I now have had the opportunity to try VIP. I am in the final week before I have labs drawn to see what my "mold" numbers are now. I have been on a schedule of 4 times per day which is 50mcg's per nasal spray.I drop down to 2 per day for a month and then get tested again.
I have had partial but noticeable relief of muscle soreness that was with me pretty much most of the time. My recovery from exercise is better. It seems I am also able to focus somewhat better. Hard to say. My hair grew back. Haha. VIP has done some good things for me. But I think my expectations were way too high and now I am somewhat disappointed. Before VIP I said that I felt I was pretty much 80-85%. Now I might be 85-90%. Overall, that is very good and welcome! Just not the 100% I had hoped.
The real test will be my objective numbers. Before VIP, my C4a was about 2.5 times high and my TGFb1 was about 3 times high. Other numbers were also either high or low but I won't go into those. Those 2 numbers are what Dr. Shoemaker hones in on the most. Both are inflammatory markers indicating an overactive immune function. VIP has an influence on both, keeping them in check. All part of the "deranged physiology" that Dr. Shoemaker said I, and other mold patients have.
He also once told me "you should be much sicker than you are." I attribute that to many things I learned to do along the way. The most significant of which, in my mind, is my use of low dose cortisol replacement. I write about that here.
Dr. Shoemaker is not a fan of cortisol replacement but I don't agree with him on that one. One of his findings in almost all of his patients are abnormally low levels of cortisol AND ACTH. ACTH is the pituitary hormone that tells the adrenals to make cortisol. To many docs this is a hallmark of adrenal insufficiency or adrenal fatigue. Or, more likely, it is a sign of a non working hypothalamus since it is the organ that tells the pituitary to tell the adrenals "hey, make some cortisol". When cortisol levels get high enough the hypothalamus says "Whoa, that's enough for now." I believe that in mold illness or CFS+ the hypothalamus is simply not working. It seems to be the main part of the brain that takes the brunt of the inflammation cascade. Damage is likely when someone has been sick a long time. Dr. Shoemaker and others find that with CFS+ patients, usually everything that is dependent on the hypothalamus is off. VIP and MSH both are made or controlled primarily by the hypothalamus.
So supplementing my cortisol with "physiological" as opposed to "pharmacological" doses has been a huge help to me for well over a decade. Whenever I try to wean myself off I eventually crash!! People replace thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, HGH all the time but for some reason docs are afraid of cortisol. This is due to their experience with pharmacological uses of cortisone as in prednisone etc. But the body makes between 30 and 40 mgs per day and much more when stressed. If a mold/CFS patient is unable to make this much it makes total sense to supplement this most critical hormone!! But enough about that.
