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Thoughts and a hypothesis
One of the symptoms I’ve consistently experienced with my PATM has been an apparent magnification of odors from things around me. For example, if I walk past a flowerbed, the smell of the flowers becomes almost unbearably intense. Also, even though our sense of smell usually adjusts to odors in the environment so that after a few seconds we no longer even notice it, with PATM, I notice that smells (from other things) seem to linger around me for much longer.
If I try to think logically about this phenomenon of amplified smells for a moment, it seems that there are only two possible explanations for it. Odors, unlike energy waves, cannot actually be “amplified”; odors are transmitted as molecules in the air, and when we smell something (e.g., “flowers”), it means molecules from the thing have wafted into our nose to react with our olfactory receptor neurons. Therefore, the intensity of a smell should depend entirely on the number of odorous molecules reacting with our olfactory nerve receptors.
One explanation of an increased smell, then, might be that I “coax” things in the environment to release more of their odorous molecules than they normally would, and this increased number of odorous molecules impinges on my olfactory receptors to produce an increased sensation of smell. This explanation seems unlikely, given that I also experience increased smell from inorganic substances like bleach, and it’s hard to imagine how non-living things could be “coaxed” to release more odorous molecules.
The second, and as I see it, only, viable explanation is that something my body produces increases the perception of smell, perhaps by facilitating odorous molecules to bind to nerve receptors (by opening them up more) or by allowing them to bind to receptors for a longer amount of time. In other words, the actual number of odorous molecules in the air doesn’t increase; only the ability of our olfactory nerve to sense the molecules already present in the air does. Perhaps this is why people think they smell ungodly odors from me – they are simply smelling “godly” odors more strongly.
If I try to think logically about this phenomenon of amplified smells for a moment, it seems that there are only two possible explanations for it. Odors, unlike energy waves, cannot actually be “amplified”; odors are transmitted as molecules in the air, and when we smell something (e.g., “flowers”), it means molecules from the thing have wafted into our nose to react with our olfactory receptor neurons. Therefore, the intensity of a smell should depend entirely on the number of odorous molecules reacting with our olfactory nerve receptors.
One explanation of an increased smell, then, might be that I “coax” things in the environment to release more of their odorous molecules than they normally would, and this increased number of odorous molecules impinges on my olfactory receptors to produce an increased sensation of smell. This explanation seems unlikely, given that I also experience increased smell from inorganic substances like bleach, and it’s hard to imagine how non-living things could be “coaxed” to release more odorous molecules.
The second, and as I see it, only, viable explanation is that something my body produces increases the perception of smell, perhaps by facilitating odorous molecules to bind to nerve receptors (by opening them up more) or by allowing them to bind to receptors for a longer amount of time. In other words, the actual number of odorous molecules in the air doesn’t increase; only the ability of our olfactory nerve to sense the molecules already present in the air does. Perhaps this is why people think they smell ungodly odors from me – they are simply smelling “godly” odors more strongly.
I’ve been following some interesting research showing that we all carry a microbial cloud with us at all times. This cloud is unique and can even leave a “signature” of our presence in a confined space long after we’ve left it: https://peerj.com/articles/1258/. I wonder if I could have some unusual irritant in my bacterial cloud that causes the olfactory nerve receptors to become more sensitive? This same irritant also probably could irritate the mucous membranes of the airways in general, causing people to cough. People frequently make gestures towards their noses around me, and I’ve heard people say that they can’t breathe around me, so it seems that there might be some kind of airborne irritant hovering about me.
If PATM is caused by something in my bacterial cloud, this might make sense of how people can be so readily affected by me even from great distances. For instance, the irritant in my bacterial cloud might be especially volatile in air, and therefore readily find its way to other people via wind or updrafts. I know that some PATMers report causing people even “upwind” of them to cough (I’ve experienced this myself), and this fact might seemingly contradict a bacterial cloud explanation of PATM; however, it’s important to remember that fluid dynamics can be quite complex: Even if wind is blowing towards your face, there still might be an undercurrent of air around your feet going in the opposite direction. I think that once the PATM irritant gets into my bacterial cloud, its volatility and potency are significant enough to affect people pretty much anywhere within 50 feet of me (and it might even linger in places that I once was, even if I’ve long since left).
What could this irritant be, exactly? While researching different kinds of coughs (since PATM seems to result in bizarre, atypical coughs), I came across a website reporting that bradykinin seems to cause uncontrollable dry coughs in some people on ACE inhibitors, which increase bradykinin levels:
http://preventdisease.com/news/14/021814_8-Different-Coughs-Their-Symptoms-What-Each-Means-For-Your-Health.shtml
I’m engaging in pure conjecture right now, but I wonder if my body could be releasing bradykinin, or a similar molecule, into my bacterial cloud to cause people to cough around me? Bradykinin is supposed to cause “contraction of non-vascular smooth muscle in the bronchus and gut” (Wikipedia), and it seems to me that the coughs I cause in people are very much involuntary. Even people whom I’ve told about my PATM (and who know how sensitive I am about it) can’t help but cough around me sometimes (they’re less histrionic about it than random strangers are, but they cough nonetheless – so I assume it’s an impulse they can’t control).
I don’t have the resources to pursue this idea (i.e., I’m not a biochemistry student with access to labs, and I really don’t have enough knowledge to know whether this hypothesis is even biologically feasible), but I just wanted to put this idea out there. PATM does occasionally make me question logic, but I’m not ready to abandon the current biomedical paradigm. I know some people may have been influenced by ideas from alternative medicine (e.g., that PATM could be caused by imbalances in the regulation of our bodies’ electromagnetic radiation or something like that – I think Deepak Chopra might promulgate ideas similar to this), but I think we would be better served by trying to communicate with the medical community using the standard biomedical paradigm that most doctors are accustomed to. To that end, I wonder if perhaps PATM is an irritant with properties similar to bradykinin (or bradykinin itself) that is released into our bacterial cloud causing people to cough around us.
If PATM is caused by something in my bacterial cloud, this might make sense of how people can be so readily affected by me even from great distances. For instance, the irritant in my bacterial cloud might be especially volatile in air, and therefore readily find its way to other people via wind or updrafts. I know that some PATMers report causing people even “upwind” of them to cough (I’ve experienced this myself), and this fact might seemingly contradict a bacterial cloud explanation of PATM; however, it’s important to remember that fluid dynamics can be quite complex: Even if wind is blowing towards your face, there still might be an undercurrent of air around your feet going in the opposite direction. I think that once the PATM irritant gets into my bacterial cloud, its volatility and potency are significant enough to affect people pretty much anywhere within 50 feet of me (and it might even linger in places that I once was, even if I’ve long since left).
What could this irritant be, exactly? While researching different kinds of coughs (since PATM seems to result in bizarre, atypical coughs), I came across a website reporting that bradykinin seems to cause uncontrollable dry coughs in some people on ACE inhibitors, which increase bradykinin levels:
http://preventdisease.com/news/14/021814_8-Different-Coughs-Their-Symptoms-What-Each-Means-For-Your-Health.shtml
I’m engaging in pure conjecture right now, but I wonder if my body could be releasing bradykinin, or a similar molecule, into my bacterial cloud to cause people to cough around me? Bradykinin is supposed to cause “contraction of non-vascular smooth muscle in the bronchus and gut” (Wikipedia), and it seems to me that the coughs I cause in people are very much involuntary. Even people whom I’ve told about my PATM (and who know how sensitive I am about it) can’t help but cough around me sometimes (they’re less histrionic about it than random strangers are, but they cough nonetheless – so I assume it’s an impulse they can’t control).
I don’t have the resources to pursue this idea (i.e., I’m not a biochemistry student with access to labs, and I really don’t have enough knowledge to know whether this hypothesis is even biologically feasible), but I just wanted to put this idea out there. PATM does occasionally make me question logic, but I’m not ready to abandon the current biomedical paradigm. I know some people may have been influenced by ideas from alternative medicine (e.g., that PATM could be caused by imbalances in the regulation of our bodies’ electromagnetic radiation or something like that – I think Deepak Chopra might promulgate ideas similar to this), but I think we would be better served by trying to communicate with the medical community using the standard biomedical paradigm that most doctors are accustomed to. To that end, I wonder if perhaps PATM is an irritant with properties similar to bradykinin (or bradykinin itself) that is released into our bacterial cloud causing people to cough around us.
1 Comments
If you've ever been anywhere near Easy-Off oven cleaner you know what the involuntary dry coughing feels like....and it's because Easy-Off is highly alkaline...PATM irritant is probably highly alkaline
Smells stick to me too. Iv gathered some scientists names from the microbial cloud articles. I will write them about patm. Our condition is highly related to this subject. Im gioing on 8 years now myself
1 Comments
I am getting so depressed with all the pills and weight loss. Developed acid refux real bad.
Mysmell increased intensely n it sems likeno matter what I try uding everyone still reacts around me. Im fine hen its real cool outside n when its hot outside eveyone reacts around me. My office heats up too, my going thru premenapse and its worst. Cant cool down.
Totally agree with you about it being a bacterial cloud, that seems to be the most simple and logical explanation. I think our sweat has something to do with this too, as when i get anxiety and nervous and sweat more the reaction seems to increase or this could all be an illusion and we are just extra sensitive to people's reactions. People will cough and sneeze regardless for other reasons. I feel like this isn't the case though as i didn't notice this type of reaction until recently within this past year when I moved and got a different job.
2 Comments
I've also noticed that sweating seems to make reactions worse. Sweating, along with breathing, urination,and defecation, is an important exit pathway out of our bodies. And when we're nervous, our blood pumps faster and our metabolism probably speeds up, which would cause any bloodborne toxins to be released faster and in greater amounts.
I find that, after my morning shower, I can usually move about in public for about half an hour before reactions start in earnest. I've wondered if this has to do with increased sweating (although half an hour hardly seems like long enough to significantly increase sweating) or maybe it's because moving about in public increases my metabolism and therefore "fully activates" the PATM-machine that is my body.
A person on this forum previously posted that a blood transfusion helped his PATM, and I've always thought that any treatment for PATM would probably involve something like kidney dialysis or a blood transfusion, since it seems that something as effusive as PATM would have to be bloodborne in nature (i.e., in my case, the PATM irritant seems to be released on my sweat, on my breath, in my urine - God help me when I use public urinals - the PATM irritant seems to come out of every pore in my body, and for something to do that, it would need to have access to the bloodstream to move so readily to the lungs, bladder, dead skin cells, sweat glands, etc.).
I just wonder if a blood transfusion would really be a cure though? Maybe it's just a temporary treatment (which I would welcome nonetheless), and the PATM irritant would still need to be removed from my system on a systematic basis (like in kidney dialysis). Regardless, it would be almost impossible to convince a doctor to do dialysis or a blood transfusion just as an exploratory measure. Even the doctors who agree that there's something "off" about my body probably couldn't be driven to recommend these procedures, unless I also had kidney failure or something like that.
I don't want to worry anybody or turn anybody into a hypochondriac about PATM, so let me also say that if you have the luxury of doubting whether you have PATM or not, then you probably don't have it. For me, PATM is undeniable - when I have to share hotel rooms with people at scientific conferences, it consistently happens that all of these people somehow find an "extra room" (even though the hotel was fully booked) or move in with someone else so they don't have to be around me (I know, you'll probably respond: "But how do you know they're avoiding you? Maybe they just want to be with someone else they know or try to be by themselves or something?" I can only respond that, when it happens at 4 different conferences with 4 different colleagues (who are otherwise quite nice with me in a professional context), then that suggests a trend - not an isolated incident. And on the one occasion when a colleague did suffer through sharing a room with me, he coughed and cleared his throat throughout the night.
Both of my academic supervisors also react to me - they cough and clear their throats at least once a minute while we have our weekly meetings. And they acknowledge that I cause it, and they know that I know that I cause it, but we just carry on as professionals nonetheless. Some of my friends also apologize to me after they cough, knowing that I'm sensitive about it.
So, for me, PATM is undeniable, and I know most people's knee-jerk reaction is to deny it (and understandably so), but I've already gone through the stage of denial with this health problem, and I'm not about to regress to that stage after all of the embarrassment I've been through already.
I find that, after my morning shower, I can usually move about in public for about half an hour before reactions start in earnest. I've wondered if this has to do with increased sweating (although half an hour hardly seems like long enough to significantly increase sweating) or maybe it's because moving about in public increases my metabolism and therefore "fully activates" the PATM-machine that is my body.
A person on this forum previously posted that a blood transfusion helped his PATM, and I've always thought that any treatment for PATM would probably involve something like kidney dialysis or a blood transfusion, since it seems that something as effusive as PATM would have to be bloodborne in nature (i.e., in my case, the PATM irritant seems to be released on my sweat, on my breath, in my urine - God help me when I use public urinals - the PATM irritant seems to come out of every pore in my body, and for something to do that, it would need to have access to the bloodstream to move so readily to the lungs, bladder, dead skin cells, sweat glands, etc.).
I just wonder if a blood transfusion would really be a cure though? Maybe it's just a temporary treatment (which I would welcome nonetheless), and the PATM irritant would still need to be removed from my system on a systematic basis (like in kidney dialysis). Regardless, it would be almost impossible to convince a doctor to do dialysis or a blood transfusion just as an exploratory measure. Even the doctors who agree that there's something "off" about my body probably couldn't be driven to recommend these procedures, unless I also had kidney failure or something like that.
I don't want to worry anybody or turn anybody into a hypochondriac about PATM, so let me also say that if you have the luxury of doubting whether you have PATM or not, then you probably don't have it. For me, PATM is undeniable - when I have to share hotel rooms with people at scientific conferences, it consistently happens that all of these people somehow find an "extra room" (even though the hotel was fully booked) or move in with someone else so they don't have to be around me (I know, you'll probably respond: "But how do you know they're avoiding you? Maybe they just want to be with someone else they know or try to be by themselves or something?" I can only respond that, when it happens at 4 different conferences with 4 different colleagues (who are otherwise quite nice with me in a professional context), then that suggests a trend - not an isolated incident. And on the one occasion when a colleague did suffer through sharing a room with me, he coughed and cleared his throat throughout the night.
Both of my academic supervisors also react to me - they cough and clear their throats at least once a minute while we have our weekly meetings. And they acknowledge that I cause it, and they know that I know that I cause it, but we just carry on as professionals nonetheless. Some of my friends also apologize to me after they cough, knowing that I'm sensitive about it.
So, for me, PATM is undeniable, and I know most people's knee-jerk reaction is to deny it (and understandably so), but I've already gone through the stage of denial with this health problem, and I'm not about to regress to that stage after all of the embarrassment I've been through already.
You should bring one of these people to the doctor with you and see what the doctor's thoughts. If I found somebody who I trusted enough to discuss this and had reactions always with I would try this route. I truly believe this is a new phenomenon and as of yet hasn't been discovered in the medical community or at least has been talked about because of the internet being an open forum without too much judgement we are pioneering this.
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