Two years ago, Carol Civitella's world fell apart. In the middle of a busy life that included working out five days a week at an area gym, remodeling her home and planning a trip to Europe with her husband, Carol was struck ill. Her symptoms appeared strangely unrelated -- burning skin, depression, fatigue and a sudden and extreme chemical sensitivity that left her feeling both confused and frightened. "I'd reached the point," she says, "where I told my husband that if someone couldn't help me, I just didn't want to live."
Her problems began innocently enough, with a patch of eczema appearing beneath one eye. As the skin became increasingly red and bumpy, she sought the advice of a dermatologist, who insisted there was nothing wrong. A few days later, as interior painting continued in her home, her ears turned red. "My kids laughed about it," she remembers. For Carol, the situation was quickly becoming something less than a laughing matter. "One day, as I got out of the shower," she recalls, "I found that my lips were swollen, and my skin felt as though someone had thrown gasoline on it. I took my kids and left the house. After I'd driven around for a while and still wasn't feeling well, I called my doctor. He was extremely nonchalant, telling me to open the windows and merely let the house air out." Even after following this advice, her skin continued to flush and burn. She found she was unable to wear makeup, and began to have difficulty breathing.
Physician No. 1: "It's All in Your Head"
Miserable and afraid, Carol continued to seek medical help, only to have one doctor after another tell her she was imagining her symptoms. Infuriatingly, one physician even suggested that what she was experiencing was nothing more than a nervous breakdown. "One day I called my doctor and started to cry. He referred me to an allergist who gave me a prick test [a procedure in which potential allergens are tested on the skin], and then told me nothing was wrong. When I insisted something was definitely wrong, he advised me not to become "hysterical."
A second allergist put her on a course of steroids and antihistamines. She moved out of her home and in with her mother-in-law while her husband and his father tore bookshelves and carpets out of her house. "I felt as though I was having some sort of chemical overload," she remembers. "I couldn't wear perfume or even stand next to the dishwasher. But it wasn't just the house. The whole world was making me sick."
Physician No. 2: Close, but no Cigar
Increasingly depressed and in a state of near despair, she turned to an alternative medicine doctor in New York. "I'd always equated them [alternative practitioners] with witch doctors," she admits. "It was scary." He diagnosed candidiasis, an overgrowth of the yeast Candida albicans, and recommended a course of nystatin (an oral drug that works on the gastrointestinal system to help prevent the growth of yeast) and adherence to a strict anti-yeast diet (a no-sugar regimen).
He also asked if there was mold in her house. When the house tested positive for mold, it had to be torn apart to remove it. (Symptoms of mold poisoning include nausea, headache, fatigue, chronic infections and digestive disturbances.)
Physician No. 3: Three's a Charm
Meanwhile, Civitella was alternating between good and bad days. She was eventually referred to The Magaziner Center for Wellness & Anti-Aging Medicine in Cherry Hill, N.J., where she came under the care of holistic physician Scott Greenberg, M.D. "During our initial meeting, Carol described how she had already seen a number of physicians, each of whom told her that her problems were in her head. I would expect someone suffering from diabetes, multiple sclerosis or nerve damage neuropathy to have these kinds of symptoms, but not someone who is otherwise healthy. It was a little shocking to me.
But even in my first encounter with her, she didn't seem like a complainer. She really seemed to have these problems." Greenberg believed the yeast infection exacerbated Civitella's symptoms but did not directly cause them. Over the next three months, Greenberg tested Carol for a host of conditions while having her continue her nystatin and anti-candida diet. He did a stool test, checked her mineral and nutrient levels, and tested her for heavy metal toxicity. Then Greenberg did a liver detox profile, examining the efficiency of her body's detoxification pathways.
"I also did a live cell analysis," says Greenberg, "looking for candida, enzymes, sugar imbalances, free radical damage, digestive problems and allergies. The results showed some yeast and moderate allergies. Initially, her heavy metal screens came out negative. Her liver detox pathways also appeared normal." At the same time, a blood test showed a low white blood cell count, alerting him to the fact that Carol had experienced some kind of toxic exposure. A hormone test also revealed that she was deficient in progesterone, which, on top of everything else, was causing her menstrual periods to lengthen. "Only her progesterone test was really significant," says Greenberg. "I still had in the back of my mind the possibility of some kind of heavy metal toxicity, as high levels of mercury can block progesterone production."
Finally, a Diagnosis
Results of sustained low progesterone levels include compromised bone density, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, skin burning, bloating, lengthy periods of depression, mood swings and irritability. As these and other symptoms continued to intensify, Greenberg decided to do another test for heavy metal toxicity. This time, after subjecting her to a challenge for heavy metals in which metals including mercury, aluminum, arsenic and lead are pulled out of body tissues and deposited into the urine, Carol's mercury levels proved to be off the chart. She was most likely exposed to mercury by consumption of large amounts of fish, in her case tuna, says Greenberg. Other fish high in mercury include tilefish, swordfish, shark and king mackerel. Mercury caused her symptoms in two ways: First, mercury is a direct nerve toxin and can cause a host of neurologic symptoms. Second, mercury interferes with the binding of progesterone, thus producing a hormonal imbalance.
"I decided to treat the whole problem," Greenberg explains. "and got rid of the mercury over a period of months with oral doses of DSMA (a synthetic amino acid that chelates mercury and other heavy metals out of the body) and intravenous DMPS drips [a chelating agent available through holistically oriented physicians]. I replenished her good bacteria with probiotic supplements, replaced her essential fatty acids and prescribed a homeopathic treatment for the candidiasis." In addition, Carol began to take a multivitamin and B vitamins (for stress relief), as well as alpha lipoic acid, vitamin C drips and various amino acids to help her liver deal with clearing the heavy metals. Greenberg also placed her on a graduated progesterone replacement therapy. Carol's home was also detoxified.
Carol's Recovery Process
Recovery has been a slow process, but Carol is close to being back to her old self. "Dr. Greenberg told me he would get to the bottom of my problems," says Carol. "He never said "maybe." While she continues to take hormone drops, she's working out, staying active and once again enjoying life. "Her energy level has improved dramatically," says Greenberg with satisfaction. "She's doing tremendously well."
