Rash Decision? Mayo Clinic Says Morgellons Disease Is All In Your Head
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — For five years, people (including celebrities like singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell) have said they were suffering from a strange skin condition where fibers and rashes would invade the body — seemingly out of nowhere.
Doctors called it Morgellons. And the Internet soon became filled with photos of people with ... let's be clear ... bizarre and weird looking lesions and growths. People who said they had Morgellons described it like having bugs crawling underneath the skin. About a year later, the disease hit Europe.
The same day in May 2006 a number of news organizations (including CBS) did segments on Morgellons, the LA County Department of Health issued a statement saying no such disease existed. And they told people not to panic. Joni Mitchell wrote "this is like a terrorist disease."
Five years later, almost to the day, the Mayo Clinic also has poo-pooed this strange illness as a figment of people's imaginations.
They said, after exhaustive study, every single case of the disease (and they looked at 108 cases) could all be explained away. Despite the sufferers insisting they had bugs crawling on and through them, the Mayo clinic says...the only bugs are in their heads.
The study says the "disease" people experienced was either mundane (simple rashes) or scabs, in-grown hairs, lint, textile fibers, skin flaking and common debris. Only one case involved "bugs"...one man tested had pubic lice.
