This diagnosis continues to bother me - I have developed a very low tolerance for anyone telling anyone that a set of symptoms is "all in their heads" (typically it seems to be persons lacking the requisite qualifications to be making such declarations who are doing so) - how many times and with how many diagnoses is that same mistake going to be made, and condoned by onlookers?

This study detailing the results of a CDC investigation is cited by a Wikipedia article on Morgellon's...

Clinical, Epidemiologic, Histopathologic and Molecular Features of an Unexplained Dermopathy
Michele L. Pearson, 1 Joseph V. Selby, 2 Kenneth A. Katz, 3 Virginia Cantrell, 2 Christopher R. Braden, 4 Monica E. Parise, 5 Christopher D. Paddock, 6 Michael R. Lewin-Smith, 7 Victor F. Kalasinsky, 8 Felicia C. Goldstein, 9 Allen W. Hightower, 5 Arthur Papier, 10 Brian Lewis, 11 Sarita Motipara, 2 Mark L. Eberhard, 5 , *
PLoS One. 2012; 7(1): e29908.
Published online 2012 Jan 25. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029908
PMCID: PMC3266263 PMID: 22295070
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266263

Upon reading the article this morning, I'm somewhat stricken with the citation of exposure to solvents - "78% reported exposure to solvents" - "Most (78%) reported engaging, or having a household member who engaged, in hobbies or activities that involved the use of solvents (e.g., furniture stripper, paint thinner, turpentine, charcoal lighter fluid)."

I have never been able to rule out that exposure to certain chemicals (including both certain solvents and certain pharmaceuticals) can bring out unwanted or pathogenic behaviors in Bacteroides fragilis, or that temporary exposures might have long-lasting consequences for an individual's bacteriology.

This is one of the articles that has had significant influence on these suspicions

Induction of multiple antibiotic resistance in Bacteroides fragilis by benzene and benzene-derived active compounds of commonly used analgesics, antiseptics and cleaning agents.
Pumbwe L1, Skilbeck CA, Wexler HM.
J Antimicrob Chemother. 2007 Dec;60(6):1288-97. Epub 2007 Sep 20.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17884830

(Note: Hannah Wexler and Lillian Pumbwe are seemingly two of the most esteemed and prolific authors on the subject of Bacteroides fragilis - I most likely have over 100 papers on B. fragilis by one or the other or both in my collection).

I also have to say that I'm troubled that the 2012 paper by Pearson, et al doesn't seem to me with any certainty to actually be able to distinguish between human skin and fabric! -
"Twenty-three fiber or other material specimens were obtained from diverse intact skin sites in 12 case-patients. The materials were largely composed of protein (83%), likely superficial skin or cellulose consistent with cotton fibers (43%)"

In my humble opinion, regardless of the origin or the content of the fibers, the associated lesions seem to represent a real and significant microbiological and clinical issue.

Anyway, my sympathies and my hopes go out to members of this forum. I cannot personally claim the discovery of fibers in my own lesions (not even from fabrics), but some of the other symptoms associated with Morgellon's seem only too familiar.

I have used a handheld microscope on the lesions I’ve had and photographed the 80x magnification of the lesions. I can say without a doubt that there are various “fibers” with different colors and many have an iridescent look. Several clinical studies have debunked the claims that the fibers are from textile materials. These academic journals note the way these fibers are produced in the body, what they’re made of (keratin and collagen), explanations for the varying colors of fibers etc.

Please take a look at some of the academic journals on these studies. Some of the very lengthy journals have a lot of medical jargon that gets confusing but they are full of information that has been written based on research in an actual clinical and controlled setting.
My symptoms started over a year ago and subsided after 2-2 1/2 months of brain fog, lesions that wouldn’t heal, insomnia, joint pain and fatigue etc.
Two weeks ago I started to recognize that these symptoms were returning. I had some doxycycline from an old prescription and my symptoms have been slowing down considerably.

The research on morgellons is becoming more prevalent because there is concrete evidence showing the correlation between Morgellons symptoms and Bovine Digital Dermatitis (BDD) a spirochetal infection.
This is a link to one of the studies on that correlation. “Patients with Morgellons disease have evidence of spirochetal infection demonstrated by serological reactivity to B. burgdorferi antigens, clinical Lyme diagnosis, and symptoms consistent with Lyme disease.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257881/#!po=7.98319

And a few other studies on Morgellons.
https://www.omicsonline.org/morgellons-disease-a-chemical-and-light-microscopic-study-2155-9554.1000140.php?aid=5477

https://www.scitechnol.com/peer-review/canine-filamentous-dermatitisassociated-with-borrelia-infection-1Qxf.php?article_id=5548

http://iai.asm.org/content/69/1/456.long

Thanks for the reply and the links. I'm quickly gaining faith in Marianne Middelveen, and quickly losing it in the CDC and Mayo Clinic - I've already had my life turned upside-down partly because of the bad info the Mayo Clinic has on my own diagnoses,

It's very hard to argue with the idea of a Morgellon's being a neurospirochetosis, having seen more of Middelveen's work now.

Thankfully I've been finding some more reasonable analyses of the fiber, too - I'd probably want to be in agreement that they're of human rather than fabric origin - in fact, the language in the CDC sponsored study seems to get vague about that and other things just when clarity matters most - repeatedly. Probably predictably, that seemed capable of skewing the way the popular press reports on Morgellon's so that they come out "cotton".

I also learned recently that Joni Mitchell received this diagnosis, I'm especially sympathetic toward anyone who's had their involvement in music compromised by a mystery disease.

Interestingly, I went to review the likelihood that Bacteroides or its close relatives are making the keratin fibers associated with my own diagnoses just to try and be more sure what I was suggesting here - what I actually got were articles that make it sound as if unusual behavior of human keratinocytes and melanocytes like excessive proliferation or pigmentation, may have to do with natural defensive responses to infectious fungi.

So currently I'm wondering about the possibility that Borrelia may not be working alone in Morgellon's, that there might be fungal biofilm involved. We've caught fungal biofilm playing host to anaerobic bacteria (which may feature in my thrombic disease as soon as it occurs to them to look for fungi), and even giving refuge to viruses - Iranian researchers think the fungi in the biofilm may be neutralizing antiviral agents so that the viruses in the biofilm survive antiviral treatments. If I recall correctly, this was a Candida biofilm hosting herpesvirus-6, in the context of possible causes or contributors to Multiple Sclerosis.

I can't think offhand of why spirochetes couldn't end up in fungal biofilms. Intracellular parasites like Borrelia seem to require places to hide and I'm curious if biofilm suits their needs even if it were extracellular.

It's still not clear to me though whether Middelveen thought to look for evidence of fungal infection. I can't seem to find where her or her team might have been reporting it.

The possibility of biofilm may have a bearing on antibiotic outcome also. With my Hidradenitis (HS) diagnosis, we can get improvements from a wide variety of antibiotics but generally lose the gains the minute the antibiotic runs out. I think it's led a lot of authors to be skeptical that there even is infection, but in fact that's typical behavior for bacterial biofilm and to the best of my knowledge the first three studies of HS looking for biofilm have already found it in a majority of cases, even though biofilm is notorious for often being difficult to culture and giving false negative lab results.

I saw it speculated that the intracellular location of Borrelia protects it from antibiotics, but I've been through the same thing with the HS - some of the most promising antibiotics don't actually seem to have trouble getting into infected host cells according to both careful studies, and personal experience.

It seems more like we keep killing everything but the biofilm, probably due to lack of technique for getting rid of biofilm, Typically we may be using the antibiotics to kill however many of the target microbes are easier to kill, but leaving more stubborn ones behind. There have been at least a half dozen theories from respectable research why biofilm can be challenging to kill.

Again, though, with the HS diagnosis, many doctors and researchers seem to have talked themselves of even thinking it's infection, and frequently prescribe antibiotics thinking the the antibiotics are actually acting as anti-inflammatories or immunosuppressives instead of antibiotics but we have some outstanding bacteriological work from France that says otherwise.

Doxycycline is one of the most frequently recommended antibiotics for HS - for reasons unknown but somehow totally unrelated to infections nonetheless, although I don't think it helped me because by the time I got it I think I was out of major contributors to the symptoms that it would actually work on. I may also have never been given a dose that would be expected to kill something, since nobody thought that was what they were doing, but many of us with HS have reported benefits.

Sadly, I don't think biofilm removal is normally going to be as safe or simple as a lot of people out there (particularly salesmen) seem to be making it out to be. It sounds to me as if done wrong, it may be able to help spread infection further and faster. Recommendations for Candida often don't seem to be much better (and usually refer to gut overgrowth rather than tissue infections), although if there's fungal infection involved it could turn out to be something else (possibly Aspergillus?) rather than Candida.

On the other hand, there are some promising research leads in fighting biofilm, and if you have a biofilm-related disease, setting aside the name of your particular diagnosis for a minute, you may have a lot more researchers working on your condition than perhaps even some researchers themselves realize.

(Dr. Randy Wescott is someone I consider a leading authority on biofilm, and I've heard him express enthusiasm for the idea that biofilms tend to be made of multiple species. He has a good presentation on YouTube about them although the last half hour is worth skipping for probably being a bit depressing, I think we have more hope for dealing with biofilm than he may have realized at the time).

I'm not sure what I still think of Bacteroides (or close relative Prevotella) playing a possible role in the characteristics of Morgellon's, although I keep seeing the occasional hint here and there. I think Middelveen reported finding both (among other things) in some of the reports. Either of those two could be linked to Crohn's (a common co-morbidity of my HS), and I noticed the following while looking in that direction.

This seems like it might make suggestions that Morgellon's might be more correctly considered a neuropathy than a "delusional parasitosis" (I think it's absurd for professionals to claim that actual lesions are all in someone's head). These Wikipedia entries make it sound like Morgellon's probably fits better under

Peripheral neuropathy > neuritis > paresthesia > formication

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn%27s_disease
Crohn's disease can also cause neurological complications (reportedly in up to 15%).[41] The most common of these are seizures, stroke, myopathy, peripheral neuropathy, headache and depression.[41]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_neuropathy
Neuritis[edit]
Neuritis is a general term for inflammation of a nerve[21] or the general inflammation of the peripheral nervous system. Symptoms depend on the nerves involved, but may include pain, paresthesia (pins-and-needles), paresis (weakness), hypoesthesia (numbness), anesthesia, paralysis, wasting, and disappearance of the reflexes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paresthesia
The most familiar kind of paresthesia is the sensation known as "pins and needles" or of a limb "falling asleep". A less well-known and uncommon but important paresthesia is formication*, the sensation of bugs crawling underneath the skin.

*(from "formica," the Latin word for "ant")

I don't know if any of that will help anyone to get more respect from doctors than being told they're delusional, but I can only hope so.

Melanocytes and melanin represent a first line of innate immunity against Candida albicans
https://academic.oup.com/mmy/article/52/5/445/2802514
"Taken together, these results suggest that melanocytes play a key role in innate immune responses against C. albicans infections by recognizing pathogenic forms of C. albicans via TLR4, resulting in increased melanin content and inhibition of infection."

Differential Antifungal Activity of Human and Cryptococcal Melanins with Structural Discrepancies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28744276
"Melanin exerts an antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We demonstrated an antifungal activity of synthetic and human melanin against Candida sp. "

[Antifungal activity of melanin in clinical isolates of Candida spp]. [Article in Spanish]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24740771
BACKGROUND: Melanocytes are cells located in epidermis and mucous membranes that synthesize melanin and cytokines. It is known that melanin has antimicrobial activity and that melanocytes are melanized in presence of microbial molecules...
CONCLUSIONS: Melanin is able to inhibit clinical isolates of Candida spp. Melanization could be an important protective mechanism of melanocytes.

Morgellons actually was named in 17th century medical journals.
In South America and in Mexico they have always had a name for
Morgellons. They call it "Cactus Mans Disease"
It strikes me that Big Pharma , the CDC, Insurance Companies and the Mainstream Medical Communities have worked over time to Call those who
suffer delusional.
Researchers (those who truly believe ) aren't sure that Lyme and it's co-infections i.e. Morgellons isn't sexually transmittable. Some believe it could be the 21st Centuries new (AIDS) epidemic. Yet little or no money is spent on research by the CDC, or other mainstream medical facilities.

My searches for "cactus mans disease" brought up sporotrichosis ("rose gardener's disease"). I don't know if there's been much suspicion of Sporothrix from researchers but there's some parallel between the circumstances and the circumstances that Raphael Stricker associates with the possibility of contracting Agrobacterium.

I do have to say it might sound more plausible than Omar Amin's indictment of Madurella, I think typically one expects to catch that from walking barefoot across the Sudan, or something like that? Other than that, Amin seemed to give some sensible bacteriology. I couldn't actually find details on the methods he used to identify Madurella and was wondering if he might have mistaken something else for Madurella.

It was very tempting to suspect Sporothrix on account of it reportedly having the genes to produce three different types of melanins, although the total of fibers colors I have from research reports on Morgellons now actually totals six.

I think I'm still more inclined in the direction of being suspicious of Aspergillus - mainly so far because I think a reasonable case might have been made for a role for Aspergillus in fibromyalgia, and there seems to be some significant overlap between fibromyalgia and Morgellons.

I dunno, they seem to generally agree with me that it may take more than a spirochete to explain the spectrum of Morgellons symtoms, but I've still tended to be a tiny bit wary of Middelveen, Savely, Stricker, Civotski, and Wymore - between them they've said a number of sort of "far out" things even when they should know better than anyone what trouble people with Morgellons can already have being taken seriously in the first place, let alone after the vast amount of probably counterproductive Internet mythology that seems to have been born out of "DNA-engineering bacteria," "indestructible fibers," and tiny bits of alumina imbedded in mysterious fibers and so forth...

On the other hand, nothing I've seen about mineral deposition that's been reported in Morgellon's seems inconsistent with the ability of microbes to sequester minerals (biomineralization, which has even been tentatively linked to unusual antibiotic resistance), and I'm starting to think it might help explain a great deal about the strange properties attributed to fibers by these researchers if these unusual properties (both tenacity and heat resistance, as well as their variety of colors) were attributable to the presence of fungal melanins in fibers (DHN-melanin in particular?)

I was a very very healthy person before I started to exhibit symptoms.
I ran 10 miles a day, I hiked, lifted weights and then out of the blue the skin
sensations began. I am very logical i was an EMT then I went back to school.
I finished my studies and my degree as a Clinical Lab Assistant, and a Phlebotomist.
Morgellons is in monkeys as well as other mammals. Vets are well aware
of the cause ie Lyme Disease. It starts there.
I don't remember a tick bite, however I have traveled all over the world and the Country.
Did I use DEET no to my shame I didn't. I didn't want to put that on my skin or in my system. The Skin is the largest living organ we have. I should have done my due diligence. I was also dx with fibro I asked my Dr if other Pts used a stiff back scrubber on their whole body to get relief the MD said I don't know. Please keep in mind that this Dr is booked 6 months or more in advance. I challenged my own sanity and I even went to counseling. I'm not crazy, I don't think there are bugs in me or on me, I did drive our exterminator crazy . (poor guy) There isn't any environmental reason or mental delusion that would attribute to my symptoms. The fuzz balls come from me. The crumbs or shed on my sheets come from me. (I shower at night) I don't use anything on my skin that would leave this behind because I have to use Lye soap nothing else works for me!!
The info out there is hard to absorb and there is a lot of Gov Trolls out there!!
Beware they (the Gov) doesn't want you to get better. We are way over populated soooo if the can keep you sick confused and call you crazy they will.
I thought Morgellons was a middle aged woman's DOP once. I have spent countless hours on line with many people just like me .
I know what it is now I am getting treatment and I am thankful.
One med is hard on my stomach but in the end I WILL reclaim my life!!
I also take the advice on preventing re infection this is really important to me!!
I hope each of you on this site remember that Trolls will try to throw confusion into the conversation.
This website isn't immune.
The CDC study was done just to shut us up. it wasn't even done right!! The
control group they used was crap and the didn't work with the countless people who have worked years and years on Lyme and it's related co infections Morgellons included!!!
Then there are all of those mysterious CDC Drs and researchers who have died under very suspicious circumstances. Hmmm....
If Big Pharma can't make millions then they will find a way to discredit you !
I don't trust my Gov or the band aide medical community!!

I recently learned an interesting thing that I think puts a spotlight on Mycoplasma in Morgellons, which is that is that makes peroxide. I already think a lot of what's been described in Morgellons relates to some big oxidative battle between the immune system and an infection with melanins and mineral deposits being stockpiled as a defense in this battle (say there's enough oxidization going on to cause mutations in cells in hair follicles that lead to five hairs sprouting from a single follicle, or hairs sprouting out of the side of follicles), and here is an infection that makes peroxide, and according to a number of sources, may use it as a weapon against its host.

As I'm sure everyone knows, Mycoplasma has also been cited in Morgellons-related Bovine Digital Dermatitis, and Mycoplasma are also stated to be carried by ticks, by what I'm taking as reliable sources.

I don't think I'm surprised that some of the leading Morgellons researchers are able to report some benefits with antibiotics, although they might want to brace for the worst if not all plausible Mycoplasmas are created equal in terms of antibiotic susceptibility. If they haven't already taken that into consideration, they might be able to "fine tune" their antibiotic use to get better results?

Regarding fungal infections, I'm not sure whether I think a fungal infection introduces pigment into human cells, or whether they introduce DHN into human pigments, but I still think it's one or the other and this may be good evidence of fungal infection, and at least one Aspergillus (Aspergillus terreus) sounds capable of causing things like, for example, black grains being shed profusely from the scalp. Maybe certain anti-fungal shampoos could deal with some of that?

Possibly DHN can also contribute to cross-linking of hair proteins, which might also help explain some of the properties of fibers, from flattening to curliness and maybe even iridescence.

I think for me that helps explain the relative rarity of Morgellon's which represents only a small percentage of Borreliosis cases, I think the most plausible thing might be not a rare infection but a rare conjunction of more common infections.

I'm also curious whether an infection that might be capable of acting as a strong oxidizer might have contributed to previous confusion over the role of fungi. There's one often mentioned independent researcher (Ahmed Kilani) who sounded fairly convinced of fungi but eventually sounded about exasperated because he wasn't able to do anything with DNA fingerprinting that matched anything in a database. It might have been because at the time we just hadn't worked out the genome of certain fungi (I think this is about 12 years ago), but if there's an infection that can damage our DNA, which is what Mycoplasma is starting to sound like, perhaps it could have damaged some of the fungal DNA in the fiber specimens?

The Borrelosis is actually the thing I seem to have trouble figuring out a role for. It's obviously capable of contributing something, but I don't have a guess what. The best information I have on my thrombotic disease would lead us to expect that those of us with it have a different spirochetosis (Treponema denticola), but obviously not everyone with a spirochetosis develops a dramatic thrombotic disease, so spirochetes try hard to look like innocent bystanders in my own troubles also. Hopefully (fingers crossed) the antibiotic recommendations for Borrelia and Mycoplasma are similar enough for a caregiver to proceed without having to sort out those details?

It's amazing what we can learn if we can resist the temptation to question the patient's sanity.

I accidentally learned a new thing today. I was looking for more information on medications for tics or Tourette's (which I apparently have), and was informed that pimozide has also been given for "delusional parasitosis", and that it may have the ability to suppress the activity of infections.

I don't know what all infections it is able to suppress (none named so far that I've been led to believe might participate in causing Morgellons symptoms, but at least four species have already been named and I haven't done any additional searching).

Is there room here for the possibility that many doctors may have confused themselves about the nature of Morgellons (for which there's accumulated evidence of infection being present) by using a medication with unsuspected "side-effects" against infection?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimozide
"There have been numerous studies showing Pimozide can be used successfully to treat Delusional parasitosis and traditionally was the drug of choice."

A Small-Molecule Screen Identifies the Antipsychotic Drug Pimozide as an Inhibitor of Listeria monocytogenes Infection▿
Linda A. Lieberman and Darren E. Higgins*
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2009 Feb; 53(2): 756–764.
PMCID: PMC2630664 PMID: 19015342
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630664/
"Pimozide, an FDA-approved drug used to treat severe Tourette's syndrome and schizophrenia, was further examined and shown to decrease the bacterial uptake and vacuole escape of L. monocytogenes in BMM. The inhibitory effect of pimozide on internalization was not specific for L. monocytogenes, as the phagocytosis of other bacterial species (Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and Escherichia coli K12) was significantly inhibited in the presence of pimozide. The invasion and cell-to-cell spread of L. monocytogenes during the infection of nonprofessional phagocytic cells also was decreased by pimozide treatment. "

Do I understand correctly that this article is saying that pimozide may also have fungicidal properties against Cryptococcus and Candida (and who knows what else)?

A Repurposing Approach Identifies Off-Patent Drugs with Fungicidal Cryptococcal Activity, a Common Structural Chemotype, and Pharmacological Properties Relevant to the Treatment of Cryptococcosis
Arielle Butts, Louis DiDone, Kristy Koselny, Bonnie K. Baxter, Yeissa Chabrier-Rosello, Melanie Wellington, Damian J. Krysan
https://ec.asm.org/content/12/2/278
"From the remaining set, we determined the MICs against C. neoformans strain H99 and C. albicans SC5314 for 15 of the drugs (Table 1), using standardized CLSI microdilution susceptibility testing (12). We also determined the MFC, which was identical to the MIC for all compounds tested. Interestingly, all molecules identified in the screen were either more active against C. neoformans or equally active against the two organisms. Of the hits tested, all but two drugs had MIC values of 64 μg/ml or lower. The two drugs that did not have MIC values at or below 64 μg/ml were pimozide and fluspirilen (solubility limited the identification of the MIC)."