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. 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 footlocker. 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.
If you want some of the OPCs that worked for me, you can use our contact page or go to Quest For Health Remedies
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