New Benefits re: 9/11 Workers Include Cancers; Body/Toxins to Blame? Mind and Spirit Aspects Must be Remembered!

Today I want to talk about psychological trauma, as it is clearly a big part of 'the 9/11 story', which we are generally celebrating and acknowledging and in my case, studying, today. There are countless thousands who were directly involved eleven years ago, who woke up one day like every other day, and walked or rolled along to get around in their life in New Yor City just like every other day.

But that day they fell down --- some went down in the towers to their deaths.  Others directly or indirectly rescued people and cleaned up "Ground Zero", and ten years later, per a CNN special report I watched, had a 28% higher than average incidence of some diseases. Thankfully, due to the story, perhaps, by 9/10/12, the Federal government included many forms of cancer in the illnesses that would be covered for workers if they were to become ill.  This is a HUGE step forward, and I'm happy to have looked back to see the blog I wrote for 9/11/11 and be able to modify it a little bit to bring it current, and know that the track did head the direction I had forseen when I originally blogged on the subject last year.  

However, related to those who served to rescue and cleanup who have survived to this point, I'm guessing we'll see the same or similar exponential curve we see with most illnesses in the United States, particularly in areas where there are reasons for more stresses to the body, mind, and spirit, or some combination of the above, naturally. Grand Junction, where I live in western Colorado, has a research institute related to illnesses and what causes them related to vocation which stems back to the uranium boom in the past.  I had a patient who had the doctor who the institute is named after, and he told me that the wise doctor had noticed that the uranium workers who got sick had one interesting difference (statistically); they were the ones who went to the bars!

But when they studied how much alcohol was being consumed, the ones who consumed the same amount of alcohol at home didn't have the same illness rates.  What was it about the guys going to the bars?  They believed it was to be the cigarette smoke inside. And I found that interesting -- I have always wondered and eventually found out that much of the heavy metals in my tissues that showed on testing are found in cigarette and marijuana 'joint' smoke, because it is in the paper wrappers; my mother and my grandmother had both been chain smokers and smoked in the house, in the car and wherever they were, basically.  

Being a psychologically-thinking occupational therapist, I wondered if the uranium workers' health and illness rates  ALSO had something to do with why the people were going out to bars or not, relating to psychological factors or social factors such as if they had happy relationships at home to stay home with and for.  

I'm sorry to have to say this and to not be writing today about the challenges of oragami, which has a risk of paper cuts, I'd imagine!  But I have had chronic illness diagnosed since 23 years ago, and when you look back further and further at symptoms, I was having the first "off and odd" things going on with my health when I was an infant, really. I went into occupational therapy to help people improve their health and functioning, and so I repeatedly share my stories if they serve as beneficial examples for people to be able to see their situations.  

When it comes to "adverse childhood experiences" and one of the top things people fear, which is of public speaking, I had an adverse experience related to another event in our nation's past: I was asked to stand up in front of the class, just like all my other classmates, and talk about how Martin Luther King, Jr's death affected me.  I'd never heard of the man, knew nothing of the civil rights movement, as we weren't allowed to turn the television on in my home (it was actually unplugged by my father after my grandmother left to care for an older sister), and to me, it sounded like he was "The King" of something, like I read about in books, so when I started out by saying something about his being a king, I was interrupted and corrected by the teacher, and rightfully so.

My classmates didn't all get a fear of performance and public speaking that day, but I did -- why me and not them? It has ever so much to do with the mix of genetics and environment, I believe, and mostly is influenced by the HOME in which the child is literally and figuratively bathed in toxic or healthy people and experiences, foods, liquids, air, and lotions! It wasn't the teacher, or that one incident, it was the 'cumulative effect' of positives and negatives related to my 'speaking up and being allowed to shine' overall that was the factor, and in my case, the people in my home at that point in time were not very encouraging of me 'shining' or having anything to say, even around the family.  Not that it was their 'fault', they were young or were a parent who had their own issues to work out or to play out, and the other parent was just really one to roll along and chuckle and divert attention.  Eventually, I had to deal with that as an adult and I really like using it as an example of there is no 'cause' and 'effect', there are causeS and effectS.  

I think this is so important to bring up related to 9/11 and for anyone reading this because they are interested in the topic, because there is no going back for the responders who to keep them from getting toxins on their skin and hair and get in their bodies through their mouths, their noses and then lungs, etc.  But they can look at how to diminish the psychological impacts, and they can boost up the spiritual aspect of the body/mind/spirit.  With their bodies they can look into and potentially detoxify and cleanse to 'empty the barrel' of their bodies' toxins.  There tends to be a clear focus on what I see reported on that has to do with the toxic dust and smoke, and not the other aspects of why these people have experienced proven increases in illness.  

In some cases with the NYFD responders, there is already an EIGHT FOLD (800%) increase over what was going on before 9/11 (they'd been tracking these guys!). However, many more do NOT have illnesses than do -- why do some 'fall' and other's 'walk'?  Some are even 'dancing' today -- living fulfilling, enriched lives. I think the answers come from the variables that have to do with their mind and spirit as much as what the bodies were exposed to related to toxins.  This includes looking to childhood and the research called ACE - "Adverse Childhood Experiences"; there will be more about ACE on Lumigrate in the near future, so keep looking in Forums for it. 

While it is clearly such a tragedy that occurred on 9/11/2001, I believe much good is going to come from the research and the way we as a nation chose to move forward.  There's much for us to pay attention to and learn from and, while I am sorry it happened, it will shed light on things which millions will benefit from, myself included, I believe.  Really ALL human and nonhumans on the Earth will potentially benefit from this having happened because it will move medical knowledge and treatment of people with chronic illness in as dramatic a way as the events unfolded in 2001.  

Responders who are being covered in amazing stories of 9/11 ten years later, the question is being asked: "Why does one person have a manifestation of health problems and another that was there in the same capacity, for the same time, not?" BECAUSE IT IS NOT CAUSE and EFFECT, as scientific method has drummed into our heads and created our systems to 'think'! It is causeS and effectS, there are many variables!  

This information related to who gets illness after trauma is something that was part of my training and learning at the VA in Denver in 1996 -- 5 years before 9/11 and now 15 years ago, when doing internships to become an OT.  In occupational therapy, there is the benefit that comes from turning your attention a bit away from what you might think is on your mind, while thinking and talking as you do a task that occupies your hands and mind a bit.  

This allows the mind/body to 'flow' differently (crafts are a huge part of the tradition of occupational therapy), and for things to percolate up and come out of the person, either in their words or their actions. The question "Why did some Vietnam veterans have a PTSD diagnosis and other of their 'brothers' not?" is answered in the ACE research, which I learned about in 2007 while working as an occupational therapist doing an education group and bringing in local experts to teach and share.  

What I learned in 1996 at the VA was not specifically from ACE, but similar: they found in the research way back in the 1970s and 1980s that it had to do with CHILDHOOD experience and they thought that it had to do with coping skills when the adults experienced situations in Vietnam. They had done imaging on brains of people who had PTSD and saw that some structures in the brain had differences from similar sized / aged brains of people who did not have PTSD.  

But if I've known this since 1996, why isn't it being integrated more into the 9/11 story? So I am asking YOU to read and think about this and help this information get 'out there'! I'm predicting that a lot of people are now going to be aware that environmental toxins can contribute to cancer happening, and everyone's going to shift their attention to psychological health (or illness) and spiritual wellness (or illness) are going to be overlooked.  

Body.  Mind. Spirit.  (and perhaps there are other aspects in more complex models of wellness, but this is the 'integrative health' model which Lumigrate has embraced and promoted since our inception. 

The Benefit of Having a Big, Dramatic Event to Draw Attention

Those in New York for the 9/11/01 incident have the benefit of a now-recognized 'event' that leads to their illness, which, in my opinion is being too focused upon the 'dust' and not the combination of toxins to the body, mind and spirit; their coworkers DIED rescuing people.  

Others who had gone to work or were shopping in the buildings, like every other day, were lucky to escape, and many acted heroically toward their fellow man in what turned out to be a man-made and very deliberate 'insult' and injury, caused by a faction of people in a terrible attack on what had been a beautiful fall day with people up and walking/ dancing away in life.

But what if there was not such a dramatic event for people to 'pin' their health issues on?

What is YOUR 9/11? Mine seemed to be something that I happened to hear in 1990 while home on a Friday evening and watching 20/20 while sitting on my living room floor; 5% of adults who had autoimmune conditions onset after they received a vaccine in the early 1980s, were 'recognized' in the late 1980s by the biggest class action lawsuit prior to the tobacco industry.  

Interesting! I was home on a Friday evening because I was recovering from a significant case of 'Yuppie Flu', or what was later to be called chronic fatigue syndrome.  I was unaware of the class action lawsuit to that moment and it was only by 'chance' that I saw that information on television. I obviously did not get any financial 'renumeration' for the lawsuit, but I do have the benefit of knowing that's part of what lead to all these health issues that came on with a vengeance in the mid 1980s. I had even called the clinic I'd had the vaccine to verify the brand they purchased was one in the lawsuit. I'd called the specialist who treated me for my first 'strange symptoms' to see when I'd been in to seek his advise and it was about one month after getting the vaccine.  AHA, THAT is the REASON FOR THIS, I thought, in my cause/effect-minded way at the time.  

I know realize that  I focused for too long on THE cause of the physical/toxin aspect due to that 'recognition' I saw on the TV program 20/20, at the expense of other things having to do with mind and spirit. Though it was not a bad thing to focus on those toxins in my body, which was mercury/thimerosol as remediating those toxins in a variety of ways has been part of my improved health in the past.  

I did myself a disservice, though, by looking so much at the 'body'/toxin element, which I'm concerned will happen when people start acknowledging the inevitable about 9/11 and the "Trade Center Illness" victims are experiencing, in particular with the new development related to cancer being included in benefits.  I think that people are not going to look at the total -- the effectS from causeS, but at the most obvious 'cause', to them, the dust which was so unique -- they report that smoke was green for a while, not the usual brown, black, or white they have seen at all other fires.  The dust could be scooped up and sampled to show what everyone was breathing in and getting on their skin (and likely dragging into their work places, homes, etc.).  You can't scoop up the stress in one person's body or another from that moment and how their body responded to that.  I believe we are better served by thinking BODY, MIND, SPIRIT.... and causeS/effectS.  

Every time my health has improved or regressed in the past 25 years since my health started dramatically 'failing' after the realities of adult life and responsibilities in my mid 20s, it has just as much to do with the people I'm bathing in as it does what's in the immunizations or air.  In recent years as I got to middle age and had developed a spiritual belief system which was new to me since becoming ill, and which had developed to be deeper and very beneficial to my wellnes with 'practice', I maintained my wellness for a long time when surrounded by relatively 'difficult' and unhealthy situations due to the choices I made in 2007 related to have in my personal and professional life.  

It saddens me, but makes me feel less 'ignorant' in retrospect, when I see that thousands of people didn't think they needed proper respirators after 9/11. There are highly trained professionals related to their work around smoke and inhalants, lead by even higher educated people in process, safety, and we all see now how many mistakes were made.  In my mid to late 20s, just before my health really 'crashed' when I was 29, I had gotten into woodworking with my husband, who had medical problems and could not be around finishing fumes.  I wore a good respirator but I didn't realize how much uptake happened with your skin, and I didn't wear gloves as the latex ones we had in the shop would disintegrate in the oil-based solution I created and would put on with 600 wet/dry sandpaper.  

Coat after coat, sometimes up to ten total -- it was like glass!  I wanted to feel the wood and the finish as I applied it, and I believe this also contributed to my becoming ill.  I also had a lot of stress related to my husband's health, as he had seizure disorder which was not completely controlled despite all the medications he took.  Add that on top of the normal stress of having a stepdaughter, a recently widowed father and a very 'big job' with incredible responsibilities and deadlines which had to be met, and it is no wonder my health crashed.  But I whittled away at the things which were burdening me and made changes in the things I could.  And I continue to adjust my life to find the balance and work on balancing my wellness/illness 'teeter totter'.  

Yes, it was perhaps a mistake for me to get an immunization in 1981 just to get married -- I should have protested, there's no life or death reason to get married, that was to satisfy society and parents, in retrospect. I had not yet learned yet to question authority; maybe I should consider getting the shot if I ever planned to get pregnant rather than to keep planning to NOT and taking birth control seriously.

Eventually, Colorado changed that law, perhaps when more people were having babies who were not married than those who did or something.  Who knows.  I just know that I have been more than a bit regretful about having all that happened as a side effect of this 'bad vaccine', I believe, and never having a pregnancy.  

But the primary point is that 95% of adults who got that vaccine did NOT get autoimmune disease, just as a majority of the workers from 9/11 will not become ill; in both cases a drastically higher than normal rate have, that's a big difference which is important to recognize.  Perhaps they didn't have the same amount of childhood trauma, adult stress at home, and a job that had me not only in stress but also inhaling lots of toxins at work in a new building that had much outgassing.  A year after we moved in and put dark, fake wood/plastic bookshelves against a white wall, we moved that piece of furniture and there was a very apparent 'eggshell' look where the bookshelf had been!  

And then we get to food/diet.  I made a full recovery in my early 30s and then had a recurrence of health problems when I was first in OT school at age 34.  I didn' t know at the time that I was allergic to wheat, and due to meat 'grossing me out' due to the cadaver anatomy / muscles, I started eating more things that were popular at the time as 'good for you', which was the 'carbo loading' concept.  

Fortunately, within a year of conventional medicine not being able to identify what was causing my extreme weakness, headaches and many other symptoms, I found a progressive MD who tested via IgG testing and found my food allergies that conventional scratch testing had not provoked a reaction (which is IgE that is reacting in that type of testing, which is a fast reaction, IgG is a slow reaction so very commonly does not have people suspect the foods they eat are causing their symptoms of illness).   

Before 9/11, I'd helped many clients overcome the effects of horrendous car crashes in my two years working in driving rehabilitation and I suggest we all respect the "pothole" and what it was caused by and always keep that in mind, but turn our attention to the solutions -- where do you want to go? Look in that direction and steer in that direction, put your efforts into steering and you'll have a much higher likelihood of getting where YOU want to go! And look at the causeS -- plural -- of the potholeS in life, and realize that it's things that add up to the mind, the body, and the spirit which brings us our wellness or illness. 

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy

With honor and respect today, I dedicate this blog and my work to all the first responders, fire/rescue, military who have chosen to do this important work for 'us', society. This blog was adapted from my 2010 blog to include the recent Federal ruling on 9/10/12 which recognized many forms of cancer to be included in what is covered under benefits for 9/11 rescue workers.  Now THAT makes my body, mind and spirit happy and contributes to my wellness/illness in a positive way, and I hope it helps ALL of those this directly affects to rest more assured about being recognized and having the benefits from our nation provided if needed should they be one of the minority SO FAR who gets illness from the body, mind, and spirit impacts from serving at the 9/11 site.