off prematurely (most likely being attacked by one's own immune system).
Yes, many body systems affected; most likely the pituitary and entire endocrine system, but most especially the liver, the kidneys (needed for strong bones and for making red blood cells)
Get the retic ratio test (@ $50 add on blood test for ratio of mature to immature red blood cells) and get info on the size and shape of red blood cells
What is the retic ratio test? How is the information derived from it useful for someone with CFIDS (the correct terminology)? In other words, what protocol, if any, is administered with this information?
Thanks!
Answer:
I'm not a medical person, however, I have studied this chemical ... 2-butoxyethanol also known as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether and talked to many, many who were exposed to it. These workers, and those who stood nearby, were only exposed to this chemical during the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup of 1989.
It is interesting to note that the Gulf War Vets of 1990-1991 were exposed to it PLUS diethylene glycol monobutyl ether. So, at the present it is a theory I have; but I believe it is provable, starting with the Reticulocyte Count (percentage of juvenile red blood cells to the whole of red blood cells)
In studying this chemical you learn that it affects all these body system starting with premature destruction of red blood cells. This would have to underly all other symptoms that pile on top of it. That's why I feel harm from this cchemical is provable.
Says Patricia Wilcox, M.S. "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."
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.
Does this help?
PS - I share this info on web pages ... so if you were interested it is not hard to find more information. Just search for 2-butoxyethanol for starters.
It is also interesting to note that the CDC definition of CFS looks just like the list of symptoms the Gulf War Vets have ... and that was written in 1988. It is also interesting to note that DOW chemical has been pushing such butyl ether chemicals on the Dept of Defense since before this time and in 1988 in particular - pushing 2-butoxyethanol in very strong concentrations. No one, not even the military, should even handle such chemicals.