Feel Like Bugs Are Crawling All Over You? Study Says Disease Is All in Your Head
- Posted on January 26, 2012 at 6:58pm by
Liz Klimas
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Morgellons disease can result in sores with strange black fibers. (Image: Morgellons.org)
ATLANTA (AP) — Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.
Many of these people were in California and one of that state’s U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.
The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients’ minds.
“We found no infectious cause,” said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.
The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.
Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and – perhaps worst of all – mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they’ve suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn’t named until 2002, when “Morgellons” was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.
Check out this ABC News report:
Watch this KTVU news report from a few years ago:
Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.
Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.
The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.
They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.
Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found – and was able to reach — 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.
That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. “So it’s rare,” Eberhard said.
Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.
Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.
There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person’s house to look around.
They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly – not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient’s body.
Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.
What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.
However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.
So what do they have? The researchers don’t know. They don’t even know what to call it, opting for the label “unexplained dermopathy” in their paper.
But clearly, something made them miserable. “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.
She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.
The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.
Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.
On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.
“There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?” he said, in an email.
The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency’s expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.
“We’re not mental health experts,” one CDC spokeswoman said.
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Comments (51)
Auntie izlam
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:29pmI was told my symptoms were all in my head…stress , but after insisting certain medical tests be done the results proved I had kidney disease. Not everyone graduates at the top of the class, not even doctors.
Report Post »Ayla_me
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 8:19amMy 2 yr old granddaughter has Rett Syndrome…1 out of 100,000 girls only will have the disease. She began manifesting symptoms at age 6 months. Due to the rarity, is it in her head only? Please, people, be kind and compassionate on here. It saddens me to see so very many sarcastic, rude, and just plain mean-spirited comments. I suffered for years with fibromyalgia pain, until a doctor perscribed Lyrica. It was such a help! I believe these people have a truly real condition. No one knows all that goes on in America. Maybe it is an areial-bourne thing. Maybe it is a chemical reaction that occurs primarily in someone with a specific dermatological make-up. Perhaps it is a case of damage to a particular genome, as is the case of my granddaughter. I think it may be more likely, a form of ameoba or some such. There are very many unknown things in this world yet to be discovered. And with the changes that scientists are making to everything, from seeds, to animal feed, to vaccines, and floride…really, do we know how the human body will ALWAYS react?? People are unique, and each person reacts in unique ways to various stimula. Please do not be rude and dismissive. The same holds true for the girls in NY. We do not know everything.
Report Post »OUTSIDEOFTHEBOX
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 9:32am@auntie izlam I couldn’t have said that better myself. Every time the doctors can‘t figure out what’s wrong with someone they ALWAYS tell you it’s all in your head. Screw doctors. They don’t know everything.
Report Post »people4people
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 5:08pmThe government is covering up something obviously and they were told to report this crap! My daughter has this **** and I thought before I saw it that it was a reaction to her eating something that she was allergic too so I told her to drink more water. When I actually looked at it, it scared the heck out of me. We were on vacation and I sent pics to our family doctor and he said he didn’t know exactly and told me to get some zyrtec. I had a prescription of CIPRO, which I always kept extra and told her to take it for the next 3 days and see what happens. Violla, it disappeared! This is some sort of crap that the government doesn’t want you to know about. I had my daughter finish taking the medicine for 7 days and there has been no relapse since. Our government is doing things all the time and not letting us know what it is. It was not hear head imagining it and it was not itching. More needs to be made of this. This is the first time I have heard about it and when I saw the pictures it was the exact same thing she had! The cipro did the trick!
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:32pmThis disease is as real as adhd or fibromyalgia.
Report Post »Pillar of Fire
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 10:47amIt is a real disease. 20% Colloidal Silver will kill the minute worms. You can drink & bathe in the water/silver solution. It kills them and does not hurt the patient.
Report Post »jeffile
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:06pmYea! And Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome were also in the heads of people.
Report Post »Kerri g
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:02pm4xeverything: great post. I very much agree. And I do pray for them and ask that their be opened and their heats softened.
Report Post »Bill in Texas
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:41amIt almost looks like MRSA to me.
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/ss/slideshow-closer-look-at-mrsa
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:01pmI had this condition and it does look like MRSA but test performed all negative. I was given bacitracin and other things like antibiotics nothing worked it only got worse. I was flown to Wisconsin and was wrapped with silvadine bandages for a week and that worked now I only have numerous scars. To say this is a imaginary disease is ludicrous.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:27pmI may add I am a Veteran and know other Veterans who have this condition and are treated at the VA hospitals. Veterans are now mandatorily tested for MRSA if you become a inpatient.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:06amCan’t wait until certain cancers that cost too much to treat are deemed “all in your head.” Welcome to the world of Obamacare, aka Whoop Whoop. Sorry, that is an obscure movie reference.
Report Post »Susan
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:05amEveryone tell me again how chemtrails/geo-engineering are only contrails and what a dumb azz I am for thinking chemtrails are real.
I have these fibers, luckily I knew what they were when they fell like spider webs from the sky and I captured some from my garden (without touching them) and placed them in a baggie. I might add they grew inside the baggie.
I don’t ask anyone to believe me. I do however ask that you look up. Watch the planes spray these white lines that do not disappear. THEN keep watching, see what they do. Some form puffy clouds. Some form wisps that cover the sky. You will even see them spray a grid (checker board look) Watch the oily rainbow colors that form in them.
When they cover the sun, notice you can still see the sun, but the suns light is dimmed.
Like I say, don’t believe me, just open your mind and look up. A closed mind houses an unused brain.
Dear God, I so wish I was wrong….
By the way….do NOT touch these fibers. As I held this one up with a stick it kept reaching for me. If you touch them they‘ll attach to you and you’ll have morgellons too!
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 2:06pmSusan
Please take a photo, JPEG it and attach to your postings. I think all of us need to actually see what this stuff looks like.
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 8:12amWomen for decades were told that Fibromyalgia was all in their heads. There is a whole list of ailments and diseases that women have been told is all in their heads. As with most cases like this, the insurance company, who would be required to pay for treatment were the disease proven real, has a vested interest in claiming it is psychological. The CDC is a political organization, nothing more. Insurance companies spend huge amounts of money for their candidates to be elected.
This “study” seems to be about as useful as most special interest “studies.” Complete *********.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 12:14amSorry, fibromyalgia has been proven to be a phsycological disorder by every reputable study ever conducted on the subject. That‘s why it’s classified as a syndrome and not a disease.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 6:50amThis whole story just makes my skin crawl.
Report Post »blackcatrun
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 6:02amI am not sure what the water scources are of the areas morgellons is showing up in but have a hunch its from floride exposer. Allergic reaction to the water they drink maybe? I dont know for sure. This is a real condition and people who suffer from it get worse as time goes by.
Report Post »Delores at CH WV
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:06amKnowing first hand, I believe either the aliens are spreading this disorder on contact with them OR big daddy government is Never going to tell you what these lesions are about.
The CDC spends more money trying to get us to let them experiment with us with their “vaccines of the month scares” than it will ever spend on finding out what these critters are. I can only conclude that they know what it is and they are behind this little experiment.
A disorder doesn’t have to spread if you have other means to inflict the patient one on on as an experiment. I think it is time to Contact George Noory . . . I am sure Coast to Coast AM will find out just how many people are really suffering from this disorder. HA! I laugh at the CDC as they say they don’t deal with Mental Disorders . . .I think most of their weird Scientists are taken out of the Mental Institutions all over the World, afterall, Eric Holder using the Sane people in our prison system for his experimental operations against We the People.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:35amPeople who think “chemtrails” are real are most likely people who think god is real and Mary was a virgin.
Report Post »blackcatrun
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 6:04amTake a lot practice to be a ********?
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:03amTakes even more practice to hate so much and to be so unhappy that you can’t just live and let live. To be a constant downer and doubter must take its toll. I’ll pray for you..like it or not.
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:27am…
I know a man who has had these symptoms almost non-stop, for years.
I’ve seen the oozing sores and the strange wire-like fibers that grow out of the sores. I’ve seen how tired he is after two and three days of not being able to sleep, because his skin crawls and his muscles twitch. He was once a big strong man, but now he is so weak and has no energy.
Nearly all of his quality of life is gone, because of this disease. He has lost his job. He has no income. It‘s a horrible disease and most doctors won’t acknowledge it’s existence. This man’s symptoms get so bad at times, he becomes suicidal.
Report Post »BECKONOMIST
Posted on May 22, 2012 at 5:09pmI wish I had seen this earlier but my computer was down. I have had this for the last 9 months. I have gotten the symptoms under control and have no lesions. There is hope for your friend.. please tell him not to give up. I will gladly share how I have dealt with it. Forget going to Doctors.. they will just give him a diagnosis of DOP. Delusions of parasitosis. I take MMS. It has reversed alot of the syptoms but not cured me yet.. Until I get rid of this myself, I have no hope of ever having a relationship with anyone, It’s not a skin condition, it’s systemic. it’s in my blood, urine, saliva, sweat and tears. I have no lesions for the fibers to come out of, they just come right out of my skin. Please let me know how I can help. He is in my prayers.
Report Post »MidwestMomof3
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:38amAaaaannnndddd…cue the “chemtrail” freaks. Wonderful.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:51pmMuch like religion. All in your head.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:25amtry to convince 90% of people on the blaze that.. they think you’re the one who is brainless.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:46pmUnless you are a flea ****** Democrat occupier… Then bugs really are crawiling all over you !!!
Report Post »conbones
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:24amSo true detroit LOL… ironic isn’t it
Report Post »stang289
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:18pmhttp://www.longislandskywatch.com/index.php/morgellons heres a link
Report Post »brien1969
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 7:42amhurry, grab your bottle of vinegar and run out and spray it around. I heard this gets rid of chemtrails. LOL! You have to be kidding me about the chemtrails. Wow, people like you actually get to vote too. crazy.
Report Post »ThoreauHD
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:58pmI wonder how many people with Lyme’s disease are depressed. How stupid can you get. They’re growing fibers under their skin. If mental illness does that, then they need a new field of study in manufacturing. I’d like to wish for a new pair of jeans to puke it out of a skin lesion.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 12:19amThey’re not growing fibers under their skin. Fibers from their clothes are sticking to the sores they’ve created by incesantly scratching themselves, and they are sufficiently mentally unstable that they think they grew out of the sore.
Report Post »ViewPointtt
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:52pmIf they said otherwise (that it’s all in their heads), then they would be more likely to be forced into addressing global radiation, chemtrails etc. in a greater way. Chemtrails, in addition to containing aluminum, barium, and strontium, etc., also contain fungi… fungus is a living organism. Fungi feast on radiation if they contain melanin (the chemical that serves as skin pigment in humans). If the fungi are floating around in much of the air we breathe, we are not only getting fungus via foods, but now inhaling the fungi. Fungus thrives in soil… and so the fungi released, sprayed in the air is now certainly in concentrated levels in the soil. Internal fungal parasites can cause intense itching in the skin… especially if killed off in high numbers… called; a die-off. People who eat a diet rich in cinnamon, garlic, rosemary, basil, thyme, olives/olive oil, onion, ginger, coconut, grapefruit, apple cider vinegar (to name a few) kill internal parasites in high numbers (cinnamon is the most potent anti-fungal). People, who have such diet, are often among those that are focused on achieving optimal health… which explains their conclusion about Morgellons sufferers “more obsessive about physical ailments.” Remember, not long ago, the psychiatric industry concluded that people who diligently pursue a healthy diet have a mental disorder and might need chemical treatment. Although it’s terribly uncomfortable for those suffering intense itching, they are likely kill
Report Post »spasm
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:55pmsounds legit. time to put my ole tinfoil hat on just in case.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:13pmReally? Why don’t you spam up less reputable blogs?
Please explain where the elements you mention come from in “chemtrails”. By chemtrails, do you mean the artificial clouds created when a plane’s hot exhaust (made up mostly of CO2 and H2O from combustion) mixes with cold moist air?
Report Post »ViewPointtt
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:41amthey are likely killing the fungal parasites in significant numbers before they can reach a high level of infestation… unlike the majority of Americans that eat mostly processed, fast foods. The higher the level of parasite-infestation, the higher the level of acid in the body… by killing off the parasites, the body can return to an alkaline state… disease can not thrive in an alkaline body.
Report Post »Venturing a guess; the stringy fibers inside their sores may be the result of scratching through their clothes, until fibers from their garments are transferred and imbedded into their sores.
ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:49pmThis study is BS and they are liars.
Morgellons is for real.
All the most respected medical Institutions like John Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic acknowledge this disease exists, but don‘t understand it’s origin or how to cure it.
It definately comes from chemtrails.
Watch the Skies. You will see the chemtrails. They have stepped this up, as of late.
some days will start with clear blue skies. Then notice the chemtrails around noon.
These are not Contrails. Condensation trails evaporate or freeze and fall.
By the end of the day the sky looks like it is full of smoke, not clouds.
Here is what to look for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKGvuOSs6qU
Report Post »Susan
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:18amI’m glad to see there are a couple of people here with their minds and eyes open. Yes, chemtrails are real. The government admits to them. They say together with HAARP they can radio submarienes deep under the ocean on the other end of the world.
Childrens science text books say they’re a sun screen for the earth to combat global warming.
All I know for sure is the metals in them destroy the PH in our soil making vegetables and trees sick. I can‘t say they’re designed to kill us, but they are. We breath in the metals into our lungs, they get in our blood and brains. They are the reason for genetically engineered corn, soy, etc. because traditional seed struggles so in the soil now.
Ask yourself, why is America the ONLY nation that doesn’t label our foods. Every other nation puts GE labels on GE foods. Round up is bred into the seed/plants. We can no longer wash the poisions off our food because its in the food now. BTW…97% of our corn crop is now GE.
Report Post »stang289
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:46pmMany conspiracy sites say the are coming from the sky . AKA chemtrails. sounds crazy but one site LongIslandskywatch says they had video proof of the fibers in snowflakes last winter .
Report Post »fukjihad
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:25pmare you kidding me, California has more meth heads than any other state. Meth causes people to think they have bugs crawling in their skin. I did not watch the videos, did they drug test these people?
Report Post »scruffycat
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:42amExactly. Meth heads thinking that Bill Gates is scanning their room by means of their laser mouse while constantly picking holes in their head and face and neck and legs because the bugs are crawling beneath their skin. Amphetamine Psychosis. Possibly coupled with an overall ph imbalance towards the acidic due to their meth use and lack of diet. They pick holes in their skin, the skin tries to scab over and produce skin knitting substrate, its sticky and picks up fibers from the surroundings.
Its probably not Chinese Nematodes imported in those knock off 5 dollar a pair sneakers from walmart…
Report Post »Pillar of Fire
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:19pmto Randy Wymore, Pharmisist in training: have you tried epithelial electrolysis across these areas?
Report Post »Pillar of Fire
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:15pmThis is a very real illness!! The “critter” looks like a long, transparent seahorse, but obviously without crooks in body. http://www.YouTube.com has so many films of this on there. A nanobite? or byte? What are the unusual properties of these fibers? All are outside professions. What ARE they dumping into the air to cause the myth of global warming …just another peon’s op…
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:26pmHere is someone I consider the most educated man I have ever witnessed in my lifetime, talking about morgellon’s.
This guy could talk with Einstein and Hawkings for hours.
He is a Doctor That treated NSA, CIA and more, and is a whistleblower:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daOhYKsrUt0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h21ubIzOQPw
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:27amyea right, this guy is quack
Report Post »jzs
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:05pmIf this creeps you out, watch the movie “Bug” which unfortunately is not available on netflix instant view. Not the best movie, but worth watching if you’d enjoy watching the downward spiral of a few paranoid people who think their bodies are being infested by the government. The sad thing is, this could be a true story in the not too distant future if Obama wins a second term.
Report Post »Sushie Q
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:48pmThere is a very interesting video on YouTube called “From Chemtrails to Pseudo-Life: the Dark Agenda of Synthetic Biology”. People have been complaining about Morgellons for years; just because doctors don‘t know what something is doesn’t make the ailment a figment of the imagination (Lyme disease, Epstein Barr Virus, Lupus, etc.). This video raises some good points and is definitely worth a look.
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