Agent Orange Primer 
Welcome to the Quest for Health Agent Orange Primer!
Please allow me to introduce myself:
I am B. Eric Rychener, just one of the 2.5-million Vietnam veterans who
were exposed to herbicides used in that war to deny the enemy their food
and cover. This is my testimonial!
There are now many on-line sources
for information on Agent Orange, although it was not always so. It
is, therefore, not my intention to restate all the facts here. Reference
links will be listed at the bottom of this page for those links that I
have found most helpful in finding relief for my own chronic symptoms of
the dreaded Agent Orange. It is my intention to enlighten anyone
who will read this as to exactly what it is that I found that 'cured' my
symptoms.
Background
I feel compelled to give just a little
background that merely captures the essence of the research I conducted
on-line in order to understand what my body was telling me with respect
to the poisons that I had absorbed. Compared to a lot of my brothers,
my burdens were light, but we all have our own crosses to bear. I
have had what Gary D. Moore has nicknamed the "red burnies" and you can
ask almost any Vietnam Vet what those are, if you don't already know.
Briefly, they are small, red, itchy, pox that can grow to form what I call
"ring formations". The itching is a deep, burning itch that some
vets have called "pins and needles" so that should give those lucky ones
who read this but haven't been there, an idea what fun it is. When
my "spots" were at their worst, I would drift in and out of sleep for days
at a time without getting any real rest. Every time I'd roll over,
the itching would rouse me from the sleep that I had found.
In the early days of my trauma,
the itching would start, usually in my hands and feet, with spots breaking
out in my armpits within a few days. The spots would gradually spread
down my torso, arms and legs. Then it would dissipate in a few more
days. This usually happened in early spring, when it was just starting
to warm up, and late fall, when "Indian Summer" had set in. The stay
times gradually increased until the spots, which the VA diagnosed as "chronic
rash", were constant, or nearly so. In it's latter stages, it was
worse in times of high heat and humidity (vis a vis, 'tropical jungle'
environment).
Mechanics
My on-line research led me to discover
that what is really happening is that the Agent Orange (and when I use
this term, I'm including White, Blue, Purple, etc.; there were Fifteen
Herbicides that were sprayed
in Vietnam and most of them had the same basic recipe, which included the
Dioxin by-product.) is most likely ingested with the fish, rice, sprouts
and virtually anything else in the food chain. It is not digested
and lodges in the fat cells in your blood. I've read that it has
a biological
half-life but I'm
not sure I believe that due to my own personal experience (the duration
and severity of my "attacks" increased with the time since exposure, which
is the opposite of what you would expect in a 'half-life' decay).
It seems to be partially released by stress and heat/humidity, causing
an allergic-type reaction.
Relief, at last!
I've asked many questions along the
path of my research, so I'm not sure who, what or where the original source
of the initial relief is, but I do know that Gary Moore talks on his website
about Cranberry Juice, Grapefruit Juice, Vitamins A and E being helpful.
These are all antioxidants and apparently cause the Dioxin to be released
and broken down so your body can pass it on, if you know what I mean.
He has a much more detailed explanation at Your
Health and Dioxin Exposure ! I will always
be grateful to Gary Moore for putting me on the road to healing, but there
is more to this story. The juices and vitamins helped diminish the
sores, to be sure, but were not able to make them go away. Nor did
five years of being blessed with every antihistamine in the VA's medication
system. But when I viewed a medical research video on blood ailments,
I learned that the Dioxin was really interacting in my blood like a typical
free radical assault, and I found that a natural food supplement called
Oligomeric Proanthocyanidin Complexes (OPCs) might have a positive impact on repelling
the free radicals. My prescribed medications had all just about run
out, so I figured I'd try the natural cure . . . what did I have to lose?
Here's the bottom line: The OPCs cleared my "red
burnies" within three or four days . . . a feat that the VA's medications
had failed to accomplish in nearly five years!
Please realize that I am not a doctor . . . I am a victim
who found something that works for me. If you want to hear from the
medical community, I would recommend that you get a copy of the video Quest
for Health and listen to Dr. Dennis Harper
explain how the proanthocyanidins work.
I don't know if it will work for you (results vary for
every individual taking OPCs and the effects of Dioxin vary in each of
us as well), but I know that it worked for me, and it's an extension, or
perhaps a better word is intensification, of the same 'cure' that Gary
Moore has been recommending.
What
is Agent Orange?
Agent
Orange Website
Your
Health and Dioxin Exposure
Re-evaluation
of Dioxin
Tell
me more about OPCs
I've heard all I need to hear; I'm ready to get
some!
Send eMail to:
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