Joni Mitchell's Health

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Joni Mitchell's Health

Postby jon » Fri Apr 03, 2015 9:28 am

Joni Mitchell's battle with Morgellons disease
April 3, 2015 - 11:28AM
Su-Lin Tan
Reporter
Brisbane Times

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, who was admitted to hospital after collapsing this week, has also been battling an unusual ailment called Morgellons disease.

Mitchell, 71, was found unconscious at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday but has reportedly been in good spirits since then.

People with Morgellons disease report they have lesions that do not heal, "fibres" extruding from their skin and uncomfortable sensations such as pins and needles, tingling or stinging.


Sufferers may also report fatigue and problems with short-term memory and concentration.

While smoking might have robbed Mitchell of her voice, it was Morgellons that she says stopped her from travelling and performing.

Mitchell said in the 2014 book Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words that, at the height of her battle with the illness, she could not wear any clothes.

"All the time it felt like I was being eaten alive by parasites living under my skin. I couldn't leave my house for several years.

"Sometimes it got so bad I couldn't walk and I'd have to crawl across the floor. My legs would cramp up, just like I was having a polio spasm," she told the author of the book, Malka Marom.

Mitchell had polio when she was nine.

Morgellons first made an appearance in 2006 when patients, mostly in northern California in the US, complained about a mysterious skin disease, according to the Centre for Disease Control.

The centre launched an investigation into the illness in 2008 and found "no infectious causes" for it.

While the centre did not call Morgellons a mental illness, it said a significant number of patients in their investigation had psychiatric or addictive conditions, including depression, an obsession with health and drug use.

Other tests showed the symptoms were mostly a result of sun damage and ageing, "sores" were caused by scratching and the "fibres" appeared to be clothing trapped in a scab or crusty skin.

This led the centre's investigators to conclude that Morgellons was similar to delusional parasitosis in which sufferers believe their skin is infested with parasites.

This has frustrated sufferers of the illness, including Mitchell.

"I haven't been doing much lately because I've just come through about seven years of a flattening kind of illness. I'm not cured but I've found a helpful physician way outside the box.

"Western medicine says this doesn't even exist, it's a psychotic disease. It's not," she told The Star in a 2013 interview.

The eight-time Grammy Award-winning singer was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, in 1943.

She moved to the US in 1965, where she soon began touring, before signing with Reprise Records. Her debut album was released in 1968.

She found commercial success with Big Yellow Taxi and Woodstock, both of which helped define a generation.

Mitchell was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The name Morgellons comes from a condition involving black hairs emerging from the skin of children that was documented in France in the 1600s, according to the Morgellons Research Foundation.
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Re: Joni Mitchell's Health

Postby Tom Jeffries » Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:02 pm

I saw Joni sitting at a Coffee shop on Hornby, sitting outside, smoking like a bog fire. I barely recognized her. Her hair and the sad cast of her face, was haunting.

She looked very tired and ill. I hope she is getting better.

So much incandescent talent.

If it hadn't been for Joni's great songs, I would have been driven me nuts playing Can/Con for all those years,
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Joni Mitchell's Music

Postby jon » Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:12 pm

I always find it important to remember that Joni, the Guess Who, Gordon Lightfoot, Blood Sweat and Tears and so many others achieved major worldwide success before CanCon "was the law of the land", rather than Because of it.

Now might be a good time for those of us who loved Joni's music to try and recall when we first heard a Joni song. I'll start even though my experience is undoubtedly different than most.

First Joni(-written) song heard: "Circle Game" by Tom Rush
First Joni(-sung) song heard: "Dawn Treader"

Both first heard on CKLG-FM.
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Re: Joni Mitchell's Health

Postby Tom Jeffries » Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:54 pm

The Circle Game.....ahhh.....what a great song - of many.

I played Joni in 1968 - before Can/Con.....but when we did get lumbered, she came through “Woodstock”....etc.

But, as they say, that was then.
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Re: Joni Mitchell's Health

Postby jon » Sat Apr 04, 2015 8:49 am

From Associated Press early this morning:
LOS ANGELES — The latest posting on Joni Mitchell’s website says the Canadian folk icon is continuing to improve and getting stronger every day.
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