Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker returns to discuss the diagnosis and management of a condition he discovered as a physician-researcher, chronic inflammatory inflammatory syndrome (CIRS). CIRS is important because it is a scientifically-validated condition that affects millions of Americans, most often in the form of chronic illness after mold exposure. (One out of every two buildings in the United States is water-damaged.) Genetically vulnerable patients develop a wide range of symptoms including fatigue, depression, muscle soreness and other symptoms and are often misdiagnosed by the medical establishment as having fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or a psychiatric condition. In our first conversation, Dr. Shoemaker discussed how he came to discover this mysterious illness as a family medicine doctor in Maryland. In this second part, we turn our attention toward all things clinical including the case definition of CIRS, the main symptoms, biomarkers, genetic susceptibility, visual contrast sensitivity testing and the treatment protocol. To learn more, we highly recommend his books Mold Warriors and Surviving Mold and his website survivingmold.com. 

Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D. is a recognized leader in the field of biotoxin-related illness. Dr. Shoemaker was a primary care physician in Pocomoke, Maryland who began treating a mysterious illness in 1996 related to a Pfiesteria outbreak in the Chesapeake Bay. His subsequent journey in patient care, advocacy and scientific research led him to identify a common underlying pathway called the Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS). CIRS is the end-result illness that occurs after exposure to biotoxins in genetically susceptible individuals. Dr. Shoemaker identified the same clinical symptoms, vision problems and alterations in blood work reflecting underlying inflammatory and immune irregularity in patients who became chronically ill after exposure to a wide range of biotoxins from Pfiesteria, blue-green algal blooms in Florida, tick bites and, most prevalent, mold from water-damaged buildings. He is the author of Mold Warriors and Surviving Mold. Dr. Shoemaker is joining us for a two-part interview. In this first segment, he discusses the events that led to his discovery of CIRS. The second segment will focus on the clinical work-up of CIRS. Learn more at Dr. Shoemaker's website survivingmold.com