As an acupuncturist, Islander Jessica Bolding spends her days helping people achieve good health, but in recent years, she has been contending with considerable health problems herself.  

Her most severe health challenges are neurological ones — problems, she believes, that have their roots in her childhood in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the site of the 1940s era Manhatten Project, which created the first atomic bomb as well as considerable toxic waste and in 1989 was designated a Superfund hazardous waste site.

When she was a child, Bolding played in heavily polluted water, rivers and creeks that now, she says, have signs warning people to stay out. Those contaminants have taken their toll, and in June she and her family plan to head to a residential health institute in Florida, where she hopes to heal. It is expensive, she said, but a step she feels is necessary.

“I believe I will get better through this,” she said. 

A musical benefit is planned for this Sunday, with half the proceeds going to Bolding for her expenses and half for relief efforts in Japan.

Bolding, 35 and a mother of two young girls, said she had the first of her major health problems three years ago, when her youngest daughter was 6 months old. What began then with a sore finger turned into a constellation of neurological symptoms that included tingling, numbness, pain, fatigue and headaches, then later a choking sensation and a loss of coordination. At first, a neurologist thought she had mild Guillain Barre Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that damages the nerves, and then later, after her symptoms worsened, multiple sclerosis.

Unhappy with conventional medicine, Bolding, who owns Paradise Ridge Acupuncture, Herbs and Massage (PRAHM), researched options for herself and began eating only raw foods, a change, she said, that helped dramatically. 

Still, some significant problems remained, and she sought the help of naturopathic physician Nicole Maxwell, who, Bolding said, put together a chemical picture of where she grew up. 

With that information in mind, coupled with Bolding’s health struggles, Maxwell said she suggested Bolding seek the help of a specialist or an in-patient facility that would help her detoxify her system and restore her to health.

“A good detox center can help reverse a lot of damage,” she said.

Studies have been done about the health effects to people in Oak Ridge because of the environmental contamination, which, over the years, included mercury, uranium, radioactive iodine and high amounts of PCBs. A study released in 1999 noted that little science has been done to understand how multiple contaminants interact and the health problems they might create together, even though people frequently are exposed to more than one toxin at once or over time. Authors of that study also note that some people have undoubtedly been severely affected by the contaminants, but they cannot extrapolate that information and know with certainty the exact health ramifications for specific individuals.

Regardless, it is clear Bolding was “super exposed” to toxins in her environment, Maxwell noted, and she believes Bolding will benefit dramatically from removing those toxins.

“Once you decrease the load, the body can heal itself,” Maxwell said.

Bolding has chosen to go to the Hippocrates Health Institute, a residential facility in Florida with a focus on natural medical therapies. 

The family will need approximately $20,000 to pay for the three-week stay, airfare and Bolding’s month out of work. She hopes the upcoming benefit will provide enough money that their airplane tickets might be covered after proceeds are split with relief efforts for people in Japan. 

With the benefit and the publicity around it, Bolding says that she feels she is coming out of the closet in some ways, letting people know what is happening with her.

“I am a health care provider, and I do not have all the answers,” she said. “I am doing all that I can to heal myself.”