Symptoms of CIRS | Flourish Clinic

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you suffer from a vague syndrome that doesn’t have an official treatment. Perhaps you’ve seen more than half a dozen practitioners who scratched their heads on your condition.

Before receiving a CIRS diagnosis, practitioners might have guessed you had:

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)
Fibromyalgia
Long covid (brain fog)

What if these syndromes were actually a cluster of symptoms? Common symptoms of a complex illness that involves environmental exposure, genetics, and your body’s immune response?

This is called CIRS, or Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. Patients who suffer from inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) have often been diagnosed with all the syndromes listed above, plus many more.

Those with CIRS may have visited a wide variety of conventional and alternative practitioners and taken every medication and supplement available. What’s worse, they may have often been dismissed by several health care providers and told their symptoms are all in their heads.

The underlying cause of CIRS is a person’s or their immune system’s inability to expel biotoxins. Their immune system is continually reacting to the biotoxins, which results in CIRS.

Unraveling the Mysteries of CIRS

Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, or CIRS, manifests when your body can’t recover from biotoxins produced by mold exposure (from a water-damaged building), Lyme disease, and other sources. Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, a pioneer in the field, has dedicated his career to unraveling the mysteries surrounding CIRS.

Dr. Shoemaker found that CIRS is not a simple illness but a syndrome with symptoms that vary widely from person to person.

Understanding CIRS requires an understanding of its underlying mechanisms:

Biotoxin exposure: This exposure initiates a cascade of inflammatory responses in individuals with genetic susceptibility to CIRS.
Immune system dysregulation: In its attempt to neutralize these toxins, the immune system dysregulates. This leads to a constant state of inflammation that affects the entire body.

The Diverse Faces of CIRS

CIRS is like a master of disguise. It presents symptoms that mimic many other conditions, making it a challenging puzzle for both patients and healthcare practitioners.

The symptoms of CIRS can appear in virtually any system of the body. Practitioners who are unfamiliar with CIRS are likely to have difficulty figuring out what’s going on.

We’ll break down the many faces of CIRS in the CIRS labs.

1. Respiratory System

The respiratory system often bears the brunt of the effects of CIRS, as exposure to mold toxins is a common trigger. Persistent coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, and sinus congestion are frequent complaints. These symptoms, which are like allergies or asthma, may lead patients and their practitioners down the wrong diagnostic path, which delays the identification of CIRS.

Symptoms: Persistent cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, sinus congestion

Source: Shoemaker, R. C., & House, D. E. (2006). A time-series study of sick building syndrome: chronic, biotoxin-associated illness from exposure to water-damaged buildings. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 28(2), 103-113.

2. Neurological Symptoms

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of CIRS is its impact on the nervous system. Symptoms include cognitive dysfunction, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and brain fog. Patients may also experience mood swings, anxiety, or depression, which makes diagnosis even harder because these symptoms can often be misattributed to stress or other mental health issues.

Symptoms: Cognitive dysfunction, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, brain fog, mood swings, anxiety, depression

Source: Shoemaker, R. C., & House, D. E. (2006). Similarities in the neuropsychiatric presentation of mold illness, Lyme disease, Gulf War illness, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal, 61(2), 77-83.

3. Fatigue and Malaise:

Chronic fatigue, unrelenting exhaustion, and a pervasive sense of malaise are common. This profound impact on energy levels can disrupt daily life, leading to a cascade of secondary symptoms.

Symptoms: Chronic fatigue, unrelenting exhaustion, pervasive malaise

4. Musculoskeletal Complaints

The inflammation triggered by biotoxins can affect the musculoskeletal system. As a result, joint pain, muscle aches, and stiffness are common in those with CIRS. These symptoms may be mistakenly linked to conditions such as fibromyalgia or arthritis.

Symptoms: Joint pain, muscle aches, stiffness

5. Gastrointestinal Distress

CIRS doesn’t spare the digestive system, and GI symptoms are very common. Patients may experience nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and/or constipation that mimic irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or other GI disorders. A CIRS practitioner must unravel the relationship between CIRS and gut health.

Symptoms: Nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation

6. Sensitivity to Environmental Stimuli

Patients with CIRS often become hypersensitive to things in their environment. This heightened sensitivity can appear as an intolerance to certain foods, odors, or even electromagnetic fields. These varied sensitivities show the far-reaching impact of CIRS on multiple bodily systems.

Symptoms: Hypersensitivity to certain foods, odors, and electromagnetic fields

7. Sleep Disturbances

Symptoms: Insomnia and disrupted sleep patterns

Source: Shoemaker, R. C., & House, D. E. (2005). A time-series study of sick building syndrome: chronic, biotoxin-associated illness from exposure to water-damaged buildings. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 27(1), 29-46.

8. Headaches

Symptoms: Chronic or recurrent headaches

9. Weight Fluctuations

Symptoms: Unexplained weight gain or loss

10. Night Sweats

Symptoms: Excessive sweating during sleep

11. Skin Issues

Symptoms: Rashes, itching, and other dermatological problems

Source: Rosenblum Lichtenstein, J. H., Hsu, Y. H., & Gavin, I. M. (2015). Personalized exposure assessment of toxicants using high-throughput microarray gene expression analyses. PLoS One, 10(7), e0131022.

12. Changes in Sensory Perception

Symptoms: Altered taste or smell perception

Do you think you have CIRS?
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CIRS Symptom Checklist: How to test for CIRS

What are the symptoms of CIRS? What does CIRS testing look like?

Now that you know the body systems that CIRS can affect, let’s look at the long list of symptoms associated with CIRS. The CIRS symptoms I list below are the ones published in the peer-reviewed literature; this is not a comprehensive list of every symptom a CIRS patient could experience.

I am instead focusing on the specific symptoms used to help diagnose CIRS.

Here are the 37 symptoms of CIRS:

Fatigue
Aches
Unusual pains
Headaches
Red eyes
Tearing
Cough
Abdominal pain
Joint pain
Memory challenges
Challenges with word recollection
Confusion
Skin sensitivity
Appetite swings
Temperature regulation issues
Increased urination frequency
Numbness
Vertigo
Tremors
Weakness
Cramps
Ice pick pains
Light sensitivity
Blurred vision
Sinus issues
Shortness of breath
Diarrhea
Morning stiffness
Challenges with focus or concentration
Decreased assimilation of new knowledge
Disorientation
Mood swings
Sweats – especially night sweats
Excessive thirst
Static shocks
Tingling
Metallic taste in the mouth

Making Sense of CIRS Symptoms: How is CIRS Diagnosed?

These are the official CIRS symptoms – all 37 of them. Simply knowing these symptoms will not help you in obtaining a diagnosis. Because these 37 symptoms are non-specific, this means they don’t point in the direction of any illness in particular.

Take fatigue, for example. Fatigue is a non-specific symptom – it doesn’t help narrow down what disease you’re dealing with. Low blood sugar could cause fatigue. High blood sugar can cause fatigue. Anemia or low iron can make you tired, but so can too much iron. An under-functioning thyroid causes fatigue. So does cancer. This list goes on and on. Fatigue is associated with hundreds of illnesses.

In this case, what can one do?

The answer is symptom clusters, which is what Dr. Richie Shoemaker realized.

He took the 37 symptoms of CIRS and grouped them into 13 clusters.

If you have at least one of the symptoms in at least 8 of the clusters, you have the symptoms of CIRS.

Here are the 13 clusters:

1.
Fatigue

2.
Weakness
Decreased assimilation of new knowledge
Aches
Headaches
Light sensitivity

3.
Memory challenges
Challenges with word recollection

4.
Challenges with focus or concentration

5.
Joint pain
Morning stiffness
Cramps

6.
Skin sensitivity
Tingling

7.
Shortness of breath
Sinus congestion

8.
Cough
Excessive thirst
Confusion

9.
Appetite swings
Temperature regulation issues
Increased urinary frequency

10.
Red eyes
Blurred vision
Night sweats
Mood swings
Ice pick pains

11.
Abdominal pain
Diarrhea
Numbness

12.
Tearing
Disorientation
Metallic taste

13.
Static shocks
Vertigo

Are These the Only Symptoms of CIRS?

The symptoms I listed above are the most researched, but it is not an exhaustive list.

CIRS patients can present many other symptoms – the challenge lies in determining which symptoms are from CIRS and which are from other conditions.

Here are some more common CIRS symptoms I see in my practice that have yet to be peer-reviewed:

Histamine intolerances
- Itching
- Rashes
- Hives
- Swelling of lips, tongue, or throat
Vascular issues
- Raynaud’s
- Red hands/feet
- Burning sensation in hands/feet
Orthostatic challenges
- Lightheadedness
- Fainting
- Palpitations
- Nausea
Neurological
- Tremors
- Rigid muscles
- Forgetfulness
- Challenges navigating familiar areas

How to Get Tested for CIRS

There’s more to the CIRS diagnosis process than simply going yes/no through the 37 CIRS symptoms.

A qualified Shoemaker Protocol practitioner should go through the symptom clusters with you to thoroughly determine what’s going on in your body. Something normal to you may actually be quite abnormal.

If you don’t have the option of seeing a Shoemaker Protocol practitioner, start with this questionnaire. It expands on each symptom to help you better understand whether you have CIRS.

If your symptoms are positive, the next step I recommend is taking a visual contrast sensitivity (VCS) test on Dr. Shoemaker’s site. If you fail your VCS test AND you have symptoms present in eight or more of the 13 clusters, you are very likely dealing with CIRS.

After this, I recommend finding a Shoemaker-trained practitioner and scheduling some blood tests.

The Shoemaker Protocol is the only scientifically proven, peer-reviewed way to treat CIRS. Read more about how to treat CIRS.

Did you know only Flourish Clinic has Canada’s certified Shoemaker Protocol practitioners? Book a complimentary 15-minute phone chat with Mark Volmer or Jane Prescot today.