Hi MMH, I think you are correct. I cannot possibly blame the cigarettes for 4 months of misery, but I can indeed say that whatever they did? definitely shows there are far bigger problems going on below the surface.

I have always had a defect with eliminating toxins. I have been shown to have a significant imbalance in my liver phases I and II and it's put down to either long term toxicity and/or genetic uniqueness. I feel it's genetic, because things began a long time ago for me.

But on top of this? I got a severe viral/bacterial infection in 2003, that pretty much wiped me out from then on. Since that time, not only did the tendencies I already have become far more pronounced, but my body appears to behave in a very odd way now and it can be frightening. I gather my immune system has gone rather haywire.

Then I find out from a doctor testing me that there is gangrene/dead pulp in my jaw. He tested it right by the area where a wisdom tooth had been previously removed. Yet nothing really shows up significantly on xray, so no dentist will bother with me. I did have bone scan, but it only showed cavitations in the upper jaws, not lower (where the doctor detected the actual gangrene).

This is very hard for me, as the problems are many and happening all at once. I have also been told my replacment materials after amalgams are also incompatible with my immune system.

As you can see, my body appears to be dealing with too much at onetime. So though the cigarettes could not have caused this, they triggered a dreadful toxin overload for me and probably unleashed other things also in the process.

Certainly, I overdid it, so that did not help. But smoking the junk ones of today with what they have, may not be significant to someone else, but to my system? they are.

But anyway, thanks a lot for your balanced approach here and for your suggestions. I feel my problems are also dental related and may need to make some steps in that direction. Problem is, any dental work makes me much worse, so I feel i'm in a no win situation at the moment. Just trying right now to be patient, eat well and hope my system improves from the cigarette binge, so I can possibly go and do something about the underlining problems!

Cheers

Bex.